IGN Interviews the Monster Makers

[Linkachu]

... or two of Pokemon Platinum's creators to be exact. Recently IGN.com had the privilege of chatting with two notable members of the Game Freak team in the run-up to Platinum's US release: Junichi Masuda and Takeshi Kawachimaru.

As many of already know, Masuda has been composing music for the Pokemon franchise since 1st Gen. In addition, he has also acted as a game adviser, supervisor, designer (ie. he created the Hoenn region), and most recently as director for Pokemon FR/LG and D/P. His involvement with the Anime series is extensive as well. Safe to say, Masuda is one of the big wigs in the Pokemon world.

Kawachimaru, who joined Game Freak in the year 2000, has worked as a game designer for the franchise since Gen 3. He was also given the opportunity to act as Pokemon Platinum's director.

The interview itself is a good read, but one quote by Kawachimaru stood out to me - mostly because it shares Nintendo's own image with the DSi becoming a more personalized handheld system:

I think Pokemon has many features that make players feel their Pokemon are their own. Handheld systems have a similar concept; a home video game console is your family's, but the handheld is exclusively yours. So, I think a handheld system is a medium that gives you a strong sense of ownership since you always carry it with you. That's why handheld systems work so well with Pokemon games.

You can read the full interview HERE. Give it a look =)

 

[Linkachu]

It's amazing how little information is available on Kawachimaru at the moment. I tried to find other sources speaking about his directing of Platinum, but they're not easy to come by, lol.

If someone has a secondary source handy, let me know. It's probably on the official Japanese website, but as I can't read Japanese it's a tad tough for me to confirm it xp

 

[Johto-Master]

cant you download one of those translator things for websites?
if not i know you can do it phrase by phrase (word by word) but who wants to do that?

anyways i never knew all that about masuda
he's a legend for creating the hoenn region
and pokemons music, A++

 

[Linkachu]

Yeah... Phrase by phrase isn't happening. I don't have the time or energy for it XD

The problem I've found with the website translators is that they can't translate embedded text (someone correct me if I'm wrong), so half the time you're left with a partially translated and still difficult to read page. I don't even feel comfortable reporting on it when it's that bad =/

It'd be awesome if someone with Japanese reading skills offered their time, but I'm not holding out for it.