Pokémon Let's Go! - Pikachu and Eevee

[Worldie]

This seems like an unreasonable buff, even if it is Candy boosts or whatever is going on here. Giving the equivalent of 32 base stat points to any one stat sounds busted.

this Charizard
View attachment 141418
regular Charizard

Well, they never said candies have a cap did them... I was suspecting you can infinitely candy up a mon and that they aren't "EVs", and this would be a realistic explanation of such high HP

 

[Siggu]

This seems like an unreasonable buff, even if it is Candy boosts or whatever is going on here. Giving the equivalent of 32 base stat points to any one stat sounds busted.

this Charizard
View attachment 141418
regular Charizard

That's nothing a well-placed HP Rock cannot solve.

 

[doipy hooves]

My running theory is just candies can give a straight up +1 or +2 or +3 to a stat based on the size/if it's specific to a mon. I think there would be some kind of cap at least so you can't have 999 in everything, maybe tied to level/candy use/original base stat.

I also believe the "bonus" levelup stat could be part of it; personally I think it is not related to EVs as only one is seen at a time, and instead it may just be a bonus for raising your Pokemon through battling to compensate for the lower EXP compared to catching. Either way there's probably more focus on the ability to make your stats better, through clearer/simpler means than IVs and EVs.

 

[DreamPrince]

The big question will be though, if Pokémon are transferrable and you cap with candy, will they stay that way when you transfer to Gen 8?

 

[Siggu]

The big question will be though, if Pokémon are transferrable and you cap with candy, will they stay that way when you transfer to Gen 8?

Probably a similar approach to the Virtual Console games. PokeTransfer will make up the characteristics the Pokemon in Let's Go don't have, and ignore what the Gen VIII games won't have.

 

[DreamPrince]

Has it been confirmed that you have use the same species for the Master Trainer?

 

[Worldie]

Has it been confirmed that you have use the same species for the Master Trainer?

The video implies it pretty heavily even though it doesnt completely "states" you have to.

Seems like a realistic assumption tbh, expecially as being able to use a different Pokemon right away destroys any challenge.

My running theory is just candies can give a straight up +1 or +2 or +3 to a stat based on the size/if it's specific to a mon. I think there would be some kind of cap at least so you can't have 999 in everything, maybe tied to level/candy use/original base stat.

I also believe the "bonus" levelup stat could be part of it; personally I think it is not related to EVs as only one is seen at a time, and instead it may just be a bonus for raising your Pokemon through battling to compensate for the lower EXP compared to catching. Either way there's probably more focus on the ability to make your stats better, through clearer/simpler means than IVs and EVs.

I'm on similar thinking boat: I think there's no actual "cap" bar a hardcap value to how much you can improve a stat with candies.

 

[Merritt]

Personally I can't wait for the Metapod Master.

 

[Worldie]

This seems like an unreasonable buff, even if it is Candy boosts or whatever is going on here. Giving the equivalent of 32 base stat points to any one stat sounds busted.

this Charizard
View attachment 141418
regular Charizard

Side note someone pointed out: In the trailer, Charizard has 275 HP (still not fitting), in the picture on the website, 320. More inconsistencies.

edit: I've read reports of the same Charizard having 225 in some localized trailers too.... TPCI pls.

 

[doipy hooves]

Side note someone pointed out: In the trailer, Charizard has 275 HP (still not fitting), in the picture on the website, 320. More inconsistencies.

edit: I've read reports of the same Charizard having 225 in some localized trailers too.... TPCI pls.

Language trailer talk

Kind of off topic but I've noticed there are usually 3 different versions of screenshots/footage: Japanese/English trailers and everything else. I think Japanese and English are recorded on their own, and then for the other language trailers/website images, they just get a save file and have to copy the footage, probably just the parts with text.

This is most noticeable with the Pikachu from the candy trailer. In the Japanese trailer it was neutral natured, everywhere else it was slightly different and Timid, and in the English trailer they went with their own testing save or something. You can also see some level 1 mons being transferred in the same trailer in some versions while they are properly leveled in Japanese. A weird difference is that the Pikachu's CP is slightly higher in the japanese websites compared to other similar screens despite having the same stats.

Anyway I've been looking, haven't seen the 225 HP (maybe the 7 could be mistaken?). I did notice the Spanish trailer's centre text is different for some reason, the guy playing just gets referred to as the champion instead of Venusaur master. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any Japanese equivalent video/website update for this one.

The website does have a screenshot of the Ditto master, but under it it says most Master Trainers want to fight but some will just make a request, so you'll probably just have to show them a high level Ditto.

Changing the trainer title is interesting though, they might be thinking on that for more customization options in Gen 8.

 

[Zowayix]

Welp, I've been too busy over the past month to keep up with this thread much, and now there's like a double-digit number of pages to catch up on. Here goes.

comments from September or earlier

modern super young playerbase doesn't want and rarely has interest in hard games, and borderline demands that you have 2 hours tutorials.

The first part I'd agree with but the second part is a surprise. What I usually see being demanded is something like "an easy game that you can pick up and put down anytime". A long tutorial wouldn't fit that, but something like Pokemon Go might. (Sadly, anything resembling an immersive story wouldn't fit that either.)

Pokémon refuses to challenge players at all.

It's more like "the game's challenging parts are by accident rather than by the developers' intended design".

On the topic of unskippable cutscenes and tutorials, I’ve wondered.... For a game who forces you to go through a cutscenes and tutorials to ensure you don’t miss any info, there’s never like a theater mode or a options you can replay the guides. I mean sure they did it in FRLG, but not in the new games. In case of a player wants to skip, they can watch in a Theater mode. Maybe it has to do with only one save file per game?

I tend to be pessimistic regarding the developers' design decisions, so I'm guessing the trains of thought were something like "a theater mode or a skippable cutscene would be less immersive" + "an underestimated dumb player won't be able to figure out the instructions and so won't enjoy the game". Flawed as heck thinking, but 'reasonable' (massive scare quotes).

