Pokemon Champions producer on how the team is deciding which Pokemon to include in the game and more

Pokemon Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino has shared a few comments about the game, including how the team is going about picking Pokemon.

As previously mentioned, only select creatures were made available with the recent launch. Right now there’s around 200 – we have a complete list here.

Hoshino was asked about the team’s approach to include Pokemon Champions in the game in the latest issue of Nintendo Dream. We translated the various comments, which you can find below. 

Will all Pokemon appear in Pokemon Champions?

At first it will be a set selection of Pokemon appearing. Then we expect to establish divisions using set rules.

How do you decide which Pokemon will appear?

In order to do this Game Freak’s Shigeki Morimoto thinks along with the development team members. The timing to introduce Mega Evolutions is being very carefully considered.

Generally, will the Pokemon that appear be mostly ones that do not evolve further?

To start, we will be introducing Pokemon that allow the battles to be played in a way where players can easily understand ‘which Pokemon is strong’. Clefairy and Porygon 2 may appear in the future, but first we are placing importance on the ‘ease of understanding for players just starting out with battles’.

How will Terastallization and other special elements be added?

An item called the Omni Ring was made to handle all special features. Balancing these is extremely difficult so we plan to proceed very carefully. First we will allow players to use Mega Evolutions.

In a separate interview, Hoshino also commented on the game’s graphics. In case you missed our coverage of that, head on over here.

Pokemon Champions is available on Nintendo Switch with a free update for Switch 2 players.

Translation provided by Simon Griffin and SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything.