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GAME: Pokémon: Let's Go!

The game seems to assume you'll do Koga before Sabrina, based on the order of the badges in the save screen. Fuchsia's always such a long trek away, though (especially from the Lavender end), so it's generally easier to clear out Silph Co. and do the Saffron gym first.

I'd say this game was pretty easy, but then, all the main game potions of Pokémon games are pretty easy. With grinding, pretty much anything can win the games. This one did take it to another level with how weak some of the trainers are, though; single level 3 Rattata that is invariably going to be one shot by Eevee's Tackle is not exactly a challenge. Still, it was pretty fun, and a nice throwback to Pokémon Yellow. Did feel a little weird having the all the new up to Gen 7 stuff (Fairy/Dark/Steel types, new moves, Special Att/Def split, Special/Physical move split, etc) mixed in with Gen 1 stuff (no abilities, no hold items, only the first 151 (plus Meltan line)). Enjoy Earthquaking Weezing whilst you can!

Making all the evolution stones repeatable is good too (Moon Stones respawn at Mt. Moon every day), and letting you find extra Master Balls in Cerulean Cave might not exactly mesh with the in game story (I thought there was only one of these?) but is welcome from a gameplay perspective. Being able to find additional copies of Pokémon that are traditionally only able to be found once is nice too (extra legendary birds, Hitmons, Eevees, Fossils, etc). One thing I do miss is the breeding mechanics - I don't think it would have been too hard to add Eggs, would it?

Are you able to catch the original three starter Pokemon in either version of the game?

It might be the lack of Abilities. This was such a game-changer when it was introduced in Generation III that it definitely feels weird to play without having to account for them. There are some Generation I Pokémon whom you'd face or use totally differently with their Ability than without, like Gyarados with Intimidate or Dugtrio with Arena Trap. They add a layer to Pokémon battling that, as it stands to me nowadays, feels off when they aren't present.

Yeah, I see this game as a great starting point for those who feel that Pokémon games might have become too complicated for them. (That being said, I blame a subset of fans who like to make Pokémon games appear as complicated as possible. It only gets that complicated if you intend to play in official tournaments or want to place at or near the top of Wi-Fi events and such.)

By the way, there is currently a divide among Pokémon fans between having overworld encounters and random encounters. I can see the appeal from both ends.

This was the approach taken by SEGA making Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. Forces was aimed at the Sonic fans who play for the lore and the story, not so much for the gameplay, so it's incredibly easy with a lot of handholding (even on the game's "Hard Mode"), whereas Sonic Mania is for longtime fans who may have fallen off the wagon, and it has a difficulty comparable to the 16-bit games.

I remember as a kid always spending like half an hour on Route 1 leveling up Pidgey and Rattata when I just wanted to move on in the game, so I'm glad that aspect will be faster.

In Yellow, you had to start with Pikachu of course, and Brock was too hard to beat with an electric type. Even if Pikachu learns Quick attack, Pikachu would always be too vulnerable to Brock's Pokemon. So I would always spend a lot of time leveling up Pidgey and Rattata to use against Brock.

I have not been relying on the abilities of pokémon as much (or as I should in a way), but I can see that being an issue some people would have with this game. In fact the one main problem with the creation of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee is that with Game Freak trying to make the games to be close the original Pokémon Yellow Version as possible (as well as reasonably) they had to take a step backwards by means of not as much of the features that have come to be a part of the Pokémon core games over the years. While it’s not a personal problem for me I think they did not need to go that far in recreating the experience of playing Pokémon Yellow Version (especially when they are willing to add natures and mega evolution to the games).

Yeah, I have been noticing a bit that some people seem to have this misunderstanding of the mainline Pokémon games and it's such a shame. The core Pokémon games have always been easy generally speaking. There are times when the difficulty does spike (the last time I recall this happening for me was during my last major play through of Pokémon Ultra Sun when me, Moon (which I named Sun in my play through) and our pokémon team went up against Ultra Necrozma, which level was around in the early 60s while our team’s mean levels were in the 40s. Making things more complicated I did not have a clue of its weaknesses at the start of the battle), but otherwise they are games I think anyone regardless of their gaming level can get through. Plus as you imply certain aspects of the games (natures and IVs) are only relevant if one is playing those games for competitive play, and are not needed to know in depth if one just wants to play through the main and possible post games.

I think I recall hearing about this disagreement but I am not sure. I am on the side that is with the idea of having pokémon appear in the over world as it makes the environment more alive as well as easy in terms of avoiding unnecessary/undesirable encounters, but I am curious to know why some people have an issue with this idea.

I thought Sonic Forces was made for those who love/grew up with the 3D games the most, but I can see that being the case as well. I do not think they needed to have made the games that easy though to achieve that need.

In hindsight, I probably go through a Pokémon game fairly differently than the norm. I swap out Pokémon rather frequently, and a Pokémon with an interesting Ability tends to be a pretty big draw for me to use. This has resulted in me doing stuff like hunting for Hidden Abilities as I'm still going through the game and picking something interesting, like my Sweet Veil Ribombee.

Ultra Necrozma is definitely one of the toughest bosses in any main series game, but you can still do it if you come prepared. The biggest thing about Pokémon games and their approachability is that you can save at any time, and in Ultra Necrozma's case, Rotom Dex advises you to save before fighting it. Hence, if you fail, you can try again after several seconds.

