POKEMON MASTERS - First Impression by Urizen

   Finally! Pokemon Masters has arrived in the app store. I have been waiting for this game. The premise of it seemed pretty interesting when it was announced, and I know there have been people more excited for this than Pokemon Shield and Sword. I don’t know what to really expect with this as I have only watched the first trailer, but I am excited to dive right in. So I’m going to play a bit and see what I think.

   I love having to go through multiple menus of choosing languages, entering birthdates, agreeing to terms and services, data usage and all of that. I get it, but man, I like just getting to play my games instead of going through a process. That’s what I hate about buying new games too, can’t just play them. You have to install and update. Renting is near impossible as you have to waste hours installing. This is just me going way off topic.

   While I wait for updates, it shows some of the characters. It is cool because I don’t know a lot of the names for these rival characters. I know them all by their names in the Pokemon manga. Seeing Brendan instead of Ruby is a bit weird to me.

   So, finally getting a greeting from Blue to start off the game, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. Nice to see the graphics in the Pokemon games continuing to improve. What’s interesting is he calls us friend and is all nice. It honestly threw me off a bit since I’m used to rude, cocky Blue. Thankfully he added that he is a bit of a big deal around here. I’m glad to see development from his character by having him mature a bit, but keeping some of his cockiness and such. Also with using Blue for this, it makes a nice throwback to the first generation with Professor Oak introducing you to the world of Pokemon.

   We then get to create our character. I’m glad Pokemon has started to let us do this, but I wish they would expand on it a little more. It has been a very basic thing that could use a few more additions. You get about eight different options each for skin color, eye color and hair color. Very basic, but at least it is something.

   Now that my character is created, Blue says that there is a Pokemon Masters League that is coming up soon. Trainers gather from all over and get in teams of three to battle. I hope I can switch teams throughout. I don’t really want to stick with only two characters. Each trainer can also use only one Pokemon. This will certainly be interesting.

   It shows us starting in a Pokemon center and there is a Pikachu running around us. I don’t want Pikachu. While I don’t mind Pikachu, I don’t like that we are stuck with it. Hopefully I can at least evolve it. We then meet Trista, a Pokemon Center nurse it seems that is the receptionist of the Pokemon Masters League. We then get a Poryphone. Finally! It is great to see Porygon get some love.

   Since we need a team, Trista introduces us to Brock and Misty who also need team members. I’m very curious how I as a character stumbled into this. All of the trainers are rivals, gym leaders and other powerful trainers that are very famous in the Pokemon world. I’m just a kid off the streets who seems to have stumbled in with a Pikachu. Just seems weird.

   Anyways, Misty has Starmie and Brock has Onix, so at least they are keeping with their ace Pokemon from their first game appearances for them. Also get to see a bit of a layout of the new region by pressing on Trista. It is pretty cool. There is a giant volcano to the south and a large ice area to the North. Pretty neat. Misty also says how she really wants to battle Lorelei which is a neat little thing. I hope to see interactions between trainers.

  Okay, so Brock says we are in Centra City in Pasio. Pasio is apparently an artificial island. That’s pretty neat. Apparently we are going to go find Rosa, the female character from Black and White, and try to form a sync pair with her and have her join our team. Ah! She’s with Cynthia. Two trainers are trying to force a battle with Cynthia, which neither she nor Rosa are wanting. Given Cynthia’s skill, if her Pokemon were fully rested, that probably would have been a terrible idea.

   This leads into our first battle, but given me I keep getting an error, I guess it is time to restart my app and hope this fixes things a bit. Never mind…it didn’t. Trying again just got me the error again, and checking online shows me that everyone is getting it. Maybe too many people trying to play at once. I guess I will be holding off for a day. I would go with my first impressions on this, but given I haven’t been able to experience game play yet, doesn’t seem fair. Though I will say, while things seemed interesting, having the game break on day one isn’t good. So, given the time right now, I will try again tomorrow and see how it goes.

