>>717588658
they had nothing really back then, pokemon was a slight change to a simple jrpg formula and the mons were first sprited before given art (though that was a thing they'd keep doing for basically all the sprite games iirc). there wasn't any real marketing so they just made whatever.
i think quality changes by gen really, i think a lot of hoenn pokemon look like shit but i like the unova dex which gets a fair bit of hate.