The Problem with Modern Pokemon Design
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ย. 2022
- Pokemon Scarlet & Violet are out, scarlet and violet new pokemon designs are bad, the problem with modern pokemon design
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The Problem with Modern Pokemon Design - ShadowDoyler
Game: Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
#pokemonviolet #pokemonscarlet #pokemon - เกม
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How tf did you look at Paladin and say "all might" tho it's clearly a superman refference
I feel like one of the main reasons Pokemon designs are changing is because the company is focusing on theme over a cool looking Pokémon. They care more about what it’s representing then what it actually looks like. They have good ideas but terrible execution
Damn I never thought about it like that, solid point
I think another bit that a lot of people haven't noticed is that more humanoid pokemon are easier to design.
When designing a human you're already given a clear base on what the limbs, head, and other body parts should look like and the rest is up to you.
Bur when it comes to designing pokemon because you have such unlimited options it can be harder to guess where you should start since it's just easier when you're given at least a bit of restriction.
Imagine how much harder it is to come up what kind of cat sprigatito should turn into, how they should add the "grass type" elements, and where you draw the line with it being more "animal" or "mythical" like.
And them think how much easier it is to make a anthro cat with a more human structure from the torso up and just give it some grass on its neck and call it a day.
I don't care if sprigatito ended up standing up. I care that it looks ugly, creepily human, with weird creepy sausage fingers
Good ideas? Not only are the ideas bad but the end result is even worse.
Let me copy&paste here:
"Starting to think they should just start buying fakemon from all the hackrom/fanmade game creators, they make 100x better new pokemon then the ones that come out in the actual releases."
THANK YOU. FInally someone else who recognise how great fanmade Pokemons are. I have been saying this for quite a while now, that Game Freak should just use fanmade Pokemon for their games because it is clear, that fans are doing a better job. I bet that most people would even give it away for free, so, they do not even have to buy it. They will save money and time. They also need to remove all this cutscene nonsense. Let the player EXPLORE the world by themselves instead of following a predetermined path triggering cutscene over cutscene. It is so boring. The school setting is boring as well. Who decided to add a school setting into a Pokemon game? The rival and "antagonist" are also bland. Team Rocket was a perfect example of how a "tritagonist" should be. Team Rocket also feels like a real organisation with real goals. It is not overly complicated and that is a good thing. Giovanni is someone interested in power and status. In the manga they even have legendary Pokemon and Sabrina is also a part of Team Rocket. This also would explain why Team Rocket is able to "occupy" Saffron City. See... this is all way more interesting than what we get today. But why is it better? It is really simple, because it is relatable.
Bet let us go back to the Pokemon design:
th-cam.com/video/KdPaDVkyvDc/w-d-xo.html
This video talks about the poor Pokemon design. I even made a timestamp to showcase how quick the overall design of a Pokemon can be fixed. The new Pokemon are not only terrible in its design but also boring and lazy. So, it is not about time if you can fix the design of a Pokemon in less than 10 minutes. Just watch it a little bit longer, he makes the Pokemon way better just by adding a little bit more detail to it and this is what the current Pokemon design is missing, DETAIL. As well as sharp edges to make it more unique by adding more detail to it.
Flamigo is another example of how lazy the design is. There is actually a flamingo fanmade Pokemon from 2013 looking way better:
th-cam.com/video/sUGtKyJJlTg/w-d-xo.html
It even has an evolution to it which makes it way more interesting. The type also makes way more sense being it Water/Flying type. There are so many good fanmade Pokemon designs out there which unfortunately will never be a part of the "real game", instead we get ugly Pokemon. It is finally time that people critcise the overall bad design of new Pokemon and finally realise that fanmade Pokemon surpassed Game Freak basically 10 years ago.
Game Freak could just make a contest, so that people can turn in their Pokemon designs, so they can be used in game. Game Freak would also save money and time by doing it and it will create a strong bond between company and its fanbase.
Most fans just had the lazy idea of turning sprigatito into a saber tooth cat. Which doesn’t even fit the region. There’s more to designing Pokémon these days than “it looks cool”. So yes the company does still have some great ideas just not always the best execution
This is a great point! you are so right they are pushing theme over everything else. While themes are cool if they take away from core design tenants of your franchise everything just becomes muddled
One of my major gripes with modern pokemon designs and especially the starter evolutions is that gamefreak go for theme and gimmick over fluidity. The earlier generation's starter evolutions really represented their typings well. You could totally picture a venusaur,meganium,sceptile, torterra etc hanging out as a herd with their other stages in the wild and the same with the fire and water types. You could picture them in volcanic mountains or water bodies. But I can't picture a Greninja or a cinderace or an Inteleon or Inceneroar or Meowscarada the same way. These Pokemon are RPG characters rather than a naturally occurring species and they lose the elements of the types they represent. Why would a cat evolve into a professional wrestler or a magician in the wild and stand on two legs? Why would a frog who lives in a pond evolve into a Ninja or a baby lizard become James Bond? It's theme over typing and natural progression.
This
Couldn't agree more. The fact that pokemon evolve into human professions is the dumbest thing game freak could come up with. And while it happened even in early generations (Mr. Mime) it was used very scarcely.
I couldn’t agree more with the starters. While I feel like Greninja is the only exception, given that frogs belong in the water. But many various Pokémon go with the same mentality. “This Pokémon looks like an air plane, a chandelier, a motorcycle, etc” without trying to design an appealing looking creature/monster. They feel like they are trying to just make something inspired by something else. A classic example of this is comparing a big/fighting type between Heracross and Buzzwole. It’s less creative, and it feels inauthentic.
I agree and also disagree...combining theme with designs is ok unless and until you don't go overboard...greninja is the best example of theme+design Pokémon....but cinderace, intellion and incineroar are not....
I was so excited for Sprigatito thinking I was going to get a grass Tiger, only to get some lame bipedal Pokémon. First and second Gen had amazing starters. Third and fourth Gen were kind of meh. 5th Gen things started to go downhill, then things spiraled out of control from 6th Gen on.
I think the designers nowadays are more prominently focused on creating themed characters than they are monsters that battle
Yeah, you got it completely right, they look more like characters, less like monsters. For some reason, they humanized many final evolutions in these last few games. It started heavily with Gen 6 and now we barely get any monster/animal-like final evolution for our starters. One of my fav starters is Snivy and later on Serperior, the final design is just incredibly cool and unique. If they introduced Snivy with this Gen, it's final evolution would probably look like a green M̵a̵r̵k̵ ̵Z̵u̵c̵k̵e̵r̵b̵e̵r̵g̵ lizard man. We also got 3 cat-like starters now and ALL of them became human-like in their 3rd evolution, not one stays quadruped. I don''t understand why they keep doing this, it honestly doesn't look very good.
@@LadyIno well, that's like your opinion I personally love the humanoid designs. I don't see how they don't look good.
Yup, it makes for far more interesting designs that I love far more then older gens. But they do feel less like monsters and more like characters.
yes thank you!
Charzard was so iconic because they given him a character.
One thing that I hate about a lot of the new pokemon designs is that they look more like characters than species. If you see a group of intelleon or cinderace, they're most likely going act the same because they're designed to have a certain characteristic. But if you see a group of swampert or serperior they don't have a specific personality attached to them.
I don't think Pixel Art is the solution to design problems. I think the problem is an unimaginative team. Almost none of the new Pokemon from Scarlett and Violet catch my attention. I'm not asking for new forms of old Pokemon, I'm asking for more clever or imaginative creatures.
Yeh it’s just that some people use the excuse that it’s harder to design / draw Pokémon in the new style, but I very much agree that GameFreaks new designs feel very unmotivated and unimaginative
I agree, and it doesn't help that most new evolutions look lazy like game freak copy and pasted a Pokémon design and they just made it bigger or longer.
honestly my favorite generation design wise has been gen 7, believe it or not, because of the origin for inspiration for all of the pokemon designs. sure there were some duds, but the starter trio was solid (even if incineroar was a wrestler cat and didnt feel consistent with its line, design wise it was still solid and had major personality), it striked a nice balance between designs being neither too complex nor simple, and had a wonderful variety. gen 8 also had some really nice designs, but it also had so many dissapointing ones too- the starters and the ice penguin being major examples there. and in spain of all region i would expect much more pull from its real life region for inspiration, but there were barely any!
Making it open world was a worse decision.
I personally think they’re over designing the new pokemon, for exmaple i love the design of the 4 non box legendaries in Scarlet and Violet they’re alot more simple but still creative
I dont mind bipedals (heck my favourite mon is sableye), but when it started to look humanoid, in which their skin/fur/organ pattern becomes wardrobe (tongue on greninja, footie kit trouser on cinderace), i think its not representing the word "pokemon" anymore, more like personified character.
This! I love sableye too! Heck gengar is bipedal and everyone loves gengar. I mean even charizard is technically bipedal. But if either of those pokemon evolved into wearing flesh trousers and fur top hats I personally would not like them anymore…
Lucario
Machoke, Machamp, Jynx, and Hitmonchan have all been wearing clothes since gen 1 and nobody had a problem with them so i don't understand the argument of the newer ones representing a personified character when the old gens have done the same thing and been fine?
Greninja was the perfect balance of slightly humanoid yet still clearly a Pokémon. It's a ninja frog who lives in water, and on land. It's still clearly some sort of monstrous frog ninja, and the detective Pikachu movie exemplified that.
@@TheBiggestDork818 let's admit - old gens OLD and SILLY. Older genes design was simple, like geodude = arms, face, bolder; sunflora = sunflower, face, legs. It's true and if geodude or sunflora was introduced today(God forbid they turn out to be starters like freaking green cat) they would have gotten a huge pile of hate, deservedly so. But do you know why modern standards are not applied to them? Because these designs had no background, there were no other Pokemon or better designs to start comparing. In the case of the modern new fancy color boom generation, the standards are completely different. Now we have examples of more successful designs for starters, now we can compare. Therefore, your argument does not stand up to any criticism. We are not introducing Machamp or Jynx in 2023, especially as a starter. We are introducing a species of animal that has evolved to look like a spy/magician/rabbit in literal clearly visible SHORTS which make me scratch my head.
