Now that there is a casual side series in the Pokemon games with Let's Go, do you think gen 8 is going to up the seriousness, difficulty and competitiveness of Pokemon?

Well they said "Inspired by Pokémon Yellow, not a remake". Also this is not Pokemon Go game also even it has Pokemon Go like catching.

In any case this will be quite popular game and huge system seller game in any case, it's actually aiming broader audience ("a core RPG for everyone") compared to core RPG Pokemon game.

Apparently from Serebii the "no online at all" was a mistranslation.
"Edit @ 04:36: It was previously reported from the Q&A at the conference that the game would lack online play. This turned out to be a mistranslation from the journalist in question"

https://www.serebii.net/

So happy they confirmed these aren't mainline games and the true gen 8 games are on the way. With that in mind, I have no issues with these games. Not entirely sure if I'll purchase them yet, I'll have to wait and see just how casual they are. But I think it's great for Go fans and young kids who own a Switch and still need an introduction to real Pokemon games. I'm definitely completely fine with this, I have faith they will blow the core fans away with the Gen 8 games.

This looks exciting and different! I'm stoked for this. I haven't tried Pokemon Go (my phone is old and cheap lol), so this will feel completely fresh to me. Plus, the next gen Pokemon games are around the corner. I think Switch is going to have an amazing holiday for the next two years. They need a system seller for first half of next year though, to keep that momentum. Animal Crossing?

That would honestly be really nice. Let this side series rake in the dough with the casual audience and then up the risks and difficulty they're willing to take with the core series. If they have a successful casual spin off series, they don't have to worry anymore about losing too many causal players with the core series. This could be the best thing to happen to the core series in all honesty. 

I think this can do really well, of course if all goes well for the final product. Some fans complain that Pokemon has a hard time catering to both casual and core audiences so this could be sort of a way to satisfy both. The Go audience has great potential (despite the decrease in active users) while the core fans are likely to stick around until next year or, if they are open to it, try out the upcoming Let's Go games themselves.

I still don't feel comfortable that this game thinks it's ok to gang up 2v1 on innocent trainers.

Oh... No... The mobile focus is spreading and taking effort away from the games I want.

The wait to 2019 begins.

Junichi Masuda is the director of Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, interesting.