Pokémon Masters

The Pokémon series gets a lot of mobile games, but this one seems to have Nintendo behind it with advertising and My Nintendo login.

I've downloaded now whilst at work but yet to play.

I'd totally forgotten this was coming out - yeah, I'll give it a download and report back with my findings.

It does seem to have that gacha hell potential that Fire Emblem Heroes is riddled with though and that's certainly concerning for my future with the game. Worth a try, if nothing else!

I kind of assumed this had a big thread and lots of buzz but that's because I follow a lot of pokemon Twitter and podcasts.

I will download this at some point. I want Cynthia.

I think here it's gone under the radar a bit because, apart from anything else, it looks like a load of free-to-play nonsense to the uninitiated. It coming from TPC rather than Nintendo (even if they're more involved in this one) means I'm expecting it to be heavier on the nonsense from that angle too. I suppose I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

So I played through the first two story chapters and I've got a reasonable handle on it so far.

Whilst initially it doesn't seem as wallet draining as Nintendo's chief gacha game, Fire Emblem Heroes, there's the potential for it to head that way fast. What didn't sit right with me from the off was the distinction between "free gems" and "paid gems". The game blocks off certain character banners behind a check to see if you've actually spent real money on the in-game currency as opposed to the small quantities the game hands out for beating the story battles. Not even FEH took it that far - in FEH, you could use your orbs as if you'd bought them with real money. That seems more of an active push towards getting people to spend real money on their game and that sort of creeping predatory behaviour is an early turn-off for me.

Beyond that side of things, the game is... fine, I guess? The battling really doesn't seem to be anything special and is dumbed down for a mobile audience, although it's easy to argue they've dumbed it down too much. Each Pokémon seems to be weak to only one type, so hitting Geodude with a water move is a bizarrely fruitless endeavour. There's a focus on the trainers and human characters as opposed to their Pokémon which is to be expected from how the game has been marketed, but outside of your heavy hitters like Cynthia, the player trainers, Blue and so on, I really don't care about the miscellaneous gym leaders I'm adding to my roster. I don't even recognise some of them - I unlocked some fighting gym leader lady with a Medicham who I have zero recollection of. It doesn't do much for me.

The music's nice, I suppose.

I hear some music thread potential! If the songs ever make it up there before some over-zealous lawyers nuke them...

I can't even tell if he was drunk for this one!

Nope, I was just informing y'all how to win at Pokemon Masters: purchase a new wife, beef up one's Piplup.

#BuyWifeUpBeef

I've played a bit more of this since my initial post. There is absolutely music thread potential for this one, I'd say! There's been some pretty tasty remixes too, including one for Blue's Theme which I particularly enjoyed.

Beyond that, it's just some easygoing fun. I've not struggled in any of the battles as of yet - the point when I do and the game starts wanting me to spend money is the point that I'll be done, I reckon.