I think the problem is the dumbing-down of the design. For example - look at the talons of bird pokemon.
It wouldn't be to hard to keep the concept of a pokemon like Quaquaval and make it look appealing with a few changes, especially if you're using a different art style. Remember Farfetch'd looked like could hold its leek (or spring onion, or whatever that is) with its wings. They didn't need to give it actual hands like Quaquaval has.
Yeah, they looks like Pokémon stereotypes at this point. Every detail is taken to the extreme as it seems they wanna be SURE that people recognize then inspiration in less that a nanosecond
This problem is not just for the Pokémon, the design of the trainers, gym leaders and characters in general just look weird in this generation, they look like those avatars characters than you create in facebook
@@Namitho19 They look like one piece characters lol. I dig that though.
@@yun7V3nu2 but blaziken still looks like an animal, at less more than those new design, meowscarada looks like a guy with a cat mask
@@Namitho19 blaziken too lol
i think the most consistently universal thing about complaints regarding new pokemon designs is that most old ones look like actual living creatures while newer ones that get the most complaints tend to be too abstract, robotic, or just leaning too much into the weird gimmick
yes the old pokemon do look like real creatures that could live in the wild but those new once just look like strange mutanhumans
I dunno man, Jynx doesn't look like a "real creature" she looks more like a "mutanhuman" honestly
Ah yes, because jynx and mr mime definitely look like real creatures. definitely!
@@Bucketeer924 The generatiom as a whole looked like it existed in a different reality. Jynx and mr mime are themed to look like people which makes them EXCEPTIONS while lookong like a normal human or a footballer is the NORM in modern pokemon
@@Bucketeer924 that's racist
@@kazzykaioken8873 excuses
To me it feels like the old Gen Pokémons are inspired by nature and folklore, today it feels like Pokémon are inspired by other Pokémons
Again and again until they are abstract shapes with arms and heads
There is a weird consaguinity thing happening, (on top of designer being less inspired)
Skeledirge was based on folklore though so not all hope is lost
This is what I think too.
I remember seeing an art trend where people made 3 starters out of their states animals and they really gave me older Pokémon vibes. I think the newer generations completely throw that base out of the window sometimes. It's like they feel super gimmicky rather than creatures living in a world naturally which is a huge appeal to people.
It gives them half grounding in reality and fantasy. Even using plants, stones or interesting folklore can create these unique characters. Even smashing 2 concepts together gave us some of the older designs.
They felt pretty simple but not too simple. Enough realism without ruining the fantasy.
Also as a furry, I cannot take how much new Pokémon come out on bipedal legs. It feels like they're making Pokémon into humans or random objects more than a natural being existing and evolving in a universe.
Today it seems they are inspired too much by human things, aka objects, human activities (sports, professions etc.). What the fuck is suppose to mean a Pokémon that is literally made out of food?
*pokemon…no S
@@cosmicspacething3474 really what from?? Looks just like a fire crocodile with a fire bird on it’s snout i assume the bird is that bird that cleans crocodiles teeth
My main problem with the new Pokemon is that they are less of animals that you would expect to see in a fantasy world and more characters. It's kind of hard to explain I guess, but most of the humanoid pokemon get this kind of hate because of this reason IMO. Blaziken is humanoid but he still looks like an animal you might find in the wild (in the world of pokemon, obviously). Now, a footballing rabbit or a drummer gorila just don't look as right do they?
"less animals you'd expect to see in a fantasy world and more like character"
I actually think this sums it up beautifully. Your comment manage to put to words exactly what I was thinking but could never pin down a way to describe it.
I was thinking they felt so unnatural as if they were created in a lab rather than in nature.
Pokemon were never supposed to be animals, either. They're meant to be monsters. Spirits, demons, physical manifestations of abstract concepts, creatures originating from the dreams and nightmares of children, and so on.
Unfortunately, even as far back as Gen 1, most of them are very obviously based on animals, plants, and humans. So it's natural to slip into thinking of them as animals, animal-like plants, or human-like animals. (Plus the anime tends to treat them like animals and pets so that doesn't really help with that misconception either!)
The most interesting Pokemon designs to me have always been the ones that don't feel like there's anything in our world that we can truly compare them to, like how Gen 1 had Geodude, Tangela, and Magnemite.
@@cleverman383 While that's more or less true, to recognize it as that does kind of require a level of knowledge of Japanese culture and shintoism which, let's be honest, almost nobody outside of Japan had in the 90s.
I think it was a smart move on their part to move more towards embracing they "they're this world's wildlife" element to it in gen 2 and onward (though I would argue that they already had a large presence of that element anyways based on Pokémon like pidgey, ratata, taurus, to name a few).
Though I do appreciate the ones that are uniquely Japanese culture inspired, making every single one that feels like overkill.
@@Snow-Willow Hmm, I do see your point. Perhaps I'd prefer if there was more Pokemon that kind of don't make sense with our understanding of our real world.
Like, what is an Onyx? It's a bunch of rocks stuck together, but its also.. a snake? But it's literally just rocks.. but it has a mouth and eyes.. How would the biology of that even work..? Animals don't work that way! Rocks don't work that way! What's going on! 😄
Or to use the current gen, Miraidon! It's totally a robot, well, except it acts alive and eats sandwiches.. But it can turn into a motorcycle! With jet engines! But.. it's still a living animal! So is it.. an animal? Or machine? Well, I guess neither, the only real way to describe it is that it's a Pokemon!
I'm totally fine with them being the wildlife of the world, but I do love Pokemon that just don't make sense as anything that could be described in terms of things in our world like "oh its an animal with super powers", I enjoy the designs where it only makes sense as a Pokemon.
Old Pokemon designs were animals. They were building a modern fantasy world and populating it with creatures that could feasibly exist in it.
Now that Pokemon is an established concept (and a lucrative one at that) their design has shifted from 'creature' to character. The old designs tried to blend IN with the world while these ones are intended to stand OUT so kids remember them and want a plushie.
Thats why they seem kinda soulless. They're intended to be sold, rather than to fit.
exactly. and i this happening everywhere, not just pokemon.
To be fair a lot of early 90s and 2000 cartoons were created just to sell a toy. But then again that toy may be the coolest thing ever as a kid.
At least in the 90s and 2000s, they understood that to sell toys you have to create a world with many new creatures that are distinct from reality. Now Pokémon aren’t pocket monsters.
What animals are Mr. Mime and Jynx?
And are ironically worse because of it
Its crazy, we dont have all that many bipedal animals in the animal world, yet the pokemon company still decides to make all the final evolutions walk around like humans. Starting to think they should just start buying fakemon from all the hackrom/fanmade game creators, they make 100x better new pokemon then the ones that come out in the actual releases.
Personally I don't mind bipedal pokemon as long as they are more animal looking than men, pokemon like nidoqueen, rhydon, blastoise, snorlax, typhlosion, ampharos, are all bipedal but something about their designs just appeal to me more.
@@tomfoolery7797 those bipedal mon you listed are one of my all time favorites, specially ampy, but the humanoid bipedal ones are the worst for me and probably what the OP meant
@@Adloquiem Ya precisely, probably should have been more clear, im talking about the bipedal pokemon designs that are starting to look more and more humanoid as the generations go on
@@tomfoolery7797 it's because the newer bipedal ones are furry bait. It all started with Lucario and Gardevoir, once they saw how massively popular those two became, they decided to make more like them. Go look at Salazzle and tell me that thing wasn't intentionally designed to be suggestive.
@@samvimes9510 get your mind out the gutter
I'm a bit disappointed because I was expecting exciting new Pokemon designs and more Paldean Forms for Scarlet and Violet games since the Paldea Region is base on inspiration from Spain but I guess Gamefreak weren't trying hard at all.
First the games now the designs, smh.
@@treek10k nah the design spats long started since X&Y. Chestnaught started it all.
@@TheBlazingK no. it started with greninja
@@TheBlazingKahahaha chestnaught
@@TheBlazingK Bro with that logic then it started all the way back in Gen 5 with Emboar
I think the main issue with a lot of recent designs is that they, for some inexplicable reason, lack exaggerated features. Intellion, Cinderace, and Meowscarada are literally just a lizard, rabbit, and cat standing on their hindlegs with some humanoid limb proportions to the point where one would never be able to assume from a glance wtf any of them actually do until they perform their attacks. I really don't understand why Intelliion doesn't have long, rifle-tip fingers to really focus on the sniping aspect, why Cinderace's feet aren't on fire while assuming a hunched defensive soccer stance to really focus on the flaming soccer aspect, and why Meowscarada doesn't have a long, foldable tail that acts as a magician's cloak to really focus on the phantom thief aspect.
Ooh that’d be awesome!!
it is a disgrace to associate the phantom thieves with the ultimate disappointment that is meowscarada 💀💀
but i do see your point yeah
This is actually a really good point and I think it exemplifies why some of the recent humanoid starters are much more liked than others. In particular Decidueye and Greninja are both very popular (and I like them a lot too) and I think the reason could be partly what you said, incorporating body features into their designs for distinguishing traits. Decidueye's wings make its bow and its arrows are feathers, and greninja has a tongue-scarf.
Ohhhh, I never liked Cinderace or Meowscarada (Inteleon always felt like it was missing something too) but I think I would a lot more with changes like that
I mean, even Sprigatito hasn't a cat tail
There would also be people arguing that we had bipedal starters before. But well...Charizard, Sceptile, Typhlosion etc are still more beast than anything and don't go that much into a thing humans do(like dancing, football). I am glad I could find some designs for me(I love Kilowattrel and the Sushifish). I do prefer my pokemon to be more like wild animals. I am pretty sure thats why most people started to pick Fuecoco, too. Skeledirge is the most beast-like of the bunch.
