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Shigeru Ohmori

A recent issue of Famitsu had a pretty big interview for Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon. Director Kazumasa Iwao and producer Shigeru Ohmori were present to talk about the big games coming to 3DS this month.

Kazumasa and Ohmori went in-depth about development, new features, and more. There was even some reflection about last year’s Sun/Moon, such as the increase in difficulty for Lana’s Trial.

You can read our full interview summary below.

3DS is getting two more Pokemon games next month in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. However, they aren’t entirely new. Both build upon last year’s original Pokemon Sun/Moon. Game Freak has decided to introduce another pair of Sun/Moon titles, following a similar approach to Black 2/White 2 rather than something like Pokemon Crystal or Pokemon Platinum in which a single follow-up game was introduced.

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon director Kazumasa Iwao spoke with GameSpot about the idea behind these latest games and why making two versions made sense. Here’s what he shared on the subject:

Nintendo recently played the Guessing Game with a couple of developers working on Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon. Producer Shigeru Ohmori and director Kazumasa Iwao were the participants. See the full video below.


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Game Freak has a delicate balance going on at the moment. The studio is currently wrapping up Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon for 3DS. But as we found out at E3, Game Freak is also shifting towards Switch with its very first Switch project.

On the bright side, handling two big projects doesn’t seem to be an issue for the company. In an interview with GameSpot, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon producer Shigeru Ohmori noted how the latest 3DS games can be thought of “mainly as a project for our younger staff to work on and grow and develop their skills, while perhaps the more veteran, established members of the company can work on the upcoming [Switch] project.”

Ohmori explained:

Two new Pokemon games are coming out next month, but they’ll be on 3DS as opposed to Switch. Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon are hitting the dedicated handheld on November 17.

In an interview with GameSpot, Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori was asked why the titles aren’t on Switch. He echoed what was mentioned to IGN about how on 3DS, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are intended to be the “culmination of all our efforts to get the absolute most out of the system that we can.”

As Ohmori explained:

Game Informer’s latest piece of Pokemon coverage is all about Pokemon spin-offs. Game Freak co-founder, director, and producer Junichi Masuda and Pokemon Sun/Moon director Shigeru Ohmori were both asked about their favorite ones.

As for Masuda, he went with Pokemon GO, though he’s unsure if it’s actually a spin-off game. Ohmori went with Pokemon Snap. He said that one of the best aspects of the N64 title was printing out the photos in real life.

Which Pokemon games were the most challenging to make? When Game Informer posed that question to Game Freak co-founder and Pokemon director / producer Junichi Masuda, he referred to Ruby and Sapphire.

Masuda first told the magazine:

“With Ruby and Sapphire, the screen got a little longer and it was a different aspect ratio, a lot more colors and sound channels so the tech was improved dramatically. It allowed us to do a lot more and gave us more freedom, but at the same time it made it take a lot longer to do things and was more resource-intensive.”

“After Gold and Silver came out, it was a huge hit around the world, but shortly after everyone was saying, ‘That’s it. The Pokémon fad is over! It’s dead!’ It was a very stressful project, for sure. When we were first developing it, I had the idea in mind that it would be Ruby and Sapphire, and then the next games, including the titles, would be Diamond and Pearl, and in between we would do the remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, so we could create this structure where you could take the Pokémon from the Kanto region to the Diamond and Pearl games.”

The next piece of content from Game Informer’s month of Pokemon coverage is live. The magazine chatted with Pokemon series producer, director, and composer Junichi Masuda as well as Pokemon Sun/Moon director Shigeru Ohmori about why the Pokemon RPGs need a story and whether the team would ever make a game as open as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. View the video below.

Update: Game Informer just uploaded a video of Game Freak and Ohmori talking about Pokemon and Switch. We’ve added that in below.


Original: As mentioned earlier today, Game Informer’s latest issue contains a significant feature about Pokemon. The magazine visited Game Freak’s offices in Japan to reminisce about the franchise’s early days, the various entries, and more.

Switch was also one topic discussed. At E3 in June, it was announced that a brand new Pokemon game is planned for the system. Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori both spoke about Switch and making a game on the platform.

Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda recently made some comments about Pokemon and Switch during an interview with Spanish site MeriStation which gained quite a bit of attention. However, we thought the entire interview might be worth sharing, as it’s interesting in its own right. And thankfully, Nintendo Everything reader Gumbatei was up to the task of translating the comments into English.

Masuda, along with Shigeru Ohmori, talked a fair amount about Pokemon Sun/Moon and the series in general. The two talked about Alola Forms and whether they’ll return, the future of the franchise, and more. A question was also asked about potential Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remakes, but the response is about what you’d expect.

Head past the break for the translated comments from Masuda and Ohmori.


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