There have been a few ups and downs for Game Freak, in the build up to Pokémon Sword and Shield’s launch. The initial reveal of Galar, the game’s UK-inspired setting, was perhaps a tad lukewarm, and the decision to move away from a full, eight or nine hundred-strong Pokédex brought outcry from the predictably noisy sections of Pokémon fans.
But then, new Pokémon like Wooloo have charmed, and twists on old favourites, like the brilliant Sirfetch’d and Galarian my-little-Ponyta, have gone down a storm.
Having now played the enchanting first hours of Sword and Shield, too, the game’s typical charm has once again started to shine through.
For Game Freak it must have been quite the ride. I spoke to veteran lead producer Junichi Masuda and a particularly jovial Shigeru Ohmori, the series’ game director, about the surprising inspirations for those new Pokémon, how they went about researching the UK, and what dealing with those moments of backlash has been like.