Pokémon’s Ultra Beasts were based on past Pokémon designs rejected by Game Freak art director Ken Sugimori, artist reveals. That’s why they look so creepy
Pokémon’s Ultra Beasts were based on past Pokémon designs rejected by Game Freak art director Ken Sugimori, artist reveals. That’s why they look so creepy
by HatingGeoffry
19 Comments
rundrueckigeraffe
Thats cool. I really dont like people call pokemon just “ugly” or something, without knowing the background behind specific designes or gimmiks. If you know the “lore” behind the Pokemon/Its way into the game the “ugly” Pokemon becomes very cool.
Brzrkrtwrkr
IMO Ultra Beasts are so interesting with weird designs I can’t help but love them. Hopefully, we get more in the future, they are some of my favorites.
zeldafan042
I don’t really care for the Ultra Beasts, I feel like the way they were actually implemented in the game was a total miss when it comes to selling them as “strange creatures from other dimensions that technically aren’t really Pokemon.” Legendary Pokemon with min-maxed stats and the exact same boring ability doesn’t really scream “alien.”
But I will say their designs 100% pulled it off. They ride a very fine line of not looking like normal Pokemon while also not looking too jarring. They’re out of place while not being distractingly out of place, if that makes sense. I feel like that was a difficult target to hit but that’s the one thing they got right with the Ultra Beasts.
ApophisDayParade
That’s kind of neat, I’d love to see the original designs because they were probably a *bit* more classic looking, and assumedly had evolutions.
ImmaculateWeiss
Love the UB’s, glad they didn’t get axed for being too weird
Shoofleed
I wonder if this puts to rest the comment made by James Turner about the design of Guzzlord, or adds an extra layer to it.
soliddd7
Id love to get some Ultra Beasts, its a refreshing concept.
JakobDa1
I wonder if some of the Teraleak designs are what they are referring to. There WAS a giant building/concrete monster in one of them
joylesspumpkin
I’m still obsessed with Xurkitree.
Kadexe
The thing that makes Ultra Beasts recognizable as “not normal Pokemon” is that they break a lot of unwritten rules. A big one is that most of them don’t have identifiable eyes or faces. It’s also difficult to identify their typing at a glance.
Cyndakill88
Who remembers the movie studio battles in the Black/White games? I always thought the ultra beasts looked like some of the fake monster monsters for those fights
Cybasura
There’s a non-zero probability that Pikablue would appear somehow in some shape or form
Clemenx00
I don’t mind the designs themselves but I don’t really like Xurxitree, Pheromosa and Nihilego resembling the human cast of the game.
Im not a fan of Pokemon that only make sense within the context of a game. They are supposed to last forever in the franchise.
sypwn
From his translated post:
> I designed the Ultra Beasts by recalling some of the designs I made which were rejected by Mr. Sugimori, and I decided to deliberately use the very reasons for why they were rejected and base the artistic direction of the designs on them.
The way I’m interpreting it, the title of this post isn’t quite accurate. They aren’t pokemon he previously designed (but were rejected) being repurposed as ultra beasts.
Instead (by my interpretation), he went back to his “List of things Mr. Sugimori says make a bad pokemon design” (which he created from feedback to various rejected designs) and created the Ultra Beasts to hit as many of those points as he could. So then Ultra Beasts are intended to be *the antithesis* of a Sugimori designed pokemon. Brilliant.
CharmyFrog
I know it’s a monster collecting game, but I always liked my Pokemon games to be kind of grounded. Going into alternate dimensions and Pokemon fusing with each other like they are Digimon has always been a turn off in Pokemon games for me.
LordDShadowy53
I think Ultra beasts were nice addition to the series. They are not your regular Pokemon, rather some space aliens from other dimensions. Like Deoxys in some sense.
Vio-Rose
That actually makes a lot of sense. The mons occasionally looking like established characters was odd, but if they were drafts for their potential aces…
19 Comments
Thats cool. I really dont like people call pokemon just “ugly” or something, without knowing the background behind specific designes or gimmiks. If you know the “lore” behind the Pokemon/Its way into the game the “ugly” Pokemon becomes very cool.
IMO Ultra Beasts are so interesting with weird designs I can’t help but love them. Hopefully, we get more in the future, they are some of my favorites.
I don’t really care for the Ultra Beasts, I feel like the way they were actually implemented in the game was a total miss when it comes to selling them as “strange creatures from other dimensions that technically aren’t really Pokemon.” Legendary Pokemon with min-maxed stats and the exact same boring ability doesn’t really scream “alien.”
But I will say their designs 100% pulled it off. They ride a very fine line of not looking like normal Pokemon while also not looking too jarring. They’re out of place while not being distractingly out of place, if that makes sense. I feel like that was a difficult target to hit but that’s the one thing they got right with the Ultra Beasts.
That’s kind of neat, I’d love to see the original designs because they were probably a *bit* more classic looking, and assumedly had evolutions.
Love the UB’s, glad they didn’t get axed for being too weird
I wonder if this puts to rest the comment made by James Turner about the design of Guzzlord, or adds an extra layer to it.
Id love to get some Ultra Beasts, its a refreshing concept.
I wonder if some of the Teraleak designs are what they are referring to. There WAS a giant building/concrete monster in one of them
I’m still obsessed with Xurkitree.
The thing that makes Ultra Beasts recognizable as “not normal Pokemon” is that they break a lot of unwritten rules. A big one is that most of them don’t have identifiable eyes or faces. It’s also difficult to identify their typing at a glance.
Who remembers the movie studio battles in the Black/White games? I always thought the ultra beasts looked like some of the fake monster monsters for those fights
There’s a non-zero probability that Pikablue would appear somehow in some shape or form
I don’t mind the designs themselves but I don’t really like Xurxitree, Pheromosa and Nihilego resembling the human cast of the game.
Im not a fan of Pokemon that only make sense within the context of a game. They are supposed to last forever in the franchise.
From his translated post:
> I designed the Ultra Beasts by recalling some of the designs I made which were rejected by Mr. Sugimori, and I decided to deliberately use the very reasons for why they were rejected and base the artistic direction of the designs on them.
The way I’m interpreting it, the title of this post isn’t quite accurate. They aren’t pokemon he previously designed (but were rejected) being repurposed as ultra beasts.
Instead (by my interpretation), he went back to his “List of things Mr. Sugimori says make a bad pokemon design” (which he created from feedback to various rejected designs) and created the Ultra Beasts to hit as many of those points as he could. So then Ultra Beasts are intended to be *the antithesis* of a Sugimori designed pokemon. Brilliant.
I know it’s a monster collecting game, but I always liked my Pokemon games to be kind of grounded. Going into alternate dimensions and Pokemon fusing with each other like they are Digimon has always been a turn off in Pokemon games for me.
I think Ultra beasts were nice addition to the series. They are not your regular Pokemon, rather some space aliens from other dimensions. Like Deoxys in some sense.
That actually makes a lot of sense. The mons occasionally looking like established characters was odd, but if they were drafts for their potential aces…
The beefy mosquito would fall under that
Shame we never got Gorachu.