"New details about USUM - interview with Game Freak in Frankfurt"

The staff at Eurogamer Portugal got the chance to interview Shigeru Ohmori (director of Sun & Moon) and Kazumasa Iwao (director of US&UM) at the headquarters of Nintendo in Frankfurt, revealing some new details about the upcoming games.If you speak Portuguese, you can check it out here.I thought the people here would like to read it, so I translated the transcript to English. Warning: big post ahead(I do not own this, all credit goes to Eurogamer.)Why did you decide to make these versions? You have announced a new game for the Nintendo Switch, so what's the reason for investing once more on the 3DS?Shigeru Ohmori: We've been developing Pokémon games for the Nintendo 3DS since we released the X and Y versions and since then we've built a huge fanbase on the platform. Then we also made Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and felt that we had created something really good, that brought the 3DS to its limits at the time. After that we started preparing Pokémon Sun & Moon and decided to rework the system and build it again from the beggining. At that moment, we believed it was the further we could go. However, we have plenty of fans and we realised that there was much left to do with the Alola region and wanted to explore it more. Thus, we decided to try again and take the system absolutely to its limits and offer something new and exciting for the fans.Regarding the story, is it a sequel or an alternate narrative?Shigeru Ohmori: These new versions are not a sequel like Black 2 and White 2. They are what we call an "enhanced version", just like the Emerald and Platinum versions in past generations. But this time we didn't want to do exactly what we had done before, in order to create a different and more surprising experience for the fans. With this in mind we decided to make two enhanced versions, this way you keep the experience of trading with friends. We hope that the players, whether they have or not friends who played Sun & Moon, get that experience.In X & Y you invested in Mega Evolutions, but after that, when you released Sun & Moon, you changed the focus to Z-Moves. What was the reason?Shigeru Ohmori: In fact, in X & Y we created Mega Evolutions for several Pokémon, but when we were designing Pokémon Sun & Moon, it was the 20th anniversary of the series and we wanted to make something new and surprising for players. We also wanted it to be something any Pokémon could take part of. As you know, Mega Evolutions are restricted to certain Pokémon.Eventually we came up with Z-Moves and any Pokémon can use then, leading to different strategies that vary from player to player. In the Pokémon World Championships there are players who resort to Z-Moves to complement their strategies. From our point of view, as producers, that's precisely what we were looking for, to change the battle environment and have people come up with new and unique strategies.Kazumasa Iwao: Z-Moves will return in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, of course, but we wanted to upgrade them. Thus, the new Necrozma forms have, each one, a new Z-Move. Kommo-o also has a new Z-Move, which after being used raises the stats.The DexNav, one of the new functionalities of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, was one of the best additions to the Pokémon saga. But when Pokémon Sun & Moon came out, I realised it was gone. Are you going to implement it again?Shigeru Ohmori: It was an idea that followed from Pokémon X & Y. In these games, every time you went to the green zone of the grass, you'd find new Pokémon you hadn't seen before. On the other hand, in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire you didn't have so many, so if the same set of Pokémon kept appearing, like Zigzagoon, the players wouldn't have interest in going to the grass, one of the central aspects of Pokémon.Bearing that in mind, to turn things more interesting, we created DexNav, showing the Pokémon that could appear in the area. It was one of the main reasons for implementing that functionality. However, it's not that interesting or useful if there is a great variety of Pokémon. In Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon there are many different kinds of Pokémon you can find, so we didn't implement the DexNav.In reality, DexNav was useful because there are Pokémon with hidden abilities, and that was an easy form to get Pokémon with those abilities.Kazumasa Iwao: Well, regarding encountering Pokémon, there is Island Scan, a feature that existed in Sun & Moon and that will be back in the new versions to help you encounter rarer Pokémon. There is also a new feature, thanks to a more powerful and useful version of the Rotom Dex. One of its utilities is RotoLotto, that enhances certain special effects in the game like easier Pokémon capture or the reduction of steps to hatch the eggs.In the first versions, after defeating the Pokémon League, we could explore new parts of the region and capture the various Ultra Beasts. Regarding the end game, what will be different in these new versions?Kazumasa Iwao: In the previous games