As with sudden love affairs, my relationship with Pokémon Pocket is starting to fizzle. I was at first enamored by its charming simplicity. Its streamlined battles were the perfect gateway to more complex Pokémon TCG games, and its free-to-play pack openings gave me a way to engage with the hobby without spending money. Sadly, all the things I loved the game for have begun to grate on me – and if Pokémon Pocket doesn’t change soon, I fear our relationship may be over.
It’s not me, Pokémon Pocket, it’s definitely you.
The first topic of today’s marriage counseling session is pack openings. I’ve completed several of the digital game’s Pokémon sets, and my binders show off numerous glitzy full art rares.
During the early honeymoon period, I would regularly return to my collection to fawn over my rarest pulls. My fiance and I made a daily habit of comparing our day’s yield. These days, though, I scarcely glance at my past picks. Opening new packs leaves me empty inside.
The novelty of free packs has certainly worn off, and this boredom is compounded by just how few interesting cards there are to pull. I still have 50 cards left to chase before I can complete my Spacetime Smackdown Pokédex, and plenty of its rare Pokémon cards still elude me. Knowing how unlikely I am to find the cards I need – and how many duplicates are piling up in my inventory – has sucked the joy from the experience.
I’m not convinced that increasing the number of sets will improve things. The situation remains the same: open a pack, feel a bit let down by your pulls, and wait until tomorrow to repeat. Try a wonder pick, miss out on the card you wanted, and wait until tomorrow to repeat. The cards themselves aren’t dull, but the gameplay is.
To make matters worse, there’s strong evidence that your Wonder Picks are pre-determined (and perhaps your pack openings are, too). It apparently matters little how many times you spin your pack selection or which exact position your Wonder Pick is in. Pokémon Pocket has laid a thin veil of player choice over its incredibly bare-bones mechanics.
I could always trade to polish off those final Pokédex slots, but the less said about Pocket’s trading, the better. Its multiple currencies (of which Pocket has far too many as it is) combined with the long list of restrictions on what cards you can trade mean that I’ve avoided it since inception. Pokémon Pocket has promised that improvements are coming, and I hope to see that soon – my faithfulness is waning.
Last on my ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ list is the battle system. The small pool of packs combined with its stripped-back rules resulted in a repetitive meta, where one or two decks rule the roost between releases. The opening coin flip still holds far too much sway over your win or loss, and earning rewards often means repeating the same cycles over and over to net an arbitrary win streak.
And at the end of it all, what am I battling for? More currency. An emblem with no purpose other than bragging rights (something I’m sure all two of my Pokémon Pocket friends care about very little). The occasional promo that I scarcely strive for anymore.
Pokémon Pocket has driven any completionist tendency out of me. Things have grown so stale that I’m actually grateful that the app demands so little of my time.
Together, Pocket and I have fallen into a ‘roommates’ kind of relationship – a passionless co-habitation where our interactions are limited to the essential and unexciting. I log in, open my two packs, collect my hourglasses, and I’m gone.
Hopefully, something is on the horizon that will reignite our spark. Rumors are swirling that ranked gameplay, new sets, and Pokémon Day goodies are on the near horizon. Whether they can save my love for Pokémon Pocket is yet to be seen.
For more on the paper TCG, here’s all you need to know about the newest Pokémon set. We can also tell you about the latest Pocket decks storming the meta, like this Darkrai buster or the deck winning tournaments without a single Ex.
Source: Wargamer
