Ya know, Don't leave a like, don't leave a comment, and don't subscribe.

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'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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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'm more concerned with what buffoonery they're going to implement to replace Dynamax. Like, what's next? Giving Pokemon battle armor or pulling a trick from Yugioh's Union monsters? WAIT, NO, DON'T PUT THAT IN!

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?

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.

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 still have to say that i wish theyd stop making every starter into furrybait. It does feel like every starter now has very humanoid evolutions.

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.

“I can’t see a goofy Incineroar” Really? Did people not pay attention to his Pokédex entries? They talk about how he’s really good with children. He’s called the heel Pokémon, that’s not because he’s evil it’s because he’s a wrestler and he likes to act tough. So the idea of him protecting a group of Pichu not only makes sense I would actually like to see something like that. (this is not meant as me arguing with Manga Koman just me stating my confusion is there are actually people that think that sort of thing.)

I honestly miss the pixel age of Pokémon we’re it Felt more like actual RPG and more alive.🐱

My issue isn’t the Pokémon design, it’s the character design being to “kiddie” & the environment design being to dull & uninspired

I feel like the issue for some is specifically how the starters get this character treatment. So many pokemon through the franchise have had loads of injected personality, but few people really care cause even if you don't like them you don't have to interact with them, let alone use them. Starters are essentially the only type of pokemon your pushed to take, and naturally would have the greatest potential for individuality from the player. So to have this sort of take it or leave it with them rather than a basic almost unrelated difference like type can feel very disconnecting, even if there's still room to create an individual personality. Not that I'm fully on board with this take, just want to give a different perspective. That being said, I think the biggest issue is how many starters recently just change completely with little cohesion, it just makes the player feel cheated.

I always hated the "it looks so unnatural, why would that exist in the wild? It's based on human ideas" to pokemon like Inteleon and Cinderace, but I think people are thinking about it backwards. We're ASSUMING that humans came up with these ideas first. It's just as, if not more likely, that in their world human ideas were inspired by pokemon first. Like, what if humans came up with martial arts by observing fighting types? Or creating soccer based off the behavior of Cinderace? Or came up with ninjas and spies because of Inteleon and Greninja? If you think about it that way it helps pokemon integrate into their world better and gives more context to their existence. That's my take on it, anyway.

My theory with the trainer's generic looking design is that they're going to be customisable from the start. As in, we'll be able to choose hair, skin and eye colour independent of each other. It's a stretch, bit it's cool to think about.

I'm glad you're not the kind of people that confuses map design with world design. There were people that call Unova's world design bad because they see its map design as a circle.

thank you. finally someone gets it. Really tired of people acting like animalistic designs are the only way to go and anything else is a bad design. Just because a design or Pokemon becomes Bipedal or anthro doesn't make it bad or ruined. And that 'personality' argument is just... people do realize that the anime shows that Pokemon can have different personalities that aren't linked to what their designs are, right? I guess not

It is kinda weird that the Pokemon are being made such that they're getting more unique traits just added to their designs while the human characters seem to be going in the opposite direction. But a lot of it is just that the art staff is different and even if a team is really good at emulating a specific artist's style and their job is to keep a visually consistent franchise they will naturally evolve in their own ways. The whole idea that "I can't imagine this as a species in the wild" seems to ignore how surreal it is that every single Cubone in existence has a dead mother and chose to wear her skull.

Round eyes is usually a sign of Baby Face, a characteristic that already make characters and people look younger. So obal eyes mark more a mature age, with sharp expresion denoting adulthood. As time pases i am also drown more toward mature characters (20+) than teen, or even kids. This also has a lot to do with theme, is a characters is a Kid there would be several theme or events that would not be adress or downright ignore. A good example of it can be the regular anime teen visual novel when compare to a more mature protagonist like is Jill from Valhalla. Not to mention how japanese media has a set of guidelenes for series aim to kids that havent reach pre-teen mentality in that is very simplistic and dumbed down, what people call the "Disney" design that aim to keep the "purity and innocence" of childhood.

