But there’s one more thing. I think that G/S/C had a certain atmosphere to them that HG/SS did in my opinion neither manage to recreate nor remove and replace with something better. I know that this may sound stupid and I won’t deny that this is extremely heavily based on nostalgia as it has been more than 10 years since I last played G/S/C, but that’s how I feel. In comparison, FR/LG and OR/AS did this much better. They sort of both kept the atmosphere from the original Kanto/Hoenn games while the also improved upon it, managing to give the regions another positive atmosphere.
I have some similar thoughts. I think one reason why this is can be attributed to the design of the world vs. its graphics. The original RBY were really limited in terms of resolution, colour, and field of view. It stood to reason that its world had to be very simple in its style, with heads taking up two thirds of the character sprites so a face could be discernible, buildings being tiny so they didn't fill the entire screen, cities being organized on a grid with all doors facing south, shorelines being straight lines, all trees being identical, etc. They had to make certain concessions in the world design because of graphical limitations, but as a player you could clearly see those limitations too, and know that this was the best they could do given what they had to work with.
When Gen II added colours, it felt like a huge revolution, but the game world was still very simple. Buildings were still tiny, characters were chibi, shorelines were straight, and trees were still identical. but still, you could see the design scraping against the limits of the engine. I mean, it was still the Game Boy. It wasn't until Crystal that the Game Boy Color was required.
By contrast, Gen III was practically HD. So many colours, such detailed sprites, such intricate backgrounds! Hoenn looked
good on the GBA, there's no doubt about that. It really used the capabilities of the system to create a much higher-definition game world. It was a style never seen before in Pokémon, and the game really grew into it. Hoenn remains my favourite region to this day for its size and sheer vibrancy (and also because the ones that came after it all had massive flaws: Sinnoh is a royal pain to navigate, Unova is too linear with its cities and routes like pearls on a string and no alternate routes available, Kalos looks pretty but has too little to do in it, Alola is samey and cramped, and Galar is a dumpster fire in almost every way plus being way too small). Hoenn as a region is fun to navigate on foot and pretty to look at. It's a place you want to be in, rather than just teleporting between the interesting locations.
Anyway, at this point the remakes started showing up. FRLG gave us a HD version of Kanto, which didn't look quite as detailed as Hoenn, but managed to recreate the original setting while striking a good balance in the graphics department. It clearly could have looked better, as evident by Hoenn, but not
much better. It was still up there around the limit of what the hardware could handle in terms of fidelity. Not quite cutting edge, but good enough.
Then along came a new generation, and HGSS had a bit of a problem in this regard. It was evident that the advances in graphical fidelity between the Game Boy Color and the DS were much larger than between the Game Boy and the GBA. While a HD Kanto could look close to cutting edge on the GBA, a HD Johto looked slightly dated for the DS. I think they still tried their best to spruce up Johto. Some locations look really good, and I think much better than Sinnoh overall in terms of looks. On a detail level, HGSS might have been the prettiest Pokemon game ever at the time.
But nevertheless, it was evident that the design constraints of the GameBoy had been guiding the design of the region. I think the routes look a bit too small compared to the capabilities of the system. Things are, overall, a bit too square. You get the feeling that "if the console can render the path in such high resolution, why must it still do ninety-degree turns?". With the higher-definition graphics, it suddenly looks unrealistic that the buildings are so small. The geometry of cliffs is very blocky compared to what we saw back in RSE. In short, Johto made it a bit too evident that it was a Game Boy region displayed on a much more modern device.
I honestly can't say how ORAS pulled it off. I think it has something to do with how amazingly vibrant Hoenn was already, and that its higher-definition sprites translated well to 3D. Hoenn's geometry was already a bit more intricate, so it translated well to a higher definition. ORAS also made the wise decision to change the way background trees worked from the original. RSE had its identical trees lined up on a grid, while ORAS displayed a few, large trees on inaccessible ground instead. Still, there are some slight "itches" in this region too. The straight edges of bodies of water look a bit too forced in such a powerful engine. The grid is still evident, even though it strictly doesn't need to be there.
As you may understand, I do not hold LGPE in high regard. It has repeatedly been made clear that the Switch is capable of rendering some really intricate landscapes with awesome graphics. The giant open world of
Breath of the Wild or the bustling city of
The Witcher 3 pose few challenges to the console. It can do advanced stuff. Kanto in LGPE is not advanced stuff. It is still the same region as on the Game Boy, designed along the same grid, with its now-HD assets positioned like the sprites were in the pixelated world of the GameBoy. It is painfully obvious that the game world was designed for a vastly less powerful system, and recreated without a modicum of adaptation. The span between the capabilities of the Switch and the look of the world is too vast not to notice. The game world follows design criteria it clearly has no reason to adhere to.
For this reason, I'm also a bit wary about BDSP. The original Sinnoh was a step
back from Hoenn in terms of fidelity, because the designers wanted the overworld to be semi-3D. This required them to make stuff a bit more simplified than they did in Gen III, which is most notable in the blocky and pyramid-like cliffs seen throughout the region. Compare
the top of Mt. Coronet to
the top of Mt. Pyre, for instance. While Sinnoh still is a step up from Kanto in terms of fidelity, the contrast between the look of the region and the state of the art is still enormous.
Anyway, the point is, I think the remakes suffer a bit from being too faithful. They try to recreate the
look of the originals, which means they miss out on the
feel of the originals. The original games looked as food as they could on their console. The remakes hold back so, so much, and making the assets HD don't help at all. It just calls attention to the difference between what the engine
can do and what it
does. Buildings no longer need to be tiny, coastlines don't need to be straight, all buildings don't have to face the same way, and trees don't have to be lined up on a grid. That just makes it even more off-putting when they do so anyway, while otherwise gleaning in shiny, high definition.
