Pokémon Let's Go! - Pikachu and Eevee

[Chanderule]

Steel type wont save you if you didnt grind and get above level 50
But I dont think IVs and EVs actually counter grinding, since by grinding you would have 510 EVs as well but still have higher level, while punishing those who dont grind much

 

[Worldie]

I mean, by "grinding" i was referring to murdering everything on the way with a single mon + random wild mons.

Even when you have 510 ev on your starter, most of those will be on completely useless stats as well, not quite the same of 252 252 :p

 

[Chanderule]

Yes, but you still have the advantage of being human and having much higher level
But if you play with a team of 6, you are not only getting undreleveled but "underEVd" too (which pretty much means being massacred by things you should be able to beat, like Masquerain)
IMO giving them more and better Pokémon, items and moves would be better as Ive said already
Why give Guzma 5 subpar Mons that still decimate you when you can give him a tough team of six and STILL give chance to those who arent 15 levels higher?

 

[Tapu Koko Loko]

Yes, but you still have the advantage of being human and having much higher level
But if you play with a team of 6, you are not only getting undreleveled but "underEVd" too (which pretty much means being massacred by things you should be able to beat, like Masquerain)
IMO giving them more and better Pokémon, items and moves would be better as Ive said already
Why give Guzma 5 subpar Mons that still decimate you when you can give him a tough team of six and STILL give chance to those who arent 15 levels higher?

I really don't see the point in abandoning one way to control difficulty in order to introduce another way and end up at the same place (I don't know what Darksoulsesque copy of USUM you got, but personally I didn't need to overlevel at all to beat it. Even with random EVs and natures, a team of 6 with decent synergy should get the job done). Not to mention that if you give better mons to everyone then the recurring NPCs would just have teams composed exclusively of Uber/OU-caliber mons. EVs and IVs give GF the ability to have varied teams at the same level range.

 

[Worldie]

I really don't see the point in abandoning one way to control difficulty in order to introduce another way and end up at the same place (I don't know what Darksoulsesque copy of USUM you got, but personally I didn't need to overlevel at all to beat it. Even with random EVs and natures, a team of 6 with decent synergy should get the job done). Not to mention that if you give better mons to everyone then the recurring NPCs would just have teams composed exclusively of Uber/OU-caliber mons. EVs and IVs give GF the ability to have varied teams at the same level range.

The main reference to the artificial difficulty of Usum is that if you don't have a balanced team you actually can hit roadblocks, compared to previous titles which you could really murder with whatever.

Es, Guzma's masquerain is a known terror if you dont have a fast electric fire or rock attack available, totem togedemaru can easily murder a team that has no ground or special fire type with paraflinches, totem ribombee can devastate you if you lack steel or poison types to take it out fast, etc.

It's artificial difficulty given by the fact that since the AI has a major stat advantage over you, you actually need the fact of being human and able to counter his attacks, compared to how last 6 games before it you could realistically just run over the entire game with a single mon without even accounting exp share.

I myself didnt really have "problems" going blind, I occasionally wiped and went to take a mon to counter whatever the AI used. Gave me a better satisfaction than running everything over like I did in SM, cause I had to at least put some effort in having the correct mon.

 

[Chanderule]

I really don't see the point in abandoning one way to control difficulty in order to introduce another way and end up at the same place (I don't know what Darksoulsesque copy of USUM you got, but personally I didn't need to overlevel at all to beat it. Even with random EVs and natures, a team of 6 with decent synergy should get the job done). Not to mention that if you give better mons to everyone then the recurring NPCs would just have teams composed exclusively of Uber/OU-caliber mons. EVs and IVs give GF the ability to have varied teams at the same level range.

Pinsir, Tauros, Masquerain,all of those outsped me 100%of the time I didnt use Jplteon and like 80%of the time I did, OHKOed or did lpts of damage, and took very little damage back

Yes, maybe I was a bit underleveled,by a couple of couples of levels, but you get my point

MOD EDIT: Please don't double post.

