I was very intrigued when I saw all of the starters. They seem to disobey tradition! Chespin (my avvy only due to convenience) is not a reptile, and it looks more like an Armadillo or armoured Squirrel. If it's the former, that's just plain awesome. Also, Fennekin looks surprisingly feminine. PLEASE DON'T BE A FIRE/FIGHTING. ANYTHING BUT. And the Frog is interesting.
Chespin - I like Grass pokemon, so I'd go with this guy. If it's a hedgehog, all of my want. It may not look the most original but it is still cute and I am very curious to see what type it is. In the trailer they showed Golurk and some shadow move, so it's potential types are ground and dark.
Fennekin - Adorable and probably may be the most popular of the bunch. It's a Fox, or a dog, and that's pretty much all you need to make an awesome pokemon. It's also surprisingly feminine looking. Perhaps it will be a psychic type? The power it used in the trailer hinted at such, as it was all psy-ey and mystical.
Froakie - Probably my least favourite of the bunch because it's rather quirky. It's stances suggest it being a fighting type so that would be nice. It is still cute in it's own way though.
I do hope that, unlike last generation, the types are more interesting. One thing is for sure though: these designs of all these pokemon (of course it's only five, but hey) look great, and more people seem to like them than before.
Zielo said:
I have a few burning questions as well. WPM said that Ken Sugimori designed 1st and 2nd gen Pokemon, but what about 3-5, who did those? Did Ken have any involvement in the Pokemon designs, or did he just finalize the original art made by someone else? I don't know too much about the GameFreak staff.
IMO Ken should be the forever creator of Pokemon designs though... Satoshi may have created Pokemon but I honestly don't think it would have been nearly this popular if it wasn't for Kens artwork. I hope he had a lot of involvement in this generation, and as WPM said, I can see that simplicity in Fennekin as well.
Ken did some of the designs in Gen 5 I think, but I knew for a fact that a lot of artists, both Japanese and perhaps Western/European designers were part of the team. Judging by these guys though the artwork already seems to be improved from Gen 5.