Bandai Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada spoke with Famitsu this week about Pokkén Tournament, which is launching in Japan tomorrow.
Harada explains why Pokkén Tournament isn’t just another Tekken game with a Pokémon skin slapped on top of it.
“It’s a solid versus game, but at its core, it’s an action game for Pokémon fans. People might think that because we’ve worked on games like Tekken and Soul Calibur or because of the name ‘Pokkén,’ that this game is made for established fighting game players, but I’d like to come straight out and say ‘no, it isn’t.’”
He then continues by saying the game was made with Pokémon fans in mind as opposed to fighting game players.
“The tech to make the game and the knowhow behind the massive amount of animations comes from our experience working on the games we’ve made before, but with the gameplay, we’ve set our sights on Pokémon fans.”
One way in which the team attempted to appeal to Pokemon fans was through the UI, which was changed from something that many fighting experts would be familiar with.
“Having the camera looking at the characters facing each other from the side with their stamina bars on the top left and right of the screen is an established fighting game format, but that’s something that experienced fighting game players can understand on instinct. That might give Pokémon fans the impression that the game is harder than it is, so we’ve intentionally gotten rid of that.”
Harada also had some tips for novice players. He suggests that these players “focus on blocking”, because even though combos and technique are important, properly blocking enemies’ attacks was the most important divider between beginners and experienced players.
In addition, we also have official confirmation that Blaziken will be joining the roster of playable characters in August.