Let's Play Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu, Part #1: Brock to Erika

I haven't done one of these text-based let's plays for... for forever, because, well, I haven't really been playing a lot of video games. The last couple of games I played were Assassin's Creed II, Arkham Origins, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and... well, basically a lot of random fighting games that don't really make for a good let's play. Video gaming content on this blog has mostly been monster reviews and Hearthstone card talk anyway, but... but I've been passively playing Let's Go: Pikachu on my Nintendo Switch over the past couple of weeks. I'm very late to the party, and... and I honestly considered not doing a let's play at all, really. The fact that I'm not really speeding through the story at all and just taking my time to quite literally stop and smell the flowers and look at the pretty new graphics is also a factor. But hey, yesterday I reached what would probably be considered the mid-point of the game, with Lavender Town and the Snorlax stuff, so I guess I have enough to talk about to have something to say on a let's play segment.

So... so the game's basically a remake-plus of Pokemon Yellow, except they implement the Pokemon Go mechanics for Pokemon capturing, which is... it's admittedly a stupid decision and one that I am not a huge fan of, but let's get the rant out of the way first. I understand the marketing reasoning for why they did it -- Go is a very big game and perhaps the biggest break Pokemon's gotten since the original cartoon aired, and it is pretty smart, from a marketing standpoint, to at least attempt to draw in the new blood who may not have touched a real Pokemon game. From that point of view, it's actually a pretty great marketing move. Intellectually, I understand that. But playing through this game, I honestly really feel that there is absolutely very little incentive to grind and capture the random Pokemon in the wild. Sure, you get experience points and shit for your entire party, but it's honestly such a bland and unrewarding experience to just throw the ball at the wild Pokemon without any sort of real change to what's going on. At least with the old system, each wild Pokemon encounter can feel different depending on your own Pokemon, y'know? Throw in the fact that the motion sensors for the Switch... isn't the best, and it adds a whole layer of frustration to the whole thing. I honestly wished that there's an option to go for the more classic battle system.


That said, though, once you get over that hump, Let's Go Pikachu is actually a decent remake. Like, I wouldn't say that it's revolutionary or anything, but I feel like it's basically similar to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in that it's... it kind of ticks the boxes of what I want from a remake. And having the wild Pokemon actually move around on-screen after the pop out of the grass, Digimon World/Pokemon Ranger style, is nothing short of amazing. That's honestly what probably sold the game for me, in spite of the pretty poorly-thought catching mechanism. It's just so fun walking through the grass and then seeing Pidgeys flying around and Oddishes waddling around, or walking through caves and seeing Geodudes popping out of the ground and wandering around. It's something that none of the previous 3D games from Generation VI and VII really managed to do, to really show these Pokemon wandering around in their habitat. Plus, it's just fun to see the scale of these Pokemon compared to your trainer.

Best of all? Pikachu rides your shoulder, so you can have a Pokemon follow behind you, and that is like the most crucial part in a Pokemon game, and I am genuinely surprised that only Yellow and Heart Gold/Soul Silver has ever made this a proper feature. It adds so much to the game! They also basically replace the Bicycle with riding larger Pokemon, which I find is great. You're also no longer just limited to Tauros as in Sun/Moon, which is neat! Wouldn't have pegged Persian of all things to be ridable, either.

Oh, and you can basically access the Pokemon Box anywhere you want, which is... convenient as hell, but at the same time also kind of silly. I do like that they made it so that Pokemon retain their HP and fainted status until you actually go to a Pokemon Center, but at the same time it essentially makes an already easy game even easier since you basically have an army of replacements ready to swap in at any given time. Throw in Pikachu (and Eevee)'s special overpowered moves... yeah. I know the game's for newbies, but, jeez, there are so much crap that make the game way too easy to play through.

Multiplayer is... well, it's primitive, and it basically allows whoever holds the other Switch controller to help out in capturing or battling. It does turn every single battle in the game into a two-on-one bully, though, and I really wished that it instead turned the battle into a double battle instead. I mean, it's not like Pokemon is any stranger to the double battle system. It's cute, and the sheer hilarity of playing the game with someone else is fun in the same way that Mario Kart is fun. It's a nice feature that is... kinda nice that they included, but ultimately kinda throwaway.

