POKÉMON LET'S GO, PIKACHU/EEVEE! May Move Onto The Johto Region If The Game Is Well-Received

Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee! will be releasing next month for the Nintendo Switch, and while this may not be the core Pokémon title fans are waiting for, there is still a lot to be excited about with this new entry.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, executive director and head of game development at Game Freak Junichi Masuda revealed a lot of interesting details regarding Pokémon Let's Go!, including if the series would be getting other Pokémon besides the original 151.

Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! is a remake/reimagining of Pokémon Yellow, released for the Game Boy in 1998, and will be taking players back to the Kanto region, the region where all the Pokémon craze started. In the Kanto region, players could find up to 151 Pokémon and it wouldn't be until Pokémon games Gold and Silver that new Pokémon creatures would be added in the new Johto region.

Junichi Masuda was asked whether Pokémon Let's Go! would be including more than the 151 Pokémon found in the Kanto region, or if there were any plans to add more eventually. To this he replied by saying that, right now, they're kind of testing the waters and waiting to see the reception the game will have before thinking about adding new content. 

"So not right now - we'll kind of, or what we're looking forward to most right now is how the game is received. We'll see it's reception amongst all the players, and really we just... so right now players should become the trainer, throw their Pokéballs, and achieve that dream that everyone should be having including myself - you know it's everyone's dream to become a Pokémon trainer, and you know, take up your Pokéballs and get going".

It is worth mentioning that Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! has had a mixed reception by hardcore fans of the series, complaining that this game is a watered-down version of the original game, as well as the Pokémon core series as a whole.

When asked directly about a new game set in the Johto region, after Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! has been released, Masuda reiterated that it's all up to consumers and whether the games are well-received, although he doesn't rule out making another game set entirely in the Johto region.

"So you know maybe - if everyone enjoys playing these games [laughs] - but you know more than that, I know that a lot of people and fans have spent a lot of time hatching eggs, they've hatched... a lot of eggs, but we want them to kind of discover new ways to enjoy Pokémon games, you know I'd be really sad to think that for them, Pokémon is hatching eggs, so with this one we're trying to show them a different side of the game".

Hatching eggs in Pokémon games is a mechanic that wasn't introduced until Pokémon Gold/Silver came out, which are second generation of Pokémon titles that came out after Pokémon Yellow, which is the game Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! is based on.

For hardcore Pokémon fans, hatching eggs is pretty much where all their focus goes after completing the game's story, or sometimes even during the story, so it is understandable that Masuda wants newcomers focusing on other things rather than hatching eggs. 

Return to the Kanto region and experience a classic Pokémon journey in a whole new way with Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! on Nintendo Switch!