So let me catch-up:
Project Eevee Twitter Image:
Hmm, this picture looks like its taken via with a Poke Finder/Alolan Photo Club-like feature. Take a picture of Pikachu/Eevee in certain locations and posing them.
Gameplay Video 8/29:
1:52: Hmm, you know something I just noticed are the very defined shadows. Do you think they'll have the position of the shadows move depending on the time of day? I don't think any other game has done that before.
7:52: I can't read what it says, but it looks like sometimes when catching a Pokemon you'll also get an item.
10:21: JEEZ, those item balls are huge! Eevee could literally fit into it without needing to be turned to energy.
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.
18:12: Those glasses and bow looks very close to accessories for Cosplay Pikachu's (the glasses of Ph. D and the bow of Pop Star). Would be a neat to include the Cosplay Pikachu costumes, or clothing identical to it.
No Cloud Save:
I'm not surprised, just disappointed. Though Pokemon not having multiple save slots has always been a major criticism (you'd still need two separate copies if you want to trade and battle). Though as for backing up, don't recent Pokemon games keep a few old saves back-up just in case something happens to the most recent save? Of course this doesn't replace Cloud Saving's feature of moving the saved data elsewhere, though I'd say if that's GF's concern they should allow saving to the Pokemon Bank if they want to keep a tighter control on how players move around their saves.
English Trailer 9/10:
(Doing the English first since I can understand it better and the Japenese shows more. Also I'm going to include info from the
main site)
Secret Techniques: So indeed they're replacing HMs, this time with "Secret Techniques" Pikachu/Eevee can do. "Sea Skim" is Surf via a surfboard (curious if that means the surf mini-game is back in), "Chop Down" is Cut via... pure will power I guess, and "Sky Dash" is Fly by summoning what I can best describe as a balloon scooter. So that just leaves Strength and Flash, which will probably be done via the way they did Cut (though for Strength would be cute if the animation if both the trainer and Pikachu/Eevee pushing the rock together. So I guess starting with Gen VII the Field Moves are no more, or at least as we know them. Wonder what they'll do for the Sinnoh Remakes...
0:18: Game Corner is back but as an arcade instead of a casino (which kinds of makes Team Rocket running a racket with it as a front kind of silly). So, will they have mini-games we can play? I mean, Kingdom Hearts 3 is adding Game & Watch-like mini-games so why not Pokemon?
0:21: What a surprise, Erika looks the same except her kimono and headband is more detailed. :P
0:24: Erika's ace returns to being Vileplume (in Yellow it was made a Gloom to match the anime). And while it did get a level increase I have a feeling it's probably going to need it with how easy its to level-up your Pokemon.
Partner Powers: And so the leaker was right, though a bit late on the trailer prediction (though to be fair, probably didn't predict there would be an earthquake in Japan last week). An icon will appear occasionally with Pikachu/Eevee holding a Joycon. Flicking it will have it do something special. If they're not the active Pokemon out they'll just provide a power boost. But if they are they'll perform a special move with a stupid name. As I go through each I feel compelled to give them a better name:
- The "standard" special move looks to be "Pika Papow" (better name: "Pikavolt Thunderbolt") for Pikachu and "Veevee Volley" (eh, guess that's alright) for Eevee. The power of the move increases depending on your bond, so it's pretty much Return though probably more powerful (and Electric-type for Pikachu).
- Pikachu gets "Splishy Splash" (better name: "Sparks Surfer") which is pretty much Surf (complete with surfboard) but afflicts Paralysis. I'm guessing there's also going to be one for Flying if that steelbook artwork is anything to go by.
- Eevee gets "Bouncy Bubble" (better name: Vapor Absorb) a 50% draining Water-type move, "Buzzy Buzz" (Jolt Bolt) a 100% Paralyzing Electric-type move, and "Sizzly Slide" (better name "Flare Raid") a 100% Burning Fire-type move. Like with Pikachu, the steelbook shows it using other elemental moves so it'll probably get one for each Eevelution type: Dark, Psychic, Leaf, Ice, & Fairy. Question is, what will their secondary effect be (I think we can guess what Category they'd be though).
Seriously, what is up with these names? Okay, I get it, you're making these games for babies, but did you really need to have a baby name the special moves? Like I'm seeing complaints about Z-Move names and I don't mind the Z-Move names as they at least put effort into them. But these? It's baby talk. Like, are they trying to make these game unappealing to any adult who would have been interested?
But we can't ignore that the leaker was right. Question is, are they all real or did they just somehow learned about this special move reveal and made up the rest to see if anyone will fall for it. Only time will tell.
Japanese Trailer 9/10:
0:22: Ooh, the in-game map! So, let's see... odd, they didn't mark the entrance to Diglett's Cave on Route 11 (near Vermillion City). Unless they didn't mark any entrance of Diglett's Cave on the map which in that case what's the additional notable location off to the side of Route 2? Also no notable location for Cerulean Cave (and surprised they didn't mark down the location of the GO Park in Fuchsia City).
2:02: Okay, so Celadon Gym breaks the mold by having no audience. It's also been completely redesigned to be a hedge maze which requires "Chop Down" to get through, so a combination of its Gen I and HGSS designs. It actually looks quite big!
Let's Go Themed Switch: Called it. Does't look too bad. If I decide to get the game (though it's not looking likely) I may do it via this Switch bundle.
Preorder Plush Key Chain: Ahh, these also look cute. :)
Wonder if they will correct the error with the badge names too? It makes much more sense for the Poison leader to give out the Marsh badge, and the Psychic leader to give out the Soul badge, than the opposite.
While that would be nice, sadly it's too late by now. It should have been fixed via early merchandise, the anime, and then officially in Gen II but they didn't and so it has become ingrained Sabrina gives the Marsh Badge and Koga gives the Soul Badge. At best they can make it a joke now, like an NPC mentions the oddity and its because the Pokemon League messed up the naming and wouldn't be worth the cost to fix it (and obviously be an English exclusive joke so would have to replace what an NPC originally says, though that wouldn't be too hard).
HOWEVER, this sets an interesting precedent, which is that if Eevee keeps these "attacks" in its movepool in gen 8+, then the eeveelutions will have actual coverage beyond Hidden Power and Shadow Ball, which could be pretty interesting.
As
Tapu Koko Loko said, these exclusive moves seem very likely to be for just for these games. If Eevee wants elemental moves in the core series it has to hope GF maybe throws it a bone and maybe allows it to learn certain ones via Move Tutor or maybe being bred from an Eeveelution.
My biggest pet peeve though, is the animations. There fun at first, but they start to get really tedious and overtop overtime. Especially for moves like Clangorous Soulblaze and Devastating Drake.
Does turning off battle animations turn off the Z-Move animations (though even if they did it should be a separate option, or have an option to do a quicker animation)?