Anyway, let's talk of my experience through the game. We've had the Kanto games remade so many times that I really will just be brushing through most of the actual story and areas unless they're relevant. The introduction is basically similar to Pokemon Yellow, except apparently in this game, the actual Generation I protagonists (Red and Blue, as subsequent games gave them the names of) already exist and has became great trainers, but without encountering Team Rocket or going through Oak's pokedex quest? The timeline is a bit wonky, really, and it's best not to think too much about it.

Since I play Let's Go Pikachu, I get to meet the Pikachu in the wild and he basically hops around within his own Pokeball. It's... it's honestly adorable, and Ikue Otani's iconic voice acting for Pikachu is just on-point. Pikachu is utterly adorable, and we get some additional extra cutscenes at some points where it's just your character and Pikachu being adorable. Throw in some clothes customization and a little 'play with Pikachu' mini-game (a Pokemon-amie clone, basically) and it's just... I don't know. I'm just a sucker for it, apparently. It's adorable.

The role of your rival is taken over by a new character, "Trace" (I called mine Gary), who is... yet another in a series of generic nice-guy helpful-guy rivals. And while I think the internet disdain at nice-guy rivals have been overblown, this is kind of silly. Dude's pretty generic, and rival battles in this game feels so neutered and generic, especially compared to the original Blue. I dunno. I just really don't like him and don't care for him.

I do like that the beginning sequence of the game ends up being significantly pared down, though, with the ability to just skip the backtracking and just immediately 'go to Pallet Town' to deliver the package or whatever. Most of the opening is pretty similar to the original games, with the changes being made mostly to accommodate the new rival and to promote some of Let's Go's new features. And... and I really don't think I have much to say about the journey through Viridian City, then into Viridian Forest, and into Pewter City, and the gym battle with Brock. The redesigned Viridian Forest and Pewter City museum are sure pretty as hell, and the music remixes are great. Ultimately, though, not much to talk about.

Mt. Moon was... it was fun, and I do like the animation of how Pokemon spawn in the caves. Honestly, the way the wild Pokemon spawn and move around the overworld is honestly my favourite part of the game. The anime's Team Rocket, Jessie and James, show up at various points in the game, similar to how they did in the original Pokemon Yellow. They take over as the roadblock in Viridian City, and hunt for fossils in Mt. Moon... although this time around, Meowth doesn't get to battle. He is precious, though.

I don't really have much to say about Cerulean City and the whole Bill side-quest, either, although we do get a fun little animated cutscene for the Bill sequence. I find the rival mildly annoying at this point because his role seems to just be 'freak out at everything', but eh. You still get the Kanto starters in a similar manner, by getting them from NPC's after catching a certain amount of Pokemon. The mechanic changes mean that some parts of the game end up being redundant, but I do like that, say, the Cerulean City bike shop still exists with its silly exorbitant price, even if you can't buy the bike. You see this repeated with some other parts of the game that has basically became kind of defunct, like the move deleter, or the name rater, or the game corner in Celadon City. Oh, in-game trades are also removed, but I do like that Dux the Farfetch'd is an actual NPC in Vermilion City. That is adorable.

S.S. Anne is pretty, and Pikachu gets a Titanic moment at the tip of the boat. The cutscene of the S.S. Anne leaving is also pretty neat. Oh, and you meet Blue, too! Both here and earlier in Pewter City or something, I think? It's so weird seeing Blue as a nice guy. I... I am very much neutral at his inclusion as a recurring NPC. In a neat bit of next-generation cameo, a younger Mina of all people is apparently left behind by the S.S. Anne, and you get to fight her team of Kanto-region Fairy types. It's cool!

Oh, this is around the time that you get Cut, huh? HM moves are basically just treated as a passive ability your Pikachu is able to do without taking a move slot, which is neat! This is definitely a change that I can definitely say is a vast, vast improvement. Sun/Moon did away with HM's, and I am definitely very happy that they're moving away from them, even in remakes.

