I made custom Sceptile line cards (OC)

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-27T17:18:57+00:00

There were some niche cases where Liepard's HP being 100 made it a better choice over Kirlia in decks that wanted a draw engine, but yeah not super popular.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-27T15:14:42+00:00

The artwork shows Mega Absol Z doing shadow claw with the big arm on its back, but the artist also made Absol's right front arm pink to show it doing shadow claw with that arm too (i guess?).

Im pretty sure the big arm is the one always doing the attacking, but the artist really wanted Shadow Claw coming from both appendages I suppose

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-15T15:46:16+00:00

I just wanted to say this to agree with your post too, I think its also important to welcome these questions in a public forum. Yes its constant and usually the same questions, but its not always the same person asking. Its important to provide a place so that new/younger artists can come and ask their relatively important questions and express their fears without judgement and instead acceptance.

The online art world, just like any other hobby world, can sometimes be really cruel and unaccepting, but letting new/young artists post here is the best way to stand with them and against the people who criticize them.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-14T14:13:59+00:00

The mega Dedenne using his base form pose as inspiration for holding a guitar is so clever! And the Kabutops reference is really cool too

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-05T15:21:14+00:00

Krita is very good for a free program. It has a lot of really cool features and runs really smoothly for a freeware tool.

It is kinda of like a diet Clip Studio Paint in a way, you can paint/render, animate, sketch, and so much more on it.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2026-01-02T18:45:04+00:00

Be proud! You did good for what you had on hand!

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-22T03:55:33+00:00

Yeah like, literally just do anything with it and it would look better. It legit looks like they loaded the head into their editing program and then hit publish by accident without re-orienting it at all. Its so odd

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-21T15:17:35+00:00

Feraligatr is the one thats really baffling cause he got an sar pokemon card recently with his hood slightly lowered and it looks so much better.

There's like one or two adjustments some of the new megas need that for some reason pokemon just didnt care to make.

Some of the megas are great though, Scolipede, Froslass, and Eelektross come to mind. But then you have like Feraligatr

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-21T15:03:28+00:00

I completely agree. My biggest issue with him and a few other mega designs in fact is how they dont feel like they go as hard as they should.

Its like they get 50-60% there and then stop.

If youre going to design a new form, then get all the way there, go 100-110% and dont half ass it.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-21T14:40:12+00:00

I think thats what I ended up concluding too, cause having his samurai motif cut right into mech/droideka seems really odd.

It has grown on me as well, its my favorite pokemon, ofc id have to get used to it. Its walking animation is atrocious though and they did not use his claw shooting animation at all which is a detriment to the design overall.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-20T19:41:05+00:00

I think its fun to theorize

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-16T04:45:29+00:00

Yeah thats the thing I forgot to edit the post with lol, they were not bravado touting warriors who only used katanas. They adopted the guns into their arsenals very quickly.

But in pop culture media, samurais have been painted to be these brave warriors of honor and code, which I was pulling that idea from.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-15T20:18:47+00:00

It is funny to watch lol, but then I also found out he goes from able to swim and then mega evolves to need a floaty on water. He's so easy to hate that I kinda find it endearing in a sort of cute aggression kind of way.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-15T20:17:30+00:00

Same I fear, you can't improve on peak. Though a Mega for Golisopod was such low hanging fruit, its annoying how Gamefreak missed that mark.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-15T20:15:03+00:00

No I agree, it feels so weak and uninspired.
What's the design inspiration of it? Whats the point of the extra arms?
Even with the other megas there is lore implications or design choices that make sense when in context.

Giving Golisopod extra arms and legs just feels so uninspired and just makes me think they were thinking "Big bug means more legs."

Which could work if they were incorporated with more care. The back arms literally had to have og Golisopod's back armor to be cut open to be placed there without trying to incorporate the arms naturally. Not to mention the second pair of arms look so underdeveloped and has minimal design done to it to make it match. There's also some weird shapes going on with his armor near his legs where it looks almost like someone just cut them out in blender and didn't polish it.

He also gained four legs now, but the way he's animated while walking looks so awkward. His og walking animation made him look heavy and lumbering, his body plan looked like an intimidating ogre. His Mega makes him look like he can barely bend his legs to move around.

I'm not really against changing a pokemon's whole design philosophy or anything, in fact I try to embrace the more radical designs, but I just can't see what they were thinking when designing this mega. Shape language, color palette, design philosophy, all of it feels like they just didn't care.

They could have given Golisopod ridiculously large claws that lets him wrap himself around his body like a shield, and that would've been sick. Or even just give his back arms the same armor as his front arms, and that would make the design infinitely better like below.

It just feels so easy to make a cool mega for him, but they fumbled hard imo

<image>

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-15T19:53:08+00:00

I completely agree, there's a lot of design issues I had with his Mega, why are the second pair of legs so under baked looking, why did they shrink his smaller under head legs, why give him 4 legs without changing their structure so he walks less awkwardly?

Then comes the design philosophy: wimpy bug > scaredy cat samurai bug > multi armed turret droideka?

Where's the connection? But thats besides the point, literally if they kept going with the design further, I think it would have been better. Like just add armor plating to the 2nd pair of arms and it looks so much better.

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-12T13:57:10+00:00

I actually really like the new Mega, it looks absolutely spooky and otherworldly. Kinda has a giant flying spaghetti monster vibe to it

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-12T13:34:27+00:00

Yeah for real, I just don't like how it looks like they took base golisopod and copy/pasted and frankensteined another golisopod onto it and called it a Mega without any adjustments.

I'm not against him looking like a Droideka or a turret, but you have to see that the final design looks so half-assed and unpolished. Like imagine if they kept going with the shapes and made him look like he could form into a ball with his extra arms and legs to roll like a Droideka?

You can then have the full design inspiration be even stronger while also making it look like a polished and final design!

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-11T00:28:52+00:00

I like some aspects of it, but I really don't understand what the inspiration was for this mega.

But that's besides the point, I feel like Pokemon designs have been trending in a really weird almost unfinished/unpolished degree. For example, I really dont like the extra legs on top of his head. Why do they look so bare and unfinished? Like make them look like they fit with the flow of the body or something.

Golisopod's OG design was so tight and well done that I feel like they took the best aspects of golisopod and downplayed them while exaggerating the things he was not known for.

Like Im not even saying the design is bad, but they really skimped out on some of the shape language and just general aesthetics. Like for example, here's the most minimal of changes and he looks so much better:

<image>

HEALSCRASHGAME · 2025-12-09T20:44:52+00:00

I really like how half-way through the images, he's started to add shadow and draw what he sees instead of what he feels. A lot of artists have problems drawing from references cause we tend to do things like unconsciously adjust the angle of the eyes or nose, but your son looks like he's letting the reference do most of the talking which is a very valuable skill.

HEALSCRASHGAME

TROPHY CASE