Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
Mankey's RBY backsprite. What the hell happened to his arms...?
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Worst Pokemon Sprites?
- Thread starter Rankumander
- Start date
Mankey's RBY backsprite. What the hell happened to his arms...?
At the very least the models were very real, all four of those were used down to the animation in the final game, having wailord & deoxys be comically better than most of their 3rd gen peers.
The backgrounds were also pretty good in the final game, just not to this level of polish. So I could believe that that was running on a "real" wii, too.
The level of lighting, damage & physics are probably exaggerated but for a "we just need this to look good" teaser on development hardware I could believe they rigged something up, even if it's something a real final wii could not do once they have other game logic in place. I bet the UI elements were added in post, if nothing else, which I bet freed up some processing power. And probably not a coincidence that there was a big cut for showing off Groudon's Hyper Beam knocking over boxes; probably a separate build that could offload more power by hiding elements from the first part.
as opposed to its Green sprite which had the weird arms look more like, uh, arms
The backgrounds were also pretty good in the final game, just not to this level of polish. So I could believe that that was running on a "real" wii, too.
The level of lighting, damage & physics are probably exaggerated but for a "we just need this to look good" teaser on development hardware I could believe they rigged something up, even if it's something a real final wii could not do once they have other game logic in place. I bet the UI elements were added in post, if nothing else, which I bet freed up some processing power. And probably not a coincidence that there was a big cut for showing off Groudon's Hyper Beam knocking over boxes; probably a separate build that could offload more power by hiding elements from the first part.
weirdly it matches its updated Blue sprite more
as opposed to its Green sprite which had the weird arms look more like, uh, arms
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
he be RUNNIN'
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
egg nidoran-female
Time to rip on Gen 1 sprites again!
When the bulb on its back grows large, it appears to lose the ability to stand on its hind legs. ...Sure.
Who could forget THICCstoise?
...I don't think Metapod is supposed to bend like that.
Still looks dead inside... except now it has arms.
Still looks like an actual bird.
Raticate's face was hideously deformed to put more emphasis on its teeth.
Ekans looks high.
Still something about the eyes that unnerves me.
It's the terrible Green Sprite from before, except now it's jumping for joy... I guess.
It's staring into my soul.
...do I even need to say anything?
They still can't get Vileplume's perspective right.
What is with your arms?
Why don't you have a seat over there, Tim...
Not the most flattering pose there, Machop.
Duck face.
Same stupid face, except now its mouth is open.
YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Still just a ball of gas with a face. It's a well-drawn face, at least.
Is it thrusting one claw forward? Does it have two big claws? We may never know.
Why is one of the eggs so huge?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
ONE. FUCKING. JOB.
Still looks poorly drawn.
Blastoise isn't the only one who put on a few pounds between Green and Blue.
Still racist.
Pinsir still has bad eyes.
I want you to draw me like one of your Kalosian girls.
Moltres got a better sprite, but Articuno still looks pretty bad.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
many of the imgs in ur post are brokenTime to rip on Gen 1 sprites again!
When the bulb on its back grows large, it appears to lose the ability to stand on its hind legs. ...Sure.
Who could forget THICCstoise?
...I don't think Metapod is supposed to bend like that.
Still looks dead inside... except now it has arms.
Still looks like an actual bird.
Raticate's face was hideously deformed to put more emphasis on its teeth.
Ekans looks high.
Still something about the eyes that unnerves me.
It's the terrible Green Sprite from before, except now it's jumping for joy... I guess.
It's staring into my soul.
...do I even need to say anything?
They still can't get Vileplume's perspective right.
What is with your arms?
Why don't you have a seat over there, Tim...
Not the most flattering pose there, Machop.
Duck face.
Same stupid face, except now its mouth is open.
YOU HAD ONE JOB.
Still just a ball of gas with a face. It's a well-drawn face, at least.
Is it thrusting one claw forward? Does it have two big claws? We may never know.
Why is one of the eggs so huge?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
ONE. FUCKING. JOB.
Still looks poorly drawn.
Blastoise isn't the only one who put on a few pounds between Green and Blue.
Still racist.
Pinsir still has bad eyes.
