New Moves: As expected all the Partner Moves are powerful, probably to make up for their lower stats compared to fully evolved Pokemon. Eevee is still the champ as it gets 9 giving it the most versatility (and some having very useful secondary effects). Pikachu only got the 4 we saw but they got some tricks and does provide it with coverage it finds useful (Water to hit Ground-types, Flying to hit Grass-types super effectively). Notable ones I want to mention:
- Zippy Zap seems a bit odd having a +6 Critical Hit Ratio when you only need a +3 unless they changed it in Let's Go, though still it's pretty much an Electric-type Extreme Speed which ignores Defense increases and that ain't bad.
- Why doesn't Glitzy Glow, Baddy Bad, Freezy Frost, and Sparkly Swirl not get any secondary effect? GG could be Confusion, BB could be 30% Flinch (and 95 Accuracy), FF could be 30% Freeze, and SS could be Attraction.
- Also surprised that BB is Special and not Physical. Not only is Umbreon's highest offense stat is Physical (though that's not saying much as it's 65 compared to Special's 60) but would give it another Physical move to go along with Fire and Grass. Also with a lot of Psychic-types being more Special oriented hitting them on their Defense side would be more effective.
And Double Iron Bash's base Power is 60! Taking STAB into account and a possible Iron Fist increase means each hit is doing 108 Power giving a total of 216 Power move! Yikes! And even if not increased by Iron Fist it would go down to 90 Power per hit for a total of 180. Even without the Flinching effect this move is a killer! It has to be getting a nerf after these games, with no Abilities (and looks like certain other future gen additions) they decided to buff certain moves to make them usable. If Double Iron Bash was 40 Power with STAB alone it would only be a total of 120 and with Iron First be 144 total which is still pretty good but not earth shattering.
Candy Boost: 200 extra points for each stat (after the Friendship boost)?! Geez, do they need Mega Evolutions after that? Though if the Master Trainer's Pokemon are all properly Candy boosted (I can't believe that's a term now) then I guess that does make them more challenging. Though could be challenging in the wrong way as it means you gotta "grind" for Candies and Friendship.
TM List: Say, wouldn't mind this TM list to carry over to the core series... as long as they also add back the missing 40! Most Types gets at least one powerful move with plenty of extra utility moves (or at least ones players care about like Protect and Substitute). Notable ones:
- Teleport, really? Well I guess there had to be a few stinkers.
- Fly, Surf, and Waterfall are still TMs, make sense as they're the most useful HMs (and Defog, which considering a certain TM on this list probably also should have been made a TM).
- They got rid of Explosion as a TM but made Self-Destruct one? I guess that makes sense, offer the weaker one for a lot of Pokemon to learn while having the stronger one only a certain few learn via Level Up (or maybe Move Tutor).
- Sludge Bomb but no Sludge Wave, which makes sense as most battles are Single Battles in Lets Go so Wave's effectiveness is severely limited.
- Once again, I'm seeing a lot with Mega Drain but not with Giga Drain. Hmm.
- Stealth Rock is TM, where is your Arcues now? Okay, it's normally a Tutor move so not as big of a deal, though for those hoping for a hazardless meta the jokes on you. Especially with Defog not to be anywhere in sight. But don't worry, there's still Rapid Spin, you just need a member of the Squirtle, Sandshrew, or Staryu family. Such a well of options. :P
- Notable missing TMs: Psyshock, Weather Summoning TMs, Safeguard, Return (and Frustration), Aerial Ace, Attract, Focus Blast, Energy Ball, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Giga Impact, Grass Knot, & Trick Room.
- Flying- and Grass-types really got the short end of the stick here.
Also guessing TMs for Gym Leaders: Brock is Rock Slide (unless he pulls out a Stealth Rock strategy), Misty is Scald, Lt. Surge is Thunderbolt, Erika is Solar Beam, Koga is Poison Jab/Sludge Bomb, Sabrina is Psychic, Blaine is Flamethrower/Fire Blast, and Giovanni is Earthquake. Okay, not really that hard to figure out though would be an upgrade for Brock and Misty.
