Game Freak has been around for many years and there is no stopping them. With the incoming main line games like "Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon" and an untitled Pokemon series for the Nintendo Switch, what more could fans expect in the future?
To give their players an idea of how they make their games, Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori sat down in an interview with Game Informer and told us the importance of story in the Pokémon franchise. In the interview, the producer and the director of “Sun and Moon” also discussed the possibility of an open world experience to the main series.
Pokemon Stories through the years
The two acknowledges that people have mixed feelings about the main series through the years. With the Pokemon franchise tapping into much larger things like an alternate universe and giant immortal men, the stories are getting wider. Masuda explains that this is because the games are always about expressing certain themes. In "Pokemon X and Y," they wanted to explore the idea of a person who is meant to live forever. They created AZ for this reason together with the song Kiseki to convey that message more strongly. They do this to make the games fresh and to give the player something to reflect upon at the end of their journey.
The Pokemon creators also shared their difficulty balancing personal player experience to the main story line.
Masuda explains that if the player has reached that certain point of the game’s story where everything is falling apart, catching Pokemon around the map isn’t something one should really be doing. So to make up for this, they set up the pacing of the stories very carefully. If something serious has just happened, they are going to follow it with a more lighter one.
This is to make players go back to catching Pokemon and doing other things because, by the end of it all, catching Pokemon is still the series’ main objective.
Open world Pokemon series soon?
"Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild" has set the bar when it came out. The game's excellent execution of balancing an open world environment with a good story line, made players flock to play it.
With a game like Pokemon will it also be possible to have the same experience?
Masuda thinks everything is possible. For their team, it is always been about thinking the best way to experience the game. He likes "Breath of Wild" and if he and his team could find a way to make the same kind of setting work with their gameplay, why not? However, the producer thinks that their current gameplay wouldn’t suit that kind of world for now. Despite acknowledging that the fans might love the idea, they need to have a reason first.
At the end of the interview, the two explain that the Pokemon series has always about forming bonds. Meeting Pokemon in the world, going on a grand adventure across the country with together, getting stronger, and overcoming challenges all leads to that main message.
The different elements they add in each game also gives players different kinds of ways to experience the series. Then when these players go out and meet others, they could talk about their journey with each other; forming bonds even outside the game. That’s the main focus of the Pokemon franchise, that's something that will never change.