It's why i picked him. Spriggatio wpuld have been my choice, but then it stood up. Not even hating on standing mons, but WAY too many pokemon (starters in particular) have designs that are simply not "monster" enough. It really started in gen 6, but 7, 8, and 9 took it, and ran well and away with it.
I’d pick skeledirge because of the tiny fire bird on it’s snout it’s so adorable fwends :3 it also reminds me of those birds that clean crocodiles teeth
Okay, we gripe about 4 legs become two legs, but never hear complaints about the reverse, for example meowth aloan meowth and purlion, they go from two legs to 4 legs yet no one says a word about it
Also another one to add to the list I just realized, oshowatt (sorry if I spell it wrong I rember the names but am often bad at spelling them off hand)
@@scarletmoon789 it isn't about 4 legs going to 2. It's about how "humanoid" the mons are becoming. Put another way, i wouldn't care if the Pokemon remained "monsters", but the fact that they are becoming more "human" is what bugs me about them. "Soccer player" should not be a species of pokemon, "masked wrestler" is pushing the line, the list goes on. Look at garchomp, then look at intelion. Where one is clerly monster, and only monster, the other is hella odd and throws off the feel of pokemon.
Mons like lucario and blaziken get a pass, because they are things i could see being in the wild, but pokemon, imo, should always lean more towards that end than hitmonchan/delphox. It's fine to have 1 or 2 of them per gen, but lately, the number feels like it has been greatly expanded, mainly because it's so often the starters that do it, meaning it's that much harder to overlook.
Another thing, aside from the weird job-based and overcomplicated Pokémon, I feel like what GameFreak does lately is already give the Pokémon a specific personality based on the species.
There is no room for us to imagine Pokémon of the same species being different, or for example catching a Pokémon and leave room for us to imagine its personality while we raise it.
Yes! This is an overlooked point, you want your Pokémons character to feel unique based on its nature, but with the character of the Pokémon being overdeveloped they already have a personality that makes their nature worthless unless in competitive battling
I think the pokemon designs have definitely suffered over the years since they started trying to make them too complicated. The original, smooth and simpler designs of the first few gens were preferable. I could look at them and understand what they were and my eyes felt pleased to look at them. Over the years they started making some of them so complex and weird that I would just have a natural distaste for them.
I personally am not one of the haters for humanoid/bipedal pokemon. In fact, Cinderace is one of my top favourite starts of any generation.
We all have our own tastes though, and the designers are trying to please too many people and along the way are losing what the original heart of the show was.
I actually think there are a lot of pokemon from Gen 9 that I truly love and I haven't felt that way in a while. There are, of course, some that I just don't like. But the ones I don't like someone else will love, so...
Ultra beasts right?
I generally have to agree with this. I don't think the issue is so much that reverting to an older medium is necessary, but rather that those restrictions "kept them honest" in the design phase. As much as I don't like certain designs to come out of Alola, they still *feel* like Pokémon, which is something I can't say about most of the gen 8 or 9 Pokémon, with the general throughline of those exceptions like Dodonzo, Cetitan, Falinks & Corvinight being that their designs feel closer to the original Pokémon, making them feel more cohesive to the older Pokémon. Gen 7 had the "benefit" of being on the 3DS, meaning designs still had to be relatively simple for the sake of being easily identifiable on a smaller screen: a restriction the games that are now on a "home console" don't need to commit to
the designs werent simpler, they were more detailed. i think what you meant to say is, they didnt look as busy. if they wanted to make a duck monster, they made it a duck. nowadays, it gets a hairstyle, some clothes, huge eyes etc. it doesnt look like a monster anymore
@@dervakommtvonhinten517 Yeah, kinda like they are trying too hard to be creative that the result is so convoluted they feel uninspired and messy. If you look at so many of the popular Gen 1 Pokemon (Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Butterfree, the starters, Dragonite, etc) none of them are complex, but each detail served a purpose for it's designed.
@@benjaminfast5496 ye, there is a difference between a detailed design and a busy/complicated design.
Here's my two cents on this :
1) A lot of the older designs were "consistent" between the generations. Simplistic but sharp details, a considerable focus on creating a recognizable silhouette, designs were clearly based on real life animals etc. but with sufficient touches to create a unique monster and a fun mix of colours that ranges from mild to quirky but never reaching the point of being bizarre. Most of the newer designs are seemingly focused on the singular thematic focus of the game they're introduced in but had completely forgone the "golden standard" which causes them to look unnatural to fans of the older games.
2) People often pulls out certain Pokemon like Seel or Grimer for their "basic designs" in contrast to their modern counterparts but I'd make the argument that while simple, they're not out of place. Monster capturing franchises often adds in a couple of basic designs to add flavour to their roster but it's counterproductive for modern Pokemon as there is far too much visual baggage in the designs for monsters that they WANT you to like and the perception of what is "simplistic" was altered and/or affected as a result. While the Ceruledge looks cool, you could probably toss it into some other JRPG and people unfamiliar with Pokemon probably wouldn't even question themselves if they saw it in some other game. Most of the Pokemon designs in later instalments either swings between either excesses of complexity or simplicity.
3) Despite the increasingly complex designs, it's even harder to tell what type a Pokemon is in recent years from visuals alone. You'd assume that Cyclizar's a Steel/Dragon or even Electric/Dragon just from it's design but it's actually a Normal/Dragon. Then you have designs that makes complete sense like a vehicle(?) that spews out toxic fumes. Turn around and look, it's a red crab - it's probably a Water type right? Nope, it's a Rock type. There are plenty of conflicting & inconsistent visual cues in franchise which originally allowed player to deduce type matchups from visuals feedback alone. It's like every other Pokemon's a curveball like Sudowoodo now and Sudowoodo WORKS because the franchise was incredibly consistent with it's visual direction and the devs knew that you'd fall for their one-time troll.
4) Evolution's less of an exciting event and more of a "hoping that it doesn't look terrible" for newer entries. Sure, there were evolutions like Dewgong but to make up for it, there were also surprises like Magikarp.
Most of the older evolutions, for the most part, really just adds a layer of coolness/cuteness/elegance to their prior forms and refrained from drastic changes for Pokemon outside of certain types (Like Dragon or Bug types) - you'd either be pleasantly surprised or mildly disappointed as their final forms are still within the range of expectations.
Newer evolutions often adds in a ton of excessive parts and details onto an already functional design so they'd incur stronger reactions from the player or have a completely misguided understanding of what "simplicity" meant for the franchise.
3rth point:
Clyclizard is normal cuz *Present* (daily/normal thing from the actual times) also Korai and Mirai are the "Better" version of it. Also Miraidon it's Electric and can be Steel but it's like all the robot pokemon (To Magnemite and all the future paradox) *too repetitive*
And who human that saw Klawft in a desert and having blueless things says : *Oh yeah, it's a water type*
?
I wouldn't say the main reason we like older Pokemon is because we're nostalgic. Some of my friends and I never grew up with Pokemon, we started getting into it around the time Sun and Moon came out and we still find the older designs much better even without the whole nostalgia thing.
Same, I started with sun and moon and pretty much all my favourite mons are from gens 1-3.
I looked at the leaked pokedex and soon had the suspension that something was off with all the designs. All the ones that where freshly designed look off, as if they did not belong. I soon ended up here, and I think I agree with all you have said.
Yeah I've noticed the change in art style over time as well, having started with red/blue and played every gen as they come out without fail. I'm not bothered myself; I still love a lot of pokemon that come out every gen and realistically basically every gen has a small group of "what is this" mons but I still overall like the mons even if the style has shifted. I do think we're getting a few too many 'humanoid' ones perhaps, but not a huge downer for me. "Art is subjective" after all lol. Good discussion though!
Your comment basically sums up how I feel as well, and thank you!
You’re the type of fan that eats up any type of garbage Nintendo throws at you. No subjective criticism whatsoever
@@thescoobyshuffle9244 and you are mindlessly following a side without reasoning, he played every gen without fail, yes, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have criticism or anything, he isn't trying to convince you that the games aren't becoming worse or anything. Your comment doesn't add anything
Same.. my sister and me started with Pearl/Diamond back then and we noticed the animation changes. I personally don't like most of the new pokemons but that's my personal opinion and likes.
@@thescoobyshuffle9244 relax bro...take it easy lol.
I absolutely agree with your visual points, but if I'm to be honest, Sprigatito's final evolution has really grown on me. I still like Sprigatito's design more over it, but Meowscarada doesn't feel like a ruined design for me. It's weird, because at first my gut reaction was, "how disappointing" when I first saw it but honestly, I just think Sprigatito raised the expectation bar waaaaay too high. I hope it can grow on other people too.
it's a very solid design with some nice cultural background that ties it to the new region
People just feel like complaining about it when there's many other far more egregious things going on with these games
It’s growing on me too. It at least looks more like a cat than Incineroar did so it’s not completely awkward when it lies down cat style.
All of these "modern pokemon desgins suck" videos follow the same script, it's quite funny.
"The designs are getting more and more simplistic"
*Ratata, Pidgey, Ekans and Doduo enter the chat*
"They're designing them after inanimate objects, this is creatively bankrupt"
Voltorb, Magnemite.
"This mon is literally a sack of shit"
*Grimer*
See the point here? Yeah... It's not like these are design tendencies that have been with the franchise since it's inception, no, no, no!
It's a conspiracy so that GF can make more money, or something.
@waterjuice very insightful critique
This is exactly how I felt too. At first when I saw it I was disappointed but it’s grown on me quite a bit and now that I get what it’s based on I think it’s pretty neat.
I feel that Rillaboom is allowed to look humanoid. I mean it IS a gorilla.
The problem is its drum, the drum makes it feel too much like a person
@@-carpet- I think a neat way to incorporate the drum would to be to make the drum it's chest, which allows them to keep the concept of drumming while tying it in with a thig real world primates do!
@@Falcon-doing-doodles I was just thinking that! They could've made the chest wooden/wood-like to push the plant aspect too
The virgin Rillaboom versus the chad Oranguru.
