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SwSh What do you think of James Turner being the art director for Sword and Shield

Do you like the fact that James Turner is the art director for Sword and Shield?

  • Yes

    Votes: 50 49.5%
  • No

    Votes: 10 9.9%
  • Indifferent

    Votes: 29 28.7%
  • Unsure

    Votes: 12 11.9%

  • Total voters
    101

Phosphene

Formerly SpinyShell
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This is my first thread, so apologies if the formatting and threadmarks and what not are a total mess and/or if it's too similar to an already existing thread.

As was revealed during the Direct in June, James Turner is the art director for SwSh. According to Bulbapedia, Turner has designed these 14 Pokémon:
He also finalized the design for Bruxish and drew its reference sheet, though it was originally created by a different designer.

So what's your opinion on this? I personally don't mind, I like most of the Pokémon he's designed and I think the new Galar additions aren't too bad, but I'm also not absolutely in love with them. Basically, I'm indifferent.
 
Honestly, the Pokemon he's designed are a bit hit-or-miss for me. I like the Vanillite, Golett amd Phantump lines, but I kind of dislike the rest.

However, I think the new Pokemon we've seen in Sword and Shield look fantastic so far. I like how a lot of them match the UK-based setting of Galar, and none of them really seem too hideously ugly or uninspired to me. The human character designs and cities look great too, from what I've seen of them. So right now I would say he's doing a good job, because I've liked everything I've seen up until this point.

I don't feel like we should judge him based only on his own Pokemon designs though. As art director, he's probably in charge of more than just the monsters and it's not like he's fully designing the whole roster of the game himself.
 
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I think it was a smart decision to have someone from the UK lead the team in designing Pokémon for a UK inspired region. That being said, if I had never been told which Pokémon were designed by him I never would have known the difference.

Ultimately, it comes down to what the design looks like; not who designed it.
 
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It's great they have someone familiar with the place the region is based on instead of having the UK through a Japanese lens like all the other foreign regions.

Because of it, this is probably going to be like the first close-to-real-life gen as far as the pokemon go because they finally realized they could just ask the actual English guy about the local wildlife. If you look up all the pokemon we know of, they're local to Great Britain and not just zoos like the previous gens. I mean unless you watched hours of nature docs, who even knows how angry and blood thirsty wild hamsters get?

As for his designs, I don't understand all the hate. I mean I do because he's a western artist and not Sugimori. But at the same time I thought a lot of his designs were pretty okay.
 
i like the pokemon he created, I give him a chance of showing his skills
 
Whilst I'm not the hugest fan of his solo designs, everything I've seen from Galar art-wise I have adored, from the Pokémon to the character designs to the locations.

So yeah, perhaps he's better at direction than individual work or maybe previous directors didn't allow him enough freedom, but whatever the case I'm pleased with him and all the team's work so far.
 
I personally feel like that many of the Pokemon he designed, look really bland (Vanillite line, Golurk is just a bigger Golett with some enhancements, Phantump also looks really bland compared to Trevenant and we have Poipole and Naganadel as well). I don' really count Shadow Lugia as a mon he designed, since i look at it as just a slightly enhanced reskin.

However, is it a bad idea to make him art director. Not for Galar, since he is British himself. Although, i feel like its a bad idea to make him art director going forward in other regions
 
I personally feel like that many of the Pokemon he designed, look really bland (Vanillite line, Golurk is just a bigger Golett with some enhancements, Phantump also looks really bland compared to Trevenant and we have Poipole and Naganadel as well). I don' really count Shadow Lugia as a mon he designed, since i look at it as just a slightly enhanced reskin.

However, is it a bad idea to make him art director. Not for Galar, since he is British himself. Although, i feel like its a bad idea to make him art director going forward in other regions
The bland comment is such a reach.
 
I don't care too much for any of those Pokemon, but I also don't really care about him being the art director since it's not like he's designing all of them single-handedly. I haven't really disliked any of the new Galar mons so far either.
 
Of all pokémon which he designed, I only like Vullaby and Mandibuzz. I like Phantump too, but Trevenant doesn't fit my taste. However, I'm liking what he has done so far with Gen 8 designs (I love Rolycoly and Scorbunny, and I like the others).
 
I personally feel like that many of the Pokemon he designed, look really bland (Vanillite line, Golurk is just a bigger Golett with some enhancements, Phantump also looks really bland compared to Trevenant and we have Poipole and Naganadel as well). I don' really count Shadow Lugia as a mon he designed, since i look at it as just a slightly enhanced reskin.

However, is it a bad idea to make him art director. Not for Galar, since he is British himself. Although, i feel like its a bad idea to make him art director going forward in other regions
Golurk is a bigger Golett. With enhancements. Okay. Sure. Funny because Golurk pretty much screams 'giant robot' to me and Golett never did. It took time for me to appreciate Golett, while I loved Golurk unconditionally the moment the Unova Poke Dex was leaked. I mean, hey, Transformers fan over here; I'd been wanting something like Golurk since forever. James Turner pretty much gave me my two favorite Pokemon ever. One was an immediate fave while the second grew on me.

As for the subject at hand: I'm more than happy with this. Seriously. That's about the best news I've heard about these games. (Now I might actually purchase them on the release date; I wasn't sure earlier.)
 
From his designs, I only really like Mandibuzz, but it is pretty far from my top 10 thought.
For the rest, I am indifferent. Maybe that is why I have not felt that interested by many designs from this Gen.
 
His designs are a hit or miss for me. I like some, but I dislike others. I'm not going to judge him as an art director until I've seen the whole roster as well as the whole game, but I can talk about the things they've shown us so far.

I have to admit that currently the only Galar Pokemon I genuinely like are Sobble and Corviknight. The rest vary between indifference and dislike. I also really dislike the sporty/football theme gyms have and I'm afraid that our character is forced to wear the sporty attire during gym battles. Cities, towns and miscellaneous scenery look nice, but the Wild Area looks bland and barren.

This feels like a repeat of Gen 5 for me. It's my least favourite generation in terms of Pokemon designs. I still love the games because the story is interesting to me and the roster still has enough designs I like, plus I like trying to play with new Pokemon. It makes me appreciate Pokemon that I would otherwise be indifferent to. It's just that it doesn't compare to something like Gen 3 or Gen 6 where I could pick up almost any Pokemon and roll with it. Of course it's too early to judge, but this is the vibe I'm getting from SWSH so far.
 
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