>>38704752After Crystal. Tajiri wasn't equipped to manage a team of that scale, but his vision was the reason why the series was so successful in the first place. The shift from fantastical but grounded world to the focus on legendaries and save the world JRPG plot is where it's most evident. The backlash to Gen 5 pushed Game Freak away from appealing to the more dedicated fans. Additionally, the release of GO furthered fractured the fanbase and it's gone off the rails since.
There's aspects of the games after that I enjoy and I consider the DS era some of the best in the series, but I think the original vision was lost after he left and the series became worse for it. I don't share the blind hatred some here have for Masuda since I think it ignores his contributions to some of fan favorites in the series, but it seems to me he has no idea what direction to take the series.
