>Masuda helms ONE game
>they immediately backpedal and make a remake of a game that wasn't even a decade old by then
Does this come off as incredibly sad to anyone else in retrospect? It says to me that either they were disappointed with Hoenn or that they were desperate to try and get back the crowd that left when Pokemania ended. Either option just says a lot about Game Freak's management at the time, especially how insecure they were. And you just have to feel bad for Masuda here. He got only one game to fill the shoes of Tajiri and was almost immediately made to work on a game that he did not design, retreading old ground because they didn't think an original project under his helm would be as profitable.