Pokemon Red And Blue Get The HD-2D Treatment Courtesy Of A Fan

Pokemon games in the modern era aren’t known for their visual fidelity, but a fan project that reimagines the original Pokemon Red and Blue in a HD-2D style has fans dreaming of what could be.

The project is the work of 3D pixel artist Dott, who takes the visual style seen in recent Square Enix titles like Octopath Traveler II and Triangle Strategy and applies it to the original Game Boy-era Pokemon games.

Dott’s videos show off remakes of what Pallet Town and Vermillion City would look like in HD-2D, and the results are seriously impressive. Each video is a tour of locations from the original games, and one video even showcases the interior of the player-character’s Pallet Town home. The visual showcases were created using the Unreal Engine and include footage of the original Pokemon games for comparison. These videos were uploaded to Dott’s YouTube channel months ago, but it seems like fans have finally started to take notice.

Though classic Pokemon games aren’t likely to get official HD-2D remakes anytime soon, Dott’s channel also includes videos that depict Square Enix classics like Final Fantasy Tactics and Chrono Trigger in the HD-2D style, something that seems a little more plausible. Square Enix is working on a HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III, after all, and also used the style for its recent Nintendo Switch remake of Live A Live.

Official remakes of older Pokemon games haven’t exactly been uncommon over the years, with Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for Switch being the most-recent examples. The latest brand-new entries in the series, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, were heavily criticized for their technical performance at launch, though improvements have since come via updates.