I want you to draw me like one of your Kalosian girls.
Moltres got a better sprite, but Articuno still looks pretty bad.
Yeah on less powerful devices the images get borked lol, also I think I put too many of them.
I'm playing through Emerald again and going through the battle frontier, and I forgot how creepy Rattata's RSE front sprite is. I don't know what it is exactly that throws me off when I see it (the dimensions? the red eyes? standing up?), but it's definitely a strange one and one of my less favorite 3rd gen sprites
Hypothesis: Gen VI's Pokémon are fine -- it's their models that suck.
During XY GameFreak had no idea what they were doing with creating models. They just put Pokémon in the game in their T-Poses and thought that it would suffice. Here's an example of where Genius Sonority did it way better:
I wish there were a better example of Kecleon's model from Genius Sonority's games online but this sped up version is the best I can find. When Genius Sonority put Kecleon in their games they made it behave, y'know, like a chameleon. Short, rapid movements of its body parts constantly looking all over the place for predators in case it needed to camouflage itself. These movements were expressive and interesting. When Game Freak put Kecleon into XY they... made it breathe. But what's worse than this is that Kecleon was way more interesting even in its sprites -- unanimated ones at that:
This sprite may seem a little weird, with one leg up in the air, but if you think more deeply about it you realise that the leg in the air is its hind leg, and its body is turned half away from its opponent. Kecleon isn't positioning itself to battle, it's positioning itself to flee. Again, chameleons are the perfectly evolved prey: they camouflage themselves so predators can't see them anymore, and when they themselves act as predators they camouflage themselves to get the jump on the opponent. They attack from the shadows, not head-on, and Kecleon does exactly the same thing. They delivered that in its sprites and Genius Sonority delivered it in a different way when they made its 3D model, but since XY Kecleon has just been a limp, bored, breathing chameleon with no personality.
Here are some XY Pokémon who want nothing more than a sprite to give them some personality:
- In a sprite it could take its stick out of its tail and point it at the opponent. Y'know, like a mage does when it casts a spell. Presumably they just stuck the stick in its tail because it would look weird if it just limply held it during the entire battle, but I can't help but think there must have been a better way to go about it still, because it's barely doing anything more than breathing in this model too.
- Quilladin is based on animals that roll up into balls to protect themselves from predators, just as Sandslash is. This would be way clearer if it were posed like Sandslash always has been since Gen I: halfway into a ball. For whatever reason, Game Freak have never done this sort of pose in 3D models even for Sandslash.
- I know that some people take issue with 3D models of bird Pokémon being stuck gliding rather than flapping their wings and I understand that, but Talonflame is still a Pokémon crying out for a pose like Skarmory and Pidgeot have here. Its ability is Gale Wings after all -- its whole design is about bombing into the opponent at high enough speeds to cause actual heat and fire. Its 3D model here looks the opposite of speedy. Meanwhile Hawlucha is crying out for a sprite in an actual flying press motion, instead of awkwardly standing there. Not least because the animation for Flying Press sucks and looks more like a standard Fly or Bounce attack.
- Gogoat once again is a breathing T-Pose, which is why it's the most forgettable bovine in the series. Is it aggressive like Tauros and Bouffalant, or docile like Stantler, Sawsbuck and Miltank? We have no idea, whereas we can all clearly tell by the other Pokémon's sprites. It makes it completely devoid of personality.
- What kind of fighter is Pancham? Does it rush in like Mankey, wait for the opponent to attack first and then counter like Mienfoo, or taunt the opponent into attacking first like Tyrogue? We have no idea because it's just standing there, breathing.
- How friendly is Furfrou? Herdier and Growlithe are excited to play, while Houndoom and Snubbull are warning their opponent to back off. Furfrou is just standing there, breathing.
- Is Espurr a pretty cat like Glameow or a rough and tough one like Skitty? Judging by its model it's... staring into the void, reliving its PTSD on repeat in a slow cycle of mental torture. And I have a feeling that's not what Game Freak was going for. Bonus points for Glameow's broken ears in the transition to XY that just look painful.
