I think they still look pretty similar. Just that art style matched OLBA the way it was supposed to. This Baxter was still based from our first Baxter- and here he's really a kid, probably younger than when he first appears in the DLCs of the other OL.
I love my boy no matter what form he appears in😭so sad when I remembered he probably wouldn't be part of later steps aside from 1 because he was older and I remember him mentioning how he fell out of touch with his friends in his youth in OLBA.