>>44181815Most of Gen 2's dex is just circles, painted a primary colour, with a smiley face slapped on it
For all people bitch about new gens being cartoony, theres nothing as bland and simplistic as most Johtomons.
I'm convinced people just see Gen 1 and 2 having similar spritework, and that tricks them into thinking the designs of the Pokemon are the same too.
Look through the dex at how many of the designs are literally just balls with added features. And even the ones that aren't, there's a strong tendency towards much smoother, rounded shapes than in the other Gens.
>Sentret is a ball with a tail, Furret is longer but still very rounded and cutsey>Hoothoot, Natu, Marill, Quilfish, Swinub, Corsola are just balls with features>Ledyba is circular, Ledian is made up entirely of circles>Crobat looks nothing like Zubat/Golbat, and is just a purple ball with wings>Chinchou is just a ball with features, Lanturn is a cartoon fish with a smiley face>Hoppip is a pink ball with a smiley face that changes colour twice for evolutions >Aipom has a cute smiley face >Yanma is a dragonfly with a cartoon smiley face>Sunflora has a cute smiley face>Quagsire, Azumarill and Wobbuffet are all blue ovals with a smiley face>Dunsparce is made up of circles>Scizor smooths all of Scyther's rough sharp edges >Teddiursa is very cute and rounded >Octillery is very simple and rounded>Hitmontop is meant to be a Hitmon but looks far more cartoony That's not even all of them, and that's not even mentioning the endless babies tha are all the same cutesy shit.
Obviously there are great designs too, as in every Gen, Skarmory, Xatu, Mantine stand out to me as being pretty great. And I'm not even saying that EVERY Pokemon above is bad - theres a place for simplistic and cute designs (Wigglytuff is my favourite), variety is the foundation of the series.
But to say there wasn't a huge shift in design philosophy between Gens 1 and 2 is insane to me.
