Pokemon Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino has spoken about what players can expect in terms of Pokemon additions for the game.

Since launch, the roster has stayed the same. There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 creatures to use, but obviously many other Pokemon exist.

Hoshino recently spoke with Famitsu and indicated that we should be getting more Pokemon this summer. As part of that, the team will also “remove some restrictions on held items.”

As for why the roster was limited to start out with, Hoshino explained that the team “wanted to create an environment where even people who are unfamiliar with Pokemon battles can understand them”. He also said in the same interview that “allowing players a little more time to learn these current Pokemon little by little may be a good idea.”

As this is a long-term service game, it was said that balance adjustments will be made as appropriate. Please tell us a bit more in detail about the time frame and contents you imagine for this.

Immediately following release, we were dealing with issues as we found them. In terms of changing the environment, first we are focusing our attention on the release of the smartphone version. Then, in about three months from now we plan to add more Pokemon and remove some restrictions on held items.

In the current state where there are many Mega Evolutions for Pokemon, we wanted to create an environment where even people who are unfamiliar with Pokemon battles can understand them easily and I think we have mostly been able to do that. Some people said “The types of usable Pokemon and items is too small” and others said “There are already more than enough”, so for now we plan to proceed cautiously. For the smartphone release too, we want to prioritize making the game easy to get into for beginners.

The Pokemon and items being added from now will also only be a limited selection right?

Yes, that’s right. From looking at players’ reactions on social media, it seems that many of the core players share the same thoughts as us – “We want many new players to come and join”. Of course, within that there are some people who feel that there is currently not enough content, but even in the current state there are many things that new players may not understand or that may be difficult, such as special characteristics, items, ability effects, etc.

At the time of smartphone release we hope that people who don’t have a Nintendo Switch and people who have never experienced a Pokemon game before will be able to play too. With that in mind, first we want to put emphasis on ease of understanding and gradually add elements at a gentle pace.

At this time there are already over 200 Pokemon in the game, and remembering each one from scratch is not an easy task. Of course, it isn’t necessary to remember them all right?

That’s right. For example, in shogi there are 8 types of pieces, but if there were 200 pieces it would be quite difficult to remember them all (laughs). Therefore, to start, allowing players a little more time to learn these current Pokemon little by little may be a good idea.

You plan to increase the number of Pokemon on three month cycles. For that timing when you also change things such as regulations, is there a possibility of renewing the usable Pokemon as well?

It hasn’t been decided, but I think that could be a possibility. Presently we have regulations for allowing Mega Evolutions to be usable, but when we change to a different system, I think we will also change the Pokemon to match that new system. For example, there may be times in the future when Legendary Pokemon become available to use, but I think just because a Pokemon has appeared, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will always be available. At this time it isn’t decided, but we want to continue making adaptive changes after considering everyone’s opinions.

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