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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - What's your early impressions of Pokemon Lets Go Pikachu/Eevee?

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RingoGaSuki on 21 November 2018

Now that I've actually played through the game I'll give my actual impressions:

TL;DR - It was much better than I expected.

The Bad:

  • The controls - My god they are terrible. The motion controls for catching in docked are super janky and their forced nature is ridiculous when there's a good alternative in handheld already. (not perfect though; let us aim with the right stick instead of the bloody motion sensor!). They're unnecessarily exclusionary too, completely pushing disabled people away.
  • Fleeing - Pokemon fleeing just shouldn't be a thing. It isn't fun at all and completely ruins the flow of the gameplay. There's a reason it was dropped after Gen II originally.
  • Character design -  I was fine with the chibis on the 3DS, but they just look out of place in the world with the great looking Pokemon.
  • and the biggest one-
  • No wild battles - Removes a lot of the connection I feel to the game and my Pokemon. I'm not battling/raising as much as I do in a normal game, and in catching 500 of the same Pokemon, they feel more like 'catches' rather than 'my team'.
  • Length - There isn't really any postgame outside of Green/Cerulean Cave; gym rematches, master trainers and Red/Blue. It's great as RBY postgame, but feels very lacking even compared to the Sevii Isles we got in the first Kanto remake 15 years ago.
The Good:
  • The music - It's just straight up fantastic, all of the remixes are great.
  • The level curve/difficulty - The game's difficulty ramps up perfectly, the best pacing since B2W2 easily. I never felt overpowered (after I took the nuke Pikachu out of my team) and yet I was never way underlevelled either. The AI is good as well, actually attempting to use some sort of strategy against me (I had a trainer use sleep powder, then growth, then mega drain on me; never been set up on by the AI before). 
  • Pokemon in the overworld - It's a great change. The spawn rate is high enough to feel alive, and for battles whenever you feel like, which is great. Makes the world feel a lot more alive.
It's a diversion from the main series, and it's nice as its own little thing. I'm thinking an 8/10 is right now. Definitely not what I want out of the main series, but as a one off it's fine.


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StriderKiwi on 22 November 2018

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.



jonathanalis on 23 November 2018

I played more, and started the perfect pokemon team building. and went deep in game mechanics. And i never thought I would think like this, but i am loving not having wild battles.
Instead, they make you want to catch as many pokemon as possible. Previously, in the other games, I almost never catch more than 1 of each species, never felt interested on that. Now I catch 30 of the same, is yet addictive and fun to do so (the catch combo bonuses help too). Perfect IV/nature pursuit was tedious as hell. Now is fun.
This make important a feature that pokemon go has but the main series do not: the concept of catch them all.
Seems that it will be a lets go exclusive feature, but maybe they could make it optional in the next games: if you dont want to battle, you go strait to the cathing game, if you want, you can. But im totally into having this feeling of catching them all. Also, that helps a lot in building perfect IV pokemon in a funier

Also, candies are much better then EVs. You can plan the perfect pokemon since before the 4th badge, and train it in your journey enjoying the game. In other games, every battle would change your EV distribution, and could ruin your build. Now you give candy you want.

I hope they keep some mechanics of this game in the next main core games



Rogerioandrade on 23 November 2018

I´m yet to play it, but glad to know that the game is getting a lot of positive responses.



Vodacixi on 24 November 2018

Can someone help me turn my Haunter and Kadabra into Gengar and Alakazam?