I finished Let’s Go Eevee today.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t like it. It was too dumbed down and simple than the mainline games, though I understand the reason for its existence. It’s a combination of a regular Pokemon game and Pokemon Go, so various elements were implemented at the expense of many others.

The most egregious of these changes is the lack of achievement in the battling system. This game is a combination of catching and battling, and battling is absoluelty useless to a Pokemon’s growth. Example:

In mid-game, my Dratini was around Level 27. The Pokemon it was battling was around Level 35. My Dratini with his Dragon Rage killed this Pokemon and got around 1/9th experience in his experience bar. In any other game, that experience would fill that entire bar or get pretty damn close. The only way to properly level Pokemon in this game is by catching combos. That’s fine, but when so much of the mid-game is filled with battles, it becomes a chore. Normally I battle every goddamn person that enters my line of sight, but here I avoided them as much as I could.

It’s such a failure, I don’t understand why this change was made. It’s not good when I catch combo Koffing for an hour, and my entire team goes from Level 45 to 56. Useful, since I could finish the game much faster, but that should never be a positive when playing a game.

By mid-game, I chose my team members entirely by how useful they would be against the Elite Four. I ditched fire-types because they’d be useless, and even when I fought the Elite Four, I didn’t use my Nidoqueen or Hitmonchan.

For the past few days I’ve been thinking on what the biggest problems of Let’s Go are and how I would fix them. Here’s my modest take.


1. Battling is useless because so little experience is gained from it.

a. Change it back to normal so you get the experience you would usually get. If this over-levels Pokemon too much, then raise the levels of the gym leader/Elite Four Pokemon. Have the Elite Four’s Pokemon be in their sixties instead. Make battling fun again!


2. Pokemon variety mid-game is terrible, specifically before you beat the Rocket Casino and are stuck in Celadon/Lavender. In general, there’s very few Pokemon to catch when you need them.

a. Move wild Eevee to the grass route east of Celadon. It’s so obvious a change I shouldn’t even need to say it. There’s a reason previous games had Eevee in Celadon where you can buy stones.

b. Remove Chansey from most of the routes it’s on, especially the caves. This is out of spite for my shiny Chansey; she shouldn’t be that common. :/

c. Implement evolutions of generation one Pokemon that were introduced in later generations. If you can have Aloha Pokemon, then give me my goddamn Blissey.

d. Introduce a few other later generation Pokemon for variety, either as rare spawns or special gift/trading Pokemon. If the game want to follow Pokemon Go, then maybe you have to catch a specific number of certain Pokemon to prove you deserve this gift Pokemon. The Pokemon should have types that sets them apart from the other Pokemon in surrounding routes for variety. For example, being able to get an ice/fairy Aloha-Vulpix in Celadon when there’s no other ice or fairies around.

e. Or, if you want to introduce Pokemon another way, put the Safari Zone back and have it only be later generation Pokemon. I’m neutral on this idea, but I’m throwing it out there.

f. Return gambling to the Rocket Casino so you can buy some later game Pokemon. I know Pokemon can’t do gambling anymore, but it very useful. If gambling is too terrible to include, then make it something else that can earn you prizes.


3. Return fishing to the game. You basically have three water options that I can remember: Squirtle in Cerulean/Vermillion, a gift Magikarp somewhere probably, and the rest of the water-types when you get the surfboard that are basically all Level 35+. That… is not good variety.


4. Give me back my Seveii Islands!! The fuck is Moltres still doing in a cave in the year 2018.


That’s basically all I can think of right now.

There are some positives to the game. I like my Pokemon following me and wild Pokemon appearing in the overworld. All of them have unique sprites and walking animations. Catching combos are very fun and shiny hunting has now become a proper sport.

I’m not sure if I liked anything else though.

Final team:

1. Nidoqueen. My starter. I guess she was okay, I didn’t use her much once I got my other Pokemon.
2. Ninetales-A. A bit fragile, but packed a punch. Since she was traded she gained levels a lot faster so I had to keep boxing her so the rest of my team could catch up.
3. Hitmonchan. Backup. I meant to replace him but it never happened.
4. Jolteon. I only ever used Thunderbolt and that’s all I ever needed.
5. Starmie. I don’t really like its model, its colors are faded, which is sad. A very well-rounded team member.
6. Dragonite. Yup, that’s a Dragonite.
7. Kabutops. Ninetales’s replacement when she was boxed. His walking animation brought me joy.
8. Shiny Chansey. My girl. Looks like her line is being added with DLC in Sword/Shield, so I guess she gets to be a Blissey after all.

Onto Pokemon Shield.

 

I agree with all of your points. Looking back now I don't think I could pick up this game and enjoy it, my first playthrough was enjoyable from nostalgia alone along with the nice graphical changes.

We talked about shield. You'll like it. You'll also find yourself saying, "What the fuck?" Several times but at least the variety is better.

 

First time I've done this in any game lol. And it's the easiest one, but fuck it. Shiny Charm. Come to me.



All in all, I maintain what I said earlier. Great fun. I hope to Arceus that pokemon sizes come back in latter games. I still adore hunting outliers like super teeny 3 foot 4 inch (102cm) Rapidash. IMAGINE THE TINY ANGRY RAPIDASH. I still love the catching minigame, just have you be able to battle the wildmons too.