Pokemon Sword & Shield merges worlds with Zelda in epic artist crossover

A talented Pokemon artist brought their vision of Sword & Shield combined with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to life, and it is sure to have fans salivating at what could have been.

Pokemon Sword & Shield released in November 2019, but despite critical praise and record breaking sales, some players were left wanting more from the latest iteration of the RPG.

Now, an incredible artist has given fans a glimpse of what the Generation VIII title could have looked like if had an open world like Breath of the Wild, and it’s every bit as incredible as you imagined it.

Sword & Shield and Breath of the Wild combined

Sword & Shield introduced trainers to the “Wild Area” – an open section of the map where players can tackle various raids and capture Pokemon wandering the land. However, not everyone was happy with the game’s design, feeling it was lacking in depth.

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Artist Dan Ionut-Chis gave players a taste of what the title could have been by imagining Sword & Shield using Breath of the Wild’s jaw-dropping design.

The submission quickly went viral on Reddit, as they impressively gave us an idea of what Gen 8 might have looked like with a truly open-world design similar to the latest mainline Zelda release.

While the first video didn’t show much, the talented artist uploaded a second clip of his project on January 24, which shows a Pokemon trainer running around the lush world.

Just like in BotW, we see thick grass swaying with the wind, and can hear the sounds of nature such as leaves rustling, or wild life chirping in the distance, bringing a new level of depth.

The fan-created clip finally ends with the player reaching a clearing, where we see a fully-rendered Pidgeotto flapping its wings in place, which is enough to make any Trainer salivate.

Regardless of whether you were satisfied with the latest title or not, Sword & Shield has gone on to become a smash success, breaking sales records by pushing six million units in its opening weekend alone.

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But despite being the fastest selling Switch title to date, it’s hard not to dream about the potential Pokemon could reach if it were to tackle the sprawling world design on the scale of Breath of the Wild.