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

• Accidental Innuendo: You can get Poké Balls for beating other Trainers. Seeing the message "You got 2 Great Balls!" makes it seem like your opponent is complimenting your genitals.
• Awesome Music:
  • The song in this trailer has the swelling lyrics and tone of going on an adventure with your friends, a major theme in the Pokémon franchise.
    "Let's go to a place, we've never been, we've never been,"
    "There's nothing to be afraid of, if you're with me!"
  • The orchestral remixes of music from the original Kanto games have shaped up to be this, to the point that they were praised even by the games' detractors. This includes the Communication Channel theme, which is a remix of the printer error theme from Yellow, Gold, and Silver as well as the Pokéwalker synchronization theme from HeartGold and SoulSilver.
  • The game's launch trailer, which re-creates the original anime opening, complete with the song.
• Breather Boss: Of the Master Trainers, the Chansey Master is among the easiest. As her Chansey can only inflict damage through Seismic Toss, and doesn't recover using Rest, a newly caught Chansey with Toxic and a recovery move can easily tough it out long enough for Toxic to knock that Chansey out, as long as the player's Chansey has at least 151 HP.
• Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Cheese Strategy: See the series' sub-page here.
• Contested Sequel: To FireRed/LeafGreen, as both are Kanto remakes that include and exclude a variety of different mechanics and story builds. FR/LG has more standard gameplay, particularly with held items, and includes the massive Sevii Islands arc, as well as a selection of 386 Pokémon upon completing said arc, but suffers from age as it was made long before several mechanical enhancements were made to the series. Let's Go! includes a variety of new and updated mechanics, notably the Physical Special Split, the Fairy type, and the return of the beloved following Pokémon alongside the addition of wild ones roaming in the overworld, and has references to the plots of Johto, Alola, and even the manga, but omits several mechanics such as held items and wild Pokémon battles, doesn't use the expanded story from FR/LG, and only has a comparatively paltry 153 Pokémon, less than half of what FR/LG offers upon completion. Debates about which game is the "definitive" version of Kanto markedly don't end well.
• Critical Dissonance: In general, professional critics have rated Pokémon Let's Go pretty highly, giving it around 8-9s on average, while the player base in general was much more divided about the game. On Metacritic, Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee have critic scores of 79 and 80 respectively when compared to the user scores of 6.1, with hundreds of negative user reviews.
• Fanon: Due to the games being remakes of Yellow, some fans tend to interpret Elaine as being the game equivalent to Yellow (even if she isn’t named as such). It helps that Elaine has her hair in a ponytail like Yellow's and that Yellow lacks a direct counterpart in the games (due to being a manga-exclusive Canon Foreigner), allowing Elaine to fill her place with relative ease.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Effort Values have been replaced with a new system called Awakening Values, boosted by feeding a Pokémon enough candy. The boosts given are not affected by level and cap out at 200 extra points for each stat, meaning that a low level Pokémon could, if one is willing to grind for all that candy, have stats comparable to Pokémon dozens of levels higher than it.
  • One of the partner Pikachu's new signature moves, Zippy Zap. It has 2+ priority, so you'll almost always attack first. On top of that, while its 50 base power is already reasonably strong for that point in the game, it also always lands a critical hit, effectively making it on-par with mid-to-late game 75 base power attacks. And by the way, if you couldn't tell from the name, it's an Electric-type move... which you can learn right before going to the Cerulean Gym.
  • In general, the new moves given to the starter Pikachu and Eevee. Besides Zippy Zap noted above, they are all 90 base power and 100% accuracy elemental moves meant to expand their type coverage. However, Eevee's are particularly broken as they all always cause a secondary effect.
    • Glitzy Glow and Baddy Bad put up a Light Screen and Reflect, respectively.
    • Sappy Seed always causes Leech Seed, when not even the actual move Leech Seed has 100% accuracy.
    • Sizzly Slide and Buzzy Buzz guarantee Burn and Paralysis, respectively.
    • Sparkly Swirl heals the status conditions of everyone in the party and any allies, ala Aromatherapy.
