So I took all the feedback from the comments of my last post to do one last attempt of improving this line. From what I read it was pretty even; some preferred the originals, and some preferred the new, but from what I gathered it seemed most people preferred the original first stage, and the new second stage, so here's what I did to get the best from both versions:
So the biggest thing people liked about the original first stage were the eyes, and that they were more expressive. And what people liked about the new first stage was the overall body shape (since they are supposed to be otters). So I kept the new body of the first stage, added the old versions eyes, and also shortened and rounded the ears as well as shortened the tail more. I also tried adding some flowy kelp behind the new design like the old one has but it didn't seem to fit as well, so I kept that part out. But that's about everything I did to update the first stage
For the second stage, I didn't really see anything people really liked from the original like the first stages eyes, so it was basically fixing up a few things on the new second stage. People who read the description definitely agreed the new designs definitely looked more otter-like than the originals, but also looked kinda cat-like and feline. So to make them less feline and even more otter-like, I made their ears more short and rounded, gave them a bigger nose, changed up their feet, and removed the little canine tooth sticking out. When I had these first designed I thought the kelp scarf and double kelp tail would look cool, but I thought there was a bit too much sticking out behind them and one of the two elements had to go, so I kept the scarf and gave them a more regular tail. One other note is that their kelp scarf isn't meant to make them a ninja or anything, it's just a neat way I thought they could wear some kelp on them. But I think that should cover everything for the second stage
And with all that out of the way finally, that should wrap up these new tweaks. Which ones do you prefer now after reading everybody's feedback? If I still see a pretty even split of original vs new, then I'll probably do what I saw suggested most and make the originals a male variant and the new a female, but we'll see what everyone thinks. And of course credit to @poketrainervb who made the new designs and tweaks. Thanks for reading all this if you did and for checking this post out, hope everyone likes these tweaks
by VORT3XSN1PER