 

[Worldie]

Yes, maybe I was a bit underleveled,by a couple of couples of levels, but you get my point

Don't underestimate how much a couple levels matter when matched with also missing EVs :)

Remember EVs contribution to a stat is based on your level as well

 

[Chanderule]

Yes, I know that, but Ive battled pretty much every trainer, didnt even get 6 members until Jangmo-o, and I was still underleveled ;_;

 

[PageofSwords]

The main reference to the artificial difficulty of Usum is that if you don't have a balanced team you actually can hit roadblocks, compared to previous titles which you could really murder with whatever.

Is that really artificial difficulty though rather than just (possibly) being, well, more difficult than older games? If you needed to have this knowledge about Guzma's team when you explore Ten Carat Hill for the first time, and catch and raise a rock type from there, then sure. But as it stands, that's presumably not necessary. For instance, when fighting Guzma in Malie Garden, you can catch e.g. Magnemite just a few feet away and it's close to evolving. I haven't tried Magnemite/Magneton in this fight, but I would assume that even with a small level deficit, it can at least provide enough assistance for the rest of your team to get through it (especially if you explored the Garden properly on your first visit and picked up the Thunder Wave TM).

The same should be true for most of the other major fights - if you can't win with what you have on hand, check around the area and you'll probably find something helpful. This was the case in the older games too, but if it became more necessary with USUM, that may just signify a shift to the real difficulty working as intended rather than it being artificial. To some extent, Pokemon is supposed to be about exploration after all.

 

[Worldie]

Is that really artificial difficulty though rather than just (possibly) being, well, more difficult than older games?

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.
The game doesn't exactly do anything special, but since it has a pure stat advantage you cannot use the usual strategy of overleveling one mon because that'd require too much extra grinding in order to be matching / superior statwise.
In SM, or XY/ORAS, I almost always ended up having my team higher level than anything I was fighting purely by going through the story itself, at most deviating to capture a mon i liked or wanted to use for whatever reason.
That's not feasible in USUM, as expecially once you reach the third island there's a huge spike in AI's levels (Lusamine-1 in SM has level 40s, in USUM she's sitting on level 50s with tutored/TM moves on top of IV/EV advantage for example, even though she uses almost same team)

Problem is, it is quite hard to make a Pokemon game "harder" without using artificial difficulty. SM even puts you often in 2v1 scenarios but yet you can easily murder everything anyway. USUM had to push that further adding competitive movesets AND IV/EVs.
Ultimately, you can't *REALLY* put the player in a facility-like scenario where you're on even field and play it on moveset or AI: the player will always potentially be overleveled and bruteforce, unless you specifically make that impossible by having the enemies TOO MUCH higher than what the player can find, which is what USUM does.
Since in USUM you can't realistically outstat the bosses / totems by doing the storyline with in-game catches because expecially from island 3 the wild Pokemon are over 20 levels below the bosses, the massive stat advantage forces you into tactical play, being it cheese or team variety or coming in with a plan.

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.

 

[Tapu Koko Loko]

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.
The game doesn't exactly do anything special, but since it has a pure stat advantage you cannot use the usual strategy of overleveling one mon because that'd require too much extra grinding in order to be matching / superior statwise.
In SM, or XY/ORAS, I almost always ended up having my team higher level than anything I was fighting purely by going through the story itself, at most deviating to capture a mon i liked or wanted to use for whatever reason.
That's not feasible in USUM, as expecially once you reach the third island there's a huge spike in AI's levels (Lusamine-1 in SM has level 40s, in USUM she's sitting on level 50s with tutored/TM moves on top of IV/EV advantage for example, even though she uses almost same team)

Problem is, it is quite hard to make a Pokemon game "harder" without using artificial difficulty. SM even puts you often in 2v1 scenarios but yet you can easily murder everything anyway. USUM had to push that further adding competitive movesets AND IV/EVs.
Ultimately, you can't *REALLY* put the player in a facility-like scenario where you're on even field and play it on moveset or AI: the player will always potentially be overleveled and bruteforce, unless you specifically make that impossible by having the enemies TOO MUCH higher than what the player can find, which is what USUM does.
Since in USUM you can't realistically outstat the bosses / totems by doing the storyline with in-game catches because expecially from island 3 the wild Pokemon are over 20 levels below the bosses, the massive stat advantage forces you into tactical play, being it cheese or team variety or coming in with a plan.

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.

