Topic: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!

@Mattsmash True. And not only kids, as a lot of adults are playing Go as well. I know many people who aren't gamers, but plays Go. I believe more people are playing games since the advent of smartphones and free to play style of games.

And then there are the ones who maybe played a Pkmn game as a kid, but as adults don't have time for or aren't as interested in video games as when they were young, but feel that nostalgic itch and then Go will do, as it's free and you don't need to drop everything else in order to play it.

@Quarth 100%

Those adults who also played as kids may pick the Switch game or 3DS games up after playing the free Pokemon Go and be overwhelmed with the changes. I'm not talking graphically, that will surely help them enjoy, rather than hinder the experience but rather sheer depth of gameplay now.

This is where the hand holding is good.

But we aren't those adults

@Mattsmash And because of that, we're putting our hopes to the 2019 mainline game.

But I will gladly try Pkmn Let's Go, hopefully there will be some kind of demo. Only time will tell if it will be a success, bringing more people to the Switch.

@Quarth Given Pokemon Sun and Moon were Nintendo's most pre-ordered games ever....you tell me.

@Mattsmash That's because EVs and IVs were VASTLY different in Gen 1 and 2. IVs were barely a thing in Gen 1, and in Gen 2 it was a maximum of 15 instead of 31. In addition, in Gen 2, every Pokemon could reach maximum stats in every one.

It only changed into what we know now with Gen 3.

Exactly my point. Back in the earlier days, it was a lot simpler and hand holding wasn't reeeeally required. the game has developed and thus needs it for newcomers. I just wish it catered to those who have been around since R/B/Y.

@Mattsmash But even then, IVs and EVs are just another thing hyped up by the community to be like "oh my god guys THIS is why Pokemon is super complex!!!" And while they aren't wrong and certainly adds a lot in competitive, it doesn't change that the core of Pokemon of just catching guys, leveling them up, and finding more guys is still the base gameplay of Pokemon all the way from Gen 1 to now. All that changed was window dressing and/or adapting the games to better accommodate younger kids in today's world.

I think the IVs and natures are poorly handled in Pokémon tbh. The idea behind them was to make each Pokémon unique from one another but by tying a notable advantage to them that you can’t change or develop out of makes all but the one RNG blessed hatchling worth anything and the rest garbage in the sense of the competitive play.

Like Natures really shouldn’t be tied to something as notable and worthwhile as being 10% better and worse in certain areas, especially when a good chunk of them are redundant and serve no current purpose beyond wasting spaces . IVs should be able to be changed, which they did allow in an awful way in Ultra Training, otherwise any Pokémon but the perfect bab is objectively worse. It runs against Pokemon’s Idea of raising and bonding with your team to be the best when you will always be at an insurmountable disadvantage against others.

Edit: Like to put an example, why is it that an Adamant Kadabra is universally worse than a Modest one. Their natures don’t represent anything about the actual Pokémon beyond their stats.

@Knuckles-Fajita Of course Pkmn is still one of Nintendo's heavy hitters, no doubt. But are the kids, as in persons under, say, 15, as interested in it as we adults are? Just by looking at what the kids at my work talks about and plays, right now it's all about Fortnite. But I live in Sweden, it doesn't feel as if Nintendo games are as popular here as in for example USA or Japan. But yeah, Pokémon is still a big deal. Would be interesting to see which age groups plays it the most though.

@-Green- : Sinnoh was fine design-wise, but I detested the excessive reliance on HMs to navigate the map (especially that horribly superfluous "rock climb" HM).

I'm not a big fan of Gen VII's "rider" Pokémon either as it feels like such a technical contrivance (though it did open the party up to a more diverse range of Pokémon). It would have been preferable to be able to allocate party Pokémon to fulfill overworld functions without needing to sacrifice one of their precious move slots. Perhaps that would be the best course of action.

If Game Freak wish to implement variable difficulty modes that incorporate "handholding" mechanics for novice players, all the power to them, but those seeking more of a challenge shouldn't be deprived either. The difficulty settings in B2/W2 were "sort of" a step in the right direction if not for the fact that you needed to beat the game first in order to unlock an alternate difficulty mode for the opposing version. They made the process so ridiculously convoluted and superfluous that they might as well have not included it at all.