Being an tryhard anthro gorilla versus being a orangutan-looking orangutan.
@@Falcon-doing-doodles That's actually a genius idea and would have worked so much better.
The pseudo legendary looks like a neopet
Lmao
its face looks like a finger puppet tbh….
I really don't have a preference for pokemon designs. It really just boils down to how they make me feel. For example, I like Diggersby and Greedent because they look so ridiculous to the point where I can't help but chuckle every time I see them. There are also pokemon who have designs I'm not really a fan of but still like for various reasons. Examples for me are Brionne (because of it's Moon Dex entry) and Sirfetch'd (because it was a staple on my Sword team).
Yeh it’s all personal preference at the end of the day, I just think the design philosophy has changed a lot over the years (which for me is a bad thing, but others might like that)
I nicknamed my Greedent as PeterGriffin
Now this is epic!
I did everything I could to avoid the final evolutions being spoiled and a thumbnail is what gets me, thanks
The game is two years old my guy
@@lucashowes4089 it has the gen 9 in the thumbnail
@@adanesparza2502 The game is 2 weeks old my guy
@@Sebastian_Michaelis yeah and when did I comment this?
@@adanesparza2502 It was a week old why not get it on release day 💀 I got spoiled too but it was like 4 days in advance. After game comes out you gotta stay offline til you get it
I think the largest flaw of the pokemon designs is that they don’t feel like a group of monsters, they feel like individual characters. On paper that sounds like a good thing; more personalized pokemon will help certain designs find their niche and hopefully help make the designs more popular overall. However, because pokemon are treated as individual people in the design process, they come out appealing only to very specific tastes, and tend to be more controversial as a result. It doesn’t help that a lot of pokemon look boring with the transition to 3D - not to say 3D isn’t a good idea for pokemon, but because the 3D models got rid of the dynamic poses present in the pixel era of the franchise, effectively killing what little personality shown outright that fans could get intrigued or deterred by.
I am glad I am not the only one thinking that way. Usually when a new gen gets released I roll my eyes, because people keep saying that designs are getting worse and worse, I personally always had a few new pokemon that I really like, but this gen really is an exception, I have trouble building a team with new pokemon, because the ones you get early one look so bland and boring. I get it that they have gimmicks, like the dolphin and the whole superman reference with it's ability, but I really don't care, I still don't like it. I was excited to get a big dolphin like pokemon and then it went into furries mode again, I had it on my team and dropped it when it evolved. I don't even want to talk about dudunsparce, it obviously is supposed to be a joke evolution, but seeing that just kinda hurts, imagine you want an evolution of one of your most favorite pokemon and they turn it into a joke, even though there exist so many amazing fan designs that are way superior.
Overall yeah, I like the games itself, but the pokemon look awful now
I think GameFreak trolling fans with Dudunsparce was kinda disrespectful and it wasn’t the “haha they’re so funny” joke that they thought it would be
@@ShadowDoyler Well, even with that "troll" moment people shall now deal with Eviolite Dunsparace now.
@@randompersontrying9700 That is the only good thing about it really
Yeah, the past 2 generations have had only a handful of new pokemon that I actively like. Scarlet and Violet have at least more designs that I am neutral on. I kind of kept being disappointed more by evolutions this gen than overall designs. “Ghost dog? Are we getting a black dog inspired pokemon?…No, skeleton dog that is still kind of cutesy.” “Dolphin pokemon! He’s so cute! Can’t wait for his evo…..oh. Barely changed base form with an on-the-nose superman reference…”
I would have to agree. I'm usually the first to be like "hey these guys look pretty cool" (I'm a guy who really likes Cinderace *and* Incineroar) but these new mons just have not been hitting for me. I remember pre release, the only Pokemon I was hyped for were Fuecoco, Quaxly, the armoured boys, Cetitan and Gimmighoul. Fast forward to today and with the 35 or so Pokemon I've seen, I only really like 10. I know it's not cause of me not liking newer gens cause I really like 7's designs. Maybe this gen's just really not for me Pokemon wise.
Its bad that a lot of fakemon are better than what we get in game. Some of them? Cool. But goodness...shake up the formula a bit. We don't need to go...baby chicken...medium chicken...chicken on stilts each time. How cool it would be to get a reverse evolution speaking like..baby chicken turns into trex? Lol
Ok but a line where a baby chicken becomes a massive egg and becomes a massive dinosaur would actually be really sick
@@energyshatty9020 Isn;t that a Tyranitar but as a birb ?
2:14 that comparison sums up what’s going on so well. The care put into most of the first gen designs vs what’s going on more recently is what’s off putting about modern Pokémon
Yeh it’s such a shame to see as well, especially for longtime fans
I remember some friends saying they didn't enjoy Digimon because of its human-like designs, the first thing I thought about when looking at this new roster was exactly that lol they resemble Digimon a lot more, but they don't go all out with their ideas it just sits in the uncanny valley of design, cool idea bland execution
As a Digimon fan I take a little bit of offense that these monstrosities were honestly compared to digimon. Digimon have some cute Rookie forms, but went full on for the "cool" factor as they evolve. And of course they went more humanoid in their designs, besides a few rare exceptions (e.g. Kowagumon) Digimon talk, build cities, form societies, and are as sentient and intelligent as humans. Comparatively, Pokemon are supposed to be the wildlife of the world. That's why making them this humanoid is creepy.
Something about the eyes of the new Pokémon specifically really throw me for a loop. I don’t know what it is, but that combined with their super saturated and weirdly placed or monotonous colors (in comparison to the dulled out colors of the old models that they stand right next to) that wigs me out. The sugimori art and the sprites did a good job of making every single Pokémon feel like they came from the same shared universe. Scarlet and violet feel like a crossover event involving your least favorite furries ever.
All in all it just feels like “what if animal but human profession or behavior or human like trait” or “what if animal but object theme or food or something” and then all the moves and consideration for how it’s going to battle come later.
It''s the triangular eyes with a small pupil, we don't have that anymore since gen 3. That made Pokemon feel like beasts and not just cute characters
Great vid as always. And I agree, modern Pokémon are too human like. I'm not gonna say that the new designer(s) are lazy, but maybe they're uninspired.
Yeh I feel like they ran out of steam like 400 Pokémon designs ago… now it seems like they just turn whatever they want into a “Pokemon”
@@ShadowDoyler tandemaus is the worst design in the series, what do you think?
@@ianb.2575 nah that has to go to flamigo
Meanwhile Pokemon 25 years ago: Jynx, Machamp, Mr Mine, the Hitmon lines, and abit more
@@traxyy1256 while I don't like those pokemon, 25 years ago pokemon was the new kid on the block, and there wasn't yet a firm grasp on what a pokemon should be. If those designs came out today instead of gen 1, I'd be livid. Each generation should have better designed pokemon than the last, but there's more boring, lazy, and creatively bankrupt pokemon in this generation than any that came before. Many designs feel as rushed and haphazardly created as the game itself.
I grew up with blue, yellow and silver. Those were incredible games... especially silver. Those designs Pokemon designs were amazing. I was always a fan of Natu and Xatu.
Yes! I grew up with a copy of Gold and Yellow, but the Gold/Silver/Crystal gen was always the best, you got two gym league in one game, and the designs were still at their peak. I wish the Gold/Silver remakes hadn't come right at the tail end of the DS generation. It feels like it got done an injustice because right after they pushed out XY, which was so revolutionary, but still managed to be good. (certainly better than the last few gens have been).
I feel like it’s not the 3d aspect that’s making it worse. For me it’s just that they made all of the Pokemon stand and look like furries, or be completely bland and basic. There’s nothing that’s not creepy and odd looking, or boring and bland. It’s just sad that they all look so humanoid now. I want the real monsters that we had originally.
Nah, even furries don't want these designs, they're TOO humanoid even for us. Braixen was about as humanoid as furries like to get with designs. Things like Cinderace and whatever the name of the duck's final form in this new gen are, are by and large just unappealing even for us.
Meowscarada is juuust on the line, and the only reason for that is because she has digitigrade legs, so it makes her look more animal-like.
because houndstone is a humanoid that's pretty normal looking.
Lopunny gardevoir lucario zoruark infernape
I personally still love some of the newer designs (Decidueye, mimikyu, gloisopod, dragapult, sandaconda, koraidon, miraidon) but yeah I can see your point.
Every generation has its high and its lows, but overall I feel like GameFreak have lost their signature touch
@@ShadowDoyler I feel that with the latest generations. Some designs are still fantastic, but other just feel… off. Like they’re missing something but I can’t quite put my tongue on it.
DONT forget my boio incineroar
I really like those, but a lot of pokemon feel underwhelming to see. My 10 y/o little brother even saw some of the designs for gen9 and said they looked weird or boring :/
@@CT--xj5jf Personally, Incineroar is one of the very few Pokemon in the franchise that make me ...... irrationally angry when I see them. It's not just the fact it ruined the potential for a really cool quadrupedal Fire tiger starter (though it probably plays a role) but just it's........ extremely weird proportions and the fact I could never shake my head off the fact it was 100% designed to be a Furrbait
I think the major problem is nostalgia over older Pokemon. Yeah the older designs are good, but we can't argue that every generation has those humanoid Pokemon, there has never been a clear type Pokemon are based off, which gives the company free rain over what "looks" like a Pokemon and what doesn't, so we get this idea in our head of we as ourselves think a Pokemon should look like and when a new design doesn't match that idea, we don't like it.
While that’s true to some extent, I think there’s truth to the entire Pokémon don’t look like Pokémon anymore argument.
I mean the core appeal has always been that they’re monsters and while humanoids do exist, it’s more in smaller doses. Now humanoid Pokémon are used far more liberally and it shows. There will always be a resistance to change but there are hardly any appreciators left. Just in terms of the starters there’s no longer any excitement, only worry that the animal you liked will turn into a human with some few vaguely animalistic features.