I don’t mind furry type Pokémon a monster can really be anything plus most humanoid Pokémon are around humans a lot

Considering Sw/Sh whole plot was reviving an ancient Pokémon because... We need.. More.. Power? I'd say the world building is absolutely flawed. Like as far as plots go your villains ultimate plan shouldn't involve a power shortage for an overgrown society we never see.

I look people strange when they say GF made Pokémon to humanoid while the Machamp line, the Hitmons, the Alakazam line and others exist.

I think one of the conflating problems with main character designs now is that they're made to be customizable, not to be recognizable. Mainline Pokemon games haven't had a true protagonist in that sense since Sun and Moon

Thank you, someone who agrees that the pokemon designs don't have to be regular animals. They are monsters if they were just a normal animal with elemental powers it wouldn't be all that interesting.

Honestly, I just want Catnip to remain quadrupedal for once. It’d be really cool if they left ‘em on all fours for once like a angry photosynthetic Iberian Lynx. Quadruped to Biped is done a little to much nowadays. Ducktales is a duck, as long as it’s at least cool I’ll be chill. I stg tho, if Amongus, despite being called a fire croc, ends up being called a gator later on I will scream. I already want to have a chat with the translator who did the Totodile line’s names. I swear I just want to talk. The humans’ in game models ping the uncanny valley just a tad too far on the “No.” side.

You know it’s gotten to the point where I have to decide on which starter turns out to look least human. Gens 1-5 it was genuinely much more difficult choosing between starters.

6:55 uM, aCtUaLlY Animal "Alphas" don't actually exist in the wild. In fact, the guy who coined the term hated it as he mistook a father of a pack of wolves as a "Alpha".

It's weird for me with starters. In terms of the trio as a whole, my favourite has to be gen 3 followed by gen 4.....and then 7. They feel so different from one another but for some reason I consider all 9 of these choices equally valid in their respective regions even if I have my favourites (Blaziken, Infernape and Primarina for anyone wondering). Maybe it's just cause I never really interested in the "enviornment arguement" and just based it off if I thought the design was cool or if it had interesting design origins. I'm not saying wanting creature focused designs in your starters is bad, it's just not what I personally first look for.

I honestly miss the days when Pokemon were treated like animals. When Pokedex entries for Pokemon like Spearow or Pidgeotto would state that they straight up killed and ate other Pokemon like Caterpie or Magikarp. I feel like as Pokemon has started to stray father and farther away from the fact Pokemon are just that world's form of animals, it's led to the "sanitized" feel modern Pokemon has. Every now and again we get a Pokemon like Mareanie that feels like a classic style of Pokemon where it actually eats Corsolla, or we get Cursolla which references dead coral reefs. But now it feels like so many entries are just anthropomorphisizing Pokemon instead of mirroring animals and how they behave in our world. A Pokemon like Magnemite does have that artificial design people like to point out to Gen Wunners for stupid Pokemon designs, but they gave it behaviors that made it seem like an animal. The fact they gather in areas with abundant electricity and consume said electricity made it feel natural within the Pokemon world plus their large numbers causing them to link and become Magneton and having it appear in the power plant in Gen 1 helped ground it in the player's head, pun not intended. Considering what served as inspiration for Pokemon, it has felt the series has strayed from what it once was in my opinion. A game that was meant to inspire people to go out and interact to trade Pokemon and be inspired learn about wildlife and our world, much like the creator did when he went bug collecting as a child. I miss when Pokemon was more "naturalist" for lack of a better word.

I miss the old cyber aesthetic of gens 1 and 2. We we entering a new millennia and played these tough kids who didn't grow up with smartphones or cushy quality of life devices. They were salt of the earth kids who said you smelled or beat you up outside of the professor's lab.

Well until the Pokémon games stop being made for kids, the dream of a older protag is a pipe dream.

