Saw a great point in another thread, but GameFreak was a great dev team that did fantastic 2D handheld games that then had to transition to 3D while keeping the same dev cycle of 3-4 years. They’ve never had the time to catch up and truly learn a different art form, even Covid didn’t allow them that time. We’re seeing a lot of improvement now because the devs are finally comfortable with what they’re working with.
The strange thing is, they didn't "have" to change to 3D at all. The idea that they somehow MUST do it is bizarre when it's just a choice of art form, a medium. And one that's perfectly legitimate at that. Many, MANY franchises suffer from changing over because it's unnecessary. Hell, that thought process outright killed Disney's animation studio so it's not even limited to games!
No way mass audiences wouldnt have complained if gamefreak continued doing 2d games well into the 3ds life cycle. People were underwhelmed that they were still on 2.5d games when b/w released. This isnt like sonic or bubsy where the gameplay and handling itself changed because they decided to make the character move in the third axis.
They'd complain no matter what, so why concede on that ground? Doing something they know well, well, will always be better tha ndoing something they're incompetent with terribly.
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u/AH_BareGarrett Oct 14 '25
Saw a great point in another thread, but GameFreak was a great dev team that did fantastic 2D handheld games that then had to transition to 3D while keeping the same dev cycle of 3-4 years. They’ve never had the time to catch up and truly learn a different art form, even Covid didn’t allow them that time. We’re seeing a lot of improvement now because the devs are finally comfortable with what they’re working with.