For example, implying gen 8 games are released on schedule in 2019, end 2020/start 2021 with DP remakes would make sense and even probably be well received by the playerbase.

Going by previous generation release patterns, this isn't guaranteed even if we say that a D/P remake is coming out 'for sure' sometime in Gen 8. Every complete generation so far has lasted almost exactly ~1 year longer than the number of releases (e.g. Gens 3&4 each lasted four years and had three releases). Frequently this takes the form of a 'gap year'. Game Freak has decided to make third/fourth versions prior to remakes in a generation. So it's fully probable or expectable that late 2019 has Gen 8's initial release, late 2020/late 2021 has some kind of Gen 8 third/fourth version(s), and then late 2022 has remakes.

I wonder if the 2019 game will implement this as well. It looks promising.

Every time Masuda & Ishihara & co. say that the 2019 game will be a "traditional" core series game, I interpret it as "what would we have expected if we had never seen LGPE?" So stuff like Go mechanics, an incomplete Pokedex, and overworld-visible wilds would be out, while HD graphics and HM replacements would be in.

....plus my 2 cents is that they called it "main series" simply as commercial maneuver to get people buy it after the terrible first impression it had on buyers.

It's main series because it's developed by Game Freak, while Colo and XD aren't.

On a side note, I’m surprised that only Gen 1 is transferable. It’s not like players from go aren’t aware of Gen 2 and Gen 3. If I was a 8 year old playing go, I’d be upset that I couldn’t transfer my Blaziken I raised to GO.

A reasonable guess would be that GF didn't want to program in 656 more ~unique following animations. (As a corollary, I wouldn't be surprised if following Pokemon were cut for Gen 8 for specifically this reason.)

Sorta. Masuda recently said that you can't catch them normally like wild Pokemon, BUT you don't need Pokemon Go to catch them. He hinted that there's another way that involves a "familiar feature" fans know about already.

Who knows what the hell that means lol. Maybe it has bank support or there's Pokeradar???

In-game trades.

Having to choose X or Y mega Charizard implies that there are no hand held items on the Pokemon itself.

Before we got the various confirmations (that held items were in fact gone), I was hoping this meant all the different Mega Stones got condensed down to one item. Oh well, looks like that's not the case.

Knowing that the game is intentionally dumbed down, I'd not be surprised if moves like Taunt are just not present.

Huh, that's a consequence I didn't think of (various Pokemon being missing == various moves being missing). At the least, various legendary signature moves will be missing for sure. And unlike somewhat similar situations (e.g. Colo/XD), there'll be no future way to transfer the moves in even if the games are eventually Pokemon Bank-compatible.

Now I really want to know what all the inaccessible data will look like once the game is eventually datamined. Since there's likely to be no mass-release demo, there's no real need to waste time and effort scrubbing anything. We already know that the 3D Pokemon models from Gen 6 onward are pretty much 1:1 portable to an HD game. So maybe we'd just have placeholders like T-poses for all 656 Pokemon who don't have follow animations, and/or we'd have move animations that are strange unedited copy-pastes from USUM for moves that aren't normally possible to obtain in LGPE.

Were you living on an Island? :p in the trailer that introduced Misty, her Starmie is shown using Scald.
That is, unless they significantly changed the animation of watergun to look like scald's but so far that didn't look to be the case.

learn2japanese, the text right before Starmie using the move unambiguously says 「あいての　スターミーの　ねっとう！」 which is "The opposing Starmie used Scald!". :P

I call it "artificial difficulty" because it doesn't make it "harder" but it makes it harder to deal with the game mechanics without putting effort in it.

...

I do not, sadly, see a different way to perform this in Pokemon games. Even in BW with the "hard mode", it boiled down to the enemies having much higher/stronger mons than in normal mode.

I don't get it; what kind of "natural difficulty"/"non-artificial difficulty" are you looking for, if you could design a core series game? Even the most respected of difficulty hacks accomplish their goal solely through levels and movesets.

It looks like you can activate what's called Partner Power when there's a partner symbol (official translation TBD) when battling. Partner Power unleashes a stronger move when your partner is in battle.

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but I wonder if these Partner Powers are coded as actual moves or not. E.g. confusion damage runs the whole damage calculation formula with 40 base power, but it isn't a move and can't be hacked onto anyone's moveset. Same with the status Z-Moves, which can't be hacked on as their own moves either unlike the damaging Z-Moves.

7:52: I can't read what it says, but it looks like sometimes when catching a Pokemon you'll also get an item.

12:15: Huh, they still have Officer Jenny giving you a Squirtle? But you can find them in the wild (and expected to catch them en masse), why keep those events? Thinking about it that's a problem copying the Pokemon GO formula, the gift Pokemon don't feel that important.

Don't recent Pokemon games keep a few old saves back-up just in case something happens to the most recent save?

The item displayed on the catch result screen looks more like a log of what item(s) you used.

I suppose Officer Jenny's Squirtle could be like, say, the Magikarp salesman's Magikarp or that gift Wynaut Egg in Lavaridge. Both Pokemon can be obtained elsewhere, but the gift Pokemon comes earlier in the game and/or is less annoying to find.

If I recall correctly, there is exactly one backup save, but I currently can't seem to find any documentation on how it works.

Gym Requirement: You don't need to keep the Pokemon with the Type advantage to battle everyone in the Gym, so this is just a more upfront way to tell you what is good to use against the Gym Leader. So it's now really pointless to have...

Huh, that almost seems to contradict what the official Japanese site says (you must meet the requirement in order to "battle the Gym Leader" versus "enter the Gym").

This is a lot of effort to mix up the stat system for a game that's supposedly not going to take over the franchise later. There haven't been any changes to the current stat system since Gen 3, except for Gen 5 letting you gain EVs after Level 100 and Gen 6 making the EV Cap 252 instead of 255; why change it for a game that's also supposedly not for the people who take perfect care of their party's EVs? It's like Game Freak is marketing this game for the casuals, and yet a number of changes to the mechanics are things that would "only affect the competitive players".

