>>57996794Ok so basically the whole idea with Gold was that he had a kinda more x-treme look compared to Red, with the backwards cap and more fashionable baggy clothing that was meant to make him look like a bit of a skaterboy with a rebel streak, which was all the rage in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The remake design for Ethan gave him a form fitting outfit which throws basically all of those design sensibilities out except for a loose color scheme similarity (and even then they couldn't bother with the pants matching his hat) and no clear direction for what his new design is meant to communicate about him or his environment.
The new art style also gives him much softer features which I feel like the Gen 1 characters didn't suffer quite as hard from in their remakes, and his hairstyle just looks awful without the more jagged edges of the classic Sugimori style.
That said it's not like Ethan is an offensively bad design, but it's such a downgrade from Gold that it's more noticeable than, say, Brendan who always kinda looked like shit.