@@thecod2345 yeah, i remember choosing a starter based on how cool it is, but since gen 8 my thought process has been, *"hm, which of these is the least ugly?"*
*free reign
I mean the pokemon from the past gens are based off animals.
Now you have pokemon based off objects like ice cream
@@thecod2345 Conversely I think there’s 0 proof to that argument because it begs the question of “what is a Pokemon” though? Because when Gen 4 came out these same discussions of “Pokemon don’t look like Pokemon” kept popping up and how Palkia and Dialga looked like digimon and blah blah blah.
Likewise Deoxys was absolutely a groundbreaking Pokemon design at that time. The series is constantly evolving and each gen pushes those boundaries in a different way. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
3:11 "Too humanoid" Bruh, there were some older Pokémon who were also human like, Mr.mime, Gardivor, and Gothita's final evolution
Mr mine is the exception here because there supposed to look human
And Gardivor was sopoosed to base on of something else then human.
Gothita...I got nothing
@@darkmodeenjoyer3367 mewtwo, hitmonchan, hitmonlee, machop and evolutions, hypno..
@@ceslefoxin well yes those too
Mewtwo doesn't look like a human, it looks more like an alien, Hitmonlee and hypno don't look like humans, and Machamp looks like a statue.
@@painpapadopoulos8120 from that point of view Gardevoir, Lucario, Meowscarada, etc, have absolutely nothing to do with being "humanoid", so there's no reason for the community to be so angry about it.
I always roll my eyes when people complain about modern Pokémon designs.
Claiming newer designs have a lack of care is so stupid. A bunch of new Pokémon have a very surprising amount of thought out into them.
Agreed. There's a few gems in S/V but most of the new mons don't really catch my eye anymore. These new games are such a letdown.
I think the most offensive “new Pokémon” in Scarlet & Violet are the reskins of older Pokémon, 90% of them look like they were designed in about 12 hours
@@ShadowDoyler bro they put a flamigo into the game, made dunsparce slightly bigger and put micky mouse and his family into the game and called it a day.
@@ShadowDoyler I blame the Pokémon Company for everything they do in the modern games. Those money grabbing...
@@abduking4204 and then you have the so called fans that overhype those shitty boring designs, giving Gamefreak an excuse to make more of these for the future games
@@blackbullet4254 fax
I personally love woopers evolution because it's based on wild type axolotls that turn brown and eventually become a normal salamander in toxic polluted waters. I do see they're kinda inconsistent with their own design decisions I'm not a fan of several Pokemon in the generation like the tumble weed and smoliv lines.
Similarly, the white corsola is related to coral bleaching caused by climate change.
I just wish clodsire kept the old style. It is wayy too round and quagsire, while still round, is just more visually balanced due to the semi-cilyndrical shape of the body and tail. You look at clodsire and it's only circles, not even the spikes are sharp, they're rounded on the end.
My issue with the designs (in the context of this argument that designs are now more gimmicky, childish, and mass market catering instead of nostalgia fishing) is that as a kid I fell in love with Pokémon (yellow/red/blue/green onwards) because I was SO into ecology, I was just too young to define it. So if I saw Pokémon who really seemed to fit their theme and work in the world, I loved it so much, we’ve now lost any semblance of making them believable parts of the environment and moved on to style trends I guess?
While I like the concepts and designs for many of the newer generations of pokémon, there was always something that just felt "off" to me. These types of videos have helped me understand! It's the art style! With the early generations, the artsyle made the creatures look more realistic, like a real (albeit fantasy) animal you could actually picture roaming around the wilderness; with the newer generations, while the art style is cute, they look closer to OCs or caricatures rather than actual living creatures that would inhabit this fictional world. While neither artstyle is wrong or bad, the problem arises when the two contrasting art styles are right there next to each other in the same game.
I'd love a couple of games with cohesive art style in either direction; in one game they could take the older pokémon and convert them into the newer, cuter art style, while in the other game (the one I would be most excited for) they take all the newer pokémon and convert them into the older, more realistic art style with more appropriate detailing and proportions. I personally would find it super cool to see some of the newer pokémon (Sobble or Nickit, for example) in the more classic style, and vice versa.
I agree entirely with what you said, but I think it's more like there are 3 "eras" of design compared to the two you speak of.
I agree gen1 and some of gen2 were realistic and could exist in their world, I'd call them fantasy creatures.
I agree some of gen 7 and gen 8 onward are more cartoon or OC like, I'd call them fantasy characters.
But I think from most of gen 2 all the way till gen 7 there was sort of an in between phase where they were most like fantasy monsters. Gen 1 had a lot of detail to look naturalistic, and the in between era simplified it down to details that are almost exclusively related to their powers.
Similarly, gen 8-9 has a lot of character and expression to look charming and sell the theme, while the in-between era looks more neutral and thus more creature like, less character like.
With this in between era I think what unifies it is simpler designs where the focus was on the pokemon's powers. With everything from a simple gen 2 design typhlosion, to a complex gen 7 design kommo-o, the focus (and most of the detail) lies in the aspects that give each mon their "powers" so to speak, typhlosion's fire and kommo-o's scales respectively. That's what defines this middle era for me, is a focus on the concept and abilities of the pokemon.
For this reason they feel most like fantasy monsters to me. (as opposed to gen 1, which had a level of believability to not be as monstrous, and gen 8-9, which has a level of character to also not be monstrous.) Fantasy creatures, then fantasy monsters, then fantasy characters. And I don't think any is definitively better than the other, just different. Of course there are specific pokemon that don't follow this trend at all and even then the artstyle change is so complex and broad that it's difficult to pin down, but that's my take on it.
I would also like to add that the design of the human characters has also changed and mostly not to my liking. There are always new characters I really do like, Nemona or Kabu for example are well designed imo, but many regular trainer NPCs especially look uncanny and are uncomfortable to look at at their worst.
Not to mention BDSP where everyone looked horrible and I don't mean the chibis.
Gen 8 had really good character design, but this generation? The character designs are really really bland, the only ones I like it's because they are MEMES (Cue Gigachad and Moist Cr1tikal in the game)
I know, the art style of some of the npcs look like they belong to different games. Also I know is based Pokémon on some realism, but the npc trainers are so bland and unimaginative.
Oh my goodness, yes!! I actually prefer the pokemon to the human characters in this game. The humans are all soooo ugly, from the NPCs even to a lot of the choices for the player character. Some of the faces too, I actually have to look away whenever I start a battle with a hiker because that is a straight of predator face those guys make. All of them make creepy and awful faces when you start the battle, but those guys are the worst.
@@Snow-Willow Exactly, they made the hikers look so creepy in this game, plus I’m not too impressed with penny’s design either.
Also wished they made uniforms optional. Only switching to them when we’re in the academy, then regular clothes when exploring out in the open.
Excellent video - I really miss the more serious, simple designs
Thank you! I think most people miss them
I understand but if I can play devils advocate, if Pokémon had the same design philosophy for basically thirty years, fans would complain they’re being too comfortable, and unimaginative. I don’t turn a blind eye to the flaws pokemon does have, but I’ve been someone who’s liked Pokémon since I could even first start walking (I’m 24 now), I do agree the starters I hope soon will stop being so humanoid, but other than that I honestly don’t personally have much of a negative thought of the designs nowadays, I do like when Pokémon LOOK like they belong to a specific region, like the alola mons for instance.
@@luisaponte7703 I understand what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t be one of those fans. Things to innovate on are like making more open-world experiences, more integrated environments (ponds, streams, grasslands, forests, mountains, etc), more in depth stories like BW, better combat animations, etc. There are some later generation designs I like (Venipede, Clodsire) but the really busy designs, especially the legendaries, just look too unbelievable.
I feel like if a Pokémon is immediately distinguishable as a single animal or object than it’s just not as good of design, the thing that made the originals so interesting for me is that they were like nothing I’d ever seen before
"like nothing I'd ever seen before"
....
Charizard, a literal dragon (heck, dragonite fits this too)
Persion, a cat...just a cat
Pidgey, a sparrow with pointier feathers
Ratata, a purple rat
...and I could go on
You sure you played the same "originals" as everyone else?
For ME had some instances like:
Animals but cooler/cute with Elemental effects or nice colors
Mythical creatures or Fictional that looks good and not uncanny
Negative things for me are:
Super simple designs like animals with just abnormal body parts
Humanoid animals that looks more like disguised humans than animals
Pokémon that resemble some type of human profession but not like "a humanoid plant that dances" more like "a humanoid dancer with flowers in it", that's a difference between a Lilligant and a Rosemon...
The sprites for me 3D just looks Dead inside and lacking movements that make them look alive
SV has some of my favorite designs imo. Love some of the new lines like Tinkatink Gimmighoul and Charcadet, and some stand alones like Koraidon or Ting-Lu are just awesome. Good vibes.
You listed about all of the ones I liked as well. Cerueledge (likely spelled that name wrong, because I nicknamed mine and never look at the default name ^^; ) is dope. Tinkatink I like the typing of, and the design isn't bad in itself, but it's final form (Tinkaton) is a problem in battles where the camera is locked in place. Her hammer is so freakin' big that you can't see any of the pokemon you're battling, unless it's a really big species of 'mon. :P
I do like Tinkatink, a steel fairy that isn't a fucking keyring? Thank you!
@@Gr3nadgr3gory To be fair I also like the keys 😋
@@mimief7969 physical objects that aren't rotom are my least favorite designs and I only excuse rotom because he's technically possessing an object.
yeah there’s still good designs, but there is several bad designs. And not to mention how terrible the new games are. i’m sad i got into playing pokémon so late, the only games i truly enjoyed were back in gen4&5 after i hacked my 3ds. I don’t have nostalgia blindness since i got into pokémon during the pandemic, i’m just an artist and what’s happening to pokémon is making me sad.
i never will understand why people seem to hate bipedal starters for being bipedal, aren't there only like 3 consistently quadruped starters?
It's not about being bipedal, but being anthropomorphized. Charmander is bipedal, Delfox is anthro.
