Pokemon Masters was an app I was excited to get. Most pokemon games focus on the main selling point of the series, the pokemon, but finally with Pokemon Masters we got a game that gave us a chance to celebrate the human characters of pokemon.
Through all the games so far, Pokemon has had wonderful designs for gym leaders, champions, rivals and more so it's great to get a game showcasing them.
But, after playing it for a while, I can't say I'm not disappointed. Pokemon Masters has taken some steps to try and shake up the gatcha game formula but, for the most part, it has worked against it. Here's some of what it had changed:
1) No Stamina/Energy bar Now, this should be a good thing. Stamina/energy bars are usually the bugbear of people's mobile gaming lives but without it, it's way too easy to breeze through the game's content. With the game being out 3 weeks I've nearly completed the story and events that are supposed to fill that gap or slow people down can take less than an hour to complete the solo content. Outside of just grinding up the levels of units there really isn't much to this game once the story is done. That isn't to say it doesn't have its upsides. With no stamina bar, I have taken characters from lvl 1 to lvl 75 in one day and that can be super satisfying.
2) Gatcha rates So Pokemon Masters has the highest rates for rare units than any game I've played. Mostly the rate is about 1%, if that, but Pokemon Masters is 7%, which is insane(Yet still no 5* for me...saving for Cynthia). This is great for people to have more access to better units but...it's come with the price of the game being unusually stingy with curency. It takes 300 for a single roll, 3000 for a 10 roll, but you only get 10-30 per mission so it can be hard to build up a stock.
The game also tries to compensate this by throwing a tone of free units at you which is nice and all but, as much as I'm not one for gambling Gatcha is kinda fun, I would like to roll it a bit more often, preferably without having to pay. I understand that the devs want to make money but there are far more generous gatcha games out there that are by no means struggling.
Those are the main things wrong with this game. Anything else I have found disappointing with it has been personal preference. For example, not being able to grind the events in solo play. There are solo missions in events but they don't drop event currency so there's no way to take advantage of the rarer items in the event shop in solo play which is a pain in the butt. I don't want to play with people. Eww, people. But again, that's personal preference for me, I'm not really a fan of online multiplayer in general.
Though, that's about it for the bugbears I have with this game. It does at least succeed in what it sets out to do which is bring some love to the characters and designs of the people of the pokemon world. The story isn't great but characters do have some fun interactions. Voice acting and animations are also wonderful, the game is, at the very least, visually great, with graphics you dont expect for your bog-standard mobile.
Overall Pokemon Masters is a disappointment. The devs tried something a bit different with the no stamina system and the higher gatcha rates but the two had some unintended consequences that make the game a bit less enjoyable.
Buuuut I'm still playing at the moment. Jury is still out on whether I will once I have completed the story though.
