Pokken Tournament – not just Tekken with Pokemon, made for Pokemon fans
Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada spoke with Famitsu this week about Pokken Tournament. The arcade fighter is launching very soon in Japan – tomorrow, actually.
In one part of the interview, Harada explains that Pokken Tournament isn’t just a Tekken game with a Pokemon skin slapped on.
“It’s a solid versus game, but at its core, it’s an action game for Pokémon fans. People might think that because we’ve worked on games like Tekken and Soul Calibur or because of the name ‘Pokkén,’ that this game is made for established fighting game players, but I’d like to come straight out and say ‘no, it isn’t.’”
Harada eventually goes on to say that Pokken Tournament was made with Pokémon fans in mind as opposed to fighting game players.
“The tech to make the game and the knowhow behind the massive amount of animations comes from our experience working on the games we’ve made before, but with the gameplay, we’ve set our sights on Pokémon fans.”
One way in which the team attempted to appeal to Pokemon fans was through the UI. This was changed from something that may fighting experts would be familiar with.
“Having the camera looking at the characters facing each other from the side with their stamina bars on the top left and right of the screen is an established fighting game format, but that’s something that experienced fighting game players can understand on instinct. That might give Pokémon fans the impression that the game is harder than it is, so we’ve intentionally gotten rid of that.”
Harada also has some tips for novice players. He suggests that these gamers “should especially focus on blocking”. Even though combos and technique are important, properly blocking enemies’ attacks was the most important divider between beginners and experienced players.