Regardless, the +1 on the level up screen to me looks like a boost to the raw stat itself, and nothing to do with EVs. Why would that Bulbasaur have not went up to 32 HP if that really was an extra point on the Level Up? My best guess is that Candy is a simple +Whatever to the raw stat (since there are apparently different sizes of Candy, could be +1, +3 and +5, for example) and that the level up scene (for whatever reason) shows you how much your Candy is boosting your stats by.

Good points, and this has me rather confused as well. My pessimism is showing here but I'm currently under the impression that the starter Pikachu and Eevee don't actually have altered base stats - we've just been seeing higher stats because starters would naturally receive more of these artificial boosts than wild Pokemon.

But regardless of that, we still don't have much info on how Candies behave. I've seen two main camps: one camp that says they're just a rehash of vitamins that add some flat number to EVs, and another camp that says they behave like the drinks from PMD that add some number to the raw stat. Then there's a bunch of contradictory evidence on either side (if they're vitamins then what's with the extra +1 on the level up screen? If they aren't vitamins then why would GF overhaul the internal stat system so much?). That last part then raises even more questions (since PMD isn't multiplayer, you can grind unlimited drinks to max out everyone's stats for no reason; is this going to happen in LGPE? Maybe GF doesn't care about that outcome because there's no online random battles?).

Also something interesting: the levels of the party being shown are kind of on target for a real playthrough of RGBY, and even FRLG. Blue's team in both Yellow and FRLG had an average of Level 60, whereas this player's team's average is Level 59. Could the amount of EXP gained really have been jacked up (I have heard about catching Pokemon yielding more EXP than actual battles)?

I wouldn't be surprised if the player team's levels were just dev'd in for this footage without regard to actual gameplay.

Or I guess the levels could have been kept the same, just that there's no walking into a Gym that's like 30 Levels above you because Kanto's no longer your oyster once you get the Cut HM (or whatever move with a stupid name replaces it), but still.

Have we had any evidence regarding adding additional roadblocks to Kanto to make it more linear? (And the Cut HM's replacement name is just Chop Down.)

BTW, OOT but I had actually been wondering if there's a reference to the glyph as seen in Pikachu's pedestal, either translating to latin alphabet or kana (most likely the latter). I have been seeing these "Pokemon glyphs/kana/rune" in anipoke and this game and wants to find the full set.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was just gibberish characters. The whole point of using them is to avoid having actual text in the game textures that would be a huge pain to translate.

There's something odd in those screens in regards to the starter, though:

"Came to the Kanto region through some mysterious force"
"Met each other again in Pallet Town"

Damn, didn't even notice that. This strongly implies that specifically the player character and their starter Pokemon have met at least once before, somewhere outside of Kanto. I have no idea what this could be referring to, but I sure hope it has some in-game or plot relevance instead of just being a throwaway line.

Poke Balls have been discounted to $100 from the usual $200, and Premier Balls are still obtainable from buying 10 of them.

There's a trainer on Route 1 now just before Viridian, he uses a Rattata and gives 3 pokeballs. The rival's right after him, he talks about your victory and shows you the Pokemon Centre.

This german guy shows the nickname screen, it pops up a Switch keyboard and all. Still a 12 character limit.

Gamexplain has a video that shows the new recent Viridian Forest catching demo, footage starting from the title screen and the party has a Meowth along with starters instead of Onix.

This is another recent demo kiosk tour video and it shows the full opening with an Eevee transition into the title.

Pretty big change here. Oak's Parcel dude is outside of the mart now, and you're given the option to warp back to Oak's lab like what ORAS did sometimes.

Also as a sidenote the modern EXP Share seems to just be built in, no item, it's just there from the get go.

Very detailed observations! Discounted Poke Balls (and loads of Trainers giving them away) makes sense since you literally need these to grind now. Good to know that we aren't limited to Gen I items (since even FRLG removed the ability to get Premier Balls after RS added them).

An additional Trainer being added to Route 1 of all places is an unexpected change; guess GF wanted to fix one of the more oddball non-beginner-friendly issues in the opening of previous Kanto games (after getting your level 5 starter, the first mandatory Trainer you must defeat no matter what is all the way at the end of Viridian Forest at level 9).

Boo, GF adding more tutorials to the game. On Route 1.

Huh, so the game now uses the Switch's keyboard interface instead of its own? Different input options across different languages was always something that intrigued me; wonder if this affects anything. It was always super weird that Chinese language SM/USUM was stuck with the same keyboard as the Japanese language, preventing them from typing in their own language, pushing a completely foreign language, and still limiting them to 6 English letters. Is this now changed?

Those two title screen videos look cool. Interesting to see that GF bothered to make a unique or semi-unique title screen just for the demos.

Don't care about the Oak's Parcel warp; anyone who doesn't like it can just say No.

Exp. Share is forced always on now?? I don't think I like this change.

I saw one youtuber actually try the candy transfer and so I decided to compile the little information we have on it to see if there was any deeper pattern to it.

It does tell you to use them wisely so they probably have a limit.

I thought it could have used/replaced EV yields, but some of these mons have higher/more stat yields yet only give 1 each in all the examples. There's also the vitamin icon in the bag that hints to them still existing, though they could have repurposed it. Still there's uncertainty in the L candies that you might get from the minigames or just better mons, and some Pokemon with more than 1 highest stat like Wartortle that just give one candy. Maybe it's the real stat value instead of the base stat, or it's chosen randomly in a tie situation.

Given the smattering of evidence we have that Candies aren't the same thing as EVs/vitamins, my semi-wild speculation is that Candies are just some additional value that supplements EVs. Maybe each stat can receive at most X Candies and the total number of Candies can't exceed 2*X, and maybe they add some flat value that doesn't invisibly truncate or scale by level so they're easier to explain. That would prevent a PMD drinks situation where every stat has no limit, and also allow them to be 'wasted' on bad stats like in RS/FRLG, explaining why you'd be told to use them wisely.

