"Pokemon: Let's Go - Eevee" Review - A bushy-tailed dream come true

Available for: Nintendo Switch

Reviewed for: Nintendo Switch

Of all the game sagas I've played, of all the franchises I've dipped my feet in, of all the intellectual properties that have made me the gamer I am since I was little, there is no saga, no franchise, no property for which I hold more nostalgia nor for which I have sunk more hours into than Pokemon. Even today, as a grown man working as a programmer at a CRM company and as a director of operations at a startup, my nightly wind-down routine sometimes consists of firing up a Pokemon game and just spending an hour or two on autopilot. There's simply nothing as calming as spending some time in a universe I would trade reality for in an instant. But with all this being said, do you know what I don't particularly have much nostalgia for? Kanto. You see, my life as a Pokemon fan started with the anime. I knew the games existed, but at the time I didn't have a game console of any kind. I knew all the original Pokemon (and at one point I could name them all in order), but my exposure was mainly from Ash's adventures and, as time went on and I got a GameBoy Color, from the "Puzzle Challenge" games. My first true Pokemon game was actually Chrystal Version (and you can read the full story in my review of Sun and Moon Version, linked here). A year or two after receiving Chrystal Version, I finally got to play Yellow Version. But by that point it was too late: My initial Kanto experience was a "Woah! Even though I beat the game I still have a whole region ahead of me!" kind of experience. By the time I got around to Yellow, Kanto felt more or less restrictive and static. That kind of thing is to be expected of a first attempt at a world map, but to a young me, it was far less interesting than the tantalizing "second region" that came after completing my time in the far superior Johto region. So while I do have plenty of nostalgia for Pokemon in general, I don't have it for Red/Blue/Yellow version. The point of all of this, dear reader, is that far too often nostalgia blinds a critic to reality (as we saw last year when Breath of the Wild undeservingly won every single Game of the Year award). With that in mind, when I cover topics that I have nostalgic feelings for, I like to spell out loud and clear what form that nostalgia takes so that you, the reader, can peruse my critique with that in the back of your head and make your financial decisions accordingly. I've rambled about this for long enough, so let me set the stage here. For those who aren't in-the-know, Pokemon: Let's Go is a remake of Yellow version for the Nintendo Switch, but this time around your starter is either a Pikachu or an Eevee (depending on the version of the game you purchase). It's also the game that has brought me the most joy of any game of this year thus far. So leave your home and family behind, turn your hat backwards, and join me as I explain why.

In case the title of the review didn't make it obvious, I went with the Eevee version of Pokemon: Let's Go. I love Pikachu as much as the next Pokemon fan, but I love Eevee more. I never really used it or its evolutions in battle, but as soon as breeding became a more solid thing in the Pokemon games, it was the Pokemon I would always pair with a Ditto just so that I could have as many Eevees as possible. It's the kind of Pokemon that I always wanted to have more as a pet, and the way I saw it, the Eevee version of Let's Go would let me live that fantasy. So I fired up the game, met the new rival who isn't Gary, named him Talbot (because he looks like a Talbot), caught my Eevee, and started my Pokemon journey. The first obstacle I faced was coming up with a nickname for my partner Eevee. After catching, I had no clue what gender it was, so I needed a name that would work for either a male or female dog, and it needed to be a name that would work for more of a small, cute dog instead of a large, regal one. I spent a solid couple of minutes pondering it, and then it hit me: Bailey. It would work for either gender, and it was cute enough without being an obnoxious purse dog name. Bailey turned out to be female, so even though the name would've worked either way, it worked better. Of course, it turned out that I didn't need to spend so much time thinking about it, because you can change a Pokemon's nickname at any time. That's one of many departures from the series norms that I count as an improvement. It meant that as I filled up my party, I could simply give each Pokemon a nickname the minute it came to me, and the results felt a lot more fitting as a result. I ended up completing the game with my party of Bailey the Eevee, Violet the Nidoqueen, Grover the Venusaur (because come on, it just looks like a Grover), Ryuji the Charizard (because it's my go-to fire starter nickname), Dio the Blastoise (you thought it was Blastoise but it was me, Dio!) and Alphonse the Dragonite (because like the Fullmetal Alchemist character, Dragonite strikes me as a kid in a large body). I listed out my party there not just because I'm a proud Pokemon trainer and wanted to show off my team, but also as a way of steering the conversation back to the fact that Let's Go is a remake of Yellow version. You'll notice I had the final evolutions of each of the traditional Kanto starter Pokemon in my party, so veterans of the original game should rest assured: you're still given each of the starters at various points in the game, though you also have a rare chance of encountering them in the wild (which is actually how I got my Bulbasaur). If you're a veteran of Yellow version, you'll also be familiar with the story here. Team Rocket is up to no good and it's up to a 10 year old from Pallet Town to stop them...by making all their Pokemon faint thus somehow taking away their ability to do evil things themselves. As with every Pokemon remake that gets made, however, there are some adjustments here and there. There are moments where characters from later generations show up, some gym leaders and Elite 4 members are given a bit more fleshing out, and most importantly, there are little bits and pieces of dialogue that explain why it would remotely be your responsibility to take down Team Rocket. Ultimately the story is what you'll remember, even if there are aspects that have been tweaked. The majority of the changes in this remake come in the form of gameplay alterations, but before I talk about that, I'm going to circle back around to your Pikachu or Eevee partner Pokemon.

