Katsuhiro Harada is as stunned by Pokémon/Tekken mash-up fighter's existence as we are. In an interview with a Japanese gaming mag, he spilled the beans on some of the game's most surprising features and bumps along the way.
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In an interview with Famitsu, graciously translated by Kotaku, Katsuhiro Harada states that he was the one to initiate contact with Pokémon boss Tsunekazu Ishihara for their studios to work together. However, Ishihara-san turned out to have quite a defined idea in his head already for what a possible collaboration between the two should entail.
"At first, I offered a collaboration with a different title, but when my messenger returned [from Pokémon Company], he said 'Mr. Ishihara wants to collaborate with Tekken.' Not only that, but [Mr. Ishihara] had already settled on a title - the entire office was dumbfounded", Harada-san said.
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Harada-san rolled with the punches, but decided to have Pokken be a game that didn't focus exclusively on the Hitmonlees and Hitmonchans. "There are a lot of different types of Pokémon. For example, not that this means it's going to be in the game, but if a Pokémon like Magikarp showed up, the player would wonder, 'what kind attacks does it have?' As long as we're going to make this game, I wanted it to have that sort of surprise and expectations for the player."
And for some cute behind-the-scenes trivia: it was Soul Calibur producer Masaaki Hoshino who was the biggest Pokémon fan in the building, and his help turned out to be invaluable. His knowledge was key to including features such as evolution, nay, Mega Evolution in the game.
The game is scheduled for a 2015 release date to Japanese arcades. It is said to be at 30% of its development cycle.