Also, the requirement to face Misty's gym is... to have at least one Pokemon at level 15 or above in your party. Most pointless requirement ever, as you'd have to be doing it on purpose to not fulfill it in older games.

At least it's not nearly as annoying as the Pewter Gym requirement. I wonder if/how this will interfere with self-imposed challenges involving low levels. Looks like in previous games, the lowest level among Trainers' Pokemon in Cerulean Gym was level 16. Also the highest level of wild Pokemon you can catch on Routes 24/25 is level 14 in RB/FRLG, and level 17 in Yellow.

Pokémon: Let’s Go is a ‘starting point for the next 20 years of Pokémon’

Ok, now that I've stopped making WutFaces and actually read the article past the headline, I'm more confused than scared (though still scared). This whole time I was envisioning and judging LGPE as just a filler title before 2019 (i.e. "would I rather have this game or nothing until then"). This turns a lot of previous thoughts I had upside-down. Obviously the worst-case interpretation is that after the 2019 game which Masuda promised was "traditional", he wants the games from 2020 and onward to take a lot of elements from LGPE, most negatively the toned-down difficulty. The best-case interpretation is probably that he wants Go fans who jumped into the core series with LGPE to stick with the core series for another 20 years. The only thing there is to go on is that Masuda said he "really hopes" it's a starting point, rather than he "wants" it to be a starting point (given that he's in charge of a lot of development, the former implies less control over the outcome than the latter). Even then, some or all of this could be wordings that were lost in translation.

What might be even weirder is the part at the end where Masuda says "I don't think it needs to be an unchanging experience" and "there's room to explore variety in both the core series and the spinoff titles". First of all, I'm shocked that Masuda would mention the existence of spinoffs at all at a time like this, given that (as director of Game Freak) he doesn't even develop any spinoffs and I'm sure TPC is trying their best to not associate LGPE as a spinoff title. Second, again there's two very different ways to interpret what he means by "variety". Best interpretation is that he's willing to explore more around currently-stale mechanics like difficulty. Worst interpretation is that he's referring to more single-generation marketing gimmick mechanics like Mega Evos and Z-Moves. No way to know at this point in time.

This seems like an unreasonable buff, even if it is Candy boosts or whatever is going on here. Giving the equivalent of 32 base stat points to any one stat sounds busted.

Interesting how this number interacts with the wild guess that Candies are a second layer of EVs. This is a level 75 Charizard with 48 more HP than the maximum, which would require "252 HP EVs plus 256 more HP EVs". So obviously Candies don't cap at 252, but they could still be "flat +1 to the stat regardless of level, 63 per stat maximum, 127 maximum total" which would act like a second layer of EVs at level 100. Unlikely that this is what's really happening, but ultimately there's no real way to tell until the game releases.

I also believe the "bonus" levelup stat could be part of it; personally I think it is not related to EVs as only one is seen at a time

I'm trying to remember the details, but there was footage a while back that showed multiple stats with "bonuses" applied during a single level-up. The Pokemon was level 50 at the time, I think.

The big question will be though, if Pokémon are transferrable and you cap with candy, will they stay that way when you transfer to Gen 8?

All EVs were zeroed out when transferring from the VC games, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that all boosts from Candies are similarly zeroed out during a plausible Gen 7 -> Gen 8 transfer.

And damn, Master Trainers were first revealed just three days ago and already it's been a rollercoaster of up and down/good and bad information. My thoughts so far have been something like:

The postgame has Master Trainers!

"Oh interesting, more battles than just Cerulean Cave and Mewtwo. Wonder if this is just like SM/USUM's Red and Blue and that's it or something."

There are 151 of them! One for each of the Kanto Dex Pokemon.

"Ok, definitely not just Red and Blue then. This could be a slog but at least it would be a reasonably interesting way to pass the time until the 2019 game comes out. Master Trainers for Pokemon like Kakuna, Magikarp, and Ditto are probably just going to be jokes; we've at least got 145/151 (~96%) of the Dex that's not going to be empty movesets. The loads of Trainers with unevolved Pokemon won't be that weird coming off of, say, the Battle Tower where there's also strong Trainers with unevolved Pokemon. The 4 Trainers with Legendaries are going to be really interesting coming right off of Team Rainbow Rocket from last year and its 6 Legendaries. And finally, is this the first time ever that a Trainer in a core series game will have a Mythical (Mew)??"

You have to face each Master Trainer with one of your own Pokemon of the same species.

"Aaaaand that went downhill real fast. So first of all, you can't even face all the Trainers without first trading to complete your Pokedex. And you don't get battle the Mew Master Trainer without spending $50. The six "joke Trainers" (Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle, Kakuna, Magikarp, Ditto) whose Pokemon have nearly-empty movesets just went from "lol w/e this'll take 30 seconds of nothing and then it'll be over with" to garbage stall battles that'll be long and almost no fun at all. Ditto vs Ditto would literally softlock the game in Gen I, in this game it would be 1 turn of Transform, 5 more turns of pointlessly failing to reuse Transform, and then degenerating into a Struggle match. What were they thinking?"

"Most" Master Trainers will battle but some, Ditto's Master Trainer singled out particularly, won't.

"Ok, whew, at least that resolves the useless Struggle match. Metapod's Master Trainer is explicitly shown as wanting a battle though; that might be just for the well-known meme at this point. But now I wonder how many Trainers will and won't want a battle - I notice that aside from Metapod, only the Master Trainers for fully-evolved Pokemon have been explicitly shown requesting a battle."

Also I just realized that if there are many Master Trainers for non-fully-evolved Pokemon, we might have to train specifically that stage up to a high level. With no Everstone.

