Ken Sugimori on balancing Pokemon designs
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Ken Sugimori has been working on the Pokemon series since the very beginning. In the Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon Essential Setting Information book that came out in Japan at the very end of last year, Sugimori spoke about how he goes about balancing designs when finishing up Pokemon. According to Sugimori, he may “try adding something uncool to a Pokemon that is too cool, or I might add something cheerful to a Pokemon that is too serious.”
Siliconera provides the following translation:
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Pokemon designers on the creation of Pikachu, inspired by a squirrel
Posted on 6 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Yomiuri Shimbun has gained new insight about the creation of Pikachu after speaking to some of the original game’s developers, including illustrators Atsuko Nishida and Ken Sugimori.
All those years ago, Nishida was asked to create a “cute monster” that met two conditions. In addition to it being an “electric type” with electric attacks, it also needed to have two stages of evolution.
More: Atsuko Nishida, Ken Sugimori, Pokemon, top
Pokemon devs on Red/Blue names for the west and localization difficulties, limit on new Pokemon per generation, more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
In its issue last month, Retro Gamer published a large feature on Pokemon which takes a look back at the series’ earliest days up to the present. It included a number of comments from people with big connections to the franchise, including Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Ken Sugimori. Masuda is well-known as the producer at Game Freak while Sugimori drew the original 151 Pokemon.
Masuda in particular shared some interesting comments about the process in which Game Freak went to work on the original games, how the team was limited by the Game Boy hardware, and localization overseas. Sugimori talked about why each new Pokemon generation tends to see no more than 100 creatures.
We’ve included these statements from both Masuda and Sugimori below.
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Artist’s block prevented Mega Flygon from happening
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 11 Comments
Mega Flygon is something that could have existed… had it not been for artist’s block.
That nugget of information was shared in the latest issue of Nintendo Dream, which features an interview with Game Freak’s Ken Sugimori, Shigeru Ohmori (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire director), Shigeki Morimoto (game developer), and Kazumasa Iwao (Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire map designer).
Sugimori’s specifically shared the following:
Sugimori: For Aarune, he needed to have a Pokemon that could use the moves Fly and Secret Power, which are perfect moves for finding Secret Bases. And the only Hoenn Pokemon that wasn’t used by a key character that fit that criteria was Flygon. It does not Mega Evolve, but I really like Flygon.
Interviewer: Key characters often carry a Pokemon that can Mega Evolve, but Flygon is an exception, right?
Sugimori: Flygon has had the potential to have a Mega Evolution since XY, but we were unable to complete a design and so it was dropped from consideration.
Ken Sugimori drew the SEGA 3D Reprint Archives boxart
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
Ken Sugimori has played a very prominent role in the Pokemon series. He not only drew all of the original 151 Pokemon personally, but has also contributed to the movies, trading cards, and video games.
Now, while Sugimori is generally associated with Pokemon, he has worked with other companies and IPs. His latest creation? The boxart for SEGA 3D Reprint Archives. You can definitely see his style sprinkled throughout the image!
More: boxart, Japan, Ken Sugimori, SEGA, SEGA 3D Reprint Archives, top
Video: Pokemon art director Ken Sugimori shows how to draw Pikachu
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments
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Ken Sugimori on next Pokemon generation – highlights need for simplicity
Posted on 11 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 26 Comments
Ken Sugimori, art director for the Pokemon franchise, spoke about the seventh generation Pokemon in an interview with “We Love Pokémon”. Various bits from the magazine have now been translated.
Sugimori told the magazine – when asked about the next generation Pokemon titles assuming there are plans to make more games, and we all know there are – that Game Freak will revert back to simplicity rather than making things more complex. The team will do so in part by taking advantage of elements found in Pokemon Red/Green.
There are now a ton of different moves, abilities, items, and more to keep track of due to how many generations of Pokemon games we’ve seen so far. Therefore, Sugimori says some fans have said it may be for the best to organize/trim these aspects.
Another detail from Sugimori concerns the designs. They could probably be simplified as well, Sugimori believes.
And last but not least, what’s Sugimori’s favorite Pokemon? That would be Gengar!
