Pokemon Champions Producer Comments On Graphics Criticism

Earlier this month, The Pokemon Company released Pokemon Champions, a free official battle simulator for the Switch 2. Its release was marred by several bugs and issues that would later need to be patched, as well as criticism about the game’s graphical style, which many believed to still not be up to the standards expected for the franchise.

In an interview with Eurogamer Germany, Pokemon Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino discussed the criticism towards the graphics specifically. Hoshino explained that while he understood where they were coming from as a Pokemon fan himself, he felt that the team tried their best in many areas, citing unspecified limitations and using his work on Pokken Tournament as a point of comparison.

Yes, as a Pokémon fan, I naturally understand the various discussions currently taking place within the fan community. I can totally relate to all of it. Regarding the graphics and gameplay, we’ve truly tried to do our best in both areas.

…as far as the visual side, the graphics, is concerned, I have experience from working on Pokkén Tournament, and one of my goals for that game was actually to make the Pokémon game with the best graphics at the time. And I think we did a good job with that back then. But only two Pokémon were ever visible on screen at the same time. With Pokémon Champions, we have more limitations.

Nevertheless, there are some things I really wanted to tackle – as a kind of new challenge. One of the things you could see in the demo, for example, was that all the Pokémon have their own shadows. These shadows and the spatial depth they create are one of the things that was particularly important to me. I really wanted to incorporate that kind of visual reality into the game.

And another thing I want to mention is the battle effects: we developed them from scratch in this game. I was very thorough in reviewing them and personally went through every single one. Phew, that was a lot of moves.

It is possible that one of these limitations is the fact that Pokemon Champions is planned to release on mobile devices, meaning that even the console version’s presentation and performance must be scaled down to match. That said, the game will likely continue to face scrutiny on all fronts as the new main format for competitive Pokemon, especially if the fanbase’s grievances do not go adequately addressed.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.