Last notes:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/1...s-a-relaxing-approachable-adventure-by-design
Here's an IGN article from another group of people who got to try out the portion of the game between Mt. Moon and Cerulean City. (Looks like this is a natural follow-up to the people who got to try out the portion up until the Boulder Badge.) The article writer specifically describes Mt. Moon as a "relaxing" experience. The gist seems to be "in previous games, you had the threat/stress of running out of resources far from a Pokemon Center; you had wild Pokemon battles wearing you out all the time with no place to hide from them. Now all wild battles are avoidable, your party can never take any damage from them anyway, and we were practically able to get through the whole thing in one try with almost no healing items used." This does not bode well.

https://vandal.elespanol.com/notici...ets-go-desvela-uno-de-sus-contenidos-endgame/
Looks like no one posted the original Spanish link that confirmed the presence of 151 Master Trainers, so here it is for completion's sake.

Here's a video (with Spanish commentary) containing a subset of gameplay between Route 3 and Cerulean Gym. Don't think this has been posted before; it's the only place I've seen that confirms the Cerulean Gym entrance requirement. How much other information is in here that we haven't seen yet?

https://www.elespanol.com/cultura/2...chueevee-puente-generaciones/345465944_0.html
One last article about yet another interview with Masuda. I fell for the unintentionally(?) clickbait title ('LGPE is "is a bridge between generations"') and thought at first that Masuda was saying something about LGPE being neither Gen 7 nor Gen 8, but it turns out he's referring to bridging literal "generations" of people; the younger players that the core series is traditionally targeted to, and the older players that Go was targeted to.

 

[Theorymon]

Interesting how this number interacts with the wild guess that Candies are a second layer of EVs. This is a level 75 Charizard with 48 more HP than the maximum, which would require "252 HP EVs plus 256 more HP EVs". So obviously Candies don't cap at 252, but they could still be "flat +1 to the stat regardless of level, 63 per stat maximum, 127 maximum total" which would act like a second layer of EVs at level 100. Unlikely that this is what's really happening, but ultimately there's no real way to tell until the game releases.

This gives me a thought: what if instead of removing EVs, they just removed the 255 EV per stat limit, and let you invest the full 508 into one stat? That would explain a lot with the weird Charizard and Pikachu stats we've seen!

For the record, here's Pikachu's stat, not sure if that works with this method or not. Note that Partner Pikachu has a base SpA of I beleive 80-90 or something like that. In this trailer, Pikachu's SpA stat at level 50 is 209.

I sorta hope this stays to Let's Go, an EV revamp like this sounds like a headache for speed creeping lol. I don't mind it in this different branch of mainline games though, makes them feel different!

Alternately like you said, it could just be candys giving you an extra layer of EVs.

 

[Kanburi]

I don't really see the point in adding another layer of EVs using candy. They made it easier to train EVs starting in SM with Poke Pelago, and now they want to add another set of EVs on top of that? I just don't see a point in potentially making everything stronger that way. Everything about this game just feels like a chore.

 

[Sulfurian]

Post game content, in a modern Pokemon game? Did someone add this while Masuda was busy playing Pokemon Go?

 

[DreamPrince]

From the Bulbagarden forums: I think the biggest reason that rivals were more of a jerk in the early days is that we were just limited with what we could express with the pixel graphics. There's not much you can do with that kind of little sprite on the screen, so we worked harder to characterize them through dialogue and give them certain personalities. Also, because it's just dialogue and there's not a whole lot going on on the screen, it doesn't give as harsh of an impression even if they're jerks, I think. Now we have HD graphics and the visuals are much more impressive. If you also made him a jerk, the impression would be a lot stronger on players. Another thing, just my own personal take, is that it feels that people with those kinds of personalities these days are not as accepted by players, I think, as they were back then. - Masuda explaining why Blue was replaced.

So the reason we have no jerk rival is because players aren't going to like them.... Isn't the whole point of a jerk rival is someone you despise so much that you want to beat them to teach a lesson?

Masuda's logic baffles me.

 

[Worldie]

Masuda's logic baffles me.

Error: Masuda and logic in same sentence. Cannot comply.

Anyway I've been looking, haven't seen the 225 HP (maybe the 7 could be mistaken?).

Turns out I misunderstood what the person said, 225 is the HP of Charizard at level 75 with 0 EV and IV.

Seems everyone agrees anyway that there has to be some alteration to the EV system, I hereby also agree with Merrick and demand the creation of Candy Values

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1053207540685832192

 

[Siggu]

From the Bulbagarden forums: I think the biggest reason that rivals were more of a jerk in the early days is that we were just limited with what we could express with the pixel graphics. There's not much you can do with that kind of little sprite on the screen, so we worked harder to characterize them through dialogue and give them certain personalities. Also, because it's just dialogue and there's not a whole lot going on on the screen, it doesn't give as harsh of an impression even if they're jerks, I think. Now we have HD graphics and the visuals are much more impressive. If you also made him a jerk, the impression would be a lot stronger on players. Another thing, just my own personal take, is that it feels that people with those kinds of personalities these days are not as accepted by players, I think, as they were back then. - Masuda explaining why Blue was replaced.

So the reason we have no jerk rival is because players aren't going to like them.... Isn't the whole point of a jerk rival is someone you despise so much that you want to beat them to teach a lesson?

Masuda's logic baffles me.

If anything, those jerks just make you not want to cross paths with them again, precisely because they are annoying. Beating them to teach them a lesson? Nah. Not acknowledging their existence is a lot better.

And besides, if a "rival" is a jerk, then that's not a rival. That's an enemy.

I agree with Masuda on this one,

 

[Sulfurian]

If anything, those jerks just make you not want to cross paths with them again, precisely because they are annoying. Beating them to teach them a lesson? Nah. Not acknowledging their existence is a lot better.

And besides, if a "rival" is a jerk, then that's not a rival. That's an enemy.

I agree with Masuda on this one,

I think they should find a balance. Many people agree Gladion was the best character we got in awhile. Though I think he was just edgy, not totally a jerk. Hau was probably the worst rival character, and that's mainly because it felt bad fighting him. For a boy who is really forced to act a certain way because he was the rival. They had to relate him to one of the kahuna so that you didn't really question why he was even in the main plot.

