Over the past few weeks, Gamefreak has slowly released details about the upcoming Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee games. In case you haven’t been closely keeping up, we’ve kept track of the most interesting details below.
Your rival isn’t a jerk anymore
Say goodbye to that jerk Blue, and say hello to your new “friendly rival” Trace. Instead of constantly taunting you and telling you to smell him later, Trace offers friendly advice on where to go and how to raise your Pokémon. If Twitter reactions are anything to go by, most fans are not happy with this chipper new character, preferring the cocky rivals of old. (Extremely NSFW Twitter reaction here.)
Gamefreak has not made the rival character a jerk in years, and fans clearly miss rivals that they love to hate. Game director Junichi Masuda stated that the reason the rival is much nicer than in Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow is that back then, the simple pixel graphics did not allow for much personality. To make up for that, the writers had to emphasize how much of a jerk the rival was through their words. Now that the series has HD graphics, Masuda felt the need to tune the cockiness down for fear of it becoming overwhelming or intimidating.
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The developers are working on a way to let you upload your Pokémon from Let’s Go! to Pokémon Bank
Masuda confirmed that he and his team are working on a way for players to be able to transfer their Pokémon caught in Let’s Go! to future entries in the series, including next year’s core Pokémon game. It has already been confirmed that players can transfer Pokémon caught in Pokémon Go to the Let’s Go games through a feature called the Go Park. If players are able to transfer Pokémon from Let’s Go! to the Pokémon Bank, that theoretically means that players will theoretically be able to use Pokémon caught in Go in future core titles.
The game is being designed to be simpler and “less scary”
Masuda has stated in interviews that he wants the game to be a starting point for kids and new players introduced to the series through Pokémon Go. As such, the gameplay has been simplified, including but not limited to:
Masuda has described modern video game players as having different tastes than they did 20 years ago. According to him, gamers today prefer simpler games that can be played in short bursts, mostly due to the influence and popularity of mobile gaming. This has led to the removal of features he considers too time-consuming or tedious for modern players, such as Strength puzzles.
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The game features a never before seen “Master Trainer” mechanic as part of the postgame
When questioned on whether there would be challenging content in the game to please longtime fans, Masuda revealed the existence of the “Master Trainer” mechanic. Basically, there exists a Master Trainer for each of the 151 Pokémon featured in the game. These trainers are considered the best at using their respective Pokémon. If you’d like to become the Master Trainer for your favorite Pokémon, let’s say Charizard, then you’d have to find and challenge that Master Trainer in order to gain their title. Masuda said that dedicated players can become the Master Trainer of every Pokémon in the game.
Watch 8 minutes of Pokémon Let’s Go! gameplay below:
If all of those words mean nothing to you and you’d rather see the game in action, Nintendo World Report TV recently released footage of 8 minutes of gameplay.
How do you feel about these changes made to the Pokémon formula? Will you be picking up Pokémon Let’s Go? Which version? Let us know below!
