 It's a good time for Japanese Nintendo games with a vaguely British setting. First, there was Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. Now, Pokémon fans can travel to the Isle of Armour, continuing their quest in the expansion to the extremely British Pokémon Sword and Shield. While plenty of previous Pokémon games have been loosely based on particular countries or regions of the world, the level of accuracy in Sword and Shield takes things a step further. The game overflows with small artistic touches that perfectly reflect the British countryside. Sword and Shield are also filled with UK predominantly English slang, although there's a mixed approach here, with some Americanisms making the whole experience a bit confusing. So why are Sword and Shield, and by extension the Isle of Armour, so quintessentially English? Well, it's all thanks to the game's art director, James Turner. While James has been living in Japan for decades now, he grew up in the English countryside. In his quest to become a professional artist, he found his way to genius sonority, a Japanese developer that has made several Pokémon spin-off games over the years. Game Freak was therefore already familiar with James's work when he applied as an artist at the company. Even so, they didn't make things easy for him, making him go through the standard interview process, which involved making up new Pokémon designs on the fly. James racked his brain and drew out a tree Pokémon which would later serve as the basic inspiration for Phantom. James was one of the very first Westerners to work at Game Freak, a feat which impressed a lot of Nintendo staff. Satoru Uwata once told him, You're Japanese is excellent. I'd love to be able to speak English that fluently. While James worked on many Pokémon titles at Game Freak, he also worked on a lot of their unrelated games. Suddenly though, he found himself being inundated with requests for help on the early stages of a new Pokémon game. He said, I was working on a different project and they were beginning development on what would become Sword and Shield, and I would hear from people working on it. We have some things we want to ask you about. We need your opinion on something, and I'd be pulled away from what I was doing. It became pretty clear they were thinking about England, and they wanted my opinion about the English countryside or the culture and stuff like that. With James constantly being asked to help, eventually it made sense to make him the games art director. This was a big honour. James had served as art director on some spin-off Pokémon games while at Genius Sonority, but he'd never been given such an important role on a Pokémon game at Game Freak before. James wanted to make sure that Sword and Shield accurately portrayed life in the British countryside. Just as Red and Blue were based on Satoshi Tajiri's childhood, and Ruby and Sapphire were based on Yonichi Masuda's childhood, James hoped that Sword and Shield would reflect what it really felt like to grow up in a small rural English village. James feels that people in Britain often don't appreciate how beautiful our country really is. Whenever he travels back to his hometown from Japan, he's struck by the colour of nature all around him. He said, the greenery of the countryside, the patchwork farmlands, that's a really beautiful aspect. The pretty small towns and the big cities as well. They can be really impressive. I wanted to get that across in the game. The aim was to convey the true nature of the UK as well, not just the postcard. It's good to have those landmarks and get a feeling of similarity, but I also wanted to convey the small details that people who come from the UK or people who visit the UK a lot, they can look at them and feel familiar. And it doesn't feel like a rough interpretation, but something that is really true to the details. Case in point, one time an artist sent James a design for signposts that had a distinct medieval fantasy feel. James rejected the design entirely, instead providing the artist with an alternative design that looked more like the actual road signs in the UK. James didn't want Sword and Shield to feel like a fairytale caricature of British culture. He wanted it to look like his childhood home. But of course, for games literally named after medieval weapons, Sword and Shield weren't going to be completely grounded in reality. Where would be the fun in that? James hopes though that the finished game is true to the feel of Britain, even if elements of its design are exaggerated for effect. He said, It is based on the UK, but there are more colourful locations as well within the game to create a sense of adventure. So if you've ever wondered why Pokémon Sword and Shield and then your expansions, the Isle of Armour and the Crown Tundra, are so steeped in British culture, you have James Turner to thank for it. The moral of the story is that your personal experiences in life can be invaluable in helping others to learn more about the world. No matter who you are, you have insight that nobody else has, and you can make a big difference by sharing that with others.