Somehow, I'm Back on the Pokémon Train | Pokémon Let's Go!

A wild press conference appeared! 

           Well, that was surprising. In very much the same vein as the January Nintendo Direct, the Pokemon Company held a live press conference that revealed five new titles coming to the Switch- totally out of the blue. First, we saw the free-to-start title, Pokemon Quest. Essentially this is a fusion of Pokemon Rumble and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: if you stripped all the gameplay depth out. Yes, this game is unfortunately rather shallow. Aesthetically, the game is rather appealing. I always love when developers experiment with new art styles. But, the rest of the game just doesn't reach that same standard. To be fair, I do enjoy jumping into Pokemon Quest for ten minutes or so here and there, but this is nowhere near as engaging as say, Pokemon Shuffle. In those types of short bursts, I can see the merits in this title. The customization of Pokemon and simple time-management hooks are engaging. Still, that doesn't change the fact that this game is, as of now, about as deep as a puddle. I do plan on keeping up with this game to some extent, but it really isn't anything special. Although, it is available on the Switch right now for free, so I'd still recommend giving it a shot.

          Of course, Pokemon Quest isn't what everyone cares about though, the big news is the official reveal of Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu, and Pokemon Let's Go Eevee. Right off the bat, I need to give myself a pat on the back for yesterday's E3 prediction, when I correctly guessed a pre-E3 reveal and a November release date. Not just anyone could see something like this coming. Nope. No way someone else could've predicted that. Never. No chance. Now that my needlessly congratulatory digression is over, let's get into the meat and potatoes of this announcement: the general lack of meat and potatoes. Yes, Pokemon Let's Go is a stripped down take on the Pokemon formula, chiefly due to it's revamped capturing system. But, I don't view that as a negative at all, in fact I'm very excited for this upcoming release.

          There are a few things I'd like to touch on here, the first being the graphical upgrade from the 3DS titles. When Pokemon Let's Go was first leaked (side note: the fact that this game in its entirety was leaked on April first and no one believed it, is absolutely hysterical) I was concerned about the title's graphical fidelity. It would've been very easy for Game Freak to just upscale the 3DS assets, similar to what Capcom did with Monster Hunter XX. However, the graphical job done here is much more thorough and, in my opinion, looks very good. Everything has been smoothed out, and the bloom lighting has been cranked up to eleven, although, we're clearly still operating within the confines of the 3DS's engine because movement is once again grid-based. It has become less evident with each 3DS Pokemon title that movement is limited in this manner, but now that we're in crystal clear HD, it is very apparent that once again  we don't have full 360 control, but we do have a new one-handed control method.

          The impetus for this single Joy-Con control scheme is, of course, the addition of Pokemon Go mechanics for catching Pokemon. Essentially, if you've played that multi-billion dollar endeavor to any extent, you know how capturing works. Throw a Pokeball at the Pokemon, and the more technical the throw, the higher chance of a catch. Along those lines, much like in Pokemon Go, there aren't random encounters in Pokemon Let's Go. Pokemon show up in the overworld, and you have to run into them to begin the battle. This is, in my opinion, a double-edged sword. On one hand, being able to pinpoint exactly what Pokemon you're encountering and physically throwing the Pokeball are two great changes. Catching Pokemon will now be a more interactive and streamlined process. On the other hand, this change is going to drastically affect the experience distribution this time around. The inability to grind wild Pokemon encounters removes a significant source of level-up potential. So, how will Pokemon Let's Go compensate for this? Will there be more trainer battles to make up lost ground? Will the Vs. Seeker return, allowing us to rematch trainers? Will the experience share be even more broken than in the sixth gen' games? Or, will the game feature dynamic level scaling? There are so many ways that Game Freak could handle the situation, but right now we don't have any indication as to how they'll do it.

          While the Pokemon Go mechanics have me somewhat torn, I'm fully behind the addition of co-op. This is something that I've wanted for a while now, and I think the way it is being implemented is quite elegant. Making the second player essentially a companion to the first instead of a totally independent entity allows for a more drop-in/drop-out breed of multiplayer. I've always been partial to this flexible approach, and Pokemon Let's Go seems to be capitalizing on this style of multiplayer. I am somewhat concerned about the effect of co-op on the difficulty curve, especially because the opposing trainer doesn't send out a second Pokemon to compensate, but it is possible this will turn out to be a non-issue. On the whole, I'm just excited to be able to explore Kanto with a friend.

          This is without a doubt the most excited I've been about a Pokemon game in a while. Before last night's conference, my hype for Pokemon was at an all time low. Pokemon has been, and always will be a favorite series of mine, and pound for pound I've put more hours into it than just about anything else. But, I have been growing tired of the same thing, over, and over, and over again. I've been wishing for an overhaul of the format for quite some time, but I'll admit that my ideal Pokemon game strays way too far from the established formula. As such, Pokemon Let's Go seems to be a great compromise between the traditional Pokemon experience and the new, fresh take that I'd like to see. There is just so much I like about this game, and I'm frankly far more excited for this spin-off than I am for the "core" title being released in 2019. With how trite I've found the formula recently, I'm very excited for a change of pace. The revisions made here feel deliberate, and while I have some questions about their implementation, nothing sticks out to me as being bad. Overall, it's great to see Pokemon hit the Switch with such a bold title, and I can't wait to get my hands on it come November. There are some questions I definitely need answered before then, but I imagine that E3 will flesh out what we know about Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee quite a bit more.