I’d like more beastial starter Pokémon like it’s fine to have some more humanoid starters but we’ve basically been getting mostly humanoid

See, Totally not mark? That’s how you make an actual argument about Pokémon’s designs.

13:59 I see in their expressions and body language a sort of dichotomy between gloomy and serious for the boy and cheerful and easygoing for the girl. The boy is scowling and tightening his tie while his posture seems stiff and rigid. The girl just has this cheerful and relaxed expression and pose.

After the new trailer ......Yes, I am extremely worried about the character design of the human characters. I loved the character designs of Sword and Shield, the humans had a really good art style and some really good designs (Marnie, Bede, Sonia, Leon etc, those were great character designs that are easily recognizable) but these new games ..... OUCH

Your video helped me to realize what bothers me in later generations. It's the geometric designs. Most of the latter designs are made up of maybe 10-20 geometric shapes.

I honestly don't mind the modern Pokemon designs but I do wish we had an young adult protagonist , dealing with somewhat adult choices or issues in a more serious tone than the let's go on an adventure until we learn about something sinister is happening and we gotta stop it, I wanna be able to start going on Adventure achieving one goal to stop a villain or a Pokemon god

I was first exposed to the new protagonist designs through this video. wtf are they thinking? between boys and girls there was always a design deviation . but this... you slapped some bland clothes on the same character. barely differentiating the gender with their hair... they're so boring looking it's insane.

The lighting... its the lighting. They did this well in all of the previous 3D Pokemon games, where all of the models have a more cartoonish, bright, kind of cel-shaded look that fits well with the design of the models. I think they even did this well in Sword and Shield. But in Legends: Arceus, and seemingly in Scarlet and Violet as well, they kept the more cartoonish models, but then made the lighting more moody and realistic, which just completely ruins the vibe of the games in my opinion.

In Defense of repeating animal motives, I'll wanna ask... What if someone wants to build a Team themed after a specific animal?

You can have objectively bad designs and objectively good designs, it's all about what the design is intended to do. Rather then go the usual route and say the Mercs from TF2, I'm gonna go with the Necromorphs from Dead Space. Each one has a unique silhouette that even in low light environments (which there are a lot of) you will know instantly just what's skulking about in the darkness. Add to that great sound design and you can first HEAR then SEE what each space zombie is and never confuse the two. In contrast, the standard design for a CoD enemy is so bland and by the numbers that you'd be hard pressed to differentiate 1 type of enemy from another until they start shooting at you. This constant garbage of subjectivity in art denies the fact that you can indeed have objective markers for skill and talent, and a bad design is something even a non-artist can spot in the same way a person can pick out a bad chair without having to be a carpenter.

I just want to be a grown ass man in Pokemon who is able to throws hands with Pokemon.

I really need to get this off my chest. First my credibility, i have done game design courses, character and world design courses for animation and games aswell as a animation and modeling course. This entire video has so many problems i don't know where to start but i guess ill start with the easiest. The reason the newer main character designs are getting simpler is because they're customizable. They no longer need to be a character but more a canvas for you to project yourself onto, it is YOUR journey. The more complex or unique the design the harder they would be to customize and project onto. The newer character designs are trying to keep up with modern styles. Design philosophy and Character design are completely different. They're updating their art style to keep up with modernization. A very important part of modern game design and game theme. Notice the professors designs and rivals in relation to the world we know we will be in. Next the humanlike pokemon designs. I see both sides of this argument but i ultimately sit on the anti-human design side because of a few reasons. 1) I do not like the idea of domesticating a more human like creature than a wild beast. 2) Why are they in the wild if they are more like us? 3) Theyre meant to be creatures yet we have pokemon like Gardevoir, Machamp and inceneroar that really blur that line. Where is the line then? Finally personality design. For main characters i have covered. For pokemon its because they want YOU to think of how YOUR pokemon would behave as YOUR partners. If a pokemon was designed as a very angry one the amount of people who could like it decrease like Primeape and the likes. To summerize what you are asking for is a bland pokemon game where EVERYTHING is what someone makes it and how it impacts this random character and not how YOU embrace this world and effect it in how YOU play. No offense but to say you have proffesionality of this area and yet miss SOO much is disappointing.