A lot of the older fans dislike anthros, including Mr. Mime (contrary to many strawmen). There seems to be a generational divide, if you'll forgive the pun, on if anthros are off-putting or not.
Facts: Anthropomorphic Pokémon are a hit or miss some, are excellent like Incineroar or Lucario and others are just straight bad like spigatito’s Evo
Well Incineroar is a very polarizing pokemon. But I love it. Easily my favorite fire starter. For me, I feel like the gen 8/9 starters lean too much into their themes.
For me it's two things
1. Pokémon are becoming too humanoid in design
Most Pokémon in the later gens are starting to become bipedal in later stages, or their body shapes change to be more humanoid. Yeah, we had humanoids like the Machop line, and ones like Hypno and Mr. Mime, but they were sprinkled in with animals, beasts, creatures, and monsters. Now, most Pokemon come off as Waifu/Husbando Fetish material or Furry bait.
2. The designs are becoming less inspired
Gimmighoul is a good example. It's a Ghost Pokémon, but its design feels more like an alien. Its evolved form is not much better. Nothing about them remotely says GHOST.
Pawmi, the new Pikachu clone is another. Every time it evolves, it just gets slightly bigger and furrier.
Then there's the new Pokémon called Varoom, whose whole entire evolutionary line is a living car engine. What's next, a Pokémon that's just a shoe?
Not My friend we already had a literally ball pokemon
Or Blaziken also humanoid but it had that spark of a monster/animal the new mond are literally all two legged monsters and it looks lazy and as if they’re out of ideas.
While I do think the 2d sprites were still better overall, especially the ones in Gen 4 and 5, I also think with every new 3d Gen they are getting better slowly, at least for me.
5:28 “But I personally prefer the more ‘mature’ aesthetic I grew up with”
That’s it. That’s the video. A lot of the “problem” is nostalgia, hence why the people who have the most to say about modern Pokémon designs have always been those who played Red and Blue as kids. It’s just a “back in my day” argument spat out by people who don’t like when things change.
As for the “mature aesthetic”…no? Maybe a Pokémon like Nidoking could be considered “mature” for a 10 year old, sure, but Gen 1 had Pokémon like Farfetch’d and Slowpoke too, and even a Pokémon like Solgaleo is far less goofy than anything those games have to offer.
There is no problem. This is all subjective trash.
Yes there are to many older people who give new pokemon designs a bad reputation when they look epic
@@asimhussain8716 ok old man
@@asimhussain8716 ok old man why aren't you in a retirement home since you think the older generations are so better
F A X
i think its fair to hate something because its not the same as it used to be.
you just said it, its subjective, there is no problem in disliking the new pokemon.
I've always been a firm believer that pokemon designs will have something for everyone in every gen. As well as people liking or disliking gens bc certain pokemon. For example my fav Gen is Gen 5, It has the most pokemon designs that I like from a single gen yet a lot of people rag on it bc of Vanillux and Garbadore. Each gen has its dumb designs or uncreative designs and yes I do agree that me personally I wish the newer pokemon were more edgy in a sense but so far me personally I'm quite enjoying a lot of this gen's designs, some of them took time for them to grow on me like the chili pokemon. But been loving quite a few like the Fire starter, espartha and bellibolt. I do like the zero to hero concept (just wished the eyes were different) over all I say Pokemon gens will always have the mons people hate and people like
im a vanillux enjoyer and garbadore is ok. i too am a firm believer there's something for everyone in every gen, and id even go far as to say at least a full team of pokemon you like is possible. gen 5 is underrated, has the best story. its the gen i wish people would revisit more often, cause it didnt deserve the backlash it got on release.
@@Laughingwithtravii Hell yeah a fellow Gen 5 lover! I 100% agree. Idk y Gen 5 is the game where people like to say where pokemon "fell off"
@@zeroxking6463 i am one of the people that used to be that way, oddly enough. i replayed black/white maybe a year ago when i got covid and had an absolute blast. it made me reflect on why young me viewed it as death of the series. in reality it was the console upgrade from ds to 3ds. i was just starting college, was broke asf and jobless. i couldnt afford to just get a 3ds and was too old for that to be a christmas gift, etc. so i eventually just stopped playing. i imagine thats what happened to many of us my age (im gonna be 30 soon.) but instead of realizing they just blame the game/hate the game.
anywho, replaying black/white reignited my pokemon passion. got shining pearl (loved it) and beat that while waiting on s/v and super loving violet currently! slowly making my way back thru the series basically, playing what i missed (gen 6 - 8.) including black/white2 AND platinum, which i still havent played incredibly enough. one of the best things is having a partner whose first pokemon game was literally pokemon go, imagine. so it's a blast to just, have someone to share this journey with, and thats its completely new to them. really makes it all so much better! anywho, shield is next. and when i get a 3ds, all of those too! gen 5 grass starter has so much sass also.. completely unrelated sorta but i just find myself thinking bout the sassy grass snake every time i bring up black/white fdkjhfkds
@@Laughingwithtravii I feel yah dude, I'm about to be 27 and there were a few times with some franchises where I saw them over hyped or dumb bc I wasn't able to play them due to circumstances. And Hell yeah dude, glad you're having a fun journey with this and have a partner to do it with. I'm thoroughly enjoying my Scarlet playthrough as well and just keep getting distracted with all the exploring I end up on the other side of the map when I was trying to get to a gym lol. And Samurott was my fav, just dope looking samurai that be both a quadraped or bipedal and the swords I just thought Samurott was majestic and dope
Ok so this video ended up doing better than expected, and I just want to thank everyone who's watched and commented! It's so nice to see that there's other people out there who are just as passionate about Pokemon as I am, and thankfully you've all been really nice whether you agree with my hot takes or not
I think Palafin is just a play on superheroes in general, if it had to be anything specific it would probably be superman
I don’t know why you’re surprised that this video did well lol Pokémon designs are the most searched topic when it comes to the franchise, the algorithm just did you a favor by recommending it to those who were already interested, like me :)
Game Freak is Lazy now and they do not care at all.
New Pokemon don't look like Pokemon a Garbage Bag, Ice Cream Cone, Rocks
@@holdthetruthhostage That is Gen 5band last time I cheked it came out around 10 years ago.
I avoided all spoilers. I was so disappointed when my little duck turned into a dancer. 🤦♂️
Same, the whole design of it feels gimmicky and like it’s purposely meant to be funny
Fastidiate gringo, Quaquaval supremacy
And that’s you you look at leaks BEFORE playing the game! Hope you learned a lesson.
Certain ones look kinda AI generated or washed out but there's still some choices I find pretty cool.
I'm usually more into the robotic or arthropod designs like Metagross or Beedrill.
I myself am a big fan of that silver shrimp lookin guy from Alola whose name I can't remember.
Golisopod? 🤔
@@32-bitcloud That's the one!
Honestly at this point I feel like an AI could design better Pokemon than GameFreak, especially with how advanced AI art has become lately
My only problem with newer designs is that they lean too hard on the goofier side of things. Not saying every Pokemon needs to look "cool" enough for battle, but at least plausible enough for whatever ecosystem they're trying to build in it that game.
Silly things like a James Bond inspired Chameleon because "lolbritish", putting a sombrero on Fuecoco because "lolspain", or super hero Dolphin just isn't doing it for me.
Yeh I completely agree
I too wanted Meowscarade to be a 4 legged monster, as I made a Fakemon as a young teen YEARS ago of a Grass starter cat with thorns covering it's tail to slam. So when there was an official one coming in Gen9, I loved it to bits. Even if Meowscarade isn't what I wanted, the design is growing on me with the cute fanart so I see the design in a different light.
I grew up with Gen4, and my most beloved Pokemon is a Luxray, so I have a soft spot for these big, animal like monsters. And it saddens me a bit that I don't like that many in Gen9 to make a full team of new Pokemon (I only had this problem in Let's Go with Gen1 Pokemon)
I can agree about some of the things here, but Cinderace was actually kinda cool, especially with the "mega" form being some kinda of bunny sun god. (I wish they'd just bring back megas proper, they keep trying do something similar to replace it, so why not just do it?)
I’ve been saying this for years. Sugamori had some pretty wack designs but obviously most are fantastic. Gen 7 had some incredible designs as well. The Litten and Rowlet lines are two of my favorites in the whole series and yet as soon as gen 7 hit, I immediately knew something wasn’t right. Don’t even get me started in gen 8. I despise nearly everything in gen 8. Nothing really felt like a proper mon. I miss the simpler designs of gens 1-4.
I feel like they didn't take advantage of the Spain theme and instead made a bunch of uninspired, unrelated stuff like a lawn decoration flamingo, 2 white blobs that evolve into 3 white blobs, etc. This hurts me because the past few gens have some of my favorite designs ever, with gen 8 being very hit or miss but still having many bangers that balance it out. That being said, I actually liked a bunch of these, but the amount is much lower, which is a shame because this is the biggest dex since BW.
Yeh I really can’t believe how little “Spanish” Pokemon we got
Also completely missing the chance to give Meowscarada a “puss in boots” theme!
I hate the constant need to make weird humanoid pokemon. The inspiration behind them are usually great but when the execution is always just "a dude in a fursuit" A lot of the new designs are great and I love that they've kept them just as simple as the Ken era designs but due to the switch to 3d, we get more complex executions.... it's just a shame how a lot of them turn out, as you said, too gimmicky and not just "inspired by"
Meowskarada isn’t as bad as inteleon or cinderace it’s decent
I feel like you were spot on with this video. Almost zero Pokémon from generations 6 to 9 have ever caught my attention besides zacian and tinkaton I just hope we get more thought out designs than just getting the obligatory cool looking bipedal Pokémon or lucario ripoff
Part of the reason why I don't collect the cards or play the games anymore is because the Pokemon look like "Dragonite", overly cutesy or impulsively obscure like Stakataka. And it's just overwhelming with big glossy eyes...and they're clearly running out of ideas. This happens to every franchise people become bored and unfulfilled with the product
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one to notice the decline and was bothered by it.