    • Bouncy Bubble is basically a Water-type Giga Drain with 15 more base power, which is perfect considering Eevee's strongest STAB attack does recoil damage.
    • Freezy Frost eliminates every stat change among all the Pokémon engaged in battle, which is basically Haze as an attack move.
  • When playing in Console or Tabletop Mode, you can normally only use one of the Joy-Con controllers for playing the game. However, you can activate the second controller, which activates co-op mode and brings in a support character for another person (or yourself) to control, following you around on the overworld, participating in battles, and helping catch Pokémon. How does this break the game? With the support character, you can use two Pokémon in every battle, turning every encounter into 2-on-1 fight in your favor. And when it comes to catching Pokémon in co-op mode, you use two Poké Balls. Which seems wasteful at first until you realize that if they both hit at once, your chance of a successful capture increases and you get a "Synchronized Bonus" to your Exp. With a little practice, tossing those Poké Balls on your own simultaneously becomes incredibly easy.
• Gateway Series: Designed to be an entry-level counterpart to the main series, especially for those who have already taken their first step with Pokémon GO. When coupled with Pokémon Quest and the 2019 Switch title Pokémon Sword and Shield, the aim of these games is to cover all areas of the series' Multiple Demographic Appeal and provide a Pokémon RPG that anyone can enjoy.
  Junichi Masuda: It's really my hope that all sorts of people will give these games a try.
• Goddamned Boss: Predictably, the Metapod and Kakuna Master Trainers. Both Pokémon are defensively-oriented Mons with only one actual offensive move and access to a single Defense-buffing move. The fact that you have to challenge them in a Mirror Match means that both fights end up turning into an exercise in patience where both parties can only deal Scratch Damage to each other and the "winner" is determined by whoever runs out of PP first.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • After you become Champion, your partner will pick a bouquet for you as a present. Now check the item's description when it gives it to you in-game.
    A small bouquet that was made with heart and soul for a single Trainer.
  • After the scene in which Cubone's mother vanishes for good, Trace will mention he's taking Cubone home with him. Sure enough, when you next encounter him, the Cubone is part of his team, even eventually becoming a Marowak itself.
  • When you defeat Jessie and James for the last time, they take the loss well and run off. Meowth is left behind, and he smiles at the player and poses, as if saying "Dat's right!"
  • One of your trainer's Idle Animations is you petting your partner Pokémon on the head.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Check the main page.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • People have complained that the player characters in the Gen VI and VII Pokémon games had expressionless faces, which threw some people off in in-game cutscenes. This time around, the player characters display facial expressions beyond just a blank stare.
  • Sun and Moon's infamous Cerebus Retcon Pokédex entries for the Mega Evolutions were toned down, resulting in much more typical entries for the Megas.
  • Surge's infamously awful "puzzle" was changed to something more tolerable. While some feel it went too far the opposite direction in terms of difficulty, it being solvable without guessing until it works is a massive improvement.
  • One criticism for the original Yellow is that Pikachu's inability to evolve made it weak. This game gives a buff to the starter the player obtains, being stronger than the average Pikachu or Eevee. Standard Pikachu can also be caught in Viridian Forest, whereas the starter Pikachu was the only one available in the original Yellow outside of trading.
  • After many complained about being unable to skip Pokémon Sun and Moon's lengthy cutscenes on repeated playthroughs, Let's Go has a "movie skip" function you can turn on in the Options menu.
  • Koga's Gym in Fuchsia City requires the player to have registered at least 50 Pokémon in their Pokédex before they can challenge him. While this could have easily turned into a tedious Fetch Quest across the entire region thus far, GO Park is conveniently located in the city where the gym resides, so if players are short on Pokémon by the time they get to him, they can transfer their Pokémon from Pokémon GO to reach the amount required. This is also how the player can obtain Meltan and Melmetal, who just so happen to be immune to Koga's Poison-type.
