Recently we were fortunate enough to have the chance to interview two of the creators
behind Pokémon Sun & Moon: Junichi Masuda, who is the Producer and also assisted with
the music, and Shigeru Ohmori, the game’s director--and they had a looot of things to
say! So we’ve put together a list of the top 10 most interesting things we’ve learned
from them about the development of Pokemon Sun & Moon, so let’s get to it.
Okay, so Ultra Beasts are something that’s brand 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 one in 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 Beasts felt a little “alien” in nature, the developers
said that “The way they’re introduced and appear is very strange and conveys that
they come from a mysterious and different place. And they even stated that “the outside
feel is intentional.” How mysterious!
With Sun & Moon being only the 2nd generation to feature full 3D Pokemon, we were curious
how the design process for the Pokemon themselves has evolved--so to speak. And according to
Mr. Masuda, it’s changed quite 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, when they began doing the
illustrations and designs separately, before translating them into pixel art to display
in the game.
But with the advent of 3D in X & Y, they had to begin thinking about how the Pokemon would
appear in 3D, even during the illustration phase, before making the models. So there’s
a lot more for them to consider.
Mr. Ohmori then elaborated on the design process in general, noting that the ideas for the
Pokémon themselves come from a variety of different team members. And those ideas can
spring up for a variety of reasons, such as someone just wanting to use a specific animal
as inspiration, or maybe the story requires something specific at a particular moment,
or in another example, a battle planner might need a Pokémon to fill a specific role in
battle or for balancing reasons.
He continued that there are so many ideas that they have to work really closely with
the designers and artists to find the right mix and balance of Pokémon. And it’s because
so many people contribute ideas and requests that they have such a wide variety of Pokémon
in the games.
Okay, so we just had to ask about the post game...and perhaps not surprisingly, they
didn’t tell us much, saying they want “people to enjoy and discover it for themselves.”
But Mr. Ohmori did elaborate that “the team put in their all with this game;” with each
individual feature having been fleshed out to make sure they have a lot of depth. He
continued that they “really want this to be a game that people enjoy for a long time.”
And when we asked about character customization specifically, Mr. Ohmori confirmed there will
be a lot more options than in X and Y
One of the more unique things about Sun & Moon are the Alolan forms that reimagines classic
Pokémon in new ways. And as it turns out, the timing of their appearance on Pokemon’s
20th anniversary is no coincidence, as according to Mr. Ohmori, the 20th anniversary played
a key role in their development. He said that it inspired him to reflect back on Pokémon
and what they are, being living creatures. And that’s when he realized it would be
interesting if Pokémon that moved to the Alola region adapted to the environment in
unique ways, similar to real world animals on the Galápagos islands.
And as for why they focused exclusively on Pokémon that first appeared in the Kanto
region Mr. Ohmori explains that it was simply because they’re the most recognizable to
longterm fans, and because of that, were best suited to express the unique evolution concept.
And as a cute little tidbit, the developers even view Samson Oak as a sort of Alolan variant
himself.
Mr. Masuda added that the Alola Forms are a sign of their appreciation and a special
surprise for the fans that have been with them for the entire 20 years...
According to Mr. Ohmori, with this being the 20th anniversary, as well as his 1st time
as director on an all new generation of Pokémon games, he really wanted to go back and look
at what he thought the Pokémon games should be and to have his own take on them with Sun
& Moon. He realized that the Gym Battles were essentially human vs human may not be the
best fit for the Alola region’s more natural setting and theme.
He explains that “in going back to the theme of this really powerful and abundant nature
and the Alola regions, he felt like these trials, where you encounter these really powerful
wild Pokémon that are essentially the bosses of these areas and having to beat them as
part of your journey would be an interesting concept. And by changing this up, from the
gyms to the new trials, the game’s going to feel fresh for veterans of the series and
new players alike.”
So with this being the 3rd round of 3D Pokemon Games, the developers mentioned that they
wanted to challenge themselves and take the series to new levels of graphical expression.
And as part of that, they ended up creating a completely new development environment and
rendering engine for Sun & Moon, which allowed them to give human characters more realistic
proportions and have trainers appear alongside their Pokémon in battle on top of the implementing
full analog movement. All of these were done in order to “make players feel more immersed
in the Alola region.”
But where did the Hawaiian influence come from in the first place? Well, as it turns
out, Mr. Ohmori occasionally visits Hawaii in his personal life, and whenever he’s
there, he described feeling an overwhelming power of nature, with the strong sun and the
impressiveness of the ocean. And it was that feeling of this really powerful sense of nature
that he wanted to bring into into the world of Pokémon, which he explained also helps
express the relationship between Pokémon and humans and how they can live closely together
in these natural environments.
We also asked about Mr. Masuda about how the Hawaiian setting influenced the music. And
he responded that, although he primarily worked on the battle music, one of the things they
focused on was the rhythms of traditional Hawaiian music and conveying a feeling of
warmth.
When we asked what inspired Z Moves, Mr. Ohmori noted that he “thinks that there are a lot
of Pokémon that maybe weren’t getting used very much previously that are going to be
start being used by players,” And that was the ideal he had in mind when creating Z-Moves.
He wanted to have a much more varied battle environment 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--so they can learn what those are all about. And
that takes us to our next point...
So given that Z-Moves appear to be a focus of the main game, the developers explained
that you won’t gain access to Mega Evolutions until after finishing the story, which will
then further deepen the battle environment so that you’ll have this combination of
Z-Moves alongside the already super powerful but specialized Pokémon Mega Evolutions.
One of the main philosophies of Mr. Ohmori and Game Freak in general is that they always
treat every Pokémon as if it was current. The first generation isn’t treated any differently
than Pokémon from later games. They’re always 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 moving to Alola from Kanto.
But the developers didn’t want to just appeal to fans of the series, but the anime too,
especially kids, which is why Ash-Greninja appears in the recent demo. It’s become
such a fan favorite that they wanted to use Ash-Greninja to encourage these kids to try
the games and imagine themselves in Ash’s shoes, 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 simply said that there would be lots of surprises
for fans of each Generation. But as for who or what could appear, they simply ask us to
wait and see.
Because it’s weird that Hau takes the Starter Pokémon that’s WEAK to yours. That just
doesn’t happen in Pokémon unless there’s multiple rivals. So is there another one?
All Mr. Ohmori said was, “I don’t know about that--I can’t really say. Please discover
it for yourselves.” Hmmmm. Read into that as you will.
So there you have it--the 10 most interesting things we learned about Pokémon Sun & Moon
from the creators themselves. But do you want even more? Well, we actually posted the full
transcript of the interview in the description below--so give it a read for a few extra details
we didn’t cover here.
Thanks so much for watching and make sure to subscribe for lots more on Pokemon Sun
& Moon and other things gaming too.