Hello Internet!
I hope everyone had a fantastic week! I had an amazing week that was full of winter weather. I had several days of snow and ice and even some fog and rain on top of freezing temperatures. Winter is definitely here and dumping its weather down. A lot of places all over the US is dealing with winter weather and snow, so if that includes you, make sure you drive safe and keep prepared for the dangers winter weather can bring. I want everyone to stay safe and stay warm. This weather is fun to play in, but there are some real dangers if you aren’t prepared for the cold. Anyway, enough about the weather. Let’s talk a little bit about the pieces that I published on the website this week. Last Sunday, I published a Weekly Blog talking about Setting Realistic Goals For 2019. New Years has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up on resolutions. It’s never too late to start enacting positive change in your life and this Weekly Blog might give you some tips for how to go forward with your own goals. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “The Great Beyond” which is about small town life. Often the towns boundaries can seem like the edge of the world where people disappear and never come back. On Friday I published the second part to last week’s Writing Prompt piece. Both Naturally Gifted and Naturally Gifted Part 2 tell the story of three girls gifted with magical powers due to their connection with nature. However the second part shows them in action using their gifts to fight a hoard of harpies that attack the town. Finally, on Saturday, I published the eighteenth chapter of my Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Fanfiction titled Pokémon HGSS#18: Inside Team Rocket Headquarters. While the battle between Lance and his Dragonite and the Red Gyarados of The Lake of Rage continues, Jonathan and Beatrice are tasked with stopping Team Rocket’s Radio Signal. They run into Silver in Mahogany Town and form a make-shift alliance to infiltrate Team Rocket’s Headquarters.
So I know Pokémon has been a weekly staple on the website for a few months now due to my Pokémon Fanfiction series, but I want to talk about it in a different way. I’ve always been a big fan of Pokémon and it is one of my favorite video game series. I grew up playing Pokémon Yellow, Red, and Blue on the Game Boy I shared with my two brothers. I watched the television show and could name all 151 of the original Pokémon, no sweat. I loved those original games and the adventure of traveling around Kanto, but I’m not a “Genwunner.” Kanto is part of my childhood, but Pokémon has evolved (pardon my pun) far beyond that and I believe most of that has been positive. I loved Gen One of Pokémon, but I think my favorite generation is Gen Five and Pokémon X and Y are my favorite set of games. All of that said, I want to talk about Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee because I got it for Christmas, played it, and really enjoyed it.
When Pokémon Go came out, I was ecstatic. A game where I could walk around in the real world and catch Pokémon was my child’s dream come true. Plus, that summer, it seemed like humanity got as close to world peace as humanity possible. People of all ages were walking around in towns and cities, catching Pokémon, claiming Pokémon Gyms for their teams, and discussing this phenomenon. It was so popular that it was being discussed on the news and Hillary Clinton even made a cringey joke about “Pokémon Go To The Polls.” But this level of engagement was not sustainable and the player base began to shrink. For me personally, I stopped playing because I live in the middle of the country and nothing spawns where I live. It was an effort for me to go to someplace else and walk around and I could not do that all the time. When Gen Two Pokémon were released, I jumped back into it, but it wasn’t with the same amount of effort. It was just a passive thing that I thought about every now and then. Pokémon Go was great, but it had a lot of problems and it took forever to implement things that they talked about day one like trading and one-on-one battling. A lot of it kind of seemed watered down from normal Pokémon Games which aren’t really that complex to begin with. Then Nintendo announced that a new Pokémon Game was coming to Nintendo Switch. A Pokémon RPG game on a non-handheld console. It was another dream come true until they talked about the Pokemon Go catching mechanics that were being implemented into the game. That was initially a deal-breaker for me. I wanted Pokémon Stars or Pokémon Gen 8 on the Switch. I didn’t want Pokémon Yellow remakes with Pokémon Go catching mechanics. That seemed like a major letdown.
I was not excited for Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee and I was initially not going to buy either version. Nintendo announced Gen 8 was on its way in 2019 and I was going to wait for that. However, when the game came out and I began to see people streaming the game and showing game play, I got interested. I then got it Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee for Christmas and began playing it. What I got was an absolute delight. Now I know that it’s January 2019 and the game came out two months ago, so you have probably seen game play or heard everything I am going to say, but I just want to talk a little about it. My expectations were low, but this game is really fun and does add to the foundations laid by Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and Fire Red and Leaf Green. It’s still the same old story of Gen One with an journey around the Kanto Region where you get to battle Gym Leaders, Catch Pokémon, and take down the crime syndicate known as Team Rocket. However this time around, battling becomes a secondary feature with catching Pokémon becoming even more prominent. Catching them all was the slogan of the series since the Pokémon animated series debuted, but this game puts that to the max. Battling wild Pokémon is out and replaced with Pokémon Go’s catching mechanics which involve tossing Pokéballs at Pokémon with green, yellow, orange, or red rings around them. NPC’s even give you additional Pokéballs after you defeat them in battle. They also ditched random encounters of Pokémon hanging out in the tall grass and replaced them with Pokémon that walk around in plain view so you can pick and choose what Pokémon you want to try to catch or avoid.
My personal experience with Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee was very positive and I really enjoyed playing through the game. I thought I was burnt out on the Kanto Region and Pokémon Go, but Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee turned out to be a really fun game. It is not one of my favorite Pokémon Games, but it was a really enjoyable experience through and through and I was ok with all the Pokémon Go interactions. The only thing I would have changed was keep battles with wild Pokémon. How it is now is that you have to catch Pokémon to gain experience points and level up your Pokémon and you need Pokéballs to do that. Buying Pokéballs requires money (except in a few places where you can get free Pokéballs) which you do not get from catching wild Pokémon, only trainer battles. This kind of leads to a wacky circle where you can only level up by having money for Pokéballs which leads you to either sell unneeded items like Pretty Wings or Nuggets to get money for Pokéballs. In other Pokémon games, you could just battle wild Pokémon to gain experience and level up Pokémon. I miss that. I love that they got rid of wild encounters (which will probably be re-added to Gen 8 based on past Pokémon Generations), but miss grinding by battling wild Pokémon. Altogether I really enjoyed playing through Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee and thanks to Pokémon Go and friends who traded with me, I was able to complete the Pokédex for the very first time. My childhood self would be so proud of me. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to be shiny hunting for a shiny Vulpix!
Thank you for reading that Weekly Blog. I really appreciate all the love and support readers like you send me each week by reading my stuff. If you liked this Weekly Blog, feel free to give it a like and if you are interested in more stuff like this, go ahead and follow me here on WordPress. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter so that way you will see my pieces pop up in your feeds the moment they are posted here on WordPress. I am way more active on Twitter, so I recommend following me there. If you really liked this Weekly Blog, feel free to leave a comment down below. You can tell me about your experience with Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee or Pikachu and what you think Nintendo, GameFreak, and The Pokémon Company should learn from these games looking forward to Gen 8. What do you like about these games and what did you dislike? Let me know in the comments. Thank you again for your continuing love and support and thank you to all the readers who read my stuff. No matter if you are a new reader or have been reading my stuff for months, you mean a lot to me and I really feel the love you send my way. There are over 350 published pieces here on the website, so if you are new, I recommend starting with the pieces I mentioned at the beginning of the Weekly Blog or you can just spend some time on the website looking for something you’d really like to read. Ok, I think that’s all for now.
Thank you again and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Nintendo’s Official Page for Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee https://pokemonletsgo.pokemon.com/en-us/
Allen The Writer 