>>40620103This right here is one of the lesser discussed reason for series decline. Before, a new generation would mean NEW SPRITES. New poses of old mons, new ways of showing off their personalities, it was exciting. It gave the games more identity too, because the spriting style was different in each generation - so the art style overall reflected that.
Now that we're on 3D, we've had the SAME looks since X/Y. See that Pikachu model? Glad you enjoy it, you'll see it in EVERY game from now on (even spinoffs!) It's part of what makes the new games feel so bland. They're following this uniform style to try to fit with the models, and it just makes them all look so fucking samey, even if they try doing tricks like changing the lighting or tweaking the textures. It doesn't give you the same feel as you had as a kid when you were porting over all your old bros and seeing how they look in a new style.
Look at this. Look at how absolutely ALIVE everyone looks. Recognize that the artists had to take the time to put effort into capturing a still pose of these creatures that gives you an idea of who they are and what they do. With models, now we're just reduced to idle animations that feel half baked and will remain the SAME until whenever TPC feels they're outdated enough to issue an update for them.
It's really sad, from an artistic perspective. Unironically one of the best examples of the SOUL vs SOULESS memes that are spouted ad-nauseum. There was actually a conscious effort that was required as a necessity for the old games that's absent from newer games.
