recently we were fortunate enough to havethe chance to interview two of the creators behind pokã©mon sun & moon: junichi masuda,who is the producer and also assisted with the music, and shigeru ohmori, the game’sdirector--and they had a looot of things to say! so we’ve put together a list of the top10 most interesting things we’ve learned from them about the development of pokemonsun & moon, so let’s get to it. okay, so ultra beasts are something that’sbrand new in pokemon sun & moon...but we don’t know much about them. and as it turns out, we’re not alone.
because according to the developers, no onein alola knows what they are and figuring that out is a big part of the story and setting. wait, setting? what does that have to do with anything? unfortunately, they weren’t saying. but when we mentioned that the ultra beastsfelt a little “alien†in nature, the developers said that “the way they’re introducedand appear is very strange and conveys that they come from a mysterious and differentplace. and they even stated that “the outside feelis intentional.â€
how mysterious! with sun & moon being only the 2nd generationto feature full 3d pokemon, we were curious how the design process for the pokemon themselveshas evolved--so to speak. and according to mr. masuda, it’s changedquite a lot. he explained that, for the first three generations,they used to design the pokemon as pixel art right from the get go. but that changed with diamond and pearl, whenthey began doing the illustrations and designs separately, before translating them into pixelart to display in the game. say! so we’ve put together a list of thetop 10 most interesting things we’ve learned
know much about them. and as it turns out,we’re not alone. because according to the developers, no one in alola knows what theyare and figuring that out is a big part of the story and setting. wait, setting? whatdoes that have to do with anything? unfortunately, they weren’t saying. they come from a mysterious and differentplace. and they even stated that “the outside feel is intentional.†how mysterious! how the design process for the pokemon themselveshas evolved--so to speak. and according to mr. masuda, it’s changed quite a lot. right from the get go. but that changed withdiamond and pearl, when they began doing the
illustrations and designs separately, beforetranslating them into pixel art to display in the game. but with the advent of 3d in x & y, they hadto begin thinking about how the pokemon would appear in 3d, even during the illustrationphase, before making the models. so there’s a lot more for them to consider. mr. ohmori then elaborated on the design processin general, noting that the ideas for the pokã©mon themselves come from a variety ofdifferent team members. and those ideas can spring up for a variety of reasons, such assomeone just wanting to use a specific animal as inspiration, or maybe the story requiressomething specific at a particular moment,
or in another example, a battle planner mightneed a pokã©mon to fill a specific role in battle or for balancing reasons. he continued that there are so many ideasthat they have to work really closely with the designers and artists to find the rightmix and balance of pokã©mon. and it’s because so many people contribute ideas and requeststhat they have such a wide variety of pokã©mon in the games. okay, so we just had to ask about the postgame...and perhaps not surprisingly, they didn’t tell us much, saying they want “peopleto enjoy and discover it for themselves.†but mr. ohmori did elaborate that “the teamput in their all with this game;†with each
individual feature having been fleshed outto make sure they have a lot of depth. he continued that they “really want this tobe a game that people enjoy for a long time.†and when we asked about character customizationspecifically, mr. ohmori confirmed there will be a lot more options than in x and y one of the more unique things about sun & moonare the alolan forms that reimagines classic pokã©mon in new ways. and as it turns out,the timing of their appearance on pokemon’s 20th anniversary is no coincidence, as accordingto mr. ohmori, the 20th anniversary played a key role in their development. he said thatit inspired him to reflect back on pokã©mon and what they are, being living creatures.and that’s when he realized it would be
interesting if pokã©mon that moved to thealola region adapted to the environment in unique ways, similar to real world animalson the galã¡pagos islands. and as for why they focused exclusively onpokã©mon that first appeared in the kanto region mr. ohmori explains that it was simplybecause they’re the most recognizable to longterm fans, and because of that, were bestsuited to express the unique evolution concept. and as a cute little tidbit, the developerseven view samson oak as a sort of alolan variant himself. mr. masuda added that the alola forms area sign of their appreciation and a special surprise for the fans that have been withthem for the entire 20 years...
