Let's Talk about Pokemon Let's Go, and how it was the right direction for the franchise.

[Johtoo]

Let's go was a flawed adventure, riddled with drawbacks and questionable gameplay choices . However, this game manages to create a more authentic Pokemon experience than Sword and Shield. Here's why:

1. 
2. Graphically speaking, Let's Go follows a more traditional evolution of the gameboy games. The melding of the chibi art in the 3D world is more recognizably Pokemon than the more anime style prevelant in sword and shield. The art style, while clean, also looks more toyetic - something more befitting of Pokemon. Let's Go's chibi models also allows for following Pokemon and Ridable Pokemon to be far more efficient in the games. Following Pokemon in Sword and Shield loses its charm considering your camera usually faces away from the Pokemon. While in Let's Go, the following Pokemon is always on the same screen as yours. To simply put it. Let's Go's graphical style is something that gamefreak should revert too. Moreover, it's Pokemon. Pokemon has been Chibi since its inception and changing it was a huge mistake.
3. Musically speaking. This shouldn't be controversal here. Let's Go features a modern take of the classical soundtrack by offering an orchestrated soundtrack. Seriously, why did gamefreak revert to Midi sounds when its predecessor was orchestrated? It's 2020. No game should feature a midi soundtrack.
4. QOL features. Let's Go offers simple features without overdoing it. You have ridable Pokemon, you have following Pokemon, you have overworld Pokemon. These features are simple, organic and not overdone. They fit in the Pokemon lore. Meanwhile, Dynamax makes no sense. Lore wise, why would any world desire to have giant Kaiju monsters that could destroy an entire country? Let's go also allows a shoulder Pokemon, and you can dress him up. This is the first time where you can actually connect with your Pokemon. Sword and Shield loses that charm.
5. Gameplay speaking. Let's Go actually offered a chance not to battle wild Pokemon. Seriously, this is the most boring and mundane feature in modern games and they had the right idea there. Of course, there should be a choice, however, just catching Pokemon was a more modern take.

Final thoughts. I genially believe Pokemon Let's Go is more authentically Pokemon than Sword and Shield. Yes, it doesn't have the movepool of SWSH. Yes, it doesn't have the Pokemon roster of SWSH, yes it doesn't have the items or TM's that carried over. But, it offers a more simple, streamlined experience that feels authetnic to the gameboy games. Sword and Shield, conversely, feels less close to those games - and that isn't a good thing. Masuda was also the director in these games and no offence to Ohmori, but Masuda understands what makes Pokemon authentic and his game shines far brighter than Ohmori's.

 

[Bolt Strike]

View attachment 139004

What's your point here? I can barely tell the difference between these two pics, other than the player riding Onix.

Graphically speaking, Let's Go follows a more traditional evolution of the gameboy games. The melding of the chibi art in the 3D world is more recognizably Pokemon than the more anime style prevelant in sword and shield. The art style, while clean, also looks more toyetic - something more befitting of Pokemon. Let's Go's chibi models also allows for following Pokemon and Ridable Pokemon to be far more efficient in the games. Following Pokemon in Sword and Shield loses its charm considering your camera usually faces away from the Pokemon. While in Let's Go, the following Pokemon is always on the same screen as yours. To simply put it. Let's Go's graphical style is something that gamefreak should revert too. Moreover, it's Pokemon. Pokemon has been Chibi since its inception and changing it was a huge mistake.

Pokemon was chibi on the Game Boy because of graphical limitations, not because they wanted it to look that way. The anime is more in line with how they wanted Pokemon to look, so it makes sense that they would want to follow the anime style. So no, I would say the opposite is true, SwSh feels like the traditional evolution of the series and LG is just making it chibi to be cheap and childish.

QOL features. Let's Go offers simple features without overdoing it. You have ridable Pokemon, you have following Pokemon, you have overworld Pokemon. These features are simple, organic and not overdone. They fit in the Pokemon lore. Meanwhile, Dynamax makes no sense. Lore wise, why would any world desire to have giant Kaiju monsters that could destroy an entire country? Let's go also allows a shoulder Pokemon, and you can dress him up. This is the first time where you can actually connect with your Pokemon. Sword and Shield loses that charm.

