"With Masuda and GameFreak's attitudes toward Let's Go and the future of the franchise, I'm now convinced Pokemon GO was the worst thing to happen to Pokemon."

Bear with me. Initially I thought it was great that Pokemon got back in the main spotlight in non-gamer non-fan circles. However, I think the changes GO made to the franchise (cheapening individual Pokemon, encouraging mass recycling of Pokemon, the removal of more refined mechanics) has only served to potentially ruin the future of the franchise.I fully believe Pokemon GO succeeded solely because it was Pokemon on mobile. I don't think anything Niantic did truly made it successful, and I think GameFreak is entirely misunderstanding GO's popularity and making changes to the franchise which show how completely out of touch they are now.Take Masuda's recent comments on the removal of wild battles in Let's Go - I believe that he has proven he no longer has any idea of why Pokemom became a sensation and why it has lasted for 20 years. I think he has seen how much money Pokemon GO has made and thinks the things GO has been doing is the answer to making Pokemon even more popular.Except I think GO succeeded because of the strength of the franchise, the accessibility of mobile, and a demographic of players who will never ever cross over to Switch games for a variety of reasons. When GO was announced I nearly died of happiness because I thought "Pokemon in the real world" was actually how it was going to be. I thought finding and capturing unique Pokemon and raising them would be akin to mainline games, but feel more real, because this time I was the trainer and not the protagonist on the GameBoy/DS/3DS. Instead, we got a watered down experience that valued mass catch and mass disposal, alienating lessons inherent to the series.Now. GameFreak themselves have decided Niantic's view on Pokemon is the "best" way, or at least what they should try to emulate - essentially alienating long time fans and going for a demographic they've never touched and probably never will.The more I hear Masuda talk about Let's Go, the more I consider cancelling my preorder... when I was one of the fans advocating that a return to Kanto could still be great. But not like this - not by bastardizing the franchise. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/2uLzbpJ