according to mr. ohmori, with this being the20th anniversary, as well as his 1st time as director on an all new generation of pokã©mongames, he really wanted to go back and look at what he thought the pokã©mon games shouldbe and to have his own take on them with sun & moon. he realized that the gym battles wereessentially human vs human may not be the best fit for the alola region’s more naturalsetting and theme. he explains that “in going back to the themeof this really powerful and abundant nature and the alola regions, he felt like thesetrials, where you encounter these really powerful wild pokã©mon that are essentially the bossesof these areas and having to beat them as part of your journey would be an interestingconcept. and by changing this up, from the
gyms to the new trials, the game’s goingto feel fresh for veterans of the series and new players alike.†so with this being the 3rd round of 3d pokemongames, the developers mentioned that they wanted to challenge themselves and take theseries to new levels of graphical expression. and as part of that, they ended up creatinga completely new development environment and rendering engine for sun & moon, which allowedthem to give human characters more realistic proportions and have trainers appear alongsidetheir pokã©mon in battle on top of the implementing full analog movement. all of these were donein order to “make players feel more immersed in the alola region.â€
but where did the hawaiian influence comefrom in the first place? well, as it turns out, mr. ohmori occasionally visits hawaiiin his personal life, and whenever he’s there, he described feeling an overwhelmingpower of nature, with the strong sun and the impressiveness of the ocean. and it was thatfeeling of this really powerful sense of nature that he wanted to bring into into the worldof pokã©mon, which he explained also helps express the relationship between pokã©monand humans and how they can live closely together in these natural environments. we also asked about mr. masuda about how thehawaiian setting influenced the music. and he responded that, although he primarily workedon the battle music, one of the things they
focused on was the rhythms of traditionalhawaiian music and conveying a feeling of warmth. when we asked what inspired z moves, mr. ohmorinoted that he “thinks that there are a lot of pokã©mon that maybe weren’t getting usedvery much previously that are going to be start being used by players,†and that wasthe ideal he had in mind when creating z-moves. he wanted to have a much more varied battleenvironment and allow for a lot of new strategies as part of that constantly shifting environment.he continues that “for the main story, they really focused on the player using the z moves--sothey can learn what those are all about. and that takes us to our next point...
so given that z-moves appear to be a focusof the main game, the developers explained that you won’t gain access to mega evolutionsuntil after finishing the story, which will then further deepen the battle environmentso that you’ll have this combination of z-moves alongside the already super powerfulbut specialized pokã©mon mega evolutions. one of the main philosophies of mr. ohmoriand game freak in general is that they always treat every pokã©mon as if it was current.the first generation isn’t treated any differently than pokã©mon from later games. they’realways seen as a natural aspect, reinforcing that this is a single interconnected world.and that’s shown yet again with sun & moon since the main character begins the game movingto alola from kanto.
but the developers didn’t want to just appealto fans of the series, but the anime too, especially kids, which is why ash-greninjaappears in the recent demo. it’s become such a fan favorite that they wanted to useash-greninja to encourage these kids to try the games and imagine themselves in ash’sshoes, just not as ash. and there seem to be more surprises in store.after all, when asked if other characters from past games would return, they simplysaid that there would be lots of surprises for fans of each generation. but as for whoor what could appear, they simply ask us to wait and see. because it’s weird that hau takes the starterpokã©mon that’s weak to yours. that just
doesn’t happen in pokã©mon unless there’smultiple rivals. so is there another one? all mr. ohmori said was, “i don’t knowabout that--i can’t really say. please discover it for yourselves.†hmmmm. read into thatas you will. so there you have it--the 10 most interestingthings we learned about pokã©mon sun & moon from the creators themselves. but do you wanteven more? well, we actually posted the full transcript of the interview in the descriptionbelow--so give it a read for a few extra details we didn’t cover here. thanks so much for watching and make sureto subscribe for lots more on pokemon sun & moon and other things gaming too.