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What do you think about the aesthetic of Pokemon designs in each region/generation?

Gen 1: simple triangle eyes, curly tail\ears, catlike pointy ears, small unicorn-like horns, protruding knee pads. Simple designs, a lot of purple.

Gen 2: more rounded design, simple round and\or beady eyes, circular body parts, lots of brown and green

Gen 3: Toylike design (joints), basically gen 2 but more colorful and more weirder eyes

Gen 4: Rather round and chibified. (head bigger than body well theyre less chibified in the evos), small spikes that look like gen 1's small horns, beady eyes, lot of blue and purple

Gen 5: More complex and "edgy" design than usual

Gen 6: Round and chibified evolving to less chibified with big round eyes

Gen 7: Round shapes, chibified evolving to less chibified, and a bit odd looking
 
Gen 1: simple triangle eyes, curly tail\ears, catlike pointy ears, small unicorn-like horns, protruding knee pads. Simple designs, a lot of purple.

Gen 2: more rounded design, simple round and\or beady eyes, circular body parts, lots of brown and green

Gen 3: Toylike design (joints), basically gen 2 but more colorful and more weirder eyes

Gen 4: Rather round and chibified. (head bigger than body well theyre less chibified in the evos), small spikes that look like gen 1's small horns, beady eyes, lot of blue and purple

Gen 5: More complex and "edgy" design than usual

Gen 6: Round and chibified evolving to less chibified with big round eyes

Gen 7: Round shapes, chibified evolving to less chibified, and a bit odd looking

So which one do you like the most?
 
I find most of their design generic. I think that on a whole I like 3\4's type of Pokémon design the most. Colorful and varied.

Gen 2, 6, and 7 are like that, too, but with much less Pokémon and thus seem less varied.

But generally they kept the same aestethic?

"Gen 2" could also pass to be from as late as gen 5 or even 6\7.
"Gen 3" to me could be from gens 2, 4, 6, or 7. Maybe even 5.
"Gen 4" could also fit in any gen from 2 to 7
"Gen 5" could also fit in gen 4, 6, and 7, and maybe even 3 and 2.
"Gen 6" could also fit in any gen from 2 to 7
 
thinking about it, a lot of Gen I pokemon look very similar as each other, "everything being purple and/or dinosaurs" aside. almost every pokemon has another one extremely similar to it. Sometimes it kinda makes sense as version differences (Vulpix/Growlithe, Oddish/Belsprout) but other times it's, why are there two different unrelated strange yellow psychic humanoid creatures

gen 2 is more, cartoon-natural varied? like gen 1 had a narrower idea of pokemon and gen 2 was "what is outside of this idea"

gen 3 directly tries to take from specific colorful real life natural things, everything looks flashy and fresh and pleasant

gen 4 I find it harder to pinpoint... it's relatively small. it does have this "cool" 2000s feel to it, and also more pure fantasy-leaning than the other ones?

gen 5 was experimental and the designers went wild. they deliberately tried to make unusual weird things, looked back at previous ideas and subverted them.

gen 6 I find it even harder to really understand than 4. I can kinda see some common aesthetics to it, and in a way it does feel similar to 4 in the sense of trying to make something more "fantasy-like" if that makes sense, but I can't really see

gen 7 on the other hand is very much a return to gen 3, with gen 5's "do weird, creative unusual things" to it. everything is colorful and based on very specific natural and cultural things, but with ideas all over the place. (of course, the ultra beasts are designed with a different philosophy in mind than normal pokemon...)

of course, I like weird stuff, so it's obvious I dislike Gen I's simplicity... however, I think Gen VII has done the best balance? everything looks colorful and varied and unique, but with a sort of common thread among them?
 
