 Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are some of the most controversial games to be announced in the Pokemon franchise possibly ever, while other games have had their criticisms lobbied against them. This is the first time I can recall the collective Pokemon fanbase being fractured this badly, at least in terms of how we can see it. At this point you already mostly know if you love, hate, or are indifferent on these titles, but the one thing that is clear is that there is no universal agreement on if these games are good. Now to understand why this divide happens, why these games are splitting the fanbase so badly, we have to go back and understand how we got here first. The Switch was announced back in October of 2016, and fans of Nintendo's mobile platforms like 3DS, DS, and Game Boy Advance likely instantly saw the appeal of the platform. While it was unveiled and still today advertised as a home console, it's a system that has a screen in it, uses mobile technology, and is purely amazing to play in your hands. This felt and looked like a current generation PlayStation Vita, for lack of a better comparison. A handheld platform full of promise that just happened to have an easy to use dock for your TV included in the box. Finally, we could take Nintendo games, nay, anyone's games, on the go, and not have to sacrifice as much in the way of home console goodness. Breath of the Wild in large part encouraged this ideal. It was also a platform many started to see promise in. Finally, Nintendo could combine their output from handheld and home console into a single platform, helping limit the droughts and bringing previously handheld only franchises into full HD goodness. Pokemon was always one of those franchises that were highly important to Nintendo's handheld success. While they always seemed to release Pokemon games after a handheld had reached a certain threshold in sales, it's no secret that Pokemon games have been system sellers since their debut in the 90s. Starting as a simplistic RPG based around made up animals, Pokemon had instant appeal and became one of Nintendo and Game Freak's earliest 20 million unit selling franchises. With the first generation of games still to this very day remaining the top dog in terms of overall sales. Over the years, the Pokemon franchise has grown and expanded. Not just in terms of its video game relevance, but cultural relevance as well. TV shows, card games, movies, merchandise, and even theme parks. Pokemon became a cornerstone of video games and really the wider entertainment industry. A franchise so large that its pure presence on a platform practically ensured that platform would be a success. As the game series expanded and grew from generation to generation, it added many new mechanics while sticking to the same core basic principles. Rivals, gym badges, well at least most of the time. Final challenges to the likes of the Elite Four, battling Pokemon down to capture them, Pokemon with four movesets, in battles against other players and trainers, interesting stories, interval woven in a child like way. In fact, you've always literally played the game as children as the main protagonists have always been somewhere around the ages of 10 to 13 years old. Wild Pokemon were encountered through random encounters, a tactic popularized in early JRPGs, but still present today in some new ones such as Octopath Travelers on Nintendo Switch. New layers were added to the evolutions of Pokemon with z-moves and megas, the importance of things like EVs and IVs grew, and more and more layers were added over the years. What started as a rather simplistic approach and easy to access first foray for many into RPG elements had evolved into something much more complex, much more impactful in some ways even. Starting with 151 Pokemon, today at the time of this video there are 807 total Pokemon. Just saying that out loud almost makes my head spin. While the Pokemon games today are still just as easy to get into and enjoy on a surface level, a lot of the extra complexities thrown into the mix really catered a large focus of the games to the competitive scene. Some of this was due to the inclusion of online multiplayer and yes, even online trading systems such as through the almost universal Pokemon bank, but also through massive international tournaments that have really been part of the esports world before anyone ever called such things an esport in the first place. The popularity of the games have led to many spinoffs. From console forays like Pokemon Snap and the Pokemon Stadium series to other handheld entities like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and yes, eventually on smart devices with the likes of Pokemon Shuffle, Magikarp Jump and yes, Pokemon Go. The biggest thing that happened to Pokemon potentially ever. The appeal of Go wasn't inherently due to its mechanics or really the lack thereof when it launched, but because it helped fulfill a childhood dream for many Pokemon fans, both lapsed fans and current. You could now explore the real world and actually capture and collect Pokemon, seeing them in real life through your phone's camera. It's a novel concept, but one that was so large, its developer Niantic really wasn't prepared for the meteoric rise. Just as for missing promised features at launch like trading and battling friends, Pokemon Go continued to rise as one aspect, a key one of Pokemon games of the past started to resurface. You gotta catch them all. This catchphrase was popularized by the first season of the Pokemon anime cartoon series and by now if you have ever been into Pokemon, you likely know that theme song especially the first verse by