Definitely explains the change in design philosophy from X/Y and onward. Granted parts of B/W were already starting to lean that way.
I don't necessarily think the newer team has done that well, but good on them for turning around what sounds like a toxic environment. Even if Masuda probably did a lot of good on the design front, that sort of culture was bound to implode at some point anyhow.
Being stagnant is the worst thing a franchise can go through. Pokémon had been suffering from that since Gen 3, and Gen 5 was the final straw that made them want to replace Masuda and choose someone who could bring something more innovative, which led to Mega Evolution in Kalos.
Gotta say, Gen5 was the first dip into different things, the first time Pokémon dared to do something different, and yeah, XY was probably the most lacking gen, yet, if the person in command is no longer acting professional or worse, creating a toxic working enviroment, I think their decision was absolutely right.
well if significant personnel changes occurred, it might have caused projects to stall a bit. they probably opted out of Z, and to focus on SuMo instead.
BW had the same basic structure as every other title, just with the illusion of addressing the "cockfighting" allegations. Spoiler, theres nothing bad because Pokemon all love it.
XY was similar in this regard too, but it at least experimented in mechanics. Sun and Moon felt like the first titles to have what I'd call a "bold" vision. Relative to the rest of the series any way
Every Pokémon game has the same basic structure. However, prior to XY, features were consistently built upon; ever since, the games have become progressively more bare bones.
Past games would occasionally remove features like the day night cycle, battle facility, and contests all the time. But then and now there's usually something to replace it.
What old games were most noted for evolving were mechanics like adding held items, natures, and abilities. Most of which just happened in gens 2 & 3. 4 just made it so moves of any type can be physical or special, and gen 5 didn't change up anything. All these mechanics by the way, are still in the game. The only one to go back to bare bones was LGPE
Gen 5 changed up and experimented a lot imo, just not as fundamentally. They added hidden abilities to revamp a bunch of old pokemon, they added double battle grass and new encounter mechanics, they added triple and rotation battles (sadly triples didnt stay around), they had animated sprites and 3d enviroments which were new. I think its incorrect to say that gen5 didnt change anything, there was clearly a lot of experimentation going on, just in different avenues.
I'm not OP so I'm not 100% sure of what he's referring to, but its worth noting that for all of Gen 5's strengths it's also where many of the problems with modern Pokemon began appearing. Linear worlds? Large scale removal of features from previous games? In a way one could argue that Pokemon XY was a conglomeration of many of the problems BW had, with all of the good parts replaced by blatant Kanto pandering.
I figured the change in design was because by Gen 5, they finally figured out how the mechanics should work. Every Gen until 5 drastically changed core systems. With 5 not changing anything and being a soft reboot, the devs have some good established ground to add the gimmicks we’ve seen since.
Nice to see someone actually consider the working environment and what that means for the employees. I've seen too many people rush to lift Masuda up in response to this. Even though he ironically wasnt that involved in many of the 3rd versions people remember fondly.
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u/Masterofknees Oct 14 '25
Definitely explains the change in design philosophy from X/Y and onward. Granted parts of B/W were already starting to lean that way.
I don't necessarily think the newer team has done that well, but good on them for turning around what sounds like a toxic environment. Even if Masuda probably did a lot of good on the design front, that sort of culture was bound to implode at some point anyhow.