Topic: Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee!

I'm surprised no one's posted here yet, considering the info we got from the Treehouse livestream.

Some interesting things I noticed from the Treehouse Livestream:

• The usual stats are still there, but CP is now there as well. CP just seems like some sort of average of the regular stats
• Pikachu learns Double Kick by the time you reach Brock. Pretty sure it never learned Double Kick before, so it seems Game Freak changed the game up so that Pikachu could be useful for the gym battle with Brock. Maybe Eevee could have a similar move to help against Brock? I do think it's silly that Pikachu learns double kick, it's legs are so tiny, but whatever.
• Blue as a rival has been replaced by another too nice rival. He even gives you potions that he emphasized he bought with his own money. After not having a rival that you feel like actually competing against for so long, it's disappointing that they removed Blue to put another boring too nice rival.
• The game doesn't let you enter Brock's gym unless you have a grass or water type Pokemon. They're really making it as easy as possible so that newcomers don't mess up. But honestly I think part of the fun and the learning experience IS messing up and realizing the type matchups through trial and error, not some guy not allowing you into the gym unless you have Pokemon who are super effective against the gym's Pokemon. Thankfully this seems to only be the case for the first gym.
• Going off of the previous bullet, IIRC in Red/Blue/Yellow as well as FireRed and LeafGreen I don't remember being able to catch a grass or water Pokemon until after the first gym. So if they won't let you in until you get one, you may get Bulbasaur and Squirtle before the first gym. I know the livestream had the three starters before the first gym but I think that was just there to show off the game in the demo, cause Onix was in the party as well and I don't remember Onix being catchable until well past the first gym.
• You gain A LOT of experience from catching Pokemon, I think it's even more than the experience you get from battling trainers.
• Changes to wild Pokemon distribution seem present. Nothing drastic, but they're there. Butterfree is now catchable in Viridian Forest and Oddish is catchable in Viridian Forest as well. They weren't catchable in Viridian Forest in the previous Kanto games.
• Wild Pokemon wander outside of the grass and can attack you outside of the grass (considering the fact that there were a lot of wild Pokemon running around in Viridian Forest, maybe we do need Repels in this game after all).
• Running away now requires two menus — one to select the option (the original menu, like in any other Pokemon mainline RPG) and a second menu that essentially asks "are you sure?" I really hope they have the option to remove the "are you sure?" second menu since that will make running away quite tedious after a while.
• Changes to some events in the games from R/B/Y and FR/LG were confirmed and showed off in the gameplay. Stuff like the new rival, new NPCs, etc.
• Natures are back; Pikachu's attack and defense text are red and blue in the stats screen (thanks to @KaiserGX for spotting it!)
• GO Park was confirmed to replace Safari Zone from the original Kanto games.
• The higher the CP of the Pokemon you transfer from Pokemon Go, the higher the level they will be in Let's Go.

I'm a bit disappointed by how easy the game is, but it is what it is. I love how lively the game feels though — having Pokemon walk around and be visible in the overworld adds a lot of personality to the game.

I think it would make more sense for Pikachu to know Iron Tail vs. Double Kick (Ash's Pikachu knew the move in the anime), but I suppose Double Kick could work.

Still intrigued by these, but I'm also still on the fence.

@shadow-wolf thanks for sharing and going through the effort! Nice insights. I'm on the fence but only slightly. Thankfully I still have X, ORAS and USUM unplayed been away from the franchise a while.

One other thing is they seem to have natures since Pikachu's attack and defense text are red and blue in the stats screen.

@toiletduck You're welcome, glad I could help! Looks like you have a nice Pokemon backlog. Actually that's technically my Pokemon backlog (along with Sun and Moon and B2W2) but I don't have a 3DS so I'm just jumping straight into the Switch era of Pokemon.

@KaiserGX Thanks for spotting that! I'll add that to the list and credit you

@Tyranexx That's my thoughts too, and Iron Tail just makes more sense with Pikachu than Double Kick. It'd be as strange if Eevee gets double kick too; while Jolteon does get double kick, it actually has strong legs to make the move make sense. Then again Nidoran has had double kick since the Gen 1 games so logic hasn't applied for a while now.

