#also scarvi i am begging the dlc to please let us fight the gym leaders again

[mer-birdman]

So I’ve been replaying Pokémon Sword (LISTEN I liked the story and it was my first pokémon game bc I never had this stuff as a kid), and looking at my screenshots from it vs PLA vs Violet, and I think I might’ve figured out one of the things that bugs me So Dang Much abt how ScarVi looks.

And no, it’s not the bugs or the load distance or the glitching or the polygons.

It’s the contrast. Or rather, the lack thereof.

I haven’t played any other of the 3D games, but both SwSh and PLA, due to working in a more stylized & arguably somewhat simpler art style, have better lighting contrast — on their character models especially. Hell, SwSh even has this almost outline effect going on, which actually I’d argue works really well with the style! The shapes are clear, the colors are bold, etc…

ScarVi’s characters, by contrast, seem to have been modeled with more dimensionality, but the way they’re lit actually makes them look a bit flat because we don’t get the more dramatic/intentional lighting contrast on them. Which sure, gives a more natural look in some settings, but it overall leaves them — and the game’s visuals as a whole — looking just a bit blah.

I hope future pokémon installments have the courage to lean back into the stylization, because I genuinely think that’s actually a strength of the series.