Choosing names for Pokémon X/Y was "incredibly difficult" says director

Choosing names for all the new pokémon in Pokémon X/Y was "incredibly difficult," Game Freak director Junichi Masuda said in a new Iwata Asks feature.

Masuda said the developer has an internal team dedicated to assigning names for new pokémon and these developers were "practically in tears" during the process.

"Tons of names have already been used up, so thinking up new pokémon names is incredibly difficult," he said.

In addition to creating names that fit the physical expression of every pokémon, Masuda and his team needed to make sure the names did not infringe on any existing rights and met other requirements, he said

"And this time we wanted to make the names the same in every country around the world if possible, so those put to the task really struggled. However, the sense of accomplishment was incredible," Masuda said.

Also in the feature, Masuda explained the decision to call the new game Pokemon X/Y after other entries in the series were branded with a color, like Pokemon Yellow or Pokemon Ruby.

"The X and Y represent the x axis and the y axis," Masuda said. "The world holds people with all sorts of ways of thinking, and you can get a sense that they exist in different dimensions. But if you think of them as people who think on the x axis and people who think on the y axis-horizontal and vertical axes-then they intersect somewhere."

"We may think differently, but we all live on the same planet, so everyone eats, sleeps and goes about their business day after day just like everyone else," he added.

Pokemon X/Y is the first game in the series designed for 3DS and launches on October 12. For more, check out GameSpot's review.