Pokkén's Pokémon Art Style

[Poké Bean]

What do you think of the Pokémon designs in Pokkén?

There's a neat video from way back which featured interviews with the designers and the guy who designed the Pokémon talks about the realistic look he went for, but everyone's first reaction to Pikachu was that it wasn't cute so he kept redoing it until people were like ahh now that's cute!

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Here's a gallery showing them all. The background Pokémon seem to be in the normal style but that could just be because official images haven't been released yet. Does anyone know for sure?

I like the Pokkén style for some but for others I need to warm up to a bit. The skin on the amphibians I think looks really cool and realistic but Lapras for example I think looks a bit like a china ornament. Generally speaking I like the fur effects but not so keen on the feathers.

 

[COOLTRAINER♂]

I've grown to like it more as time goes on. Some of the ultra-realism can be off putting, but it's nice to see a game that has been designed with a clear art style in mind where the developers have put in a lot of effort to make the main Pokemon look good, and not something generic like a lot of spinoffs.

e: Looking at the streams it seems like the background Pokemon are fairly unmodified models from previous games (possibly reduced in complexity from the 3DS models to keep the framerate from dropping) which makes sense because you aren't supposed to be focusing on them.

 

[TrainerAsherZ]

I love it. They look so good to me.

 

[Kameken]

I like them all except charizard, which is a shame, since it's my favorite pokemon. Its snout just looks wrong to me.

Also, mewtwo's eyes are too small, but it's not too bad.

 

[Cassandra]

All of it looks really good and well detailed. Essentially, it looks like how a fighting game should look.

 

[Poké Bean]

Yeah overall it's a very beautiful looking game!

Mewtwo's tail looks like a giant worm!

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

I wouldn't necessary call the style more "realistic" as just having fancier textures than the main games. The anatomy is slightly different on the Pokemon, but it's mostly faithful to their artwork and models from Gen VI. I personally prefer the anatomy because it does tone down some of the heavy cartoony-vibe.

As for the textures... some of them are kind of hit and miss. I love the fur on Braixen. Any type of fur in general looks great. But the smoother textures look... really weird and kind of fall into uncanny valley. (Like Mewtwo, Gardevoir, and Suicune in particular) They look a bit too glossy for my tastes.

Still, it's the best-looking Pokemon game I've seen thus far, and the animation and vibrancy of the whole thing is truly a step above the main games. I far prefer these to the washed out pixelated models of X/Y. I love it and wish I could see every Pokemon in this style.

 

[Poké Bean]

I screenshot all the mirror Pokemon today cuz they look so cool! (Except for Mewtwo which I haven't unlocked yet.)

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Edit: Unlocked Mewtwo:

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