March 9, 2020 (Originally posted on Blogger)
Pokémon Design Ranking, Generation 6
On the continued backwards journey through Pokémon designs by generation, next is the first 3D generation, as in the main games on the handhelds were in full 3D and not sprites in a 2D environment, so there was a start of a disconnect between the art and how that translated to 3D, especially given that they really wanted to maintain an "anime" look for the "main" games. Also they made the models way too high-res for the system in an attempt to future-proof it. This covers the games from Pokémon X and Y to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but the really high-res models continued into the next generation.
Like before, a scale of 1-5, where 1 is a loathed monster and 5 is a top favorite. I also won't be covering Mega forms at this time as I'm looking more at the "base" forms that don't require a special power, but some monsters just have a bunch of forms regardless.
As usual, we start with the starters.
Chespin: 4/5
A cute little chubby rodent sort of thing that marks the move away from reptiles for Grass starters. It's fuzzy and has a boopable nose and is adorable. I'm also not sure if it's wearing a hood or that's some kind of shell.
Quilladin: 3/5
Now it becomes a goofy oval with hair and even more encased in armor. Has an odd nose and an almost creepily over-enthusiastic smile but it's still cute.
Chesnaught: 4/5
A big fuzzy tough cute with a really big shell as well. It has a beard and chest hair and big arms to hug with, maybe. I would have chosen this starter if I wasn't set on picking Froakie.
Fennekin: 3/5
A fox with ear hair and a weird forehead and an overall head that looks a little too giant for its body but isn't exactly unusual either.
Braixen: 3/5
A fox with legs, somehow this one got into Pokkén but not its final form. Probably some weird popularity thing, maybe its skinny skirted legs had something to do with that. It also has a stick on its butt. Not in, on. Like in the tail though.
Delphox: 4/5
A tall fox with extreme ear hair, extreme arm hair, and extreme leg hair. It's very fluffy, and also like a dog you might want to pet. It carries an even bigger stick.
Froakie: 4/5
A cute nervous-looking frog with a bubble nose. A bubble nose that begs to be booped. It can also do a weird thing with its bubbles (which are specifically called Frubbles for some reason) to sort of hide its face but I don't see it being very effective. It can also do this weird thing with its eyes where it just looks chill but it didn't really close its eyes.
Frogadier: 3/5
The frog is lanky now, still with bubble nose, but now a bubble scarf and darker markings overall.
Greninja: 4/5
A cute weird tall frog. It's even lankier, but has defined thighs and chest, and has big ear things. Also a strange crotch piece. And of course, the tongue scarf. I think that's a bizarre and great idea because there's this cool ninja monster that almost always has its tongue hanging out in some way. And then when it manages to fit all that tongue back in its mouth somehow, it's just a silly looking frog. It can still do that weird eye thing too where it's just chill and happy. For some reason it can become another form that slightly resembles Ash from the anime because there was a weirdly strong bond there, and generally that's the same aside from the markings, growing hair, and having a giant Water Shuriken thing on its back. I think I prefer the base form more however.
Then the "rodent", bird, and bug.
Bunnelby: 3/5
It's a rabbit with dirty paw ears. Just imagine a rabbit with dirty paw ears. Ears that somehow allow it to dig.
Diggersby: 3/5
It looks like a gross opposite of Lopunny, generally here's a guy who works the junkyard and has an office full of whatever the equivalent of Playboys filled with Lopunny to pass the time. A filthy chunky rabbit by design alone, it's an interesting take on things.
Fletchling: 4/5
Tiny baby bird. It's a robin that goes peep. It's pretty much just that and it's cute.
Fletchinder: 4/5
Angry bigger robin. Definitely looks like a real bird.
Talonflame: 4/5
Take a peregrine falcon, make it spikier and orange, and call it good. This and its whole line are among the most bird-like of bird monsters in the series. I like birds. Also it's a toasty egg hatcher as a plus. Then it dominated the competitive scene for quite some time somehow.
Scatterbug: 3/5
A nerd worm. It's got a tooth and is generally a worm with hair.
Spewpa: 5/5
The fuzzy confetti baby bug. There's been an ongoing trend where the cocoon forms of bug monsters have been really good comparatively and aren't just a lump with eyes. This is a fuzzy cute lump with adorable eyes and attitude and is loaded with confetti. It will puff out and spread pixels throughout the whole room for a quick decoration that might be harmful if ingested.
Vivillon: 4/5
Number 666, clearly the most demonic of Pokémon. And it's a butterfly. It's cute. It has happy pixel eyes. However, this bug pretty much dominates the GTS when it has an opportunity given there's tons of forms that are dependent on the region a Scatterbug was created in. And a couple event-exclusive forms on top of that. So it has a lot of wing designs.
Now most of the rest.
Litleo: 3/5
A weird looking lion cub. Kimba called, and wants to talk about Simba.
Pyroar: 3/5
A weird looking lion. This time in two forms depending on male or female. The males of course have a giant mane, the females have some long ponytail kinda thing for some reason.
