Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Get New ‘Let’s Go!’ Feature
The latest Pokemon games, Scarlet and Violet received a new trailer earlier this week highlighting the freedom that the eighth generation of the series is offering. This is certainly a bold feature put forth by the franchise (and one that’s been requested for years), as it offers players the ability to seemingly travel the world and complete gyms in whatever order they want. This is already a giant step forward for a series so stuck in its ways, but there was another announcement made that has flown under the radar.
GameFreak is introducing a new feature known as the ‘Let’s Go!’ mechanic (somewhat confusingly named considering the ‘Let’s Go’ Pikachu and Eevee titles a few years back). This essentially allows you to command your Pokemon to run around, collecting items but more crucially, take part in wild battles all by themselves. While not as revolutionary as a completely open gym formula, this will certainly have an impact on how the game is played. While the intricacies and deep details of this system remain to be revealed, the Pokemon website has made it seem like an ability for you to explore and gain exp at the same time. While you run around the world catching other pokemon and finding items, one (or more- it hasn’t been confirmed) of your little friends is able to fight battles on their own and grow stronger for it. This essentially completely removes the grinding aspect of the games that’s been present from the very start. This system seems to be pushing the boat out in a similar way to the other big Pokemon game that came out this year.
Released in January, Legends: Arceus was a spin-off departure from the basic series formula that many loved (despite its outdated visuals). It allowed you to catch different Pocket Monsters without even engaging in battle, which really trimmed the fat of loading animations and waiting to see if you managed to catch what you were aiming for. This is already confirmed to be coming over to Scarlet and Violet in some way but with the new ‘Let’s Go!’ feature, the long grind of training your party up has been eliminated entirely. This is certainly a positive, as it doesn’t seem like you’re required to use this feature if you don’t want to. By trimming the fat, even more, Scarlet and Violet will be able to focus on the parts that make the Pokemon games great because (let’s face it), nobody really plays to spend hours fighting hundreds of Zubats over and over again just to gain a few levels.
While the Pokemon Company hasn’t released too much surrounding this feature as of yet, its good to know that they’re finally listening to fan feedback and granting more options than ever. With this news (and the impressive new trailer), this is shaping up to be the most impressive game in the series in years. If it manages to deliver, Scarlet and Violet might just be the return to form that Pokemon desperately needs- and mechanics like ‘Let’s Go!’.
