The Pokemon franchise is one the most popular and most expansive series in video game history. For while it started out as simple turn-based RPGs, they went into full-on battle games, party games, dungeon crawler games, tamagachis, and so much more. And now, with Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, the games will take another twist, blending the RPGs and the Pokemon GO title to create a unique experience. According to the team, they wanted to make something that everyone could enjoy, but also have a “soothing” experience with.
The team behind Pokemon Let’s Go talked about their intent for the game with IGN:
We got the direction from Masuda, just like he just mentioned a moment ago, to go for this more kind and soothing and inviting experience with the visuals. After some experimentation, we just realized the more realistic, more photorealistic direction just wasn’t really working for what we were trying to do.”
They also talked about why they restricted themselves to the original region, and primarily the original 150 Pokemon (Alolan versions are in the game too though):
“Personally, I had a desire to have the current generation of kids experience something similar to what kids 20 years ago also played,” Junichi Masuda said. “You know, they started out with 151 Pokemon, then 100 more got added, now we have over 800. I don’t know, maybe throwing 800 or more Pokemon at them right away might be overwhelming. So I kind of wanted to use this as a way to give younger kids right now a chance to experience what people did a long time ago, the original fans did.”
But who is Pokemon Let’s Go for? Is it for hardcore fans, or casual ones? Well…
“Really, the goal of this is just to kind of expand the Pokemon playing audience. Probably 20 years ago, a lot of people who played Pokemon as kids then, we want the current generation of kids to have that same experience,” he reiterated. “At the same time, we also want the people who maybe played Pokemon as kids, maybe who are in their 30s and 40s now, to sort of welcome this new audience of players. Maybe also play alongside with them with some of the support features.”
Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee arrive on Nintendo Switch on November 16th.
