Pokémon Legends: Z-A's visuals will not be saved by the Switch 2
Since Pokémon Legends: Z-A was revealed at the end of last month, fans have criticized its visuals. Unless these games stop selling, that won't change.
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The recent Pokémon games haven’t exactly been on the cutting edge of modern video games. Scarlet and Violet were a functional mess, and while they did try something new with Pokémon Legends: Arceus, both were visually underwhelming. Now, it’s 2025, and the time between Pokémon games is at the longest it’s been in years. Some might have thought that this was a sign of a lesson learned for developer Gamefreak and The Pokémon Company. That this time was being used to make sure the next game looked great and ran smoothly. Then, at the end of last month, we saw the first gameplay trailer for the next Pokémon game, Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Don’t expect Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s visuals to improve from this trailer, on Switch 1 or Switch 2
The game has some interesting concepts. For the first time trainers and Pokémon will move in tandem with each other in real-time battles. The entire game will take place in a unique take on X and Y’s Lumiose City. Plus, it will bring back a now-beloved mechanic, Mega Evolution. But all of that didn’t stop fans from noticing a distinct flatness to the cityscape. The common refrain is that Pokémon is the most profitable media franchise in the world, how do they not have the ability to provide better visuals. The answer is that they don’t have to.
Pokémon didn’t become the most profitable media franchise overnight. Pokémon has been a phenomenon for most of my life, and the sales numbers for the games are only growing. Remember Scarlet & Violet and how poorly it ran? It still sold 25.6 million copies as of September 30th, 2024, making them the third best-selling Pokémon games of all time. Number one is the originals, Red, Blue, and Green, but number two is Sword and Shield, a game that was also ridiculed for its subpar visuals. Thanks to the great site Serebii, run by Joe Merrick for the sales info.
The point of all this, is that The Pokémon Company has no incentive to improve these visuals. The millions of people buying these games don’t seem to mind enough not to buy it, and unless something happens to the sales numbers, it won’t change. Former Nintendo employees even agree. In a recent YouTube video, Kit Ellis, the former director of social media marketing and original content at Nintendo of America, and co-host of the YouTube series Nintendo Minute, said “This is the company that has yet to fix Scarlet and Violet. So, I think pretty much what we’re seeing is mostly what we’re going to get with maybe some small optimizations.” Ellis’ former co-host and the former director of social media marketing and original content, Krysta Yang, was also in the video and said that she is “hopeful that maybe they can polish it a little more…” In a best case scenario, maybe that’s why The Pokémon Company is waiting to release the game until late this year.
The previous Legends game, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, did not sell as well as the more mainline games, only reaching 15 million as of September 2024. Sidenote: to say 15 million is underselling really puts the entire franchise into perspective. It will be interesting to see if Z-A is able to outdo its predecessor. If not, that could be a sign to the Pokémon Company that these games do need to improve to avoid a downward trend.
The other big news this year is the announcement of the next Nintendo console, the Nintendo Switch 2. Legends: Z-A has reiterated several times that it will be launching for the original Switch, despite also announcing a late 2025 release date. Some fans have speculated that while this latest trailer is visually underwhelming, perhaps the upgraded hardware on the Switch 2 will help change that. Maybe Legends: Z-A will have a Switch 2 version for the new console. Currently, we can only assume that the new Switch will be more powerful than the older one, but until the Nintendo Direct on April 2nd, we won’t know quite how much. Even if the Switch 2 blows the original out of the water, I don’t see The Pokémon Company choosing to invest more time and money into a game that will mostly likely sell near 15 million copies already. Depending on release timing, this game in its current state could even end up helping boost Switch 2 sales.
I don’t mean to dash anyone’s hopes and dreams for Legends: Z-A. There is still the possibility that the final product will look much better than what we saw in this trailer. But I’ve been following the Pokémon games for a long time, and I think the developer has at least a few more games before they start to truly embrace and work with their transition from 2D to 3D. One huge step forward for me is that the Pokémon look much more vibrant and brighter, it always bothered me that a lot of the Pokémon’s colors became much more drab in the transition to 3D. Gamefreak will still be focusing on the Pokémon sprites, the battle animations, the story, and more. Even back when they decided to cut out half the Pokédex in Sword and Shield, that didn’t help lighten the development load enough to make the game look beautiful.
So just keep your expectations level. This is how The Pokémon Company works. If the visuals bother you that much, don’t buy the game. The more people that do that, the more The Pokémon Company will listen to complaints. For now, we will have to wait and see how this story evolves.
