Game Freak on possibly revisiting Alola Pokemon in the future, Pokemon on Switch, Diamond/Pearl remake requests

Coming from a MeriStation interview with Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori...

Ohmori on whether Alola Forms will return/whether we’ll see something similar in the future…

“In this case, the references are a nod to players who’ve been following the games since Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. For example, regional forms were meant to surprise players who were already familiar with these old Pokemon; Exeggutor is a good example, that in one island he appears with a long neck. In the future, if we find reason to do this again, we absolutely will, it’s something really interesting that has been really well received.”

Masuda on whether Pokemon can adapt to home consoles and Switch…

“Communication is very important for the Pokemon games. Where and how our players game is very important. For example, in Japan kids play in parks, in each other’s houses, together with their portable consoles. In Japan, portable consoles are far from dying, in fact, they are in better shape than home consoles. That’s why for us is important to keep the communication aspect, so people can join and get together to play.

No doubt Nintendo Switch is the future, but we will have to wait for it to come out to the market and study in what way can Pokemon benefit from it. When people get it, we will have to analyze how people use it and then think about how to develop future Pokemon titles and how to take advantage of the new console.”

Masuda on Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remakes…

“(Laughs) We get that a lot on Twitter. Well… I don’t know, I don’t know… (laughs).”

Masuda on where he sees Pokemon heading in five years…

“We’ve come this far together with Nintendo, with it’s consoles. I think we’ll keep on evolving together with them. We will follow the path that Nintendo consoles make in the future. For us, Pokemon is a social phenomenon, a communication tool; thus, with the technology available to us at any given time, we will keep on trying to make Pokemon the best communication tool it can be.”