Just wanted to paste this old .txt file somewhere. I know it doesn't matter much anymore, complaining about two lacklustre 2018 games in the beginning of 2021, but...eh. Whatevs. I wrote this before they even came out, too, so that's why the tense is what is is.
Not excited whatsoever for Pokémon Let's Go!; by removing 656 of the 807 Pokémon, Game Freak once again left in the lack of variety in Agatha's and Lance's teams; they have only ONE Ghost-type (well, two, because two Gengar) and Dragon-type Pokémon. This issue wasn't addressed in FireRed/LeafGreen either, but now it's even more inexcusable.
That same issue previously applied to Diamond/Pearl Flint, what with him having to use a Lopunny, Drifblim and Steelix due to the Sinnoh Dex only including Rapidash and Infernape as Fire-types; Platinum fixed this by adding in Flareon, Houndoom and Magmortar.
FireRed/LeafGreen also attempted to gate off all non-Kanto Pokémon by preventing happiness evolutions (Golbat and Eevee) from working, and guess what? It wasn't received well at all. However, unlike Let's Go!, FR/LG removed this pointless restriction upon receiving the National Dex. It's also worth pointing out Game Freak could've readded this restriction to HeartGold and SoulSilver, but they did not - instead they added Yanmega, Tangrowth, Mamoswine, Lickilicky and Ambipom to the Johto Dex and allowed Sneasel, Gligar and Porygon2 to evolve into Weavile, Gliscor and Porygon-Z (not part of the Johto Dex) unimpeded if the player got the right items.
Are the Sevii Islands included in this remake? If they're not, Let's Go! is automatically and inherently *worse* than FireRed/LeafGreen, due to the GBA games having more content. Is there anything to do after beating the Champion, aside from catching Mewtwo and maybe Meltan? If there's not, then it's automatically and inherently *worse* than every single game since the original Yellow; they ALL had something to do after viewing the credits. This even includes XY, which only has the short Looker missions and that singular town with the Battle Maison.
As for the lack of held items and Abilities; that's just idiotic. People expect such mechanics in 2018; they do not expect such glaring omissions, that limits strategic play or in-game assistance. The aforementioned 2004 remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, kept in Ruby and Sapphire's Abilities and held items, as did HeartGold and SoulSilver and OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire with their respective same-gen Abilities and held items. Point is, every single previous remake has had Abilities and held items; there's zero excuse for Let's Go! not to follow suit.
The less said about motion controls, the better; all I'll say is that it should've been killed off after the Wii proved it to be a dysfunctional gimmick. Co-op was similarly unwanted and unneeded, as is GO connectivity. Also not one single skirt or dress for the female trainer; as someone who prefers seeing those on girls (they're much more attractive than the formerly-masculine pants and shorts), this is also disappointing. XY and the Alola games had skirts and dresses; why not Let's Go!, then?
The constant Exp. All effect the game has is yet another major issue; it makes levelling up your Pokémon way too easy, and unerringly leads to you being overlevelled. While this effect was also in Yellow, back then it was an OPTIONAL ITEM (you received it in one of Fuschia City's gates IF you talk to an Aide while having 50 Pokémon registered as 'caught' in the PokéDex) you could easily store in the PC; when it made its return in XY through to Ultra Sun/Moon, it was no longer optional but it could be turned on and off at will (though it always came pre-turned on, which is annoying).
There is no way to turn it off in Let's Go!, which is a major issue.
Why can't I play this garbage with my Pro Controller? Why must I use the small and fiddly JoyCons, the not-wide-enough JoyCon connector, or the stupid Poké Ball Plus to control my character? The Pro Controller (and the 8bitdo SN30 and Wii U Pro Controller via Magic-NS) has motion controls built in, so it can't be that. Dumb design!
There's no day/night cycle in these games either, despite that being a mechanic introduced in Gold/Silver, for the GAME BOY COLOUR, then made a mainstay with Diamond/Pearl onwards. Since FireRed/LeafGreen also lacked the day/night cycle, there's never been a solely-Kanto game that had the feature, which is inherently stupid.
Why does Green have blue shorts? She's never had 'em in the manga, and the character doesn't exist anywhere else outside Red/Green concept art. She looked awesome in that black dress; adding in the shorts completely ruins her iconic look.
Because wild Pokémon (outside of Legendaries) can no longer be fought, Pokémon's stats can now be increased via Candies. However, these are far too rare to be a good change; you need to chain together a long list of the exact same species to get some of the best Candies. Tedium galore! Every other game since Gold/Silver had each species give a certain amount of Effort Values for specific stats (each species can give a max of 3 EVs). While the technicalities are too complex to talk here, in the end you KNEW exactly how to get 252 EVs in a desired stat, and as the series progressed items were added to make this faster, mostly by multiplying how many EVs are earned per foe Pokémon fainted.
