>>54017291They found Johto’s dex too childish and wanted the monster designs to be cool again
No joke
https://lavacutcontent.com/sugimori-masuda-gen-3-interview/>"I see. Most Pokemon in Gold & Silver were of the cute variety, but this time…”>Sugimori: “Indeed, there were a lot of kiddy designs, and some fans were starting to say Pokemon had become too babyish, so one theme for Ruby & Sapphire was returning to the coolness of monsters.>“In your previous interview at the time of Gold & Silver (February 2000 issue), you said when you were designing Pokemon, you had to consider merchandising, and that created some constraints.”>Sugimori: “Rather than constraints, I’d say we were careful about a lot of things. Like we’d say ‘if we don’t make a Pokemon this way, they’ll be difficult to animate in the TV show.’ We didn’t really think about those kinds of things this time, which might be bad for the anime staff and independent artists.” 