Pokemon designs that were ruined by 3D models

Maybe I'm secretly holding grudge to the Eeveelutions? This is third post about complaint to them.

Vaporeon. Few generations before she looks pretty with her pose that seems to at least signify dynamic motion of her fin-tail.
Now in Gen6 onward, she's reduced to wagging her tail in such flat manner with only occasional flipping motion.
--->


Maybe if the Eeveelutions' models are made in the sitting pose, it could be different, but....
 
Typhlosion's flames are not supposed to be out all the time. When they could only give us one pose in each sprite, it made sense to show the flames, which come out when it attacks/uses them.
They were out all the time in the previous generations, so what's the deal now? Without these flames he looks like a Normal type...

Cant believe nobody mentioned Scizor! His transition from 2D to 3D is one of the worst imo. In his 2D animated sprites he looked fierce and ready to go to war, but in his 3D sprite he just stands there as if it doesnt even want to battle in the first place. Gamefreak really ruined a great model if you ask me.

Miles better than
It's realy hard to make 3D model so dynamic just like that. GF had to do shit ton of models for ALL Pokemon, including new ones from gen 6 and when gen 7 came out, new models accualy had some cool details, (Decidueye, Incineroar etc.) because previous Pokemon had their 3D models done, so GF had more time polishing newer ones.

Maybe I'm secretly holding grudge to the Eeveelutions? This is third post about complaint to them.

Vaporeon. Few generations before she looks pretty with her pose that seems to at least signify dynamic motion of her fin-tail.
Now in Gen6 onward, she's reduced to wagging her tail in such flat manner with only occasional flipping motion.
--->


Maybe if the Eeveelutions' models are made in the sitting pose, it could be different, but....
You mean something like this?
-->


MOD EDIT: Merged triple posts. Please use the Edit button next time, instead of making new posts.
 
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Inspirited

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I remember first seeing it in Pokemon White and not really liking it for the first split second due to it being deep black everywhere except for the top of its horn(?) and its eyes, but then accents lit up mid-animation and it instantly became one of my favorite designs ever. From the back, its eyes look more proportional and its tail and arm accents look even better when they show themselves.

I guess they needed a downsized animation loop due to how taxing that can be when applied to 3d models, but this was still disappointing. The attacking animations are neat but they are so frantic that its accents don't really get the chance to show like they did in BW (you can only really see the tail accent while it is attacking). Now it is just several shades of deep black (not even as deep black as its BW counterpart) which, while fitting the Pokemon, doesn't really make it all that interesting to look at. They even removed its permanent accent at the tip of its horn which is a shame. It does look a little bit more fierce from the front, but this was a severe downgrade in my eyes.
 
The Snorlax model used in Stadium, the Orre GameCube games, and I think Battle Revolution actually had it lying down on its back. It got up when attacking, and iirc one of its animations was a belly flop.
I imagine battling as a dynamic fight, like presented in anime. Not as a turn based command-telling. Imagine WW2 having that format, that would be stupid. For example, if Ash's Snorlax would lie down every time he's not attacking, he would most likely lost every battle.
 
In a similar case to Typhlosion, we have Hippowdon.

The original sprite shows Hippowdon, to quote the Pokedex, "brandishing its gaping mouth in a display of fearsome strength." It also shows sand pouring out of its body. The 3D model is just a funky-looking hippo.
His open mouth looks gross, so for me it accualy went better


I remember first seeing it in Pokemon White and not really liking it for the first split second due to it being deep black everywhere except for the top of its horn(?) and its eyes, but then accents lit up mid-animation and it instantly became one of my favorite designs ever. From the back, its eyes look more proportional and its tail and arm accents look even better when they show themselves.

I guess they needed a downsized animation loop due to how taxing that can be when applied to 3d models, but this was still disappointing. The attacking animations are neat but they are so frantic that its accents don't really get the chance to show like they did in BW (you can only really see the tail accent while it is attacking). Now it is just several shades of deep black (not even as deep black as its BW counterpart) which, while fitting the Pokemon, doesn't really make it all that interesting to look at. They even removed its permanent accent at the tip of its horn which is a shame. It does look a little bit more fierce from the front, but this was a severe downgrade in my eyes.
He doesn't look like either Dragon or Electric type, expecialy without his glowing tail. But I guess they had point of downgrading him, due to 3DS animation limits. Maybe in future, newer consoles will handle better graphics, so they can make him look way better.


