Which came first, the sprites or the artworks? Also why does

You can easily find the answer by using common sense

>>33279631
Sprites did, actually. Sugimori (or someone else, can't really remember) stated that they had already made the sprites when he realized that they needed to make official artwork, too. This is why the sprites and the art don't really match up.

The sprites, definitely. They were drewn right into the game in gen1, instead of being conceptualized first.

>>33279631
sprite came first that's why some of them look fucking weird

>>33279631
The trials.

>>33279631

sprites.

a lot of pokemon werent even drawn, but were directly created as sprites as they were making the games and needed more of them.

the official arts actually improved the gen1 designs a lot in several steps so far. if all we had was the original RG sprite, gen1 would obejctively be the worst gen period