Pokémon’s HD-2D Dream is One Fan’s Unreal Engine 5 Kanto That Game Freak Should Use

Pokémon has always been about using your imagination rather than becoming entirely immersed. Those old-school Game Boy sprites, with their blocky graphics, didn’t require fancy ray-traced reflections to make you feel like the 10 year old ruler of the Pokémon universe, catching them all. Then there’s NIONX, a French YouTuber who has no prior expertise with 3D modeling or Unreal Engine 5, but has now released an amazing HD-2D reconstruction of the Kanto area that looks exactly like the remake we’ve all been waiting for.

NIONX’s effort, which combines the sharp pixel imagery of Pokémon Black and White with tons of beautiful 3D environmental effects, is the real thing. The concept of Pallet Town’s grassy paths being blown by dynamic wind-swept foliage is just the beginning; imagine Saffron City’s bustling streets teeming with NPCs from Pokémon Ranger, as well as a day-night cycle that casts the entire thing in that golden sunset glow that begs to be used in a Makoto Shinkai anime. It’s similar to Square Enix’s HD-2D magic from Octopath Traveler and Live Alive, but with a rawer, more personal, and beguiling edge that giant corporate machinery lack.

NIONX began from scratch, acquiring a few fundamental 3D skills in Blender, sourcing pixel Sprites for Pokémon from the community, and piecing together battle arenas that seem like the real thing, complete with particle effects such as flowing water and bubbling lava. Battle time hasn’t arrived yet, though, as this is still only a leisurely stroll and not a fully playable ROM hack. But what you do see is teeming with life, with Pokémon roaming freely, NPCs meandering about, and the camera pulling back to reveal a seamless map from Bourpette village (basically a stand-in inspired by Black and White) to towering cities. Everything runs smoothly, with no sluggishness in sight, unlike some other UE5 projects that simply have far too many assets to handle.

What really makes this stand out is how NIONX cleverly avoids the normal faults of UE5, so you don’t wind up with that Lumen-induced ‘glowy slop’ that tends to produce in a ‘Unreal Engine 5 style’ look, where everything is a little too glossy and seems like it came directly out of the wallpaper engine. Instead, he employs Runtime Virtual Textures to create incredibly realistic grass that waves gently across the landscape, as you’d expect on the sort of sweeping vistas found in a classic RPG, and then employs low poly 3D trickery to get the foliage (trees and bushes) to look right, with just a hint of random variation to give it a more organic feel. He’s even used some Blueprint scripting for the wind movements, as well as, let’s be honest, some ripped-from-the-tutorials water shaders, to make the whole thing look more realistic.

Performance-wise, this remake is no benchmark, just a portfolio piece. He’s employed 2D sprite billboards for distant Pokémon, as well as a variety of other ways to reduce draw calls, demonstrating that you don’t need a 4090 to make Kanto feel authentic. It’s a far cry from the archaic Unity churn of Game Freak’s Legends: Z-A, which at least teases you with the prospect of an open world but, let’s be honest, will most likely be unable to achieve this level of pixel fidelity.
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