A newbie and an expert chat while playing latest games

About two years ago I was in the presence of royalty. Junichi Masuda, instrumental in the “Pokémon” franchise, stood up at the end of our interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. There was an awkward moment as no one appeared to be moving. A Nintendo rep quietly asked if I wanted a photograph with the master game developer.

Nintendo and Masuda were so accustomed to accommodating requests for a picture that it was practically an anomaly when there wasn’t one. Masuda has been with the “Pokémon” series since its mid-1990s beginnings and is a key figure in one of the most prominent cultural mainstays of the past two decades.

And I missed it all.

When the early wave of the “Pokémon” craze hit in 1996, I was nearing the end of high school; my interests were more “Trainspotting” and “Quake” rather than Pikachu and Squirtle. My first “Pokémon” experience was “Pokémon GO,” more of an augmented reality sensation than a proper “Pokémon” adventure. When I spoke to Masuda it was a full year before this year’s “Sword” and “Shield” entries in the series, games that will assuredly be among the biggest of 2019.

During my time with Masuda, I wanted to know why “Pokémon” endures. His first thought: The world of “Pokémon” is “comical.” And more than that, “It’s a kind feeling.”

“We’re definitely very careful about that,” Masuda said of the cartoonish role-playing games that feature trainers raising mystical creatures and sending them off into battle. “We want to show off this cool fantasy setting, but within that fantasy setting create a consistent realism. Even though there’s moves that poison the opponent, we still make those effects that don’t look super serious or intimidating.”

After a couple of weeks playing “Pokémon Sword,” I’m charmed. The game is full of sly asides that bring a smile to my face. I wanted to better understand what makes “Pokémon” a cultural force. Luckily I work with Tracy Brown, whose “Pokémon” knowledge vastly outshines my own. We decided to play “Sword” and “Shield” concurrently, to see how a knowledgeable fan and a newcomer view the same game.

Q: Tracy, what’s your initial takeaway?

Brown: I am having a blast. As a person who grew up on a steady diet of kaiju movies and Japanese curry rice, a lot of the new features — like battling giant Pokémon and cooking all kinds of curries — could not have been better tailored to appeal to me.

The draw for me has always been the Pokémon themselves. They’re cute and weird and there are so many different kinds of them. The excitement of each new game is encountering brand new Pokémon and trying to catch them all.

I’ve also started to appreciate the gentleness of the fantasy world. That might sound weird since the point is to have little creatures battle each other, but this is a world where parents are OK with 10-year-olds setting off on cross-country adventures to chase their dreams with nothing but a backpack and a pocket monster.

Plus, there are free medical facilities that heal Pokémon. It’s a beautiful, simple world to escape to, which I think “Sword” and “Shield” has really leaned into by playing up the pure joy people within the world get from watching Pokémon battles.

Q: How are you finding the game, Todd? And what starter Pokémon did you choose?

Martens: I didn’t know what “starter Pokémon” even meant until a few years ago. I’ve come to realize that this choice of which creature to raise and be the primary fighter throughout the game can cause a great deal of stress, but I didn’t overthink it. I went with Sobble, since Sobble sort of looks like a walking, sad little teardrop. Another starter, Scorbunny, struck me as overly confident and I find that trait a turn-off.

Brown: “Sword” and “Shield” let players see a world where you can really understand why a kid would want to take this journey into becoming a Pokémon champion. The game’s coming-of-age quest is that much more compelling when everything is fleshed out.

These elements are definitely reflective of the ways the “Pokémon” games have evolved, and I think speaks to why some of us keep coming back for more.

I also want to point out how the different reasons we picked different starter Pokémon shows how varied the experience can be. What you saw as overly confident in Scorbunny, I just took as excitable athlete. I picked the energetic bunny partly because he was cute, and also because past “Pokémon” has taught me that there are generally more water-type Pokémon (like Sobble) in the game than fire-types (like Scorbunny), so it made a bit more strategic sense.

But that prior knowledge is not at all crucial to enjoy the game.

Martens: One of the primary appeals of games is that they can become unique stories to those who play them.

I wanted to spend time in this world because it embraces players with a hug.

I was reminded of a comment from Masuda when I asked him to reflect on how now multiple generations have fallen for “Pokémon,” and he more or less said it’s because “Pokémon” doesn’t try to age with its players.

“I think a lot hard-core fans maybe want us to pursue a more realistic, heavier, hardcore, dark portrayal,” he said. “I of course listen to their feedback but I try to go in the direction that we lay out for ourselves.”

My biggest fear before starting the “Pokémon” game was there would be two decades of lore and myths and a language that I just wouldn’t understand, like someone watching “Avengers: Infinity War” without having seen other Marvel films. I was pleased that “Pokémon” essentially laid out the welcome mat.