Nearly everything of value that was in LG ended up in SwSh, it also has the overworld Pokemon, following Pokemon, and the ability to use the PC anywhere. The only thing really missing is the co-op, and even then we kind of have it with Max Raid battles although not entirely. Everything you're complaining about being missing is nitpicks.

Gameplay speaking. Let's Go actually offered a chance not to battle wild Pokemon. Seriously, this is the most boring and mundane feature in modern games and they had the right idea there. Of course, there should be a choice, however, just catching Pokemon was a more modern take.

So in a game about battling you want to not battle? LOL okay.

There could potentially be compromises to integrate both styles together, but forcibly limiting the capturing mechanics to a waggle mini game is a definite step backwards for the series.

Final thoughts. I genially believe Pokemon Let's Go is more authentically Pokemon than Sword and Shield. Yes, it doesn't have the movepool of SWSH. Yes, it doesn't have the Pokemon roster of SWSH, yes it doesn't have the items or TM's that carried over. But, it offers a more simple, streamlined experience that feels authetnic to the gameboy games. Sword and Shield, conversely, feels less close to those games - and that isn't a good thing. Masuda was also the director in these games and no offence to Ohmori, but Masuda understands what makes Pokemon authentic and his game shines far brighter than Ohmori's.

Simple and streamlined isn't exactly the best approach for a $60 console game, so that is the exact opposite of the direction I want to see the series head in. SwSh doesn't do a good job of this either, but LGPE is even worse. Maybe after DP remakes come out, that will be a better direction for the series, provided they don't screw it up and cut/simplify a lot of features from the originals.

 

[Esserise]

1. *pictures of Onix*

I... assume you're insinuating something about Onix/various Pokémon not being rideable in SwSh. If so, then while I would say that's talking the first picture out of context (Onix there is a wild Pokémon, not the Trainer's), but nevertheless I get your point.

But consider that SwSh have about 4x as many Pokémon as LGPE - with LGPE, they only have to worry about rigging up a handful of fully-evolved Pokémon (18, to be exact) to work as mounts, but that number is going to increase significantly in SwSh, unless they are very selective about distributing the capability, but then you'll have people asking "How come you can ride Arcanine but not Lycanroc? How come you can surf on Lapras but not Avalugg?"

Moreover, in LGPE, it serves a dual-purpose beyond just immersion. First, is the fact that LGPE don't have a bike. Riding Pokémon is the faster-movement option there (and even then, only for specific candidates within the actual pool of rideable species), which I honestly think was a bad choice, since it forces you to have certain Pokémon on your team just in order to get around faster. This is a hard QOL regression. SwSh return to the classic bike option, and thus an "alternative" isn't needed.

Second, it's also there the play around with the idea of in-the-air encounters, and that's where we run into another fundamental design difference: LGPE still use a top-down view of the entire world, so the "ceiling" of the world is quite low, and the perspective is very limited. Your gaze is fixed on the ground, and you can't look up into the sky at all. Therefore you need a "ladder" of sorts to see and interact with the species that spawn there. Meanwhile, SwSh have a controllable camera in the Wild Area, in which Pokémon can also spawn high up in the air. They way you interact with them is very different in this context, as you can now see them from your position on the ground, and can notice them swooping down to attack you (if it's an aggressive species) or fleeing at the sight of you (if it's a passive species), which ties into the use of the left-stick whistle feature.

2. Graphically speaking, Let's Go follows a more traditional evolution of the gameboy games. The melding of the chibi art in the 3D world is more recognizably Pokemon than the more anime style prevelant in sword and shield. The art style, while clean, also looks more toyetic - something more befitting of Pokemon. Let's Go's chibi models also allows for following Pokemon and Ridable Pokemon to be far more efficient in the games. Following Pokemon in Sword and Shield loses its charm considering your camera usually faces away from the Pokemon. While in Let's Go, the following Pokemon is always on the same screen as yours. To simply put it. Let's Go's graphical style is something that gamefreak should revert too. Moreover, it's Pokemon. Pokemon has been Chibi since its inception and changing it was a huge mistake.

