G4 interviews Junichi Masuda, Takeshi Kawachimaru
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Game Freak's Junichi Masuda and Takeshi Kawachimaru will attend the Nintendo World Store's Pokémon Platinum release party on Saturday in New York City, and since they've been in the United States, G4's Raymond Padilla interviewed the pair about Pokémon Platinum and the franchise in general.
Masuda is the director of Game Freak. His relationship with Pokémon began as the sole music composer for all Generation I games, and he went on to direct Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen, Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. Kawachimaru is a Pokémon game designer and played a major role in the creation of Platinum's Distortion World.
Besides discussing Platinum in anticipation of the game's U.S. release on Sunday, Padilla asked Masuda and Kawachimaru if there will be a Pokémon more powerful than Arceus, "the god of all Pokémon," in future games. Masuda's answer hinted at Arceus' relation to Dialga, Palkia and Giratina:
"In Diamond and Pearl you have Dialga and Palkia. In Platinum you have Giratina," Masuda said. "There are three legendary Pokemon and there's a relationship between the three. From there we have a story to move onto with other legendary Pokemon, but at this point that's all I can share."
Masuda gave Pichu and Spinda as examples of "well thought out" Pokémon, the former because it had to rival Pikachu in cute appearance and the latter because its fur comes in varying patterns.
"At first we were concerned if (varying Spinda's patterns) was technically possible, so we discussed this for a long time and made it happen," Masuda said.
Kawachimaru recommended video game players who tend to think Pokémon is for children try the Battle Frontier in Platinum because it adds complexity to the game.