Giving NPCs more than one pokemon would go a long way towards increasing difficulty in a meaningful way. So would giving NPC mons EVs with values different from 0 and 252

 

[Worldie]

Giving NPCs more than one pokemon would go a long way towards increasing difficulty in a meaningful way. So would giving NPC mons EVs with values different from 0 and 252

Even giving boss npcs full teams doesn't really solve the issue per se, because usually if your team / strongest member is strong enough, it murders all 6 enemies (expecially if they keep the "one shared type" thing that's a classic of Gym leaders and E4), without the need of other 5.

 

[Chanderule]

Alright, it is mostly my style of play getting beat up by the EVs and high levels (no EXP share, set option, six Pokemon I choose before I even begin)
But I dont think that doing things like this to prevent people from over-grinding is a good idea
People who do that wont get much difficulty anyways and they dont want a difficult game to begin with, while those like me, who want tough battles without grinding and getting demolished by Tauros like its Gen 1 suffer a bit
My team was/is Primarina, Lycanroc-Dusk, A-Marowak, Lurantis (what a terrible Pokemon), Jolteon and Kommo-o (wanted to try out the new moves he got)
So it wasnt the best or most balanced tbh, but getting smacked down by things like Pinsir or Tauros is a bit ridiculous I think

 

[Siggu]

USUM is definetly more difficult than SM. It's not brainless easy (most Totem Pokemon and boss trainers are tricky to beat without a counter) but it's not too difficult. I think the difficulty was good because you don't get any surprises - bosses that make you think, everything else easy; not the other way around (think Cooltrainer Jennifer in Ruby and Sapphire).

At least that's the impression I got from using a somewhat subpar team (Decidueye/Arbok/Braviary/not-traded Hawlucha/Salamence/Kommo-o).

 

[Rapti]

Did anyone here do level limits? I foud if I restricted myself to the same level as the bosses this would get tricky, specially if I didn't want to use more pokemon that the opponent had (so 2 per totem at most)

my team is Gliscor, Florgess, Clawitzer, (HA) Dragalge, Ferrothorn and Scrafty

 

[Worldie]

Sure but I don't think "player imposed" difficulty has any relevance to the difficulty issue :p

 

[Codraroll]

Doesn't look like there is much discussion on the actual game going on now, so we're locking the thread until further news surface.

 

[Codraroll]

Thread opened again, courtesy of Kanburi, who found this:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1033142167433355264

A short little video showing the Pokédex in Let's Go. Not very much to discuss here, but it is news, and since it's been a while since the last major info dump, maybe another will follow soon-ish?

 

[Kanburi]

Thread opened again, courtesy of Kanburi, who found this:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1033142167433355264

A short little video showing the Pokédex in Let's Go. Not very much to discuss here, but it is news, and since it's been a while since the last major info dump, maybe another will follow soon-ish?

About the trailer:

The first screen shows the menu, the big Pikachu-shaped button is "Play with Pikachu". I'd imagine this to be "Play with Eevee" if you choose PLG Eevee instead. Along the bottom row, from left to right: Pokedex, Bag, Pokemon (i.e. the ones in your party), Connection, and Report (adventure log of sorts, maybe?)

On the top of the Pokedex screen are Caught Pokemon: 12 and Seen Pokemon: 16. Obviously these are both counting species rather than the number caught.

Once Pikachu is clicked, a menu pops up with the options See Data, See Locations (i.e. where you can find the selected Pokemon), and Back.

On the top left of the entry screen are Dex No. 25, Pikachu, Electric type, Mouse Pokemon, height 0.4m, weight 6.0kg.

On the top right is caught: 2, followed by the range of the Pokemon's height and weight. Pikachu apparently measures at least 0.34m tall and weighs at least 5.00kg.

The entry itself says something along the lines of "A Pokemon that lives in forests. The pouches in its cheeks stores electricity, so you can get shocked if you touch them."

Looks like it's a completely new dex entry according to the list here.