For a rival you have to be a little competitive, and I think Barry from DPP nailed that aspect perfectly. Then after that Gamefreak kept doing "multiple rivals" to trade for less characterization. Does anyone actually remember Cheren over Bianca from black and white? XY I remember the fat guy more than my actual main rival, who was just sort of a blank character because of all the other 'friends'. May is still bad.

 

[Theorymon]

Something interesting to note: assuming Partner Pikachu’s SpA is base 80 (within our estimate range), then Pikachu may also have an exact stat boost of 64 points, or basically 256 evs.

We probably need more examples, but that might indicate a cap of sort. Could be the same amount of stat points a full ev spread would give!

EDIT: Never mind, this is more complicated. I just remembered that when you give Pokemon candy, the game gives you the number of candy a Pokemon needs for a boost. This has me thinking that this could be because they're applying some sort of stat boost, but that doesn't show up on the level. That may explain the sparking bonus stats for certain level ups: it could be the candy having late effects ala EVs.

So basically, that would explain Charizard just fine, but that doesn't explain Pikachu at all, who has a 64 points above what its SpA should be at level 50 lol. Guess we're back to square one beyond "its a new stat system"!

 

[doipy hooves]

A new article about the game was posted on the Pokemon website a few hours days ago. It's an alright summary/first impressions about the first parts of the game, and confirms some more details.

https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/lets-go-for-a-test-run/

• TMs are reusable
• Happiness is in (rival's sister is the happiness checker)
• Anime references: Brock talks about being a breeder, Misty uses a Psyduck instead of Staryu
• Trainers can turn in directions more randomly, "easier to avoid". The route after Brock is used as an example
• New Pewter Crunchies item is a Full Heal like other regional sweets

Also the Japanese website posted another set of 5 videos about places in the world.

https://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/pika_vee/pv_yatte5/

 

[Worldie]

EDIT: Never mind, this is more complicated. I just remembered that when you give Pokemon candy, the game gives you the number of candy a Pokemon needs for a boost. This has me thinking that this could be because they're applying some sort of stat boost, but that doesn't show up on the level. That may explain the sparking bonus stats for certain level ups: it could be the candy having late effects ala EVs.

So basically, that would explain Charizard just fine, but that doesn't explain Pikachu at all, who has a 64 points above what its SpA should be at level 50 lol. Guess we're back to square one beyond "its a new stat system"!

I don't think we really have any way to determinate how it works until either the game is released (which isn't far anyway) or anyone is allowed more than just "get to Brock and you're done" gametime.

The only thing we can say so far is that it's not plain EVs because there's too many inconsistences, and if it's EVs, they don't have the same cap as in main line games.

 

[Zowayix]

This gives me a thought: what if instead of removing EVs, they just removed the 255 EV per stat limit, and let you invest the full 508 into one stat? That would explain a lot with the weird Charizard and Pikachu stats we've seen!

I don't really see the point in adding another layer of EVs using candy.

I don't think we really have any way to determinate how it works until either the game is released (which isn't far anyway) or anyone is allowed more than just "get to Brock and you're done" gametime.

The only thing we can say so far is that it's not plain EVs because there's too many inconsistences, and if it's EVs, they don't have the same cap as in main line games.

Looks like Serebii made a page covering what we know so far, and it pointed out some things that I hadn't noticed before and that don't seem to have been discussed that much:

• When Candies are used from the Bag, the recipient's stat goes up by 1 immediately. This displays a golden, sparkly "+1" next to the stat very similar to the mysterious "extra" +1's we've seen on the level-up screen.
• When selecting Candies from the Bag, the party screen comes up (of course) but it's shown to display a "Needs 1" next to every party member. (Oddly, all non-English languages visible display a more ambiguous "x 1" instead.) This "needs 1" requirement extends very far, with Pokemon like level 62 Snorlax and level 6 Caterpie all saying "needs 1". More specifically, the starter Pikachu was shown as "needs 1" at both level 10 and level 60.

With the above footage confirmed, there's quite a lot to speculate on:

• Serebii's page speculates that EVs are gone and that "CVs" (Candy Values) replace them completely (instead of supplementing them or changing the existing EV limits). As far as I know, there has not been any official confirmation of this, but it's interesting to think about. Serebii confirmed that he was able to see at least a little gameplay that he was not allowed to upload (yet), so I wonder if that applies here.
• Obviously CVs don't scale by level like IVs and EVs both do, otherwise it's impossible for a "needs 1" requirement to apply (and give +1s) at both level 6 and level 62. This is decent evidence that Candies add a flat number to the stat, ignoring level. (Like IVs and EVs, I wouldn't be surprised if they ignored base stats too.)
• However, displaying the text "needs 1" would be useless unless it changed to "needs 2" or higher under at least one circumstance. Since we know this circumstances can't depend on level, a wild guess is that it might work like the diminishing curve that Stat Exp used in Gen I-II. Pokemon with few CVs might require 1 Candy per stat boost, while Pokemon with a lot of CVs already might require more Candies to get a +1.
• Both Candies and the mystery extra +1's on the level-up screen using the same golden sparkly text suggests that they're related, but we have nothing to go on beyond this. If it represents boosts from Candies, then we have strong evidence that CVs both do and don't depend on level. Wut? I'm totally lost here now; even EVs haven't been delayed until level-up since the beginning of Gen V.

