{"id":73736,"date":"2026-10-13T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=73736"},"modified":"2026-10-13T17:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:00:05","slug":"pokemon-director-shigeru-ohmori-talks-about-game-freaks-magical-girl-weather-game-ame-nochi-hare-onna-and-how-the-project-came-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-director-shigeru-ohmori-talks-about-game-freaks-magical-girl-weather-game-ame-nochi-hare-onna-and-how-the-project-came-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon director Shigeru Ohmori talks about Game Freak\u2019s magical girl weather game Ame Nochi Hare Onna and how the project came to be\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Game Freak\u2019s upcoming free-to-play magical girl game <strong>Ame Nochi Hare Onna<\/strong> is quite a change of pace from the Pok\u00e9mon games the studio is known for. In a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202610\/90504\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu<\/a> interview, director and producer Shigeru Ohmori explained how the project came to be, and why he decided to create a game combining the magical girl genre with real-time weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After wrapping up development on 2022\u2019s Pok\u00e9mon Scarlet and Violet, Ohmori tried his hand at creating different games outside of the Pok\u00e9mon franchise. One of his ideas was based on his early Game Freak days<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-pokopia-creator-says-the-idea-came-from-his-rookie-days-placing-grass-on-the-map-at-game-freak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> placing grass patches in Pok\u00e9mon Ruby and Sapphire<\/a>. This idea would end up becoming Pok\u00e9mon Pokopia. Another idea, which was developed simultaneously with Pok\u00e9mon Pokopia, came from him <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/game-freaks-new-weather-based-magical-girl-game-promises-an-uplifting-story-with-no-dark-twists-everything-we-know-about-ame-nochi-hare-onna\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">observing his wife doing laundry<\/a>. Combined with his desire to pursue \u201cforms of expression that can only be achieved in a completely original game,\u201d the latter idea would become the basis for Ame Nochi Hare Onna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u3010\u516c\u5f0f\u3011\u300e\u96e8\u306e\u3061\u30cf\u30ec\u5973\u300f\u30c6\u30a3\u30b6\u30fcPV\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n8e8swKZhPY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ohmori explained that he envisioned a game involving magical girls who change into outfits that give them different abilities based on what they are wearing. This would fuel his desire to \u201cthoroughly explore the concept of bishojo characters,\u201d which would become one of the core elements behind Ame Nochi Hare Onna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team also wanted to create a game \u201cfirmly rooted in real life, with a sense of everyday reality.\u201d Since many people in Japan routinely use their phones to access real-time data about the weather and their surroundings, Game Freak thought it would be interesting to combine this data with the concept of magical girls. According to Ohmori, the weather data meshed \u201cmost beautifully\u201d with the core gaming experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ame Nochi Hare Onna\u2019s gameplay loop revolves around patrolling the city with your magical girls (called \u201cHare Onna\u201d) and fighting sentient trash monsters in turn-based combat using powers from their Hare-gi outfits as well as the current climate. The Hare-gi get dirty over time, requiring them to be washed and dried to preserve the strength of their powers (outfits dry faster on sunny days and take longer on rainy days).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260914-467196-header.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-72397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260914-467196-header.webp 1600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260914-467196-header-380x214.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260914-467196-header-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/20260914-467196-header-1536x864.webp 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Ohmori, Ame Nochi Hare Onna is designed so as to not intrude upon players\u2019 daily lives. Instead, it is meant to be played during in-between moments when you check the weather and do other similar tasks (a standard patrol takes roughly 5 to 10 minutes). Ohmori says that the goal was to seamlessly incorporate the game into players\u2019 daily routines, citing the example of taking out a rain-type Hare Onna during a rainy day to gain an advantage in combat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ame Nochi Hare Onna is scheduled to release this Winter for iOS and Android. The game is currently set to be a Japan-exclusive title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After over 20 years of working on Pokemon, Ohmori wanted to explore &#8220;forms of expression that can only be achieved in a completely original game.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":72398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-73736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pok\u00e9mon director Shigeru Ohmori talks about Game Freak\u2019s magical girl weather game Ame Nochi Hare Onna and how the project came to be\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-director-shigeru-ohmori-talks-about-game-freaks-magical-girl-weather-game-ame-nochi-hare-onna-and-how-the-project-came-to-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pok\u00e9mon director Shigeru Ohmori talks about Game Freak\u2019s magical girl weather game Ame Nochi Hare Onna and how the project came to be\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After over 20 years of working on Pokemon, Ohmori wanted to explore &quot;forms of expression that can only be achieved in a completely original game.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-director-shigeru-ohmori-talks-about-game-freaks-magical-girl-weather-game-ame-nochi-hare-onna-and-how-the-project-came-to-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-13T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/202609014-72394-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1327\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"717\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pok\u00e9mon director Shigeru Ohmori talks about Game Freak\u2019s magical girl weather game Ame Nochi Hare Onna and how the project came to be\u00a0 - 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