While they wait for the highly-anticipated release of Pokémon: Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. However, with all eyes on the classic game remake, fans are noticing some weird stuff about the design.
The overworld graphics of the game have come under heavy fire, even inspiring some hilarious BDSP memes. Players are pretty unhappy with the Chibi style in general for the overworld. But, more than that, they've noticed a lot of inconsistencies in the game's models that reflect poor attention to detail.
The Sun Rises In The West And Sets In The East
On a thread about BDSP on Reddit, one fan with the name AnCaptnCrunch energetically asked, "Why is the sun rising in the west and setting in the east?????" Another Redditor, Senku2, replied, "Lol is that really a thing? That's hilarious."
This seems like a small thing, but it definitely irks players and distracts them from the game content. Even with Pokémon's own set of unique locations, they make many references to places on Earth, like the United States and Australia. There's no exact confirmation of its planet, but it's heavily implied that it's Earth, and should therefore have the sun moving in the correct direction in the sky.
Inconsistently Blurred Background
Another complaint that Trainers have had about the consistency in the game is the way that the background gets blurred and when that happens. In addition to the background becoming very blurry when running or biking, players also don't like the random blur that occurs and say that it makes them feel as though the making of the game was rushed.
One player, pocketmonsterscel on Reddit, commented, "It wouldn't be so bad if there was actual shading and they got rid of that weird blur that sometimes comes up." Clouds2589, another Reddit , agreed with them, saying, "The game is super fuzzy sometimes, and the characters' facial textures are blurred and stretched."
Some Battles Are In Voids, While Others Have Backgrounds
A confusing detail of the game is the difference in battle setting. Some battles that take place out in the wild have detailed backgrounds. However, without too much rhyme or reason, other battles--like with the love-to-hate Team Galactic villains-- are in colorful voids instead of real locations.
The previously mentioned Redditor, Senku2, initially brought up the subject, asking, "Why are battles in towns featureless voids but battles everywhere else detailed backgrounds?" Others commented agreeing. One other Redditor, Hiker_Juggler, said, "My favorite part of the battle backgrounds is finding Mt. Coronet lol." The fact that some are so detailed that they feature a specific regional landmark and others are voids makes little sense.
Pokémon Animations Are Inconsistent
For the most part, Pokémon animations are supposed to show the individual Pokémon's personality and relationship to their trainer. The way they act during play and in between attacks is important to their characterization, but players have noticed that sometimes their Pokémon lack personality completely.
Battle animations are highly detailed. The most powerful fire move, Fire Blast, for example, involves a fiery asterisk and very complicated animation. However, when greeting its Trainer before battle, that same Pokémon looks like a 2D drawing being moved up and down. It's very stiff and unnatural-looking.
Very Intense Detail With Some Animation, And None With Others
People flocked to Reddit to discuss even more background-related inconsistencies within BDSP. While there are some amazingly cool small details, like water rippling on the surface and footprints being left in the sand, other parts of the best Sinnoh region cities and towns seem like they were an afterthought.
The textures of things like buildings and trees seem crude in comparison to these intricate smaller designs. Some Redditors, like crazyrebel123, think this might be because of rushed work due to deadlines. They wrote, "I think things like the water were things they worked on first and then the plastic grass and trees were rushed toward the end."
Some Buildings Are To Scale And Others Aren't
The scaling of many things in the overworld seems to be off in BDSP. No one could blame designers for putting buildings and such in a different scale to save space in the overworld, but it seems like there was never a solid decision made about the issue.
Some buildings, like the Team Galactic Headquarters in Veilstone City, seem like their outside design accurately represents the size of the interior. Then, buildings like gyms are tiny on the outside but cavernous when players go inside.
The Pokémon Walking Designs Lack Effort
As an added special bonus for Pokémon fans, Trainers can have Pokémon walk alongside them in the game. Yet, this is yet another area where some designs have a lot of detail, and others seem like they were made with minimal effort.
While some Pokémon have several different walking sequences that are specific to their type, like Golem rolling around, others quite literally slide across the ground like a solid image. Redditor which evolves into one of the strongest pure poison-types, following him around and the Pokémon floated after him without a single stylized animation or movement.
Walking Pokémon Aren't Chibi
While Trainers have different design styles when they're in battle and in the overworld, Pokémon do not, for some reason. In battle, both Pokémon and Trainers are in the sprite design. When walking around the overworld, Trainers are transitioned into Chibi-style characters.
However, Pokémon stay in their sprite design when they're moved into the overworld, making for very unnatural-looking gameplay. Consistency is key, and having two completely different animation styles in front of players is both jarring and unpleasant.
The Scale Of Pokémon Is Way Off
This could be caused by the sprite vs. Chibi design difference, but players have also been bothered by the bizarre size dynamics of different Pokémon when they're out walking with players. Redditor Alonest99 commented on the matter, saying, "I've been saying this for a while now. Having a regular Pokémon following a Chibi character looks off."
Because the Trainers are scaled down with the Chibi and Pokémon aren't, gigantic Pokémon like Dialga and Rayquaza end up looking comically small and close in size to their Trainers. This is much different than in games like Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, where there are different scales of Pokémon sizes in the overworld.
Overworld Models Are Chibi, While In Battle Players Are Normal Sprites
This is, by far, the most controversial opinion about the game. This is because, while it is a frustrating inconsistency within the game that players detest, it is technically staying true to the original design of the game. Many of the overworld models of previous Pokémon games have been Chibi while the battle versions of the characters were different.
But, many players think this was because of technological restraints that aren't present today. Redditor Senku2 elaborates, saying, "You get the impression in the older games that the Chibi is simply meant to represent abstractly what you see in detail in battles. That isn't the case in this game, where the Chibi is clearly its own thing made intentionally to look exactly like that."