Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! (Switch)

Not since Pokémon’s introduction back at the tail end of the 1990s did the series see such widespread popularity as it did when Pokémon Go was released for mobile phones in 2016. Pokémon has always been a massive franchise since its inception and one that continues to do amazing numbers, but suddenly, people who barely ever even touched video games were running around and catching the 150 monsters introduced in the original games. Converting these casual players into fans of the main series’s role-playing game format could do a lot to grow the brand, so it’s little surprise that Game Freak tried to seize on as many aspects of Pokémon Go it could with its next major Pokémon titles.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! take the series back to the same layout of the continent of Kanto featured in the original Game Boy versions of Red, Blue, and Yellow. The two games unfold in very similar ways save for a few of the featured Pokémon being exclusive to one version or the other, and the game sets you up with a special partner Pokémon to stick by your side during the adventure across this monster-filled continent. The player’s main goal is to set out to catch new Pokémon creatures and raise them to be able to participate in combat with other trainers, a set of eight gyms across different cities in the land serving as important stops before you face the most powerful trainers in Kanto: The Elite Four. A gang of crooks repeatedly gets in your way along the adventure though, Team Rocket’s desire to use Pokémon for crime and profit forcing the player to deviate from their gym journey to stop some of their plans like holding up a tech company or harassing creatures at a tower that serves as a Pokémon cemetery.

Team Rocket’s injection into the plot helps to spice up your adventure a fair bit, as otherwise you would quite easily slip into a rather automatic adventure of moving from place to place and facing off with the gym leaders with little to latch onto besides that basic personal quest. The pair of Jessie and James serve as bumbling goons in the Team Rocket organization who, despite being fairly bland battles since they use the same monsters in far too many battles, add some personality to a group that is otherwise mostly composed of faceless grunts. A few other characters appear along the way for your player character to speak with, and while your male or female lead never says anything, characters like your friendly rival will chime in to deliver important exposition about new areas you come across. Some areas of the world are simple and straightforward routes, the player either running into trainers who would like to battle or creatures wandering around the world that you can run up to and try to catch to grow your team.  Sometimes you may find yourself somewhere truly unique like the earlier mentioned Pokémon Tower and its eerie atmosphere due to the roaming ghosts, some places like Rock Tunnel or Victory Road are fairly plain caves in concept but might have small puzzles to complicate navigation, and some longer routes such as the water ones will lead to a shift in the kind of trainers and Pokémon you encounter, new areas often exciting because of the change in opportunities they offer.

Your partner Pokémon isn’t just there to get you started though. Whether you get the version with Eevee or Pikachu, this small, adorable ally is constantly featured during the journey, the game taking many opportunities to emphasize your growing bond with this special creature. Since I chose to play Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! in particular, that meant the little brown fox known as Eevee accompanied me during my quest, and while I had always found the creatures it could evolve into interesting, this was the first time Eevee really started to grow on me, particularly because of how much effort the game gives to making it feel like a character in this journey. When you find new or interesting places, Eevee will be the one who pops out to react to them, Eevee happy to share these little moments with you. You can check how Eevee is doing on the pause menu as well, feed it berries, pet it, and even dress it up with little accessories, the game encouraging you to pamper this partner with both its systems and its behavior. Eevee absolutely adores you and has quite a few cute interactions that can crop up under the right circumstances, but it’s not just there for show. Eevee will learn special techniques along the adventure to help you access new areas, these powers letting it slice down bushes, surf across water on an actual surfboard, and even fly with a strange contraption to take you to places in Kanto you’ve visited before to speed up some already fairly quick world traversal. These don’t impact its abilities in combat either, as it can access these powers on top of having a set of four combat techniques in battle you can change as it grows in level.

