Pokemon Let's Go is a remaster of the original 1998 Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow, not the 2004 remasters FireRed/LeafGreen. The players will experience the adventure in the Kanto region. Unlike the older games, the players do NOT play as trainer Red or Green(the female avatar) who are assosiate with the generation/area and that have one way or another established legendary status within the fanbase. Trainer Red is for everyone the top guy for one reason or another. Instead of these characters the players will get
to use Chase(male) or Elaine(female) and instead of having Blue as the rival(who till this day he is one of the best rivals in Pokemon history) the new rival is Trace who is definetely one of the worst rivals out there.
In the game the player gets to play as the trainer(Chase, Elaine(will be using Chase as he was my choice of avatar)) who wakes up and has his next door neighbor Chase visiting him telling to tell him today is our day. Chase tells us that today its the day both of us will visit proffessor Oak and embark on our Pokemon journey. Both trainers go to prof's lab but he is missing. Trace decides on waiting in the lab, but Chase leaves to look around the town. Eventually Chase spots Prof Oak in the tall grass studying Pidgeys.
Upon approaching him the birds get scared and fly away. Proffessor Oak realises you re there cause you want a pokemon from him and before you go back to the lab, a Pikachu/Eevee(based on the game) will interupt you. Chase throws a pokeball capturing the pokemon. Both heroes walk back to the lab, and Chase gets to keep the Pokemon he captured and Trace gets the other. Proffesor Oak then gives the kids a Pokedex and request that they capture data of wild Pokemon to help him on their studies. The heroes then leave
and embark on their journey.
On this adventure Chase will learn about the Pokemon Gyms and the Elite four. Pokemon Gyms act as a challenge the players will have to go through to strengethen their pokemon and to also be acknowledge by other trainers. Defeating a gym leader rewards the players with a Gym badge proving that the player bested the leader. The badge also will make higher level pokemon respect the trainer and also grants access when trying to move to the elite four. There is a total of 8 gym badges that the player can obtain in order to
pass the security and get access to the Victory road which stands between you and the elite four. The elite four consist of some of the best Champion level Trainers who will put your Pokemon to the test.
Aside from the Gym leaders, the Elite four and Trace, Chase will come across team Rocket a criminal organization that tries to capture Pokemon and use them for their evil plans. A great addition to Let's go is the inclusion of Jessie, James and Meowth characters form the anime. They were in Pokemon Yellow but they weren't as fleshed out as they re in Lets Go. Chase will encounter team rocket a couple of times as their criminal plans are scattered around Kanto. The original characters from the Old games are
also included in Lets Go. Blue is no longer a bully and will help Chase a couple of times, Green who will try and capture Mewtwo before you and Red who will try and fight you after proving yourself by beating the elite four and winning atleast six 1vs1 duels.
I always loved pokemon Red and pokemon Gold, not because they were the games i played as a kid but something about them hits me hard. It can also be the nostalgia and the familiarity with the first 2 generations of Pokemon, but i dont think so as i did try some of the future games such as Pokemon Saphire(2002). The story of the game was what i was expecting but even better. For the first time i had cutscenes in the Pokemon games which were done pretty well. Some important key scenes were done amazingly such as the Laventer insident and the whole team Rocket usage. Furthermore, some events are altered due to the game it self being altered such as the way Chase finds the old mans teeth, how Chase obtains the tea from Gym leader Brock than the old lady and overall lore exposure when it comes down to these small things. I played the original game back in 2002 and i got to re experience it now in 2024.
The player gets control of the Character Chase or Elaine who they can customize and rename whatever they pleased. The players also encounter their Polemon buddy either Pikachu or Eevee who will be escorting them through the adventure. The buddy is a special pokemon that will play a massive role in the game. Aside form being a pokemon companion, it also learns all the massive HM abilities. Pokemon skills in the past were TMs abd HMs. The difference was that HMs are skills that can be used outside of combat when freelanching and unlike TMs
they cannot be deleted unless finding a certain NPCs. Lets go allows the companion to use abilities like Flash, Surf, Strength, Cut and fly without placing themselves on the skill set. Furthermore, the player can also play with their partner. Selecting the companion pokemon allow you to pet it by rubbing your hands in it Increasing the friendship and bond amongs you. You can also customise the heairstyle and the outfit of the pokemon. Keeping your relatiosnhip healthy will allow Eevee/Pikachu to cure themselves from effect status during compat, such as
healling from poison, activating unique support/offensive attacks during combat. Finally a partner who enjoys its trainer will find and bring back gifts to the trainer. Alongside the Partner, the player can have 5 more pokemon resulting a total of 6.
