GameFreak's Junichi Masuda has disclosed a surprising feature of Pokemon Black & White via his blog. In a post today, Masuda revealed that Black & White players will encounter only new Pokemon until they've cleared the game.
The reason for this design choice, says Masuda, is because they want to put kids and adults on the same starting line and give all players the feeling of "What is this Pokemon?", similar to what they might have experienced when playing the original of all Pokemon games, Pokemon Red & Blue.
Masuda and the development staff had players inside and outside of the company sample the game. Comments included:
* "It's like playing something completely new, similar to when I played Red & Green"
* "You don't even know the type of the Pokemon, so you're surprised at the skills"
* "There are only Pokemon that you've never seen, so it's fresh and new"
The impressions have been good, says Matsuda, but desiging the Pokemon has been tough. Still, the GameFreak graphics staff say that they're happy if players enjoy themselves.