Glen-i

It was. Game Freak specifically made the models HD quality to "future-proof" them. This had the side-effect of completely tanking the frame rate of the 3DS titles when particularly complicated Pokémon showed up. As for the animations being new, that's a negative. They're all in Sun/Moon (Apart from Pikachu, Eevee, Meltan and Melmetal) There's a picture @Serebii used to use every time he brought this point up, but I can't find it... That goes for the walking animations as well. Although they weren't used, the code for Sun/Moon has walking animations for every Pokemon.

I do! Hah! That threw a spanner in your works.

Those are around the numbers of Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, in case anyone is wondering. The strange thing is, in Japan, this game didn't do as hot. Apart from the original Red/Green, it had the worst opening week in Pokémon mainline history.

OK, fair enough. But with Gen 8 around the corner, DLC isn't gonna be happening. A patch? If a bug gets discovered, sure. The thing is, they already did that 6 years ago. All the Pokémon models in Let's GO are the 3DS models. They were totally ready to put any Pokémon in Let's GO, they just chose not to.

See? He gets it. It's cute watching you Pokemon newbies speculate.

Nintendo like to, Game Freak sure don't. With Gen 8 coming out next year. I wouldn't put my money on that. Best you can hope is Pokémon Bank support. And that's shaky at best. Bloody hell, @Mokong Stop killing your Pokémon! It's breaking my heart. Won't someone bloody help him!? I can't do it. I don't play GO!

Oh, BTW. Someone on ResetERA jacked my idea!

Congratulations, you've turned into me! How does it feel to be an utter loony?

Yes, but you were accused of making it easier.

That's not difficult, that's just grindy. Getting to a 50 win streak in Battle Tower, now that's the sign of an actual Pokémon Master.

Hey, at least I liked Yooka-Laylee.

Yep, you've got it.

That's a bit overdramatic. You ever seen Sony's Smash Bros menu attempt? It was gross.

Well, that debacle confirmed my theory that the trading method here might just be the worst online trading method ever. There were even more posts than me trying to explain Sun/Moon's weird method. Can you seriously not search for any friends looking for trades? Is that code nonsense the only way you can be specific? Because that's awful...

Seriously, no-one here knew? It's been around since Gen 6. Fine, Pokenerd to the rescue again... The different colour text determines which stats have a nature modifier. Red text determines a stat that has a 10% boost while blue shows a 10% drop.

Are you talking about Subspace Emissary? Because yes, that was an option. 5 difficulty options. If you're talking about single player modes in Smash. Then the answer is Super Yes. Ever since the first one.

Well, that only proves that Sakurai is a very supportive husband. I like the Boxy graphics. They're clear and to the point. They're better than Melee's and 64's menu.

Kinda... Because the stats are different between the two games. The IV's are generated somewhat randomly. However, the better the IV rating, the better the IV rating when it goes to Let's GO. So "Great IV's" in GO will result in Great IV's in Let's GO. Of course, this is all a moot point anyway, because you can just use S/M's awesome Hyper Training to make all of a Pokémon's IV's perfect. (That feature is in Let's GO) Not to mention the fact that there isn't actually much to do on the competitive side of things, so what are you focusing on IV's for anyway?

