The best of Pokémon

Interview: Game Freak directors pick their favourite Starters, music and regions Posted by Thomas East | 10-May-2011

Source: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/26083/features/the-best-of-pokmon/

Which of Black and White's three starter Pokémon would Game Freak's art director Ken Sugimori choose in a pinch? What is Junichi Masuda's favourite piece of music in a Pokemon game? And what are the pair's favourite regions in the series? These are the questions that you asked of Pokemon Black and White Directors Junichi Masuda and Ken Sugimori. You'll find out the answers in this revealing interview.


Andrew Watts asks: Which starter Pokémon would you choose in Black or White?

Ken Sugimori: I would definitely choose Oshawott.

Junichi Masuda: And I would choose Tepig because it is so cute.

Leigh Ruff asks: What is your favourite Pokémon region?

Sugimori-san: I really like the Kanto region personally, because that's where I live in Japan. It's also the first in the series.

Masuda-san: I'll admit I like the Kanto region too, but then, since everything in Pokémon Black and Pokémon White is so brand-new, I would have to say that I prefer the Unova region.

Daz_Dragon asks: Why is there not a game where you play as Team Rocket?

Masuda-san: That's a difficult question to answer! But when you think about Team Rocket, while they're quite comical, they're still bad guys when they try to steal other trainers' Pokémon. Imagine watching football on TV, for example - you want them to play fair. I want players to play as heroes in videogames, and I want them to play fair!

Jaketheshizz asks: What's your favourite feature in any Pokémon game?

Sugimori-san: The most characteristic feature in Pokémon is the way you can exchange Pokémon with other players. And I also like the feature when the player rides on a bicycle!

Masuda-san: I love seeing Pokémon evolution. It's very exciting to see the growth of Pokémon because it's totally different from the pre-evolved form.

Will Davey asks: Are you interested in the idea of a Wii version of the DS game, with 3D graphics?

Sugimori-san: I am interested in strong visual effects. However, I believe that Pokémon is most appropriate for portable consoles.

Masuda-san: I'm really not thinking about having the main Pokémon games on the Wii, because using portable consoles means you can always carry Pokémon around with you and you can play with other players, so that's the future I'd like to emphasise.

King Slazo asks: What was your favourite track you got to compose in Black and White, and what is your favourite piece of music from across all of the Pokémon games?

Masuda-san: I love every piece of the music that I composed for Pokémon Black and White, but I especially like the one that's used when capturing Victini, and that is because it's not really like other Pokémon music. This music is something that players can only hear when they reach Liberty Island and they try to capture Victini. As for my favourite piece from across all of the Pokémon games, I particularly like the one for the opening of Pokémon Red and Blue.

Samurai Ferrett asks: Have you ever thought of developing a MMO Pokémon game?

Masuda-san: There are so many possibilities for Pokémon games, so of course I've thought about it. But, currently, this is what we do.

Mario_Boi asks: After creating so many different Pokémon, are there still new designs and ideas?

Sugimori-san: It's not only myself designing new Pokémon - we have about 20 people in our team at Game Freak who design Pokémon, so if every one of them came up with 10 Pokémon ideas, it is going to be 200. And that will make a lot of new Pokémon designs. Also, there are people still coming in new to Game Freak and that's where we get fresh ideas from.

Michael Hill asks: What was the inspiration for Pokémon Global Link and the Entralink?

Masuda-san: With Pokémon Global Link,I wanted everybody in the world to be connected and, in order to do that, well, we have already got the internet. But then I thought that if it was possible to do this using videogames, that would be much more interesting, and so that's where I got the inspiration for Pokémon Global Link.

As for the Entralink, I was interested in connecting people closely to each other, so I thought it would be very interesting if you could get into somebody else's cartridge and then play with it.

Emyr Lewis asks: You could say there are too many Legendary Pokémon, but a lot look like they've taken their inspiration from Greek gods. Was that a big inspiration when making them?

Masuda-san: Maybe there are a lot of Legendary Pokémon across the entire series, but then if you are just looking at each title, there are not many in each.

It is very interesting having the number of Legendary Pokémon that we do - in the Pokémon World Championship in 2010, there was a battle among only Legendary Pokémon, and that kind of thing can happen if we have many Legendary, so it's fun.

There isn't any connection with Greek mythology, but we do have our own mythology in Pokémon. So we don't really have any need to refer to Greek mythology.