- Aromatisse takes inspiration from a can can dancer, who kick their legs up in the air while dancing. So... why doesn't Aromatisse ever do that? Perhaps it doesn't have the most application in-battle (though I'm not sure what spinning on your exposed leg achieves), but in a sprite they could just have it be its special animation each cycle like Roselia here without the hop, or even in a still sprite just put the leg forward like Roselia in Gen IV.
- Binacle takes the cake for one of the worst models in XY but in a sprite it could actually be a cool design. The issue with the model is the focus is on the rock more than it's on the hand-head-claws because, ironically, in terms of expression the way that GameFreak does 3D models makes them more two-dimensional and therefore less dynamic than sprites. By that I mean the heads don't lean forward like in Lileep's sprite, and one head can't be more forward than the other like Beedrill's drills or Ambipom's hand-tails. You can't have a rapid striking motion like Scizor because they don't use blur effects, and you can't even look on it from a top-down perspective to hide the rock a bit like Qwilfish's intimidating pose. A sprite could have made Binacle really cool, but it's largely forgotten about or hated because we never got that.
- I actually think Skrelp and Dragalge would have benefited greatly by having a still sprite. Seadra's tail looks way more impressive than their's and it'd look a little more feeble if it had to move. On the other hand, Goldeen's tail looks more billowy than the attempts to have this effect on Skrelp and Dragalge's appendages(?) because it has the effect of a constant wave ripple motion rather than awkwardly swaying from left to right. The fact that Dragalge's appendages are in a T-Pose gets shown up by Lumineon whose full form is more on show, while Dragalge feels like it keep covering itself up with its constant motion. As for Amaura, I still have no idea if its head appendages are more like Seadra or Lumineon's wings. Aurorus' are more like Lumineon and they did a pretty good job with its model, but I can't tell if Amaura's are smaller versions of Aurorus' or harder, less developed versions.
- Dedenne is just standing still breathing again. None of the cuteness or playfulness you see in its counterparts like Pachirisu or Plusle.
- Sliggoo is here because it's really bad at showing what it actually is. It was months before I found out Sliggoo was a snail because in-game its shell is mostly hidden behind it. It's not a huge shell, but a pose like Magcargo has here would be excellent at showing its shell off. An animation like Slugma's bubbling except goo would also go a long way, because its body doesn't actually behave like goo at all and just looks like skin.
- Avalugg would have benefitted hugely by being able to play with verticality of its pose. Snorlax and Heracross are here because they're two of the most successful examples of this, but they're leaning back whereas Avalugg would need to lean forward like Yanma, Whiscash and Lombre here. It'd improve the Pokémon a lot because it would show off the vastness of its ice table in comparison with its head in a dramatic and dynamic way, like how Lombre's head gets shadowed by its lilypad which looks intimidating. Avalugg's model just makes it look like its head is dwarfed and it's out of proportion. It could have also had something more dynamic going on such as having a leg forward like it's about to charge instead of (say it with me!) just standing there and breathing.
- It's not all bad news though. I wanted to include Tyrunt here at the end because in making this post I was pleasantly surprised by how good Tyrunt's model is. It's a Pokémon who primarily bites the opponent, so what did they do? Make it lean forward, so its head is the closest thing to the opponent, making it easier to bite them. It's the one show of competence (plus Aurorus) in the modelling for Gen VI, so that's good I guess.
--------------
I didn't include every Pokémon here but I think these are the worst examples of Gen VI's Pokémon being done dirty by XY's models. They did a lot of older Pokémon dirty too, but it doesn't stick out quite as much because those Pokémon have their old sprites to fall back on in order to give them personality, and outside of Purrloin and Glameow no Pokémon actually broke in the transition to Gen VI. Game Freak has also gotten much better at making its new Pokémon expressive in-game which has elevated them greatly. It's just a shame that the cast of Gen VI got screwed over so much by being introduced in the generation that they were introduced in, before Game Freak figured out how to make 3D models do more than just standing and breathing.
tl;dr In terms of giving Pokémon personality and expressiveness, XY are the worst games in the series, beneath even Gen I. GameFreak needs to put in a shift to redo the animations of all Pokémon between Gens I-VI, because the difference in quality between their models and Gen VII and VIII Pokémon in modern Pokémon games is easily identifiable 9 times out of 10.
