Pokemon Let's Go: Pikachi and Eevee (2018) - Unsuprisingly Cynical
However, as a semi-remake of the game boy game “Pokemon Yellow”, it seems content revelling in the past. Though perhaps its Pokemon Go integration begs to differ. We will get into that later.
I played Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee, though both games are nearly identical. The different character models of differing pokemon offer no degree of unique experience. So both games will be referred to as one throughout the length of this review.
Firstly, let’s discuss the visual presentation…
It’s inoffensive. The larger models look quite similar to the 3DS entries, with a greatly appreciated drawn back camera angle. The HD resolution does quite a bit to help the previously solid artistic direction, but it is never going to be too impressive.
Perhaps it’s greater issue is the lackluster performance. Only 30 fps as a cap is incredibly disappointing, especially when games like “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” were able to rock a steady 60 fps with comparable if not better graphics before this game even launched.
The drop to 720p resolution on handheld pairs with the occasional fps dip, leading to a game that somehow manages to run worse on the larger newer device than even most of X and Y on decade old hardware.
But overall the visuals did not really affect my experience as I played through. It’s just notable that at no point did they ever improve the game or how I felt playing it.
Rather, I want to talk about the game structure and balancing.
Everyone knows how a pokemon game works, it’s redundant to explain the general gameplay loop. This prevalence of Pokemon is exactly why a lot of this game felt so tired and stale. While there is the occasional alternate form that NPC’s will offer up to trade, this game exclusively features the same 151 pokemon from the first game that are just about 30 years old at time of writing this, and 22 years old at the time of this game's release.
There is no joy and excitement for me when I see another rattata, pidgey, geodude or caterpie wandering around the map. I have lived my entire life with these creatures in it, and the nostalgia has been wrung dry. The joy on which the gameplay revolves around is basically non-existent. A little Eevee on top of my character's head does little to aid the problem.
However, they do now walk around. It is a small and novel change, but I think it was one the series felt due. Many rpgs have switched over to this style for better or worse. Personally I think it is quite delightful if handled well, and I suppose it is fine here. It allows the player to take more agency over the number of random battles incurred, helping modulate their own levels and progress.
Actualling seeing the pokemon run around and exist within this world feels like a logical extenuation of the very concept of the series. So if anything this inclusion is able to do more here then it can in something like “Dragon Quest 11” for example.
Once you collide with one of these pokemon, some more changes become dramatically apparent. All battling with wild pokemon has been erased, instead replaced with a facsimile of the mobile app “Pokemon Go"’s catching mechanics. By mimicking a throw with the joy con, the pokeball will be flung. Catching rate differs by the placement of said throw and the ever changing size of a circle centered on the pokemon's body. The pokemon also often dances around, leading to more difficulty.
I think this is genuinely great. Catching pokemon has been the hook of the series for a while, so to make that experience far more interactive and engaging. Catching a pokemon is fun and has been updated for the first time since 1996.
However I am less positive about the removal of the battle beforehand. It essentialises the mechanic, making it simpler and less overwhelming. But in doing so, undoes an essential part of game balancing.
Now grinding for levels and getting stronger carries no risk or no price.
When battling pokemon, you lose HP, you lose your moves PP, you might be inflicted with status elements, or even faint. These costs are a part of the gamble with every fight. They might be inconsequential for you as a player, but they remain ever prudent. The need to return to a pokemon center or simply to use items to restore pokemon's health or status, and finally just the time it takes to battle each and every one. It means grinding like this is viable, but not all encompassing.
This new change has completely ruined that balance. By throwing a ball, a pokemon can be caught in mere seconds. Many pokemon can be. That saved time compounds over each and every encounter. In addition, XP bonuses are granted based on things like the quality of the throw, whether the pokemon is caught on the first try, and how many of the same pokemon have been caught in a row. Each of which balloons the already ludicrous XP gain to unimaginable levels.
I am not going to even get into the stat raising candies, but I do want to touch on one more thing that prevents the game from ever being engaging in it’s turn based battles.
Affection mechanics.
Pokemon as a series has always wanted the player to grow attached to their party. In previous entries, systems like the pokemon mon ami allow the player to engage in a “Nintendogs” styled interaction.
This is great, it’s cute, it’s fun, it’s simple and it deepens the connection the player has with these virtual creatures. It is also entirely optional, meaning players who don’t play these games for those reasons need not worry about it.
However there is one big problem with it, and it is it’s absolute worst here. The higher a pokemons affection stat, the more the games very rules will be broken in their favour.
They will land critical hits more often, they will remain at 1 health after a killing blow, they will recover from statuses quicker than before, and even gain higher rates of experience. This mechanic is entirely unavoidable.
In this entry, you may pet your Eevee or Pikachu alone. None of the other pokemon receive this treatment. This feels like an odd detachment from the rest of your team in order to favour the one and only poster child on the front. A classically cynical move to bank off of the marketability of its two main stay pokemon.
However instead, the affection mechanic has been reworked, and thus basically ruined in it’s new overabundance.
The mechanic has been merged with the previous friendship mechanic. Meaning that having a pokemon walk around for a bit, fighting gym leaders, or even levelling up increases this invisible stat. So now each and every pokemon, regardless of how much you personally care for them, will become unstoppable gods of strength with unique rules that bypass anything the opponent is ever able to match.
These games are for children. Plain and simple. But this small simple change necessitates the brainstate of a toddler to contain any semblance of actual difficulty, strategy, or engagement. Beating your head against a wall was always allowed, which is a good thing. But here it has become the uniquely singular and only viable technique for moving through the game.
And that is nothing to say about how ridiculously overpowered and versatile your Pikachu or Eevee starter is throughout the game.
Children have liked this series for a long, long time. It is why it’s become the highest grossing media franchise in the entire world. So there is no reason to believe children need any of these amenities to enjoy the game. And children's ease of use is not exactly the best metric to apply when determining good or engaging game design.
However, Put simply, the pokemon company has not been interested in making good games for a long time. I am sure many of it’s developers are. They work tirelessly to get these products out of the door, pouring their blood sweat and tears into even the worst entries imaginable. But those who make the decisions, to sign the paychecks, and those who actually benefit from the ludicrously high volume at which every mainline title sells, they truly do not care. They are actively incentivised not to.
Every industry pertaining to art is inseparable from the economic system it is produced within. Things need money to be made, and money comes with quite the never ending stream of baggage and faceless greed attached. This is the economic system under which almost all large scale franchises are built from and released onto. The plushes from China, the developers in Japan, the localizers all across the globe, the animators from Korea, all of which are subject to the whims of those above them in the corporate chain as highly ordained by capitalism itself. It;s just the nature of things.
So don’t ask why pokemon games end up like this. Recycling content from a gameboy game, dumbing it down for the broadest possible appeal, and tying it together to the mobile app that makes nearly twice the amount of money this game did in their respective first fiscal years.
It’s simple and it’s obvious. They are actively incentivised not to.
This is the reality in which pokemon operates, and it is the reality that can be felt in each and every step, each and every 3 decades old pokemon you encounter. Of which there are only the 151 from 1996. Oh, and one from Pokemon Go. Multi billion dollar earning Pokemon Go.
1.5/5
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