It feels like the character designs have become "safer" in a way, like in lets go, both the mobile game and the red/blue remakes. The protagonists have an incredibly generic look to them to grab as wide a net as possible for potential players.

I just want to say thank you so much for tearing down the criticisms that people have today about modern starter designs. The arguments against the critisisms that you brought up are some that I've been saying for a long time but they get brushed to the side just because people don't like a design, or think it doesn't feel natural. It's fine if you don't like the designs, but to say that they don't feel natural in a world of mythical creatures where anything is possible is just plain wrong.

I swear, the amount of times I've had to cover Incineroar and Inteleon's backs just because people never shut up about "nOt BeInG aBlE tO sEe ThEm In ThE wIlD" is GODDAMN LUDICROUS. There are more settings and environments that influence the way a pokémon looks that aren't _(Insert generic forest background)_ guys, c'mon!

I think when it comes to the playable characters having little to no personality, it think it’s intentional. Pokémon has kinda been moving away from the idea of playing as other character (like how red is basically his own character) and moving towards the idea that the character is you. Which is why they designs are pretty basic or boring probably

5:59 Bard - Magical 6:00 Chef - Magical Just because they're support roles doesn't make them magical. I mean Ignis can use magic but Chef isn't his class, it's his hobby. His class is a Red Mage-style Crownsguard (complete with the classic Red Mage dagger wielding combined with a variation on FFXI's weapon elementization spells that can only be used on Noctis' weapons for some reason).

I figured the protagonists design have gotten more simplistic because of how much of a factor character customization has became. Why go over the top with a design if players are gonna change it anyway? I kept the default design in sword and shield because I didn’t find most of the customization options to be that appealing and I felt the default had some uniqueness to them. However with these new designs they just look dull and generic so maybe they’re trying to encourage character customization because they have a wider variety of options?

I really like croc 2, he's basically the nephew/mini version of burning Godzilla and I wish we can get more Kaiju/Tokusatsu-like Pokémon from gamefreak and Nintendo

Well this is purely my opinion, but I don't like personality centrated starter designs at all. It has to do with the impression the design gives me and the fact that it is my starter. For example if I have sobble and it will evolve into Intellion, Intellion will always have its "Sly Spy" motive. In game with its animations idles etc. It doesnt really or much feel like "my starter" if it makes sense. In contrast if I have a Blastoise, it's design is pretty much "Turtle with Cannons". And as a starter I can imagine my jounrey with it more persoinal and my imagination can make up the blanks together. I can imagine it to be any kind of blastoise This is why I don't mind gen 6 final evolutions too much, since they represent RPG classes, but these classes can be still representedted in a broad personality spectrum and their designs don't have an "overwhelming personality" in my opinion Kinda like in the 2d era the stylized sprites and animations let your fantasy fill out the blanks in contrast to where in the 3d era animations sometimes are less than underwhelming As I said this is just how I feel about pokemon Designs, and why I prefer animalistic designs

It makes sense that the Pokémon become more human-like; they're being trained by humans, so the Pokémon evolve to be more like their masters! At least, that's how I like to think of it.

*me enjoying later designs* Eh, 🤷‍♂️ I like cinderace but that's also for my love of futbol

Oh thank goodness! I thought I was alone in being put off by Scarlet and Violet's human designs! They honestly look uncanny and REALLY out of place compared to the Pokemon. The 'realistic' designs also make every human character look like a generic NPC. No one really stands out. Even Leon from Sword and Shield, as goofy as he looks, is memorable at least!

Your skull clip mimicking your expressions is just *chef's kiss*. I love it and it shows so much effort and thought.