However, in battle, Eevee is a bit of a problem in an unexpected way. Eevee has been made grossly overpowered in its self-titled game, the partner Pokémon given absurdly high stats for one. Every monster in the game has a collection of stats that determine their battle power in regards to how they dish out and handle physical and special moves. In addition to speed and health, these numbers determine a Pokémon’s effectiveness greatly, with other things like the moves they learn and their typing adding a bit more complexity to battles. For example, a creature that is Fire type will take double damage when hit by a Water move, a Pokémon with the Flying type can completely avoid damage from Ground type attacks, and a creature like the radish Pokémon Oddish has its Bug weakness from its Grass type removed by the fact it also has a secondary Poison typing. Keeping in mind what types a Pokémon is weak against and which ones it resists is important to consistent success in battle, and competitive battles with other players are built around figuring out good coverage to optimize the amount of creatures you can deal extra damage to. Competitive battles do have the unfortunate feature of a 20 minute timer that is easy to stall out by waiting to choose your moves though, thus undermining the ability to even enjoy getting the most out of more involved battles since either player could run out the clock to steal a win. Certain moves can also have side effects or are completely devoted to dealing out unusual effects, players able to weaken opposing Pokémon’s stats, increase their own, and inflict debilitating statuses like Burn dealing damage slowly and weakening attacks or the Paralysis status slowing foes down and sometimes making them lose turns. While this game left out long-standing series elements like held items and abilities to keep battles streamlined for the incoming casual audience and loses some interesting complexity for it, there’s still some degree of strategy to be found…

Except Eevee breaks all of that over its adorable little knee. Eevee’s stats aren’t its only edge, as it is given a set of all too powerful attacks only it has access to. This Normal type Pokémon doesn’t have to worry about a weak move pool since it can learn attacks of most every element, these oddly named special powers dealing heavy damage and guaranteed effects with no penalties. Bouncy Bubble will let Eevee deal heavy Water damage and heal itself, Sizzly Slide’s Fire attack guarantees a Burn, and Baddy Bad will create a Reflect barrier to weaken incoming physical attacks on top of dishing out a strong attack of its own. Eevee’s special moves can dominate the battle with ease and twist situations in your favor with little thought or effort, but even if you skip over these special techniques it is still quite the powerhouse and can easily run away with most of the game if you don’t put in the special effort to diversify your team. The game does start to get a bit more difficult near its midpoint and it is wise to start cultivating some back-up for Eevee before then, but the entire team will level up both from participating in battle and just being around when you’re doing the unrelated task of catching new creatures, meaning the entire group can start growing too powerful even if all you do is catch new creatures and face the trainers standing in your way.

Battles lose a lot of their punch because of how easy it is to get carried away with your constantly growing power, and necessitating the player either shove Eevee aside or engage with parts of the game less to eke out more challenge is counterintuitive to how the game builds itself up. The increase in difficulty does inject some late game life into the adventure, although the tasks you can participate in after beating the Elite Four amount to things like finishing your Pokémon collection or facing trainers who specialize in one specific type of Pokémon and will only fight you if you use that one creature while it is at an incredibly high level. Battling or trading with real people does have its appeals still since it adds another layer to getting all the available Pokémon and player vs. player fights allow both sides to be as powerful as the participants agree to be, but the main adventure is really weakened by how accommodating the game has been made to ensure new players don’t have a rough time. Even once things start pushing back a bit, you have earned a lot of money by that point and don’t have much to spend it on besides healing items that can be used in combat to further reduce the game’s difficulty level.

You might be tempted to spend some of that money on Poké Balls to catch wild creatures, but the expected catching system has been overhauled to closer match Pokémon Go instead of that of a regular Pokémon RPG. The first important aspect is the game is lush with chances to get balls with little effort, every trainer handing some over when defeated, a man found near most wild Pokémon spots happily refilling your bag if you run out, and the game even giving you a bunch without telling you at the start of the adventure. Part of the generosity is because you can catch multiples of a Pokémon and trade some to Professor Oak for candies that can then power up any members of that species you still have, but it also is a cheap work around to the problems with the way you catch Pokémon in general.

