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Next, I'd like to ask about battles.
When it comes to Pokémon, I think a lot of people are interested in what the battles are like.
Especially this time, because there is a new type of Pokémon for the first time in 14 years.
By adding just one type, I'm sure it hugely affects the game's balance.
It scares me just thinking about it!
Because that one new element can completely change the balance of all the relationships
that have been built up so far.
Despite all that, why did you decide to add a new type?
Well, let's see...the Dragon type was so strong. It was difficult no matter how we tinkered with it.
No matter what you did, the Dragon type stayed the strongest?
It wouldn't change. And it would have been sad to make the Dragon type weaker.
It would be sad, and anger people.
So we thought maybe we should increase the number of types.
But we really hadn't put in a new type since Dark and Steel in Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver,
so I think everyone thought we never would.
And back at the time of Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, when it came to the mechanics,
I feel like the people who were involved with Pokémon had a shared understanding that it was complete.
Yes. Nonetheless, when we considered the balance,
we thought we should make a Fairy type. And we did.
Then we had to remake the overall balance from scratch, but I think it's good we put that in.
And in addition to ground battles, you added Sky Battles and Horde Encounters.
There are more battles.
That's right. Since it's in 3D this time, we tried to think of a way for people far away from
from each other to battle.
So they're far away, but they can fight high above in the sky.
You can battle if you have a Flying-type Pokémon, and the camera can move around to various angles,
so we put in Sky Battles this time as something new to show that.
As for Horde Encounters...
So far, if you put in a really strong Pokémon and used it, you could rapidly plough ahead...
Right. You could use brute force.
Yes. But we can't just let Pokémon that strong loose in the field to stop players from doing that.
I see.
Nonetheless, for a sense of balance that puts you under pressure...
It adds tension.
Right.
And yet they're not that strong by themselves. When you want to go with that structure...
To make it challenging, they come out in hordes.
If the balance gets too risky, you might panic and press Run Away.
(laughs)
Like, Uh-oh!
The fight might be five turns against one, so you make a move and get hit five times.
It's like playing Japanese chess and your opponent makes five moves at once. That really hurts.
You can experience being in a difficult position all of a sudden
when usually you would think there's no way you could lose.
But overall, you can wipe them away with moves that can attack multiple enemies,
and you can gain a lot of experience that way, so I felt like we were able to create a new balance.