During XY GameFreak had no idea what they were doing with creating models. They just put Pokémon in the game in their T-Poses and thought that it would suffice. Here's an example of where Genius Sonority did it way better:
I wish there were a better example of Kecleon's model from Genius Sonority's games online but this sped up version is the best I can find. When Genius Sonority put Kecleon in their games they made it behave, y'know, like a chameleon. Short, rapid movements of its body parts constantly looking all over the place for predators in case it needed to camouflage itself. These movements were expressive and interesting. When Game Freak put Kecleon into XY they... made it breathe. But what's worse than this is that Kecleon was way more interesting even in its sprites -- unanimated ones at that:
This sprite may seem a little weird, with one leg up in the air, but if you think more deeply about it you realise that the leg in the air is its hind leg, and its body is turned half away from its opponent. Kecleon isn't positioning itself to battle, it's positioning itself to flee. Again, chameleons are the perfectly evolved prey: they camouflage themselves so predators can't see them anymore, and when they themselves act as predators they camouflage themselves to get the jump on the opponent. They attack from the shadows, not head-on, and Kecleon does exactly the same thing. They delivered that in its sprites and Genius Sonority delivered it in a different way when they made its 3D model, but since XY Kecleon has just been a limp, bored, breathing chameleon with no personality.
Here are some XY Pokémon who want nothing more than a sprite to give them some personality:
--------------
I didn't include every Pokémon here but I think these are the worst examples of Gen VI's Pokémon being done dirty by XY's models. They did a lot of older Pokémon dirty too, but it doesn't stick out quite as much because those Pokémon have their old sprites to fall back on in order to give them personality, and outside of Purrloin and Glameow no Pokémon actually broke in the transition to Gen VI. Game Freak has also gotten much better at making its new Pokémon expressive in-game which has elevated them greatly. It's just a shame that the cast of Gen VI got screwed over so much by being introduced in the generation that they were introduced in, before Game Freak figured out how to make 3D models do more than just standing and breathing.
tl;dr In terms of giving Pokémon personality and expressiveness, XY are the worst games in the series, beneath even Gen I. GameFreak needs to put in a shift to redo the animations of all Pokémon between Gens I-VI, because the difference in quality between their models and Gen VII and VIII Pokémon in modern Pokémon games is easily identifiable 9 times out of 10.
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Yeah, they're standing still because they're in an idle pose. Like, maybe they could do a little more than stand there, but it's not at all fair to compare them to sprites that, while not always static, were not dynamic. Those sprites were the only poses a Pokemon could be in battle, so they had to make them count. On the other hand, these idle poses are just one of several animations between entering battle, getting damaged, fainting, and several kinds of attacks. I'm going to go on record as saying that I think the Pokemon would look worse if their idle poses were super complex. The majority of sprites in gen 5 was proof enough for me that Pokemon generally look hideous when they're constantly repeating the same big action.Hypothesis: Gen VI's Pokémon are fine -- it's their models that suck.
During XY GameFreak had no idea what they were doing with creating models. They just put Pokémon in the game in their T-Poses and thought that it would suffice. Here's an example of where Genius Sonority did it way better:
I wish there were a better example of Kecleon's model from Genius Sonority's games online but this sped up version is the best I can find. When Genius Sonority put Kecleon in their games they made it behave, y'know, like a chameleon. Short, rapid movements of its body parts constantly looking all over the place for prey in case it needed to camouflage itself. These movements were expressive and interesting. When Game Freak put Kecleon into XY they... made it breathe. But what's worse than this is that Kecleon was way more interesting even in its sprites -- unanimated ones at that:
This sprite may seem a little weird, with one leg up in the air, but if you think more deeply about it you realise that the leg in the air is its hind leg, and its body is turned half away from its opponent. Kecleon isn't positioning itself to battle, it's positioning itself to flee. Again, chameleons are the perfectly evolved prey: they camouflage themselves so predators can't see them anymore, and when they themselves act as predators they camouflage themselves to get the jump on the opponent. They attack from the shadows, not head-on, and Kecleon does exactly the same thing. They delivered that in its sprites and Genius Sonority delivered it in a different way when they made its 3D model, but since XY Kecleon has just been a limp, bored, breathing chameleon with no personality.