  • A frequent concern in the original games—both Red/Blue/Yellow and FireRed/LeafGreen—was what happened to that Pokemon Bill accidentally fused with. Here, the Pokemon (a Nidorino) emerges unharmed from the machine after being split from Bill, confirming that it was okay.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!:
  • Has a much simpler take on the classic core series formula, designed to appeal to younger children and casual players who were introduced or reintroduced to the franchise with Pokémon GO and who might have trouble with some of the more complicated RPG mechanics (such as stats and EVs) and battle mechanics (like having to weaken wild Pokémon before catching them, and battling wild Pokémon to grind XP). This is divisive among longtime fans, to say the least.
  • You're unable to challenge Brock's Gym unless you have a Water or Grass-type Pokémon on your team, with those Pokémon-types being 4x effective against Brock's Rock/Ground team. A lot of people have accused the game of "hand-holding", while others have pointed out that this game is meant to be more casual and that Game Freak needed a way to teach the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors mechanic in absence of the usual starters. Several weeks later, it was revealed that every Gym would have a similar sort of entry requirement, although this was undercut upon the game's release, as the first Gym is the only one that has a type advantage requirement.^note Misty and Sabrina have level requirements, Koga has a Pokédex requirement, Lt. Surge, Blaine, and Giovanni retain their original challenges, and Erika just requires a "cute" Pokémon (any will do).
  • Thanks to the candy system and "awaken values", it is ridiculously easy to boost Pokémon stats up to that of a Legendary Pokémon and beyond. While they're still in their first stage. Needless to say, taking advantage of this makes the game even more of a cakewalk than it can already be.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Despite being the first mainline Pokémon game for the Switch, this is the second remake of the Kanto era (following Gen III's FireRed and LeafGreen). This had certain fans furious because it was neither the long-awaited and expected remake of Sinnoh, nor a "proper" Generation VIII game. The sentiment did ease up somewhat when series producer Junichi Masuda clarified that a more traditional installment would drop in 2019, and that Let's Go is meant to serve as a simplified bridge between the GO userbase and the more traditional entries, while remakes of Diamond/Pearl would eventually be announced and release in 2021.
  • Just like FireRed and LeafGreen, only the first 150 Pokémon are available plus the new Meltan and Melmetal^note Alolan forms notwithstanding; 151 if you include the special Mew you can get from the Poké Ball Plus, giving the player no access to later evolutions that these creatures received (such as Golbat being unable to evolve into Crobat). Also, unlike those two games, there is no option to get the later generation Pokémon and their evolutions once you beat the Elite Four, severely limiting the Pokémon options in the game.
    • Further exacerbating this is that Pokémon distribution in-game is largely the same as in Gen I (i.e. terrible). Until you get the Pokéflute and Sea Skim (read: Surf) more than halfway through the game, a lot of Pokémon are unobtainable, which enforces Complacent Gaming Syndrome — by the time you're able to catch these Pokémon, you probably don't need them and it would be a pain to raise them, so why not stick with the team you already have that's working just fine? Many players feel it would have been better to make those late-game Pokémon available earlier, as it would allow team compositions not possible in Gen I and keep the experience fresh for veteran players.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some players who were not interested at all in playing the game at first ended up changing their minds upon learning that Jessie and James would be in it.
  • Some are mainly interested because this game will be Leaf/Green's first appearance in a Pokémon game since Gen III.
  • There are some people who bought the game solely because of the following Pokémon mechanic, especially the ride Pokémon — ones commonly gushed over are the fact that your Pikachu/Eevee rides inside Kangaskhan's pouch, and that the way Snorlax is ridden is a clear Shout-Out to My Neighbor Totoro.
  • Prior to Pokémon GO becoming directly compatible with Pokémon HOME, transferring to this game was the only way to obtain Meltan and Melmetal in both this game and Pokémon Sword and Shield, as well as access the Mystery Box in GO. This has since been negated once GO could directly transfer to Home, however, as doing so will also unlock a use of the Mystery Box, and, during the first transfer, a Gigantamax Melmetal for use in either Sword or Shield.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Right as the announcement revealed the box art for the games, fans noticed that the background looks like the Windows XP background "Bliss."