The Next Day

   I am back again! I think the game is good now and I can get going into the gameplay. So before the errors started, the first battle was about to start. I’m curious as to how this gameplay is. Thankfully it already seems to be running a bit smoother and faster, so that’s good. Time to get right back into this!

   This punk girl I have to fight looks like she belongs in Team Skull. A little disappointed she isn’t. It looks like battles are 3 on 3, and just looking at the screen makes me feel like it will still be basic Pokemon battling. I do enjoy turn based combat, and I understand that it has been a staple of Pokemon from the beginning, but I wish one game would do it differently.  Have it control like Super Smash Bros. That would be cool.

  So yeah, each character performs an attack, but each attack depletes a move gauge. It refills over time, but that is something I’m not sure about. Combat isn’t so much turn based actually. You just keeping tapping to switch Pokemon, use moves as long as your move gauge doesn’t run out, and hope for the best. I was getting wailed on for a moment waiting for the enemy’s turn to end before I realized I could just attack.

   I just turned my sound on for the first time, and one of the trainers said something. I wasn’t expecting any voice acting in this if I’m being honest. Also, for a mobile Pokemon game, the graphics look alright. It seems like they are just re-using assets again for it. The attack animations are a bit of a downgrade as well. The trainer models look pretty good though.

   Beating the two punks levels us up, but also allows me to hear more voice acting. This time it is Brock and Misty. I’m too used to the original dub voice actors, so hearing different voices is weird, but not bad. It is also that voice acting where they just say random phrases that fit the mood rather than the lines on screen.  Not sure how to feel about that. I will just take what I can get.

   We talk to Rosa and Cynthia , who thank us. Cynthia is impressed by my skill, the others are impressed by Cynthia being impressed with me. Everyone is impressed. Except me. I haven’t seen enough to be impressed yet. Rosa is all peppy and happy, being okay with joining the team, but first wanting to battle me first. So I guess I’m not wasting time when it comes to battle number two. It is a bit of an easy fight,  just used to teach you about special Sync Moves. They remind me of Z Moves a bit. You get a pretty cool scene of the trainer doing a pose of sorts, then the scene shifts to your Pokemon doing a more powerful attack.  The cut scene is actually really good.  I enjoy that being a mechanic.

   Rosa is going to take us to meet Barry, but first we get our first glimpse of the professor of the area. Her name is Professor Bellis. She seems okay. Professor Bellis is doing research on sync pairs in Pasio. Seems like every Professor in a new game is doing research on whatever the new mechanic is in the game. Also, Bellis keeps speaking other languages, mainly French…so that is interesting.

   You get to actually answer questions from these trainers periodically, and I’m starting to wonder how much of this is Pokemon and how much of this is a dating sim where you have to guess the right answer to these questions. After talking to the Professor, we are pretty much on our own to follow the story. You unlock the ability to edit your team of trainers, and also get new ones. From what I can tell, you unlock some characters through the story, but others you get through this gacha mechanic. Throughout the game, you earn these gems. The gems can then be spent to get a random trainer. It is okay, but sort of aggravating. It all depends on how readily the gems are available. I’ve played some gacha games that give you plenty of currency, but also some that are extremely stingy with it after the tutorial.  Only time will tell with this.

   Pokemon Masters is a decently fun game so far. It keeps a similar enough battle system of the main games, but tweaks it to make it more in line with other mobile games. Having voice acting is really refreshing, and getting to team up with and essentially play as all of these memorable characters from the older games is great. I think that is what really makes the game for me. Seeing the characters from all generations of Pokemon, seeing how the interact with each other, it makes me want to keep playing. If I’m being honest though, given the style of the game and the gacha aspect, it isn’t a game I can see myself playing for too long. It is more likely one that I will drop and pick up periodically. I could be wrong though! Maybe after playing it more, I will be addicted. We will see. For now, all I can say is, if you’re a Pokemon fan, especially of the games, check it out. It is at the very least a pretty fun time and will send you on a nostalgia trip as you see some of these characters again. Plus come on, you can finally play as Whitney and her Miltank. That is really what makes the whole game worth it.