Like a trainer, but he was deceiving himself. Pokemon Let s GO is not a game for old people

Pokemon Let's GO from the very beginning aroused great controversy. Game Freak went a step too far to castrate content for children and fans of Pokemon GO.

In Spider's Web, the latest game from the Pokemon series, and at the same time the first RPG from this series for the Nintendo Switch, has already been reviewed by Dawid Kosinski . My rival in the fight for the title of Pokemon Champion, after passing the main thread in one weekend, assessed the game positively. As a coach with much more experience, I can not fully agree with this opinion.

Too much of the mechanics I have known went to Pokemon Let's GO under the knife.

Of course, I've been expecting for months that the new game will not take me away. During my first contact with the remake of Pokemon Yellow at E3 2018 in Los Angeles I felt through my skin that it was not written for me. Fortunately, Game Freak was openly informing about the nature of his new production.

Pokemon Let's GO in both variants - Pikachu and Eevee - is in the end a spin-off of the series, not the opening opening of the new generation. Of course, as a fan who has not missed any of the games so far, I've decided to play in this installment - I even got an edition with the fabulous Poke Ball Plus .

Their vigilance lulled the fact that the first contact with his own copy of Pokemon Let's GO was very positive. Just like the remaster of Pokemon Yellow on Nintendo 3DS, I gave up after an hour, because the archaic mechanics and the binding rebuffed me, so catching Pikachu in the new Nintendo Switch game, I felt like a little kid again.

Unfortunately, the further you go in the veridian forest, the worse. As I fully understand why Game Freak has gnawed Pokemon Let's GO from a multitude of elements, I think that - even remembering who this game is targeted to, that is children and fans of Pokemon GO for smartphones - the creators took a step behind far.

What hurts most is that Pokemon Let's GO ... goes by itself.

Pokemons seduced me for being a youngster because playing for Game Boy was really demanding. To this day I remember how much I had to get in to defeat the first arena leader. My first protégé, Pikachu in Pokémon Yellow, could only look helplessly at Oniks, who was skimming over him.

The game on which Pokemon Let's GO is directly based, in a painful way taught me that the electric Pokemon there is nothing to put up for a duel on stones and earth. Unfortunately, the latest installment of the series is too careful not to discourage exceptional snowflakes players and uses a lot of facilities.

After an hour of low-level play, Pikachu soloed Brock's creatures.

Then it was only worse. Pikachu goes through more fights like butter. For the needs of Pokemon Let's GO, the parameters of the player's partner have been adjusted, and he can learn new, powerful attacks. The game does not encourage you to build a team that can cope with any situation.

Never before have more fights gave me so much fun. The gameplay balance of Pokemon Let's GO is simply kicked off. The game distributes experience points to the left and right - be it for fights, or for catching new Pokemon, or for taking one of them for a walk in Poke Ball Plus.

In addition, just play with a friend and you can double the amount of experience gained while catching new specimens.

To make matters worse, Exp. Share is active from the beginning and all the time. Each fight and each capture of the creature increases the level of the entire team without the option to disable this facility. The game does not give any motivation to use any other Pokemon outside the initial partner. Pikachu can beat Geodude, and Bulbasaur will change in Venusaura anyway.

New players may like it, but over the last 20 years, Nintendo consoles have accustomed me to the grind, that is, to do the same things all the time in order to slightly improve the parameters of the team. I had to plan and combine many times. In the case of Pokemon Let's GO, the creators, however, exaggerated the other way and this magic has gone somewhere.

I do not even see a reason to use the new Candy system, which can raise the parameters of one of the creatures.

Pokemon Let's GO got rid of some of the mechanics from the previous installments, including the abilities of objects and weather effects that are kept by creatures. Pokemon Let's GO became too easy and repetitive, and as a result simply ... boring. This does not mean, however, that there was no news at all. These were taken alive from ... mobile Pokemon GO.

The candy feeding system is a new way to manually improve EV parameters. Unfortunately, the game gives no reason to do so. There are no challenges that would actually require it, because fighting is a formality - if the player spends a moment trying to catch several creatures in a new location, then just press the A button in a circle.

It also does not make sense to train creatures for online fights.

Game Freak completely put the issue of multiplayer in Pokemon GO. The system of exchanges and duels has been simplified to the limit. There is no longer any access to the Global Trade Station, where players could list exchange offers. There is also Wonder Trade, which allowed sending a chosen creature to receive a Pokemon-surprise from another player instead.

Even the basic function of sending out invitations to play with the players on the list of contacts gathered as part of the console was missing! If someone wants to swap or fight a friend, he must enter the menu and enter at the same time as the code consisting of three symbols - and pray that they do not choose the same combination at the same time other players.

