Game Freak: Tall grass in Pokemon Sword/Shield “took us about a half-year of disagreements until it took its shape”

Tall grass may not immediately come to mind as an important element of Pokemon, but it’s something that Game Freak concentrated on while developing Sword and Shield. Speaking with Famitsu, director Shigeru Ohmori said that it took the team “about a half-year of disagreements until it took its shape.”

Here’s the full exchange between Famitsu, Ohmori, and producer Junichi Masuda, courtesy of Siliconera:

Famitsu: The other day during the early access demo event for the media I got a chance to try it out, but when I saw the game screen for Pokemon Sword & Shield, I saw some stuff that made me feel at ease, and there’s just something mysterious about the power of picture. I couldn’t help but gaze into it.

Junichi Masuda: “We put a lot of attention on ways of looking at the screen. Although we had trouble on lighting, glass reflections, and such… [laughs wryly]”

Shigeru Ohmori: “For example, one of them was the ‘tall grass,’ which took us about a half-year of disagreements until it took its shape.”

Famitsu: Half a year for the tall grass…!

Shigeru Ohmori: “The tall grass in the world of Pokémon are places were the users and Pokémon meet. As for the game, it’s part of the core way of playing that tells you ‘There’s tall grass there so you might find some Pokémon, let’s check it out,’ so it is very important. How much should we make its distance, how much space, how much graphics should we use to present it. It’s a part that affects game characters, so we really put in a lot of time on that.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield launch for Switch on November 15.