Chief director of Pokopia co-development studio Koei Tecmo, Takuto Edagawa, has explained how all of the new designs for the game's Pokemon came directly from the team at Game Freak. Edagawa's team was particularly taken with the ghostly Pikachu design, known officially as Peakychu, and gave it the nickname "unfortunate Pikachu" internally. So far, six new Pokemon designs created for Pokopia have been shown to the public, including Pikachu's new spectral form. There are two new Ditto-pretending-to-be-a-human designs, as well as a mossy Snorlax called Mosslax, and a Smeargle which is just really into its craft called Smearguru. The final new design is the series' first Pokemon professor that is literally a Pokemon, Professor Tangrowth. Pokemon Ultra Beasts are "a manifestation of my own resentment," Game Freak artist says after designs were rejected Pokemon devs "wanted to create a different type of game that's not an RPG" with Pokopia, but that "was a challenge" Pokemon Pokopia director thought it up while placing grass and he wanted to give players the same experience However, it was the see-through Pikachu that caught the team's eyes, especially as it has been the series' mascot for 30 years. "In particular, Pikachu (Peakychu)'s temporal and melancholy feel is impressive. Internally we called it 'unfortunate Pikachu'." Edagawa says with a chuckle. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of 'Snorlax that has been waiting for a look at gameplay of Beyond Good and Evil 2', but each to their own. Pokemon Pokopia director thought up the Animal Crossing-like while placing grass for Ruby and Sapphire, as he wanted to give players "the experience of creating their own Pokemon world"