Pokemon Sun/Moon devs on putting the emphasis on Pokemon, transferring from the original games, more
USGamer is chipping in with its own Pokemon Sun/Moon developer interview. Once again, Game Freak’s Shigeru Ohmori and Junichi Masuda participated in the discussion. Prominent topics included focusing on Pokemon themselves in Sun/Moon, the transfer process from the original games on Virtual Console, and more.
Read up on some of Ohmori and Masuda’s comments below. For the full interview, visit USGamer.
Ohmori on how Pokemon Sun/Moon puts a lot more emphasis on the monsters themselves…
“This is the seventh generation, but this is also my first time working as a director on an all-new generation of Pokémon games. So what I wanted to do was reexmine Pokémon as living creatures and really focus on that relationship: how they interact with humans, how they live alongside human. Nature and abundant life were two of the major themes I wanted to focus on with Pokémon Sun and Moon. I think you’ll find throughout the game that it’s even more lively than previous Pokémon games.”
“I’ve always had an interest in showing animals in a digital medium. It’s just an interest I have: I like going to the zoo, for example, and I want to show them in a more realistic way in a digital medium.”
Ohmori on how Game Freak doesn’t necessarily look back on old games to see what they can improve…
“I mentioned earlier, but this is the first time I’ve worked as the director for an entirely new generation of Pokémon, so I really had a desire to build a new game from scratch while working closely with scratch. And because introducing a new director is kind of a momentous occasion, I really wanted to use the occasion to rebuild or reexamine some things. I think trials in place of gyms is one example of that; introducing Z-Moves is also another thing. These are things I put in the game because I wanted to focus on Pokémon as living creatures, and I think these are two elements that will help express that. But just like the Pokémon themselves, each game should have their own characteristics. So it’s less about looking at past games and seeing what went well or what went poorly, it’s more just looking at each project as its own new thing and determining what we want to do and how we can accomplish it.
Masuda on transferring Pokemon from the original games…
“Of course the way it works is that you put it in the Pokémon Bank to bring them into your Sun and Moon games, and at that stage the data is converted to bring in all of the stuff from over the years. I think players will have a lot of fun seeing how their Pokémon change from one game to another.
Masuda on whether aspects like traits and personalities will be randomly assigned, or whether playing Red and Blue will give trainers some sort of special advantage…
“That’s definitely one thing we want people to try out for themselves.”
Ohmori on how the Festival Plaza is the true successor to Black 2 and White 2’s Join Avenue…
“The person who came up with the Festival Plaza was the same person who designed the Join Avenue, and they really wanted to find a way to make an improved version of the Join Avenue. What would Join Avenue look like in Sun and Moon? So there are a lot of fun gameplay elements like powering up or leveling up the various shops.”