When moving around the environment, wild pokemon will appear walking around the area. By walking towards them you will trigger a pokemon encounter. Unlike every other game, the players wont have to fight the pokemon before catching it as each encounter turns into a Pokemon Go simulator. The capturing system works in two ways, Joycon mode on Tv or handheld. On Joycon mode, the player can swing the Joycon throwing the ball towards the pokemon. The direction, speed and power play a massive role when throwing. Each Pokemon has a circle with different
colors depicting the pokemons resistance. Green is easy, then yellow, then orange and finally red. The player can help their odds by using special type of berries and different type of Pokeballs. Capturing a pokemon will make that pokemon join your team and will also reward EXP to you active pokemon party. Building a streak on the same pokemon increases the chances of getting a stronger version and a potential shiny encounters. On the other hand the second way of getting a pokemon is with handheld mode. The player can turn the switch around in order to track the pokemon
and press a button to throw the ball. The game does NOT support the thick controller like joycons. Tilting the console will not do anything. There is a total of 138 pokemon a trainer can actually encounter.
Collecting/capturing pokemon rewards your current party with EXP points. EXP helps the Pokemon level up. The higher the level, the stronger the pokemon. Some Pokemon when reached a certain level will level up improving their power and skills. Some pokemon also obtain different abilities when leveling up. A pokemon can have up to 4 skills at a time and will have to replace a move to learn a new one. Each skill has its own elemntal attack, EG. a pokemon can have a normal attack, a passive attack, a fire attack and even a ground attack. Each attack also has its own
number next to it indicating how many times the pokemon can use that ability. Unlike before some skills will have to be taught to a pokemon manualy. Each time you defeat an NPCs they will reward you with a skill that you can then teach it to the pokemon. Furtermore, each pokemon has its own stats that the player can upgrade using Candies. Yet another thing from Pokemon go, the player will have a candy bag with certain stat boosting items. The player can choose to feed them to Pokemon to improve them. For example, giving Starmie more speed candies will increase speed,
health candies increase its overall HP and others increase stuff like attack(normal/Special) and boost defence againts attacks(special/normal). Unlike past entries where games went straight to the computer, the player now has access to all his pokemon at any moment. Sending pokemon to Prof Oak rewards you with various awards.
A great addition is the pokemon that follows the player. There are certain pokemon that the pokemon can ride. For example, owning a Rapidash, Arcanine etc will allow Chase to ride it allowing him to move faster than before. In the past entries the trainers used bikes but now the bikes been replaced with the pokemon. Whilst in water, the player can ride pokemon like Lapras and Gyrados. Otherwise, they simply use a surf board. After defeating the Elite four the game opens its skies to the player as they can use pokemon like Dragonite, Charizard and Aerodactyl to fly
ontop of the areas. Worth mentioning how the skies have their own unique pokemon encounters that cannot be found on the ground. The players can pick items found around(representing a pokeball) and their companions can sniff invisible items.
Pokemon Battles is the where the main combat of the game is. Around the world there are different trainers who want to have a piece of the player. Whether they re trainers wondering around, team Rocket trying to do their evil deeds or Gym leaders defending their Gym, pokemon battle is the way to do it. When an encounter begins the player is free to use whichever pokemon he wishes(out of the 6) but the one placed in the number 1 spot is the one that will come out first. The opponents have different quantities of pokemon, some have 1 other have 6. During compat the pokemon
with the fastest attack speed will most likely attack first(unless a special skill like Quick attack is used.). Each battle is played in turns, the player will select an attack, the NPCs their ones and the animations will play out. Each Pokemon has HP representing their life, once a life of a pokemon hits 0 that pokemon will faint. the player who runs out of Pokemon first will lose the encounter. Pokemon of higher level will always have an advantage over the other. Another factor during battle is the type of pokemon. If a pokemon of water phases a pokemon of Fire, any water type
attack will cause more damage(potential one shot) to the other and if it receives a fire base attack will barely scratch its life. Every encounter is like chess, where the player will always try to use the pokemon with the advantage over the other. During battle, the player can change pokemon whenever they want skipping their damage step and even use items such as healling and revive with the same penalty. Any weak pokemon can be cured with items bought from the stores or by visisting a pokemon center in order to cure them.