Again, it's the games trying to do different things. LGPE is just a high-quality upscaling of a game that was designed for the Game Boy in 1996, while SwSh is experimenting with open-world stuff for the first time in the series, where realistic proportions would arguably make more sense. They want you to feel like you really have been dropped into this wide expanse, and aren't just interacting with the world through an cartoonish avatar.

3. Musically speaking. This shouldn't be controversal here. Let's Go features a modern take of the classical soundtrack by offering an orchestrated soundtrack. Seriously, why did gamefreak revert to Midi sounds when its predecessor was orchestrated? It's 2020. No game should feature a midi soundtrack.

Admittedly I'm a pleb who can't really tell you what "midi" is, but all I can say is that to me, the LGPE soundtrack sounds really samey and uninteresting. The sound quality is good, but I find the actual music to be terminally boring. I'd much rather listen to SwSh's soundtrack, where Trainers and locations and situations all have their own sonic profiles, if I had to choose.

4. QOL features. Let's Go offers simple features without overdoing it. You have ridable Pokemon, you have following Pokemon, you have overworld Pokemon. These features are simple, organic and not overdone. They fit in the Pokemon lore. Meanwhile, Dynamax makes no sense. Lore wise, why would any world desire to have giant Kaiju monsters that could destroy an entire country? Let's go also allows a shoulder Pokemon, and you can dress him up. This is the first time where you can actually connect with your Pokemon. Sword and Shield loses that charm.

But is "simple" necessarily better? You're certainly free to think so - I mean, it's fairly clear from your post in the other thread that you think the basic essence of Pokémon game design was perfected in Gen 2 and that it needs no further innovation on that, and I'm not trying to say you can't feel that way, , but I think you can hardly blame the game designers for wanting to find new ways to make the gameplay and the settings feel unique and interesting when they've reiterated the same fundamental formula continuously for 25 years.

I would also say it's quite clear that a massive amount of thought went into Dynamax and how it should fit into the setting. I'm not saying you have to like the feature, but you're really underselling it from a conceptual standpoint. First of all, we know it was inspired by British tales and legends about giants. So it's drawing inspiration from British culture, just as the Galar region as a whole is. Kalos and Alola did much the same with many of their games' features. And another element of British culture that the game openly adopts is public enthusiasm for spectator sports. Dynamax fits into that paradigm quite well, as it lends a source of abundant visual spectacle and a sense of tension and climax to the proceedings. The stadium audience would be waiting with baited breath for that main-course showdown between two enormous and powerful Pokémon, and this in turn illustrates how the modern-day culture of the Galar region has been influenced by its history and by the region's own unique properties. And gameplay-wise, through Max Raid Battles, it also opens up the series to a whole new frontier of cooperative multiplayer interaction that was just flat-out never there before, and does so in a way that is very recognizable to players of Pokémon GO (attracting such people was a high priority of LGPE as well).

Moreover, SwSh demonstrating how Pokémon battles would work as a spectator sport strikes me as an ingenious development on the "lore" that seemed hitherto insufficient. You can't tell me that in a world where people compete with their magical creatures, that this activity wouldn't garner a large public interest and following. But the games never really depicted that before, despite gesturing at the idea that Trainers are these highly-regarded figures and that Pokémon battling is a formal competitive institution. Frankly, the anime was leaps and bounds ahead of the games on that train of thought for many, many years, and even LGPE show seeds of it being realized with how the Gyms are modified to have small audiences present.

5. Gameplay speaking. Let's Go actually offered a chance not to battle wild Pokemon. Seriously, this is the most boring and mundane feature in modern games and they had the right idea there. Of course, there should be a choice, however, just catching Pokemon was a more modern take.

This I actually do agree with (although even LGPE's system could stand to be improved), but it's clear that it wasn't a popular decision with most of the fanbase.

 

[Phosphene]

LGPE is perhaps the exact opposite direction I want Pokémon to go in. It was the only core series game that I stopped playing on my first playthrough and never finished, only getting as far as the Silph Co. plotline.

Spoiler

1.

