The Pokémon Company technical director Masaaki Hoshino has acknowledged continued fan scrutiny of the series’ visuals, seen most recently in criticism for Pokémon Champions.
Hoshino is a veteran of the Pokémon series, who worked on Pokémon Yellow before a long stint at Japanese fighting game developer Bandai Namco. This then led to him returning to work on Pokémon as producer on its more traditional fighting game spinoff Pokkén Tournament, developed by Bandai Namco, before its MOBA spinoff Pokémon Unite, and finally Champions itself.
Champions launched earlier this month to a wave of feedback that expressed disappointment for the game’s relatively basic feature set and small Pokédex roster. And, yet again, there was criticism of the game’s visuals — as there has been for various mainline Pokémon game entries over the past decade.
“Yes, as a Pokémon fan, I naturally understand the various discussions currently taking place within the fan community,” Hoshino said when asked specifically about scrutiny of Pokémon game graphics, talking to Eurogamer Germany. “I can totally relate to all of it.
“Regarding the graphics and gameplay, we’ve truly tried to do our best in both areas,” he continued. “The battle system is a huge focus. And what we’re really concentrating on is ensuring fairness — since it’s such a competitive battle game — and that the traditional game system works, and that we have that firmly under control.
“But as far as the visual side, the graphics, is concerned, I have experience from working on Pokkén Tournament, and one of my goals for that game was actually to make the Pokémon game with the best graphics at the time. And I think we did a good job with that back then. But only two Pokémon were ever visible on screen at the same time. With Pokémon Champions, we have more limitations.”
Fans have pointed to various bugs and oddities seen in some Pokémon models, many of which can be ironed out over time, but also to a relatively simplistic look for the game overall — particularly on Nintendo Switch 2, where Champions still runs at 30fps and there are no major improvements to textures.
Still, Hoshino defended Champions by saying he was pleased by the fact that “all the Pokémon have their own shadows,” which was something he prioritized in development, and the game’s battle effects, which were developed from scratch for the game. “I was very thorough in reviewing them and personally went through every single one,” Hoshino said. “Phew, that was a lot of moves.”
Fans have suggested that Champions retains a relatively simplistic look, even on Switch 2, as the game was designed to work cross-platform on mobile. This was not a point that was put to Hoshino for him to address, however. (Pokémon Champions’ smartphone versions are currently set to launch later this year.)
Of course, the debate around visuals may shift again in 2027, when Pokémon finally ditches the aged Switch 1 console era for good. Fans have already gained their first glimpse at the ambitious-looking Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves, the franchise’s long-awaited 10th generation mainline games, which will launch exclusively for Switch 2 at some point next year.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
