LGPE's Staying Power

[Enzap]

Pokémon GO was not only culturally relevant for longer than anyone expected a Pokémon mobile game to be, there are a lot of people who played it Day 1 who are still hooked today. It has accomplished this longevity by rewarding the collection process better than any main series Pokémon game has to date as well as constantly updating with new events, new Pokémon, and new mechanics.

The Pokémon Let's Go games are built to work alongside Pokémon GO, but are they going to have a similar staying power behind them? Generally core series Pokémon games bank off of their replay value for more casual players and completionist opportunities for the more hard core gamers. A game that encourages you to transfer Pokémon from GO and only has one starter to choose from doesn't seem to be asking to be replayed over and over, so what strategies do you think the developers are going to use to keep players coming back after the main story is complete?

Here are some possibilities I thought of. Feel free to discuss any of these or come up with your own theories.

1. Reward players for catching Pokémon and completing the Pokédex. I think this is the most likely option since it's such a huge draw for Pokémon GO. I've never been one for catching them all since it feels very tedious with essentially no reward. Gen 7 made it somewhat worthwhile to catch a lot of Pokémon by granting you more and more access to the Poképelago as you increase the number in your box, but still once I unlocked the islands I had no reason to continue collecting. I think Let's Go will likely focus more on the catching and collecting aspect of the games than previous main series games have and make every capture, especially new species, feel much more rewarding.

2. Load the games full of content. Once you've collected your share of Pokémon, these games may offer more things to do with those creatures than previous games have. We already know you can dress up your partner Pikachu or Eevee, but they could expand on this for other Pokémon as well. They could also include minigames similar to the Pokéathlon. This would be especially fun with local multiplayer, assuming they provide enough variety of games, either competing against each other or working together to beat teams around the world.

3. Staggered content release. Nintendo's been all about this strategy recently, most (in)famously with Splatoon but also with other games such as Arms, Mario Kart, and even major adventures and RPGs like Legend of Zelda. Let's Go could take tips from its parent game GO and release more Pokémon down the line as trainers collect all the ones available up to that point, possibly even opening up new areas or entire regions as DLC. This would probably be the most controversial option and may not appeal to casual players who don't tend to play games with heavy amounts DLC.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

3. Staggered content release. Nintendo's been all about this strategy recently, most (in)famously with Splatoon but also with other games such as Arms, Mario Kart, and even major adventures and RPGs like Legend of Zelda. Let's Go could take tips from its parent game GO and release more Pokémon down the line as trainers collect all the ones available up to that point, possibly even opening up new areas or entire regions as DLC. This would probably be the most controversial option and may not appeal to casual players who don't tend to play games with heavy amounts DLC.

I think this is the least likely option. Legend of Zelda, ARMS and Mario aren’t yearly franchises like Pokemon is, and GameFreak is most likely working hard on the 2019 titles.

Their goal with these games is apparant to me- they want to hook GO players to a console and introduce them to the world of Pokémon gaming. The transition from, say, GO to Sun/Moon is a bit too drastic, so they created LGPE as a bridge between GO and the main series- so that the GO fanbase can be intregated into the main fanbase with the new games after LGPE.
Such a goal doesn’t warrant substantial DLC.

 

[Enzap]

I think this is the least likely option. Legend of Zelda, ARMS and Mario aren’t yearly franchises like Pokemon is, and GameFreak is most likely working hard on the 2019 titles.

Their goal with these games is apparant to me- they want to hook GO players to a console and introduce them to the world of Pokémon gaming. The transition from, say, GO to Sun/Moon is a bit too drastic, so they created LGPE as a bridge between GO and the main series- so that the GO fanbase can be intregated into the main fanbase with the new games after LGPE.
Such a goal doesn’t warrant substantial DLC.

I agree it is the least likely option, but I don't think it's out of the question. If they want this game to make a lasting impact and actually convert people, then it's got to be something they can come back to and still have fun with since it's going to be about a year between these games and the first true main series game on the Switch. The other two options I gave are better examples game design and hopefully they focus on those primarily, or other similar options I didn't think of, but to really draw in those long-time GO players it also would make sense for them to slowly expand LGPE like they did with GO.

We don't know how they're splitting up the work between this game and the 2019 games. There could be a completely separate team working on each, which means these games wouldn't necessarily be taking resources from the 2019 games.