Flabébé: 3/5
A tiny flower fairy. So tiny that its flower makes up most of its size. It has a small nose as well, and its name is almost "flabby baby".
Floette: 4/5
A less tiny but very cute flower fairy, which also has giant eyelashes or something. It carries its flower more like an umbrella now.
Florges: 3/5
A flower lady whose head is in a bouquet, seems to have extreme eyelash eyelid things, and with curves that wouldn't look out of place in some random comic book that gets criticized on how they pose women.
Skiddo: 5/5
BABY GOAT. I love goats. I really love baby goats. This is a small baby goat and I love it.
Gogoat: 5/5
Gogogogogogogogogogogoat is a fun goat and I also love it. Very cute even all grown up.
Pancham: 3/5
It's good having some monsters that are actually pandas instead of drunk spotted creatures, though those are also fun. This is a cute small panda cub.
Pangoro: 4/5
Big angry-looking panda that is probably actually a sweetheart if it's not being aggravated. Very fuzzy and bulky.
Furfrou: 3/5
A fancy dog that can have lots of haircuts. Fitting that a poodle shows up in Pokémon France. And also fitting that it can have really weird hair, because poodles get that a lot. Things like puffballs on just their legs or giant head puffs and so on.
Espurr: 4/5
Adorable tiny folded-ear kitty. It sure can stare, like cats do. Also has crazy powers. So pet it nicely.
Meowstic: 4/5
Two different kinds of cute bunny cats depending on male and female, the males have a striking dark blue coat with white highlights and green eyes, the females are white with dark blue accents and yellow eyes. I've found the male variant very adorable as well, the dark coat with bright eyes just stands out to me.
Honedge: 4/5
It's a sword. I like this sword. It's cute with its one eye and having parts that are dangerous to touch because ghosts are at play again. Then again swords are dangerous to touch anyway.
Doublade: 5/5
What's better than one sword? TWO SWORDS. Evolutions that just add more of a thing aren't always bad, I actually don't find them bad at all most of the time. And now they're purple, too. Still cute.
Aegislash: 4/5
A cool design, somehow the swords merged again into a bigger sword, but now with a shield. Of course this one showed up in Sword and Shield.
Spritzee: 3/5
A small bird, cute. Just like a bird head that floats around and is cute.
Aromatisse: 3/5
The bird becomes this weird puffy fashion star sort of thing, like it's wearing a really fuzzy feathery scarf dress. Or maybe it's just really chunky with a thin layer of fluff. Or both somehow.
Swirlix: 3/5
A cotton candy dog. Has a silly dog face and is puffy but very sticky as well.
Slurpuff: 5/5
I love this jiggly pupcake. A funny and cute face with the tongue and everything, shaped like a flan, and as jiggly as one too, maybe more so. It would be hard to resist poking its flabby figure. This chubby sweets dog is well worth the hassle of a trade item evolution though I still wish that wasn't a requirement whenever that comes up anyway.
Inkay: 3/5
A squid baby. It's a baby squid. Do whatever.
Malamar: 3/5
It's Ursula, and all you did was flip a baby squid. That must have been an issue for it. Flip the entire system. Just don't drop it.
Binacle: 3/5
Grumpy arms stuck in a rock. I don't think this one is that bad, but it's not a favorite for sure.
Barbaracle: 2/5
Now it's just bigger arms and more of them to make a person.
Skrelp: 3/5
A sickly seahorse. Fitting for what it is.
Dragalge: 3/5
It's a bunch of stuff in a vaguely seahorse shape. Of course regular seahorses can look like that.
Clauncher: 4/5
Who else but Zoidberg? For real, I can't see anything but that. The Shiny is even exactly Zoidberg.
Clawitzer: 3/5
It's an anime shrimp purely for having an excessively giant weapon strapped to it. Not even the real pistol shrimp has proportions like this. Therefore, anime shrimp.
Helioptile: 4/5
A cute lizard with a happy dance, it's very happy and slappy and somehow isn't a helicopter.
Heliolisk: 3/5
A bigger lizard. Still a good lizard. Very frilled.
Tyrunt: 3/5
It's a baby T-rex, or maybe an Allosaurus or some other big thing like that, but probably a T-rex. Very chompy. Very obviously a fossil.
Tyrantrum: 3/5
When the T-rex gets so old it grows a beard. Of course it did come from a fossil, so that's very old.
Amaura: 3/5
A baby icy long neck. Very cute. However with so many long necked dinosaurs that keep changing names or being recategorized, I don't know what this one would be.
Aurorus: 3/5
Big and frilly and an even longer neck, a natural growth for an icy fossil. Overall these fossils are pretty nice but also pretty standard by being dinosaurs.
Sylveon: 3/5
The eighth Eeveelution, and so far the last. It was introduced riding two mechanics, the Fairy type and Pokémon Amie. It's a pink cat with fleshy ribbons, incredibly solid blue eyes, and fangs. An odd design that pretty much reinforces the "girly" Fairy types, and helped lead once again to Eevee explosions in merchandising.