Wild Pokémon can be seen wandering around the world, and if you run up and make contact with them, you are put into a catching minigame. A ring will appear over the monster’s body, shrinking and reseting over and over until you toss your ball. Depending on the size of the ring, if your ball hit inside the ring, and the ring’s coloration, you have a different likelihood of successfully capturing it, the player able to influence this by timing their throws properly or feeding wild Pokémon special berries to calm them down. However, actually throwing the ball at a Pokémon is obnoxious as it depends on motion controls the game just cannot consistently interpret. To throw the ball straight on I had to keep my arm rigid and actually pull it upwards like a dumbbell instead of going for the throwing motion the game encourages you to use. To throw it consistently to the left was a wrist flick in that direction, but to the right I never found a reliable way for the motion controls to send my ball in that direction. The main way these catching games are made difficult is the movement of the Pokémon, and they don’t just move to the left or the right. They might move up, head in a diagonal direction, or otherwise move about in a way that strains the Joy-Con’s motion controls and makes catching a creature a tedious chore full of failures outside your control. They can run away as well so catching them quickly is important, and the best method seemed to be just hope the ball works when they’re in the middle.

Handheld mode for the Switch turns it into a far less aggravating catching process where buttons and the joystick determine your balls path, but it does feel like the idea of catching Pokémon in this manner was poorly ported over from Pokémon Go. You don’t get to see your ball as you’re aiming it while you did in Go so it’s harder to actually point it in the right direction, and the creatures in Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! seem to pop out of balls far more often than in the mobile game. Pokémon Go also got away with its simplistic catching because it is a mobile app you pop open for a few minutes, but the constant ball hurling of this sizeable RPG you’ll play in longer sittings makes catching new monsters a less exciting prospect because it is so empty in concept. Some of the special Pokémon like the legendaries and the large sleeping creature Snorlax at least must be defeated in a timed battle before they’re eligible to be caught, but it definitely doesn’t improve the catching segment which feels like a chore in the path of getting new monsters rather than an interesting element of acquiring them.

It is a shame the catching is so bad too because Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! does some interesting things with its monster selection. Compared to the games it is based on, this title does a much better job populating areas with wild creatures, the player able to encounter monsters like the psychic mime Mr. Mime and the nurturing egg Pokémon Chansey well before they could in Red, Blue, and Yellow. This gives routes more robust catching options, with even the pitcher plant monster Bellsprout popping up before you’ve reached the game’s first gym leader to give you a possible counter to the Grass weak creatures he uses. Part of this is by necessity as the game trimmed out the Safari Zone where many exotic creatures were found in the older games, but it does make seeing what is in a new area interesting even if the reality of catching new monsters is less than thrilling. If you do grab some of these creatures putting in unexpected early game appearances though, you’ll find out why they were saved for later previously as they can join Eevee in being much stronger than they’re meant to be for the point you’re at in the game. Special regional variant Pokémon from Sun and Moon are added to the creatures you can find, the player able to trade to get things like a Ghost and Fire version of the bone slinging creature Marowak or a version of the palm tree monster Exeggutor that is insanely tall and picked up a Dragon type for it. These Alolan variants help flesh out types like Steel and Dark that were introduced in later generations and thus would be mostly absent otherwise, but Mega Evolutions are a bit of a weak addition since the ability to use them only crops up for most creatures after the main adventure is done and most places to actually get any use out of them have dried up.

Collecting Pokémon did lose some of its charm due to making catching so tedious and outright flawed in some ways, but the creatures are still pretty appealing and varied. People who like cool creatures might gravitate to the fearsome sea serpent Gyarados, while people drawn to cuter monsters might be happy with things like the singing balloon Pokémon Jigglypuff. Some ideas like Ponyta are as plain as a horse that has a little fire on it, but others are rather creative like the pink blob Ditto that can transform into any other creature and the spoon bending Psychic creature Alakazam. Many follow a formula of a real world creature being colored or augmented by their associated element, the giant Onix being a snake made of rocks, Tangela being a ball of vines, and the six-tailed fox Vulpix being red to show its fire type. However, it doesn’t stick so closely to the idea that it feels creatively bankrupt, and creatures like Hitmonlee are meant to embody less straightforward typings like Fighting so the creature ends up with a strange body that emphasizes extending spring legs. Evolution can occur when Pokémon reach certain levels or are introduced to special circumstances, so another angle to creature collection is added where something like the tiny blue turtle Squirtle can grow and change until it eventually becomes the formidable Blastoise with water cannons built right into its shell. With a computer program turned monster in Porygon, multiple prehistoric critters revived from fossils, and plenty of familiar creatures being twisted into something new yet familiar, the Pokémon selection is definitely strong and their abilities in battle are varied, but Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! just isn’t the best platform for showcasing the strengths of these creatures.

