The Pokémon Company Shares More On Let’s Go Features And Switch In Q&A Session

The Pokémon Company had plenty of news to share for Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Let’s Go, Eevee! and more during the recent presser. Here are extra tidbits of info from the Q&A sessions.

Since the full Q&A isn’t available to check out online, we’ll look at some notes that were summarized from reporters at the event, starting with Yuji Nakamura of Bloomberg:

• Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! will have 151 Pokémon but will also include Alola Pokémon.

• Wild Pokémon battles aren’t in Let’s Go, but you can battle with other trainers.

• One completely new Pokémon will be introduced in Let’s Go.

• Next year’s new core RPG (second half of 2019) will be a brand-new game, and not an upgrade of the Let’s Go titles.

• While Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are more focused on home gaming, next year’s will be more about handheld elements.

• Constant Internet connection is not required to play Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!

• Nintendo engineers helped make the Poké Ball Plus. The idea was to create the closest thing possible to an actual Poké Ball that really feels like it has a Pokémon inside.

Here are some notes from Game Informer’s Suriel Vazquez:

• Why Eevee? One reason was that your rival in Yellow used Eevee. Also, the character has gotten massively popular over the years, and they’ve decided to start using him as a partner to Pikachu.

• There was a “special Pokémon” mentioned in the trailer Go players would meet if they linked it with Let’s Go. It’s an all-new Pokémon we’ve never seen before.

• You will still be able to trade and battle, but you’ll have to have multiple Switches for that. You can have multiple accounts on the same console, however.

• Will the Let’s Go games use Nintendo’s online service? No plans for that as of now, the company says.

• The 2019 games won’t follow up the Let’s Go Games. They’ll be more like X/Y or Sun/Moon. All new series.

• What drove The Pokémon Company to go to Switch instead of sticking with handheld? They view the Switch as a combo home/handheld, so they wanted to take the good parts of the handheld versions and expand on them with the Switch.

• The Let’s Go games are designed primarily as home console games, while the 2019 games will have more of an emphasis on the handheld experience. They didn’t elaborate on what that might mean.

• They have other gameplay ideas they haven’t announced regarding how Go and Let’s Go will interface. Those who play both will be rewarded.

• Pokémon Quest: You will not be able to share your data across platforms, but no internet connection is required to play it.

• They see the Let’s Go games as the next step for players brought in by Pokémon Go to continue with the series, which is why the catching interface/models are the same.

• The 2019 games, meanwhile, is what they see as their way to move the handheld experience forward, and they’ve been working on it since before the Switch released, which is why the won’t be as influenced by Go.

• There are plans for the Poké Ball Plus beyond the Let’s Go games/Go. They see it was the next iteration of the Go Plus.

Here’s more from the second Q&A:

• You will not be able to evolve your partner Pokémon, but you can catch other Eevee/Pikachus you find in the wild.

• Your partner Pokémon will take up one of your six party slots, and you will be able to box it. Boxes work differently in that you now have a box in your bag.

• The ability to transfer from Go/Let’s Go opens up about halfway through the game. After that, you’ll be able to do it freely. There are also minigames you can do when transferring lots of Pokémon over.

• Candy from Go will not do anything in Let’s Go. They weren’t able to tell us whether you’ll be able to transfer Pokémon from Let’s Go and turn them into Candy.

• Any Pokémon that’s large enough in Let’s Go you will automatically ride (they had the idea to let you ride Pokémon of any size but decided against it).

• There are no HMs in the Let’s Go games.

• Although the interface is different, you will still earn EXP from catching Pokémon, as well as trainer battles.

• Event Pokémon in Go (Ash hat Pikachu, etc), cannot be transferred to Let’s Go.

• The controls for catching Pokémon in handheld mode will have you moving the console around and pressing a button to throw. No touch screen, and the gyro part is required.

• No additional details about Z-Moves/Mega Evolutions in Let’s Go.

• Trading and battling online between Switches will be available through online and local play.

• The plot of Let’s Go will not take you to Johto, Masuda says. The map of Kanto, however, will be very similar to the original landmass, but there will be graphical differences.

• Although there are some Alolan forms of Pokémon in Let’s Go, there are otherwise no connections between it and Sun/Moon.

Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu & Let’s Go Eevee release on November 16, 2018 for Nintendo Switch, and you can check out more on that including its announcement trailer in our previous report. Pokémon Quest is now available on the Nintendo Switch via eShop, and will release on iOS and Android. The next Pokémon core series RPG is coming in 2019.