>>38035729I have a knack for being able to tell troubled designs, especially those that hit conceptual dead ends or victims of art block.
I always thought Blastoise was the black sheep of the Gen 1 trio because the tank properties were too on the nose and literal, fucking literal cannons out of nowhere instead of a more subdued approach. That and the Zinogane stuff ended up being worthless and unnecessary. Then the leaks come out and it turns out it was very likely that Blastoise belonged to a different line after all.
I always thought Blaziken felt like an odd hodgepodge that didn't blend properly. Then concept art that shows that Latias and Blaziken used to be the same Pokémon until they split them up and developed them separately.
Samurott seemed like an unnatural mess that clearly showed that GF was confused as to what to make of the oshawott line. Then it turned out that they LITERALLY had artist block and had to brainstorm based on zoo visits to complete the line.
I actually don't think it's particularly hard to tell when this is the case.
