Pokemon.com has published an in-depth interview with Gamefreak’s Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori, who shared some more behind-the-scenes details about the development of Pokemon Sword & Shield.

During the interview, Masuda & Ohmori discussed various topics regarding Pokemon Sword & Shield‘s development process, new Pokemon, and new features. You can read the full interview for yourself here, or just check out some key highlights below:

Galar Region

• 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”

New Pokemon

• 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
• 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

Sword & Shield’s Development

• Game Freak began the conceptual phase for this game immediately after development of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon
• 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
• Without Let’s GO, Game Freak doesn’t think they could have delivered Sword and Shield this year
• 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

Dynamax Pokemon & Raid Battles

• 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

• 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

Music

• 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

Pokemon Sword & Shield are scheduled to launch on 15 November for Nintendo Switch.

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