Hello Enthusiasts,
Yesterday the mobile game Pokemon Duel was released outside of Japan. Unlike other Pokemon titles (looking at you, Pokemon Go) there wasn't a lot of hype or buildup to the release, it just kind of dropped. Since I just started playing yesterday afternoon, I don't have a full review on this, but I did want to give you my initial thoughts.
So this game is basically a virtual version of a board game that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist in the real world. The primary way to win the game is to get one of your Pokemon statues onto a specific space on the other players side of the board, although there are other ways to win each match. The story of the game is that your character is arriving to a tournament for this game, even though you have never played the game before. You are taught by a new friend named Luca, who you meet on the plane ride over. You will run into other characters as well, such as a professional contestant named Sharon, who it appears to have a crush on your character. You will go through various hotels for the tournament, beating various players until you take on the head of that particular building. There is, of course, a family looking to sabotage the tournament, though they are not actually members of Team Rocket like I expected.
The game itself it pretty fun, though lacks a lot of the strategy that I would expect it to have. There aren't any type advantages to the game pieces, something that Pokemon is known for utilizing in just about every game they have released in the past. You also don't choose the attacks or strategies, each Pokemon statue's attacks are based on a wheel that is spun. So all of the strategy comes in picking Pokemon statues that have better wheels to spin and how you move them around the board. Even though I'm not crazy about the attacking system, it does make the matches more challenging for sure. I also like that, as of now, I have been progressing nicely without having to actually spend any money in the game (the game is free as well, so my wallet is happy for now). There is also a decent system of leveling up your Pokemon, where leveling them up doesn't make their attacks stronger, but allows you to increase your chances of landing on a space of your choice. Still, despite not having some aspects I would have expected, it keeps bringing me back for more.
The big, and I mean big, downside to this game is the performance. The game takes an incredibly long time to load each page, even when I'm on wifi or have excellent 4G signal. It gets really frustrating when trying to get several things done in the game when you don't have a lot of time to play. There are also some real issues with the game just not working. I have seen the error message several times that says the game is unable to connect or that it ran into an issue and I get sent back to the home screen. Considering that this game already had some time being played in Japan I feel like it should have had a lot of these issues worked out by now. Who knows, maybe it was even more troublesome before.
Overall, this is an interesting and addictive game that needs a good update. The performance issues are infuriating, but if you can get past that you'll find a decent game to help pass the time. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the game.
For my first impression of the game, I give Pokemon Duel a 7 out of 10.
Sincerely,
The Bored Enthusiast
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