If you read my review of Pokemon Sun/Moon, you'll know that one of the criteria I have for a Pokemon game to be good is "Sense of Partnership." It's an unquantifiable quality that a Pokemon game either does or doesn't have. The past couple of games have been inching towards perfection on this front with additions like the care mechanic where you can brush dust off your Pokemon if a move like sand attack is used on them. Let's Go is the closest Game Freak has gotten to perfection. Here's the thing: In either version you can catch Pikachus and Eevees out in the wild, so you may wonder what the point is in having either of them as a starter, especially when, as your starter, they're unable to evolve. The reason is that your partner Pokemon is its own character. They don't re-use the model for Eevee or Pikachu for your partner. Instead, they're a much higher-definition copy of the model with significantly more animations both in and out of battle. You'll be able to tell the difference once you meet any other Eevee or Pikachu. At just about any point in the game, you have the ability to play with your Eevee or Pikachu (y'know what, I'm just going to say Eevee from here on out), dress it up, pet it, and feed it berries, and it's always on your person (on your shoulder if it's Pikachu, on your head if it's Eevee). As you start playtime with your starter, typically you'll get one of several unique animations followed by a little blurb at the bottom detailing the meaning of the animation. At times you might catch your Eevee in the middle of executing a prank, looking guilty before laughing it off. Other times you might find your Eevee has moved from your arm to your shoulder to be closer to you. Other times you might find your Eevee holding a gift for you wrapped in a leaf in its mouth, and there'll be a little bit of "speaking" (in this case, just the word "Eevee," as they do in the anime) that is muffled until you receive the present, which I thought was an extremely cute little detail. Furthermore, whatever nickname you choose, characters will call it that. People who don't know you will still call it "Eevee," but folks like your mom and your rival/friend were calling mine "Bailey" (pictured above, btw). I've thrown out all these little scattered details about the way your partner exists in the world as a way of speaking to this "Sense of Partnership" aspect. All of these teeny-tiny little details help make the bond between you and your main Pokemon feel as close to the timeless, iconic friendship between Ash and Pikachu as possible. I look forward to the day where this can be spread to more than one Pokemon at a time, but building an entirely different character from the ground up to make a Pokemon feel like more than just another one of its species is a good start.