Hawlucha: 3/5
Wrestle bird. It's a bit weird for how its mouth is under its beak and is in the middle of a beard but it's known for wrestling. As is Pikachu Libre.
Dedenne: 4/5
Hamster or gerbil-ish Pikaclone. Don't drop it. It's chunky and cute as hamsters are.
Carbink: 5/5
A fluffy rock bunny, I love this cute fluffy but also rocky thing. Floppy ears, beady eyes, and a fluffy collar, on top of a chunk of rock with crystals in it. A strange fairy.
Now the things that aren't Legendary, and aren't Sudowoodo, but they're somehow of some kind of status.
Goomy: 5/5
A cute blob with a weird face that's sort of a goofy smile. That's all this really needs to be and it does it wonderfully.
Sliggoo: 4/5
A goofy snail that has tiny nubby arms and somehow an even sillier face. Its eyes also got weird so it might just feel everything in its way with its nubby arms and antennae.
Goodra: 5/5
A big huggable dragon that's covered in goop because somehow those two things combine really well even though they shouldn't. Very pear-shaped and a goofy dragon overall, sort of reminiscent of Dragonite but more of a snail this time.
For some reason there's a few more after the pseudo-Legendary this time.
Klefki: 4/5
One of the most loathed monsters of this Generation and yet I like this one. "Object monsters" tend to get a bad run with people but they can be well done. This is a cute keyring with noodly arms to hang onto keys very tightly, whether or not they were given voluntarily. They actually made keyrings based on Klefki which sold out very quickly, so clearly some people like this monster.
Phantump: 3/5
A spooky cute stump that might just be some kid's spirit trapped in a log. This series has a lot of stories like those.
Trevenant: 3/5
A spooky tall tree ghost. Very spiky. Don't get stuck with a branch.
Pumpkaboo: 5/5
Fluffy pumpkin spirit with a cute bat face. And it's wearing pumpkin pants with flashlights. And it comes in many sizes, sometimes tiny, sometimes utterly massive. But all very fluffy and round and a great monster to have around fall seasons, or any season.
Gourgeist: 4/5
Marzipan from Homestar*Runner became a Pokémon that grew out of a pumpkin. That's all I can see from this. The same shape and everything pretty much.
Bergmite: 4/5
A cute tiny ice triangle spike. Tiny feets too.
Avalugg: 3/5
A big flat turtle with cracks all over it. It's an iceberg but a turtle.
Noibat: 4/5
A noisy bat, very squeaky. It has speakers for ears, as some monsters had way back in Generation 3, but this is smaller and fuzzier and I'm very sure cuter as well.
Noivern: 3/5
A dragon bat with speaker ears. Even noisier and larger and claw-ier.
Now the real Legendaries and Mythicals.
Xerneas: 3/5
A rainbow deer with a lot of antlers. It pretty much walks on stilts on tippy toes.
Yveltal: 3/5
A bird made of burnt bacon. It's a bit fluffy but also very angry.
Zygarde: 4/5
This one has four forms, first is the original hexagonal snake form. I like that one, and it would be at home with a group of Dunsparce, the underground snakes they are. Snakes and ground seem to be a recurring theme. Three more forms got introduced later on. The first of the new is the cell or core form, which is a cute baby snake, and I also like that one. The second is a dog, which doesn't really make sense, but then again there's a fish that becomes an octopus. That one's okay. The last of the new forms is some giant police mechazord thing? I'm not the most fan of that one, it seems really generic and should more be in one of those shows that becomes Power Rangers when it's translated.
Diancie: 4/5
The queen of the fluffy rock bunnies. Or princess. Some kind of royalty. A lot like its subjects but more defined in a humanoid-ish shape. Reminiscent of the later Tapu Lele.
Hoopa: 3/5
Hoopa has two forms, the first is a tiny thing that floats around, has rings that make holes, and eats donuts. That's cute. The second is some giant angry monster with a lot of arms and also hair. That's not so cute, but it's interesting.
Volcanion: 3/5
I feel like Volcanion's more notable status is being Fire/Water typing than being Mythical, because it seems to be mostly forgotten as far as I think, unless some competitive circles are focused on it. So naturally it's steam-based. Which means it has a giant ring on its back. It's generally monster-shaped.
It's time for statistics. How fun.
There are fewer mons this time around than most other generations, so the bars are a bit skewed, but it generally seems that I like a lot of this generation proportionally. Nothing to loathe here, lots to love with this one. Though the games did feel average looking back, the designs were pretty nice in my thoughts. And somewhat jiggly. Being able to pet monsters for the first time in a main game sure helped too. Also this generation introduced the Fairy type, which has become one of my favorite types, so a lot of monsters involve that.
Next up would be Generation 5, the last of the sprites, and it's a divisive one too (but what hasn't been lately in this series) so that could be fun.