Comming back to the pokemon world i found the game mixed myself. Everything that came up in the hub-world was perfect. Seeing the pokemon move around reduce unwanted encounters and made the world more alive. I enjoyed moving around with my pokemon partner and having the ability to use my pokemon to either move around, swim around and fly around. I also did enjoy the fact that they replaced HMs with Eevees(partners) abilities although it did take away from forcing me to use certain pokemon with equiped skills. It took away the challenge of trying to balance everything. This comes from a lazy side of me but i did enjoy the fact that all of my pokemon were receiving EXP from my
captures and from each battle.
I really did not enjoyed removing things that were stable for the game such as the Safari zone and limiting the already small Pokedex of 150 to 138. I found the game extremely easy as none of the trainers brought any difficulty. They will usually have multiples of a certain pokemon and use certain skills over and over. Last but not least the biggest crime of the game is the Pokemon Go simulator. the fact that you no longer fight againts pokemon and all you do is throw balls and berries takes away the fun of trying to survive the battle whilst avoiding killing
the desired pokemon. I am not a fan of it and unfortunatelly i can tell Game Freak wanted to cash in on the 2016 phenomenom Pokemon Go.
When the player successfully defeats the Elite four the game is not over. Most of the players who played any pokemon game will most likely try to complete Proffessor Oak's dream and complete the pokedex for him meanning they will try and capture all 151 pokemon(Alolah versions also included). A problem with the game is that not all pokemon can be found in the wild as some re game exclusive. For some reason Game Freak axed some
pokemon from each game. If you own a copy of Lets go Eevee you will never encounter 12 Pokemon unless you have the Pikachu version. The idea was to either get both game and trade or have a friend who will trade them over. Thankfully the console exlcusive problem can also be solved by having Pokemon Go. by linking your Switch and your Pokemon go at the place where Safari used to be, you can trade
all the gen 1 pokemon including the exclusives. Unfortunatelly once a pokemon is sent, you can never get it back and that is an issue with a certain legendary.
Mew and gen 1 go along way with different theories and jokes. Pokemon Lets go only has two ways to obtain this legendary pokemon. One is from using Pokemon Go losing it from that game, and the second way is by purchasing a Pokeball hardware that cost 50 euros and could only be used for Lets Go and no other switch or pokemon game.
Some other things players can do after defeating the Elite four is to rechallenge a harder version of the Gym leaders and can also do 1vs1 duels. New NPCs will spawn around the map with a cloud on top of them depicting one pokemon. The player will have to challenge them in a 1vs1 duel using that pokemon. All NPCs will use a level 75 version of it. The players can defeat all 151 trainers as their challenge. Also defeating atleast six trainers in 1vs1 will cause trainer Red to look around for you and challenge you.
Last but not least just like any Pokemon game, the players can go out of their way and try to collect all 138(150-12(exclusives)) pokemon in shiny hunt. Alot of plyers want to have the shiny pokedex as its a nice grindy thing to do. Collecting all 150 pokemon is hard as shiny hunters usually do not accpet Pokemon Go's shinies as they re usually easier to obtain, taking away its challenge and joy.
Honestly for me this game has one of the best graphics out there when it comes down to pokemon. Obviously im not the best source as i havent played any other switch or Ds games. Seeing Kanto and all the familiar environments come to live in HD was very nice and nostalgic. I cannot express how amazed i was when i first booted the game in the airplane. The pokemon avatars were not somehting that unique as i believe they
re the same as Pokemon Gos. The Pokemon visualy walking around also makes it better in my opinion. You can see the pokemon you will encounter, you can dodge that encounter and overall brings the world to live. The inclusion of Cutscenes was done properly and some nice moments were made through the Pokemon Partner. Moreover, riding the Pokemon like Arcanine, Starmie, Lapras, Snorlax Charizard etc is also a great idea in both visually and as an idea. Even during
battles, the camera shows different point of views of the battlefield, of the pokemon but also the trainers, making the battles feel more intense. A Great detail worth pointing out, is the pixel sprites of the Pokemon found in your collection, when cured in a nursery and on the 1vs1 clouds as those pixels are the ones taken from fire red. A nice call back to the previus games. On the other hand animations can also be improved when it comes down to pokemon battles. There's plenty of fan made projects that make attacks like solar beam, surf
glare looking very cool. Here on the game made by the company it self you get souless attacks. I cannot expressed how annoyed i was everytime i was using DIG and i saw my Arcanine being idle and slowly going under ground. Like watching a T pose human figure walking around. I believe the pokemon developers should sit down and create various animations as they will 100% be reusing them in other future projects. I wont mention the NPcs standing still in the wild as this is something that is now attached to the series.