Alolan Trades: Hmm, so if I'm reading the data file right the trades are all in the same location(?) but vary in level so probably become available at different points in the game. Also, some are version exclusive

. Vulpix and Meowth for Eevee, Sandshrew and Grimer for Pikachu. Oddly you can get Alolan Raichu in both versions, you'd think if any would be version exclusive it would be that one (with Eevee getting Marowak or Exeggutor).
Post Game Gym Leader Re-Matches: Very nice, do that for the core series as well. What are their post game teams?
Mega Stones: Relegated to post game AGAIN. Why even bother including them if you're not going to do anything interesting with them? Like did you think including them (and not adding in any new ones) would really be that much of a marketing push? Though while we're on the subject, did they give Pinsir any Flying-type moves?
Champion Rival: So Trace becomes Rival? Okay, I guess. Not that I have anything against him, which is the problem, cause even though you kept beating Blue in the original games his high-and-might attitude kept you wanting to keep knocking him down. But Trace is friendly, and since you beat him throughout the story you know you're better than him and he's not going to take issue with that, so kind of drains the emotional drive the Blue Champion battle had. I'm just proving I'm once again better than Trace, instead of knocking Blue down one final time and having his own grandfather berate him. ~Whoo.
Original Trainer Battles: So looks like Blue, Green, and Red are all post game, especially Red. Blue and Green looks like they're meant to be battled right after you complete the main game, though I have no idea when you're intended to face Red (they better not lock it behind the Master Trainers...). Looking at their teams:
- You call that a Pikachu, Red? Machamp and Arcanine is new, though that's because the Starters we spread between the three. And though Arcanine is usually associated with Blue he has a Charizard so doesn't need it while Red got Venusaur. Interesting choice, though Bulbasaur is #1 and was the Starter that Red was given in the Adventure's manga. Looking at moves... MEGA DRAIN?! Okay, is Giga Drain even in the game? Also why does Machamp have Fire Blast and Hyper Beam? And Ice Shard over Ice Beam or Blizzard on Lapras seems a bit off. Though otherwise everything looks fine.
- Green and Blue look fine, Green getting Blastoise and Blue getting Charizard. They have a nice looking and varied team with pretty good movesets.
Why did they give Melmetal’s signature move a chance to flinch when it has base 34 speed?
Because I think its clear that by now the GF departments which decide a Pokemon's Stats, creating new Moves, and assigning Abilities don't talk or check in with each other to make sure what they're doing makes sense when put together.
I'm actually furious that we couldn't get walking pokemon, gym leader rematches, and postgame super bosses for all of gen 6 and 7 yet somehow they all ended up in baby's first pokemon game over here.
Well for walking Pokemon they do have only the original 151 + Meltan family to worry about (and though USUM had walking/running animations for all Pokemon there was probably so additional problems especially with the very big Pokemon they introduced in later games).
However not having the Gym Leader re-matches and post game super bosses is very disappointing as there's no reason to not have them, at least the Gym rematches.
My goodness. Try ranking these from best to worst.
Well, since you asked, from best to worst: Bouncy Bubble, Sizzly Slide, Glitzy Glow, Sparkly Swirl, Sappy Seed, Freezy Frost, Veevee Volley, Floaty Fall, Pika Papow, Zippy Zap, Buzzy Buzz, Splishy Splash, Baddy Bad.
If you can't tell, I really hate baby speak.
So Kaphoptics is saying that there are no Pokemon models beyond the original 151, Meltan, and Melmetal in the game. Makes sense, since that probably saves a LOT on space.
What about the Mega Evolutions?
Wonder how Nuzlocke rules are going to get around this one: One of the gym's prerequisites is having 50 different species captured in your dex.
Man some of these are ridiculous.
(the obvious solution being catch extra Pokemon to meet requirement but you're not allowed to use them?)
... And that prepares me for the Gym, how?
As for Nuzlockes, since it's just for the Dex, after your "first encounter" just catch other Pokemon and trade them in for Candy.
Infact, since you're expect to do that, nuzlocking this game would probably require that anyway as you may very well need Candy Boosts to help you progress.