 

[Kadabra]

Pokemon GO's staying power is phenomenal and I had no doubt since Day 1 that this would be the case, given that Niantic's behind it and their work on Ingress spoke for itself. One of the key enablers of this is the fact that the game runs on your phone--a device most people have with them all the time. The smartphone, and by extension, Pokemon GO, almost becomes a part of you.

By comparison, any game that runs on the Switch would be awkward. It's not nearly as portable, and does not have the same level of persistent connectivity.

It's hard to speculate about LGPE, as details are currently scarce. Nintendo of America's president called out the game as a major Switch-seller, however, and this does not surprise me; I'll be buying a Switch because of this game. This is probably the key goal Nintendo wants to accomplish with LGPE.

Another possibility is that they are using LGPE's game engine as a foundation for the upcoming Pokemon games. Releasing a simplified game based on the same engine helps manage the financials of their game projects, e.i. improve cash flow.

 

[Muur]

If they do the release stuff every few months than It'll be fine I guess but if they just keep it as it is forever itll die fast

so plz dont add stuff

 

[Silktree]

My assumption is that they want to release more Let's Go games in the future (Masuda admitted it's a possibility), so they need to make these games have an impact and yet leave room for more. So no updates for more regions, but they probably need something and I don't really have any ideas because the games don't interest me. I will say that there should be mini-games to begin with.

They seem to be encouraging players to catch multiple Pokemon of the same species for stat optimization, and I wonder how many casual players care about that.

 

[Bolt Strike]

I don't think they care too much. Judging from past games they seem to be under the impression that the casual audience this is appealing to isn't really interested in a lot of extra content so there probably won't be much outside of the main storyline to do. They probably just want it to last until 2019 and then it'll be old news.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I don’t really expect there to be a ton of content. The Kanto games in Gen I have some of the worst Post-game content in the whole series. After you beat the E4 and Champion, all there’s left to do is catch Mewtwo really.

 

[Midorikawa]

If they don't add any content, then I don't it will do well because even little kids could find it lacking. But if they do something like add some great mini games, then I think it could be come a simple fun series in the franchise.

 

[colours]

I'm keeping my expectations low here, so forgive me for the possibly cynical post.

I strongly believe, as much inspiration that LGO takes from Pokemon GO, it is still a "Yellow retread" for all intents and purposes and not necessarily "Pokemon Go Switch" (as much as some of us want to claim it is). That said, I think they're going to have as much staying power as your average main series Pokemon game. While that would certainly be a downer depending on your preferences, that's not really outside of the realm of possibility. It's very possible that Game Freak would want to stay as faithful as possible to the original Pokemon Yellow version and as such, as soon as you're done with the main story, that's... more or less going to be it.

I know I personally don't want this to be the case, but LGO is mostly Pokemon Yellow with some Go aspects throw into it, so i can't really help but think that this might possibly be the case. Game Freak has always been kinda-sorta inconsistent as far as post-games experiences are concerned. Sometimes they're willing to take the route of throwing as much as they can in the player during the main story so it creates the illusion of having more to do (see: SM/USUM) and sometimes they're willing to throw together a decent post-game story because fans are making it pretty apparent that post-game material is important to them (see: Rainbow Rocket).

In short, I personally believe #2 is the likely option they'll go here. Load the games up full of content here and there. Some of it may be during the main story, some of it may be accessible during post-game, but Game Freak may just bank on those additions keeping players busy until the 2019 Switch games release.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

"Load these games full of content" that ain't gonna happen.

 

[Daenerys]

These games have no staying power IMO. They're just Pokemon Go for the Switch, with walking Pokemon and bad haircuts for Pikachu and Eevee as a gimmick. Only having access to 152 Pokemon makes these games certified trash as well.

 

[IncineROAR]

I have zero interest in LGPE. I do not find Pokemon Go to be that thrilling of a game, but it gets me to go outside, and I did enjoy completing the Kanto dex (despite not getting any sort of award or acknowledgement from the game for doing so).

I see these games as something designed to appeal to the casual fan who may not spend as much time with the core RPG games (what I mean is, they are nothing more than a cash grab). I think the games will do okay in terms of sales, but I'm sitting these out.

 

[Battista]

To me, the true test of these games' staying power will be whether or not they support Pokemon Bank and are compatible with Sword and Shield. Kanto's still pretty barebones compared to the more recent games, which at least for me made the Virtual Console versions a major success. When you're done you dump your boxes and start fresh with a different team.

Obviously there are some differences to consider, such as how to handle the box system and partner Pokemon, but I can easily see these and the Galar games complementing each other well if it ends up working that way.