Here are some XY Pokémon who want nothing more than a sprite to give them some personality:
- In a sprite it could take its stick out of its tail and point it at the opponent. Y'know, like a mage does when it casts a spell. Presumably they just stuck the stick in its tail because it would look weird if it just limply held it during the entire battle, but I can't help but think there must have been a better way to go about it still, because it's barely doing anything more than breathing in this model too.
- Quilladin is based on animals that roll up into balls to protect themselves from prey, just as Sandslash is. This would be way clearer if it were posed like Sandslash always has been since Gen I: halfway into a ball. For whatever reason, Game Freak have never done this sort of pose in 3D models even for Sandslash.
- I know that some people take issue with 3D models of bird Pokémon being stuck gliding rather than flapping their wings and I understand that, but Talonflame is still a Pokémon crying out for a pose like Skarmory and Pidgeot have here. Its ability is Gale Wings after all -- its whole design is about bombing into the opponent at high enough speeds to cause actual heat and fire. Its 3D model here looks the opposite of speedy. Meanwhile Hawlucha is crying out for a sprite in an actual flying press motion, instead of awkwardly standing there. Not least because the animation for Flying Press sucks and looks more like a standard Fly or Bounce attack.
- Gogoat once again is a breathing T-Pose, which is why it's the most forgettable bovine in the series. Is it aggressive like Tauros and Bouffalant, or docile like Stantler, Sawsbuck and Miltank? We have no idea, whereas we can all clearly tell by the other Pokémon's sprites. It makes it completely devoid of personality.
- What kind of fighter is Pancham? Does it rush in like Mankey, wait for the opponent to attack first and then counter like Mienfoo, or taunt the opponent into attacking first like Tyrogue? We have no idea because it's just standing there, breathing.
- How friendly is Furfrou? Herdier and Growlithe are excited to play, while Houndoom and Snubbull are warning their opponent to back off. Furfrou is just standing there, breathing.
- Is Espurr a pretty cat like Glameow or a rough and tough one like Skitty? Judging by its model it's... staring into the void, reliving its PTSD on repeat in a slow cycle of mental torture. And I have a feeling that's not what Game Freak was going for. Bonus points for Glameow's broken ears in the transition to XY that just look painful.
- Aromatisse takes inspiration from a can can dancer, who kick their legs up in the air while dancing. So... why doesn't Aromatisse ever do that? Perhaps it doesn't have the most application in-battle (though I'm not sure what spinning on your exposed leg achieves), but in a sprite they could just have it be its special animation each cycle like Roselia here without the hop, or even in a still sprite just put the leg forward like Roselia in Gen IV.
- Binacle takes the cake for one of the worst models in XY but in a sprite it could actually be a cool design. The issue with the model is the focus is on the rock more than it's on the hand-head-claws because, ironically, in terms of expression the way that GameFreak does 3D models makes them more two-dimensional and therefore less dynamic than sprites. By that I mean the heads don't lean forward like in Lileep's sprite, and one head can't be more forward than the other like Beedrill's drills or Ambipom's hand-tails. You can't have a rapid striking motion like Scizor because they don't use blur effects, and you can't even look on it from a top-down perspective to hide the rock a bit like Qwilfish's intimidating pose. A sprite could have made Binacle really cool, but it's largely forgotten about or hated because we never got that.
- I actually think Skrelp and Dragalge would have benefited greatly by having a still sprite. Seadra's tail looks way more impressive than their's and it'd look a little more feeble if it had to move. On the other hand, Goldeen's tail looks more billowy than the attempts to have this effect on Skrelp and Dragalge's appendages(?) because it has the effect of a constant wave ripple motion rather than awkwardly swaying from left to right. The fact that Dragalge's appendages are in a T-Pose gets shown up by Lumineon whose full form is more on show, while Dragalge feels like it keep covering itself up with its constant motion. As for Amaura, I still have no idea if its head appendages are more like Seadra or Lumineon's wings. Aurorus' are more like Lumineon and they did a pretty good job with its model, but I can't tell if Amaura's are smaller versions of Aurorus' or harder, less developed versions.