Right, I think it's obvious that I loved actually getting to have an Eevee that wasn't just a collection of numbers behind a shared character model, but let's get back to the meat and bones here. Perhaps the biggest change of all to the tried and true Pokemon formula is the way in which you catch the titular creatures. Gone are the days of randomly encountering and weakening down a wild Pokemon. There are a couple of changes to note:
1) No more random encounters. Now, Pokemon appear in the world, and you can either go around them to avoid a confrontation or walk into them to initiate the catching process. This was a superb change decision. Seriously, I had so much more fun with Let's Go because of this change. I've always wanted a Pokemon game where the Pokemon existed in the world and didn't just randomly show up to stop my progress. Also, I actually felt compelled to explore the various caves I entered without the threat of being stopped in my tracks every two seconds by wild Zubats.
2) No more battling wild Pokemon except in specific circumstances. For Legendaries and select other kinds of Pokemon, you have to either prove your skill or calm them down by battling and defeating them, but in every other circumstance, you just move right to the catching phase.
3) Catching has been lifted from 2016's Pokemon Go. When you encounter a wild Pokemon, you'll see a circle to aim at. If you played Pokemon Go, you'll know what it looks like. In Let's Go, however, you throw Pokeballs at this circle using motion controls instead of flicking on your phone screen. For your information, I only played using a joy con controller (not with the Pokeball plus or in handheld mode), so it's possible that I'm just getting a better experience than some people, but I didn't have an issue with the motion controls. It can be a little janky at times, but all-in-all it was intuitive. The thing is, it just isn't explained very well. I've seen a lot of negative feedback when it comes to throwing Pokeballs at Pokemon who have jumped to another side of the screen from the center. The only bit of tutorial the game gives about throwing Pokeballs is "flick the joy con down." What it fails to mention is that to throw to the left or the right, you need to flick the joy con in either direction, not down. If you do that, then the ball will go where you want it to. What I do have issues with, however, is...
4) Catching is far more luck-based. Even in prior titles luck was a part of the equation. Get a legendary down to 1 HP with paralysis in a prior game, and even an ultra ball might fail before twitching even once, but it wasn't incredibly likely. On the other hand, I definitely caught Moltres in a standard Pokeball once, and that was really unlikely. So I'm not saying that having luck as part of the equation is bad...but having luck constitute most of the equation is. Because there aren't wild Pokemon battles anymore, you have no way of weakening your opponents. You have your usual selection of balls as well as various berries that make Pokemon "easier to catch," but that's about all the agency you have in catching them. Even if the ball lands in the middle of the shrinking circle when it's at its smallest, landing you an "Excellent" message, the impact on whether or not it results in a successful catch is minimal at best (instead, the result is a higher experience reward if the catch is successful). So in reality, there's little you can do other than just keep throwing. Here's the thing: for 95% of the game, this isn't bad. In fact, I didn't take an issue with it for that much of the game. That's because, for me, at least, catching was a matter of filling up my Pokedex and some mild leveling between gyms. Trainer battles aren't as good for quickly leveling up your party as catching wild Pokemon is, so the standard grind is replaced with catching as many Pokemon as possible. And for 95% of the game, the luck-based nature of the catching mechanic didn't get to me. Where it started to grate on my nerves was actually in the post-game, which I'll go a little deeper into later. Suffice it to say I needed to level up my team enough to meet some serious challenges, so I went catching in Cerulean Cave (where the game's highest-level and highest-experience-awarding Pokemon live). The experience rewards for catching in there were great, but all the Pokemon were more difficult to catch. In prior titles, I might've needed to exit the cave to heal a couple of times, but the act of actually catching these Pokemon would've been simple enough if I were careful. In Let's Go, however, for the sake of one measly Rhydon, for the sake of a measly thousand and change experience points, I'd have to go through sometimes as many as twenty ultra balls, each one reaching the final twitch before failing. I'd have to move my arm, watch the ball, listen to the Rhydon's noise as it broke out, listen to the Rhydon's noise a second time layered above the first one as it growled at me, and try again sometimes as many as twenty times assuming it didn't run away (rendering all of that in vain) beforehand. Do you know how absolutely freaking grating it is to hear the same two noises layered over each other twenty times in a row? If your "technique" (how small the circle is when you land a ball in the center of it) had anything to do with it, it would be one thing, but as I've already said, it doesn't! At one point I was trying to catch a Rhydon, and I'd gotten an "Excellent" four times in a row, but it just would. Not. Catch. If you're not going to incorporate player skill into the equation, then why have the player do anything at all? This issue is still fresh on the mind because of how recently it became an issue, but again, for 95% of the game catching Pokemon is only frustrating for the ones that would actually be difficult to catch or the rarest ones. To put it another way, when you're just trying to catch a Pokemon to fill up a Pokedex entry, it has more of a "thrill of the chase" feeling, but when you're just trying to level up your team it's more of a hassle. The final change to note here is...
5) Catching will help support whatever playstyle you have. There are two kinds of Pokemon players: Those who do constant breeding and discarding in order to get the perfect EV/IV/WhateverV stats, and those who wouldn't be featured as villains in the anime. As for me, my policy is not to care about those hidden stats, to use the Pokemon I want, and to use the first one of each species I catch. Regardless of whether you play the same way I do or not, catching a lot of Pokemon will help you play how you want. Catching Pokemon yields rewards (beyond experience) in the form of "candies," which are used to upgrade certain (non-hidden) stats. If you catch the same Pokemon more than once, you start a "capture combo," and as you build up a higher and higher combo, you get more candies, and you have a better chance of finding one with better hidden stats, Pokemon-specific candies that raise all stats at the same time, or a shiny version of the Pokemon. With patience, you can either find a version of the Pokemon with incredible hidden stats or rack up enough candies to buff up your existing Pokemon to cover its weaknesses. Breeding is not available in Let's Go, so if you're one of these EV/IV types, this is your only option. If you catch a different Pokemon or if the Pokemon runs away before you catch them, however, the capture combo ends, so plan accordingly. We'll be returning to this discussion of the role of stats shortly, but for now, let us move on to the other side of Pokemon gameplay.