Went from having cool poses or animations all the way since gen 2 to being very boring and stiff, very disappointing for my favorite mon.
None of these poses look good. It's not I dislike Steelix, but either extreme wobbling or standing still doesnt fit him. Something between these two would be perfect.
 
He is battling, ya know? It's hard to battle while lying on the ground...
I would just point out that Snorlax is designed to be a lazy pokemon as stated by his pokedex entries. I like the fact that Snorlax was lying down in his early sprites; I think it also helps show that the pokemon world doesn't completely revolve around battling, you can have some pokes that are simply lazy / less inclined to battling / more defensive (even tho Snorlax is quite competent offensively too).

And about battling on the ground, I think Slaking is a good example of it being possible. In Colosseum and XD, Slaking causes tremors on the ground simply by yawning and pounding his fists.
 
I would just point out that Snorlax is designed to be a lazy pokemon as stated by his pokedex entries. I like the fact that Snorlax was lying down in his early sprites; I think it also helps show that the pokemon world doesn't completely revolve around battling, you can have some pokes that are simply lazy / less inclined to battling / more defensive (even tho Snorlax is quite competent offensively too).

And about battling on the ground, I think Slaking is a good example of it being possible. In Colosseum and XD, Slaking causes tremors on the ground simply by yawning and pounding his fists.
There are two options: Snorlax is ready steady for a battle or he is Ash's Charizard in disguise. Pokemon Stadium maybe showed it's possible, only in turn-based battling. In normal battling it doesnt make any sense...
 

Deleted User 400951

Banned deucer.
Let's talk legendaries. In general, legendary Pokémon were hit hard by the transition, and they no longer look quite as cool.
In it's Stadium2 model Steelix's...spiky steel boulder...things...are rotating which I think works really well for it. Motion without looking all over the place like its BW sprite.

I do like the animation, but that's not how the cry should be though. That's a terrible cry for a Steelix. It's not a dinosaur.
Now, for a real post: Beedrill. 3D did not bode him well (though his mega evolution is gr8):

It actually looks pretty cool.

And now... it's more realistic but it kind of sucks. Nothing as badass.

In addition, Poliwrath also kind of sucks.

He looked kind of cool...

Now he looks more like a frog, but at the cost of what made him seem cool: A better fighting pose and, as with every Pokémon, the shading.
 
Let's talk legendaries. In general, legendary Pokémon were hit hard by the transition, and they no longer look quite as cool.

I do like the animation, but that's not how the cry should be though. That's a terrible cry for a Steelix. It's not a dinosaur.
Now, for a real post: Beedrill. 3D did not bode him well (though his mega evolution is gr8):

It actually looks pretty cool.

And now... it's more realistic but it kind of sucks. Nothing as badass.

In addition, Poliwrath also kind of sucks.

He looked kind of cool...

Now he looks more like a frog, but at the cost of what made him seem cool: A better fighting pose and, as with every Pokémon, the shading.
Beedrill: 2D sprite looks deformed as hell. If not the Mega, he would be forgotten as hell. Fun fact: when I was young, in SoulSilver I gave TM Roost from 1sst gym to Beedrill, cause I liked him so much.

Poliwrath: He never looked like a frog tho. He doesnt even look like a Fighting type, what the hell. That doesn't mean I dislike him. But getting him in SoulSilver is pain in the ass (at least the Water Stone). His 2D looks nice, 3D looks less nice, but more realisticly.
 
Let's talk legendaries. In general, legendary Pokémon were hit hard by the transition, and they no longer look quite as cool.

I do like the animation, but that's not how the cry should be though. That's a terrible cry for a Steelix. It's not a dinosaur.
Now, for a real post: Beedrill. 3D did not bode him well (though his mega evolution is gr8):

It actually looks pretty cool.

And now... it's more realistic but it kind of sucks. Nothing as badass.

In addition, Poliwrath also kind of sucks.

He looked kind of cool...

Now he looks more like a frog, but at the cost of what made him seem cool: A better fighting pose and, as with every Pokémon, the shading.
I dig the idle pose for beedrill and poliwrath. Poliwrath now has an actual fighting pose instead of...whatever he's going for in the gen 5 sprite.

