Thread: Does anyone else have a problem with some pokemon's sprites?

Originally Posted by Xenidal

Originally Posted by Te-em

I have problem with that details have been removed from sprites after Gen I, and I think the Super Game Boy colours look better than the colours used on the DS. I have no problem with the Pokemon animations, just the attack animations.

What details were removed? Generation I was drawn in a different style but it was in no way "more detailed". Everything in Generation I was super-simplified so that it would look good on the original Game Boy. And not just sprites... the designs themselves were less detailed.
And I do like the Super Game Boy colors, but as a style thing. I don't think that they're "better" than Generation V.

I'm not sure the detail thing goes for all Pokemon, but at least I've noticed that many details have been removed.

This Pokemon has a spiral horn and I see some detail on the fin on its back, and I think this was removed later.
Looks like scales, but these were also removed, at least from the back sprite.
There is a pattern on the body that was removed.
This early sprite is also very detailed.

I looked for some improved details, and see it's also the other way around.
The new sprite has another pattern on its body and the wing pattern look more than just highlights.

I expect that a newer game should have at least the same details as the games before, and expectations play a big role in how you judge the game. I find it easier to see when something is missing than when something is added, because you always have an older version to compare to. My guess about the removed patterns on some of the Pokemon is that the spriters saw no need in these details because the new colours could make up for it. My other guess is that details disappeared with Yellow version when the sprites were supposed to look more cartoonish. About the colours, the Super GB colours are not better in that sense of the word, it's just my own opinion, I think the colours chosen for the DS Pokemon games are far too bright and intense.

Originally Posted by Te-em

I'm not sure the detail thing goes for all Pokemon, but at least I've noticed that many details have been removed.
. . .

I see. I hadn't noticed any of that stuff.

Magazone in Gen 5. Where are the awesome red and blue colors on it's magnets?

The only time I had problems with the sprites was green Mew and english RB Golbat.

The mew looked really terrible in green.

As for the golbat in english RB, what was with that tongue and it's head was stretched out. Even japanese green had a better Golbat sprite than english RB.

Blue version Machop has deeply troubled me since I was a child. It looks as though it was a man who was very very happy to be run over.

I also don't like Azurill's fifth generation sprite because it looks so sad! Even if it's sad in it's artwork, in battle, it feels like I'm terrorizing a baby. I shouldn't have conflicting emotions during a battle.

Originally Posted by Fair Verona

I also don't like Azurill's fifth generation sprite because it looks so sad! Even if it's sad in it's artwork, in battle, it feels like I'm terrorizing a baby. I shouldn't have conflicting emotions during a battle.

Well, arguably, that's what the story of B/W is about...


Anyway...
Chikorita's overworld sprite.
It looks like some deformed potato. Really, you'd think the very first example one third of the players would see of an hyped feature wouldn't look... so terrible. The proportions of its head and face are just nonsense, the leaf is tiny... they could've just done much better.

It was my only starter I evolved early just so I didn't have to look at how a pokémon I liked looked so terrible.


Specially if you go and compare it with the much better Mystery Dungeon sprite. Sure enough, it's much larger there, too, but it's not a problem with detail...

Typhlosion's BW sprite is atrocious. The lower jaw looks deformed and it has this really prominent, blunt looking buck tooth.

The Mew/Celebi sprites from Gen IV/V. They make 2 of the cutest pokemon downright ugly and they're atrocious when animated.

Originally Posted by Infinity Mk-II

Originally Posted by Fair Verona

I also don't like Azurill's fifth generation sprite because it looks so sad! Even if it's sad in it's artwork, in battle, it feels like I'm terrorizing a baby. I shouldn't have conflicting emotions during a battle.

Well, arguably, that's what the story of B/W is about...


Anyway...
Chikorita's overworld sprite.
It looks like some deformed potato. Really, you'd think the very first example one third of the players would see of an hyped feature wouldn't look... so terrible. The proportions of its head and face are just nonsense, the leaf is tiny... they could've just done much better.

It was my only starter I evolved early just so I didn't have to look at how a pokémon I liked looked so terrible.


Specially if you go and compare it with the much better Mystery Dungeon sprite. Sure enough, it's much larger there, too, but it's not a problem with detail...

That's EXACTLY what I thought about Chikorita when I first played HGSS. Its eyes were ridiculously HUGE.

I also don't like Litwick's sprite...to me it looks like a creepy cyclops or something.

Edit: Please ignore the attached picture of Litwick's creepy sprite, I can't figure out how to remove it. :\

Well..I hate most Pokemon sprites. But one that REALLY bothers me is Rayquaza's Gen IV sprite, IT LOOKS LIKE ITS HAVING A SEIZURE?!?!

I am not a huge fan of Vaporeon's Gen III backsprite. It looks like its neck fin thing is too big for its head.

