Game Freak director and Pokémon series producer Junichi Masuda is best known for his music contributions to the series. Since Pokémon Red and Blue first debuted on the Game Boy, Masuda's compositions have given atmosphere to every mainline game he's been involved with.
Last year, Masuda said, "...it’s important to have the younger generation at Game Freak take over the development of Pokémon as a series. I do believe this will probably be, in terms of the main Pokémon RPGs, the last time that I work as the director." It appears now he may have also stepped aside as the chief composer of the series.
In the Pokémon Sword and Shield credits, you can see Junichi Masuda's name is distinctly missing from the music and sound sections, although he is featured in the producer role. He also did not appear as the director of Sword and Shield but is still the managing director of Game Freak as a whole.
See for yourself in the images below:
What do you think about Masuda stepping aside for the newer generation? Let us know in the comments.
[source pokemon-matome.net]
Comments 26
That's a shame. No matter what opinions there are on his directorial roles, he knows how to compose some killer music.
I’m fine with that. He hasn’t composed a decent track since Black and White (well, maybe the XY trainer battle, but even that was just Ichinose doing his arrangement magic). Minako Adachi, on the other hand—she is a really fantastic, versatile, and above all INTERESTING game composer. I loved her work for Sun and Moon and was overjoyed to see her name again. But most of all I’m glad that Shota Kageyama wasn’t a part of this. I’m less glad that Hitomi Sato is missing from the crew—I really love her style.
Edit: also, Masuda hasn’t been lead composer since the very first game. After gen 2, he basically only composed the battle music, and the last couple gens others have been helping even with that part.
Don't really mind who they get to compose it as long as whoever it is does a good job. And by a good job I mean a lot better than Sword and Shield, which has by far the worst soundtrack in the series and had me tempted to mute the music altogether.
I think that is honorable to give up your position for the younger generation. We're supposed to be bringing up the new generation and teaching them good things, so that they will be able to teach the next generation and the cycle goes on.
@Shepdawg1 But Sword and Shield's music is pretty banging as well
The young generation did a good job, I like the music of Pokémon Sword/Shield.
@mrmememan For sure. It's up there with my favorite soundtracks from this series. But still, Masuda has made some great music and it will be a bit odd not having some from him.
@Shepdawg1 Yeah I hear ya
There seem to be... diverse views on SwSh’s soundtrack. I certainly think there are some great tracks in the game, along with ones that feel a little lacking in clarity. Masuda’s written some of my favourite video game music ever, so it’s sort of a shame not to hear him here, but maybe that’s also allowed the soundtrack to go in a slightly different direction. I’m pretty fond of the new gym leader battle music, and the idea to go with a smashy club banger was a definite departure from previous entries.
I tried my hand at writing Pokemon battle theme music a few years ago before the release of Sun and Moon, which was mainly inspired my Masuda’s work (complete with the machine-gun barrage of notes at the beginning, and the obligatory octave bouncing baseline). I think it took on enough of its own character to not feel like blatant plagiarism, but... well, the listener can be the judge of that.
@Maxz Nice battle tune. Sounds pretty legit!
@BenAV funny, thats what i hear from every gen
"gen 6 has by far the worst soundtrack"
"gen 7 has by far the worst soundtrack"
"gen 8 has by far the worst soundtrack"
I guess pokemon has just a very bad soundtrack in generall
@mariomaster96 This is the first time I've taken issue with one of the game's soundtracks personally. Most of them have fairly pleasant and catchy music and at the very least are pretty inoffensive. This is the first time where it's actually been grating on my ears. If I ever did another playthrough (which I'm obviously not going to), I'd definitely just mute the music altogether, which is something I practically never find myself doing with any game.
Not very far in yet, but like the music so far. So this is an okay passing of the torchic for me so far.
A lot of the music sounds like random noise, and not in a good way like Death Grips or Sonic Youth. It's just a poorly EQ'd mess. There's a couple so far that are better, like the one for the town after your first foray into the wild area.
@Matroska Yeh, the Battle Themes seem to feel like the the weakest songs this time. Two exceptions being the Gym Leader Battle and Marnie Battle themes. They're pretty hype.
The Town and Route themes make up the majority of good tracks, such as Stow-on-Side and Wild Area (South). They really match the feelings of the areas they represent.
Very sad to see the amount of hate this person (and GameFreak in general) received from the ungrateful "fans". I doubt I'll ever associate Pokemon development team with anyone else, so I hope he'll remain in the company!
SwSh’s soundtrack is definitely a lot different from previous games. Personally, I love it, but obviously some people will prefer the old styles. Its a matter of tastes.
I’ve heard a ton of praise for Sword and Shield’s soundtrack.
Personally I don’t think I remember enough of it to really make a judgment, because I haven’t played too much of the game.
The music in Swird and Shield is abysmal. The only Nintendo game I have ever played bar Yoshi's Wooly World that I have had to turn the music off.
Masuda may be a bad director, but he's always had a talent for composing music. I hope his successors learned a lot from him.
Honestly the Sword and Shield soundtrack has a lot of bangers (like many others have said, the gym battle and Marnie's theme really stand out). But the generic battle themes are what kill the soundtrack IMO. Just noise. They're all over the place, especially the trainer battle theme. Plus, the reprisal of the Pokémon overture in the battle theme makes no sense to me... makes it sound like a final battle theme for a moment.
I actually really like the soundtrack. it bops
The new Pokemon soundtrack is really good so no complains from me. I hope there will be a soundtrack release.
He was too busy ruining the games
As a genwunner, I gotta say: X and Y has the best music in the series.
Change my mind.
@SlowPokemon This is actually not true. Masuda was still the lead composer of gen 2 and wrote the majority of the new Johto music. He wrote all the battle music and wrote almost all the route/cave themes, as well as others such as the Rocket Hideout theme, Dragon's Den, and Victory Road.
Sure, his route themes tend to be mostly triumphant march-like tunes, but they're at least very melodic and memorable. But I'm glad he let others such as Go Ichinose handle these, as he brought a more "romantic" style to the series.
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