NINTENDO ACCION:You can tell there's a big jump between the style of Colosseum and the other Pokemon games, right? Can you tell us why the story is so different from the other games in the franchise?
Yamana - The world of Pokemon is big and vast, it has a multitude of different aspects. With the opportunity to create a new Pokemon title for GameCube, we thought we'd incorporate things never seen before, and show people that this part of the Pokemon world also exists. That's why the style, the design as a whole is so different.
During the game's development, did you consider the possibility of creating a more "explorable" world, in the style of Hoenn in Ruby and Sapphire?
Yamana - Make discoveries, investigate the world of Pokemon, both have been very important parts of the games on GBA. But in Colosseum the player has a crucial mission: fighting and defeating the evil conspiracy. This mission has to be experienced through a very elaborate, well cared for and well worked-on storyline, otherwise we run the risk of boring the player. That's why we focused on writing an intense, solid and deep plot instead of carrying over gameplay from the GBA games to the GC.
Does this new world have connection to the one in Ruby and Sapphire? Will we be able to see these new characters in other games?
Yamana - No, there isn't. This world is very different from the one in Ruby and Sapphire. We focused on a region that has been hidden until now.
How did you come up with the idea of Shadow Pokemon?
Yamana - My initial idea was to create a powerful story. So I imagined what evildoers would do in a world like Pokemon. So I decided that they would mislead Pokemon to do evil things. The visual concept of the new creatures was designed by Mr. Shinichi Hiromoto, mangaka. He's been involved in the project from the very beginning, giving graphic form to the ideas I kept having.
How did you come up with the idea of combining two game modes -battle and story-, and what aspect of the game are you most proud of?
Yamana - This has to do with the console you play on. In GBA, the fun is that you can play anywhere, it's a handheld console after all. With GC, a home console, you need to create a story that would appeal to players familiar with that environment. I don't think I could single out one aspect that we're most proud of, but we think it's very interesting to have brought a new Pokemon world to the players.