>>52245696The thing is that the sprites weren't even "off-model" but rather they were made before sugimori overhauled the whole dex with the revisionist artwork that standardized the designs. The sprites are a more accurate reflection of how the pokemon were initially conceptualized, for instance they are much closer to the concept art they were based on. A lot was lost with the artwork revisionism, for instance people give dragonite shit for looking nothing like dragonair when the original dragonite from red and green was actually much more elongated and serpentine and it's belly strips matched those of the original draitini.