I'm under the impression your referring to the fact that, in the LGPE screenshot, the trainer is riding his Onix. However, I don't think that feature is exclusive to LGPE and games with that style. GameFreak could have easily implemented riding Pokémon into SwSh--they already had the groundwork from gen 7--they just chose not too. Considering that SwSh has far more Pokémon (400+ compared to LGPE's measily 153) and following Pokémon is only present in the DLC, I wouldn't be surprised if GameFreak didn't want to dedicate resources to it due to crunch reasons and such. If they had more time, we probably would've seen a feature like that in SwSh.

Graphically speaking, Let's Go follows a more traditional evolution of the gameboy games. The melding of the chibi art in the 3D world is more recognizably Pokemon than the more anime style prevelant in sword and shield. The art style, while clean, also looks more toyetic - something more befitting of Pokemon. Let's Go's chibi models also allows for following Pokemon and Ridable Pokemon to be far more efficient in the games. Following Pokemon in Sword and Shield loses its charm considering your camera usually faces away from the Pokemon. While in Let's Go, the following Pokemon is always on the same screen as yours. To simply put it. Let's Go's graphical style is something that gamefreak should revert too. Moreover, it's Pokemon. Pokemon has been Chibi since its inception and changing it was a huge mistake.

I don't really see how LGPE's chibi style being similar to the style of the gameboy games makes it somehow more authentic, unless you're suggesting that those games were more authentic than what came after, which is obviously silly for reasons I won't go into. As for this chibi style being more recognizably Pokémon, I'm going to have to disagree here. While the overworld of the gameboy games was chibi, like Bolt Strike said that was probably due to graphical limitations and not a deliberate design choice. I'm going to have to say that a chibi artstyle is not more "recognizably Pokémon" considering that most battle scenes have the more "anime-esque" style, the anime wasn't and isn't chibi, and the bulk of Pokémon art, official or fan made, isn't drawn in the chibi style.

And, to be honest, LGPE's graphical models felt a little... lazy to me. We're on the Switch, this powerful console, and you stick to the same artstyle that ORAS was done in? It didn't feel like GameFreak was using the system to its full advantage. This is why I don't think the chibi style works anymore, in my opinion. With the older games, GameFreak was very limited graphically, resulting in them resorting to a chibi style since it would be ridiculous to make fully-fleshed out sprites for an entire overworld. However, this was okay because the pixels allowed for some degree of imagination to fill in the gaps. With the way GameFreak does 3D chibi graphics, however, there's not much left to the imagination anymore, and the whole thing just feels a little cheap.

Musically speaking. This shouldn't be controversal here. Let's Go features a modern take of the classical soundtrack by offering an orchestrated soundtrack. Seriously, why did gamefreak revert to Midi sounds when its predecessor was orchestrated? It's 2020. No game should feature a midi soundtrack.

Like with the riding Pokémon thing, I fail to see how an orchestral soundtrack is exclusive to the Let's Go style and while I did notice a slight difference between the two games, I honestly didn't really enjoy either's soundtrack. In fact, SwSh had a few more tracks that I actually enjoyed compared to LGPE, however, that's probably because I find the gen 1 games and their remakes to be a little bland music-wise.

QOL features. Let's Go offers simple features without overdoing it. You have ridable Pokemon, you have following Pokemon, you have overworld Pokemon. These features are simple, organic and not overdone. They fit in the Pokemon lore. Meanwhile, Dynamax makes no sense. Lore wise, why would any world desire to have giant Kaiju monsters that could destroy an entire country? Let's go also allows a shoulder Pokemon, and you can dress him up. This is the first time where you can actually connect with your Pokemon. Sword and Shield loses that charm.

I find it funny that you mention that LGPE is the "first time where you can actually connect with your Pokemon" because I actually had trouble connecting to any of my party members except my Nidoqueen, which was one reason why I quickly lost interest in the game. I had zero interest in my shoulder plushie Eevee but couldn't bond with the Pokémon I actually wanted to bond with. Not to mention your statement is false: gens 6 and 7 have Amie and Refresh, and SwSh has Camp, all features which I think are far superior to the LGPE system because they allow you to bond with any Pokémon rather than just your starter. Sure, you can't play dress-up, but to be honest I have little interest in stuff like that. As for the rest of your point about simplicity, I grew bored of LGPE in part because of how bland it was. No abilities, no held items, no breeding, no fancy and pretty Pokeballs, no day/night cycle... everything just felt too simple and same-y to hold my attention for long. Plus, I think having more complexity would make it easier for GameFreak to implement difficulty options.

