Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! aren’t shaping up to be the games we expected, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The games’ latest trailer demonstrates some of their features and how they will combine the fascinatingly new with the comfortably familiar to create a game for Pokefans young and old.
Now, we’ve known for a while that Pokemon: Let’s Go will connect with Pokemon GO (they share the word “Go” in their titles, after all) via the Go Park. Pokemon that are transferred between the games will inhabit the park, but the park will be exclusive to Pokemon from the Kanto region —including their Alolan variants. This means means trainers won’t be able to show off their Tyranitars and Gardevoirs, let alone add them to their in-game rosters. However, according to the trailer, the park isn’t just a glorified Pokemon rental center. Players will be able to participate in minigames to earn candies, and the minigame shown in the trailer is, fittingly enough, a Pikachu roundup where players collect the electric mice and help them avoid Golems and Digletts. Depending on a gamer’s performance, he or she could earn a Groudon’s weight in candies.
Notice I said candies and not candy. Unlike the main Pokemon games, trainers can earn more than just Rare Candy. Pokemon: Let’s Go will include a wide variety of candies in different flavors. No, they won’t taste like Magikarp or Doduo, but they will increase different stats similar to vitamins from the main games. Furthermore, players can earn extra candies by transferring excess Pokemon to Professor Oak, kind of like how gamers obtain candies in Pokemon GO.
Of course, Pokemon: Let’s Go has more up its sleeve than just candies and minigames. At its core is a fantastic, if somewhat streamlined, turn-based battle system and capture mechanic. While the game will treat most captures like they take place in the Safari Zone, legendaries are in a league of their own and have to be weakened first. Yes, legendaries. The elemental trio of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres will return in all their glory, and players need to earn the right to capture them by having their Pokemon beat the snot out of the oversized birds. Although, unlike the trailer, trainers probably shouldn’t fight Moltres with a Scyther.
Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! and Let’s Go Eevee! will be available November 16, 2018 for the Nintendo Switch.
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