I didn't like Lucario's HG/SS sprite.......it was too lame looking to me

I really disliked the 1st Gen Pokemon sprites; some of them were just frightening. I also disliked Jolteon's HG/SS sprite and Oshawott's B/W sprite; the latter didn't do the Pokemon justice in my opinion.

I found Electivire's moving sprite for Gen V a bit weird, what was with that jump?

Magmortar's on the other hand... That moving pose fits the cocky looking beast so well...

Hm, a lot actually. Most of the Diamond and Pearl sprites bother me actually and I'm not sure exactly why. But if you play Platinum for awhile then play Diamond or Pearl you'll see what I mean.
Even so, a lot of the sprites in the new gens are just ugh. Granted, in Platinum they got better, then in HeartGold and SoulSilver they were in even better then Platinum but they still fail in several places. I would note whether Black and White made improvements but you can't tell half the time if they did because the sprites move around all the time.
Okay, let's compare some good sprites next to some bad sprites:
Clefairy


Vulpix


Dragonite



If you will notice the second Pokemon in the first pairs are examples of poor poses. A battle pose, a cute pose or even a standard pose would have been better then what they did here. Sitting down, running away, and the weird hand pose, these are not things a Pokemon should just be doing during a fight.
Now, I showed the sitting Clefairy next to another Clefairy in a similar pose for a reason and that is to show how a pose like that can work. The Clefairy in the former pose is not sitting; it is clearly off the ground as if it was jumping or more likely floating. This works because it shows that Clefairy is in an action, that it is moving. While the other Clefairy is clearly just sitting on the ground. I want to shout "Get up Clefairy! You're in a Pokemon battle!!!" Every time I see it which is often because in Sinnoh Clefaries are quite common. (Also, on another point, notice how the former Clefairy has feet while the other just has toes with no real foot attached to them. This is quite common in Clefairy art nowindays but I'm not sure why they choose such a horrible way to portray Clefairy's feet.)
The Vulpix is pretty self explanatory. It's running away!!! I'm not saying that every Pokemon has to be in an attack pose like the former Vulpix but at least don't have it look like it's scared to fight. I'm not sure if this was done because the artist didn't know how to draw Vulpix from the front with out it looking awkward (which seems to be the case judging from the other sprites of Vulpix) or he just didn't care for Vulpix, but that's no excuse for making Vulpix moon us. (Also, if she's facing away from us in the front sprite shouldn't she be facing towards us in the back sprite?)
Dragonite, I just don't know what they were doing here. Maybe they wanted it to look like he was using a move, like he was using the move... I don't know what move he could possibly be doing in that position but still he could be doing an attack, maybe. The point of a Pokemon's pose in generally is to get across what kind of Pokemon it is to us. Whether it is a lovable Pokemon, a creepy Pokemon, a calm Pokemon, can be shown by simply seeing how it holds it's self. With this pose we can only assume that Dragonite is a Pokemon that, likes holding stuff, maybe, I still don't quite know.

Then we go over to the second pairs of Pokemon where they just did not know how the draw these Pokemon. I feel like who ever they got to draw these certain Pokemon didn't know how to draw well. Then again, I actually don't know what went on behind the scenes. Who drew what or if it was a team effort or maybe it was one guy drawing all of them but there are some serious faults here.
I'm going to go over these quickly since they're mostly self explanatory and I've already made a huge wall of text. Clefairy is two short, not oval enough and face is too large. Vulpix's muzzle is misshapen, it's entire body structure is too thin and she doesn't really have a neck. Dragonite's head is too small as are it's wings which also misshapen and it's body is not curvy enough.

Now, I'm not saying that all the new generation sprites are bad, in fact most of them wouldn't be as bad if the animations didn't involve stretching, skewing, and shifting them around so that you can clearly see they're made of pixels. And I'm also not saying that all the old sprites were the best. Many of them had their problems though I give the earliest ones a little slack since it's clear that they were based on sketches that weren't really, what's the word I'm looking for, "clean" I guess (I really, really, really doubt they were drawn based on the official artwork considering how radically different many of them are from the artwork we know of, and especially since the so called r/g artwork is not even the oldest official artwork). I suppose I don't really know what went on for sure but it's evident that they didn't really have a clear idea of what the Pokemon should look like at the time and they were trying out these looks for them.
The new generations have no excuse. They know what they want their Pokemon to look like and yet they can't get them to be drawn correctly! I don't know, maybe they're trying new styles with the Pokemon but I don't see why they would do that. These Pokemon look fine as was. Vulpix looked like a fox, Dragonite looked like Dragon, and Clefairy looked like a fairy. Okay, they weren't your a-typical fox, dragon, and fairy but they looked like they could be. To be honest, it doesn't look like they're doing that here. It really looks like they don't know how to draw these characters and that is just sad.