What's your early impressions of Pokemon Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee?

[StriderKiwi]

Finally got around to playing it and almost through Mt. Moon.

The Good:

There's finally a (sort of) mainline Pokemon game I can play off my 55" TV.

The game controls well regardless of which control setup you use and especially for catching. I like the controls way more than Pokemon Go. I get why people aren't liking the no gamepad style control setup but I can understand why they didn't go that route, and the current control options are fine by me.

Seeing your Pokemon follow you around (Bellsprout and Magikarp are my favorites to have out) is great.

Having the wild Pokemon roam about and be visible in the wild is excellent. Absolutely agree this needs to be in all future titles even though I still enjoyed the past random encounters. The spawn rate is also terrific. Just wait a bit and the tall grass will be swarming with Pokemon.

Coach trainers.

They kept a great deal similar to the originals which had very little that needed improvement.

The Bad:

The orchestral music doesn't stand out to me like the old music. It's weird. You'd think it'd be objectively better.

The visuals and some of the fight animations aren't nearly what the Switch is capable of performing. Perhaps it's because this is the first Pokemon game in ages on a massive screen (I primarily play off of my TV but even the handheld Switch screen is larger than what we're used to) but for the first time I found the visuals unimpressive overall.

I miss having to batter down wild Pokemon before catching them. Again, I don't mind the catching mechanic of how to throw the Pokeball in this game but I miss the battle portion.

The game can be very easy. An ability to turn off exp. share probably would've solved this but I'm at the point where I avoid catching wild Pokemon that I already have 1 of because I don't want my team to be overleveled so early on. The game also showers you with Pokeballs, other items and money (maybe this changes later on). It really feels like it's designed for young children in this way who haven't played other Pokemon games. In the future, I think an option from the get-go that asks the player if they want a more challenging Pokemon experience would be welcome for legacy players.

Perhaps it's just my over familiarity with the series but I'm speeding through this game like no other. I remember the early portions of R/B/Y being challenging but fun, and having to grind for exp and enjoying the all the while because the inherent mechanics were fun. Thus far I haven't really experienced that yet. But Ringo mentioned above that the difficulty curve ramps up so I'll keep going.