Even without participating, today an entire culture has developed in watching competitions unfold – whether live sporting events, mental contests like chess, or even video games. By following the players’ every move, viewers become part of the fun and excitement of doing battle. And now, the battles played out on “Pokémon” are joining this trend.
To enhance the viewing experience for audiences of its tournaments, The Pokémon Company teamed up with HEROZ, Inc. and jointly developed a new AI tool named “Pokémon Battle Scope” (PBS). PBS provides information on-screen indicating how a battle is unfolding, in real time, in the “Pokémon” video game series.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Pokémon battles is their strategic depth. Players do battle using Pokémon they have raised. Every Pokémon is capable of 4 different moves, and at every turn players try to use their optimal move based on their assessment of the moves available to their opponent.
What’s important here are the types of Pokémon in play and their respective moves. In all, Pokémon come in 18 types, each with its own relative strengths and weaknesses. The Fire type, for example, is stronger than Grass-type Pokémon but weak against the Water type. Players take these factors into consideration and, predicting how the opponent will play, aim to choose the optimal move to outsmart them. In this way, Pokémon battles are mental battles, just like chess.
Luck adds into the mix, too. About 4% of the time, making a “critical hit” on an opponent’s Pokémon will inflict increased damage. Conversely, factors can work to adversely affect a Pokémon, resulting in status effects such as Paralysis, Poison, Burn, or Sleep. So even when the battle isn’t going in a player’s favor, with a single move the game flow can be reversed. It’s this unpredictability that generates the thrill and excitement of watching battles unfold.
PBS is a tool enabling more and more viewers to savor this spellbinding aspect of Pokémon battles as never before. Using AI, PBS analyzes and indicates statistically on-screen which side has the upper hand from one moment to the next. It also shows which move AI suggests the players should choose at each turn. With these visual aids to understanding, second by second, how the battle is unfolding, PBS makes it possible for people who normally don’t play video games, or people unfamiliar with the finer aspects of engaging in online battles, to totally enjoy watching the action underway before their eyes.
HEROZ, Inc., the company that collaborated with us in creating PBS, has a robust track record in developing AI for shogi – Japanese chess. Its foremost strength is in AI-powered games like “Shogi Wars,” a shogi app authorized by the Japan Shogi Association. Among members of the development team from HEROZ, many are avid “Pokémon” enthusiasts with lots of experience in the realm of battles. This enabled them to undertake development of PBS backed by a deep understanding of what makes “Pokémon” battles entertaining and engrossing.
Development of PBS proceeded targeting adoption in the Video Game category at “Pokémon Ryuosen 2024,” which was scheduled to take place on February 25, 2024. Pokémon Ryuosen are tournaments organized by The Pokémon Company with joint sponsorship by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and the Japan Shogi Association. These two cosponsors host the “Ryuosen” competitions in which contestants vie for the highest title in the realm of professional shogi.
The Pokémon Ryuosen events have become known for their unique attractions beyond the battles themselves. In recent years, for example, the competition has taken place at a Noh theater and players have participated wearing Japanese kimono. Since the idea behind PBS had originally derived from shogi AI, the project team members were especially eager to complete development in time for Pokémon’s 2024 event.
The team’s enthusiasm and determination aside, achieving development within their targeted time frame was a difficult challenge. Unlike shogi, where the number of pieces is relatively few and always the same, Pokémon battles can involve more than 1,000 different Pokémon and over 900 different moves. Moreover, players’ move choices are affected by factors like the weather at the battlefield and the status effects of the Pokémon. The resulting number of possible combinations is thus truly astronomical. Setting parameters, teaching AI, and performing simulations ran into hundreds of millions of operations.
When the day of “Pokémon Ryuosen 2024” arrived and the first video game battle equipped with PBS got underway, as soon as the livestream displayed the moves suggested by AI, comments from viewers started pouring in with great excitement. Onlookers, like players themselves, know just how difficult it is to analyze the way a Pokémon battle is going at any moment. So seeing AI’s unexpectedly precise judgments clearly raised their awe and amazement up several notches.
Their excitement soared even higher whenever a player opted for a move not suggested by AI. Gasps of amazement were heard at the livestream site, and comments marveled at the thought that the players were outplaying AI.
Moves suggested by AI are in effect a player’s “textbook” options. During actual play, though, sometimes the way to outsmart one’s opponent is to choose a move other than what’s likely considered strongest. It’s precisely because AI suggests the most normally appropriate moves that the scintillating skill of top players stands out.
PBS’s debut at “Pokémon Ryuosen 2024” garnered excited reactions far exceeding our expectations. But PBS is still a work in progress, and room remains for improvements: for example, by making suggested moves even more precise, and offering graph displays of how a battle is progressing. At The Pokémon Company we aim to keep updating PBS going forward, to make the battle viewing experience ever more enjoyable and exciting.
Pokémon battles can be played by anyone – both adults and children – under identical conditions, no holds barred. And now, with AI added into the mix, we aim to convey the fun and excitement of Pokémon battles all the more. With the creation of PBS, battle-viewing culture has entered a brand-new phase.