  • Gen 1 had sort of an almost Akira Toriyama design quality to it, with point "Goku eyes" being commonplace on the tougher-looking Pokemon. They tried to make a lot of Pokemon look "cool
    " and "tough." Overall, I like it, but some of the designs have aged pretty poorly and look downright ugly now. That said, there were some bizarre designs that were at least creative, even if they weren't always good-looking.
  • Gen 2 tried way too hard to be cute and marketable. A lot of the designs, while not outright ugly like some Gen 1 designs, are a lot more simplistic and boring. There aren't many super-creative/bizarre concepts this time around, honestly, and that's not a good thing. That said, it introduced Scizor, the Pokemon that would remain my undisputed favorite until a certain isopod dethroned it.
  • Gen 3 was... Weird. I can kind of see why people started saying "these Pokemon don't look like Pokemon!" this generation, since the art shift was pretty drastic. You could even say that these designs were more toyetic, with artificial-looking designs that were begging to be made into plastic toys. There were a couple of concepts that reached the bizarreness of Gen 1, which was good, but overall it was weird. Not bad, just... Weird.
  • You know how I said Gen 2 designs were simplistic and boring? Gen 4 designs aren't. No, a lot of them are way too busy-looking, with random spikes and greeblies in odd places to try and look "cool." While I consider Gen 2 to be a low point design-wise, Gen 4 was the low point, with a lot of really ugly or bad Pokemon; the cross-generational evolutions were a real mixed bag, and Ambipom and Lickilicky are two of the absolute worst Pokemon designs ever. Still, there were some good designs in both the new Pokemon like Torterra and the cross-generational evos like Yanmega and Gliscor, but when Gen 4 designs were bad, they were bad.
  • Gen 5 is where they learned from their mistakes with the last couple of generations, IMO. They started using artificial anatomy with random greeblies in less places, tending to use it where it made sense, like on Pawniard and Bisharp. A lot of the designs were more creative or otherwise better-designed takes on old concepts; Diglett and Dugtrio pale in comparison to Drilbur and Excadrill, for example. Honestly, I don't really get why so many people hate the designs from this Gen; this Gen feels like the one where they finally got it right, aside from the elemental monkeys and Patrat/Watchog. But still, eight bad designs out of 156 new designs is honestly one of the best track records any generation has had so far. Plus, it was the generation where Game Freak finally decided to do right by my beloved Bug type, introducing a slew of pretty solid Bugs; Galvantula, Scolipede and Volcarona are definitely the stand-outs of this generation's Bug-types. Between Golett/Golurk, Drilbur/Excadrill, Haxorus, Hydreigon, Pawniard/Bisharp, Braviary, Chandelure, Stunfisk, Eelektross, Dwebble/Crustle, Joltik/Galvantula, Larvesta/Volcarona, Venipede/Whirlipede/Scolipede, Trubbish/Garbodor, Scraggy/Scrafty and Vullaby/Mandibuzz, a huge chunk of my personal favorites come from this generation.
  • Gen 6 is to Gen 5 as Gen 2 is to Gen 1... Actually, that's a bit too harsh on Gen 6's designs. Still, many of the designs felt like they were cutesier than Gen 5, honestly, but that may be due to the emphasis on the new Fairy-type. That said, the designs were at least interestingly cute, even if it never reached the bizarre creativeness of Gen 5. Mega Evolutions... Let's just say that all the problems Gen 4 designs had with having random greebly bits put on them in random places was made worse for some Megas. Others ended up pretty good, admittedly. Gen 6 designs were good overall (aside from the scattershot quality of Mega Evolutions), but the whole generation felt like they took two steps back from Gen 5's risk-taking. Also, only one new Bug-type line, and it's a Butterfree clone to boot? Seriously?
  • Gen 7 felt like a return to form. While not quite as good as Gen 5, most of the designs were really colorful and fit the tropical motif of Alola extremely well. Then there's the Ultra Beasts, who are bizarre and freaky and completely unlike anything we've seen before and I love them so, so much. Also, this generation has the prestigious honor of introducing what's currently my all-time favorite Pokemon, Golisopod.
 
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Gen 1: Digimon
Gen 2: Tamagotchi

...In all seriousness, though, lots of Gen 1 Pokémon were based on science, such as...
  • A couple of PokéBalls.
  • Literal digital monster.
  • Genetic engineering.
...While a lot of Gen 2 Pokémon are based on tradition, such as...
  • Totem pole bird.
  • Forest spirit.
  • Chinese phoenix.
While Porygon and Porygon2 are perfect examples of Pokémon designs becoming more rounded over time, the latter is an outlier in its generation because it and Unown are the only inorganic-themed Pokémon introduced in Gen 2.
 
