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| curl-6 said: I don't get why Sword/Shield is getting flayed to shreds for its poor graphics but Fire Emblem Three Houses is getting a free pass. Granted, Pokemon is a much bigger franchise, but still, FE looks shockingly fugly for a Switch game, it's like they put in no effort at all. |
Several reasons. For one, I would say FE definitely has better high points. Pokemon is a very even keeled level of serviceable. Fire Emblem is more uneven. Some areas look vastly superior to others and the lighting is really the most glaring deficiency. The character models actually look very nice. So basically, FE has a good side visually, Pokemon doesn't have much of one other than a nice sense of scale but that's mostly limited to the Wild Area.
Second, in the battle graphics there's a good reason why the visual upgrade wasn't as huge as it could have been: the battalion mechanic. The graphical standard on the battle field has to be at such a level that the game can handle a full large squad with battalions being rendered on screen simultaneously. This is a considerable demand that needed compensating for, hence people are more accepting.
Third, the franchise has nowhere near the budget or success of Nintendo's other big franchises. For FE, the production values are an absolutely massive leap from before. And the Monastery, while lacking a good lighting solution and having some touch and go texture work, presents a level of geometric density and textural detail far beyond anything most thought you would ever see in the franchise in a much larger environment than many anticipated. It is a shame, though, they couldn't achieve the visual fidelity in the Monastery that they hoped for back at E3 2018.
And lastly, the graphical cutbacks have been offset somewhat by the production values elsewhere. The anime-esque CG cutscenes are at their absolute highest quality by a huge margin and look great. And when in-engine cutscenes happen, they feature detailed animation work and high quality camera work and lighting also seems improved thanks to custom presets most likely.
Imo, it's not nearly as bad a package as you make it out to be. It looks a lot like what I expected: the first HD game from a team who has spent most of their time in a SD environment. I still find it plenty serviceable.