With Pokemon Crystal recently coming out on the 3DS Virtual Console and the Pokemon Switch game looming on the horizon, @Dcubed and I started talking about how the mechanics of Pokemon have changed since way back in 1996. Because we're super cool like that. A criticism of the Pokemon games you see thrown around is that they're "just the same game over and over again" These people know nothing and you should discount their opinions immediately, while the basic gameplay follows the traditional "Catch loads of different monsters and battle them in Turn Based RPG battles" format. It's the underlying mechanics that distinguish each entry. And these mechanics have changed many times over the seven generations of Pokemon. So I'm gonna go look through them and see just how influential each gen was. Generation 1 - Red/Blue/Yellow While there's no denying that Red and Blue will probably forever be the most important game in the franchise (I mean, it started the craze). The mechanics and features that make up the game are almost entirely gone from more modern games. Gen 1 is a very different beast to what you can play these days. That said, Red and Blue introduced a few things that have managed to stick around. And to better understand how things have changed, it would be a good idea to acknowledge these. Version Exclusive Pokemon is a term that most players use to describe a Pokemon that can only be caught in one version of Pokemon. For example, Scyther could only be caught in Pokemon Red while Pokemon Blue had Pinsir instead. Be as cynical as you like, but this was designed to encourage players to trade Pokemon with another person who has the opposite version. (Not to encourage people to buy both versions, only nutjobs do that) It bloody well worked, I remember bringing my Game Boy to my Primary School and trading Pokemon with other kids. Which brings me nicely to... The Multiplayer features are the main selling point of the Pokemon series. Using the Game Boy Link Cable, there were two things that you could do with a friend. Trading and battling, it's pretty obvious what they do, so I won't go into too much detail here. Technical Machines (Commonly known as "TM's") are items that you could find in the game that can teach a specific move to one of your Pokemon. Some Pokemon could use these to learn moves that they would otherwise be unable to use. They were one-time usage, with many of them being unable to be obtained again without starting a new game. Making them very valuable items. Well, except Water Gun, no-one cares about Water Gun. There were 50 TM's in Gen 1. There were also 5 Hidden Machines (HM's) which taught Pokemon a move that could actually be used outside of battles. Most of them were needed to complete the game (Except Flash) and once a Pokemon learned a HM move, it could not be forgotten. Effort Values (Also known in Gen 1 as Stat Experience) are more of a hidden mechanic that has also stuck around in modern day Pokemon. (Well, sorta, more on that later) For example, say you have a Charizard that you've trained to Level 50. If you compared the stats of that Charizard to a different level 50 Charizard, chances are they'd be different. That's because of Stat Experience. In Gen 1, whenever you beat a Pokemon, the Pokemon you used would get Stat Experience. These were completely invisible to the player. As an example, beating a Blastoise would net you... 79 HP 83 Attack 100 Defense 85 Special 78 Speed After a calculation that I won't bother going into, your Stat Experience will be added to the base stats of your Pokemon, which makes for the fluctuations of stats between different Pokemon of the same species. Every single stat can effectively be "Maximized" using this making for an extra 64 points in each stat for a level 100 Pokemon. Event Pokemon also saw it's first implementation here with the Mythical Pokemon Mew. Way back then, players had to go to a special event organised by Nintendo with their copy of the game where staff would plug their cartridge into, effectively, a glorified Super Game Boy which would then put the Mew into their party. There's one more mechanic that has stuck around, but it's quite a bit different in how it's implemented. The Third Version is a term that most players use to refer to a Pokemon game that is similar to another set of Pokemon games. These games tend to be enhanced versions of another game. So let me ask you something, what was the first Third Version Game released? While the Third Version is still kicking with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, it's not in every generation. But I won't get into that yet. Pokemon Yellow is also notable for having the first instance of a Pokemon following you outside of battles. This only applied to Pikachu though, and it's not a feature that is around these days, one of many things that got dropped in future generations, but I'll cover that when I get to them. Anyway, time for me to take a break, next up, I'll be talking about Generation 2, where things start changing and getting interesting. But before I go, I'd like to give my personal thoughts on the mechanics of Gen 1. As a game, I enjoy Gen 1, truly, I do. But the mechanics behind it are incredibly dated, which make gong back to it these days a bit difficult. It was a huge, influential game that would help popularize the Turn Based RPG genre in the west. And I will forever acknowledge it for that. But everything about it has since been improved in future installments. Which is a good thing. But for the love of God, Game Freak. Stop advertising Pokemon games using nothing but stuff that was seen in this Gen. The majority of people who want this kind of stuff stopped playing Pokemon years ago!

Setting it all up might take a while, depending on how you go about it. In about a month, I had well over 100 Bottle Caps and more than a few Gold Bottle Caps (Raises all 6 IV's at once) It does require a bit of setup, mind, (This bit is a bit time consuming, admittedly) but once you do, you get a steady stream of Bottle Caps, if you regularly check in on it. The basic gist is to go to Festival Plaza and fill it with a facility called Treasure Hunt. The more, the better. Normally, there's a chance of this whenever you rank up there. But a quicker, more certain way is to have a friend with one, and then just continuously pay them FC to build Treasure Hunts in your Plaza. Getting FC was a bit daunting, but strangely enough, taking part in monthly online competitions was a good way to get loads. As well as taking part in those Worldwide Missions that happened monthly. (I think the worldwide missions for both Sun/Moon and US/UM have stopped now though). You could also get Bottle Caps by trading shards that you found in the cave on Poke Pelago. So yeah, it takes some time to get going, but once you did, it was pretty much self generating if you took 10 minutes a day to check on it. But honestly, N-Europers have a way, WAY easier method of getting some Gold Caps, and that's me. I'm drowning in the things and I'd happily give away some Gold Bottle Caps via trade on US/UM. I mean, I've got so many, I don't have anything I want to use them on at this point.