Regarding Dynamax, while I didn't like the feature and would have rather just not had a gimmick, at the very least it led to something unique and was connected to the region's culture. Kanto has no culture...

Gameplay speaking. Let's Go actually offered a chance not to battle wild Pokemon. Seriously, this is the most boring and mundane feature in modern games and they had the right idea there. Of course, there should be a choice, however, just catching Pokemon was a more modern take.

I actually really like battling wild Pokémon because I like seeing my Pokémon in action. In my opinion, LGPE's catching system was boring and frustrating because it was just hurling berries and balls at some wild critter. And, unlike the battling system, I felt like you always had to give the game a lot of attention during captures--you couldn't go on autopilot, basically. Not to mention that the game tries to railroad you into doing captures by giving less exp. in trainer battles, which made the actual battles, i.e. the stuff I enjoy, not satisfying because my Pokémon didn't really grow from them. I wouldn't have minded if you had a choice between battling and the GO-style, but just the GO-style alone wasn't enjoyable for me.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Hm I wouldn't say that LGPE was but I wouldn't say that SwSh was any better either.

But consider that SwSh have about 4x as many Pokémon as LGPE - with LGPE, they only have to worry about rigging up a handful of fully-evolved Pokémon (18, to be exact) to work as mounts, but that number is going to increase significantly in SwSh, unless they are very selective about distributing the capability, but then you'll have people asking "How come you can ride Arcanine but not Lycanroc? How come you can surf on Lapras but not Avalugg?"

The thing about this is that they cut Pokemon from the game so they could have gone and made mounts using the reduced amount of pokemon they wanted to work with. But still they didn't. In this regard, I do feel like LGPE was better.

And about the questions on which pokemon gets to be a mount and all, they could be addressed through patches and DLC imo?

But anyway:

I actually really like battling wild Pokémon because I like seeing my Pokémon in action. In my opinion, LGPE's catching system was boring and frustrating because it was just hurling berries and balls at some wild critter. And, unlike the battling system, I felt like you always had to give the game a lot of attention during captures--you couldn't go on autopilot, basically. Not to mention that the game tries to railroad you into doing captures by giving less exp. in trainer battles, which made the actual battles, i.e. the stuff I enjoy, not satisfying because my Pokémon didn't really grow from them. I wouldn't have minded if you had a choice between battling and the GO-style, but just the GO-style alone wasn't enjoyable for me.

This is actually the biggest problem with LGPE for me. Like I really wouldn't mind it if I could at least battle with my team. The battles with the wild pokemon helps me cherish the pokemon that I catch and they also help me bond with my team. Without this, the pokemon just feel like tools to me. I don't care about anyone in my team. I'm not sure if having the entire box with me everywhere I go plays into that as well but I think it kinda does since they all become expendable in a way.

 

[Puddle]

View attachment 139004

Was your intention to show how Onix is scaled more realistically in Let's Go? If so, this might be a better comparison:

Sword and Shield are my favourite games in the series, but this is mainly because of the region, Pokemon and character designs - the creative aspects. Some of the technical aspects could have been more polished, for sure, but those things aren't really that important to me. I just want to explore a well-designed region full of interesting Pokemon. Onix, Wailord and Eternatus looking tiny in battle bothers me slightly, but not enough to stop me enjoying the game.

I do adore the Let's Go games, and I think they're really underrated. As I've said on this forum before, they do certain things better than Sword and Shield. The graphics are more colourful, walking Pokemon were implemented better, and all locations - even indoor ones - have specially-made battle backgrounds. I really enjoy the alternative catching method, and find the streamlined and simplified feel of the game really refreshing.

Although the Let's Go games feel a little more polished than Sword and Shield on the whole, they're not as ambitous. The presentation in Let's Go is consistently good, whereas in Sword and Shield it's more like peaks and troughs. Sword and Shield sometimes look worse than Let's Go, but at the same time, Let's Go never quite reaches the same heights that Sword and Shield can in their finest moments.

