Pokémon Sun and Moon turn 10 this year. Feel old yet? It doesn’t matter, as we’re only just now learning new fun tidbits about their development and what the hell was up with the very divisive Ultra Beast designs.
Renowned illustrator Yusuke Omura, former character designer at main Pokémon developer Game Freak and lead designer on Sun and Moon, took to X/Twitter to comment on several fan theories that popped up over the years about the mysterious extradimensional beings which shook things up when they were revealed:
Via Automaton, we got a translation of his post, where he explained the Ultra Beasts were essentially based on designs for Pokémon that “were rejected by Mr. Sugimori.” He talks about Ken Sugimori, who’s been the primary character designer and art director on the iconic franchise for a long time. “I decided to deliberately use the very reasons for why they were rejected and base the artistic direction of the designs on them. So in some way, they’re like a manifestation of my own resentment– pretty scary,” Omura added.
So there you have it: We were right to be put off by most of those designs. The news straight from the designer should also quell fan theories on the matter which have been around since the games came out in 2016. It turns out most of them were right on the money.
Personally, I’m not much of a fan of the designs even if they were meant to represent totally different beings from another dimension, but at the same time, I appreciate Pokémon getting weird from time to time. Most of the valid recent criticisms of the franchise are about its fear of breaking new ground, and if you ask around now, players are far more positive on Sun and Moon than they were a decade ago. Maybe the fact they were actually polished products also has something to do with it, ey?