My fav by far is Fuecoco, I like the idea of having a fire croc, like we had a water croc in Gen 2

I am also in the field of liking the more mature looks. Hosnetly I think it makes our characters look much better to be honset. Also team weed cat

Thank you for this! You brought up so many things about design that most Pokémon fans often ignore. Different artists over time, taking advantage of new technology/past technological restraints, How Pokemon shouldn’t just be limited to animals, etc. i personally like how gamefreak is taking advantage of newer technology for different designs. Media Taking advantage of new tech is nothing new. There’s even a case that goes back to 1939, where the movie adaptation of “The wizard of oz” changed the Silver Slippers to Ruby slippers to take advantage of technicolor tv, which was new at the time. Even though I heard that the Scar/Vi pro tags are supposed to be reminiscent of Red’s original “younger” look in Pokémon red and blue, I don’t think it works with the new art style. Also there’s just something about the characters realistic looking hair that bugs me (especially some of the gym leaders) I think maybe it’s because it makes their in-game models to detached from their character artwork.

My main problem with the art is... it looks ugly af. I remember being a kid, watching the show and imagining what I saw in TV being in my pokemon leaf green. Discovering places and new pokemon was a joy for me. I LOVED exploring the world. But in these recent games that changed. I don't care about graphics being realistic or not, I care about a magical world dragging me to explore it by my own desire. And please, please, please can we get rid of the need to have big bad guys? Pokemon has always been about the fun of the adventure. Going through sword and shield as a pokemon star, beating oversized but still cool gyms in a big tournament was an idea I really liked. Would it be so bad to make it so the "baddie" was just someone trying to cheat people out of the competition and have them learn the fun of doing it the right way with you? Not every game needs to be about saving the world.

"Digimon, digital pocket monsters. Digimon are the Pokemon". Now tell me I'm wrong.

It’s crazy how colloseum And Xd gales of darkness still washes 3d pokemon to this day, the set pieces in those games looked amazing, dynamic battle movement and interesting looking moves, different arenas and locals with crazy memorable music

Personally I've though pokemon has always had really good character designs for the NPCs, trainers, Gym leaders, and other human characters throughout the series, much better than most series. I think that's the reason is that if they're even slightly worse it does stand out since the pokemon games have had such good designs for each of its characters so everyone of them stands out and is easily recognizable. Unlike many other RPGs where character designs could be swapped between games, Pokemon character designs stand out and won't fit in other games

I think the hisuian Pokémon were such a good step in right direction into a nice mix of newer style and the classical style, Pokémon like hisuian samurott, zoroark and kleavor look like they jump straight out of gen 1 while keeping the newer design conventions

if Sword and Shield did one single thing to impress me - it was actually having a whole cast of human characters that were wonderfully designed and memorable. Every single one. Even if their story or personality-writing fell flat - sheer design language pulled the brunt of what their concept is going for SUPER effectively. What was the last Pokemon game that had such a strong cast of characters? Maybe Sun/Moon...? I hope the next gen of games continues to have high quality human designs. I have my ups and downs with pokemon designs - I wasn't impressed by many of Galars, but I also wasn't impressed by many of Sinnohs - but overall I think Pokemon design quality has remained steady good across every game. :)

Nintendo and gamefreak don't care about any of this sadly. They design their games with 6-10 year old children in mind, they have zero reason to improve their art design. They just need cute Pokemon and easy gameplay. They prioritize making these games as cheaply as possible, they don't want to spend money on development. Why bother when people will buy this crap no matter what?

Oh no the game made for literal children has child protagonist. Can't wait for the pokemon game where you investigate the brutal murder of the champion while struggling with your alcoholism you developped over your divorce.

Kind of, I don't dislike modern designs, and I do agree that some of the oldest weren't perfect either, yet I'm afraid that they'll get more furry bait and basic cute mons instead of investing in the more animalistic kind.