 

[Pikachu315111]

It's open again! Meaning I can finally post this: I think it has been confirmed there are no Abilities. In addition to the above Pokedex video where no where on it shows Pikachu's Ability, there was another video released:

In it, we see them have Kangaskhan Mega Evolve, use Dizzy Punch (which animation always shows it hitting twice), and then cut to Ninetales fainting. There's also Mega Gyarados but that's not the point. The point is: They carefully edited the video to purposely not show the ending of the attack (where Parental Bond would have activated and attacked again). The major thing about Mega Kangaskhan is its Ability, Parental Bond. It's the reason why it's not the mother that Mega Evolves but the baby. If for some reason they wanted to hold back that Abilities were in the game as a "surprise", now would have been the time to do it. Heck, with Gyarados having Mold Breaker they could have showed it using a Water-type move on a Pokemon with Water Absorb. But they didn't. And I feel that's the final nail in the coffin. Heck, there was no reason NOT to show Abilities in the first place, so their absence from the start was already telling but we didn't want to believe such a STUPID decision would be done.

Why no Abilities? Because these games directly connect to GO which doesn't have the Abilities yet? Well there's a lot of things in the game that GO doesn't have yet that isn't stopping you from giving to Pokemon transferred from GO, so why are Abilities taboo?

Eitherway, I think it's now fact Abilities don't exist in the game. So, what does it mean for certain Pokemon? Well it's 6 in the morning so right now I'll only go over the Mega Pokemon:

Venusaur (Thick Fact): MV was made to be bulkier and Thick Fat really helped with that by lessening two of its weaknesses. While nothing too major, MV is a little less bulky now having Fire and Ice moves do 2x damage again.
Charizard X (Tough Claws): MCX gave a bit up to become a Physical Mixed attacker. In addition to making Attack equal to Special Attack it was also given Tough Claws for that additional physical boost. But with no Tough Claws that really affects how you'd play MCX. It changes to just a Mixed attacker. Alright, but with MCY having a WAY better Special Attack stat many did play MNX with a physical set. Sure, now you're not giving much up having Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Heat Wave on MCX along with Outrage, but one of the things which really separated it from its counterpart is pretty much now gone. At least it still has the Dragon typing.
Charizard Y (Drought): With it being a wallbreaker it really stinks that not only does the immediate boost to its Fire-type attacks are gone but also instant Solar Beam which handled its Water and especially Rock-type weaknesses. Nothing too major though, it'll just be like a MCY which lasted in a battle for over 5 turns. Unlike MCX it didn't give much to its Attack so still has sky high Special Attack to its name.
Blastoise (Mega Launcher): Goodbye Water Pulse, Surf is once again the preferable (100% accuratte) Water-type move here. But that's all that really changed. Sure, if they give it the other "pulse" moves they wouldn't be powered-up, but they at least provide coverage and powerful enough they aren't a bad choice.
Alakazam (Trace): Well at least you don't have to worry about going into a situation where Alakazam gets a hindering Ability or one that helps the opponent. I imagine MA is picked usually without thinking about what Ability it'll get from Trace so no big loss here. Normal Alakazam is probably more annoyed it lost Synchronize/Magic Guard.
Gengar (Shadow Tag): I think some players would see this as a blessing more than a curse. MG is powerful enough it won't miss Shadow Tag, was just a handy thing to have to maybe assure one knock out without worrying about a switch being resistant or immune. Though Gengar now being phased through the ground makes a bit less sense.
Kangaskhan (Parental Bond): I think one of the biggest effected, MK was all about Parental Bond even with its design. Now with it gone, it's just a better Kangaskhan but nothing that really stands out.
Pinsir (Aerilate): But at least MK didn't get a Type it couldn't use! Pinsir learns NO Flying-type moves! And even if it did, it still wouldn't have beaten Aerlilate turning Normal-type moves into Flying as they also got a Power boost from it! And from what I'm seeing, the only physical Flying-type moves it could learn that'll also make sense for its normal form is Aerial Ace (60 Power) and maybe Acrobatics (and since items don't seem to be a thing either, will be staying at 55 Power).
Gyarados (Mold Breaker): Huh, so MG lost the Ability that allowed it to ignore Abilities... so in other words nothing changed? Normal Gyarados lost Intimidate and Moxie though, so that's sad.
Aerodactyl (Tough Claws): Unlike Mega Charizard X, MA didn't give up anything to be a physical attacker so it overall is now just a more powerful Aerodactyl, which is alright as it's very fast.
Mewtwo X (Steadfast) & Y (Insomnia): Having both MMs here because was their Abilities ever a factor? You picked one of the MM because it was a suped up Mewtwo, giving it a better Ability would have made it even more OP.
Beedrill (Adaptability): Well, at least MB was min-maxed to give it high Attack and Speed so losing its Ability isn't too terrible but does make it look less favorable cause it still has low defenses.
Pidgeot (No Guard): Hits MP harder than you think as it was essentially made to use Hurricane. Still has its higher Speed and Special Attack so it's not too worse off.
Slowbro (Shell Armor): It'll be fine. Even with crits affecting it it'll still probably be able to take one or two.