Let's have a brief moment of silence for Lt. Surge's gym. It's frustrating, for sure, but I really wished that there was a better way to implement the 'changing switch' thing that's not quite as frustrating. Anyway, I do like that after getting the Flash equivalent in that house outside Diglett's Cave, we get teleported immediately to Rock Tunnel in another bit of "let's teleport you to where you have to be".

Random fun little tid-bits: Misty and Brock both do the poses of their original Generation I sprites. Misty's Staryu is replaced with a Psyduck to give a nod to the anime, and Brock has a brief extra line of dialogue saying he wants to become a Pokemon breeder. Oh, and Lt. Surge also gives you an autograph, which is a very obscure reference to the Generation VII protagonist having Lt. Surge's autograph on a wall.

Rock Tunnel is long as shit, although it's where I got an Onix and spend a huge chunk of the rest of the game riding around on an Onix. Oh, and you get a brief cutscene of Elite Four member Lolerei showing up before Rock Tunnel to help you beat up Rocket grunts offscreen, which is... it's kinda neat. It's not a particularly memorable scene, but it helps make the Elite Four feel like actual characters instead of just these four random dudes you meet as final bosses.

One of the biggest story improvements is that after you pop out of the Rock Tunnel in Lavender Town, the residents of the city make it more clear that a lot of the dead Pokemon in the tower are killed thanks to Team Rocket's poaching, including the mother of a particular Cubone. And then you see said Cubone being basically kidnapped by the Team Rocket trio, which ends up giving you a story incentive to go to Celadon! It's well-done.

Celadon City's pretty. That's honestly a compliment I kind of have on most of the cities in the game. Oh, and the way the Fly HM is handled is apparently Pikachu operating a weird mechanism with balloons, which is... eh, okay? Celadon City's game corner, its huge poke-mart, its refurbished gym... everything is just pretty. After beating Erika, you meet Team Rocket playing pachinko in the Game Corner, which is funny. You then go into their base to rescue Cubone (and get the Silph Scope, but that's more of an incidental objective). And I really do love the Game Corner Rocket Base! There is a segment where an undercover agent from Looker's international police organization give you and Pikachu Team Rocket clothes, which is neat. There's even a brief moment where you take control of Pikachu and have him run around rafters to get a card key or something, which is just adorable.

And then the actual journey to Giovanni actually feels like a boss rush. You first face off against Jessie and James, and then you face off against Archer from Heart Gold/Soul Silver, who is a character who I genuinely didn't expect to meet in this game. And then you face off against Giovanni. Who... is kind of a pushover since they swapped out Kangaskhan with Persian, but eh.

This is where you rescue Cubone from Giovanni, and then you go through the whole Lavender Town storyline. It's fun to note that the Ghosts basically become Zelda Wallmasters before you get the Silph Scope, which I thought was a fun way to do it. The Marowak boss encounter also ends up being a pretty well-done cutscene, which... yeah, I really liked it.

Interestingly, for something that's more subtle in the original games, we get Jessie and James attacking Mr. Fuji and straight-up demanding that he continue his research for Team Rocket. It's always implied in the game (and outright confirmed in manga/anime adaptations) that Fuji is a retired scientist that worked on the Mewtwo project, but I do like that the story's making it a bit more relevant. Another boss fight against Jessie and James, and that's it for the Lavender Town quest.

I last played the game at around the Snorlax encounter, and apparently, with Snorlax (and what I presume are how legendaries work) you... you fight them, but you just bring their HP to zero to start off the capture minigame? That seems utterly bizarre and honestly backwards to me. But at least I can walk around riding Snorlax, Totoro-style!

Anyway, despite some of my hang-ups with the game, it has been... it definitely has been pretty enjoyable. The improvements to the story, the nice graphics, and the sheer charm of having the Pokemon actually move around in the overworld have definitely won me over. It's definitely a very flawed game, but I would definitely be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself playing this game. This went a bit longer than I originally thought it would. Don't expect part 2 to come too soon, because this is a game that I am definitely not rushing to completion.