I don't know why but I'm just so put off by the MCs of Scarlet and Violet. They just look too normal to be in the Pokemon world if that makes sense. I feel like you hit the nail on the head when it came to them looking like characters from a Pokemon spin-off. Maybe it's too early of a reaction but I'm definitely worried about the important NPC designs in the next generation. Also, Donald Duck is the best gen 9 starter.

I personally don't care if a Starter Pokemon humanoid or beastial. As along as they look cool, and have some theme/inspiration, then I don't mind at all. I personally love Incineroar and it's my favorite Pokemon. Also Quaxly is my favorite Gen 9 Starter.

Personally I disagree with the take about personality vs beastly nature of Pokémon. While quantifying the line is hard. I feel that in the end Pokémon are supposed to be more like animals and they really shouldn’t have to much personification aspects to there design and features. While the “I can see them in the wild” test is flawed I think it’s a perfectly reasonable test to gather why some Pokémon feel to human for some people. Personally I understand that a Pokémon like Incineroar can be goofy but the way it’s designed in the games force too much of what game freak wants it to be like rather then building the connection from the player. Incinceroar feels more like a character rather then a pocket monster. I feel that Pokémon has lost some of that balance over the years especially with the starters.

Okay I'm alright with the more furry like pokemon but I do feel like gamefreak/the game designers should step away from it since there are now so much furry bait. I genuinely hope the new gen starters arent that anthropomorphic but I wont complain if they are. Cinderace looks too small to be a final evolution to me and I kinda feel sprigatito has too much green and looks a little too feminine when the o in spanish refers to masculine things

Alpha as a concept doesn’t really exist. But a pride like structure does, so call em prides lol.

I think the reason for the more generic protagonist design is character customization. They're giving you a blank slate, because you're going to personalize it so it is recognizable as you, and not the character.

Honestly I think the gen 5 starters fit the perfect balance of job and animal while taking on classes and personalities they don’t just take a human body shape. Samurott is my favourite and people criticize it not being bipedal but I think it’s that it’s strongest quality as it preserves it inspirations while having that certain animalistic ruggedness to it.

Im my own master now

I think something really interesting about Pokémon is that it’s going through this botwification. Where alot of rpg games are taking major inspiration from botw. Meaning you’re seeing a lot of games coming out where you’re walking through realistic open world environments and Idunno that’s kinda boring. It worked for that game because there was alot to see and do, and all Pokémon has going for it is Pokémon.

which game will you choose? cougar professor version or gigachad professor version? I'll go with gigachad myself

I'm going to give this to you, the human characters do have a bit of an odder feel for Scarlet and Violet, but I think that might partially be due to another team at Gamefreak working on these games while Legends were being worked on. Another factor I think could be at play is New Pokemon Snap. The designs look very reminiscent of those games in my opinion and I know a lot of people praised those games for their graphics and animations, so maybe they took that feedback and decided to experiment and see where people stood on it. Personally, after the new trailer, I'm still on the fence, but it is looking less weird to me. The thing I'm worried about is the clothing options. I hope this isn't like Sun and Moon where I can only choose warm colors in Scarlet and cool colors in Violet. Or worse, Orange only in Scarlet and Purple only in Violet. I'm worried we won't be able to really customize our characters to be unique and distinguished. Another worry I see after the newest trailer is how these new designs will translate over from their official art to the game. Like specifically referring to Lechonk and Fuecoco. Lechonk's ears look more folded in on its 3D model while they look bigger in its official art. Or Fuecoco has a head and body separation in its model and not in its official art. I know the 3D models are going to look different compared to the official art, but like these are kind of big noticeable differences between them and it kind of makes me wonder what the real point of the official art is if it doesn't depict the in game design accurately.

i would kill to just be playing a 16 - 19+ year old trainer who seem to have experiance the world then a 10 year old who manage to capture a god with a magic ball.

