Pokemon artist recreates a walkthrough in Vermilion City in HD2D-style in Unreal Engine 5

The creativity of the Pokemon community is boundless, and fans are always finding awesome ways to express their admiration for the series. One fan recently showcased their remarkable animation skills on YouTube with a special demo video.

The YouTube channel of Dott, who is a 3D pixel artist and animator, uploaded a demo walkthrough recreating Vermilion City of the Kanto region in a captivating 3D pixel art style.

The visuals retained their retro roots but possessed highly detailed sprite artwork for the characters and Pocket Monsters in the video, including Red, the old construction man, and his Machop. The surrounding buildings in the city were also rendered in 3D, with lights throughout the city leaving a quiet and comfortable glow.

Suffice it to say, Pokemon fans in the comments were blown away by Dott's work and had plenty to commend them on.

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Pokemon fans react to Dott's recreated Vermilion City

Fans are astonished at Dott's HD2D recreation of Gen I Pokemon (Image via Dott/YouTube)

The art style depicted by Dott has become incredibly popular in recent years as many gaming giants have released RPG games utilizing what is known as the "HD2D" style.

This art style is certainly subject to each artist's skills and vision, but the conventions of the overall approach involve taking retro sprite art and vastly improving the definition and detail. Many HD2D art styles also incorporate 3D-rendered environments for the character sprites to take place within, as seen in recent Square Enix titles like Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler.

Whatever the case, Dott's short demo video is a captivating look at the first generation of Pokemon games through a very different lens. Red simply roams Vermilion City for a short while, but the video does an exceptional job of showing off the location fully rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

Fans took to the comment section to remark that they wished Game Freak had gone this route for the franchise's art style instead of transitioning to full 3D.

Fans wish Game Freak had incorporated HD2D art instead of 3D renders (Image via Dott/YouTube)

While Game Freak surely has its own plans for moving forward with Pokemon's art style on modern consoles, it may not be too late for an innovative HD2D-styled entry to the franchise.

Game Freak has certainly been breaking new ground with gameplay and quality-of-life changes in recent franchise titles. However, introducing a completely new and retro feeling using pixel art may be a huge hit with old-school fans who love a good rush of nostalgia.

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl had their own unique depiction of the game world, but 3D modeling was still used. Pixel art would be a huge shift for a new game, but the right spin-off would likely be a hit with visuals like Dott created.

This would be a bold direction for the Pokemon series. However, there's no rule that says that Game Freak can't continue making its 3D titles while also creating these richly animated and rendered visuals for some form of spin-off or remake title. After all, trainers can dream, can't they?