Gen 5's poses were also mayeb a bit too hyper sometimes, honestly. I think they went for that style because they didn't have specific move animations.

Honestly most of the 3D models don't bug me that much. I prefer the more reigned in idle poses than some of the nonsense stadium did, for instance.
That said you absolutely get the feeling that some pokemon weren't necessarily made with 3D in mind. GEn 5's pokemon in particular felt like they had to go back and redo several of them to have actual proportions that wouldn't look awkward. The difference between Archeops' sprite & sugimori artwork and literally every other depiction of it (anime, etc) are almost different enough to rival some of those weird gen 2 sprites where they were still ironiing things out.

Speaking of animations, someone earlier said they probably didn't have enough time to do more fancy ones and I miiiight agree. But not just because they had to remake 649 pokemon in 3D (+gen 6), they also had to give them a full suite of pokemonamie animations. Did you know like every dang pokemon has a unique sleeping animation??? It's crazy. I'll stand by what I literally just said and say I like the idle animations on the whole, but compare gen 7's crop of pokemon to most of the rest; a lot more animated over all. And they could probably afford to put the time into that because they could focus on the 80 pokemon and their formes.

It'll be interesting to see how they'll update these going to switch. I don't see them remaking every model from scratch, but they'll probably need to touch some of them up and I'd hope they brighten the colors.
 

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I remember first seeing it in Pokemon White and not really liking it for the first split second due to it being deep black everywhere except for the top of its horn(?) and its eyes, but then accents lit up mid-animation and it instantly became one of my favorite designs ever. From the back, its eyes look more proportional and its tail and arm accents look even better when they show themselves.

I guess they needed a downsized animation loop due to how taxing that can be when applied to 3d models, but this was still disappointing. The attacking animations are neat but they are so frantic that its accents don't really get the chance to show like they did in BW (you can only really see the tail accent while it is attacking). Now it is just several shades of deep black (not even as deep black as its BW counterpart) which, while fitting the Pokemon, doesn't really make it all that interesting to look at. They even removed its permanent accent at the tip of its horn which is a shame. It does look a little bit more fierce from the front, but this was a severe downgrade in my eyes.
also the shiny form is honestly so underwhelming in xy, like look at the differences here



now look at them here



why are the shiny colorations switched ?_? anyway the electric glow in gen 5 just adds so much more to the sprite, in gen 6 it just looks like a dinosaur or something with wings and a generator tail.

however keep in mind that i haven't seen the 3d attack animations yet because i can't find them anywhere online so yeah lol if you know where to find them then 3d zekrom can be redeemed maybe
 
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think pretty much every Pokemon looks worse as a 3D model than as a sprite. Lots of Pokemon like Hydreigon, Scizor, Ferrothorn, Heracross, and Magmortar lost a lot of the charm that made them look really cool in previous games.

Granted, I think this may just be a result of the 3DS's graphical limitations. Lots of textures don't look as detailed as they should, and most Pokemon don't really look or behave as dynamically as they could. Pokemon like Scizor and Zekrom are the perfect examples of these flaws.
 
I'm convinced that only Pokemon that fly have legitimately worse idle animations in the Gen VI and VII games than before, and even then... they have nice Pokemon Amie/Refresh idle animations, which they somehow never tried to use outside of Sky Battles, but whatever.

That being said, 3D models have made me appreciate some Pokemon I didn't care much about before. For example...



What's so special about this guy? Not bad, but certainly Rhydon looks better.



Then he looks really cute here and now I prefer Rhyperior over Rhydon in its line.
 
I'm convinced that only Pokemon that fly have legitimately worse idle animations in the Gen VI and VII games than before, and even then... they have nice Pokemon Amie/Refresh idle animations, which they somehow never tried to use outside of Sky Battles, but whatever.
.
Honestly, most of the flying Pokemon are fine, the only problems are most of the ones that just sort of hang there in midair (and a lot of that is probably because their wings don't actually make any goddamn sense as functional structures so they'd probably look just as dumb flapping them).

A lot of peoples' problems with the models are like that, a lot of the models expose weird bits of Pokemon design that sprites can obscure but a full 3D model simply can't. They're also less dynamic by design than the sprites, because they're meant to be a neutral default pose (there's actually a lot of detail in their other animations, though, but no one ever seems to talk about those for some reason).
 

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