Let's go... for a walk in the nicest park

[Damage]

I'm gonna start the convo with the notion that everyone here has played at least one of the fan games where the QoL changes have been added. I decided not to play the let's go games because ease makes the game boring. I saw that let's go eevee was baby frolic easy since it was basically the super eevee from insurgance on crack. So i'd like to talk about it honestly. As someone who has played reborn on both normal and hard modes is Let's go enjoyable to anyone who likes challenge. I have long since tossed aside the idea that beauty makes a game good. I hate DB super due to its lack of actual good content because it isn't as good as the original in many ways. 

 

It also brings me to my hardest point that newer doesn't always look better. I'm using Super as a point of reference. Super has a nice shiny coat of paint however it is pretty ugly with its action and still frames in comparison. (Seriously check out Vegeta vs Buu ot 17 vs piccolo for beautiful fights) I can play rom hacks and fan made games because there is so much effort put into the world vs just high def art. Am I a crazy old man that can't adapt to the new stuff or is anyone on the same page as me. 

 

Closer. In all likelihood I'll be Reborn for the 13847397th time before I beat a new main series game due to the level of love put into the game. I don't think just because the game is for kids it needs to be easy. Likewise just because its for kids shows need to be simple or dumb. My hands down favorite show of all time is Gravity Falls. I put that show above GoT, Breaking Bad, Godfather, the Netflix Marvel shows, etc. I love that show because it decided to be a good show first, then a kids show. I wish Gamefreak followed the mantra. Anyway... I digest. comment your thoughts and we can do the thang.....

[Commander]

You should watch the new Ducktales as I hear a lot of people say it's kind of like Gravity Falls.

 

Personally, I think people are judging Let's Go the wrong way. The problem isn't the game, it's the fandom. Pokemon knows they could put out the cheapest and crappiest game and a good chunk of the fandom will buy it. I've given up on Pokemon after Gen VI as I'm not a blind idiot who can't ignore the soul that was Pokemon is now gone and we have something almost as good, but just not as special. I'm not one to really say others weren't involved but I feel this change in direction was happening for a long time and Mr. Iwata was pushing against it. That was a man involved with HGSS having so much content. With that said, I likely will pass on Gen 8, but I am actually thinking about picking up Let's Go. I should probably explain behind that.

 

I'm not buying it at full retail price. That's a rip-off and they'd make a decent profit even if it was $40 which is a much fairer price. First off, it's still Gen 1 which is super easy for all the experts but retains pretty much the difficulty back then except you have an OP Pikachu. Not a big deal as you can just set it in the PC. It's kind of a balance thing as your starter is your strongest Mon, but I think they went a little overboard with the mechanics. There's a lot of nice conveniences like shared Exp across the whole party (a much needed change) which seems like it's more balanced over the Gen VI and VII one. A lot of the Let's Go mechanics were combined which seems to have brought more good than bad removing many tedious aspects. For a game to get people into the series, it's such a thought out design with the only thing wrong is they touched that which is sacred. They removed Blue simply due to not being "kid friendly". If they made Oak the Champion (which is what I thought they'd do), this would have made sense, but nope. They should've just made a toned down Blue the rival but logic. It's still a good Gen 1 remake so if you liked Gen 1 you would like this game. And here's the problem and why I'm not buying Gen 8:

 

The game is lacking in content. This is the third generation of Pokemon we've gone through this song and dance. When is enough enough? We've been seeing less spin-offs, less postgame, and really less new Pokemon. We haven't had any new evolutions which was replaced by this new Mega evolution mechanic purely for nostalgia and pandering and it brought a lot of problems to the meta. The new dev design in Pokemon isn't to make a great experience, it's to make an experience only worth as much as the price tag. Post game doesn't matter since most players don't care about a full experience in that. USUM is a bit of a middle finger since that's what should have been the original game or DLC. "But Commander, you don't know what you're saying." Yo-kai watch. Yo-kai watch did it and gave a discount price for people who played the original game. Why couldn't Pokemon? Money, that's why. Gen VII was a little bit better, but then we look at Let's Go and we're back to square one. It's Blue and Red, but with a couple bonus battles for Postgame and the padding Master Trainers which wouldn't be bad if not for the 1v1 for the same Pokemon. That probably didn't take them much effort to make palette swapped trainers and high level Pokemon. It would be ridiculous to think they spent a hefty time on that over a battle tower or something.