I think most people have, my next few videos will go more in-depth with specific parts of the games
@@ShadowDoyler that sounds extremely interesting! You've earned yourself a new subscriber :)
Aye! Thank you
@@ShadowDoyler "most" funny
Hot Take Here: If Sprigatito's final evolution was on All Fours, it would not be as appealing imo. Starters that tend to be on all fours throughout are not very loved Pokemon in general. also i think It's because Bipedal starters are VGC worthy which is likely why they went this route imo.
But I still think this topic comes down to personal taste rather than it being an actual problem.
Being bipedal doesn't make you good in vgc lol Starters in general are rarely good in vgc
I dunno anything about VGC but every quadrupedal starter has been the least favorite. Torterra, Meganium, Venusaur, and Samurott all range from liked to absolutely hated by fans (especially Samurott at the time of Gen 5)
The bipedal designs have always been more popular. Charizard, Typhlosion, Infernape, Decidueye, Greninja…
Greninja especially was there big breakthrough. Iirc he’s still more popular than Charizard hence why every new starter has some time of theme or prop
Swampert and Samurott that stay in all fours are some of the coolest looking water starters we've ever had so your point doesn't stand
This is an opinion presented as a fact.
@@blackbullet4254 i agree, but it’s a truth that samurott isn’t insanely popular as far as starters go, many in fact criticizes the fact it’s quadruped
The only people I see complaining about these new designs are the older generation who grew up with a completely different environment compared to the newer gen, of course the pokemon would change to suit what nowadays kids find absolutely awesome (for example ceruledge)... we've outgrown nintendos demographic and that's okay, these games aren't designed for us and gamefreak has a hard job pleasing both older and newer pokemon fans
I've seen 6 and 7 year olds complain about the newer design, so.....
@@BarnabyJones07 probably because they heared somone else who complain about it and start to do this too, you know, like a normal kid will do
I genuinely love a lot of the designs in modern pokemon. I never really liked many of the older gen Pokemon. When Sword and Shield came out, I saw some of the character designs and I loved them! Hatterene, Scorbunny, Alcremie, Polteageist, Orbeetle, and Falinks looked so cool and unique in my opinion. I actually felt excited to play and truly get into pokemon. I get a lot of fans are nostalgic for the old designs, but I genuinely think we have it a lot better.
Inteleon and Cinderace are two of my favorite ones simply because of the design.
There's only so much you can do with the aesthetic, before people start to complain it's straying too far. On top of that, there seems to be growing demand for more anthropomorphic Pokemon, so fans can dress up as them, or imagine themselves as them. Also, you know, weirder reasons...
One thing I appreciated about Digimon, is they threw literally everything into the mix, so I'm never surprised by any design. These days I'm like, "Oh, they turn into bikes now? Neat, I guess... Etamon was a bunch of turd monsters stuffed into an Elvis monkey costume and held together by stitches & bandages."
I feel like nowadays the design team tries to make it FIT with the modern world, while in older games, the designs always used to stand out. I feel like pokemon is a wild fantasy not an immersive real life clone so its better to have designs that stand out
As others have pointed out in the comments, the problem isn't the pokemon being humanoid/based-on-a-object/formed-by-multiple-beings etcetera per se, but rather them focusing too much on a theme or gimmick that results in a design that we just cannot see living in the wild or having multiple members of its species.
I can see Machamp, Cryogonal and even Greninja as wild creatures with different personalities and behaviors, but I cannot see Inteleon or Cinderace in the same way.
I think gen 9 looks pretty good. My main with Pokémon's design philosophy is whether there is a backstory or meaning to why the pokemon look the way they do. As long as they look like something a scientist would write a log about then it's fine.
First, yeah a lot of these Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Pokemon designs are terrible. I really like the Gallade one though.
On the topic of "too many humanoid Pokemon" I said something like this in one video a long while back so I'll repeat it here. People complaining that the modern Pokemon designs are too human-like are forgetting that Gen 1's Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Machop, Machoke, Machamp, Mr. Mime, Mewtwo and Primeape to name some are all humanoid and no one says anything...ever.
Gardevoir is a very well recognized humanoid Pokemon and is widely accepted, but that's not entirely a good example, just mentioning more of a community love for it over hate.
Most beginning evolution Pokemon are bipedal before evolving into something feral or humanoid and not many bat an eye towards that.
Meowth is usually bipedal, but it evolves into a Persian, a 4-legged animal that no one says nothing about. Gen 2's Treecko is straight up bipedal and acts human a lot, even its evolution forms and no one says nothing, but they'll complain that a 4-legged Pokemon, usually a starter will evolve into something human-like. These are only just small examples I mentioned out of many, but I also understand how moat people don't like the original idea of feral to anthro instead of the Pokemon following the tradition it was originally meant to follow. There's a lot of feral types in Scarlet and Violet so people saying there are too many humanoid types in the games are usually basing if off of the starter evolutions. The original creator did an amazing job with the older Pokemon I grew up with, but it continues to be silly to see people get upset over change. Change is gonna happen whether they like it or not. Do I agree with the evolution status of 4-legged types becoming bipedal? It depends. I don't get easily upset over something like that like most people do, regardless of the original vision of Pokemon. Does it need to happen all of the time for each generation? Absolutely not. We all are diverse in our thinking and opinions of each Pokemon instead of collectively and disgustingly inhabitanting a hivemind of hating the same thing and I personally like all types of weird Pokemon forms, most especially human-like ones.
Treeko is a Gen 3 Pokémon.
I'm OK with some differenting variations once and a while since there isn't anything bad with expanding with an original form and see what different versions are like sometimes, but I can understand when it comes to flat out moving away from the original vision. I feel like some of the original vision should come back but also don't mind some of the other ones. Remember even old generations once and a while had very off Pokémon too I think.
i remember when they spoiled Tepig, i thought "oh neat, we're going to get potentially a four legs unique looking pokemon and excitedly imagined getting a Fire/Rock or Fire/Ground or even Fire/Dark as the final evolution for the new fire starter!! imagine my horror when Tepig evolved and now stands on two legs AND already gained second typing.... Because Blaziken and Infernape wasn't enough "Fire/Fighting" and they couldn't just make a regular pokemon "Fire/Fighting"........ They seem to do this weird thing where the first pokemon is on all fours and "cute" and "adorable" and then evolves into a stupid human. i was SO happy when Gen 6 gave us a Fire/Psychic type!!! But of course it's final evolution is a human..... Speaking of i'd really like to play with my Delphox again Nintendo, i disagree with how it's a human but i'd like to enjoy a Fire/Psychic type again......
Why is Litten and Torracat on all fours but Incineroar isn't? Why is it wearing a belt? is it so it can be shoved into my Super Smash Bros. game as a new addition no one asked for?
Don’t know if it is nostalgia or preference but I miss the pixel art style. They had so much personality
I'm just like you bro, but I don't even like many of the regional variants lol. It's sad because when some of us express our opinions, we get called gen wunners by the new school pokemon fans, even though the first game of Pokemon i really played was Emerald.
Emerald was my first game as well! It’s impossible to criticise Pokemon / GameFreak these days without being cancelled, but I do hope “fans” can learn to look at these games more critically
@@ShadowDoyler facts 👍
I actually like the new gen in terms of design, some starter evos like meowscarada and Delphox I initially thought was fairly bad, but when I see them drawn in the anime or fanart I have a better opinion of them then. I think that the problem has to do with the games jumping to full 3d, where you have to worry about awkward camera angles making some Pokemon look kinda...uncanny (I never want to look a gible straight on, was just weird to me). Additionally, in B/W I liked the looping animations that they gave pokemon there, and if a pokemon was frozen or burned they'd put a color overlay as a visual reminder, and actually close the eyes of the Pokemon if they were asleep (which I haven't seen in S/V). Personally speaking, the whole beast/human starter debate has been one I've generally never invested myself in too much. Everyone has their preferences of course, but I think the humanoid designs does well to have a more relatable design (as relatable as you can be for something like a cat magician) which you don't always get with a more monstrous design. I think that's why we see designs like that nowadays.
Also in the subject of starters, I always found it off that the Oshawott like ends up on four legs when they're literally bipedal for the majority of the line (also why isn't samurott dual type). Samurott is my favorite starter, so I had my hopes up when we got a hisuan variant (which I still love) but I didn't like the fact they kept him on all fours.
Delphox's official model is clunky and doesn't work good. Especially not in the 3d art style. But fan artists really do that 'mon justice.
@@Snow-Willow Kind of just touching on what I just said. I don't think Delphox's design is as bad as I initially thought when I first saw it, but the camera angles being basically the same handful of camera shots really do make some pokemon look uncanny. I preferred the 2d look because there was less of a chance of pokemon looking odd since we had the same few viewing angles. Delphox (and probably Meowscarada as well whenever they appear) looks a lot better in 2d than in 3d, which I believe I had said in my comment.
this could be a number of things, though probably has to do with the difference of the proportions for pokemon we perceive through our imagination, versus having the proportions explicitly shown to us via 3d models. combine that with awkward camera angles and yeah, it can give the impression of a design being bad.
though I guess what's a good design and bad design somewhat comes down to personal preference. Delphox isn't my favorite design, a letdown in some aspects but my opinion has softened over the years.
It's simple what's going wrong
1. Over complicated theme goals
2. Over simplified designs (less detail etc)
3. No consistency in design (change in gens)
I honestly think they overcomplicate the design process for Pokémon now... Too much focus on gimmick or association with a profession or theme... And stop with too many humanoid Pokémon, okay here and there but should be rare!
Even good Pokémon like Grapploct lean too heavily into the theme.. imagine if it evolved into a more Kraken inspired design, people would love it.
Like, just make monsters man, sometimes cute, sometimes cool, sometimes bad ass...
Having some themes are okay, but don't make the theme the whole point.
