Pokken Tournament overview plus messages from Pokemon’s president and Bandai Namco
Following today’s announcement of Pokken Fighters, the Pokemon Company launched an official website with a bit of content.
First, we have the following overview of the game:
The goal for this project was to enlarge the possibilities of Pokémon Company’s Pokémon series and to “bring into the world a Pokémon game that’s like nothing before”. This vision was made possible with the expertise in 3D action games that Bandai Namco has gained while creating games for the Tekken and Soulcalibur series.
In Pokken Tournament, Pokémon look more real than ever before and they move and attack smoothly according to player’s commands, so it is a completely new Pokémon battle experience. This is not just for children as the game can also be enjoyed by adult Pokémon fans in their twenties.
With cutting edge graphics, Pokémon battles are completely revived! Coming in 2015 for the arcades.
Head past the break for comments from the Pokemon president and a pair of Bandai Namco developers.
Message from Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president of Pokémon Company:
Pokémon have featured in various types of games thus far, but this game is something that no one has ever experienced before, so it is a truly new type of a Pokémon game.
The players are given a direct and complete control over Pokémon’s movement. This was made possible by cooperating with 3D action game experts from Bandai Namco. If you are a Pokémon fan, you will probably want to try this extremely fresh experience.
Even if you haven’t played fighting games or competitive action games before, it is possible to get excited and think “This is awesome!” by just by touching a game of that genre. We are aiming to make that kind of game.
Message from Katsihiro Harada from Bandai Namco (Tekken, director and chief producer):
Tekken is a game in which controlling a character is brought to the limits while you can plan out different playing tactics. Our company’s present character action and animation systems are also built from that title’s cornerstone.
When controlling a character, the player gets emotionally involved: when dealing hits you feel uplift and when taking hits grief. The knowledge how to create those feelings, know-how called “Tekkenism”, is also utilized in this title’s Pokémon action.
The genre called “competitive fighting game” has nowdays narrowed to include just core players in many people’s minds, but originally, it was a popular genre with a wide and varying audience. In particular, rather than being a “competitive fighting game”, Pokkén Tournament is “competitive action” and returns to the roots of action games and competitive games. It is developed as “a game that many people can play”. “I’ll try it out it because it is Pokémon” kind of lighthearted play is possible. It is possible to play as an extremely fresh experience. To be able to play in that kind of play style is very important to us.
Please look forward to the new Pokemon experience.
Message from Bandai Namco’s Masaaki Hoshino (producer of Soulcalibur)
In fact, I have bragged about being the leading Pokémon expert within Bandai Namco. When I heard about this project, I thought that I was just the man for the job and that finally I got the chance make those games myself.
Of course, Pokken Tournament has smooth 60 FPS action and there is a particular emphasis on graphics, but we also thought long and hard about how would Pokémon feel like in a real world. Thus, the look of things like fur or muscles and the scenery where Pokémon live was considered during the development.
We decided to make a game that can be enjoyed by all Pokémon fans, but the more you play it, the deeper it gets. With the greatly talented staff and cutting edge technology, we created a new Pokémon world like never before, so please look forward to it.
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Note: the term “competitive” was used in this translation. It doesn’t necessarily refer to a highly skilled plays tyle and championships as it may possibly just refer to the multiplayer nature of the game.