I counted Inverse Battles as a feature in X/Y. Double Battles in Let's GO still counts.

That's not applicable anymore. Getting a perfect IV Pokémon is as simple as training to Level 100 and using an in-game service to max out IV's. Which is a feature that Let's GO still uses. And yes, hacked Pokémon are an issue, but you can only hack a Pokémon within the realms of possibility. If you try to use a Pokémon that has stats that are an impossibility online or has a move it could never learn. You'll quickly get banned. It's getting better recently.

@Dcubed Double Battles still show up in Let's GO. Team Rocket utilise it.

Back from the dead! It's time for Gen 7: Part 2. It's no secret that I'm no fan of the latest Pokémon games. But I should at least give them a fair bash and a more subjective view. So one more go around, until next year, I guess. BTW, Unmarked Spoilers Warning. I mean, it's a remake of a 20 year old game, so spoilers will be purely subjective. Just being safe. Gen 7 Part 2: Let's GO! Pikachu/Let's GO! Eevee Released 2 days ago, Let's GO! Pikachu and Let's GO! Eevee continue Generation 7 on the Nintendo Switch. They're the second remakes of a Generation 1 game, this time focusing on the third version, Pokémon Yellow. In what is probably a controversial move among long time Pokémon fans, every Pokémon from a later generation than 1 is completely unavailable in this game (With a couple of exceptions) And like everything else, I'm gonna start with what this game dropped after Sun/Moon. This one is gonna be significant. The biggest one is Random Encounters. Usually, Pokémon encounters occur randomly, but not in these games. I'll go into what it was replaced with soon. The Island Trials were annexed, but considering these are Gen 1 remakes, that shouldn't be surprising. Z-Moves, the big selling point of Gen 7, are nowhere to be seen in these games. This happened to be a side effect of the removal of... Held Items are also gone, severely reducing the amount of strategies you could utilise in battle. This was probably done to simplify the game. That reasoning is gonna be a recurring theme, so get used to it. Speaking of... Abilities were also cut, further reducing the uniqueness each Pokémon would have. In a weird first for the series, some pre-established moves were cut. The likes of Giga Drain and Rain Dance can not be learned here. Oh, speaking of Rain Dance... External Weather Conditions are gone as well, happy pleasant calmness further reduces strategies. Oh, right, that reminds me. The Day and Night cycle is no longer around. A staple for 4 generations, this game takes place during the day, all the time. No matter what. S.O.S Battles are gone, Battle Royales are gone, Poké Pelago is gone. Online Communications took a massive hit, reverting the online capabilities to the levels seen at the beginning of the DS generation. Any Battle Facility is no longer seen here. Not even Battle Tower. Severely limiting the amount of replayability after the main story is finished. As far as I can tell, Online Competitions aren't available in this, so players who enjoy playing competitively are out of luck. This also means the Pokémon Global Link is not compatible with this game. Wonder Trade is gone as well. Backwards Compatibility is not available here. You cannot transfer any Pokémon from a previous game to Let's GO! Pass Powers are also gone, which might have a negative effect on any high level training. The convenient Gadget, a feature which was introduced in Gen 2, is gone as well. I'm not entirely sure, but I can't find anything on the Vs. Recorder, so you won't be able to record battles and share them with others. The Move Deleter is gone as well, but after HM's were replaced, that particular feature is not really necessary anymore. Pokémon Breeding is gone, meaning that in order to get more of the same kind of Pokémon, you'll have less options to use. Effort Values have also been replaced. I know I try to stay impartial until the end, but this has to be said. BLOODY HELL, MAN! 23 Features that are in the Sun/Moon games are ditched in Let's GO! But now, it's time to look at what these games add to counteract that slaughtering. Wild Pokémon Encounters work very differently to previous games. Instead of sending out your own Pokémon in an attempt to weaken and catch an opponent (Or just beat it up for experience), you can only attempt to catch Pokémon in a manner similar to the mobile Pokémon GO game. Using motion controls to fling Poké Balls at Pokémon, items can be used to make it more likely to succeed. Successfully catching a Pokémon will net your team experience, but taking too long will cause the Pokémon to run away. Chaining multiple captures of the same Pokémon in a row can result in rare Pokémon or even shiny Pokémon appearing. There is an exception to this and that's with the Legendary Pokémon Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Mewtwo, which must be battled traditionally and beaten within a time limit before they can be captured using the Pokémon Go! method. Pokémon following you is a much celebrated feature that returns for these games. Much like it's implementation in HeartGold/SoulSilver, you