Sprite Discovery Discussion

The Snivy line updates are gorgeous and I definitely love the albinos and melans. Question, why did the Sceptile's get an update? Or were they just missing? I'm assuming they got an update?

sceptile did not recieve an update

The two with Tepig and Snivy lines I like the changes to-- the brownish-reddish colour to Serperior is very appealing as a colour palette for a plant-based creature and makes them feel borderline Autumn-like. It compliments their "noble/elegant/regal" vibe which is a great plus. Tepig I'm neutral to so I can't really give an opinion here, but I do find Emboar's green flames super cool. On the other hand, I find the green and purple combination/shades on Oshawott line a little unappealing for something that's like an otter/seal kind of 'mon... It feels like something strictly from a swamp/marsh, which just seems awkward and unappealing for that line. IMO it feels like the official was going for more an ocean/lake vibe. The new colours make it feel like a poison type now, which I really don't feel suits. tldr, Snivy line is really lovely, Tepig is neat, Oshawott is... just really awkward/unnatural feeling imo.

Feeling really disappointed in this update. Red isn't inherently a bad color but every individual color on melan Serperior seems to clash. The body is way too saturated compared to the relatively grey face. Same thing with the purple on Servine, it's so bright and saturated it almost looks radioactive. Again circling back to the neon issues. Also, really, both melan Oshawott and Tepig line being green and purple? Why is every other melan line green and purple? Out of every color combination that exists? The shading adjustments on the canon sprites also look objectively worse in some cases-- yes, good spritework omits some detail and lets the mind fill in the blank, that's why trying to shade the outline of the scallop (for example) is ridiculous and makes the sprite look overly busy in comparison, as well as compromising the initial shape of it :s I'm sorry but there's just... literally no reason to alter canon sprites. Professionals made those and they look damn good.

Throwing in my 2 cents-- I definitely agree that I feel like there's a weird pendulum swing type thing going on between "we're recoloring old neon melans to look less awful" and "okay but people don't like it when we just desaturate everything" and art staff has yet to find a middle ground. The Snivy and Oshawott lines definitely feel less like melans and more just like fun recolors that have kind of dark palettes, especially Serperior... who is just pink. I could go into a lot of detail about Serperior from an art perspective but I don't think anyone's actually interested in reading that lmao. And, not to mention, Oshawott and Tepig both got the Gurple Treatment, which is especially... questionable, for lack of a better word, in Oshawott. I just don't get why purple and green is a color combination used so often? I'd expect there to be more blues incorporated into the color palettes to make the colors mix/compliment each other better, but eh. I haven't done pixel art since 2017 who am I to say 🤷 HOWEVER! I do really like the new albinos, actually! Oshawott's spring green makes my green-loving heart happy. Snivy's is less great, but Tepig's is very very nice. I love the pinkish purple color palette a lot :D

Snivy - I absolutely love the new sprite *w* - it's also nice that shiny Servine has similar colors with Snivy and Serperior now as well - the albino line is pretty neat, I like it more than the old one - the melan line I'm not too happy with, I mean it's not bad or anything, just personally I liked the old one 10 times more than the new one. Tepig - the albino line is absolutely amazing, I love it, it looks so good, I can't wait to hunt Tepig - the melan line, I think the new colors look great for the most part, Tepig is pretty good, Emboar is amazing, Pignite looks kind of odd with the green parts though; not sure which version I like better, kind of leaning a bit to the old one more, but I do like the new colors as well. Oshawott - tbh I wasn't very sure about the albino line at first, but the more I look at it, I think it's honestly not too bad, not my favorite colors but it looks quite decent - the melan line I strongly dislike; I wasn't a big fan of the old colors either, but the new colors just don't work well together at all imo.

I would say some words about the oshawott line, since it's one of my fav water types ever. Albinos are absolutely gorgeous, and though I didn't expect those colors at all, I was fascinated with them. Melans though... Oh my gosh, I'm not a fan, not a fan indeed. Not that Gurple is a bad palette, absolutely not (Tepig line is done very good, Emboar is one love), but here... The particular hints chosen are clashing so much that it's pretty unpleasant to look at (for me). Purple accents are pretty nice, but greens do not correlate with them in the slightest I would make greens darker and maybe add some bluish hints into them, somewhat like Dewott's "pants" color

This is the first "real" revamps I've been around for aside from totem/mega/variant updates, but looking at the older sprites on the wiki, and the newer ones that got revamped, there is a pattern of over saturating the albinos and melans. I agree that when I saw the new sprites, some of them didn't seem like melans or albinos at all! Just shinies with a blond yellow palette or a navy palette. I think it is too late for the art team to change their mind about the direction they're taking these, but I will continue to be disappointed as regions continue to be revamped... The best special sprites in my opinion are from the Alola and Galar regions. They have the perfect amount of desaturation and good color palettes. They also don't force terrible colors into terrible places because the shiny said so.

Am I the only one who absolutely cannot tell a single difference between the old and new normal sprites??? I feel like I’m going insane and everyone’s in on some prank on me, I’ve zoomed in so far and stared at the chart in the announcement for so long and I can’t see anything? This is what I’m looking at, screenshot from announcement

I thought the same thing, had to go and look at official sprites from another source to understand what was being talked about because the news posts ones are exactly the same.