 

[Nicolas721]

Graphics: I agree that SWSH was a little too ambitious and it backfired, and that LGPE does have some kind of Gameboy charm. However, as said above going back to that style would feel like a regression and would severely limit the upcoming' games ability to venture into more open world areas. I would only enjoy the style in spin-offs, and spin-offs without Kanto since that's an extremely basic region who even in 2018 should only work with an extreme overhaul. And I prefer SWSH's model coloring to Let's Go, the latter is too bright sometimes and doesn't fit all environments like SWSH's.

Music: I didn't play the game so I can't judge.

Features: Riding and more natural ways of following Pokemon will come back eventually, I think it's just that they had other priorities in SWSH. And petting too, through camp offered decent interactions that also involve your whole team, you don't have camp in Let's Go. Dynamax is subjective, but if anything it's the confirmation that generational features aren't going anywhere and that even a symplistic Gen IX would have something similar. Additionally, generally speaking LGPE pales in features and story length compared to anything that has been released since 2003, so it's a bad game if you want to do much more besides catching 151 mons and beat the league.

Gameplay: I agree that there should be an option to just not battle the Pokemon, perhaps in only open areas like the Wild Area, it would save sooo much time from hunts. The rest of the gameplay is very similar at the core.

In conclusion, there are a couple elements that they could take in consideration, but overall LGPE's a limited experience that would hurt further games.

 

[Greninjaman]

I can see why Onix is smaller in Sword and Shield than it is in Let's go.
Answer: The number of of Pokemon.
There is only 153 in Let's Go. There is far more in Sword and Shield.

 

[Phosphene]

I can see why Onix is smaller in Sword and Shield than it is in Let's go.
Answer: The number of of Pokemon.
There is only 153 in Let's Go. There is far more in Sword and Shield.

To be fair, I believe all wild Pokémon in SwSh's overworld are properly scaled. While the Onix in the first image appears smaller, it is also further away from the camera and at an angle. In battle, Pokémon aren't scaled, unlike in LGPE, and certain Pokémon, such as Wailord, don't appear to be properly scaled when following the trainer.

Spoiler

There could be numerous reasons for this, such as the fact that there is a wider range of sizes, that scaling with the increased sizes form Dynamax would be problematic, GameFreak felt their efforts were better spent on other features, etc. Ultimately, though, I don't think that switching to LGPE's format would result in proper scaling all around, and it shows that proper scaling isn't exclusive to said format either.

Edit:
It seems like Pokémon in LGPE's battles aren't always properly scaled either, in both battles and in the overworld, as shown by this large image. In fact, occasionally SwSh is more accurate in terms of sizing, at least in the overworld.

Spoiler

Edit 2: That being said, I don't think OP's point with the images was about scaling, I think it was about the fact that you can ride Pokémon in LGPE while you can't in SwSh.

 

[Esserise]

View attachment 139021 View attachment 139022

Spoiler

View attachment 139037

I’m about to say something positive about SwSh’s graphics so if I’m to be crucified by the Internet then so be it, but...

... I honestly think the shading on the models looks legitimately very good? Like, to my eyes, they really pop in a satisfying way, and yet at the same time, they avoid feeling out of place with the rest of the world, which I would think would be hard to get right with a bunch of cartoon monsters.

Let’s Go’s models are more seamless with the design of everything else but I also happen to think that “everything else” looks like it’s made of clay.

 

[Bolt Strike]

LGPE is perhaps the exact opposite direction I want Pokémon to go in. It was the only core series game that I stopped playing on my first playthrough and never finished, only getting as far as the Silph Co. plotline.

Never finished? You're more generous than I was, LGPE is the only one I never played and have no desire to play. I tried the demo just to see how the capturing mechanics worked, other than that the entire game is just the same game I've played before dozens of time and again. Everything of value from that game ended up in SwSh giving me even less reason to touch that utter embarrassment of a Pokemon game.

Additionally, generally speaking LGPE pales in features and story length compared to anything that has been released since 2003, so it's a bad game if you want to do much more besides catching 151 mons and beat the league.