- Dedenne is just standing still breathing again. None of the cuteness or playfulness you see in its counterparts like Pachirisu or Plusle.
- Sliggoo is here because it's really bad at showing what it actually is. It was months before I found out Sliggoo was a snail because in-game its shell is mostly hidden behind it. It's not a huge shell, but a pose like Magcargo has here would be excellent at showing its shell off. An animation like Slugma's bubbling except goo would also go a long way, because its body doesn't actually behave like goo at all and just looks like skin.
- Avalugg would have benefitted hugely by being able to play with verticality of its pose. Snorlax and Heracross are here because they're two of the most successful examples of this, but they're leaning back whereas Avalugg would need to lean forward like Yanma, Whiscash and Lombre here. It'd improve the Pokémon a lot because it would show off the vastness of its ice table in comparison with its head in a dramatic and dynamic way, like how Lombre's head gets shadowed by its lilypad which looks intimidating. Avalugg's model just makes it look like its head is dwarfed and it's out of proportion. It could have also had something more dynamic going on such as having a leg forward like it's about to charge instead of (say it with me!) just standing there and breathing.
- It's not all bad news though. I wanted to include Tyrunt here are the end because in making this post I was pleasantly surprised by how good Tyrunt's model is. It's a Pokémon who primarily bites the opponent, so what did they do? Make it lean forward, so its head is the closest thing to the opponent, making it easier to bite them. It's the one show of competence (plus Aurorus) in the modelling for Gen VI, so that's good I guess.
--------------
I didn't include every Pokémon here but I think these are the worst examples of Gen VI's Pokémon being done dirty by XY's models. They did a lot of older Pokémon dirty too, but it doesn't stick out quite as much because those Pokémon have their old sprites to fall back on in order to give them personality, and outside of Purrloin and Glameow no Pokémon actually broke in the transition to Gen VI. Game Freak has also gotten much better at making its new Pokémon expressive in-game which has elevated them greatly. It's just a shame that the cast of Gen VI got screwed over so much by being introduced in the generation that they were introduced in, before Game Freak figured out how to make 3D models do more than just standing and breathing.
tl;dr In terms of giving Pokémon personality and expressiveness, XY are the worst games in the series, beneath even Gen I. GameFreak needs to put in a shift to redo the animations of all Pokémon between Gens I-VI, because the difference in quality between their models and Gen VII and VIII Pokémon in modern Pokémon games is easily identifiable 9 times out of 10.
Furfrou is a snobby aristocratic show dog. It makes sense that it would stand there composed, glaring at the peasant it's being told to fight.
That is absolutely what they were going for.
"Though Espurr's expression never changes, behind that blank stare is an intense struggle to contain its devastating psychic power."
(official Ken Sugimori art)
I think it's less that Game Freak didn't know how to do models better -- after all, you yourself bring up certain examples like Tyrunt and Amaura, and I myself would offer certain past Pokémon like Infernape, Porygon-Z, Archeops and Totodile who are very expressive. Instead I'd argue that the problem lies in the -sheer volume- of Pokémon models that had to be created in this game -- after all, in Gens 7 and 8 where the majority of new animations are demonstrably better? It's only around 100 or so that had to be made. Still a lot, but reasonable for a new game. For Gen 6, it's well over 700. At some point they had to put quantity over quality which is why so many of these Pokémon ended up and continue to be so lifeless. Mix that in with Pokémon's rather insane development cycle of one game a year and you're kind of left with no time to make more than a handful of Pokémon expressive.
An idle pose doesn't mean devoid of personality though. Here's an example:
Hitmonchan's idle pose in its model is actually pretty great, because it's doing the neutral movements for boxing. This is an easy one to figure out given its base inspiration, but it's still dynamic and interesting. Spinda easily conveys its personality of wine drunk, stumbling from side to side. Here's Genius Sonority getting it right again (like with Kecleon) where Game Freak got it wrong.