THE VERDICT: Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! made itself accessible to even the newest of new Pokémon fans, but in trying to accommodate them or entice them with gimmickry, it strains an otherwise incredibly strong RPG formula. Pokémon creatures are wonderfully varied and come packed with different strengths and weaknesses, making choosing your companions and battling with them a process full of variety in theory, but Eevee is an absurdly strong partner who can bowl over most of the game with little issue. Even added party members can grow far too strong too easily, but the process of expanding your collection is harmed by a catching minigame that either involves poorly designed motion controls or lacks any excitement. The game does pick up in difficulty a bit near the middle, redeeming some of the battling in the same way multiplayer can, and Eevee makes up for nearly breaking the game difficulty by being an absolutely lovely adventuring companion, but despite looking great, having good music, and featuring an appealing selection of Pokémon, Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! did a lot of damage to its core gameplay, squeaking by only because of how refined its battle mechanics and monster designs remain despite the simplified main quest.

And so, I give Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! for Nintendo Switch…

An OKAY rating. Pokémon hit a good formula right out of the gate with an accessible battle system with hidden depth and appealing creatures that are enjoyable to collect, but this remake of this old games seems to undermine those systems to the point it nearly robs them of their enjoyability. Your partner Eevee is on par with the legendary Pokémon often reserved for near the end of an adventure and makes too much of the game a cakewalk, the difficulty rise not even really so substantial that it helps the battle system shine as much as it could if the game wasn’t so reserved in challenging you. It barely even gives most trainers more than a Pokémon or two so they are beaten in a flash, and setting other strong creatures up in early areas means it is hard not to bumble into being overpowered. The automatic leveling up even while catching creatures practically ensures it, but there is still enough there that you do have to start putting in the effort to develop a team at least. Catching is the place where the design was harmed the most, Pokémon Go’s catching method really not the appeal of that title and rather boring when stripped off its original context. The catching minigame was made harder to make up for the weakened aspect of hunting them down in the real world in small bursts, but the minigame’s issues compound with its bland concept to make going out of your way to catch things an unappealing prospect. Finding new creatures is exciting despite this and the basic idea of getting new monsters or evolving them through training them up lightly engages with the collection aspect, but most of what Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! does is done better in most other installments in the series.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! and its Pikachu counterpart do some good things with this return trip to Kanto. Eevee is a wonderful partner in regards to how it behaves during plot events, the game world looks nice and has some good arrangements of already catchy old songs, and the creatures themselves balance their cartoon style with the Switch’s graphical power pretty well. No doubt many people would just say it’s a great way to get kids into Pokémon because of its low level of challenge and greater graphical appeal than older versions of the game, even though most every entry in the series has caught on well with kids regardless of difficulty or accessibility. It’s hard to believe this would win over players any better than the later released Pokémon Sword and Shield or even the 3DS entries like Sun and Moon, and while it has the benefit of extra features that came after older remakes of Kanto like Pokémon Leaf Green and Fire Red, those also had extra underlying complexity brought to the table by held items and abilities. A lot of the good from older games can be found here underneath its flaws so it’s still not a bad play, but besides ideas like the partner Pokémon being so well done as a companion with character, it’s really hard to pinpoint something this game does well that a different main series Pokémon game doesn’t do better. Essentially, it gets by because of the strength of the series formula but doesn’t really justify itself existing, feeling like a sloppy combination of the original Pokémon games with Pokémon Go without fully tapping what made either of those games wildly successful separately.