Who was making these designs? Did gamefreak hire an edgelord from europe at one point, only to give up after realizing he sucks at making soulful designs?
>>56578701cope that's a cool as fuck design
>>56578701That's just the concept art, they will simplify it to fit pokemon if it's approved.
I assume this stuff was made as a response to Gen 2's reception. People thought it was a fun game, but they also thought the designs were getting a little too "cute". Pokemon became a kids franchise instead of something for everyone. I guess this stuff was to tip the scales a little to balance things out and appeal to older kids again instead of being the stupid franchise for babies it was starting to be accused of being.
>>56578701they were trying to soft-reboot the franchise after Gen 2 introduced too many baby and cute Pokemon.They had different artists making cool and over the top monsters and then slowly tone then down to fit better with the overall aesthetic of the series.The one in the OP is for example is what eventually turned into Metagross.
It's fascinating - knowing that the majority of this fanbase only ever pay attention to pokemon related stuff - to see how they react to the most basic stuff.Last leak, they were introduced to the world of placeholders and we had countless threads asking why GF was so lazy putting paint scribbles inside the games instead of actual sprites.Now they are discovering the concept arts, ignoring the fact that - like the name suggests - those images are made to highlight a CONCEPT. There is even a distinction between character artist and concept artist.But there is no use explaining any of this shit, get ready for months of threads made from people who unironically think they were considering using those designs in the games.
>>56578701Gamefreak initially wanted to go in a darker direction with Gen 3, didn't they? The artstyle was probably a remnant of that
>>56578701There's a reason he's called Metagross
>>56578701Is not this a Mario enemy now?
>>56578701Someone in one of the proto threads said its Okutani Jun, from a writing on the unown frog picture, his other work matches
My guess is that gen 3's initial concept was "we're doing kaijuu this time". So they started with a bunch of very kaijuu-esque designs while trying to figure out exactly how to work the concept into Pokemon.Eventually, they just boiled the idea down into Groudon and Kyogre.
>>56578701I believe someone brought up the idea that these were just conceptual sketches some dude at GF made imitiating Sugimori's style (in terms of coloring and linework I guess), which they'd then give to Sugimori to actually make look like Pokemon.Obviously there's tons of stages of conception for characters and mons. Kinda reminds me how BotW was pitched to have some Eldritch freak bosses at some point (pic related) but eventually went with something far softer.I still kinda enjoy these designs.
>>56578701I don't like the tail but it's cringekino
>>56580073>My guess is that gen 3's initial concept was "we're doing kaijuu this time".>this time
>>56580162The Kaijuu influence was there, but it wasn't really present in the story. Gen 1 had the sci-fi Mewtwo thing and Gen 2 had an underlying mythology theme (which was revisited in gen 4).Gen 3's plot was about some dumb fucks accidentally awakening an ancient monster from the bottom of the sea who nearly destroys the world. It's literally a stock kaijuu flick plot.
>>56579090Holy shit that one is cool
