The designs of many of the Pokémon have received criticism since
Scarlet and
Violets release. Some fans of the series responded negatively to many designs from the games when the games were leaked prior to release. Stacey Henley, writing for
TheGamer, criticized the designs of the Pokémon in the game. Though she found several of the designs to be of a high standard, such as Skeledirge, Dachsbun, Pawmot, and Finizen, she felt that the majority of the designs in the game were not up to the standard of other entries in the series. Ben Sledge, also writing for
TheGamer, additionally criticized the generation's Legendary Pokémon designs as being uninspired or unappealing, stating that "They're barely even creatures, they're just animals with weird colour palettes." Joe Parlock of
TheGamer praised the sleek designs of the starters and the designs of several other Pokémon, including Smoliv, Fidough, Koraidon, and Miraidon. He described the individuality of the designs and how each of the designs helped build Paldea's culture, stating that it was "the most holistic approach to Pokémon design we've seen in decades." In a discussion among
Nintendo Life staff about the best designs in the generation, the group highlighted many Pokémon, including Glimmora, Tandemaus, and Charcadet. Writer Kate Gray praised the "weirder" designs of generation IX, including Tandemaus and several species based around the concept of
convergent evolution, while writer Alan Hagues thought that many of the middle and final evolutions had appealing designs, and that the generation overall had simple yet strong art design. Numerous individual designs have had their designs positively highlighted by critics, such as Grafaiai, Greavard, Quaquaval, Fidough, and Lechonk. Several designs have also been described as being popular with the
LGBTQ+ community, such as Quaquaval. Dod Seitz of
TheGamer additionally described the queer positivity of designs such as Quaquaval and Maushold, also expressing how Iron Valiant served as a positive example of an
androgynous or
non-binary character design. Ana Diaz, writing for
Polygon, believed that many species, most notably Flamigo, Palafin, and Maushold, had unique and powerful traits in gameplay. She hoped that they would allow for a more fun competitive environment for players. Several Pokémon, such as Annihilape, Palafin, Flutter Mane, Iron Bundle, and Houndstone, ended up being particularly powerful in popular fan-run competitive formats. This led to them being banned from standard competitive formats, with their use only being allowed in more restricted ones. ==Notes==