The audio department is also very good with only a minor complain. The songs used are the excact same ones as before but obviously up to the switch standards than the old Game boy. The melodies sound as clear as ever and they did an amazing job remastering them. The pokemon themselved use their usual cries and there is no voice acting like usual. My biggest complain about the music department is the lack of the OST againts Red. For those unaware, Pokemon has a unique song that plays when battling Red. Pokemon Let's go seemed like it did alot of things
correct and some major things wrong but also seemed a bit lazy and quick cash grap on the new Hardware and the Nostalgia factor. The fact that they didnt include a song that already pretty much exist as a remaster from other media on the one iconic battle felt a bit weird. They did include Red, they did gave him a specific way to summon/battle him, they did powered his team for a good hard fight and they didnt give him the battle theme needed. Again Red is something holy in the fanbase from being the first ever trainer made/played as, he is the only trainer used
in other games(both main and side titles) and he means something to alot of fans.
In conclusion, Pokemon Lets go is a game that met with good sales and mix reception as changes were good and bad. Nowadays, the game seemed to inspired the next entries but as its own version it left a mix fandom which although enjoyed it found it being lazy and a bad remaster comparing it to 2004. The game did a decent job reintroducing players old and new to the Kanto region with great cinematography and cutscenes that made the game come to live. The rival Trace was a fail attempt to recreate Blue, as Blue used to be a bully to Red and always wanted to be the best and showing it through every encounter.
Trace acts and is more of a friend to Chase, as he always seemed to have a positive thing to say to us and always seems to help us with advice, materials and overall joinning us here and there. He told us about the gyms, he helped us with paths on how to go to Lavender town or taking the underground and we help him by giving him a ticket to S.S Marine. This is like a friendly rivary more than anything. Trace also shows emotions of fear, near Lavender town, sadness when he feels like Chase bested him and happy each time Chase achieves something good, whether its capturing Pokemon, earning gym badges etc.
Gameplay wise i was not happy with the capture system of the game, if i wanted Pokemon Go i would play it on my phone like i have been doing. Removing the fighting was a hit for the game. At the same time, remastering the old games and not the remasters removed alot of content to an already small game. Furthermore removing 13 pokemon out of the 151 was also a poor choice and im not even gonna rant over paywalling Mew. Graphic wise the game looks realistic, as the decision to be able to see pokemon in the wild was a great addition and interacting with them(riding, having them follow us) was great time to bond with them.
The game needed better animations when it comes down to fighting as having a dynamic camera and idle animations simply doesnt work. Difficulty wise the game dissapointed me as it was very easy. The partner Pokemon is too Op and also all the pokemon shares EXP making them level up faster removing the grind. The trainers fight the player using only certain pokemon and spamming the same skill all the time. They will not try to adapt nor change their strategy. Pokemon do not learn skills on their own when level up aside from a few so the player will have to defeat trainers and gain their abilities to equip them. HM's were skills
taught to Pokemon that would interact with the environment and it would be hard for the Pokemon to forget. In this game all abilities are instantly taught by your partner and will not take any attacks space. There is a small character customization for both you and your partner. Last but not least although Multiplayer is not as good as it could its still coop. If removing the new areas from fire red, reducing the pokemon, having idle animations, not having to fight the pokemon before capturing them and not including Red's Ost in the "final" battle wasnt prove of them being lazy, lets mention the two big elephants in the room.
The game completely removed the Safari zone and the gatha machines minigame. The original had a gatcha minigame which was replaced in fire red as it was considered Gambling and Lets go replaced fire reds minigame with a simple text of this machine is a fighting game.