MangaKamen's worrying Rants

they at least still have the usual design in the official artworks but in scarlet and violet they everyone looks too different

The new protagonists are missing the "cool factor" that was present in the protagonists from the first five gens or so. Those protags looked just as determined as their starters, which made for a great formula in the game's storytelling. Now they're just blank slates for customization. On another note, the two professors for Scarlet/Violet look really cool. I believe the game would be much better if they were the protagonists instead.

I miss my starters being monsters instead of being anthropomorphic bait

I think the art style, as well as its philosophy, changing from gen 1 up to now gen 9 is something i don't see in discussed with much nuance. I mostly refer to the human characters but this could also apply to pokemon, though it's human design vs monster design thing. I started with pokemon emerald just before the gen 4 DPP era, So i prefer mostly the designs and artwork associated from gen 3 and before, but I do love Dawn's, Lyra's, and Rosa's designs, and even some of the modern gym leader designs (Kabu being one of my favorites). Though, If you compare gen 9 SV's main character designs to the gen 1 design of Red (and Blue if you wanna extend it), you could argue that it's a school uniform vs a casual shirt-vest-jeans-cap design. They're both VERY simple. The difference how strong or boldly the personalities are displayed through that visual information, whether in pose, expression, or color, especially through the art style presented. They COULD make the school kid outfit work, much like how they made Red's outfit work, it just needs more visual work to stand out. However, if you wanna compare the school-kid clothing designs within pokemon, I honestly find that the SV mc designs are actually weaker than the school kid trainer classes in the other games. Granted it looks like a uniform in SV's case based on the location it's set in, but it doesn't mean you can't take liberties in the design and push it further than already done. Even comparing it to Lass trainer class, which is literally a school-uniform based female class, the Lass uniform stands out more design-wise. HGSS/X/Y/ORAS Lass designs look more mc than SV imo. You also bring up limitations and art working within the constraints of the systems (hence the more angular designs point you brought up in the section for the pokemon), which I can definitely see that interpretation (unless they confirmed it was that). I prefer to work in a simpler art style so I see it a bit more of a creative art decision that has to be translated into the game somehow. Limitations breed creativity. But now without that limitation it's like GF is too comfortable falling into current designs and trends and dialing it to 2 instead of cranking it to 11. Would like to see them have more slightly older pokemon trainers than the younger looking 10 year olds or at least the option for it. Something I find myself noticing about the older designs is that while they were classified as the age of 10, they had that tween/teen look to them since kids do grow. It's a vague way of displaying age visually where you can age with the designs for a time without having to change the way they look or think about "yeah they're 10" until you remember or read up on it. Whereas now you look at the designs and they're meant to look their age, marketing to the new and younger fans each generation. It's not a bad thing at all, since some designs are really nice, but considering the larger aging audience of pokemon I can see it as a deterrent. Those are just my two cents though. Gen 9 starters all look very cute. Can't wait to see them butchered like the way Chespin was to me. Edit: I fixed this post up maybe 5 times to just fix some weird wording adding a brief detail point or two

Saying 'THIS POKEMON HAS TO BE ANGRY ALL THE TIME BECAUSE LOOK IT'S GOT BIG EYEBROWS!! LOOK AT THE MEAN DESIGN!!!' is like saying 'EVERY SINGLE DOBERMAN IN THE WORLD IS AN ANGRY AGGRESSIVE DOG WHO'S NEVER HAPPY OR PLAYFUL BECAUSE LOOK HOW POINTY AND SCARY IT IS!!!!!' Some people are so ignorant lmao.

I feel like there's a thin line between "cool bipedal beast-like pokemon" and "guy in a fursuit"

I agree that there is nothing wrong with pokemon having a personality or human characteristics to them, but I think Inteleon is the best example on why this doesn't work for a lot of people, while I personally love them I feel they have so many human traits baked in the design like the way they walk and run, their still pose and their hands that make it feel more like a human in a suit rather than a pokemon