you had Solgaleo and Lunala, the two Legendary Pokémon of Sun & Moon. This time you can ride these Pokémon and explore the Ultra Wormholes. As you may know, Solgaleo and Lunala have the ability to open these portals and in the new versions you'll explore what's inside. At the other side, there is the Ultra Beasts' world, where you'll be able to find them. In addition to the Ultra Beasts, there are other places where you can find strong Pokémon. For example, Mewtwo is in the game.Still with regard to the post game content, there is much more content after the main story ends. For example, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon have 100 small events you can find navigating the map. There is really plenty of content in these versions for the players to enjoy.Is Necrozma an evil Pokémon? Until now we have had powerful Pokémon used by malicious people for evil purposes, but Necrozma seems to be the first truly evil Pokémon. It's all black, and it even stole all the light in Ultra Megapolis.Kazumasa Iwao: It's a great question! Until now, in the Pokémon series, as you said, we never depicted any Pokémon as being necessarily evil. In Necrozma's case, depending on your perspective, you may think it's evil, but in other point of view it may be not. In fact, there is a natural conflict with the characters that appear in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon.Has anything change in Festival Plaza? I think it is a bit confusing and did not understang its purpose. I know you could train Pokémon, but Poké Pelago was an easier and more effective system.Shigeru Ohmori: The Festival Plaza is an important part of the world we created, so it is still there. However, we added some functionalities like Alola Photo Club, where you can take photos and save them and/or share them with other players. The basis for this is Festival Plaza. There is also another new addition in this area, but we can't talk about it at the moment. We can only say it's related to the battle system of previous games.Regarding Poké Pelago, we're happy to know you liked it. There were some changes this time to make it even easier to evolve there your Pokémon. We hope you'll like the changes.Back to Necrozma. On the one hand we have Pokémon and on the other hand we have Ultra Beasts. Is Necrozma the missing link between these two types of creatures?Kazumasa Iwao: We didn't give that particular role to Necrozma, but regarding the Ultra Beasts, you'll be able to visit their world. By doing that you'll learn more about them, where they live and why they exist. You'll also find out what type of relationship Ultra Beasts have with people as you progress with the story.In one of the most recent videos we announced UB Adhesive, which comes accompanied by the Ultra Recon Squad. This Ultra Beast has a different relationship with people and you'll find out more about that on Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon's story.I felt that with Pokémon Sun & Moon you moved away from the traditional formula and risked more. Is this your plan for the Pokémon game for the Nintendo Switch and the future of the series?Shigeru Ohmori: We make Pokémon games since the Gameboy era and we always have had a connection with the hardware we were developing for. The Gameboy was portable and you had to use the link cables to play and trade with friends. Then, with the advance of technology, Gameboy Advance came out, where you had a wireless adaptor to battle and trade wirelessly. Eventually 3DS appeared, with funcionalities like Streetpass and a wireless comunication environment.Whenever technology evolved, Pokémon followed that evolution. We have always advanced together with time. It's one of the philosophies we have when we develop a new Pokémon. However, despite this progress, we still have these central elements, which are Pokémon, their capture, battles and growing up with them. This is the core of Pokémon and what we want to do for the series's future.I realised you added a Surf minigame where in the end, depending on our performance, we get a score. Is there any reward for completing this activity?Kazumasa Iwao: As you saw, in Mantine Surf you can resort to several techniques to reach higher scores. At the end you receive points and you can use them to pay the Move Tutor, who can teach you Pokémon different moves they couldn't learn in Pokémon Sun & Moon. You can also trade your points for useful items.There are many places where you can do Mantine Surf, namely areas that link two islands. We want players to use this activity to help them progress during the story.TL;DR: No DexNav because there is a ton of wild Pokémon variety; Island Scan returns; Rotom Dex may help you finding Hidden Abilities (although it's unclear); new mini-events scattered through the map; Necrozma isn't evil, or is it?; Alola Photo Club is integrated with Festival Plaza; Festival Plaza has a new battling feature (6v6? FRONTIER??); we'll know UB backstory; UB Adhesive is different from the others; Move Tutors confirmed; Mantine Surf gives you points to buy Tutor Moves and items. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2gXSLYF