Pokemon X and Y won't receive online patches to rebalance moves, types

By Matthew Reynolds - Published Friday, Sep 20 2013, 3:00am EDT

Originally Posted at: http://www.digitalspy.ca/gaming/news/a517003/pokemon-x-and-y-wont-receive-online-patches-to-rebalance-moves-types.html and http://www.digitalspy.ca/gaming/news/a516570/pokemon-x-and-y-lack-3d-effect-in-overworld-for-better-visuals.html

Pokemon X and Y won't be given patches with balance updates, Game Freak has said.

Game director Junichi Masuda explained that although imbalances "could happen", as with previous entries in the series, he believes the team has "got it right" this time.

"We don't really plan to release any kind of updates to change the balance," he told Digital Spy.

"Of course, we think we have it perfect this time, but thought that before and depending on certain move combinations.

"For example, at points a lot of people used the Metal Grass Pokemon because they were so strong - and everyone is using that Pokemon.

"Something like that could happen, and we think we have it perfect, and we don't plan to release any kind of balance changes."

He added: "We spent a lot of time working on getting this balance right, but of course we're not going to be able to know everything's perfect until the games are in players' hands and they're coming up with new strategics and combo.

"I'm really excited to see what strategies players come up with in the World Championships next year in Washington DC, to see if we're done it right."

Masuda was particularly worried that introducing balance patches could mean making certain Pokemon types weaker.

"We know people really like these Pokemon. If we released a patch to make them weaker, for example, it's going to disappoint a lot of people."

Pokemon X and Y introduces a new type, Fairy, which would counterbalance the powerful Dragon type that has dominated competitive play in recent years.

But even before then, the introduction of the Dark and Steel types in Game Boy Color entries Gold and Silver has seen the development team evaluate whether the balance was right.

"Even after we introduced those two types, over the years we have always been thinking, 'Is the balance right? Should we add another type, how are we going to get this right?'" Masuda explained.

Game director Junichi Masuda explained that for technical and stylistic reasons, the 3D effect would only be used during certain points in the game.

3D will only be possible during battle and in certain cutscenes.

"One of these is that we really wanted to focus on the theme of beauty in Pokemon X and Y," he told Digital Spy.

"We really wanted to make the overworld - the field - as beautiful as possible.

"We could put in a lot of grass and flowers, and try to make them as pretty as possible. When you don't use the 3D effect you are able to render quite a bit more on the 3DS.

"That's one of the reasons why we wanted to leave it off in the overworld, because it gives us more power to show off more beautiful graphics."

3D would then also be "more effective, more impactful" when it was used in the game, such as during battles.

"That plays to the strengths of the 3DS, where you don't require glasses - you don't have to put them on and take them off at certain moments," Masuda explained.

"You can just leave it on and then at certain specific moments, the 3D will come on and it will be more surprising or impactful to the player."

Pokemon X and Y global release date was seven years in the making

Pokemon X and Y's global release date has been seven years in the making, developer Game Freak has revealed.

Game director Junichi Masuda said "a lot of complaints" from European fans over the delay between regional releases sparked "structural changes" within Game Freak, starting with the DS generation of games.

Pokemon X and Y will be released on the same day globally for the first time in the series.

"We knew we wanted to do this global, simultaneous release but we had to make some structural changes and we had to work with Nintendo and the Pokemon Company to really change how we localise the games," he told Digital Spy.

"Originally we would have Japanese versions then localise in English, and then from English, we would localise into French, Italian, German, Spanish, all these other languages.

"What we decided to do was create a localisation structure that we could localise directly from Japanese into all these different languages."

He continued: "We started this around the Diamond and Pearl games, and gradually over the years, we became more efficient at doing this localisation, and with each release, we were able to decrease the time lag between the Japanese release and the other languages.

"Finally, with Pokemon X and Y, we got to point where we were efficient enough – we had the tools in place, the teams in place – to be able to finally release them all at the same time."

Whether global releases would happen with future Pokemon releases would be down to how the fans respond.

"We put a lot of effort into the global, simultaneous release to make sure that pays off," Masuda said.

"Why we wanted to do this – to have the games out the same time around the world – is so everyone would be discovering Pokemon for the first time, trading and interacting with each other.

"[We] definitely want to see how that reaction amongst our fans is. If it's good, then yes, definitely, we want to try it again. But if people don't really seem to care about it, then maybe not!"

Masuda added: "It's definitely up to our fans and how they respond!"