 

This most likely was a tech demo for Gen 8. We'll likely see a lot of the mechanics from this game be implemented. No, they aren't getting rid of EVs, but I could see that catching mechanic and the exp gaining methods be implemented. And being able to access your box anywhere. Maybe the new move changes will be implemented and maybe not as Go was it's own standalone thing. I think the thing that baffles me is that Gen 8 is going to magically be different and so much better than this. It's likely going to be pretty similar to this experience and rivals will be friendly and it'll just be as hand holdy. The fandom is going to blindly keep buying games instead of trying to look for something else so why try to aim or appease them too much? This has been a trend for like 5 years and gripes we've had have only been getting worse and worse. There's been a lot of good things, but the same could be said about Let's Go as there's things that perk my interest as it could really shake the formula and actually bring out a new game. People are buying these games and it shows people like the direction the games are getting taken perhaps better than the older titles. I've already accepted that Pokemon is no longer a good fit for me and I think the people frustrated with a spin-off of all things should really just quit Pokemon and find something else. There's Yo-kai watch, Shin Megami Tensei, Ni No Kuni, DQ Monsters, and a number of other games.

 

And I'll simply go back to the old matter: why shouldn't Game Freak want to make more money? If cutting postgame is an extra 100k in your pocket and cuts down dev time, I don't think too many devs would turn down such a shortcut. It also means they can be experimental with basically no risk. Again, that's a good spot to be in. Not a lot of franchises have the luxury and even Square Enix sweats a bit if FF gets a bad reception. If a game series takes a massive dip in sales, that's when people start to take notice and issues start to get fixed though. 

[Damage]

Hey, if a company wants to focus on profits then I understand. My problem is the "Go" series kinda sucks. Like its terrible and isnt even pokemon. Its a dumb mobile game meant to draw in thumb presses. The real problems with lets go isn't its toss off of challenge and the fact that its like the 4th time doing the same game. Its that Gamefreak doesn't seem to care. The switch was seen by a few nintendo developers as a failed from the jump system. Hell even Sakurai and other creators thought it wouldn't last. So no one focused on a mainstay for it.

 

That begs the question of why when they saw its potential did they not put more effort into their games. Seriously its like everyone forgot that the only reason they have big names is because of the fans they spent two decades appeasing. I feel like I'll end up playing Reborn and Rejuv until the heat death before genuinely wanting to play a mainstay pokemon again. 

 

P.S HOW HARD IS IT TO ADD IN A HARD MODE?! NINTENDO DO YOU EVEN VIDEO GAME?!

 

One day we will get a game where there is no hm slaves. A good story. Actual difficulty. Online. and it wont be called Reborn... (jk itll be reborn)

[trippineverywhere]

Now I haven't played through Let's Go entirely yet (I just beat Lt. Surge) but I believe the game itself was made for the exact purpose of bringing in new kid players who have had yet to experience Pokemon, and what better way to do that than to recreate the first generation (again) with a catching mechanic rather than the battling that us players are so used to. It would have been nice to have a challenge, or at the very least have a hard mode, but oh well. The future will tell if that marketing strategy ends up paying off. 

I think it's safe and sad to say that Pokemon has definitely hit and gone past it's golden point though. Now it's just a waiting game until the game itself finally dies off. The only thing I still want out of Game Freak at this point are Gen 4 remakes. As said by you, I'd much rather play Reborn or another mature/ difficult not Pokemon, Pokemon game nowadays. It's the only way it stays fresh to me. And Nintendo is too much of a kid-friendly company to do what would be necessary in order to fully revive the game for a lot of players. Of course, this is all just my opinion. 

[Candy]

I didn't play Let's Go because I dun have a Switch, but I've seen a playthru of it. The ease for most trainer battles is so great, I think the only way to make the game challenging is to play with just the eevee/Pikachu without catching anything else xD

I think seasoned trainers should support the company still, but transition into the fangames (either as maker or player). Even if technically illegal, I think it's the only way left to enjoy Pokemon, at least for me.

[DemICE]

Pokemon is only dying because of GFs decisions. It had potential to go on with another decade of creative evolution. Fan games are the prime example of that. The good ones at least. Because they are made by people who care about the experience, not money. I believe Nintendo sees that with the direction theyre going, everyone will turn to fan games because they will be the only ones worth playing (quality<->price), which is why they hunt them so much lately.