Difference plays a major role in the latest Pokemon game.
In a recent Iwata Asks about Pokemon Black and White with directors Junichi Masuda and Ken Sugimori, they revealed the most important focus when creating the fifth generation in the Pokemon series was “to create a new Pokemon.”
With Black and White on the same system as Diamond and Pearl (the first time a Nintendo handheld has received two Pokemon generations), the team feared that people would claim that the games would be too similar to its DS predecessors. They began by looking at the some of the features in Diamond and Pearl and focus on the overall design of the new game. The objective was to take everything they knew about the game and “break it” in order to create a brand new Pokemon experience for the system.
The interview also revealed that Masuda and Sugimori have been partners for a long time, and for the development of this title they took on different roles. Masuda became the “idea man” while Sugimori was “the damper,” the man that controlled the ideas being presented during development.
The interview concludes with the idea that while Pokemon Black and White is different it retains enough familiar elements that made the franchise very popular around the world.
Pokemon Black and White is scheduled to be released in Japan on September 18, 2010. It is set for a 2011 release everywhere else.