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RB Interview: Masuda feared that cute Pokemon would be rejected by American fans

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Masuda talked to the website USGamer about that he feared that some cute Pokémon like Jigglypuff and Clefairy would be rejected by American fans or that the game would get the cold shoulder by the wester fans.
"At first, we were told that the Pokemon were too cute to be successful in the U.S. and that we should change the design of the characters "
"At the time, it wasn’t common for RPGs from Japan to be popular overseas. I remember being worried that players outside of Japan wouldn’t accept Pokemon for what it was."
"Thankfully, my worries proved to be unfounded, and all of the Pokemon found their fans even outside of Japan."
"We decided to start with the animated TV series, and I think that strategy really paid off."
"Once I arrived in the U.S., I saw just how many Pokemon products were on store shelves. There were far more products than I expected, and I remember being very surprised"
"Seeing the sheer number of products available in the shops was probably the first time I truly realized just how big Pokemon had become."
Source: usgamer
 

unownzone

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I wonder what kind of franchises and content were popular in America at the time that made Junichi Masuda worry about cute Pokemon not being loved.
 

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I wonder what kind of franchises and content were popular in America at the time that made Junichi Masuda worry about cute Pokemon not being loved.
That's a good question... here's a listo of videogames released that year (I don't know if in NA or EU) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_video_gaming
There's a lot of really know games! I think that there aren't cute things... maybe this is why in the interview he wrote that?
 

unownzone

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That's a good question... here's a listo of videogames released that year (I don't know if in NA or EU) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_video_gaming
There's a lot of really know games! I think that there aren't cute things... maybe this is why in the interview he wrote that?
I don't know a lot of games, but seeing the ones I can recognize, I can see why Masuda was worried about Pokemon competing in the game market. The vibe is so different. There are a lot of fighting games, but Pokemon is an adventure RPG, and a collecting game, with battles.
 

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I don't know a lot of games, but seeing the ones I can recognize, I can see why Masuda was worried about Pokemon competing in the game market. The vibe is so different. There are a lot of fighting games, but Pokemon is an adventure RPG, and a collecting game, with battles.
I think that the anime helped a lot :yeahyeah: here we got the anime before the game :yesyes2: :sisi2:
 
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