heart. I want to be the very best like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause. While never technically an official catchphrase of the games, it's message actually lined up with one of the very first things you were asked to do in the first generation of Pokemon games, complete the Pokedex. Professor Oak kindly asked you to explore the world of Pokemon and complete the Pokedex, which you could only do by at least encountering every single Pokemon in the game or capturing them for that extra bit of challenge. As the number of Pokemon grew and quickly expanded over the years, the idea of having a complete Pokedex let alone capturing all 807 Pokemon today is mostly considered a relic of the time period. Sure, some still do it, and thanks to being able to transfer Pokemon across every generation of the Pokemon franchise, it's actually really easy for anyone who has been on this sort of quest for much of the last 20 years. You don't have to lose your progress with each new game, but as new people got introduced to Pokemon, completing such a task seemed so insurmountable that most passed on doing so or would simply settle for just getting the Pokemon available in those particular games. To date, there is not a single Pokemon game or group of games that actually contains all 807 Pokemon within it, as no game contains all of the various areas that have been presented over the course of 20 years. However, Go's appeal was simple at the time. Containing only the first generation of Pokemon at launch, now all the way through Generation 3, many laughs fans it was exciting to try and catch them all again in real life. Even if nearly impossible to do, without a very hefty and very serious travel budget, with some Pokemon native to certain areas of the world only. Today, Pokemon Go has evolved. Just like the Pokemon franchise on the whole has, it has added many promised features that weren't there at launch, has mostly fixed the online server issues outside of their PokeFest, and it has become a game with true staying power. It certainly isn't for everyone either. Instead of battling Pokemon to capture them, you simply hit them with one of the various types of Pokeballs and hope that sticks, with how you throw the ball, when you throw it, and what a little circle color is determining your chance of success to be. There's actually more to Pokemon Go and really the entire Pokemon franchise than what I touched on here, but it's all to illustrate how we got to where we are today. This is by no means a comprehensive breakdown of every mechanic in every single game. Next year at E3, the Pokemon Company finally came out and confirmed what many have been hoping. A mainline, core RPG Pokemon game was in the works for Nintendo Switch. Many fans were rejoiced, myself including, wondering what if anything would be different with the sort of power being offered by a system like Switch. After all, many of us have been hoping for a home console quality Pokemon game. Whatever that evens is supposed to mean, because it's never existed before. It's forward nearly a year from that point, and a week or so before E3 and then during E3 itself, people were introduced to what Game Freak Nintendo and the Pokemon Company were dubbing the next mainline core RPG. Pokemon, let's go Pikachu and Pokemon, let's go Eevee. As the name implied, it was a blend of Pokemon Go and the main series of Pokemon games. Naming conventions aside, fans were upset at the idea of core mechanics of the game being replaced by some of the core mechanics of Pokemon Go, namely the capturing mechanics. Some, however, stayed cautiously optimistic, mostly trying to live in a world where despite how it was presented that these games were spinoffs and nothing more. Like the several spinoffs before, they could easily be ignored. And in part, it's easy to understand why this mentality existed. When these games were announced, the Pokemon Company did tell us that these were not the games promised just one year prior, as that game would be arriving in 2019. Rather, this set of games would develop simultaneously alongside those games and would be a reboot of Pokemon Yellow, not too unsimilar from prior reboots and reimagining like Soul Silver and Heart Gold. The problem, of course, being that unlike in prior reboots, Pokemon, let's go Eevee and Pikachu would have massive sweeping changes from the way this had always happened in the past. Here's a very brief, yet very incomplete list. No compatibility with Pokemon Bank. Can only transfer Pokemon from Pokemon Go, and vice versa. Only the original 151 and a few select Aloen forms will be in this game, whereas other reboots allowed you to transfer in the full roster. The aforementioned capture changes. No sign of Eevee's yet, let alone the ability for Pokemon to hold items. Plus, many very unsure aspects of Pokemon that have been advanced over the years. This naturally caused a huge pause for concern, especially with everyone involved with the games continuing to insist this isn't a spin-off. Of course, maybe it is, after all, they did later say this would be a new line of Pokemon games that would alternate with the existing line. But I think their ideal is that these aren't spin-offs to point out that they hold equal importance to the main team. Essentially, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee are just as important to the mainline franchise as Generation 8 next year, even if fans want you to think differently. Anyways, longtime Pokemon fans seem perturbed by many of the changes. The change Least Chastise, however, is probably the one that Least talked about. And that was the idea that random encounters are replaced with