Game Freak experimented with “a more photorealistic approach” for Pokemon: Let’s Go

IGN published a new article today about Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee. It includes comments from director Junichi Masuda and lead game environment designer Kensaku Nabana. One of the big things we learn is that the team experimented with “a more photorealistic approach” when it came to visuals, but ultimately felt that the graphics didn’t fit in with the vision of a “more kind and soothing and inviting experience”.

We’ve rounded up comments from IGN’s article below. You can read the full piece here.

Masuda on how the team wanted the visuals and audio to be inviting…

“… We really wanted to, at least for this first game, make the visuals as well as the audio just feel kind and inviting, not intimidating at all. So even for the music side, we’ve used more aggressive rock or techno styles in the previous games. We purposefully avoided those in this game just to make it really a warm and inviting experience.”

Nabana on how the team experimented with more photorealistic visuals…

“… Usually, when you would have much more power with the Switch and taking it into HD, I think the natural tendency is to go for a more photorealistic approach. In the earliest days of development, we actually explored that direction quite a bit.”

“But we got the direction from Masuda, just like he just mentioned a moment ago, to go for this more kind and soothing and inviting experience with the visuals. After some experimentation, we just realized the more realistic, more photorealistic direction just wasn’t really working for what we were trying to do.”

Masuda on Pokemon: Let’s Go as a potential way for players from 20 years ago to revisit the franchise from a new perspective…

“Really, the goal of this is just to kind of expand the Pokemon playing audience. Probably 20 years ago, a lot of people who played Pokemon as kids then, we want the current generation of kids to have that same experience. At the same time, we also want the people who maybe played Pokemon as kids, maybe who are in their 30s and 40s now, to sort of welcome this new audience of players. Maybe also play alongside with them with some of the support features.”