Sprites, Models, and Evolutions

For the first five generations of its handheld games, Pokémon used sprites for game elements and in particular the monsters. Then in the sixth generation, the games turned to using 3D models. This is a notably remarkable change that represents a modernization of sorts, but it also has other implications, especially at the expense of pushing the 3DS system to its limits, something that I've mentioned in two posts prior to this one. It's still a change that had already been marked by many changes to itself, and this may then bode well for later changes.

Sprites are a necessary thing for handheld games of the past, since those are practically the only thing that handhelds were capable of showing on screen. For the Pokémon games, even a few sprites were still sufficient to show that a battle was going on, though things weren't truly alive in the scenes. Sprites also weren't colored initially like on TV consoles, but then handhelds gained the color capability, and naturally game sprites also became colored - a blessing for the Pokémon games since the monsters are supposed to have color, and now the battle scenes started to take life. When more than a few sprites could be shown on screen, the result was more fluid battle scenes, and when they could move quickly into one another, the result was animation, which meant more life into them. The pinnacle of this is certainly the fifth-generation games where all of these sprite features appeared in concert. While sprites were necessary, they also necessarily "evolved" in a way, as handheld capabilities increased, to increase the experience; so it was clear that the next step was to take up 3D models, which the 3DS provided.

In a similar way, 3D models could possibly take further improvements later on. If the current 3D models are weighty and slow down the system, then an optimization may be in order. The structure and movement of the models could be simplified, for example, but still in a manner that maintains details and lifelike movements. Size and scale may be altered, but just enough to compensate without much quality loss. Of course, console advancements could also render all of these workable in the current state, maintaining quality but not in a resource-hogging manner.

The important takeaway, however, is that there is always the need for constant improvement as well as making sure system capabilities are well-utilized. That's exactly what the sprites did as they developed - they made use of further capabilities of handhelds to deliver a more lively experience, which then gave way to the 3D models. Now they have to do the same, balanced against later console capabilities, or even at this moment on the eaves of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. If one of the core concepts of Pokémon is evolution, then this progression is that in every sense of the word.