Pre-ordered the game day 1.

Wasn't sure what I'd think of the catching mechanic, but I think it moves the series down a better path by removing the monotony of fighting to weaken pokemon before catching it, and replacing it with something different/new/interesting. Having pokemon in the overworld is nice, a lot better than randomly trying to encounter what you want, especially if your goal is shinies.

I thought the game would be too easy, and there are some OP moves Eevee can learn, but the game has some difficulty still in it (at least, I can't charge through it all with just my high stat Eevee without pokecenter stopping).

The changes to TMs and HMs are nice. The TM change may be a bit OP, but it encourages me to actually use and experiment with them.

Putting the focus on catching (and benefitting the user with exp with it) is actually an ingenious idea. Removes more of the grind, and encourages you to actually catch 'mon and several of them. Allows me to evolve several more pokemon, and again, experiment with different ones.

The RNG is not very good, even increased shiny chances seem to be too small, and making the user have to get catch combo 31x prior to having a decent shot of good IV pokemon is tedious. It's nice that the option to get a good IV pokemon is much more available, and not too too hard to attain, but ....do I want to put that much work into getting a good/competitively decent version of all the pokemon? ...No, nor do I have the time for it.

The master trainer idea is decent (haven't gotten there yet), but seems tedious for pokemon like caterpie/metapod, who can't learn any new moves. It'd be a total waste of time to try to level them up to try to get the title, is what I assume it will be like. Again, haven't gotten there quite yet. I know for online battles they can do the things of force/leveling the pokemon to all be at level 50, that would be a much better way to battle master trainers. Then you don't have to grind out levels, and it's all about the IV's and moveset of the pokemon. It'd be a billion times better if they did this, but based on what I know, it's not this way, but rather requires the indiv pokemon to fight at their given level (way too grindy). So it seems the idea was there, but not quite the execution.

All said, I'm at Celadon City, and if anything the game is super pretty. Loving the way everything looks, and the gyms are beautiful to see for the first time as I encounter them in game (I've been avoiding spoilers). The music is grand, the classic battle theme is the best! I'm hoping they expand on the ideas here in this game, perhaps as a separate series so as not to peeve off the competitive fans. And instead make leveling easier, shiny encounters much more reasonable, etc. For me, it's all about catching the pokemon, and experimenting with teams in battle. Classic pokemon is too grindy to experiment and to try to make a number of pokemon viable, it's more like choosing a select 6-10 pokemon and then keeping them bc you've already invested too much time/TM's in them. This Let's Go approach is much more suited to experimentation and creating more varied 'mon, to get to what we all want, more competitive battles, but being able to switch up the 'mon to keep the strategy more varied. An unfortunate general weakness of pokemon is that legendaries are too good stat-wise compared to everyone else, such that everyone ends up using the same few pokemon. Making more pokemon viable is the way to keep longevity and interest fresh, I'd say