For example, in Ultra Sun, the best way to get 252 HP EVs is to equip the Power Weight on the training Pokémon, then go to Poni Breaker Coast, find a Wailmer, initiate an SOS Battle via an Adrenaline Orb; each Wailmer fainted gives 18 HP EVs, meaning maxing out HP only requires 14 fainted Wailmer.
Much more consistent and faster than chaining for stupid Candies. Ugh.
That same issue previously applied to Diamond/Pearl Flint, what with him having to use a Lopunny, Drifblim and Steelix due to the Sinnoh Dex only including Rapidash and Infernape as Fire-types; Platinum fixed this by adding in Flareon, Houndoom and Magmortar.
FireRed/LeafGreen also attempted to gate off all non-Kanto Pokémon by preventing happiness evolutions (Golbat and Eevee) from working, and guess what? It wasn't received well at all. However, unlike Let's Go!, FR/LG removed this pointless restriction upon receiving the National Dex. It's also worth pointing out Game Freak could've readded this restriction to HeartGold and SoulSilver, but they did not - instead they added Yanmega, Tangrowth, Mamoswine, Lickilicky and Ambipom to the Johto Dex and allowed Sneasel, Gligar and Porygon2 to evolve into Weavile, Gliscor and Porygon-Z (not part of the Johto Dex) unimpeded if the player got the right items.
Are the Sevii Islands included in this remake? If they're not, Let's Go! is automatically and inherently *worse* than FireRed/LeafGreen, due to the GBA games having more content. Is there anything to do after beating the Champion, aside from catching Mewtwo and maybe Meltan? If there's not, then it's automatically and inherently *worse* than every single game since the original Yellow; they ALL had something to do after viewing the credits. This even includes XY, which only has the short Looker missions and that singular town with the Battle Maison.
As for the lack of held items and Abilities; that's just idiotic. People expect such mechanics in 2018; they do not expect such glaring omissions, that limits strategic play or in-game assistance. The aforementioned 2004 remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, kept in Ruby and Sapphire's Abilities and held items, as did HeartGold and SoulSilver and OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire with their respective same-gen Abilities and held items. Point is, every single previous remake has had Abilities and held items; there's zero excuse for Let's Go! not to follow suit.
The less said about motion controls, the better; all I'll say is that it should've been killed off after the Wii proved it to be a dysfunctional gimmick. Co-op was similarly unwanted and unneeded, as is GO connectivity. Also not one single skirt or dress for the female trainer; as someone who prefers seeing those on girls (they're much more attractive than the formerly-masculine pants and shorts), this is also disappointing. XY and the Alola games had skirts and dresses; why not Let's Go!, then?
The constant Exp. All effect the game has is yet another major issue; it makes levelling up your Pokémon way too easy, and unerringly leads to you being overlevelled. While this effect was also in Yellow, back then it was an OPTIONAL ITEM (you received it in one of Fuschia City's gates IF you talk to an Aide while having 50 Pokémon registered as 'caught' in the PokéDex) you could easily store in the PC; when it made its return in XY through to Ultra Sun/Moon, it was no longer optional but it could be turned on and off at will (though it always came pre-turned on, which is annoying).
There is no way to turn it off in Let's Go!, which is a major issue.
Why can't I play this garbage with my Pro Controller? Why must I use the small and fiddly JoyCons, the not-wide-enough JoyCon connector, or the stupid Poké Ball Plus to control my character? The Pro Controller (and the 8bitdo SN30 and Wii U Pro Controller via Magic-NS) has motion controls built in, so it can't be that. Dumb design!
There's no day/night cycle in these games either, despite that being a mechanic introduced in Gold/Silver, for the GAME BOY COLOUR, then made a mainstay with Diamond/Pearl onwards. Since FireRed/LeafGreen also lacked the day/night cycle, there's never been a solely-Kanto game that had the feature, which is inherently stupid.
Why does Green have blue shorts? She's never had 'em in the manga, and the character doesn't exist anywhere else outside Red/Green concept art. She looked awesome in that black dress; adding in the shorts completely ruins her iconic look.
Because wild Pokémon (outside of Legendaries) can no longer be fought, Pokémon's stats can now be increased via Candies. However, these are far too rare to be a good change; you need to chain together a long list of the exact same species to get some of the best Candies. Tedium galore! Every other game since Gold/Silver had each species give a certain amount of Effort Values for specific stats (each species can give a max of 3 EVs). While the technicalities are too complex to talk here, in the end you KNEW exactly how to get 252 EVs in a desired stat, and as the series progressed items were added to make this faster, mostly by multiplying how many EVs are earned per foe Pokémon fainted.
For example, in Ultra Sun, the best way to get 252 HP EVs is to equip the Power Weight on the training Pokémon, then go to Poni Breaker Coast, find a Wailmer, initiate an SOS Battle via an Adrenaline Orb; each Wailmer fainted gives 18 HP EVs, meaning maxing out HP only requires 14 fainted Wailmer.
Much more consistent and faster than chaining for stupid Candies. Ugh.
