Pokémon Champions had a rough launch earlier this month, with fans criticizing its small roster, laundry list of bugs, and the fact that it didn’t include certain Pokémon that were shown in trailers at launch. Despite this, the game will persist as The Pokémon Company plans on using Champions as its official platform for competitive play, so hopefully it improves over time. Despite it all, game director Masaaki Hoshino defends the game as it currently exists, warts and all, saying that the team “tried to do [its] best.”
In an interview with Eurogamer Germany (translated by Eurogamer), Hoshino said he didn’t expect the game to get quite as much reaction as it did, but said that he could “relate” to the discussions.
“Yes, as a Pokémon fan, I naturally understand the various discussions currently taking place within the fan community,” Hoshino said. I can totally relate to all of it. Regarding the graphics and gameplay, we’ve truly tried to do our best in both areas.”
Hoshino, who also worked as a producer on the Pokémon fighting game Pokken Tournament, defended Champions’ visuals and performance by comparing it to Pokken, which only had two Pokémon on screen at once, compared to the four of the double battles in Champions.
“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,” he said. “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.”
The comparison is odd, as Pokken was a full blown action-based fighter, and in Champions, each Pokémon stands in their designated spot and only moves when they’re attacking. Yeah, there are more characters on the field at once, but they certainly aren’t doing as much as the two fighters were in Pokken. Notably, the fighting game was developed by Bandai Namco, as opposed to in-house within The Pokémon Company.
I don’t know, man. Pokémon games have been notoriously panned for their technical troubles since moving to 3D. That was pretty much the defining feature of Scarlet and Violet, and even though it runs much better on the Switch 2, it still looks like a GameCube tech demo. Legends: Z-A looked and ran well on Switch 2, though, so it’s not like it’s impossible for Pokémon games to be technically solid. I’m just surprised that Champions had any of these issues to begin with when it doesn’t look that demanding.
Pokémon Champions will be getting periodic updates as the free-to-play battle simulator will have new seasons introducing more Pokémon, items, and rulesets. Hopefully there are some technical and visual updates packed in those patches down the line as well.