What makes a good pokemon design ?
- A concept based on an original and precise animal / vegetal / mineral / other that hasn't been taken as a source of inspiration yet, with strong features, or a merging of different animals that have common features.
Bad example : Moltres ( generic stork / crane as a phenix, just look like a birb on which fire has been tacked ) Good example : Talonflame ( french buzzard as a phenix, fire matches with the pattern of this actual bird's feathers )
- The features of the beast connected to an elemental aspect ( fire, poison, ground ) it mustn't be random or tacked without making any sense.
Bad : Pansage ( grass tacked on a monkey ) Good : Serperior ( Slow worm / Snake shape that commingles with ivy creepers )
- An inspiration taken in existing creatures and myths, legend... ( especially in Japanese lore, mixed with other ones ) and a renewal of this symbol, the concept can also stick with it transparently, but it must fit with Pokemon lore and the type.
Bad : Drampa ( what a poor execution of the barely recognizable Zhulong, which is related to China and sun itself... ) Good : Gyarados, no need to further explain what it's based on.
- This creature and its power must bring something to the aesthetic and properties of its type, a way to ponder about what is the poetic of this very type ( ex - psychic : psychology ( drowzee ) omniscience ( slowbro ) cosmos ( deoxys ) spirituality ( medicham ) dream ( mushana ) antic knowledge ( archeodong ) ... )
good : Hariyama ( sumotori, one of the fighting styles ) Bad : Breloom ( Kangaroo / Mushroom, how is this related to the concept of fighting and righteousness ? Okay, Kangaroo, boxing, that's not enough, there are other boxers )