What has changed the least in Let's Go are the Pokemon battles themselves. You know the drill: it's turn-based combat with a rock, paper, scissors style type-weakness system. I feel confident in saying that I probably don't need to explain how Pokemon battles work. Abilities (such as levitate or static) have been removed since they weren't a part of the gameplay formula back in Generation 1, but all 18 Pokemon types from Bug to Water are represented (in spite of the fact that Steel, Dark, and Fairy didn't exist in Gen 1). Like in prior titles, you'll make your way across the region battling trainers, gym leaders, and eventually the Elite 4, so you know what to expect.
One new addition on the combat front, however, is the series of post-game "Master Trainers." Upon becoming the Champion, 151 trainers appear in Kanto, each with one of the 151 Pokemon, and they claim that their level 75-80 version of that Pokemon is the strongest one. If you challenge, say, the Charizard Master, you'll battle your Charizard against theirs with no items allowed. This is a brilliant addition that forces you to think tactically about how your Pokemon could overcome a battle against a Pokemon for which it has no type advantages (or is equally weak against). I wasn't initially going to take on any challenges beyond the Eevee Master (because Bailey is the best Eevee and I was gonna prove it) because it seemed like it was all going to come down to EV/IV stats, but then I learned that one of the three post-game "Legendary Trainers" couldn't be faced unless I beat a total of 6 Master Trainers, proving that I had a party of Pokemon proven to be better than all others of their species. My mindset then changed to: "yeah...yeah, I can prove to all these hidden stat people that the only things that matter in Pokemon are hard work, clever tactics, and the power of friendship!" So the first thing I did was make sure I wasn't just spouting hot air. In Let's Go, the hidden stats are no longer hidden once you gain the "Judge" ability from one of Professor Oak's assistants. Once I decided to beat the 6 Masters that corresponded with my team, I went in to look at the hidden stats of my team to see how potentially difficult the matches could be. Bailey had flawless hidden stats (which I'd like to attribute to her being the best, but your starters in this game probably just have that by default). My Charizard and Blastoise had "Amazing" stats. My Nidoqueen had "Good/Decent" stats. Finally, my Dragonite and Venusaur had "Ok" stats. So I set out to get candies to cover the weaknesses of each of my party members. I spent around 10 or so hours catching Gravelers to get candy to boost defense, which both my Venusaur and Dragonite were severely lacking, as well as catching Chanseys to get candies to raise the health of my entire party. Bailey and Nidoqueen mopped the floor with their opponents, but for the rest it was a cycle of trial and error followed by either more candy grinding or a re-evaluation of the moves I was using. Eventually (and without being overly-leveled), I did it. I beat the Eevee Master, the Nidoqueen Master, the Charizard Master, the Blastoise Master, the Venusaur Master, and the Dragonite Master, thus proving that you don't need the best hidden stats to succeed; all you need is hard work, clever tactics, and the power of friendship. This sentiment was further proven when I defeated the final legendary trainer (a battle in which items aren't allowed) on my first try. If you're an obsessive type or if you're more dedicated to being a Pokemon master than I am these days, like I said, there is a master trainer for every Pokemon. We're talking potentially hundreds of hours of prep time and strategizing here! There have been better post-game content offerings, but none with quite as much potential extra play time as in Let's Go.

As with all Pokemon games (except Sun/Moon), from a technical standpoint Let's Go is polished to an obscene degree, but Let's Go actually stands out more than the others. The game is beautiful to look at, for one thing, but it's also accompanied by unusually good sound design. I was in a trainer battle, and at one point I realized that the thumping I was hearing wasn't my upstairs neighbor, it was the low "bang" of the drums, and it was seemingly coming from behind me. I wouldn't say that Let's Go has 365 degree sound like VR titles do, but it's close, and it's worth noting. What's more, the feedback for just about everything in this game is fantastic. Whether it's the joy con vibrating exactly in tandem with a thrown Pokeball as it twitches, the boom of thunder as you use the move Thunder, the crashing wave of the move Surf, or the rumble of the joy con when laying down an Earthquake on some poor, unsuspecting electric-type, Let's Go just feels fantastic, so the battles (while largely unchanged) feel more powerful than ever. Finally, this is a soundtrack that we all know by heart, but the orchestral re-recording of the music is superb and varied in terms of instrumentation. It's like one of those orchestras that plays video game music, but not bad.
Sort of a black sheep topic that I'd like to include here to make this paragraph longer is the game's integration with Pokemon Go. Like in every other generation, there are Pokemon that are exclusive to each version, but you can get those exclusives by trading with someone who has the other version. In Let's Go, however, you also have the option of importing Pokemon you caught in Pokemon Go. I'm not the type of person who ever does trading, so my goal was simply to fill up as much of the Pokedex as humanly possible. I ended up filling 142 of the 151 entries, which is far more than are included in the Eevee version, and I was able to do this by going to the Go Facility in Fuchsia City and linking my Pokemon Go account to my Switch. It's a gimmick for sure, but even though I didn't catch very many Pokemon in Pokemon Go, what I did catch enabled me to fill up more Pokedex entries than I should have been able to without trading. So, if you used the App back in 2016 and aren't keen on interacting with other people, I'd take advantage of this integration.