I did play one of the two with the cranked up difficulty. I remember which though.

@Quarth : I believe that is the audience that TPC/Nintendo are trying to lure in with the Let's Go games. Due to the sheer volume of Pokémon, moves and intricate mechanics that now define the series, I would imagine the Pokémon franchise to be quite intimidating to newcomers.

We had it easy as there were only 151 Pokémon "back in our day", but now, with a generation being born into a world with 800+ Pokémon available from the get go, the franchise may appear to be a tad monolithic to the uninitiated.

The 2019 instalment will be the real test that will determine whether this experiment has been a successful one. I have had quite a few friends buy a 3DS just for X&Y (and the subsequent instalments), so I would imagine that a good deal more will splurge on a Switch to be able to play the first main series Pokémon game on a home console.

Yeah, I mentioned that too. It was definitely one of the glaring flaws in Sinnoh.

Sinnoh was definitely the best region as far as map design goes but they can push beyond even that now. The routes would still be fairly linear and cramped by console standards, the difference between Sinnoh and some of the more modern regions would be in terms of size and complexity. The openness isn't there, no main series Pokemon game has really done that well. A better comparison to the type of map design Pokemon should target, if they can't do open world (which would be a big ask for a developer just starting out in the console market), would be some of the older 3D Zeldas like OoT or TP. Those games have a nice mix of open spaces and linearity and feel like a good middle ground between the linearity we've seen in Pokemon so far and the open world we want it to be, and the 3D Zeldas' progression system is somewhat similar to Pokemon's (just replace dungeons with gyms and it's basically Pokemon).

There's a line of thinking that gen 8 will be more hardcore-orientated now that LG is seemingly soaking up all the casual aspects (and then some).

But I fear it could very easily backfire and they'll instead double down on the casualization of the main series with the excuse that they want to make it easier for all the Go players that were initially drawn in with LG. Unless they're smart and have a Fire Emblem-esch system where you can choose a style of play from the start so everybody's happy, but I don't have faith that GF would be that competent given their track record...

They'd probably require you to finish the game and toss your Switch down a flight of stairs to unlock the extra mode.

All while dressed as a Pikachu, humming the Pokemon theme at the top of your lungs, and lobbing plastic Pokeballs at your Switch.

@ReaderRagfish Lol this is hilarious. Those were the days with Melee and 64, since Brawl everything about the character roster is known right when the game releases.

@Silly_G Yeah, you're correct. It seems more aimed at the Go players than regular mainline fans.

And yeah, not every Pokémon entusiast is a Nintendo fan overall, so a lot of people have been holding out on buying a Switch until a Pkmn game is released. But if it's the 2019 game people hold out for or if Let's Go will do, that is interesting.

How are the preorders for this game? Now preorders in general probably are down, much thanks to digital downloads, but still I wonder if this is as hyped as previous games? But we'll see. I bet Nintendo will advertise it more closer to release date.

During this week's episode of Japanese variety show, Pokénchi, game director Junichi Masuda appeared and showcased new content about Let's Go. This content started off by showcasing a Pikachu using Surf in battle against a Geodude. Be sure to keep checking back for further details from this episode as they come. We hope to have official upload of footage soon
Edit @ 00:27: In the actual segment featuring Junichi Masuda, they went into detail showcasing various changes with HMs where you call upon Pikachu/Eevee to summon a hidden technique to cut trees with the technique Diagonal Cut (ヒジュツ・ケサギリ) or surf with the Water Walk (ヒジュツ・ミズバシリ) technique. These moves do not take up your moveslots
Edit @ 00;30: It also showcased Eevee using a new Fire-type move called Flare Burn (めらめらバーン) in Japanese
Edit @ 00:40: The move Pikachu used was also not Surf but a new Water-type move called Splash Surf (ざぶざぶサーフ)
Source: https://serebii.net/news/2018/08-September-2018.shtml

Cool, so new tradition to get brand new moves with enchanted games since ORAS it's still here.

So the content was something relatively small, like I suspected. Still, it looks like they're adding more new moves with these two.