About the possibility of EVs being gone:

• One point vaguely in favor of this is that the Bag's Power-Up Pocket specifically displays a PP Up instead of any other vitamin.
• Since "Candy yields" are looking very similar to EV yields, it's possible that they completely replace at least wild EV yields. I.e. since Gen VI catching a Pokemon has awarded both experience and EVs to the Pokemon who's sent out. In LGPE we know that since you don't send out any team member, the whole team gets experience instead. But I speculate that the whole team does not get any EVs; instead you're 'supposed' to do the whole Candy transfer thing to get Candies to 'replace' the EVs.
• The above guess makes some sense but it runs into problems when it comes to Trainer battles. If EVs are gone and defeating Trainers' Pokemon yield no EVs at all, that sounds strange. Maybe the Poke Balls they give out are supposed(?) to replace this as well by making you go through the whole catch and Candy transfer process again. (Sounds just convoluted enough for GF.) On the other hand if EVs from defeating Trainers' Pokemon are still there, then we do have CVs and EVs on top of each other, both of which scale differently in such a way that it makes no difference to a fully EV'd level 100 Pokemon. (Also sounds just convoluted enough for GF.)

About that level 75 Charizard with 320 HP:

• So we know that this is 48 points higher than what a level 75 Charizard with full IVs and EVs can normally achieve. Either it has the equivalent of 508 HP EVs (380 EVs at level 100), or its base HP has been increased by 32. Some ways to think about this:
• Since this game is wholly incompatible with SM/USUM, maybe it becomes reasonable to consider base stat increases mid-gen. Between XY and SM, GF seems to have started dolling these out a lot more generously. XY had single +10's and one instance of +10 +10 for ~*~the mascot~*~. SM had multiple +25's, multiple +10 +10 +10's, multiple +20 +10's, and one instance of +20 +20. Is it that stupid to wonder if Charizard really got a +32 or +35 now?
• Keeping the 508/510 EV cap but removing the 252 EV cap feels too strange to be the truth, especially from a programming perspective and given what we know about Candies. (Imagine a level 100 Pokemon with no EVs - you get to take any stat you want and just slam 127 extra points into it by leaving all the other stats untouched.)
• If EVs are completely gone and replaced with CVs that provide a flat stat boost regardless of level, then this Charizard has +95 worth of HP Candies (which would stay +95 even at level 100). This would be more than the +63 that EVs could provide, but not as high as +127. ...Or, come to think of it, you could give the same amount of HP Candies (whatever that amount is) to a low-level Charmander and end up with a level 10 Charmander with 125 HP (the normal maximum is 37). This doesn't sound right either.
• If both EVs and CVs are present (with the sole evidence being that Trainer battles giving no EVs would be weird), then this could be a Charizard with maxed out HP EVs plus +48 worth of HP Candies. This sounds almost reasonable...except that you can still get a level 10 Charmander with 78 HP or more than double the usual maximum.
• Or maybe it's both a base stat increase and CVs in play. Charizard could reach 320 HP at level 75 if its base HP got +20, followed by +18 worth of HP Candies on top. Now applying that +18 HP to a low-level Charmander actually sounds very reasonable this time. (Even Little Cup can conditionally see +18's before the first turn with Clamperl + Deep Sea Tooth.)

Funny how quickly we've pivoted from Master Trainers to EVs/Candies/CVs just because of one Master Trainer-related screenshot.

@Worldie Some people got to play a portion of the game between Route 3 and Cerulean City/Cerulean Gym, but it looks like it was fewer than the number of people who got to play up to Pewter.

Something interesting to note: assuming Partner Pikachu’s SpA is base 80 (within our estimate range), then Pikachu may also have an exact stat boost of 64 points, or basically 256 evs.

We probably need more examples, but that might indicate a cap of sort. Could be the same amount of stat points a full ev spread would give!

A cap at specifically 256 or 64 would be weird when EVs similarly cap at 255 and 63.

As a side note, what's the strongest evidence we have that the starter Pikachu and/or Eevee have altered base stats (instead of just, say, gratuitous Candies)? The unique menu sprite likely indicates a new form, but Cosplay Pikachu had a unique menu sprite too and she didn't have changed stats.

EDIT: Never mind, this is more complicated. I just remembered that when you give Pokemon candy, the game gives you the number of candy a Pokemon needs for a boost. This has me thinking that this could be because they're applying some sort of stat boost, but that doesn't show up on the level. That may explain the sparking bonus stats for certain level ups: it could be the candy having late effects ala EVs.

Most of that looks right but the last sentence doesn't match what we know. EVs haven't had late effects since HGSS and we've seen footage that demonstrates Candies having an immediate effect. If Candies somehow have both an immediate effect and a late effect based on level-ups, then that doesn't explain how a level 6 and a level 62 Pokemon both use 1 Candy to increase a stat by the same flat amount.

The Japanese website posted another set of 5 videos about places in the world.

These 5 videos have been up on Serebii for 9 days.

• TMs are reusable
• Happiness is in (rival's sister is the happiness checker)
• Anime references: Brock talks about being a breeder, Misty uses a Psyduck instead of Staryu
• Trainers can turn in directions more randomly, "easier to avoid". The route after Brock is used as an example
• New Pewter Crunchies item is a Full Heal like other regional sweets

• Good to have this confirmed even though it was pretty likely. TMs in Pokemon Go are single-use but they behave a little differently from core series TMs.
• This is a surprise. In-universe, the lack of a friendship mechanic was supposed to be the 'only thing' preventing, say, Golbat from evolving into Crobat in Gen I. Not that there was much suspension of disbelief in the first place, but even that is gone now. Maybe this was necessary because Return and Frustration are in, or maybe there's an equivalent to that gift Bulbasaur in-game event from Yellow.
• Not surprised, this is based off of Yellow after all.
• I wonder how this will affect speedrunning.
• Cool, now all seven regions finally have a "regional delicacy" Full Heal-equivalent. I approve of this change.

• Also mentioned in the article: It looks like the Bicycle shop is confirmed gone? But the Fan Club in Vermillion and its infamous chairman are confirmed to return, so what changes there?
• Something I didn't think about until the article made it clearer: What happens if you enter the Jessie and James Double Battle in Mt. Moon with only one Pokemon on your team? Is it going to be like Liza and Tate where they refuse to battle you and block your progress until you come back with at least two Pokemon? Is it changed to a regular Single Battle instead? Or do they hang up a lampshade and force the player into a 1 vs 2 battle? (For that matter, what does the game do if you try to enable co-op mode with only one Pokemon on your team?)

