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does anyone else miss sprites?

i miss sprites too, but as someone who grew up with spinoffs more during the sprite era (pokemon stadium 2/pokemon colosseum/pokemon XD), i'm more fond of models. the execution of models can definitely be better, though.
 
yeahhh :( one that comes to mind is wooper from swsh, couldn't find the exact image I'm thinking of online so I pulled someone's youtube video cover:

Spoiler:


when wooper appears in the wild its intro animation has it open its mouth, and since it's just drawn on with no depth it looks really bad imo. stuff like that wouldn't be a problem with sprites!
 
Sprites were way better :( they didn't have to be, there are plenty of games that do models right but in Pokemon they're a) kind of bland and colourless b) not animated with anywhere near the personality the BW sprites were. instead of having some cute idle loop expressive of their personality they basically just sway back and forth.

Sooome of them are better at this, I remember thinking the models in LGPE looked beautiful bc they were more colourful, higher res and matched the environments, but the animations were still bland as hell. I think with sprites, especially static sprites my brain is willing to accept some lack of quality because I know it's a compressed look, but when you have a fully 3D animated battle scene it realllyyyy calls attention to the remaining glaring problems for me, like "wait, why is every pokemon just swaying back and forth," "wait, half the move animations still look like trash". etc etc.

In general I like where they've been going with the Gen 8 (counting LGPE) battles and they definitely look WAY better than the 3DS era, but honestly they should have just stuck with sprites.
 
for what it's worth, i prefer static sprites and maybe a few frames of animation aka Emerald/Platinum-esque era sprites rather than Gen 5's weird bouncy/dancey sprites that i don't think would look the greatest on every pokemon out there. for most of them it works, but on some others, they kinda look goofy.
 
Static sprites had so much more character. There was a lot of love put into each one in terms of accuracy and dynamic posing. That's not to say the 3D models and rigs aren't well done, but they aren't at all exaggerated and they just feel kinda... lifeless. I like them just fine in side games and whatnot, but now that every Pokémon game is just gonna feel kind of the same in terms of Pokémon and animations, I can't say I'm not disappointed.

I hope more side games make use of sprites or interesting art styles just because they can. It might help make up for how sanitized the main games feel to me now.
 
Yeah I love Pokemon sprites from back in the day, even the player character, other NPCs and the world around you, there's just something special about the Pokemon sprites that can't be found in many other games imo. It's definitely because I was brought up on the sprite versions of Pokemon, so I'm super nostalgic for it :)

I love the 3D models though and its always a direction I've wanted Pokemon to go in with Pokemon in the overworld etc.
 
I prefer animated sprites, but I definitely do miss 2d sprites. Pokemon has just been reusing the same 3d models since generation six and just... slapping on a new texture. Not a fan, and I never will be. :| I wish they'd just bring back sprites in some way, even if it's just a 2d side game.
 
That's gonna be an emphatic yes from me. Pixel art is not only one of my favorite mediums, but I believe each Pokémon has so much more charm and character compared to their updated models.
 
Emerald has some of my favorite sprites in the series. A couple of animated frames, so it's not overdone like gen 5's style (a great idea that I think was poorly executed).

I'd even be fine if they brought in anime style 2D art. I just don't think the 3D models are all that great, especially when they're the exact same across different games and apps (GO + Home), just with different textures.
 
Absolutely, was actually talking to a friend the other day about how the shift to 3D kind of made Pokemon loose a lot of appeal to me. The sprites had so much personality and replaying while the games, Black and White especially, the art in those games still blow me away and they feel a lot more timeless than the 3D models. I also kind of miss how big the sprite community was before the 3D shift, I know it's still around but it seemed to have died off as there are no canon sprites for new Pokemon.
 
I adore sprites, particularly the Gen 4 ones, and while it can be difficult for me to go from 3D models back to pixel art, I find that the models are just... lacking something. I'm not sure what is is, but I'd love to see more life breathed into them in future games!
 
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