But the most compelling argument I have about Pokémon games and their approchability is that every new generation brings in millions of people, the greatest amount being the very young, who can get through these games just fine. If THEY can clear the game, then so can a grown-up. The most important knowledge you can have going into these games is literacy in the language you set it to. Anything that can be helpful for you will be explained in the game. In turn, anything that can't be explained by giving you easy examples first (known in video game parlance as an "antepiece") is explained outright (the most famous example in Pokémon being that man in Viridian City who teaches you how to throw Poké Balls).

Brock is a good example of an antepiece. His purpose, looking in as a player, is to teach you the importance of type matchups. He uses the Rock-type, a type that has many weaknesses and is characterized by low Speed but has resistance to Normal and Flying, two attack types the player is extremely likely to have. His Pokémon, Geodude and Onix, both have very low Attack. In addition, both of them have the Ground-type, giving them a 4x weakness to Water and Grass. All of this together, Brock's team gives the player plenty of time to try whatever moves they have and see what works. This is particularly true in Red/Blue/Green, where if you start with Squirtle or Bulbasaur, you'll see how much more damage Water Gun or Vine Whip does to Brock's Pokémon than anything else you could have at the moment. The player, through the battle to get the Boulder Badge, learns to associate the phrase "It's super effective!" (or whatever the language's equivalent is) with something to strive to do. (Incidentally, notice that, with the exception of Olivia, every Rock-type specialist is fought at or near the beginning of the game.)

I butt heads with the fans who like to play up the complicatedness of Pokémon a lot, as I personally feel, in their attempts to show themselves off, they are scaring away people who would otherwise be interested.

I'd prefer them being in the overworld too. The ones who argue for random encounters walking in the tall grass mainly state that they want rare encounters to be special by extending the amount of time it takes between seeing them, that random encounters don't walk out of the tall grass the way the overworld encounters do, that overworld encounters spoil the surprise of what's available, that they make the game feel shorter as you can avoid battles, and that certain regions meant to wear you down like Rock Tunnel or Victory Road have their impacts lessened.

Overworld encounters in Let's Go are not perfect--Pokémon can still spawn right underneath the player, they can block areas you might need to progress (really problematic if you're a thread away from losing), some Pokémon move very fast and are unavoidable if they dash your way (especially Raticate), and there are issues with Pokémon who are really big (that they're hard to get around) or really small (that they're hard to see). I think that's the biggest cause of the divide. There may be issues with particular abilities too, such as Illuminate or Cute Charm, but I'm not sure.

The Sonic fans who play for the story and lore and the ones who grew up with the 3-D games have very large overlap and are almost the same group of fans, as the first game to really be story-heavy and focus on the lore, Sonic Adventure, was also the first non-isometric 3-D Sonic game. Though there is no need to be that easy (Sonic Unleashed could be as tough as nails in some parts), I think the people who prefer Sonic Forces over Sonic Mania also tend to be the sort who play the stages mainly to get to the next bit of story, rather than playing the stages being an end unto itself.

It seems you are more of a competitive player (or at least one that makes use of the game mechanics more so then casual players). I can imagine searching for a pokémon with a hidden ability must be time consuming given how rare they are. For me it seems like the equivalent of hunting for shinnies, except in this case it hopes to reap something useful.

I agree and in terms of literacy I think Pokémon is one of those games that can be good for helping young children with reading (assuming they are not one of those people who skip dialogue). Concerning Brock and the other gym leaders that specialize in rock pokémon serving as this antepiece I never thought of it like that. That is interesting!

Actually, I'm a Johnny type player--that is, I play multiplayer battles using Pokémon not commonly used. Since I'm often at an information disadvantage as those Pokémon aren't as well-documented as the likes of Toxapex or Mega Kangaskhan, I often have to come up with team-building and battling strategies on my own, and that also means I have to understand every single fully-evolved Pokémon (and some not-fully-evolved ones) as well as possible.

Yep, if you play a game with mechanics you're not familiar with, but you get the hang of it quickly and well, look for antepieces. That's a key part of teaching you how to play a game without the designers having to explain it to you directly. The best tutorials are the ones where you don't even realize it's a tutorial.

I never heard of this kind of player known as Johnny. I was thinking at first this was a reference to one of the people I watch on youtube who has the name Johnny, but thinking about it I take it that is not the case. Anyway it’s nice to hear of someone who uses different pokémon in multilayer batters. It seems that people much rather stick with pokémon that are the most likely to get them through matches resulting in players using the same kind of pokémon which gets boring after a while (even if those pokémon have different moves from each other). However this is because typically the only time I watch multiplayer batters in during the Pokémon World tournament which I see this happen. I barely play multiplayer as I have not fully build my team to handle battling players online and been neglecting that. While I think I should get back to it, I do not know if it would be a bit too late as by then the next generation would arrive and people might move on the latest Pokémon games (that is unless there might still be people who would play the gen seven games afterward).

YAlright, I’ll do that. This reminds me of the fact I have been hearing that the Pokemon games have been hand holdy lately. Do you think it’s because Game Freak has abandon using antepieces?