This model is once again sped up massively (and shiny, I can't find its normal colouration), but here you have Sudowoodo swaying in the wind like a tree. Game Freak didn't make it move an inch, instead just having it breathe slightly. Swaying in the wind like a tree is actually way better camouflage than standing completely still, because if there's even a slight breeze, trees are the best indication because they react to it first.
The idle pose excuse doesn't work because Colosseum, XD, and Battle Revolution did idle poses way better with way more personality while retaining the integrity of the "idle pose" and making them work alongside the other animations needed for attacking, defending and fainting. I'm guessing you haven't played those games. Also, the BW2 sprites made for every Pokémon before XY are dynamic and constantly moving, so it's a completely fair comparison.
There's a key distinction between complexity and personality too. Hitmonchan's idle pose up there isn't complex in the slightest, but it gives you an immediate idea of what Hitmonchan is all about, which is boxing. Spinda's idle animation isn't complex either, literally just stepping from side to side. But they made it lively with its ears flopping backwards and forwards and its arms moving up and down in the appropriate fashion to where it's clearly trying to balance itself. There's no way you could think Hitmonchan and Spinda look worse than a breathing T-Pose.DrPumpkinz said:
I'd also be interested in examples of Gen V sprites where the animations actively make the Pokémon worse.
Right, but that could also be done better. It could lift its snout up, in the stereotypical way that aristocrats look down on peasants. It could even stand with its back turned, trying to show that it's unwillingly engaging in this battle and that it thinks that it's better than its opponent. Just standing there breathing doesn't convey the message that you said it does.DrPumpkinz said:
Then have it shake! Its expression may not change, but that much inner turmoil would be conveyed excellently through a shudder every now and again. Just standing there and breathing doesn't communicate what they were going for, or perhaps it would if there weren't so many other examples of lifeless Pokémon, so Espurr being lifeless would actually be unique instead of the norm.DrPumpkinz said:
This is probably on the money, but it's weird to me that they wouldn't prioritise the new cast of Pokémon over older ones. They only introduced 70 or so Pokémon in Gen VI so it makes sense to pile the special treatment into them, and then go back and focus on some favourites who they have inspiration for from older generations after that. The new Pokémon needed that extra time more than the old ones did because the old ones had sprites to fall back on.
What surprises me more is the old Pokémon they did decide to prioritise -- you would have thought popular ones like Pikachu, Eevee, Mewtwo or Lucario would get special treatment... but Porygon-Z? Hitmonchan? Spinda? Granted I like the random grabbag of who gets a good sprite rather than the usual suspects for once, but it's still quite interesting.
I don’t think comparing model’s idle poses to sprites is fair- after all, in game the camera goes everywhere, so having Talonflame idle in a cool swooping position would start to look real stupid once you can have more than just the Pokémon Showdown angle.
Regardless, while there are some stinkers like Kecleon’s idle, I’m not sure if I’m on board with the spastic 3D idle poses of stadium days, which just look goofy. Gen 8 pokemon idle poses really hit the mark for me imo. And I’d do anything to avoid gen 5’s animated swelling (see Snorlax)
Regardless, while there are some stinkers like Kecleon’s idle, I’m not sure if I’m on board with the spastic 3D idle poses of stadium days, which just look goofy. Gen 8 pokemon idle poses really hit the mark for me imo. And I’d do anything to avoid gen 5’s animated swelling (see Snorlax)
Though I think I overestimated how jarring the gen 5 animation loops were, probably because I find the art style as a whole atrocious. The sprites become grainy messes the second they deviate from the original pose, and Game Freak was incredibly frugal with giving Pokemon more than one key pose, instead relying almost entirely on translation, rotation, reflection, scaling, and skewing in a way that reeks of the animations I made when I was first learning that were basically nothing but tweens. Suicune exemplifies this the best.
Take a good hard look at those streamers.
There are a lot of good sprites in the ones you seem to have a problem with.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
I looked at Pumpkin boy's post and one particular sprite caught my eye...
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This is one where 3D games do a MUCH better job making him look like a punchy boy
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This is one where 3D games do a MUCH better job making him look like a punchy boy
They would be better if they weren't so twitchy. Things that may work as an occasional break in an idle animation (like Honchkrow's salute or Shuppet's raspberry) do not work as actions taken every second.
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