New Pokemon look as if they're made from plastic, with inorganic features that seem far more loosely inspired by natural anatomical systems, and instead the more stylised, exaggerated designs of western cartoons. Obviously Pokemon always had its outlandish stuff like Voltorb, Mr Mime, Muk, and Jynx, but for a time, they seemed to be the outliers, rather than majority. And it was very rare that you saw one that you couldn't imagine existing somehow in real life - compared to say the strange, origami-like designs of Necrozma, Eternatus, and Duraludon.
There's also less naturalistic use of colour. Tons of the newer pokemon tend to have flat out garish, uncomplicated pallete's like the Impidimp family or Bolthund, and end up resembling blow-up dolls because of it.
Take a look at Crabominable for example, everyone already agrees it's an utter shambles design-wise, but why?
For me, apart from it being a complete mishmash of ideas that just don't work well together, it's the eyes and teeth, they look like they're stuck on with construction paper. The entire egg-body looks as if it could fall apart at any moment. The claw-paws are a bewildering blend of primate and crustacean limbs that don't seem to take into account how either of those appendages typically function or even stay upright.
I don't know, maybe it's all a result of the western art team, or the fact that they're forced into adapting relevant cultural material at a superficial level to justify the regions being inspired by real-world places, but there's definitely been a marked difference in how they design Pokemon, and I hardly think it's for the better.
