>>53347047I just think that gen 2-4 were overall more focused on the natural world of Pokemon and the games reflected this in various immersive features that didn't add that much but helped sell the world (nocturnal pokemon, outbreaks, stuff like that).
The pokemon designs were very animalistic, while gen 4 has its problems design wise in a few cases, I feel like overall during that time a lot of the designs just felt a lot more believable as creatures.
Gen 1 has a bit of this too but its also got a lot of very weird mons, a lot of strange beings that don't really feel like creatures that live in an ecosystem, and even some of the ones that do feel like actual creatures end up in a weird spot due to additional mechanics added in gen 2 (Kangaskhan, Cubone, Nidoran, etc.).
I'm not saying people cant like the more abstract pop culture sorta designs but for me personally I really preferred the series during that era. I feel like the sorta soft reboot they did in Gen 3 really nailed what I personally hoped Pokemon would be. and Gen 4 sorta built upon that even if it didn't always do everything great in some areas.
But Gen 7, 8, and 9 have gone REALLY gimmicky with the designs, I feel like every single new pokemon has something to "get", like they're all trying to be clever or some sort of visual joke or pun rather than just being a creature you want to befriend and train. They can get really gimmicky designs, almost everything has some one-off unique ability that completely defines the pokemon, in general they just feel more like characters than creatures. Which I guess does sorta call back to some designs of Gen 1, but its not personally what I like and the higher the % of designs that conform to this standard, the less appealing I find the world of Pokemon.