  • "The pioneers used to ride these babies for miles!" ^ExplanationGiven that Onix is a rideable Pokémon, many comparisons to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, Pizza Delivery where SpongeBob used a rock to drive around with were made.
  • A few clips of Pokémon following your Trainer revealed some silly walking and running animations, such as Venusaur hopping like a frog and Golem rolling around after the player in Diglett's Tunnel, imitating an Indy Escape.
  • FIFTY DOLLARS FOR A MEW^ExplanationThe Poké Ball Plus controller is $50, a somewhat exorbitant price for such an accessory. This would have gone unnoticed by the fandom... had it not been the only way that you can get Mew in the game. Many detractors made jokes surrounding this paywall, especially since you can't transfer Mew from Go.
  • Pikachu and Eevee's exclusive moves. The Starter Pikachu and Eevee gain a number of new moves that can potentially cover every common type, which greatly increases their versatility. However, they also have "childish" names like "Floaty Fall" or "Buzzy Buzz", which has been mocked by detractors. Even Nintendo Treehouse themselves mocked one of the moves, presumably the new Dark-Type move known as "Baddy Bad".
  • Meet your Friendly Rival! ^ExplanationDue to the string of "friendly rivals" in the series since Generation III, as opposed to the more antagonistic rivals from the first two gens, it's been a common desire from older fans to make the rival characters mean again. This was the introduction caption given to the rival character Trace when he was revealed in one of the trailers, and the irony was not lost on anyone.
  • "Pikachu seems interested in your mom."^ExplanationGiven how "interested in" was used to indicate Pokémon intending to breed with each other, the fans took this line and rolled with it. It also spawned several other "Pikachu seems interested in..." jokes
  • "Yeaah boiiii~!" ^ExplanationA mishearing of some of Eevee's voice acting.
• Memetic Psychopath: Green. Her slightly creepy post-battle interaction where she throws Poké Balls at you repeatedly and asks you if you want to become her Pokémon, followed by her also doing this as her greeting in future encounters, has given rise to Yandere interpretations of her.
• Memetic Troll: Also Green; if you don't believe she seriously wants you to be her Pokémon or honestly expects you'd agree to it, then she just seems to be doing it purely to mess with you. So even if you beat Green to Mewtwo and defeat her in battle, she has the last laugh every time by ensuring you get at least 5 Poké Balls hitting you in the face at the end of every encounter with her.
• Most Wonderful Sound: When the Poké Ball Plus is plugged in to charge, it makes the same noise you hear when healing your Pokemon at a Pokemon Center.
• Narm: Pikachu and Eevee's new moves have some strange English names that are seen by some as sounding excessively childish, such as Splishy Splash or Floaty Fall. However, both those who like and dislike the names of the moves seem to have reached a mutual consensus that Baddy Bad is absolutely cringeworthy (though there are a few players who think the name is so cringey that it warps back around to being funny).
• Older Than They Think:
  • This isn't the first Pokémon RPG to lack wild battles. It was preceded fifteen years earlier by Pokémon Colosseum for the GameCube, where the only way to capture Pokémon was to "snag" them from other Trainers. Though in those games, you still weakened Pokémon before capturing them.
  • Let's Go features two mechanics that cause the stats of Pokémon to be rather absurdly high, be it the Awakening Values, or the Friendship boost. However, both of these mechanics are revised versions of retired mechanics from earlier generations.
    • In regards to the Awakening Values' predecessor, it was the Stat Experience system from both Gen I and II, which effectively allowed one to EV Train every single stat a Pokémon had to its maximum value. Come Gen III, this system was removed and replaced with the modern EV system.
    • The passive 10%~ boost to every stat (sans HP) from Friendship references the same passive boost to such stats that was applied by earning specific Gym Badges in Gens I, II, and III. Beginning with the first badge and then repeating every two badges until the seventh, the player would earn a roughly 10% boost to their Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special stats.