I think another simple way to win is to draw inspiration from gen 1-5 for consistency of design.. like gen 1 & 2 eye styles for new Pokémon, the traditional anime eyes.. Charmander, squirtle, bulbasaur & Pikachu are STILL the most marketed Pokémon, plus the dark eyes like Sandshrew, Ponyta, Vulpix etc.
Make monsters! Things good like Golisipod are rare in the last few generations.
Came to say that the new gen 9 pokemon are by far the worst designs I've ever seen. Insultingly bad, after seeing dunsparce's evolution I wish it never evolved
They absolutely butchered Dunsparce in this generation
Last gen, we had Sirfetch'd and Obstagoon and it was goddamn amazing. In this gen, we have Farigiraf and Anhiliape, which are looking great
And then we have this disgusting Dunsparce evolution that is literally just a streched Dunsparce (and named Dundunsparce, what a "genius" name)
GameFreak are sadly getting lazy, have you guys seen the state of the other Future / Past Pokemon designs?….Jigglypuff & Misdreavus look like someone designed them in about 12 hours
@@ShadowDoyler did you mean to say 12 minutes? And what the hell is with their names? The ruinous pokemon look good, but what's with the generic Chinese names?
@@ianb.2575 The Bull legendary that has that weird hat (I think it's called Ting Lu?or something) reminds me of a boss from Shadow of the Colossus
Heck, I would totally say that the model was stolen from Shadow of the Colossus
@@g.mxanthis7575 pretty sure I thought the same thing when I saw it
I think it's hard to know how much nostalgia plays a factor in this, Truthfully, when it comes to pokemon, people tend to jump to the my generation was the best defense almost immediately. There have been humanoid pokemon pretty much the whole time. With the hitmons alakazam and machamp, we had pokemon that were supposed to represent a martial artist, a guru/Sage, and a body builder respectively. Gen 1 also brought voltorb and muk. Two of the least imaginative pokemon in the games history. Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the newer pokemon is that they try to be so on theme to the region now a days. Back in the day, they would be willing to put a pokemon like Ludicolo in Hoenn, even though Hoenn is based of Japan. Now a days it feels like all to pokemon they design are based of some characteristic or trait of the region they come from. Sometimes this is to cool effect like when the regional variants are the way they are because of their environment like the ice vulpix variant living in the snow so it adapted to be ice type. There's an evolutionary throughline amd reason. Other times it's just slap a tribal mask on that pokemon because this is supposed to be Hawaii. This is why I think the Ultra beasts were some of the coolest pokemon in a while. They were all over the place with the only theme being that they're based off invasive species. It didn't feel as campy as the regional themes. Also, the first pokemon in the first route doesnt always have to be a bird. It wasnt in Johto and Hoenn and people were fine. When we make a pattern to the game, we just end up comparing to the previous game, and thats not good for making each game unique and each mon distinct. This turned into a rant.
TLDR: Pokemon have always had humanoid mons like machamp and the hitmons, and lazy or literal mons like muk or voltorb, but they used to be incredibly varied because there was no pattern or regional theme for design. Just cause it's a Hawaiian region doesn't mean the pokemon have to look tribal. Pokemon can look like anything.
I had realized the new designs dont look "pokemon" enough and I never new why
For someone who started playing pokemon at a young age, i can just agree. I know this may be off topic but it's not only the humanoid designs that bother me. It's also how much some things changed in general, like ash not traveling with two/three friends with camping and stuff. It's also that there is no evil organisation anymore like team plasma or team flare. I miss the old pokemon, it's not like i hate everything about the new pokemon, i could never fully hate it but it's just not how i imagined it to continue. (Also sorry for my bad english)
Great video. I grew up playing the early games as well. I have missed the aesthetics of the designs and you clearly laid out what was appealing about them. Looked more like monsters with defined edges instead of smooth round plush toys.
Thank you! I wish they’d just perfect the gameplay and mechanics instead of designing Pokémon for the sake of it. There’s no need for 1,000+ Pokémon especially when their designs just keep getting worse
They’ve practically designed ecosystems already. Yes, there are unique Pokémon to each region, but perhaps 50 new Pokémon per new mainstream game may suffice. If they’re going to churn out Pokémon games they might as well drop an obvious bloat.
Honestly I disagree a ton. I think it’s almost all nostalgia and people try and compare the best Pokémon from early generations to the worst from today. Many Pokémon from early generations wouldn’t be well liked if they came out today. Everyone says muk and krabby as boring examples, but I also think Pokémon like dragonite look a bit basic and people wouldn’t like it if it came out today. There are plenty of supercool Pokémon that came out in generation nine, like baxcalibur, amarouge and ceruledge, kingambit, and houndstone. People hated gen 5 Pokémon when they came out and then got used to them and only seem to remember the best. I think the main issue skewing everyone’s opinion is the starters. They have been weaker than usual (although I really liked rilaboom and quaquaval). Other than that I think there are plenty of unique and cool designs, with some bad ones mixed in as well
Pokemon really went from plant monsters to jet engines. That says it all.
Besides that, as a designer working in the industry myself, design is NOT subjective. If it’s subjective, it’s bad design. Art is subjective, design is tested and proven.
Its not? I mean to some extend youre right, you can Objecively criticise a desing if there is an Objective the Desing tries to achive, then your Subjetive opinion comes of how well its executed you need both to judge desing beside that desing is also art so idk what your on about
@@bartagame_3070 It’s not about objective criticism. It’s about objective design decisions and these you can easily prove by making user tests (just as an example, there is much more that you can do). The real question here is whether we see Pokémon as designed creatures or art. If the goal is to achieve a believable world filled with creatures that resemble but at the same time are completely different than the real animal kingdom, than objective design would be a good choice. If the goal is having a world filled with weird looking creatures, the weirder the better, than an art approach would make sense. So yes, you are right. It depends on what you want to achieve. (Personally) I would choose a design approach and test the design with focus groups and see the reaction. Let me say it like this, they didn’t need a Pokémon if the goal was to have a motorbike
Literally, they went from pokemon to whatever that thing is they dont even look alive anymore
Yeah the marketability is definitely more obvious problem; I still enjoy plenty of them but theres definitely a big difference from what used to be
I don't understand. Look at Gardevoir or gallant; how are they any different than these new bipedals? Gardevoir is like one of the most beloved(!) pokemon to exist.
I am so glad Skeledirge came out similar to what I hoped
The idea of a magician cat grass type is really cool... The problem is, the design is so basic. Like, imagine if Meowscarada was on wooden stilted boots, like a play on Puss in Boots. Or if it had a big bowtie of flowers. Super colorful with a cape of ferns.
Instead, it just looks so... basic. Solid colors, lukewarm textures. Nothing exciting about it.
4:40 I thought Palafin was based off of Clark Kent running to a phone booth and coming out as Superman
as someone who has made a point of studying character designs, I'd say the main problem is that the artists making these Pokémon have gotten worse at balancing the humanoid characteristics with the animal characteristics. For instance, take inteleon vs Decidueye. Both are Pokémon with human like features or themes, but decidueye still looks like an owl, so we read it as an owl with humanoid features. Inteleon is the other way around. We read it as a human with lizard features, which doesn't look right to us.
Another important factor is poor visual communication. Meowscarada is called "the magician pokemon" and takes inspiration from both magicians and carnival outfits (best seen in its face mask). But when you look at it, you don't think "It looks kinda like a magician!" or "it's wearing a carnival outfit!", you think "that's a weird looking cat". Even in pokemon that are meant to be animalistic, you can still pick up on the themes of the pokemon through the design
meowscarada actually looked cool and not as much a furry.
4:39 Palafin is more based on superman and the trope of a superhero blending in with society until there is a threat and they secretly change into their superhero uniform
I'm just going to be blunt, modern Pokemon fall into 1 of 3 categories:
1. Bipedal humanoid furry bait that rivals Gardevoir
2. An animal that is a 1-to-1 ripoff of an IRL species
3. An animal made of random shapes that looks like the amalgamation of every drawing in a 6 year old's art book
Game Freak is too lazy to think any further outside the box, and the result is no consistency with any Pokemon in these modern generations. As one of the comments pointed out, Pokemon from older gens were very easy to recognise as being the type(s) they were, like Empoleon is clearly a Steel/Water metal penguin, Infernape is clearly a Fire/Fighting monkey, and Torterra is clearly a Grass/Ground land turtle. But tbh starter Pokemon have always suffered from the 2-2-4 syndrome, of 2 bipedal final evolutions, and a single quadrapedral final evolution. Now the issue is these bipedal 'mons look indistinguishable from Digimon. Like I saw Meowscarade and my first thought was "Isn't this just a hot fan-made Digimon?".
Other 'mons aren't exempt from this. The moment I saw the box art legendaries all I could think of was Digimon, not Pokemon. Flashback to gens 1-6, where the legendaries were very clearly Pokemon, and not Digimon.
Idk I just really dislike how Game Freak is handling the mainstream Pokemon games. Even excusing how they release unfinished products and cuck their consumerbase, their approved Pokemon designs just aren't up to par anymore. Sure, there are the occasional hits that actually look good like...uhhh...I guess Dragapult? Idk nothing really sticks out to me.
Ik that the 3d models aren't the problem, as past 3d games handled them just fine. It's the fact that Game Freak refuses to put in the extra effort into developing each Pokemon's soul and emotions. I can live with crappy move effects, but at the very least I want to see each Pokemon have idle animations filled with flavour, and to actually see them perform the action of the move they are told to do (e.g. A bite move they actually perform a bite action on/towards the opponent).
Again, ik a lot of people call this argument flawed, however, Battle Revolution handled move animations perfectly fine with 3d models 16 years ago, I don't see any applicable excuse for modern Pokemon games on a stronger console to not be able to at least rival a 16 year old game.
GF promised they would invest into improving animations to make up for the Dex cut, but they didn't do anything because people bought the game anyways. Annnnd now we have Scarlet and Violet where animations are not only still shit, they're also bugged lmao.
tl;dr: Originality is gone and we're just playing Digimon 0.5, because every game is an unfinished mess