It Started With A Bad Day
A few Saturdays ago, my wife and I were having a bad day. We weren’t fighting. We didn’t have any problems with each other. Our moods could be boiled down to general grumpiness. We apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed, which is odd because we would have had to roll over each other. The physics of this is just confusing.
To make matters worse, we could not simply be alone and work out our grumpiness. This was a very busy Saturday for us. We had errands to run family to see, and chores to do. As much as I love shopping at Target, it is not my prime location for mid-morning grumbles. However, we made it work.
When we got home, I crept into the living room and purchased Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee on the Nintendo Switch store. We do not buy full-priced games often as it is hard for us to justify spending $60 on a single piece of entertainment. However, I felt this was something that could cheer up the both of us. I went back into the kitchen and told my wife that we had a new activity planned for after dinner.
Trying Something New
Now, I must preface the rest of this story by telling you about my wife’s video game habits. She doesn’t have any. Other than the occasional party game or phone app, she does not play many games. Once a year we will buy a “choose your own adventure” game, like Until Dawn or The Infectious Madness of Dr. Dekker. However, these games do not take a lot interaction and only last a few hours. I have never seen my wife take on a full RPG like this.
Much to my surprise, she was really into it. I couldn’t believe how well she took to the game. Her first play session lasted 7 hours. I can barely get her to play a game with me for more than fifteen minutes without getting bored.
Having the wife monopolize the television for a week does not sound like a great time. However, watching her play through this game was an awesome experience. It was similar to showing someone a movie or album you love. Seeing her reaction to the story was better than the game play itself.
For those of you who don’t know, Pokémon Let’s Go is very similar to the original Pokémon games (specifically Yellow version) for Game Boy. There are a few differences to the mechanics. For example, there are no more random encounters. HMs are now special abilities and do not take up an attack slot. However, the story itself remains mostly intact.
My wife never played the original Pokemon games. She has put countless hours into Pokemon Go. I once got her to spend a quick moment playing Heart Gold for DS. She had never fought Team Rocket to get the Silph Scope. She never had to surf to Cinnabar Island. This was her first time playing through the original story. It was great watching her go through the twists and turns on her way to the Elite Four.
Taking Games For Granted
I learned a lot from this experience. It is not every day that you get to watch an adult play their first RPG. As a lifelong gamer, there are a lot of things I take for granted. I always assume that everyone knows about critical hit rates, turn-based combat, and RNG. Who wouldn’t have the knowledge of the digital version of pen and paper games?
Teaching my wife about these concepts was just as fun as playing the game. RPG ideas and terms are almost like their own language. There are nuances and standards that we all follow. We developed this skill after years of video, tabletop, and pen-and-paper games.
At this point that I realized how influential games like Dungeons and Dragons are to people like myself. It dawned on me that there are thousands of us walking around with a generic rule book our minds. This makes it easier to pick up a majority of games and be fine.
Pokemon For Switch Is Pretty Great
If Pokemon Let’s Go is any indication of Pokemon’s future, then I can’t wait for the next Pokemon game to come out for Nintendo Switch. I know there are a lot of Pokemon purists out there who don’t like to see their game style changed. However, I really enjoyed a lot of the changes made to the game.
I don’t have the time to dump dozens of hours into many video games. Many of the changes made to Pokemon Let’s Go cut down on play time. No random encounters means that battles are mostly voluntary. No time is wasted fighting thirty-seven Caterpies while you walk through a mile of tall grass.
I also feel that the method for catching Pokemon saves some time. You don’t have to weaken the Pokemon before throwing balls at them. Players go directly into the ball throwing process. I think this cuts time down as well.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that anecdote with you all. Both my wife and I thought that Pokemon Lets Go Eevee was an excellent game. I had just as much fun watching her play the game as she did playing it. Maybe now I can finally convince her to play Chrono Trigger (probably not).