• Old Guard Versus New Blood:
  • One of the biggest reasons for the animosity towards these games is the result of trying to appeal to the Pokémon GO crowd; a crowd that was already a very touchy subject with longtime fans, due to both the game's surprise popularity and the sheer lack of familiarity most players of that game have with the franchise as a whole. ^note Don't say that Niantic created Pokémon. A lot of the comments surrounding these games usually have some variant of "GO fans ruined the franchise!", even though it was quickly confirmed that the next core games would be focused more on the longtime fans.
  • Another issue is the idea that this game is designed more for the "casual crowd" who came into the fandom through GO, which stoked fears of the game being "dumbed down" for hardcore Pokémon fans. However, since these games are supposed to be an entry-level "bridge" tailored towards more casual players, some older fans instead hoped that this meant the next "core" series game would focus squarely on the veteran fanbase, since attempts to please both demographics with one game are noted to be a major issue with more recent Pokémon games.
  • Indeed, unlike many examples of this trope, Let's Go has a number of long term fans of the series who emphatically support it for more casual and young players who've long gotten bored or stuck in main series games, though this is usually dependent on hopes for more serious changes for a future main series game.
  • Further confounding the issue is also that a lot of people who have joined with GO and are surprisingly Genre Blind — thus leading to all sorts of posts mocking their questions or laughing at them.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: In Russia at least. The Eevee version game ended up facing artificial shortages due to the CEO of Nintendo's Russian branch forecasting that it wouldn't sell well since he believed that Russians only recognized Pikachu. This ended up growing into an entire campaign to remove the CEO due to his other poor business decisions as well as some other unsavory behaviors.
• Padding: While it does create a more extensive post-game than the original Pokémon Yellow, which solely consisted of catching Mewtwo, the Master Trainer battles definitely come across as this. There are 153 of them (one for each Gen I Pokémon, Meltan, and Melmetal) and the fights consist of 1v1 Mirror Matches against Lv. 70-80 Pokémon. Hope you have plenty of candy, because you're going to need it.
• Popularity Polynomial: Though the games were successful at launch, they were overlooked as yet another Kanto remake with a questionable motion-controlled catching mechanic that removed many series staples such as Abilities and held-items just for nostalgia. The game would start seeing more appreciation in light of later titles on the Switch. It's a technically sound game that lacks many of the performance issues seen later on, and was the first to drop random wild encounters. Compared to the overly faithful rendition of Sinnoh in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Let's Go at least isn't still using the proportions of 2D sprites and made more of an effort to modernize the region. The walking Pokémon mechanic is also considered superior to consequent games, as the Pokémon are well-proportioned, keep up with the player, briefly return to their Balls when they would get in the way, and some can be ridden on.
• Replacement Scrappy: Trace gets a bad rap for mostly taking over Blue's role as The Rival, often dismissed as another stock friendly rival compared to his lovably cocky predecessor.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: When Meltan was first revealed, many people considered its simplistic design off-putting or odd-looking, or too similar to Ditto. However, this trailer, showing several Meltan getting up to cute antics in a researcher's house, did a good job of making it more endearing. Many people in the comments section can be seen stating that they didn't like Meltan at first, but that it grew on them after watching the video. The teaser for Melmetal at the end certainly helped.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic: In Let's Go, Pikachu!, the title character being the Starter Mon. In Yellow, this effectively meant you had to put up with Pikachu's low stats and almost one-dimensional movepool for the whole game. Here, the starter Pikachu is treated as a special case, sporting much higher stats than an ordinary Pikachu and having access to exclusive attacks of several types to provide coverage, allowing them to remain competent throughout the entire game.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Just like in GO, the game's wild battle system is very much like that of the contentious Safari Zones. Most wild Pokémon can run from battle now — not after breaking out of a ball, but at any time if the player takes too long to catch them. This includes shiny Pokémon.
  • The motion detection when throwing Poké Balls tends to frustrate people because of its inaccuracy, swerving balls to the side when the controller is swung straight or vice versa, with people finding that they need to swing horizontally to get the best luck with diagonal throws. In addition, this style of throwing is compulsory when playing in docked mode and a number of people with physical disabilities have stated to be struggling with them.
