The Pokemon Company’s CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara has asked fans for trust when it comes to their new Pokemon: Let’s Go games.
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Earlier this month, The Pokemon Company announced their first full Pokemon games for the Nintendo Switch, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee. These games were the “traditional” Pokemon games most fans were expecting, but were loose remakes of Pokemon Yellow that were simplified using Pokemon Go mechanics.
The Pokemon Company seemed to know that these new games would be controversial, as they also announced that a new core series Pokemon game (similar to Pokemon Sun and Moon) would be released in 2019. However, in a recent interview with the Japanese magazine Famitsu, The Pokemon Company’s CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara also asked fans to trust in Game Freak when it came to the new games.
“Among those who have tried the game, some may feel that is has changed,” Ishihara told the magazine. “However, we have been continuously changing the fomula of the games since our inception, and in the end the players have accepted those changes.”
“In that sense, this time we are doing the same, but that is part of the long tradition of Game Freak and the Pokemon series. We will not go wrong with the basics, so please, trust us.”
On one hand, Ishihara is right in that the Pokemon games have continuously changed over the last 20 years. Playing Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon is a totally different experience from playing Pokemon Red and Blue and that growth is one of the reasons the franchise has remained so popular over the years.
However, fans are concerned that Game Freak is stripping away a lot of that growth and development in the name of simplifying gameplay for casual fans and that we could eventually see the Let’s Go series of Pokemon games replace the Pokemon games fans have come to know and love.
The key to Pokemon: Let’s Go is what Game Freak does provided that it becomes the success that everyone expects. Junichi Masuda previously stated that he could see the Let’s Go series become a second line of Pokemon games, which would likely give everyone what they want. After all, hardcore Pokemon players can still get their games, while younger and casual fans can enjoy the more relaxing experience that Pokemon: Let’s Go has to offer.
Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee will come out on November 16th.
(h/t My Nintendo News)