For this I have the greatest regret for the creators of Pokemon Let's GO.

I have paid a Nintendo Switch Online subscription with Pokemon Let's GO in mind, but I will certainly not extend it. Not at the moment when the only game I want to play online, requires me to find partners for exchanges and fights on social networking sites.

It was begging you to implement in Pokemon Let's GO a system known from Pokemon X / Y, where on the bottom screen all the time we had a preview of the list of friends who were online at the moment. There was also no system that would allow online tournaments.

The Pokémon collection management menu is also a step back.

I was relieved to learn that players can exchange creatures on their team without visiting the Pokemon Center. That would be enough, however, when it comes to changes on the plus side. The new menu, where you can browse your creatures, is one long list that can only be sorted in different ways. After a few hours I started to get lost in it.

Game developers gave up boxes in which you could store creatures, so as not to get lost in the collection. At first, I had a plan to get one copy of each species in each sex. After a few hours, I stopped bothering about it and started all the Pokemons I do not use, refer to the professor in exchange for candies.

Getting them all has never been so easy.

From time to time, not every single one of the games in the Pokemon series has been slightly different. It is no different this time - some species can be obtained only in Pokemon Let's GO Pikachu, and others only in Pokemon Let's GO Eevee. In addition, some final forms can only be obtained through exchanges with other players.

Now you can make this task easier by integrating with Pokemon GO. After a dozen or so hours of play and getting three badges, GO Park is revealed. This complex is located in the place of the old Safari Park in Fuchsia City. From the moment you cover it you can send Pokemon Let's GO creatures caught on smartphones. In any quantity.

Integration with Pokemon GO destroys the entire exchange market between players.

Even if someone does not play Pokemon GO on a smartphone, he will easily find players who will give him difficulties to catch - including the legendary ones. For people playing Pokemon GO, they do not have much value. I have some bonus Mewtwo myself. In addition, you can catch one specimen to complete entries for both genders in PokeDex.

In the case of the previous scenes, I complained that catching all species is a journey through torment, because there are too many of them - nearly 1000 species, and there are variants (gender, forms). Pokemon Let's GO crosswords do not even lower, just get rid of it completely. Catching them all is no challenge.

I was surprised to discover that the new system of catching creatures is a hit.

In all this sea of ​​critics, I must admit to GameFreak that when it comes to a new system of acquiring consecutive copies of creatures, they managed to change something to the upside. The wild Pokemon specimens can now be seen in the game world. No need to walk on the grass and wait for it to suddenly jump out of this particular creature, on which the player hunts, is a great novelty.

I also have battles with wild Pokemon. Catching them through the controller's movement (Joy-Cona or Poke Ball Plus) in a stationary mode or by aiming the console in a mobile mode, gives a lot of fun and does not get bored after five minutes - although this system is taken from Pokemon GO, where I caught in a similar method of 39,580 different Pokemon.

The only minus is the easier clash with the legendary Pokemon.

In old games, it was necessary to prepare them well. Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno and Mewtwo had to be weakened first, and only then could one try to catch them. The players combined how to deal the highest possible damage and apply a special effect - for example, sleep or paralysis - because if they defeated the creature, they no longer had the chance to throw Poke Ball.

Pokemon Let's GO still allows you to fight with such bosses, but you do not have to take care of them, not to overcome them. Only then comes the screen of catching them - where you do not have to worry about the rest of the team surviving the next strong attacks after unsuccessful throws. Unfortunately, it makes these unique fights extremely shallow.

However, I hope that GameFreak will redeem itself next year.

The creators of the series expose the patience of the fans to the test. I bought the Nintendo Switch console with the hope that the program will be on it with modern Pokemon, right after the premiere. Almost two years have passed, and for now the only games in the series are the Pokia Battles fired from the Wii U, also available on Pokemon Quest smartphones and just a spin-off in the form of Pokemon Let's GO.

That's a problem, because players like me are already hungry. For a full-fledged jRPG in this universe, being a continuation of Pokemon Ultra Sun / Moon, we will wait until next year. Unfortunately, the changes made in Pokemon Let's GO do not make me feel positive. I am afraid that too many simplified elements from this spin-off will go to the main series in the new generation.

It does not, however, paradoxically change the fact that Pokemon Let's GO is a great game ... for children and Sunday players who played Pokemon only on smartphones, as well as for people who have recently had contact with this series on Gameboy. However, the most intense fans must be aware that this game was not made for them.

Like a trainer, but he was deceiving himself. Pokemon Let's GO is not a game for old people