can choose a Pokémon to run behind you when outside of battle. Bigger Pokémon can even be ridden, allowing for faster movement, etc. An interesting new mechanic are Variable Pokémon sizes. When you encounter Pokémon, they can actually differ in size and weight to the average one. Particularly bigger or smaller ones have a special aura around them in the overworld and give more Experience when caught. Although these varying sizes are not actually reflected in battles. Another big change is the removal of Effort Values. Instead Let's GO! introduces Awakening Values. (AV's) A variant of the first generations stat experience. It'd be easier to bullet point the differences for this, because it's significant. Instead of battling Pokémon, you gain AV's by feeding your Pokémon candy, items you can get through various methods. You are once again able to potentially max out every stat. Unlike previous games where you had to choose which stat to boost. The level of the Pokémon has no effect on how the boosted stats are distributed. That last point is a weird one. In previous games (Even Gen 1), to get the most out of EV's, you'd have to train your Pokémon to Level 100. In this game, it doesn't matter what level something is, provided you have the candy, you could get the full benefit of maxing out AV's. Leading to complete nonsense like this... That's not hacked in any way. @Serebii himself did that. Anyway... There's a slight change to how Natures can be gotten. Most of the time, they work the same as usual, but now there's a woman who, for a price, can set the nature of future Pokémon you catch to what you want. Making it easier to get the Pokémon you want with the nature you would like. Pokéride has been tweaked to work in Let's GO! Using your partner Pokémon to recreate the effects of the 5 HM's from the original game. It's now called "Secret Techniques" Pokémon Amie does make a return, but it's unfortuantely restricted to whichever Pokémon is on the cover of your game. Which diminishes a lot of the appeal. This game can communicate with Pokemon GO! to transfer Kanto Pokémon and the Meltan line to Let's GO! Which makes this a game that can perform communication with a Spin-off game. It's certainly not the first time this has happened, but it is the biggest occurence. Mega Evolution made a surprising return to this game. But with no held items, all you need is a corresponding stone that you find to utilise it. Unfortunately, with no abilities either, this transformation has less of an impact on battles than before. Pokémon with two Mega Evolutions (Charizard and Mewtwo) are free to choose whatever form they like. We also have 2 Player Co-operative Play, using another Joycon, a second person can join the player to assist them on their adventure. As well as running around on the overworld (With a second Pokémon following them), this second player can help the first to catch Pokémon by throwing two Poké Balls at once and assist in battling other trainers by controlling a second Pokémon, effectively letting you use two Pokémon to gang up on 1, which I'm astonished is allowed. I mean, that has to be cheating as far as the Pokémon League is concerned, no? Ah well... There is also a Real-Life Peripheral to go with this game. The Poké Ball Plus is an alternative controller that functions a lot like the Pokéwalker from HeartGold/SoulSilver. Allowing you to train Pokémon and collect items by walking around with it and doing stuff in Pokémon GO. Although it is a pretty expensive seperate purchase (It costs more than the actual game), early adopters could get a Mew to transfer to their Let's GO! game by buying this. Which means that Event Pokémon make a return. And that wraps that up. So it's time to give my thoughts. I mean, what can I say? You only have to look at that gargantuan list of cut mechanics to realise that this is a severely stripped-down version of Pokémon. Yes, this is meant to be a simpler, beginner-friendly version of Pokémon, but I think it's way too extreme. Pokémon isn't that hard to play through. You don't need to know stuff like Effort Values or natures and the like just to play through the game, plenty of people do just that. But this has resulted that severely limits creativity, variety and strategy. And it's for that reaon that I don't intend to buy this game. But it's not all bad. Here's some things I'd like to see in future entries. While I'm not a fan of the Wild Pokémon changes, I wouldn't mind having them all work like they do with Legendary Pokémon. Having to defeat them in a battle first before attempting capture GO! Style. Pokémon following you has always been awesome, so more of that please. That Nature Selection woman is also great and would be very welcome in Gen 8. 2 Player Co-op is also great fun, but maybe have it so that opposing trainers send out 2 Pokémon as well, just to make things not hilariously trivial. But it's not enough to save this game in my eyes. AV's are ridiculous, simple as and Mega Evolution loses a lot of the nuance it once had. And to mention it once again. 23 mechanics! That's insane. And some of them are pretty massive, especially if you are into competitive battling.