Maybe later today I'll also look at other Pokemon, including the Alolan forms.

 

[Karxrida]

Kind of old news, but preorders aren't doing well.

 

[Merritt]

If we have indeed lost abilities I do hope we get some other way to manipulate natures of wild Pokemon like legendaries without Synchronize, otherwise I foresee a lot of Relaxed Mewtwo and Impish Moltres in our future.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Kind of old news, but preorders aren't doing well.

And the comment section is filled with commenters happy about it.

But with all that said, let's remember the games are over two months away and last major news was in July. Right now it's in a bit of a dull period. Wouldn't be surprised when more news appears as it's coming to release more pre-orders will come on (and also no pre-order doesn't mean the game won't sell millions, just means people aren't excited enough to ensure they get a copy). Also I bet if they release a special colored Switch (with yellow and brown joy-cons) that comes with the game the preorders for at least those would flood in.

If we have indeed lost abilities I do hope we get some other way to manipulate natures of wild Pokemon like legendaries without Synchronize, otherwise I foresee a lot of Relaxed Mewtwo and Impish Moltres in our future.

Does not including Natures count as some other way? It looks like the only thing that'll be effecting a Pokemon's stats are candies you get from sending Pokemon to Professor Oak.

 

[Merritt]

Does not including Natures count as some other way? It looks like the only thing that'll be effecting a Pokemon's stats are candies you get from sending Pokemon to Professor Oak.

Thought we were pretty confident that natures were in, but maybe not?

 

[Champion Leon]

It's open again! Meaning I can finally post this: I think it has been confirmed there are no Abilities. In addition to the above Pokedex video where no where on it shows Pikachu's Ability, there was another video released:

In it, we see them have Kangaskhan Mega Evolve, use Dizzy Punch (which animation always shows it hitting twice), and then cut to Ninetales fainting. There's also Mega Gyarados but that's not the point. The point is: They carefully edited the video to purposely not show the ending of the attack (where Parental Bond would have activated and attacked again). The major thing about Mega Kangaskhan is its Ability, Parental Bond. It's the reason why it's not the mother that Mega Evolves but the baby. If for some reason they wanted to hold back that Abilities were in the game as a "surprise", now would have been the time to do it. Heck, with Gyarados having Mold Breaker they could have showed it using a Water-type move on a Pokemon with Water Absorb. But they didn't. And I feel that's the final nail in the coffin. Heck, there was no reason NOT to show Abilities in the first place, so their absence from the start was already telling but we didn't want to believe such a STUPID decision would be done.

Why no Abilities? Because these games directly connect to GO which doesn't have the Abilities yet? Well there's a lot of things in the game that GO doesn't have yet that isn't stopping you from giving to Pokemon transferred from GO, so why are Abilities taboo?

Eitherway, I think it's now fact Abilities don't exist in the game. So, what does it mean for certain Pokemon? Well it's 6 in the morning so right now I'll only go over the Mega Pokemon:

Venusaur (Thick Fact): MV was made to be bulkier and Thick Fat really helped with that by lessening two of its weaknesses. While nothing too major, MV is a little less bulky now having Fire and Ice moves do 2x damage again.
Charizard X (Tough Claws): MCX gave a bit up to become a Physical Mixed attacker. In addition to making Attack equal to Special Attack it was also given Tough Claws for that additional physical boost. But with no Tough Claws that really affects how you'd play MCX. It changes to just a Mixed attacker. Alright, but with MCY having a WAY better Special Attack stat many did play MNX with a physical set. Sure, now you're not giving much up having Flamethrower/Fire Blast/Heat Wave on MCX along with Outrage, but one of the things which really separated it from its counterpart is pretty much now gone. At least it still has the Dragon typing.
Charizard Y (Drought): With it being a wallbreaker it really stinks that not only does the immediate boost to its Fire-type attacks are gone but also instant Solar Beam which handled its Water and especially Rock-type weaknesses. Nothing too major though, it'll just be like a MCY which lasted in a battle for over 5 turns. Unlike MCX it didn't give much to its Attack so still has sky high Special Attack to its name.
Blastoise (Mega Launcher): Goodbye Water Pulse, Surf is once again the preferable (100% accuratte) Water-type move here. But that's all that really changed. Sure, if they give it the other "pulse" moves they wouldn't be powered-up, but they at least provide coverage and powerful enough they aren't a bad choice.
Alakazam (Trace): Well at least you don't have to worry about going into a situation where Alakazam gets a hindering Ability or one that helps the opponent. I imagine MA is picked usually without thinking about what Ability it'll get from Trace so no big loss here. Normal Alakazam is probably more annoyed it lost Synchronize/Magic Guard.
Gengar (Shadow Tag): I think some players would see this as a blessing more than a curse. MG is powerful enough it won't miss Shadow Tag, was just a handy thing to have to maybe assure one knock out without worrying about a switch being resistant or immune. Though Gengar now being phased through the ground makes a bit less sense.
Kangaskhan (Parental Bond): I think one of the biggest effected, MK was all about Parental Bond even with its design. Now with it gone, it's just a better Kangaskhan but nothing that really stands out.
Pinsir (Aerilate): But at least MK didn't get a Type it couldn't use! Pinsir learns NO Flying-type moves! And even if it did, it still wouldn't have beaten Aerlilate turning Normal-type moves into Flying as they also got a Power boost from it! And from what I'm seeing, the only physical Flying-type moves it could learn that'll also make sense for its normal form is Aerial Ace (60 Power) and maybe Acrobatics (and since items don't seem to be a thing either, will be staying at 55 Power).
Gyarados (Mold Breaker): Huh, so MG lost the Ability that allowed it to ignore Abilities... so in other words nothing changed? Normal Gyarados lost Intimidate and Moxie though, so that's sad.
Aerodactyl (Tough Claws): Unlike Mega Charizard X, MA didn't give up anything to be a physical attacker so it overall is now just a more powerful Aerodactyl, which is alright as it's very fast.
Mewtwo X (Steadfast) & Y (Insomnia): Having both MMs here because was their Abilities ever a factor? You picked one of the MM because it was a suped up Mewtwo, giving it a better Ability would have made it even more OP.
Beedrill (Adaptability): Well, at least MB was min-maxed to give it high Attack and Speed so losing its Ability isn't too terrible but does make it look less favorable cause it still has low defenses.
Pidgeot (No Guard): Hits MP harder than you think as it was essentially made to use Hurricane. Still has its higher Speed and Special Attack so it's not too worse off.
Slowbro (Shell Armor): It'll be fine. Even with crits affecting it it'll still probably be able to take one or two.

Maybe later today I'll also look at other Pokemon, including the Alolan forms.

It may just be to keep it from being obvious, whether it will be included or not.

For example, there are no held items in Gen 1 or in Pokémon Go, but with Pokémon traditionally having to hold Mega Stones in order to Mega Evolve, it doesn’t surprise me if they will feature things we didn’t know they would, later on, closer to release.

If anything, I think a lack of items will have a much bigger impact. No Choice Scarf, Band, Specs, Life Orb, Leftovers, Lum Berry, Focus Sash, etc. will impact many things.

I.e. Try using Reversal or Flail without Focus Sash, or without Salac Berry (if you use Endure). Or item specific moves like Knock-Off/Thief/Covet.

Abilities have their relevance too, but items can be used by anything without being “Species-Specific”, beyond a few like Light Ball Pikachu or Mega Stones. Imagine Ditto will have to use Transform over Imposter, likely going second and taking the hit and not being good at all without Choice Scarf.

I believe Mega Stones prove items can be used, but if they aren’t beyond that and Z-Crystals (the only reason to not evolve Eevee), then not allowing for regular items (like Light Ball- the only way Pikachu that can’t evolve can be good), that will hurt the game even more.