Gen 1: Loads of cool monsters and weird monsters, very few changes between evolutions, brown.
Gen 2: A few cool monsters and loads of cute monsters. Multicolored creatures, simple faces, smart concepts, evolutions are either logical or illogical.
Gen 3: Similar to G2 but with watered-down colors, extra details, emotion-less faces.
Gen 4: Blue, purple, blue, and purple. Many edgy beasts, and overstuffed evolutions, but also simple and unremarkable mons.
Gen 5: Dark colors, contrast between natural and artificial inspirations, 3-stage families that somehow made sense, failed attempts to recreate Gen 1's simplicity, and many edgyness leftovers from Gen 4. There's something for everyone...
Gen 6: The good kind of complexity that takes advantage of the 3D models with new colors, a few leftovers from Gen 5.
Megas: The Pokemon's concept turned up to 11, most of time forcing it to fit the new design standards.
Gen 7: Cute beast that evolves into something that is between 10% and 70% humanoid. New color palettes, made with colors that really make an impression. Friendliness and lack of edgyness. UBs that involve man-made materials and that break design paradigms.
Variants: Small changes that introduce artificial concepts or human activities, and a few redesigns to the Pokemon's cores to fit modern standards.
 
Gen 2: Tamagotchi
I completely agree actually. Do you think they really did drew inspiration from it?
Honestly, I'd be surprised if Mametchi didn't have anything to do with Pikachu's popularity after gen I released (when they started working on gen II, so it'd have influenced that). They do look a little similar...
latest


Tamagotchi definitely had something on baby pokemon at least. Especially Pichu.
 
Igglybuff and Gulpin are the most Tamagotchi-looking Pokémon, in my opinion.

Didn't Tamagotchi also come out in 1996, though?

Getting back on-topic, remember the Pokémon eyes thread on Reddit about a year ago?
 
Igglybuff and Gulpin are the most Tamagotchi-looking Pokémon, in my opinion.

Didn't Tamagotchi also come out in 1996, though?

Getting back on-topic, remember the Pokémon eyes thread on Reddit about a year ago?

No, what was it about exactly?
 
I think Mametchu propably influenched Pichu
Didn't Tamagotchi also come out in 1996, though?
Yep. Basically my thoughts are:
> Tamagotchi releases mid-1996, is very popular
> Pokemon releases end-1996, originally without a mascot (or really much of a clear direction for the franchise).
> Pikachu becomes extremely popular among players. Is made the mascot at some point.
> "Pokemon 2" begins development.
> Because Tamagotchi was a pretty big thing at that point, baby pokemon, eggs and a lot of new design ideas in general are influenced by it. (and honestly, not just baby pokemon, even things like Sentret and whatever kind of give that air. They're very 90s cutesy magical creature)
> Pokemon explodes in popularity
> Tamagotchi wanes in popularity
> Gold and Silver actually release
 
No, what was it about exactly?
Basically, someone on r/gaming made a thread saying that they think the reason why some people say new Pokémon don't look like Pokémon is because the designs of the eyes have changed. This thread got really popular, and someone even made a graph.
 
Which I guess kinda made the Poli line a mascot back then. Clefairy and Jigglypuff were counterpart mascots, right? And Ash was meant to have a Clefairy at one point. I think it would have made the franchise more geared to girls.

-Gen 2 would have been pretty much the same but Cleffa is the one that get the signature breeding move. "Kris" would also have been playable in GS.
-Plusle and Minun would be more Clefairy-like. More pink and purples in the UI. You only play as a girl and have another girl as your rival. Fairy-type and Sound-type introduced. "Sylveon" introduced early but with a different design.
-Likely no gen 4. GameFreak moves back to Pulseman. Mother 3 is released worldwide as Earthbound 2.
-"Earthbound 3"\"Mother 4" replaces gen 5. It changes some of the patterns, is more storyline oriented, and takes some of Pokémon's anime artstyle cues.
 
Please note: The thread is from 6 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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