  • Unlike in GO, it is not possible to throw a spinning or curved ball at a Pokémon to increase the chances of capture — you only get the Nice/Great/Excellent Throw system and a "Double Ball" throw to assist in catching Pokémon.
  • Wild Pokémon can stack over each other, so you can approach one you want, but if another Pokémon gets in the way, you'll end up in a battle with that one and the one you wanted will vanish after battle. Never mind that some Pokémon are so small that you'll barely see them in the tall grass before running into them by accident. This really stings if you were going for a shiny.
  • The game's online connection relies on connecting two players together through a small combination of a couple dozen Pokémon minisprites rather than through Friend Codes. As a result, it has a tendency to be horribly inaccurate and pair one person to a completely random individual who may coincidentally enter the same combination.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The E3 2018 build of the game, as probably expected for a game months from release, had some issues. Characters walking up staircases tended to noticeably hover above the ground when doing so or while standing still on them, the second player and partner Pokémon disappear before every battle and reappear afterwards, and the partner Pokémon's tendency to get caught on geometry or not keep up has it flash and reappear as if popping in and out of a Poké Ball to keep up with the player.
  • A gameplay video from September 2018 (much closer to launch than E3 2018 in June) showcased a number of Pokémon being encountered in the wild, with many of their jumping animations being incredibly stiff and jerky, in addition to showing that the aforementioned issues with parter Pokémon extend to whenever the player runs behind them or jumps down from ledges.
  • Pokémon on the big side tend to get wedged in small spaces and enter a loop of reentering and reexiting their balls, which can often be seen when they notice a hidden item in a confined space and try to run to it.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Some of the changes to these games from the traditional formula are being made with the aim of making the game easier to grasp for young children or players who have only played Pokémon GO and have no prior experience with the main series.
• Solo-Character Run: With all the adjustments made to leveling up and all the field moves that your starter Pikachu or Eevee can perform that replace the HMs, it is easier than ever to beat the game by only using Pikachu or Eevee^note especially Eevee, who can learn moves related to each of its evolutions, though Gym requirements still mandate that you have to capture other Pokémon.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • A large number of fans were turned off of Let's Go as soon as it was revealed to be a remake of the Generation I games. As the core series' debut on the Switch, it disappointed many that it would be another remake of Kanto instead of a new mainline entry or at the very least a remake of a different generation (particularly Generation IV, which had been assumed to be next) so all regions could get equal focus. Not helping matters was how fans were downright fed up with the original games thanks to the Kanto pandering that pervaded Generations VI and VII: thus, a reconstruction of Kanto in its blocky, top-down glory, complete with only two mons outside of the original 151, was capstoning the issue.
  • Another common complaint centered around the wild Pokémon battles being replaced with GO's catching system. Alongside people who simply disliked the mechanic, many fans protested the removal of a series mainstay and expressed doubts that the new system could be satisfactorily integrated into a traditional Pokémon RPG.
  • It's not an uncommon complaint that the games' graphics appear to be abysmal by the Switch's standards. While the lighting is somewhat better than that of previous Generation VII games, the overworld has gone back to the pseudo-tiled style used through Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and some people feel that the graphics and textures are nowhere as detailed as other cartoon-style games on the system.
  • After the July 2018 trailer hyped up the new rival character as "a friendly rival", parts of the older fandom collectively groaned as they have grown tired of the influx of many newer Nice Guy rivals.
  • The player not being allowed into Brock's Gym without a Grass or Water type raised some eyebrows, but wasn't too controversial due to it being the first Gym. The announcement that all Gyms would require the player to meet some sort of gating requirement against every Gym Leader did not go down nearly as well, even when the game came out and it turned out that Brock's Gym is the only one with a typing requirement, as it still hampers the potential for Self-Imposed Challenges such as a Monotype run.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Unlike in Gens I or III, Cubone's mother is much more sad.
  • The game's remaster of the Lavender Town theme sounds less creepy than its predecessors, and more melancholy.
