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Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! likely Junichi Masuda’s last Pokemon RPGs as director

"It's important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over."

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! will likely be the last main Pokemon RPGs Game Freak‘s Junichi Masuda works on as director, Masuda said in a newly published interview with Pokemon.com.

Here is the excerpt:

Pokemon.com: It’s been five years since you last served as director—on Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. Why were these the right games for you to return to that role?
Masuda: “I was the one who worked on the base game concept document for Pokemon GO, and even in that original concept, I had the idea of introducing new Pokemon through the mobile game. I wanted to realize that goal by creating games that could connect with Pokemon GO and feel somewhat similar to it without feeling like we were copying it. Given my involvement in Pokemon GO‘s development, I felt that I was probably the best person to direct these games.
“It was also interesting to work with Nintendo Switch. There’s a lot of technology packed into the hardware that we were all trying to discover at Game Freak. For example, developing the Poke Ball Plus and working with Bluetooth to facilitate the connection with Pokemon GO were both very interesting things that I had a chance to work on as the director this time.
“But at the same time, it’s important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over the development of Pokemon as a series. I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokemon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director.”