It’s a good time for Japanese Nintendo games
with a vaguely British setting.
First, there was Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive
Edition.
Now, Pokemon fans can travel to the Isle of
Armor, continuing their quest in the expansion
to the extremely British Pokemon Sword and
Shield.
While plenty of previous Pokemon games have
been loosely based on particular countries
or regions of the world, the level of accuracy
in Sword and Shield takes things a step further.
The game overflows with small artistic touches
that perfectly reflect the British countryside.
Sword and Shield are also filled with UK – predominantly
English – slang.
Although, there’s a mixed approach here,
with some Americanisms making the whole experience
a bit confusing.
So why are Sword and Shield, and by extension,
the Isle of Armor, so quintessentially English?
Well, it’s all thanks to the game’s art
director, James Turner.
While James has been living in Japan for decades
now, he grew up in the English countryside.
In his quest to become a professional artist,
he found his way to Genius Sonority, a Japanese
developer that has made several Pokemon spin-off
games over the years.
Game Freak was therefore already familiar
with James’ work when he applied as an artist
at the company.
Even so, they didn’t make things easy for
him, making him go through the standard interview
process, which involved making up new Pokemon
designs on the fly.
James wracked his brain and drew out a tree
Pokemon which would later serve as the basic
inspiration for Phantump.
James was one of the very first Westerners
to work at Game Freak, a feat which impressed
a lot of Nintendo staff.
Satoru Iwata once told him,
“Your Japanese is excellent.
I’d love to be able to speak English that
fluently!”
While James worked on many Pokemon titles
at Game Freak, he also worked on a lot of
their unrelated games.
Suddenly, though, he found himself being inundated
with requests for help on the early stages
of a new Pokemon game.
He said:
“I was working on a different project and
they were beginning development on what would
become Sword and Shield, and I would hear
from people working on it, ‘We have some
things we want to ask you about.
We need your opinion on something,” and
I’d be pulled away from what I was doing.
“It became pretty clear they were thinking
about England and they wanted my opinion about
the English countryside or the culture and
stuff like that.”
With James constantly being asked to help,
eventually it made sense to make him the game’s
art director.
This was a big honour – James had served
as art director on some spin-off Pokemon games
while at Genius Sonority, but he’d never
been given such as important role on a Pokemon
game at Game Freak before.
James wanted to make sure that Sword and Shield
accurately portrayed life in the British countryside.
Just as Red and Blue were based on Satoshi
Tajiri’s childhood, and Ruby and Sapphire
were based on Junichi Masuda’s childhood,
James hoped that Sword and Shield would reflect
what it really felt like to grow up in a small
rural English village.
James feels that people in Britain often don’t
appreciate how beautiful our country really
is.
Whenever he travels back to his home town
from Japan, he’s struck by the colour of
nature all around him.
He said:
“The greenery of the countryside, the patchwork
farmlands - that a really beautiful aspect
- the pretty small towns, and the big cities
as well - they can be really impressive; I
wanted to get that across in the game.
“The aim was to convey the true nature of
the UK as well.
Not just the postcard.
It’s good to have those landmarks and get
a feeling of similarity, but I also wanted
to convey the small details that people who
come from the UK or people who visit the UK
a lot, they can look at them and feel familiar,
and it doesn’t feel like a rough interpretation,
but something that is really true to the details.”
Case in point: one time, an artist sent James
a design for signposts that had a distinct
medieval fantasy feel.
James rejected the design entirely, instead
providing the artist with an alternative design
that looked more like actual road signs in
the UK.
James didn’t want Sword and Shield to feel
like a fairy-tale caricature of British culture,
he wanted it to look like his childhood home.
But of course, for games literally named after
medieval weapons, Sword and Shield weren’t
going to be completely grounded in reality.
Where would be the fun in that?
James hopes, though, that the finished game
is true to the feel of Britain, even if elements
of its design are exaggerated for effect.
He said:
“It is based on the UK, but there are more
colourful locations as well within the game
to create a sense of adventure.”
So, it you’ve ever wondered why Pokemon
Sword and Shield, and their new expansions,
the Isle of Armour and the Crown Tsundra,
are so steeped in British culture, you have
James Turner to thank for it.
The moral of the story is that your personal
experiences in life can be invaluable in helping
others to learn more about the world.
No matter who you are, you have insight that
nobody else has, and you can make a big difference
by sharing that with others.