Understatement of the century. 1st gen was already lacking in a lot of areas compared to later generations since it's little more than just catching Pokemon and progressing the story, and even in those aspects it's lacking since 1st gen had terrible Pokemon variety and a near nonexistent story (everyone complains about SwSh, but at least SwSh has a coherent overarching narrative whereas Kanto's storyline solely consists of random, almost unconnected Team Rocket events). But even beyond that, later generations had more sidequests and side mechanics, more multiplayer and communication features, and more environmental variety and intricate level design. Kanto as is is just so bland and empty, and I was hoping that if we ever saw Kanto again, it would be through a BW2 style sequel that fleshes those things out (and no, GSCHGSS doesn't count, because those games Johto is hanging off it like a conjoined twin and Kanto is even more empty because of needing to squeeze both regions in the same game). Instead we get LGPE which is pretty much the antithesis of the BW2 approach.

 

[Poke Dragon]

First of all, no, Let's Go will never be the right direction for the franchise because it stripped down the features of what previous games have introduced. I hate Mega Evolution so where that does leave me? That's right, a skeleton game with just a new coat of paint and a hilariously horrible clone of Pokemon GO that didn't even have later generation Pokemon except for Meltan and Melmetal and that's because of its only good unique gimmick to connect to Pokemon GO anyways, but it needs to go through a chore-filled process of indirect transfer rather than just a simple direct transfer, so it's not even that good. I'm generally against games that strip down features because the point of series progression is to make the gameplay having as many options as possible. And don't even get me started on the painfully faulty idea of "fewer options is better than more options", especially when it comes to making a bond with Pokemon. I prefer to choose whichever Pokemon I believe will receive that kind of special treatment rather than what Game Freak forces me to do so.

 

[Bolt Strike]

First of all, no, Let's Go will never be the right direction for the franchise because it stripped down the features of what previous games have introduced. I hate Mega Evolution so where that does leave me? That's right, a skeleton game with just a new coat of paint and a hilariously horrible clone of Pokemon GO that didn't even have later generation Pokemon except for Meltan and Melmetal and that's because of its only good unique gimmick to connect to Pokemon GO anyways, but it needs to go through a chore-filled process of indirect transfer rather than just a simple direct transfer, so it's not even that good. I'm generally against games that strip down features because the point of series progression is to make the gameplay having as many options as possible. And don't even get me started on the painfully faulty idea of "fewer options is better than more options", especially when it comes to making a bond with Pokemon. I prefer to choose whichever Pokemon I believe will receive that kind of special treatment rather than what Game Freak forces me to do so.

Exactly. For anything to really be progress it needs to give us more options, not less. This is doubly true with anything in the tech industry, as tech is constantly being replaced every few years so in order to incentivize those constant upgrades they need to be able to market how the new product can do more things better, faster, stronger than the old product you already have. If some of you are wondering why expectations are so high, this is why. Expectations aren't going to go down, they're constantly raising because of the way this model works. It's not so much that fans are unpleasable, it's that what was enough back in 1996 is not enough in 2021 (and even less so when you compare handheld to console, even console games in 1996 are the same or better than SwSh in a lot of areas except graphics) and Game Freak has refused to grow with the industry. At any rate, yeah, LGPE being stripped down is a large part of the reason why it feels like the exact opposite direction Pokemon should be heading in.

 

[SlowGinFizzzz]

Controversial opinion perhaps, but I had a lot more fun playing Let's Go Eevee than playing Shield, despite not being a big fan of the very limited Pokémon selection and the lack of post-game content in the former (seriously, the Sevii Islands were right there). Surprisingly, I found the catching mechanic to work really well, and in addition to the Pokémon following you and the gorgeous art style, I think it made the Pokémon world more immersive and "alive" than ever before. The only thing that lessened my enjoyment was the fact that I could probably play through Kanto with my eyes closed at this point, but that's hardly Let's Go's fault.

At the same time, I don't think Let's Go should become the blueprint for the series (but neither should Sword/Shield, let me be clear about this). I do think that when it comes to graphics/art style, wild Pokémon, following Pokémon, soundtrack, and even catching Pokémon, Let's Go should be the way to go. It's the dumbing down part (lack of moves, abilities, held items) and the limited content (Pokémon, locations, post-game content) that I took issue with, but it's not like Sword/Shield excelled in these areas.

