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Pokemon.com posts a massive Game Freak interview that shares great insight into Pokemon Sword and Shield

The most in-depth interview on the game yet
by rawmeatcowboy
14 June 2019
GN Version 5.0

Pokemon.com has shared a huge interview with Game Freak's Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori, and it's all about Pokemon Sword and Shield. Check out the full info breakdown below.

- the biggest theme in these games is the idea of being the greatest or the strongest
- the Galar region is based on the UK, and it ties back into the theme of “strength”
- Game Freak began the conceptual phase for this game immediately after development of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon
- to create the starter Pokemon, planners and concept designers came up with the settings for where they will be
- after that, artists and designers came up with the designs that would fit that concept
- Pokemon aren't supposed to be characters, but living creatures that are believable as existing in their own environment
- it's important for starter Pokemon to have a straightforward personality to make a choice easier
- the team was caught by surprise with the popularity of Wooloo
- Pokemon: Let's GO was sort of a research project for the team to learn how to develop on Switch
- from a programming perspective, the two games use a very similar code base
- with Let's GO, Game Freak doesn't think they could have delivered Sword and Shield this year
- the feeling of growing alongside your Pokémon throughout the adventure is crucial to a core Pokemon title
- the team makes sure that the Pokémon never come across as too evil
- the team did a lot of experimentation with random encounters to find ways to change that up
- with each Pokemon game, the team considers the era in which the games are going to be released and the target audience
- there was a debate internally about if the game should let people control the camera
- the team added Dynamax Pokémon due to the Switch being able to display on TVs
- the team felt they could better express the difference in size between Pokémon through this
- the team wanted to try a new take on the“power up” gameplay with Mega Evolution and Z-Moves, which lead to Dynamax
- virtually all the Pokémon can Dynamax in the game
- you can use Dynamax Pokémon in player vs. player battles
- Max Raid Battles came about because the devs thought it would be fun to team up with friends to take on Dynamax Pokemon
- another goal was to get players to engage in multiplayer battles who like battling but might be too intimidated to get into pvp
- you can challenge a Max Raid Battle on your own
- if you do so, the other player slots will be filled with support Trainers that are computer-controlled
- Wild areas came about because team thought it would be interesting to come back every day and see what has changed
- they also wanted to have some place that would support other players that you could play with for adventure and discovery
- the devs feel there's a lot of enjoyment to be had in not knowing what Pokemon you're going to get
- this is why some random element was included for Pokemon hiding in tall grass
- the primary composers are Mr. Go Ichinose and Ms. Minako Adachi
- the soundtrack has been inspired by UK rock music,
- due to the Wild area, the game has longer songs filled with ups and downs

[Link]