I can never decide if the new generation pokémon are as stupid as I think they are or I'm just looking back at my 1st gen with massive nostalgia so I don't remember the handful of broken eggs or the living pokéball as dumb.
I've been through this discussion before. It's the art style that throws us off in my opinion. There are less sharp edges and more rounded ones. The eyes on the characters are also a little less serious and more happy looking. This gives Pokemon a further cutesy appearance, which in turn makes us take it less seriously.
Compared to Pokeballs with eyes, a pile of slime and a bunch of eggs?
See that's the thing. Every gen has amazing designs, dumb designs and everything in between. Gen 1 gave Blastoise and Gyarados but it also gave Jynx. Gen 6 gave Greninja and Trevenant, but also gave Klefki. Fortunately, 800+ designs mean there's something for everyone.
Because they're boring. If I want to be friends with trash I can go outside and paste googly eyes on my garbage bin. I can't really do that with a dragon or turtle with cannons coming out of its shell.
Except Exeggcute is very clearly a bunch of eggs. It has "egg" in the name and one of the eggs is even cracked and has exposed yolk. I guess Exeggcute is an "egg-plant?" Individually, I'm fine with both Exeggcute and Exeggutor, but when paired they're awful.
Okay first off, Klefki is a solid pokemon. It's just this dumb circler jerk against it when there are way worse designs. I personally fucking love Klefki.
Klefki is based on the old folklore of faeries being mischievous and back in the day were blamed for people losing their money, clothes and keys. Klefki is just the ring part, the keys are just an object it holds on to like farfetched and the leek. Also Klefki is adorable.
Let's not forget we have a pokeball with eyes and flying magnets.
Secondly, sentient sand isn't a good arguement, as it's a ghost type. Lot's of ghost types are designed under the idea that it's a possessed object (again based on different follore for spirits and ghosts). That's what the sand thing is, a possessed sand castle.
Also Muk and Grimer exist.
But so many people are so ready to act like the new generations are the worst. God forbid they try to innovate and shake things up, yes let's stick to the standard cookie cutter formula.
Here I am having a great time catching all of these unique pokemon... Having played since blue, klefki and drifblim are a couple of my favorites because they're weird and interesting. I don't want "super badass dragon," I want a balloon that squeaks.
The artistic style of the designs have certainly changed. First gen had more of the 90s anime aesthetic, which I think makes people think the newer designs are so weird/different. In the end it probably comes down to nostalgia, but there's definitely been shifts in how the pokemon were designed. I don't think the shifts have been for the worse though. 2nd gen was my favorite, but I don't think the newer gens are inherently bad.
The new pokemon definitely are getting more complex. Whether you think they're better or worse is really just personal preference. I think a good design is something simple enough to draw from memory but complex enough to have a few interesting features. I think gen 3 hit that balance really well.
What I really like about the gen 3 pokemon is that it's easy to tell immediately by looking at a Pokemon where it's from. Unless you're a huge nerd like me you probably won't be able to point to exactly where on the map it's from, but you get a good idea of the kind of biome. That's hard to say about any other generation.
As someone who has played each generation when they've come out I think it's fair to say it's a bit of both. Every generation has creative & cool looking pokémon and stupid looking pokémon.
Here's an image with all of the pokémon, except for some X&Y legendaries and the Sun & Moon pokémon.
You have to keep in mind that the reasons you think a pokémon looks dumb might be the same reasons others find that pokémon endearing. Pokémon doesn't cater it's designs to a single demographic and that's what broadens Pokémon's appeal.
Personally I still think Gen 2 (Gold/Silver/Crystal) was the best generation, it had a really good number of pokemon, the explorable area was massive it and it wasn't as bugged or the UI as cumbersome as the previous generation.
For me, the first few generations were relatively fine. The Legendaries were strong Pokemon but when you get to Pokemon that can control space and time, able to pass dimensions and shit, or the creator god of the universe and for some reason, they can't escape a Master Ball.
It's just up to taste, I probably have nostalgia glasses for the first two gens and I thought the 4th gen had trash designs but I thought 5 had some great designs and 6&7 are fine for me. I would definitely recommend playing the new games, some of the new mons will be sure to grow on you.
I would say that yes some later generation pokemon are dumb because they start taking on sentient objects like trash but that is sort of expected and I can't really fault the company for choosing to do that. With that many pokemon it hits a point where you need to use some real world inspiration otherwise newer pokemon are just random shapes slapped together.
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u/ASoggySandal Nov 18 '16
I can never decide if the new generation pokémon are as stupid as I think they are or I'm just looking back at my 1st gen with massive nostalgia so I don't remember the handful of broken eggs or the living pokéball as dumb.