Trivia / Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!

• Content Leak:
  • An anonymous 4chan poster leaked the details of the game, such as the Pokémon GO mechanics and a return to Kanto, through a text post. However, due to the leak being on April Fools' Day, many fans dismissed it as a joke before it was officially revealed.
  • Chrales, a well known Pokémon Go hacker, dug through the servers after a September update and found the model for the then-unrevealed Pokémon Meltan. Interestingly, the file for it was named Kecleon, the name of a Pokémon from Gen III.
• Demand Overload: In Russia, Let's Go, Eevee!, including bundles with the Poké Ball Plus accessory and the special edition Nintendo Switch, faced (artificial) shortages at launch amidst a controversy over Nintendo of Russia's CEO.
• Dummied Out: Abilities for every Pokémon are still registered in the game's data, but are left unused due to the removal of Abilities as a mechanic. This is how players were able to discover Meltan and Melmetal's Abilities, Magnet Pull and Iron Fist respectively, which they later became able to use in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
• Fandom Nod: The infamous truck in Vermillion City houses a Revive that respawns daily. Thankfully, it's much easier to get to now, as the S.S. Anne's harbor is no longer blocked off after the ship leaves.
• Feelies: A device known as a Poké Ball Plus can connect to the game. It works similarly to the Joy-con in that it can be used to catch Pokémon in the game. You can take your favorite Pokémon out of the game and into the real world, much like the Pokéwalker from Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Unlike the Pokéwalker, it's a separate accessory that costs extra. It also doubles as the Pokémon GO Plus accessory for Pokémon GO.
• God Never Said That:
  • The whole situation surrounding online play. During the initial reveal, conflicting reports from journalists caused many to believe that online battling and trading, a staple of the series since Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, would not be in the game at all. The following day then had it reported by Western gaming media that the lack of online only referred to the games not requiring a subscription to Nintendo's paid online service... only for an interview with Famitsu a few days later to state that the games would require a subscription to the service, and that they were specifically referring to the games not utilizing the Nintendo Switch Online phone app.
  • Following Game Freak announcing that a "core series" Pokémon game would release in the latter half of 2019, many gaming outlets started stating that Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee! are spin-off titles. However, Game Freak themselves stated repeatedly during the game's reveal that while they aren't the "core" entries previously alluded to during E3 2017, they are still "mainline" entries in the same vein as HeartGold and SoulSilver or Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
  • A quick translation of a Japanese interview with Masuda that appeared on a Spanish-language website had many believe that he stated the old catching mechanics were too difficult for some players, causing quite possibly the biggest backlash in the community since the anime's Kalos league arc, with many feeling insulted and believing the director/producer to be out of touch with the audience. When the interview was properly translated a day later, it was shown that what he actually said was that some people aren't fans of the old "weaken, then capture" method, with no mention at all to supposed difficulty besides acknowledging the Go method as being simpler.
• Recursive Adaptation: Similar to Yellow, Jessie and James from the anime return as antagonists. Also, like Yellow, Misty and Brock look closer to their anime counterparts than they did in other previous games, and Brock aims to become a Pokémon breeder as well.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Junichi Masuda originally considered Psyduck to star alongside Pikachu, but he eventually choose Eevee due to its popularity and because he didn't want the mascot of both games to be yellow.
  • The ability to ride Pokémon originally extended to all Pokémon (which would have made things like the infamous "PIDGEY FUCK YEAH" meme possible), but eventually the feature was scaled back to only include large Pokémon.
    Masuda: At one point we had people ride on the backs of smaller Pokémon, and we felt sorry for them.
  • Deep down the files, the Abilities were meant to be retained and carried over from the previous "core-series" games, but they were left out in the final product releases.
• Word of God: It has been stated that Eevee's starring role was only partially inspired by Yellow, and was also influenced by Eevee's swiftly-rising popularity. The idea to make Eevee a box art Pokémon is a pitch to make Eevee Pikachu's "partner", of sorts.

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