I've been wanting Pokémon Black and White remakes for years, and this fan-made version of one of 2023's best JRPGs has me desperately wanting to return to Unova

A talented Pokémon fan has given us a sneak peek at what the Pokémon Black and White remakes could look like if they were recreated in an Octopath Traveler-like HD-2D art style, and now I’m more eager than ever to dive back into the Unova region.

While nothing official has been announced, we can probably expect Pokémon Black and White to be next in line for mainline Pokémon remakes. They first came out in 2010, and fans have been clamoring for their remakes, well, ever since the Diamond and Pearl remakes were announced, in fact. However, following the mixed reaction to the Gen 4 remakes’ art style, which transformed the original 2D chibi visuals into a similar 3D version, more and more questions have been raised about how best to adapt Gen 5’s unique pixel art look.

A very solid answer to this is HD-2D, the art style used by games like Octopath Traveler and the upcoming Dragon Quest 3 remake. On YouTube, content creator Shemne shared a project that took a year to develop: a taste of Pokémon Black and White in HD-2D. After being inspired by the release of one of the best JRPGs of 2023, Octopath Traveler 2, the creator learned how to create pixel art to bring the protagonist’s animated sprite to life, as well as create 3D models for things like buildings, mailboxes, and trees.

I replayed Pokemon Black and White as Octopath Traveler – YouTube

To watch

Shemne kept the project relatively modest in scale: they recreated the entire starting area, Nuvema City, as well as Route 1 and the Striaton City Gym. So this is just a glimpse of what a full remake could be, but it’s undoubtedly exciting due to the compatibility of the Octopath-style visuals with the adapted Pokémon sprites. Shemne’s remake isn’t just for show, though, as they managed to get the battle system working, as well as the ability to catch wild Pokémon in random encounters.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a project Shemne plans to release for people to actually play, so the best we have for now is this video and a dream. Hopefully, this can inspire The Pokemon Company themselves for their own future projects, though. Black and White need to get remakes soon. a few point, right?

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