Pokemon Pokopia's new Pikachu form was dubbed "unfortunate Pikachu" by co-dev Koei Tecmo, but it comes from a place of love: "We were surprised and thrilled"

A screenshot from Pokopia of a ghostly Pikachu called Peakychu.

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.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Edagawa describes the first time he saw the new Pokemon designs. "Because all of the Pokemon designs were done by people at Game Freak, the first time we saw them we were surprised and thrilled," he says.

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.

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"