#I’m partial to the og design because I love my golden boy

[prettyboynightwing]

the sun

the moon

[0poole]

Some more thoughts on Let’s Go, now that I’ve finished it (and also Firered)

I mean, I haven’t captured Mewtwo yet, or fought all of Red/Green/Blue, so I’m not COMPLETELY done, but I basically know exactly what’s up with the game. Even better, I played through Firered again (Not really again? I don’t think I ever finished it before) so I have a better reference for what people universally consider to be “Good Kanto.” I’m even going through Heartgold to get another slice of the Kantonian Pie, and also to try and actually conquer my least favorite Gen (Least favorite, not worst)

But yeah, I mean... Let’s Go is infinitely more enjoyable in pretty much all aspects compared to Firered. Like, all aspects. Literally not a single aspect is more enjoyable in that game. Note: More enjoyable =/= universally better. You may like the past games, but honestly I can’t like them, at least compared to the modern stuff. The biggest thing? The Physical/Special split.

Oh my god, I had no idea how much better that one change made the games. Some Pokemon are straight-up unusable because their type is Special, while they have better Attack. Case in point: I took a Hitmonchan from the Fighting Dojo in Firered, expecting a heavy-hitter in 4 different types (with the elemental Punches). Guess what? Kinda sucks when each elemental Punch is special, when the Punching Pokemon only has 35 Special Attack. Why even give him those moves then? Why did anyone think this was okay? Genuinely, this is one of the few things that seems like legitimately bad game design. What’s the point of having a Physical Pokemon have a type that’s Special, like with Kingler? He only has 50 Special Attack, but 130 Attack, and yet in that generation his STAB type was always Special. You could make do with other Physical types, but then it just makes him being a Water type so pointless. I did end up using Kingler in my Lets Go playthrough as retribution, and he was so much fun to use, mainly because Kingler is just a really cool Pokemon, and also walks behind you sideways, which is just a neat little detail that obviously was going to be a thing, but I love it anyway

I guess I’ll piggyback off of that. I LOVE the personality given to each Pokemon just by them walking behind you. Who the hell knew that Bellsprout was such a speedy lil boy? It always wanted to run in front of me, and I never saw Bellsprout as having that kind of energy. Since my sister also got the game, I was able to actually use a Golem in my playthrough (I always use a Geodude/Graveler at least for a while in basically every playthrough of every game, since it’s such a good mon to use in game, but I ditch it eventually since I usually can’t trade stuff) and I loved watching him roll into a ball behind me. I also was able to use a Gengar, and, even though it’s weird that you can ride Haunter but not Gengar, It was neat to see him phase through everything. 

Then, Rapidash. OH MY GOD Rapidash. IT’S. SO. FAST. I’m riding a flaming horse in a video game (that isn’t an MMO). I also had a Dodrio who wasn’t as fast so I never really rode him, but riding around on a Rapidash was actually one of the coolest things that could happen in any Pokemon game ever. I did not miss bikes one bit. Although, there was a bit of an issue here: Whenever you got a little too close to a wall, sometimes, since it was so big, it would return into it’s Pokeball for a second, making you return to normal walking speed, only for it to come back out a second later, making you go right back into hyperdrive. It was a little jarring, but it’s still pretty easy to avoid the walls. There was enough open space that it was still super fun, though.

That all being said, my team did end up being Kingler, Golem, Victreebell, Rapidash, Dodrio, and Gengar. That is, no Eevee, despite having Let’s Go Eevee. It was super cute and all (and having it run through the vents of the Rocket Hideout was in second place underneath riding Rapidash in terms of cool stuff) but I really never wanted to use it in battle... Even though it’s not egregious in my mind, it’s special moves were kind of lame by how powerful they were, and they’re names are still pretty dumb... Since I didn’t have to keep it in my party, and it would just stay on my head anyway, I just decided to ditch it for the classics I never got to use before. I did love how it was the replacement for HMs, but I also don’t really get why they couldn’t just keep the past HM names... Again, it’s not egregious, but the new names were much dumber...

Another thing I wished they improved from past games: The music. There was no Rival battle, Team Rocket Grunt battle, or Rocket Boss Giovanni battle music, like in the past. That’s super lame. It was all the same, plain trainer battle music. WHY? We have themes for each of them now, so why not remix that? It’s literally one of those things that no one has nostalgia for, so why keep it that way? Most of the time I just kept the music off, partially because I don’t really like orchestrated covers of Pokemon music that much, and because it got old after a while. I did like that the Snorlax fight was put on the same intensity level as the Legendary Birds and Mewtwo, though. Even though I wasn’t in any danger of running out of time or losing to it, I did feel the sense of urgency.

Then, the big one: Catching. I was actually travelling for most of my playthrough, so I used handheld mode for catching most of the time, and it was completely fine. I still needed to aim, but I could actually feel where I was aiming before I threw the ball. Then, I returned home, and tried to catch literally anything... Either I just don’t understand how they work, or the motion controls are actually terrible. If any Pokemon merely hops off to the side, it’s impossible to hit it. You can aim off in that direction, but it still won’t work. It’s weird, because if the Pokemon stays in the middle of the screen, it’s almost too easy... It almost always hits right in the center, so you just have to time it right. 

