Junichi Masuda was worried Pokemon would be too cute to be successful in the states

The Pokemon franchise didn't just find success when it first launched. It became an absolute phenomenon, and it's still growing to this day. We already heard that much of the dev team was worried the original games wouldn't find success at all, but in an interview with US Gamer, Junichi Masuda shared a worry specific to the U.S..

"At first, we were told that the Pokemon were too cute to be successful in the U.S. and that we should change the design of the characters. At the time, it wasn’t common for RPGs from Japan to be popular overseas. I remember being worried that players outside of Japan wouldn’t accept Pokemon for what it was."

I definitely think that's a valid concern, and I'm still somewhat surprised the games caught on in the states. I think it had a lot to do with the anime series, which helped show the Pokemon in all different lights. We got to see beyond the designs and learn what the personalities were like.