Shigeru Ohmori
Ohmori in 2007
Born	(1980-02-29)29 February 1980 (age 45) Matsudo,Chiba, Japan
Years active	2001–present
Employer	Game Freak

Shigeru Ohmori (/ˈʃɪɡɛruːˈoʊmoʊrɪ/SHI-ger-rooOH-moh-ri;Japanese:大森滋,Hepburn:Ōmori Shigeru,IPA:[oːmoriɕigeru]; born 29 February 1980) is a Japanesevideo game director,designer, anddeveloper best known for his work in thePokémon franchise. He has worked forGame Freak since 2001, and has been the primary director ofPokémon video game titles sincePokémon Omega Ruby andAlpha Sapphire in 2014.

Ohmori was born on 29 February^[1] 1980 inMatsudo city, inChiba Prefecture.^[2] According to Ohmori, his parents died when he was young, which served as inspiration for the character Arven inPokémon Scarlet and Violet.^[3] He went to a vocational school and studied programming, and before he had graduated he had worked on the commercial video game titleYakiniku Bugyou.^[4] He applied toGame Freak initially as a programmer, but according to Ohmori he found out he preferred video game design to programming, and instead applied to be a designer.^[4] The first title he worked on in Game Freak wasPokémon Ruby andSapphire, immediately upon joining, and in the succeeding titlesPokémon Diamond andPearl he was a lead designer.^[4]

According toJunichi Masuda, director ofPokémon titles before 2014, he appointed Ohmori to be his successor in directing futurePokémon games during the development forPokémon X andY.^[5] At that time, Ohmori was the games' design director.^[4] With fan requests for a remake ofRuby andSapphire, Masuda opted for Ohmori due to Ohmori's strong connection with the old games, and Ohmori was informed of Masuda's decision on the games' tenth anniversary.^[5] The remakePokémon Omega Ruby andAlpha Sapphire was released in 2014, and immediately after its development had concluded Ohmori reprised his directorial role for the 2016 titlesPokémon Sun andMoon.^[6]

Sun andMoon was Ohmori's first new-generation title as director. The games were themed around nature, and in its design Ohmori increased the emphasis the games gave towards the Pokémon creatures themselves. In an interview withUSGamer, Ohmori also remarked that he wanted to design the new games "from scratch", and hence new game mechanics were introduced.^[7] In the following generation's titles,Pokémon Sword andShield, Ohmori continued to be director. According to Ohmori, due to theNintendo Switch's increased resolution, it became possible to include smaller visual items along with larger ones, enabling the addition of features such as multiplayer cooperative battles. One design item which took up Ohmori's attention was the grass in the games – as players perceived grass patches to be potential location for Pokémon, it was considered a core design element and Ohmori took half a year with his team to finalize it.^[8]

Ohmori retained his directorial position in the 2022 titlesPokémon Scarlet andViolet. The game continued to excludevoice acting as with previous titles, with Ohmori noting that without character voices "players can kind of create their own image of who that character is as they’re playing".^[9]

• 1980 births
• Living people
• People from Matsudo
• Japanese video game directors
• Japanese video game programmers
• Nintendo people
• Pokémon people

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