the Pokemon being visible in the old world. A change I think many Pokefans, both new, old, lapsed, and longtime fans, possibly even expected in a full console style Pokemon adventure. Still, many of these changes flew in the face of what Pokemon had become, causing these upset at these changes to call this a casual flip. Some are so upset they are riding off Pokemon forever, though I think that's a clear overreaction and when the 8th generation lands next year, I bet they will sing a different tune. Yet, while we spend a lot of time here discussing why longtime fans are upset, I mentioned from the very start that a divide had begun, or at least became widely apparent due to these games. This is because as much as an understandable sour taste these games are leaving, in many longtime fans' hearts and minds, there is another side that is more excited for these games than they possibly had been for any Pokemon game before them. It's hard to pinpoint why folks are excited, as even with myself I find a different reason coming up every time I ask myself about it. Is it because of the return to Gen 1 in Kanto? Is it because of the changes? Is it because I feel like I can catch them all again? Is it the integration with Go? What exactly makes these games so appealing to me and many others? The reality? At the root of it is probably that I love these games for the very same reason the other side hates them. They did simplify Pokemon, much in the way the first generation of games was a very simple entry point into RPGs. Whereas many folks feel like this is an attempt to grab Go players, which is blatantly obvious. They forget why Go captured such a large audience in the first place. It was simple and fun, not overly complicated, and certainly not heavily skewed to the most hardcore of players. While there are certainly hardcore Pokemon Go players, they live within that same simplistic system everyone else uses and understands. When a casual Go fan sees a super powerful Pokemon guarding the gym, they know how that happened. They just don't want to dedicate the time to make that happen for themselves. Largely, this seems to be what is happening with Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. Beyond the evolution and changes to random encounters, capturing and even how XP is gained when capturing Pokemon, the games themselves feel like more simplistic versions of what Pokemon has become today. Sort of like going back and playing the first generation of Pokemon games all over again after having played Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which is a bit fitting, considering how closely tied to the first generation these games really are. This is massively appealing to many people, especially those overwhelmed by 800 plus Pokemon and many micro mechanics that never really mattered to them in the first place. For these people, these games represent the very best of what Pokemon is for them. Simple, fun, and about catching them all with a more realistic goal to do so. Naturally, this isn't what Pokemon is about for everyone, and the definition of fun is very different based on every person in the world. There is nothing wrong with competitive Pokemon players, those that love transferring across generations, and hell, as long as you're not impacting anyone else, I really don't care if you hack Pokemon within your own game. I think one thing that is different today is that this divide is now recognized and realized. Truly, I think this divide has probably always existed. It's why no game has outsold the first generation, and why Go itself has blown up despite the criticisms of the hardcore Pokemon fanbase. It's also why the current Pokemon franchise has remained popular regardless. Yes, Pokemon changed and evolved over time, but not necessarily to the taste of everyone who initially grew up with it. This divide has always been there then in my mind. One Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee has simply brought that divide front and center. It was easy for hardcore Pokemon fans to ignore Pokemon Go and other more open games as they were just games on your phone. They can't as easily ignore it now. As for the other side, the side that likes a more simplistic Pokemon experience, for the most part we just stopped playing Pokemon over the years. We didn't chastise those that still enjoyed it, we simply moved on. But now, they are speaking directly to us yet again, and thus the two sides are clashing. The odd thing is, we really shouldn't be. The Pokemon company has already promised us the 8th generation next year for those hardcore fans. Meanwhile, they have created this for everyone else. Yet for one reason or another, it hasn't stopped the chaos. Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee isn't for everyone, but neither is the 8th generation of Pokemon. And I feel like these facts are very hard to accept for both sides of the fence. Game Freak and the Pokemon Company appear to be trying for the first time ever to cater to the whole of the Pokemon fandom over the first two entries on the platform in 2018 and 2019. We'll see if this drastically different approach pays off in years in the future. For now, it appears there are a pair of games coming where every Pokemon fan should eventually get something they want. We'll just have to see if the divide in the fanbase only continues to grow wider due to this, or if Game Freak's hopes of bringing all of us together works out in the end. I am Nathaniel Ruffeljantz from Nintendo Prime, and if you liked this video, you know what to do. If you disliked the video, hit that dislike button, subscribe for more content, and I'll catch you in the next one.