Let’s Go Nostalgia: Who’s That Pokémon???

It’s Eevee. I picked Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee.

The first brand new Game Boy game I ever requested and got — as opposed to, say, hand-me-downs from my cousins or whatever the store clerk told my parents to get for a birthday present* — was Pokémon Blue.

I can still remember the smell of the shiny square booklet that came with it, annoyingly too big to fit in the “booklets” slot of my plastic carrying case but still full of exciting information like which buttons did what and tips on catching and training Pokémon. It was the first JRPG-style game I’d ever played: my first taste of turn-based combat, random encounters, and stats-heavy combat.

I loved it.

So I was pretty sure I’d enjoy its sort-of remake, Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee on the Nintendo Switch. I haven’t played the original in over 20 years, but the technology has advanced so much since then that I knew I was in for a treat.

Here are some things I’ve noticed so far:

Unpopular opinion: I actually like the Pokémon-GO style wild capture system.

In the main-series Pokémon games, you capture wild Pokémon by wearing down their defenses in battle. Your Pokémon whale on the one in the wild until it has only a sliver of health left. In tough cases, you might use extra tactics like putting the wild Pokémon to sleep, lowering its defense stat, or paralyzing it. Only then is it vulnerable to getting caught in your Pokéball. If you accidentally deplete its health completely, it faints, and you can’t catch it anymore.

This means that you have to select your party and their movesets to optimize both battle and capture. It also means that the gameplay for capturing Pokémon is pretty much like the gameplay for fighting trainers.

But in the new games, instead of battling with Pokémon you want to capture, you play a motion-control-ish minigame that has you aiming berries and Pokéballs at a pair of moving targets, just like in the
Pokémon GO app. I like how it breaks up the turn-based gameplay. I like that I can tune my party toward fighting other trainers. And story-wise, the new procedure makes more sense to me: beating up a Pokémon until I’ve worn down its defenses seems like a harsher way to recruit my pet-gladiators than feeding them treats until they don’t resist capture in my magic cage.

Popular opinion: Random encounters are gone! Woo hoo!

In every main-series game, you acquire Pokémon by wandering around in designated areas until the game randomly decides that you’ve encountered a Pokémon and whisks you into a fight screen. You can’t choose when to encounter a Pokémon or avoid encounters without using items, and you can’t aim for a particular Pokémon.

In the two Let’s Go games, however, running into Pokémon works more like the encounters in Earthbound or Chronotrigger. The designated Pokémon areas spawn animated Pokémon. You choose which ones you want to pursue. It’s still random — you can’t choose which Pokémon spawn, and different Pokémon spawn at different rates and in different locations. But you don’t have to waste your time fighting off hordes of Zubats in every cave — you can just walk around them. And if you’re just trying to explore or get from point A to point B, you don’t have to encounter any Pokémon at all.

Switching Pokémon on the fly rocks.

I also really like not having to trek back to a Poké Centre every frickin’ time I want to make a change to my team. Instead, your character carries every single Pokémon they capture in their backpack (shhh, shhh, don’t ask about the logic), and you can change your team at any time outside of battle.

I get that this might make the game easier — if you aren’t good enough to run a gauntlet of trainers, you can switch out for fresh Pokémon between each battle. But… that also means that each individual Pokémon will get less XP overall, so you’ll have to train them more. Overall, I think it’s still balanced and fun. And it makes it way more convenient to catch ’em all: the moment the tagalong I’ve been nurturing evolves, I can switch it out for another so as not to waste that precious battle XP.

(Plus, you never get that frustrating moment of catching a cool Pokémon and then having to go all the way back to a city to swap it onto your battle roster.)

The visual details are fantastic.

Yes, yes, in the precious past of grey pixel-sprites, we had to use our imaginations, and kids these days, and get off my lawn. But seriously, I’ve already seen the 3D models for these Pokémon in the GO app and the 3DS games, but watching them interact with the world in Kanto is even awesomer than I expected.

When wild Pokémon spawn, they move appropriately — Rattata scurries like a rodent, and it’s teeny-tiny. Onix is huge and moves slowly with powerful intent. Ekans slithers through the grass.

You can also choose one of your party Pokémon to walk with you outside its Pokéball. Each moves at a different speed and with its own appropriate animation. I never get tired of seeing what every new one will do.

Especially my SWEET BABY BELLSPROUT who dashes ahead of me like an excited toddler. *heart eyes*

(And that’s not even mentioning other game-world details, like the smirks on NPC trainers’ faces when they challenge me and their various reactions to losing.)

The plot is more… interesting.

I like that the game integrates characters from the anime, like Jessie and James from Team Rocket.

However, I was super-confused (mild spoilers) when the game split up my original rival (*shakes fist* Gary!!!) into two characters: one friend/rival who’s actually nice even though he insists on battling me all the time, and one smell-ya-later jerk with way more powerful Pokemon. Because I didn’t know that both of these characters would exist, and because the game named one and I named the other, they’re both now called Blue. So… I guess I would’ve liked a little clarification when I was naming my nice frenemy?

Bye-bye, Red & Blue HMs!

OMG, no more wasting precious party-member move slots on permanent moves that barely help in battle just to get around the map! Sort of like in Sun and Moon, but this time, it’s your Eevee pal that’s talented enough to learn every former-HM on top of its normal moveset. That Eevee’s a triple threat: it sings, it dances, it Cuts, it Surfs… And it never leaves your side even when you take it out of your party (or it… faints? But is still able to pilot an Up-like balloon bike that flies?)

Fairy, steel, and dark types still exist

*crotchety voice* Back in my day, there were only fifteen types of Pokémon, and we liked it!

I mean… I did like it and kind of still do, but I get that the type-matchup additions and changes were made for good reasons, like game balance and all that. Still, it kind of harshes my nostalgia when I remember cleaning up by spamming a particular Pokémon’s move all through a particular area. And now the same move barely scratches most opponents because they’re Steel dual-types.

OK, guess I’ll just adopt “crotchety” as a badge of honour.

So is this game easier or what?

Features included in games after Red and Blue — breeding Pokémon, the Pokémon contest, etc. — aren’t in this one. And many aspects of gameplay have been streamlined, although I’d argue that some drill down on what’s fun about existing gameplay rather than making it blander.

NPCs also happily provide you with all sorts of Pokémon with excellent stats — you can get the three original starters just from chatting with people, and they will all have significantly better stats than any you happen to catch yourself. I can’t speak to Let’s Go Pikachu, but your titular Eevee comes pre-loaded with pretty much perfect stats and the ability to learn an exclusive hard-hitting move of just about any type from teacher NPCs. If you wanted to, you could make it a competent one-Pokémon team. Stat-raising items are also abundant — just catch yourself a bunch of wild Pokémon and trade them to Professor Oak. Plus, every Pokémon in your party shares battle and capture XP automatically (no special EXP SHARE item required).

So, yeah, if you have a handle on type matchups, you’re unlikely to get clobbered. Still, even in the later game, I found myself using a lot of revives as I tinkered with my party and tried to raise weaker Pokémon and, you know, fill out my six with Pokémon I like rather than ones that would statistically dominate. The game is both difficult and easy enough to entertain me, and if taking out the frustrating parts makes the game feel easier than it is, I’m OK with that.

One little detail that means a lot to me.

Professor Oak asked me to choose what I look like, not whether I’m a boy or girl. Of course, when I picked what I look like, the NPCs still refer to me as he/him, but, you know, baby steps.

* Thanks for recommending Link’s Awakening, anonymous long-ago store clerk! Without you, I’d never have played Zelda!