'Pokemon Sun and Moon' news: Game Freak made characters weird on purpose; mysterious NPC baffles players

"Pokemon Sun and Moon" players have noticed that some of the characters and elements in the upcoming video games are somewhat odd, with some bordering on absurd. This was all done on purpose, the games' creators recently revealed.

In an interview with Kotaku earlier this month, Game Freak's Shigeru Ohmori, the director behind "Pokemon Sun and Moon," and Junichi Masuda, the games' producer, revealed that the weirdness of the titles' creative design was intentional.

"For the 20th anniversary, we wanted to have a lot of special surprises... We wanted a funny element," Ohmori said. "At the same time, we had to find a balance of cool ones, serious ones. We looked at the Alola region as a whole and thought about that ecosystem," he added.

Since the demo for "Pokemon Sun and Moon" came out, players have been remarking on such characters as Jangmo-o, a dinosaur-like creature with a beak-like snout and a large heart-shaped scale on its forehead, and an Alolan Dugtrio with blonde hair.

But these new Pokemon are nothing compared to the Alolan Exeguttor, which has multiple heads and resembles a palm tree.

"When the designers first came up with the idea, the background is that the sun in Alola is so strong, that [Exeggutor] just keeps growing and growing," Ohmori explained.

Meanwhile, "Pokemon Sun and Moon" fans have been obsessing over a new NPC in the demo for the upcoming video games. The character, a creepy old guy hiding behind a pillar at the end of the Mahalo Trail is called "mysterious old man." Players have been trying to figure out what this character does, with some convinced that he has a role in the demo's special events.

Apart from the sketchy old man, players have also uncovered a spooky apparition dubbed "ghost girl" and a possible new feature that allows humans to date Pokemon.

The full version of "Pokemon Sun and Moon" drops Friday, Nov. 18, for the Nintendo 3DS.