Game Freak on Pokemon!

It's not often that creators behind huge, huge franchises offer themselves up for interview, but Game Freak has done just that. The team behind the insanely successful Pokemon recently gathered for a conference call that was attended by select members of the European press. Answering questions on its global phenomenon were Game Freak's Mr Junichi Masuda, Mr Shigeki Morimoto and Mr Ken Sugimori.

You have 300-plus Pokemon. We were just wondering where you get all of your inspiration and ideas for the creation of each Pokemon?

Mr Sugimori: In many cases members of the design team get their inspiration and ideas from their experiences, or from insects and nature etc. But they also get ideas from their different perspectives.

Mr Ken Sugimori

Do you have nightmares about Pokemon at all because we know the man who invented Chocobo Dungeon from Squaresoft has nightmares that giant Chocobos are attacking him?

Mr Masuda: I don't actually have nightmares about Pokemon, but we do tend to have nightmares that systems will break down etc.

Do you feel that with the leap from the Game Boy Colour version onto the GBA you've made an evolutionary leap in terms of Game Play?

Mr Masuda: What is new about the Game Boy Advance version is that it has made transmitting systems possible for four people all involved at one time. This means that four people can enjoy playing the game together at the same time. Also in Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire the graphics are new, and in this game new aspects have been included such as the Pokemon contest.

When you want to create new characters, where does your inspiration come from? Movies or insects from the real world?

Mr Sugimori: As I have answered previously, experiences the designers have from their childhood have become the main inspiration when creating Pokemon. Experiences they have along with cartoons and movies from their childhood have become the main source of their ideas. And also encyclopaedia insects have made an impact on the designers in order to create new Pokemon characters. They also recall memories of weird animals or animals from encyclopaedias and they get inspiration from that.

Once you have picked one insect how do you change it to create a Pokemon?

Mr Sugimori: First we select an insect and after that we add essential elements to the insects to make it more like Pokemon, such as adding some hard shape to it, to be more like steel.

Mr Shigeki Morimoto

Just wanted to know if the Pokemon are still big with young people because it was a phenomenon at the end of the nineties, and do you think that it's still a big game for young people now?

Mr Sugimori: Many of the Pokemon characters first became loved because they were funny, that's why many people have supported it. And I'm sure that younger people will still support the Pokemon because it's funny. And in Japan, before Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire was released, many of the mass media began rumours that the Pokemon had already down trended and the software would not become a big seller. But that wasn't true and we still had support from fans, and I'm sure that we'll still keep on getting this support. (Note: 4.4 million Pokemon Ruby and Saphire sold in Japan to date)

Mr Morimoto: We have created this Pokemon software to be easy for young players to play. I'm sure that new generations will still enjoy this game.

My first question is how would you describe the basic philosophy that makes the Pokemon concept so immensely popular among young people nowadays?

Mr Masuda: Communication is the basic philosophy behind Pokemon. We thought about how we communicate with friends and then realised that software could be a great way to communicate. If somebody connects this Game Boy Advance platform with software like Pokemon it can transform people. I would like to play the Pokemon with my friends and that is where our philosophy originates as we believed other people would like to communicate with friends through Pokemon too. Therefore communication was the key of this Pokemon game.

The new two on two battles are a great addition to the Game play. Why are there so few of these battles in the game?

Mr Morimoto: You have just mentioned the brand new feature in this Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire game, but have not mentioned the one on one battles. It is one on one battles that we are mainly concerned with. The two on two battle was the new challenge that we have added to this new game, but the main game is with one battle. However if people say that the new two on two feature is nice then we might include this element in our next game also.

Mr Junichi Masuda

For an advanced game, Ruby and Sapphire doesn't have spectacular graphics, it's a little basic. Could you explain why you have chosen these kind of simple graphics?

Mr Sugimori: Yes actually we had a reason for making these graphics simple this time. The basic graphics may simultaneously limit and enhance gameplay, for example if a map is very realistic, it might become more complicated, and then it would be hard for players to understand where to go next. However, an unrealistic map may not work as a good guide, so some of the realistic graphics may cause some limitations to the games. That's why we have kept these graphics more simple this time, and also in the battle scenes, if we had made the back of the battle scenes more realistic, it might point out where the battle was and so when you draw, you have to be more precise. That's why we didn't make it complicated.

I would like to know if the Pokemon creators test their games with children? Do they have a test audience amongst children to see what works and what doesn't?

Mr Sugimori: No, we don't test with children when we create new Pokemon games, but we do rely on childhood memories when we create Pokemon games.

How do you know then when a game is good for the kids?

Mr Sugimori: When I create these Pokemon games, I think if I were a kid I would enjoy this game, I am an adult and I enjoy the game, and I believe in that philosophy.

I would like you to explain to our readers how did you use the Pokemon be featured in Ruby and Sapphire? With a complete new set of Pokemon, why did you include some and not all of the previous Pokemon?

Mr Sugimori: We try to balance on that account. Numbers is the most important aspect in this game and it would be hard for players to collect all Pokemon, but if the players can't really collect lower numbers of Pokemon, that makes the game more simple and not so interesting. So the number is very important. And in this new Pokemon game we wanted to add more new Pokemon, but there are many players who like all Pokemon from the previous games. So we try to balance on that also.

Which main features would you have liked to include in the new games, and for reasons of time, memory or any other reasons you cannot include finally?

Mr Masuda: Because the memory programmes are limited we couldn't add one aspect to this new game that we would have liked. We could not make one Pokemon make three sounds, for example we would have liked Pikachu to make two different kinds of sounds. When he is happy he may say "Pika", but when he is feeling sad he makes a little sound "Pikachu". We wanted to make more different sounds. We wanted a Pokemon to create many different kinds of sounds depending on the feelings that Pokemon is having.

