Okay, let's see if I can converse about this properly (still haven't played XY, but I think that I have somewhat of a grasp on the VS Sprite implementation.. >_>)
I'm of the opinion that mugshots (the hand drawn art) was included because Ken Sugimori is still a big part of the company and is still being paid to draw official artwork of new Pokemon/Dream World renditions, and this also includes NPCs and other characters. They were probably included as an attempt to keep a bit of the old style of games alive and to not discredit his work, as it was only usually used for publishing in CoroCoro and other magazines that published Pokemon-related news.
But don't the various official
Pokemon websites use it for online media as well (online Pokedexes; Facebook and Twitter posts, occasional scenes in YouTube videos, etc.), in addition to the various official game guides and "Pokedex" guides (and instruction manuals that get packaged with the game)? I don't see how the artwork would get discredited...a lot of modern games have lots of conceptual artwork that isn't even present in the game itself (more for promotional purposes), so I don't see why Ken Sugimori's artwork needs to be shoehorned in as VS Sprites.. :/
I thought they where saving it for important characters, which is why I was so baffled at the lack of models for gym leaders, elite 4 and the champion!
I understand your logic, but sadly the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Champion of Kalos are just not important. They serve no purpose in the plot and are simply hollow shells for you to battle. I can honestly see why they were "grouped" with the generic NPCs and only given 2D art for their introductions.
The league members of Hoenn are a little bit better (Steven and Wallace definitely have importance to the plot) but at that point I'd still like to see their epic 2D art introduce them.
*gasps* LOL; the League members
should be important; they're the ones who started the whole "VS Sprite/Artwork" feature in the first place! {XD}
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire had rudimentary versions of it for the Elite Four and Champion (being a blown-up/resized version of the battle sprites) that later got expanded, so I would think that they should get enhanced introductions. And IIRC, Iris (in
Pokemon Black 2/White 2) was the only Trainer who received full-body VS Sprite artwork in addition to the player character.. I don't see how Team Flare's battle introductions should get prioritized over the Champion's..!
X and Y not only changed how we saw our Pokemon in battle, but also changed how we saw many of the trainers.
This was done in two ways, we either saw 3D trainers sending out their Pokemon (Team Flare) and we saw other trainers in the form of big sprites(is sprite still the word? Maybe artwork) covering the top screen before battle.
So, my question, is it time to abandon the artwork and go purely for 3D models of trainers? This may be a controversial topic to discuss as anime/sprites/artwork/mugshots has been a staple in the Pokemon franchise since day one.
Personally? I'm ready for change, I felt having half artwork, half 3D felt a bit odd to me, I think it's time for everything to be in glorious 3D.
What do you guys think?
I tend to look at the Sugimori artwork (which looks awesome regardless) a lot if it's displayed online, so I would rather have custom "VS artwork" right before the battle (like Generation 5 games did), be it 2D or 3D (although I guess a unique "VS" 3D model would be more fitting; apparently this was in XY..?).
During battle, all Trainers should have 3D "Poke Ball-throwing" models at the very least - otherwise, it feels like you're removing the battle sprites from past
Pokemon core series games (I mean, Game Freak even went the extra mile to animate everyone's sprite in battle for
Pokemon Black 2/White 2!). It would be quite ambitious for
everyone to have unique VS artwork that
isn't a simple re-using of the Ken Sugimori artwork, but I would be fine if that was saved for Gym Leaders, Elite 4 members, Champions, Frontier Brains, the rival, and the crime syndicate "Bosses" (like Maxie or Archie) and administrators (like Tabitha and Shelly).