I’ve long been of the opinion graphics don’t really matter, certainly not of much as they used to. You could have the most realistic or high fidelity game ever made and it’d still be garbage if the gameplay is no good (see: The Callisto Protocol). However, this isn’t to say that visuals don’t matter at all. Games, especially those selling at a premium of $70 should at least offer customers something pleasing or interesting to look at, and in this (and let’s face it, in gameplay too) Pokemon Legends Z-A appears to fail miserably.

In the months leading up to Pokemon Legends Z-A’s release, the sentiment among fans appeared to be that they were desperately hoping Nintendo had learned its lesson with Scarlet and Violet. That is, that they’d actually put some effort into its gameplay and visuals, especially after the company announced a $30 Day One “expansion.” And, predictably, those hopes were dashed on the rocks of reality once again. There is, by most accounts, little to nothing special about this later Pokemon, with its visuals being especially bland (heck, they’re downright dated!).

Lumiose City appears even more lifeless now than it did more than 10 years ago in the 3DS’s Pokemon X/Y! Those games at least had an appealing and unifying art direction, and the city actually fell warm and lively.

Here though? There’s none of that. Human and Pokemon alike are bland and boring design-wise, structures lack even basic details, and the utter non-reactiveness and sparse population makes the city feel less like an actual place and more like a diorama for players to run around in. And the gameplay? It’s standard Pokemon with yet another slightly different coat of paint thrown onto it.

It absolutely incredible how this series has, in several ways, actually managed to regress so much over the last 20 years that players are now holding up its Gamecube and DS entries as superior to the current offerings. Isn’t it strange, though? Yes, this is modern Nintendo and modern Nintendo has shown over and over again that it just plain doesn’t care anymore, but even if it was determined to put in next to zero effort, why not at least copy Pokemon Legends Arceus? That game wasn’t great in the visuals department either, but it was better than this and Scarlet/Violet, at least.

Maybe Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have just grown complacent since 2017, but I wonder if they are actually still capable of innovation in the same way that they once were. Most of their games have followed a similar pattern since the release of the Switch (giant worlds hinging on one 1-2 gimmicks) and they don’t seem interested in doing anything else anymore.

Arguably, they don’t have to considering how devoted their fans are and how lackluster their AAA competition is, but still it’s disappointing to think that Nintendo has even thrown out it’s creative spark in this all-or-nothing pursuit of profit.

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How do you feel about the modern state of Pokemon? Also, which generations have you enjoyed the most over the years?

Image from the Nintendo eShop website