What has been the main technical and playable differences between the different Pokemon games from Red and Blue through Gold and Silver and finally to the new Ruby and Sapphire?

Mr Masuda: One of the main differences between the old Pokemon and this new Pokemon game is that it is on a new platform, the Game Boy Advance, and also that four players can link to each other at the same time. Four players can transmit data at one time. That is the most important difference here.

My second question is how much time did you spend on creating the new music and song effects for Ruby and Sapphire?

Mr Masuda: We had two people working on music and sound effects when Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire was in development. It took about two years to finish all the work. We had to collect some older sounds, and also create some new Pokemon sounds, and also we had to do the music overall in the game, so it took about two years.

In the beginning, did you start drawing artwork from scratch, or have you been forced to adapt existing artwork in certain circumstances?

Mr Sugimori: Up until gold and silver, I had tried to make the image integrated from existing artwork, but for this new Ruby and Sapphire, I wanted to add a more unique design to this new Pokemon. But still I tried to maintain some integrating images from all Pokemon. And for the Ruby and Sapphire game I was sure that some of the fans were trying to get more of Pokemon, but I wanted to surprise all the fans and enjoy all the designs of Pokemon appearing in Ruby and Sapphire. But we still try to maintain the images and we didn't try to go beyond the border line.

In our magazine, on top of informing kids about new animation series and videogames, we also teach kids how to make hand drawings. Which drawing technique do you prefer to draw and illustrate Pokemon, and which technique would you recommend to kids interested in drawing?

Mr Sugimori: First I put white paper in front of me and draw a picture, and then I put film paper on top of it. Then I try to copy the pictures underneath, and try to make it more professional. And I do this over and over to practise, then try to make it satisfactory. I also try to adjust the picture by taking the size of eyes and stuff, and try to make the picture more perfect by doing it over and over.

What are your future plans for Pokemon on the GBA? Will there for example be something similar to the yellow edition or the crystal edition for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire as well, or a GBA Pokemon Trading Card Game like we had it on the Game Boy Colours?

Mr Sugimori: There might be possibilities for that and we are still thinking about adding more interesting aspects to new possible games. That's what we're hunting for now.

How close do you cooperate with the TV movies? So at first there was the game, and then there was the series. Now it seems as if the game is released at the same time as the new movies goes to cinemas in Japan.

Mr Sugimori: Yes, game and animation is definitely related. The creators of the game and the animators are related and they try to work together. As you have mentioned, here in Japan the new Pokemon game and the movie were released at the same time. While the game creators were developing this new Pokemon game, the director of animation for the movie came and played the game beforehand and came back to them with his opinions on the animation. So he made some important opinions about what should be done to the movie and so on. So there was some cooperation between them. There was a collaboration between the games and animation, but actually the creators of games feedback to the directors of animation, rather than the other way around

Do you expect any rivalry between Pokemon and games like Yu-Gi-Oh for example?

Mr Sugimori: Talking about card games, yes, it might be that Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh are similar, but we don't consider them a rival.

In the past years Pokemon had a huge impact not only in the video games markets but in other media too. With the new generation of games, do you expect the same impact, and do you think the mass market is ready to accept more games, cartoons and merchandising of your particular characters?

Mr Masuda: We always try to create newer, fresher, more interesting games from the previous when we release new Pokemon games. We feel that the mass market accepts it and really likes it. The Pokemon market, such as card licenses is also increasing and I feel that the same will happen worldwide.

Have you been able to make each Pokemon a single, well defined entity. Each monster is really well defined and somewhat unique if the stats are compared with the other ones, both old and new ones. So I would like to know if the balancing of those stats took a big share of time during the development or not?

Mr Morimoto: Yes the balancing of those characters takes time because once we capture a strong Pokemon we have to make a strong counter as well. It was hard to balance on that account. And also it was hard to balance in order to make this Pokemon game more interesting we shouldn't have made extremely strong Pokemon in this game because if once we created extremely strong Pokemon in the game, if a player captured this Pokemon, the player can easily win the game. So in order not to make the player win the game so easily we had to balance the strength of Pokemon in the game. We have to work on this stuff in this matter.

I would like to know the five favourite warriors and the five favourite best looking monsters among the new ones for Game Freaks?

Mr Masuda: My favourite Pokemon is MAWILE and I also like AGGRON. Mr Sugimori's favourite is TREECKO and also he likes GROUDON. And also from Mr Morimoto it would be KECLEON and ABSOL.

I just want to understand if they are happy with the big success among the children of Pokemon or would they like to see incredible accessibility of the game, the incredible complexity to appeal also to the older audiences?

Mr Masuda: As a creator I wanted to focus only on children but we also tried to target the wider people so that's what we are working on, and hoping. We want everyone from adults to children to enjoy this game. Whenever I see children around playing this new Pokemon game, I am very happy. So when I travelled to Europe, I was happy to see children playing this Pokemon game. And I am sure that the children in Europe will too enjoy this Pokemon new game, as children here in Japan enjoy it.

Mr Sugimori: I am very grateful that the products I have developed and created will be enjoyed not only in Japan but also in Europe, and I hope that in the future I can trade some Pokemon with the people in Europe and also I can battle with them.

Mr Morimoto: I directed Bat Wing, this Pokemon game, and have added many new essences to the battles this time, and I am sure I have made this interesting. So I hope that people in the world will enjoy the battle.

Mr Masuda: Everyone in the world can trade the Pokemon through this new transmitting system and also battle. So I hope that everybody enjoys this despite the limitation of countries.

Stuart Bishop