My biggest gripe with catching is the berries you have to use. They are technically useful, but... they only affect one single throw... Like... you only get 5 whole Golden Razz berries for the whole game (as far as it seemed), and yet if you don’t get lucky for the one throw you use them on, they’re just gone. The weirdest one is the Nanab berries, which only make the Pokemon stop moving for a single throw. It’s great if you’re planning on using the Master Ball, but otherwise they’re completely worthless. Also, I don’t even think I bothered to use the Pinap berries... All of this, combined with the fact that the skill of your throw (Nice, Great, Excellent, etc.) Don’t seem to affect your chances of catching the Pokemon either, even though they have every right to. It seems all they do is multiply the EXP you get after, which doesn’t help when you have to waste 30 Ultra Balls on a Chansey anyway. I got so many Greats and Excellents, but it doesn’t matter because it just broke out, and then lo and behold it got caught on the one measly normal throw I made on it. 

As far as I can recall, that’s all the possible negatives I can think of, to be honest. Even though all of these are painted as negatives, I’d still much rather have these mechanics over the alternatives in Firered. In that game, I just didn’t want to waste my time catching ANY Pokemon, whereas I actually wanted to catch ‘em all in Let’s Go. I’m still working on that. My sister even bought Let’s Go Pikachu after completing HER copy of Let’s Go Eevee just because she wanted to catch every Pokemon. This girl has a pretty limited amount of money in her allowance, and a need to buy a lot of stuff, so her spending her money on that of all things really testifies to how much she enjoyed it. She’s not even a PokeManiac like I am, either.

But, I’ve saved the best for last. The one, biggest improvement to Kanto that Let’s Go made was: The Movesets. I honestly had no idea how absolutely horrible the movesets in OG Kanto were until I played through Firered. Beedrill was practically unusable, even beyond its terrible stats, because it got basically nothing to work with. Now? It gets OUTRAGE. Also, it learns Twinneedle upon evolving, like it should have, and gets Poison Jab pretty soon after. It even gets normal Rage, because literally every single time Beedrill appeared in the anime, it was angry and chasing down whoever decided to fall into its turf. Why wasn’t this a thing before? 

Side bit: I loved that Jesse and James were in this game. Honestly, they are my favorite characters in the anime (even above the plethora of waifus) and I’m so glad they exist outside of it now (even though they did exist in Yellow and also even though Meowth doesn’t talk)

Back to the moves, the TMs were very interesting. At first, I was kinda sad Brock didn’t give you Rock Tomb, but Headbutt was an interesting alternative to say the least, since basically any Pokemon could learn it. It was a straight and easy upgrade to Tackle, which practically every Pokemon knew at that stage anyway. Also, the buffs to Absorb and Mega Drain were completely unexpected, but welcome nonetheless. It’s a bit odd making Mega Drain the wanted endpoint for my Victreebell over Giga Drain, but I got used to it. I also loved the Coach trainers, how they each used Pokemon with a specific move, and then gave you the TM for that move once you beat them. It was a great way to let the player stock up on TMs without having them just find a simple secret hidden behind HM. 

As for difficulty, it honestly wasn’t as easy as people said it was... Sure, it wasn’t insanely hard, but it was a very fair difficulty. I did actually have to try against some of the Gym Leaders, and the Coach trainers did knock out a few of my Pokemon too. It was very fair to me as someone who knew exactly what they needed to do, so to a newbie I think it’d pose an OK challenge. The massive level curve after you beat the Elite 4 was a bit annoying, and I’m still trying to grind my way up to level 60 so I can use all of the XL candies I stocked up, but I can appreciate that they aren’t letting you sweep everyone just because you beat the game. Maybe that’s just because grinding is super easy now... I actually stopped playing Firered at the E4 because I really just didn’t care enough to grind to a level where I’d actually have a chance against them. That’s way too many hours just to do something I only kinda want to do to begin with. Seriously, I don’t know why people were okay with it in the past...

All of this just makes me super excited for Gen 8. I did enjoy the partial Go mechanics, but I will love to have back the usual stuff in the next games, not to mention having new Pokemon is always fun. The only thing I’m kind of pessimistic about is that they might end up using the same old models for each Pokemon in the next games, since they all already have walking AND running animations, like the ones used in Lets Go. They’re just getting a little old, is all. Plus, I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I really just want certain flying Pokemon like Charizard, Dragonite, and Xatu to just stop flying in their idle battle model. They really don’t work like they are now, since they aren’t designed to be constantly flying at all times (as seen in their 2D sprites and official art). That stuff just bugs me. They made it that way for Airborne battles in Gen 6, but since those types of battles don’t exist anymore, those animations are pointless...

But yeah, Let’s Go was fun, much more fun than Firered, and I have high hopes for the next Pokemon games.

I’m seriously feeling the stasis of the franchise right now, though. We need some reliable leaks and/or official announcements soon, or I might go nuts.