The only thing I really care about returning is abilities but... if natures are in they have to be in as well right? I always considered natures more complex than the abilities.

Most recent game I played is Diamond (and a small part of SS), but now that I'm used to the larger screen of the N2DSXL I can't go back to the games on DS that I've missed so I start emptying my backlog with X, already bought it but waiting till my holiday.

I'm gonna try to build a decent collection of strong Pokemon with these games, so for that reason it doesn't really help that the let's go series is isolated on that behalf.

I still need to play through Ultra Sun. I've booted it up a couple of times to add mythical Pokemon from this year's distributions, but my trainer hasn't even left their house yet. XD

@shadow-wolf: Double Kick on Eevee makes a little more sense, but yeah...still with the tiny legs. XD Then again, some Pokemon movesets defy all logic. It's not the biggest concern of mine in a universe that occasionally ignores the laws of physics.

These games certainly looked lively from the Treehouse stream, and I guess the entire first straight is one long tutorial. Hopefully we get something new about them today, but I guess if they're just using the E3 demo that's not likely.

As for an order of generations - favourite goes to three, but more for the Gamecube games [even though I do rate Ruby as a favourite], with generation 2 second-last and generation 4 as last. Those two gens I cannot remember all that much about, which is especially telling with the Johto games as for the longest time I thought several 'mon from gen 2 were actually from gen 3. I guess if I really had to place the rest it would be six, five, seven, one.

Not fond of requiring Pokemon of a certain type to challenge Gyms.

To challenge the Rock Gym you NEED a Water or Grass type to be let in. Like okay, RIP challenge.

I think I heard Derrick mention that Eevee also learns Double Kick in one of the GameXplain discussions. I think it's a good addition. It's a move that isn't too powerful and you won't get a STAB bonus but it helps against Brock.

Yellow pretty much required you to catch and train something like Nidoran or Mankey to have an easier time in the first gym but there's a chance a new player might skip those Pokémon since they are on an optional route.

Viridian Forest seems to have grass types now as well which makes me excited. Fire Red didn't really mix up any wild encounters as far as I can remember so it's nice to find Pokémon in unexpected places. Safari Zone is replaced by GO Park which means Pokémon like Rhyhorn and Tauros are also located elsewhere. I might actually use them if they can be found earlier.

@Knuckles-Fajita It doesn't look like it actually requires you to use them, though. I'd guess you can just remove the Pokémon from your team as soon as you've enteres the gym. It should be quick thing to do now that the Bag also works as your PC. Minor inconvenience.

@Knuckles-Fajita Why, that's so stupid lol.

RIP Nuzlockes.

@Octane Given how you encounter Pokemon now, RIP Nuzlockes in general.

Good thing a year or so ago my friend and I developed the AreaLocke, where you list all the Pokemon in an area, assign them a number each, and roll a dice. Boom, that's your encounter. Go find one.

@Knuckles-Fajita Yeah, you can always take the encounter percentages (if it still works like that), and use that data to determine your capture. Can't do it blind though, and it's a bit of work to set up, but it's possible.

@Octane Every Pokemon has equal weighting. Doesn't matter if its a 5% or 50% encounter chance, you've got the same odds of rolling the rare thing as the common thing.

Best part is, if you roll a duplicate, you get free choice!

I need to record more AreaLockes actually. It's a lot of fun.

The Gym requirement is only needed for the first Gym. It says it's a rule for first time trainers. Besides with the box in your bag you can just switch it out right after.

@Knuckles-Fajita Oh yeah I know. I was just thinking of doing it in the traditional sense where encounter ratios mattered, so you'd still be more likely to encounter a Caterpie than a Pikachu for example. Of course, you can play it however you want!

@Octane I think we set it up that way to expand variety. Lord knows in Lockes you barely see the rarer things.

@Knuckles-Fajita True. Does make them more special though. I like to do the mono-type runs, I can still do that.

@Knuckles-Fajita @Octane I've read your dialogue a few times now, but I still don't understand. Anyone cares to explain what you're on about? Nuzlockes, AreaLockes...?