• That One Boss:
  • The Dual Boss fight against Archer and a Rocket Grunt alongside Trace in Silph Co. Ironically, Archer himself is the least of your worries, it's the grunt's Muk that's the problem. It has a moveset of Toxic, Protect, Minimize, and Screech, a perfect stall set that allows it to constantly poison your mons while making itself impossible to hit. Even if you bring out something immune to Toxic, like a Steel or Poison type, Archer's team has a variety of moves to take them out, including Flamethrower for Steel types and Air Slash for Grass/Poison types like Venusaur or Victreebel. Trace's Pokémon aren't that bad for the battle, but only one of them (Gloom) is immune to Toxic, and Gloom can be quickly taken out by Archer's Golbat. It doesn't help by the time you finally take out Muk, the grunt will bring out a Raticate with both Sucker Punch and Quick Attack, which can result in it taking out your now weakened team and forcing you to restart the fight all over again.
  • The grunt is annoying even the first time you battle him. He has Grimer then with Harden, Minimize, Sludge and Disable and if it gets off a few Minimize uses, you’ll be stuck missing attacks while its Defense goes up with Harden and your good moves are Disabled. The battle can really drag on.
• That One Level: Surprisingly, GO Park. Unlike other areas of the game, you do not get the option to summon a Support Trainer and use the Double Ball boost to assist in catching Pokémon with higher catch rates. Moreover, instead of calculating the Pokémon's catch rate through a combination of their CP and their species' base catch rate, GO Park only uses the species' catch rate. Those Meltan that you caught in Pokémon GO and transferred over that may have had only yellow circles and taken only one or two Great Balls each? Watch as every one, even those with only two digits of CP, suddenly get red circles in GO Park and require several Ultra Balls just to obtain one. Plus with there being no infinite source of money outside of repeating the Elite Four (unlike many later Pokémon titles) means you must conserve balls and choose what to spend your Balls catching — and these harder catches will burn through your stock of Balls quickly.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Going hand-in-hand with "It's The Same...", the fact that the game's major catch mechanic has been changed to use something akin to the style used in Pokémon GO infuriated fans who hate that game because of that mechanic.
  • In a similar vein, the removal of wild battles was met with sharp criticism from many fans, partly because of the fear it would mean the end of infinite XP grinding. It later turned out that you can still gain XP by catching wild Pokémon, but this didn't reduce the backlash significantly. The change from Random Encounters to visible wild Pokémon running around the overworld also saw mixed reactions from fans.
  • The online capabilities also came under fire, due to the lack of GTS, Battle Spot and Wonder Trade. The fact that you need to pay a subscription fee to use the limited online features added more kindling to the fire, while news that trading and battling would be limited to only those on your friend list just drenched the flames in gasoline.
  • The removal of Abilities and Hold Items, two features integral to the games ever since their introduction, caused a lot of backlash. While some Pokémon have useless or downright detrimental Abilities given to them in an attempt to balance them (i.e. Stall, Truant)^note Of course, the Pokémon with these kinds of abilities aren't even included in this game as the Let's Go games center around Gen I monsters., there are many whose Abilities and items make them drastically more viable in combat.
  • One noteworthy criticism was the implementation of needing to achieve certain requirements before being allowed to challenge some of the Pokémon Gyms. Being forced to catch 50 different Pokémon for Koga's Gym is perhaps the worst case of this, especially if the player is trying to speedrun through the game.
  • For fans of the Team Rocket Trio from the anime, the portrayal of Meowth as an ordinary, non-talking Pokémon (kept in a Poké Ball, no less) as opposed to an unusually intelligent schemer at par with Jessie and James has not been recieved well. This is Older Than They Think, however; Yellow likewise treated Meowth as an ordinary Pokémon (which is probably why Let's Go did the same) yet didn't incur nearly as much vitriol despite releasing during the height of the North American Pokémon craze.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Prior to the announcement that the game would be limited to Gen I Pokemon and the new Mythicals, a number of fans had hoped, and even expected, that a return to Kanto would include new Mega Evolutions or Kantonian regional variants for Pokémon introduced in Unova, Kalos and Alola.
