Thinking back on the criticism towards the 3D models, I started wondering how much of it comes from the fact that preXY pokemon were originally designed directly as sprites. Sure, there was concept art, but in the end the goal was to represent them as sprites, so maybe the reason they often look less natural in 3D is because they simply weren’t conceived with 3D in mind in the first place.
On the other hand, when you compare a modern 3D model of a Pokémon to a well made fanmade sprite, it just doesn’t hit the same way.
>inb4 "but the Genius Sonority models were way more expressive"
Sure, but they were also much more stylized and cartoonish compared to the ones made by Creatures, so they could better capture the sprite energy and dynamism. What do you think