>>53214167You're the zoomer if you think the sprotes used to be based on the sugimori artworks at any point. In the first gen, specifically with red and green the sprites came first and sugimori's artwork was just his interpretation of the sprites, which is why there is such a discrepancy between the sprites and artwork. In gens 2 and 3 they worked on the sprites and changed them multiple times until they were satisfied, at which point sugi would "finalize" the designs in his artworks. That is why you see beta sprites that are starkly different from what made it into the game. In gen 4 they were slowly shifting away from aprites being the primary design medium and from gen 5 onward the sprites and models were based on concept art with the official sugi art always coming at the end. In gen 7 they only change to how they operated was that other artists started making official pokemon art
