Junichi Masuda likely stepping away from director role on future Pokemon games

Long-time Pokemon director and composer Junichi Masuda has, after working on the very first main series Pokemon game for a console, said he will likely avoid the director role for future installments.

In a conversation published on the official Pokemon website, Masuda discusses the interesting technology he was able to work with on Pokemon Let's Go! Pikachu and Eevee, but notes that he would like to see the series handed off to a new group of leaders.

"But at the same time, it's important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over the development of Pokémon as a series," he said. "I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokémon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director."

Masuda's first role as director on a Pokemon game was for Pokemon Gold and Silver, where he served as assistant director. He followed that as a director on Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, and since then has held a director role on numerous Pokemon titles. He did not direct during the last generation, which included Pokemon Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon, though he did serve as producer for both.

He has also worked as the composer for almost every main series Pokemon game ever released, all the way back to Pokemon Red and Blue. Masuda seems to have handed off some of his composing duties in Let's Go! as well to Shota Kageyama, who helped compose tracks for several past Pokemon games including re-working tunes for HeartGold and SoulSilver, and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.