If, like me, you went to Pokémon Go Fest last year and got a Shiny Furfrou and held on to it until Feb. 14 to change its form into the Heart Trim form, you woke up disappointed that morning, as the developers didn’t give us the elusive trim.
Heart Trim Furfrou can only be acquired on Valentine’s Day, and while in previous years, the developers haven’t missed a beat to give trainers the chance to get it, this year was the exception, where the Pokémon form was not available at all, leaving me and other trainers pretty dismayed.
So when I got a chance to interview Pokémon Go’s Director, Michael Steranka, about why Scopely had missed the Pokémon form this year, I needed to know what happened. Was it a mistake? Held back on purpose? What was going on?
As it turned out. Steranka didn’t even know why the form was missing. At least from what we could tell regarding his answer.
“I probably don’t have much I can say on that one without chatting with our design team to understand the intent there,” Stewranka told Destructoid. “We do try to make sure that we’re not leaving things predictable, you know, in the game, because that can also be a little bit boring. But yeah, definitely heard and saw the feedback, and we’ll look for other opportunities to bring those types of exclusives back to the game.”
I tried to push Steranka for more information, asking if there were any plans for any kind of makeup event or if the Scopely deal was a cause for the missed opportunity, but Steranka was quick to shoot all of those down, telling Destructoid “definitely not,” but that “like anything in the game, it will come back [eventually].”
Considering there are other Pokémon that Niantic seems to hold for specific events, or only let a Shiny Pokémon appear at certain times, such as Shiny Smeargle during the Festival of Colors. I also wanted to press Steranka on the team’s decisions to gatekeep certain Pokémon around these events, especially when those events don’t return and the Pokémon, like Heart Trim Furfrou, appear lost to time.
“We never try to hold things for specific events only, but there are some times where you know it makes sense to bring it out. And sometimes that does end up being that same event,” Steranka said. “But similar with Shiny Smeargle, we never thought of that as something that should only be a part of Festival of Colors, but whenever it has sort of thematic relevance.”
Closing out the question, I asked if it was now a case where a Pokémon, or Form, or Shiny that hasn’t appeared in a while would only come out, as Steranka mentioned, when it makes sense to happen. And that the team won’t feel forced to make it happen based on fan feedback if it doesn’t make sense, with Steranka giving a resounding “yes” as his response.
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