Stuff less related to the above:

• So that steelbook artwork from 2 months ago turned out to be largely true (Pikachu gets a Water-type move and a Flying-type move, while Eevee gets a Fire-, Electric-, and Water-type move). But it also clearly showed Eevee using elemental moves of its remaining evolutions' types (Dark, Psychic, Grass, Ice, Fairy). So either the steelbook artwork is exaggerating Eevee's moves, or Eevee has five more signature moves on the way. This would be 'unfair' for Pikachu, but the argument on the other side is "if the artwork illustrator clearly knows what signature moves the starter Pokemon are getting, why would they deliberately draw in extra moves for Eevee?".
• I specifically wonder how co-op play will impact speedrunning. Will it be a separate category since it's probably going to speed up the completion time quite a bit? (I'm imagining one player frantically trying to manipulate two controllers at once to beat the game faster.)
• Don't think this has been talked about yet but it's confirmed that battling Legendary Pokemon will have a time limit, likely 5 minutes. Is this the first time the core series has ever had this kind of time limit requirement? I wonder if they flee when time runs out (and then for them to come back, you'd have to leave and re-enter the area, or less generously you'd have to beat the Pokemon League again).

 

[Worldie]

Since "Candy yields" are looking very similar to EV yields, it's possible that they completely replace at least wild EV yields. I.e. since Gen VI catching a Pokemon has awarded both experience and EVs to the Pokemon who's sent out. In LGPE we know that since you don't send out any team member, the whole team gets experience instead. But I speculate that the whole team does not get any EVs; instead you're 'supposed' to do the whole Candy transfer thing to get Candies to 'replace' the EVs.

It was mentioned by people who played the hands-on that wild catches do not give any "EV" at all, instead they occasionally provide candies (plus obviously you can also send the Pokemon to Oak for more candies)

• Also mentioned in the article: It looks like the Bicycle shop is confirmed gone? But the Fan Club in Vermillion and its infamous chairman are confirmed to return, so what changes there?

Wild guess is that the ability to ride your own Pokemon replaces Bikes.

 

[Zowayix]

It was mentioned by people who played the hands-on that wild catches do not give any "EV" at all, instead they occasionally provide candies (plus obviously you can also send the Pokemon to Oak for more candies)

Oh - this is interesting. Is there a video link that shows catching a Pokemon directly providing Candies? I thought this whole time that Candies were exclusively obtained through the transfer process - if they can be obtained elsewhere, then maybe Trainers can give them upon being defeated as well (possibly more evidence that EVs as a mechanic are gone).

Wild guess is that the ability to ride your own Pokemon replaces Bikes.

That sounds right given it's what happened in SM/USUM. We still don't know what happens to the Fan Club chairman's Bike Voucher though. Maybe he'll just reward the player with some arbitrary item and won't be near-mandatory to talk to at all this time.

 

[sb879]

About that level 75 Charizard with 320 HP:

• So we know that this is 48 points higher than what a level 75 Charizard with full IVs and EVs can normally achieve. Either it has the equivalent of 508 HP EVs (380 EVs at level 100), or its base HP has been increased by 32. Some ways to think about this:
• Since this game is wholly incompatible with SM/USUM, maybe it becomes reasonable to consider base stat increases mid-gen. Between XY and SM, GF seems to have started dolling these out a lot more generously. XY had single +10's and one instance of +10 +10 for ~*~the mascot~*~. SM had multiple +25's, multiple +10 +10 +10's, multiple +20 +10's, and one instance of +20 +20. Is it that stupid to wonder if Charizard really got a +32 or +35 now?
• Keeping the 508/510 EV cap but removing the 252 EV cap feels too strange to be the truth, especially from a programming perspective and given what we know about Candies. (Imagine a level 100 Pokemon with no EVs - you get to take any stat you want and just slam 127 extra points into it by leaving all the other stats untouched.)
• If EVs are completely gone and replaced with CVs that provide a flat stat boost regardless of level, then this Charizard has +95 worth of HP Candies (which would stay +95 even at level 100). This would be more than the +63 that EVs could provide, but not as high as +127. ...Or, come to think of it, you could give the same amount of HP Candies (whatever that amount is) to a low-level Charmander and end up with a level 10 Charmander with 125 HP (the normal maximum is 37). This doesn't sound right either.
• If both EVs and CVs are present (with the sole evidence being that Trainer battles giving no EVs would be weird), then this could be a Charizard with maxed out HP EVs plus +48 worth of HP Candies. This sounds almost reasonable...except that you can still get a level 10 Charmander with 78 HP or more than double the usual maximum.
• Or maybe it's both a base stat increase and CVs in play. Charizard could reach 320 HP at level 75 if its base HP got +20, followed by +18 worth of HP Candies on top. Now applying that +18 HP to a low-level Charmander actually sounds very reasonable this time. (Even Little Cup can conditionally see +18's before the first turn with Clamperl + Deep Sea Tooth.)

Check out this screen from the Go connectivity trailer:

This is the minimum HP possible with Charizard's current base, so no increase is consistent with this.

As a side note, what's the strongest evidence we have that the starter Pikachu and/or Eevee have altered base stats (instead of just, say, gratuitous Candies)? The unique menu sprite likely indicates a new form, but Cosplay Pikachu had a unique menu sprite too and she didn't have changed stats.

The strongest evidence in favor of the former is that the highly increased stats are still present even on a supposedly fresh Level 5 one, which can be seen multiple times throughout all the YouTuber demos (one example). It is possible that the starter is given to you with candy boosts already applied, but I can't think of any instance in series history where a Pokemon is given to you pre-trained.

As an aside, I just wanted to point out that every starter characteristic that's been seen corresponds to a potentially maxed IV, which makes it overwhelmingly likely that the starters have some guaranteed max IVs.