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See this Satoru Iwata tribute in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon

Game Freak left a pretty nice tribute to late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon.

Like other Pokemon games, Ultra Sun and Moon lets you visit developer Game Freak offices in the game. In this case, they're located in HeaHea City, and depending on the Pokemon you have transferred from earlier games to Ultra Sun and Moon, you'll get a bit of a backstory on the development of that game.

The Iwata tribute dialogue shows up when the game detects you brought a Pokemon from your Pokemon Silver collection. Though Satoru Iwata is not named, once you read it, you'll know exactly what it's talking about it.

"Boy, when we were told halfway through development to make Kanto, too... I thought I might just expire on the spot! But I’m glad we made it that way.

"When we were having trouble fitting all the data in for Gold and Silver, and we were really in a pinch, this amazing guy came along and made a program for us that solved all our problems. He went on to become the amazing president of a real big company soon after that, too," the quote reads.

Of course, Pokemon and Nintendo fans will know that this is referring to Iwata's involvement with the development of Pokemon Gold and Silver. During development, Iwata wanted it to also include the Kanto region from Pokemon Red and Blue. Trouble is, this wouldn't have been possible given memory constraints on a Game Boy.

pokemon_ultra_sun_screenshot_3

So, Iwata wrote a compression algorithm that made this a reality, and the game ended up including the region. The touching tribute was discovered by @JoeMerrick, who also wrote a guide on all the trivia you get when you import Pokemon from the different games.

If you recently picked up Ultra Sun and Moon yourself, be sure to give our many helpful guides a look. We can help with smaller stuff like where to find evolution stones, and how to get Magearna with a QR code as well as more expansive stuff like a full list of QR scanner codes.

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Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

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Sherif Saed

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Sherif (he/him) is VG247’s go-to shooter and Souls-likes person. Whether it’s news, reviews, or op-eds – Sherif is always eager to tell you about video games. He's one of VG247's most veteran writers, with 10+ years experience on the site.

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