 

[Silktree]

SlowGinFizzzz summed up my thoughts pretty well. I honestly didn't mind the catching (it made me want to complete the Pokedex, which I haven't done since GS), and I only missed a few moves and abilities (I rarely bother with held items for casual play). There could have been an explanation about items and abilities for newcomers, but SwSh just brought them back as if they'd never been removed. What I really wanted was:

1. A more significant overhaul of the map with new areas in the north. (The Sevii Islands might have felt repetitive after Alola.)
2. At least 250 Pokemon, with some new ones (read: resurrected prototypes) other than the Meltan line.
3. An expanded story. It was really weird how Red, Blue and Green had new roles, but otherwise the events were barely different.

And that's it in a nutshell. But Masuda didn't have veteran players in mind, which is a pity because it is not as if kids would have said "no" to any of the above.

Graphically speaking, I do find LGPE easier on the eyes than SwSh despite the lack of ambition. I'd like to see at least another pair of remakes done in this style.

 

[Greninjaman]

SlowGinFizzzz summed up my thoughts pretty well. I honestly didn't mind the catching (it made me want to complete the Pokedex, which I haven't done since GS), and I only missed a few moves and abilities (I rarely bother with held items for casual play). There could have been an explanation about items and abilities for newcomers, but SwSh just brought them back as if they'd never been removed. What I really wanted was:

1. A more significant overhaul of the map with new areas in the north. (The Sevii Islands might have felt repetitive after Alola.)
2. At least 250 Pokemon, with some new ones (read: resurrected prototypes) other than the Meltan line.
3. An expanded story. It was really weird how Red, Blue and Green had new roles, but otherwise the events were barely different.

And that's it in a nutshell. But Masuda didn't have veteran players in mind, which is a pity because it is not as if kids would have said "no" to any of the above.

Graphically speaking, I do find LGPE easier on the eyes than SwSh despite the lack of ambition. I'd like to see at least another pair of remakes done in this style.

I do agree that LGPE looks better. LGPE also go faster than Sword and Shield since there aren't as many cutscenes in Let's go compared to Sword and sheild where it seemed like every area had at least one cutscene somewhere.

 

[Puddle]

2. At least 250 Pokemon, with some new ones (read: resurrected prototypes) other than the Meltan line.

You know what I would have loved to see? MissingNo. added to the game as an official Mythical Pokemon. Imagine the hype if, instead of Meltan, MissingNo. had started showing up in Pokemon GO! It would have been great fan service and great publicity. They could have made it #000 in the Kanto Pokedex (and perhaps even the National Pokedex), just like Victini was in the Unova Pokedex.

 

[Greninjaman]

You know what I would have loved to see? MissingNo. added to the game as an official Mythical Pokemon. Imagine the hype if, instead of Meltan, MissingNo. had started showing up in Pokemon GO! It would have been great fanservice and great publicity. They could have made it #000 in the Kanto Pokedex (and perhaps even the National Pokedex), just like Victini was in the Unova Pokedex.

I don't see how that would work at all. Might work in a Digimon game. In a Pokemon game, no. Last I checked, MissingNo is just a mass of pixels that don't resemble anything.

 

[Silktree]

You know what I would have loved to see? MissingNo. added to the game as an official Mythical Pokemon. Imagine the hype if, instead of Meltan, MissingNo. had started showing up in Pokemon GO! It would have been great fan service and great publicity. They could have made it #000 in the Kanto Pokedex (and perhaps even the National Pokedex), just like Victini was in the Unova Pokedex.

Yeah, it was actually one of my hopes at the time. I forget the specifics I had in mind, but multiple forms were involved.

Spoiler: Fanart

I'm so glad we got Meltan instead, not that the two are mutually exclusive.

 

[Bolt Strike]

You know what I would have loved to see? MissingNo. added to the game as an official Mythical Pokemon. Imagine the hype if, instead of Meltan, MissingNo. had started showing up in Pokemon GO! It would have been great fan service and great publicity. They could have made it #000 in the Kanto Pokedex (and perhaps even the National Pokedex), just like Victini was in the Unova Pokedex.

IDK if they'd make it an actual Pokemon, but I would love for them to make Missingno canon. I was thinking more that Missingno would be some kind of entity that would "glitch" the universe in game. IDK if it should be obtainable though.