Pokémon Sun & Moon are just days from releasing, and the game’s developers have sat down for another interview, giving some more insight into the development process for the latest entries in the main series of Pokémon games. [Thanks, NintendoEverything.]
Speaking with GamesTM, producer Junichi Masuda and director Shigeru Ohmori touched on a variety of subjects, including why so much new information was unveiled since the game’s announcement, theories that are fan-created, as well as why the main series of Pokemon games have stayed on handheld devices.
When asked why there was such a steady stream of new information coming out for the games since their reveal, Masuda replied with the following:
“We’ve got this change in the style and play of the game, but one thing we’re aware of is that previously, you’ve been able to keep excitement just by saying one or two things about the game and people remained excited. Nowadays, you can say some things and people can lose interest quite quickly – it becomes yesterday’s news and something else is exciting. We want to try and keep people interested with this slow, continual release of new information and hopefully people will still be looking forward to the game by the time it comes out.”
On the topic of fans creating their own theories surrounding the stories of the games, Ohmori chimed in with the following:
“When creating the story, there are lots of different things that inspire us, but no one thing that points us in a certain direction – no underlying message in that regard. But what we do have is players discussing these things and really thinking deeply about the story, which is really interesting from our side and we do want to encourage players to think about what Pokémon is all about.”
Lastly, on the subject of communication and the reason why the Pokémon series has stayed on handhelds, Masuda had this to say:
“As you say, it’s all about communication and handhelds have long been the best way to get that connected aspect. Moving into the future, Nintendo hardware will continue to change with the times. Wi-fi is everywhere now and with that in mind, maybe the ways in which you communicate with other players will change. We always want to carry on making our Pokémon games for the most appropriate hardware based on what we have in mind for each game – we want to bring out the best in the hardware that we put our games on. We’re really excited to see where Nintendo goes with its hardware in the future and we want to continue making games for that.”
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon will release for the Nintendo 3DS worldwide on November 18th and in Europe on November 23rd.
