Many Pokemon fans will know the name Junichi Masuda, as he's worked on every Pokemon title since Red and Green, as a programmer and song composer, making his way up to director of the series by the time Ruby and Sapphire released. He's been an important part of the franchise, but according to an interview on Pokemon.com, he might be stepping down from his role as director. He already let someone else take the reins for Pokemon Sun and Moon, and their follow up games Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but has returned to be the lead on the upcoming spinoffs Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. In the interview, he said that it's important to let those that are younger working at Game Freak be able to help move the series in newer and better directions and that this will likely be the last game he works on as a director.

It's important to have the younger generation at GAME FREAK take over the development of Pokémon as a series. I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokémon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director.

Source

 

[Noctosphere]

the only main game i ever disliked was sun and moon, so if next gen is like sun and moon, i will be pissed.

yea well
older pokemon games (pre BW I think) were much harder
mainly because now, EXP. Share applies to all the party

 

[pedro702]

yea well
older pokemon games (pre BW I think) were much harder
mainly because now, EXP. Share applies to all the party

it wasn't about being hard or easy, but the game itself, the cosntant tutorials on every trial or pokeride, or the cut-scenes with the girl or your friend which names escape me, they were so many and most of them had little to no reason, it was basically saying go there to continue.

srs i want a straight up pokemon game without crap cut-scenes or tutorials on any new area we enter.

i liked x and y and omega ruby and saphire even tough they were easy.

i love colosseum and XD and snap btw even tough they aren't main games, i just don't want another boring game like sun and moon.

heck the switch can make Colosseum graphic games, if we get something along those lines without the damn tutorials im fine with it.

 

[Delerious]

Makes sense. He's been at it for a long time. Though I do hope he still makes contributions with the music. Hopefully this also means that Pokemon will be pushed in a direction that include more challenging gameplay options for more seasoned players, and maybe even change the formula up a bit.

*EDIT: Grammar*

 

[MegaGenesis]

While his more recent works can be classified as "not so great", he deserves to be praised for his years of hard work. I usually say on groups and other forums that Pokémon started getting good in Gen 3. Back in Gen 1 and 2 Pokémon was just a fad, even Game Freak employees at the time though about it. It was in the "Masuda Era" Pokémon started actually developing its rich world and lore, and gameplay mechanics. It became more than just a monster collecting game.

My only gripe with Masuda is the fact he needs help from others to finsih his work. He has some great ideas, but need other to flash it more, just look at Emerald and Platinum.

About Sun and Moon, i liked those games and understand what Game Freak intented there. They were a more experimental games, like Gen 5 was. Many players hate them, but kudos to the devs to have the guts to try something different in a super stale formula. My guess is S/M was intented to be a more storywise game, and to be discovered and played only once. Many Pokémon players don't care about the world,s tory or characters, and like to reset and play again and again. They made USM because of it and it turned to be one of the most boring and unnoriginal Pokémon games ever.

Anyway, thanks Junishi Masuda.

 

[Eddypikachu]

I'm glad he's going, he's the reason we didn't get the battle frontier in ORAS, his reason for intentionally not including was so idiotic, it was "nowadays players get bored and frustrated more easily and they aren't interested in things that are so demanding/challenging." Anyways, hopefully the next director makes some great gameplay decisions

 

[Plstic]

Good riddance. He's the reason the Let's go games are clunkers.

 

[SANIC]

Welp
Its time i Hamaon myself
(Only SMT fans get this)

I will burn my bread.

Still Ultra Sun is my favorite game.

 

[Jayro]

Good, let someone with a competitive side take the reigns, and stop treating us like children in a franchise we've been playing since 1996.

 

[Ric-Are-Those]

For such a great man who respect a lot, way to go out with a wimper.

 

[Xzi]

JFC still so much salt over Pokemon Let's Go not being targeted at 40-year-olds.

Nobody's forcing anyone to keep buying Pokemon games. They're going to keep selling extremely well regardless. Deal with it.

 

[smilodon]

JFC still so much salt over Pokemon Let's Go not being targeted at 40-year-olds.

Nobody's forcing anyone to keep buying Pokemon games. They're going to keep selling extremely well regardless. Deal with it.

That's right, because earlier pokémon games were serious games for grown up man.

...

 

[The Catboy]

Honestly, he's made A LOT of poor decisions and maybe it's about time he did step down. His recent choices haven't completely overshadowed all of his work and maybe it's best to just step down before it does.

 

[Xzi]

That's right, because earlier pokémon games were serious games for grown up man.

...

Precisely my point. God forbid they change things up without also catering to my specific wants. /s

Now, I fully expect the next Pokemon Switch release after Let's Go to make "hardcore" fans more pleased, but I still predict that some people will be mad about the changes they make, regardless of what those changes are.

 

[Ritsuki]

Precisely my point. God forbid they change things up without also catering to my specific wants. /s

Now, I fully expect the next Pokemon Switch release after Let's Go to make "hardcore" fans more pleased, but I still predict that some people will be mad about the changes they make, regardless of what those changes are.

Hahaha exactly, I love seeing grown-ups mad about Pokemon Let's Go when they're not the targeted audience
I think I said that in another thread, but it would be like complaining about a reboot of Teletubbies : okay, but since you're not 2 years old, the product wasn't really made for you so...

 

[pedro702]

JFC still so much salt over Pokemon Let's Go not being targeted at 40-year-olds.

Nobody's forcing anyone to keep buying Pokemon games. They're going to keep selling extremely well regardless. Deal with it.

actually lets go games are the games with the lowest amount of pre orders in history of main pokemon games.

 

[Song of storms]

Does that mean we might see some real changes/new concepts in the games?

No lol. They could literally sell another remake of the first generation and sell millions... oh wait, that's what they've done. Twice.

 

[Kigiru]

Kinda sad to see him stepping down from being the director. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are my favorite Pokemon games and it was his debut as director and now it's over...

Tho i hope that he still will work with programing and most importantly music. His music is just so fucking good that for me this franchise can stop exist if there will be no Masuda as composer anymore.

Also, there will be no crazy shake-ups in this franchise. Probably minor twists on the idea like in SM are as far as we can get - Remember that Pokemon are not only single-player games, but also entire competetive enviroment and scrapping the battle mechanics will means scrapping said enviroment and there's like no fucking way that any company will do it. It's like asking Blizzard to remake Overwatch as Tower Defense game or other shit.

 

[tiamat999]

Would rather they try to make something for casuals like me to do in game pvp ruined the single player enough it doesnt need any more work

 

[Enryx25]

Would rather they try to make something for casuals like me to do in game pvp ruined the single player enough it doesnt need any more work

You are the target audience for Let's GO Pikachu / Eevee.

 

[tiamat999]

You are the target audience for Let's GO Pikachu / Eevee.

You mean i can finally have fun using legendaries in the whstever battle place its called this time