  • With all the Call-Backs to Kanto through Gens VI and VII, culminating in Sun and Moon/Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon ending with Lillie/Gladion (respectively) deciding to journey the region with their mother, many had hoped that a return to Kanto would feature a brand new story taking place around the same time, showcasing how the region had changed in the years since the events of the Johto titles. Alas, despite the appearance of one Alolan character, the game's plot is simply a full retread of Yellow with the player and Trace taking the roles Red and Blue previously had, with appearances by Red, Blue, Green, and Archer being the only major additions. Red and Blue even appear to be only slightly older than they are in the other Kanto installments, rather than the young adults they were in Sun and Moon.
    • Speaking of story, the game didn't feature any of the additional elements that the previous Kanto remakes, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, had included to expand the original story. Namely everything involving the Sevii Islands and a post-game Team Rocket plot meant to better bridge the narratives of the Kanto and Johto games. As a result, even those who didn't mind the lack of a new story found themselves disappointed that Game Freak didn't make use of the additional story material they had already created over a decade prior.
  • With the Celadon Casino being replaced with an arcade, one may expect there will be some minigames you can play to win coins you can exchange with prizes, akin to Voltorb Flip from HeartGold/SoulSilver... but nope, you can only look at the arcade machines (with captions implying they're featuring actual Pokémon spin-offs that are available on Switch) and nothing else. The coin vendor at the desk is still there, but he is out of coins.
  • Jessie and James only use Ekans/Arbok and Koffing/Weezing, which make them very easy to defeat. Considering that in the anime the two had a Victreebel and Lickitung for a time, their use would have made their boss fight harder and make a good Mythology Gag to the anime.
• Ugly Cute: Meltan is a metal blob with a giant bolt for a head, a single eye, and a wire tail. Yet this video makes them out to be so playful and mischievous that most of the comments are just Cuteness Proximity.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • In the Team Rocket Hideout, the Grunt guarding the Lift Key is slightly more competent than his prior incarnations, throwing it on top of a wall after you beat him. To overcome this, the player takes direct control of their partner Pokémon to climb up the ductwork and retrieve it. This is never used again, and the area in question is short and narrow, precluding any potential exploration of areas out of reach for the player character.
  • The partner Pokémon's reflex to wag their tail in front of a visible or hidden object could have been used to identify Chest Monsters in the Power Plant. Instead, Voltorb and Electrode were relieved of the role entirely: the latter clearly appears as an upside-down Poké Ball (granted, the partner Pokémon does its part in clearly not wagging its tail in front of it, but the ball's look already gives it away) and the former does not appear as a Chest Monster at all.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Downplayed with Jessie and James from the anime appearing like in Pokémon Yellow. In retrospect, it was a given considering that these are remakes of Yellow, but the replacement of the protagonist and rival characters had some questioning their return.
  • While Alola Forms were confirmed from Day 1 due to compatibility with Pokémon GO, many were surprised when Mega Evolution was announced, as the feature wasn't present in GO until 2020.
  • Not in the game itself, but one of the Japanese commercials^note (which later was dubbed into English) features Ash and Pikachu, specifically using their Pokémon: I Choose You! designs. This is the first time the anime had been used to outright promote the games, aside from special Pokémon distributions.
  • While there was speculation that Red and Blue/Green would appear in the game in some way, a version of Leaf making an appearance came completely out of left field, as her existence was almost never even acknowledged outside of Pokémon Adventures. Even less expected was the use of her pre-Generation III character design, which has never once put in an appearance in an official game despite appearing in early artwork for Generation I.
  • Mina's appearance in the game came completely out of the blue for a number of people since she's from Alola, and the game is otherwise a near faithful re-thread of the original story (aforementioned appearances of Red, Blue, and Green aside) right down to the lack of any post-Gen I Pokémon species other than Meltan and Melmetal.
  • For similar reasons to the above, few would have expected Rocket Executive Archer to make an appearance.

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