There's one last thing I'd like to touch on before we conclude, and it could be considered a light spoiler...if you never played the original Pokemon games. So if for whatever reason you don't know what awaits you at the end of the Elite 4, skip this paragraph and go straight for the conclusion. Right. You may recall that I mentioned there's a rival who isn't Gary. What I mean is that it really is a completely different person. Not Gary, not a different grandchild of Professor Oak, none of the above. The new guy, Talbot, is your childhood friend, and he's totally sweet to you the entire game...evidently kids are so soft and sensitive these days that we have to have a friend instead of an uneasy rival...but I digress. Talbot as a character is great, don't get me wrong, but it's just the way he's utilized that rubs me the wrong way. He just isn't challenging as a rival. The thing about Gary in the original games was that he always had a consistently well-rounded team and was always consistently difficult to beat. Even though he always lost to you, you had to work for it and it made sense that he could become the champion. Talbot, on the other hand...I mopped the floor with him every time. His team never really changed up, and he was always severely under-leveled to take me on. Even after seeing his final team in the championship battle against him, it makes no sense that this guy was able to beat the Elite 4 and become champion. What should've happened after you defeat him before entering the Indigo Plateau was he should've bowed out, said he was rooting for you, and left, leaving you to face an actual surprise of a champion. But nope, the final boss of the main game, the strongest trainer in the world, the first person to ever secure the title of champion is a guy who smells like cleaning solution because of how often the floors could thank him for their cleanliness. What's more, in the original games there was something therapeutic about smacking the champion title out of Gary's smug, overconfident hands. But here it's your sweet best friend who can't train Pokemon to save his life but would absolutely bankrupt himself buying you soup if you got sick. I don't want to take him to the cleaners! There's no satisfaction in teaching him once and for all that I'm the best because he's such a legitimately good guy! Instead of Professor Oak sternly telling Gary that he lost because he didn't care enough about his Pokemon, it's Professor Oak gently telling Talbot that he lost because his kindness was essentially not giving his Pokemon or me enough credit...what kind of lesson is that? It's a small thing, a small thing, but stealing a title from a friend instead of from a smug guy who looks down on you just doesn't feel as gratifying.

If you're a Pokemon fan who owns a Nintendo Switch, then you owe it to yourself to give either version of Pokemon: Let's Go a shot. For the uncompromising fan, the changes to the catching system and the hidden stats mechanics may turn you off, but I believe the changes were integrated gracefully and in a way that still allows you to play however you see fit. If you've never played a Pokemon game and are looking to get started, Let's Go is an accessible entry free of some of the more complicated gameplay mechanics introduced in later generations. If you're more of a casual fan who just wants to catch Pokemon and pet a cute Eevee or Pikachu, I've got news, friend-o, Let's Go is for you! For the first time this year, I found myself actively waiting on 5:00 so that I could get back home to play some more, and I found myself grinding to beat the master trainers and the final legendary trainer not because I had to, but because I didn't want the game to be over yet. Let's Go isn't perfect, however. When it comes time to raise your team's level for the master challenges, you're going to notice some frustration in the game's new catching mechanic, and beating the Elite 4 made me feel more like a bully than a champion. However, most of the game is the kind of Pokemon game I've been wanting all my life: A journey across the world with a dedicated partner at my side (/on my head).

Let us review:
Catching system becomes frustrating - 0.5
Unsatisfying Champion - 0.2

The final score for Bailey's Floor-Mopping Simulator 2018 Pokemon: Let's Go - Eevee is...



9.3/10 - Fantastic
Excellent work, Game Freak, excellent work.