10 Hours In: Pokémon Let’s Go Impressions

Pokémon Let’s Go isn’t like other Pokémon games, so naturally, neither was my reaction to the rollout and launch of the game. For the first time in over 15 years, the release of a new Pokémon adventure didn’t excite me. I didn’t plan to skip the entry, but was initially going to wait and probably get it around Christmas time. On a Saturday afternoon, I debated picking up Super Mario Party, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, or a version of Pokémon Let’s Go.

I ultimately went with Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee and couldn’t be happier with my purchase.

I don’t know where to start about how I love the game, so I’ll clear the most obvious hurdle first: the pure nostalgia and ecstasy that seeing Kanto on the big screen brought me. The Pokémon roaming in the overworld, combined with the art style, to make the most engaging Pokémon world yet.

Writer’s Note: This article was originally published in November 2018, but is now being brought to my current website.

Coming in obviously knowing the wild encounters wouldn’t be battles, catching Pokémon still exceeded my expectations. Switching between battling trainers and catching wild Pokémon provides a nice balance to make exploring routes interesting too.

Pokémon appearing in the overworld is so cool and satisfying, and lends extremely well to the nature of the game. When trying to capture a specific Pokémon, instead of running around in grass and running away from wild battles until you find the right one, you can pick and choose which Pokémon to encounter. And they’ll sill trigger encounters on their own sometimes, as you unintentionally bump into a Ratatta or a Pidgey flies into you. Seeing a rare Pokémon is exciting, even early in the game when a Beedrill was the coolest thing I saw so far.

Despite being exposed to only the first 151 Pokémon yet again (last seen at the launch of Pokémon Go), I don’t find myself wishing we had the whole roster. While I don’t necessarily think they should re-do every Generation in the “Let’s Go” style, the game practically begs for a Johto sequel and maybe something beyond that.

Look, I’m not advocating that the core changes to Pokémon gameplay made in Let’s Go should be carried over to the Generation 8 games. But in the context of the game, most of the changes work well. This goes for the wild Pokémon encounters, the constant access to Box Pokémon, and the overall streamlined-ness of the game. Slightly disappointing removals include abilities and held items. This was done to simplify battling, and they’ll no doubt be back in the next main series game, but they do take some depth away from the battle system.

Despite being “streamlined” in many ways (like characters teleporting you across the maps at times for ease of access,) I haven’t felt myself breezing through the game at all. Just over 10 hours in I defeated the third gym, and have a long way to go and a lot left explore. You can take the game at your own pace, and mine has been slightly leisurely.

That brings me to another cool aspect of the game: the ability to adapt the difficulty by making your own intentional decisions. Sure, this has always been a part of the series, like Nuzlocke runs or solo Pokémon runs and other challenges. But especially in this game, I saw lots of ways to change the difficulty.

For one, I’m training nine to ten Pokémon in my extended party. This has only been made possible by the constant box access and experience being gained by everyone for wild encounters and trainer battles.

But access to the boxes while out on the routes can make the game a breeze, as you can just switch out fainted Pokemon and keep refreshing the party. One way to make the game more challenging would be limiting your box access to Pokemon Centers, in a classic style of playing Pokemon.

Another way is to avoid using over-powered Pokemon. I rarely use my Eevee in battle unless things are getting ugly. And while I have all three Kanto starters in my extended party, I limit myself to one in my actual party at a time. This results in a slight increase in the need to grind, and still leaves me slightly underleveled at Gyms.

But again, these are intentional decisions I made to make the game more challenging and ever so slightly closer to the classic experience.

In an ever busy world where I haven’t had much times for video games over the past couple years, Pokémon Let’s Go makes me feel like a kid again. Without the nostalgia I can’t say the game will work this well for everyone, but as a long-time series fan it’s an instant classic for me and has me coming back every day so far.

All photos are personal screenshots from my Nintendo Switch.

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