Pokemon's Worrying Art Design (Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Rant)

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My biggest issues with SV's MCs is that they don't look like the protagonists, they look like the standard NPC trainers you run across during your adventure and that's an issue. They look generic, not necessarily bad, but unmemorable which is something no other protagonist has a problem with. I don't want to be too harsh on the game, but if the professor/gym leaders/ other important characters are just as boring we're gonna have some problems

honestly my only issue with art direction is how lifeless the 3D models are in comparison to the older 3D models and Gen 5's 2D sprites. Of course I understand that we have 1000 pokemon now, but still, when the pokemon models have less personality than Battle Revolution and the Stadium games, I can't help but feel unimpressed.

I’m more worried about the art style of the humans than I am about the pokémon. Not only are their realistic designs feeling too uncanny, but they clash too much with the cartoony style of the pokémon’s designs

I liked how at least to me in Gen 1-5 it seemed like the MCs were looking older with each generation, not by much but it looked like they were growing with me, but as they go backwards I get the feeling that it’s telling the old guard to hand the torch and leave rather than find a mix that could fit all age groups.

As much as I love Greninja and the Alola Starters, I do think it’d be nice to have more beastial designs for once. Heck imagine three starters with varying design styles. One is styled after a Gen 1 Pokemon, another is modern styled, and the last is a mix of both like it start out looking like it was from Gen 1, the middle stage is transitional before the final stage looks as if it was the evolution of a Pokemon from Gen 1 introduced in Gen 4.

I'm so tired of "oh they'll just be customizable!" no bro. They will literally use these characters for other things without customization, like the Manga, official art, and maybe even the anime etc. It's not an excuse to make boring characters because they will still use the base designs for other things

Actually…I’m not worried about the artstyle and design in terms of Pokémon games that are already released. That’s one of the things I argue has always been consistently well done. The humans and Pokémon look like they fit in the world they’re apart of. Scarlet and Violet’s humans worry me though, they look like puppets and don’t match the Pokémon anymore.

I don’t mind the modern designs though some of them ending up anthropomorphic in their final evolutions like Incineroar did feel odd, some of them are better off remaining beastal instead of just switching it up at the second or last transformation.

A great art direction can really hide dated or lower quality graphics. This is why games like Half life 2 & Bioshock still look great today, even though they are each more than 10 years old.

The big problem with SV's trainers that they look really generic. They remind me a lot of the generic school children from the tutorial school of gen 7. I don't think the eyes are as big a problem as some might make it out to be, but I think the outfits are a big issue. In all the other games in the franchise (I'll even stand by sword and shield with this argument) the trainers looked the part for a protagonist. You could look at them and confidently say "yeah this looks like a main character". I find that a lot harder for this game, unless all the npcs for SV are somehow even more boring looking. Tldr: their fits are ass

Yeah I agree the Scarlet Violet main characters look boring. Honestly for Pokémon I love the more complex and cool designs, I really dislike simplicity in terms of design. And I really like the previous gen gym leaders designs the ones in Sun and Moon, and Sword and Shield are my favorite. I love it when they add the elements of the types they fight with in their designs. Like the grass trainers wearing earthy clothes and flowers, and the dark gym leaders wearing edgy stuff for example. I just wished the normal trainers were more stylized like that instead of just plain boring people. To me I want Pokémon to become more stylized both for the Pokémon and the human trainer designs. Sure not every show or game had to be stylized, but since Pokémon is supposed to be a fantastic world full of wonderful creatures, I think it would benefit from more crazy, colorful, and stylized designs. But that’s just me :p

Ballonlea really is a prime example of the type of fantastical places I want to see in the Pokémon world.

The fact that you'd say you "think" you know what you're talking about, despite having a degree in art design, rather than flat out saying you "know" what you're talking about, makes you a very likeable guy if you're this modest. Deep respect man.

I’d be more concerned for the TONE Pokémon has had with its writing rather than the artstyle, I feel the artstyle is more so a symptom of the tone the series’ chooses to take which is to be extremely naive and childish with how it chooses to present morality and responsibility

The world design is a bit of an odd point, as the first two generations didn’t really have any particularly unique areas, Gen III did, then Gen IV went back to having fairly grounded area design before Gen V onwards started to have really unique and interesting locations a lot more often. The Pokémon design has been consistently pretty good, barring a couple of weird decisions every now and then. The human design I completely agree with this video on. It’s not brought up that often due to the focus of the series being on the eponymous beings, but Pokémon has really good designs for the humans as well as the Pokémon, so when you get a basic, dull design like the ones we got for the protagonists, it stands out, and not in a good way. Edit: I forgot about some places in the first two generations; my point about the world design becoming more interesting in Gen III still stands, but I was incorrect about the world design of the first two generations.

Game Design: I have noticed that the routes feel a bit more...boring since Gen 6. Routes or Wild Area...IDK there is something lacking to them. It wasn't as bad to me at first as I feel like Alola cities and 'dungeons' like Poni Canyon, Verdant Jungle, and Ultra Space had more depth to them to balance it out, but I feel like Galar was a low point. It had some good stuff, but not nearly as much. I feel like the Pokemon designs in Gen 8 were different but...honestly a lot of them grew on me. The one exception is probably the starters. For some reason they never really sat well with me, and I loved Gen 7's designs for starters. But the G8 and 9 starters....hard to say really. I feel like the changed in approach was also there in the Galar gen mons, but I don't have problems with stuff like Corviknight, Dreadnaw, Falinks, Grapploct, Duraladon, etc. Just the starters..... Humans....okay can we agree that the male protagonists have become unsettling generic in recent years. Like I've heard it argued that the girls are meant to be more distinct and the guys are supposed to follow the 'Kirito/LN protag' philosophy of insertion ease, though G9 seems to have generified the gal too. IDK, maybe Gloria just got boosted by the Scottish Trainer Meme. I feel like the supporting cast has generally stayed pretty good and they do seem up for playing with their ideas more (with Bea and Melony being pretty different from most lady designs). IDK, when we see more of Scarlet and Violet we'll have to see. ....Though GF deciding to be a lot more slow to roll out news after SM is a bad change IMO. I swear, I liked the barrage of info we got about SM, am I the only one?

Pokémon; fosters furry 34 Pokémon 6 years later; We can make a religion out of this-

I understand the human design point. They have definitely gone more realistic design wise. I would love some more distinct characters. Or heck. Even some more customization so we can change the eyes and stuff. Weed cat is definitely my gen 9 starter choice for now. I need to see the final evos before I decide.

I like Cinderace's design, my only gripe is the paw prints on the feet. Rabbits do not have paw prints like Cats and Dogs do. So many shows and games get this wrong.