Pokemon Masters
Hello again my little nuggets!!
Today I bring to you: Pokemon Masters~
It was released on 25th Jul for Singapore, and I immediately downloaded it the moment I could. So what is it? In a nutshell, instead of collecting Pokemon, you instead collect Pokemon Trainers. Each Trainer has a specific Sync Partner, and that is unchangeable. Yours would be Pikachu.
On startup, you get both Brock and Misty, and both of them are only 3*. Brock has Onix, and Misty Starmie. Moving along story chapters gets you more well-known Trainers, such as Rosa, and Erika. You can also get more Trainers from their gacha system, though I think it would be possible to play entirely without purchases.
There is a new 'evil' group of masked strangers, stealing other Trainers' Pokemon and all that jazz. Kinda looks like P5's Joker, doesn't it.
I've had it for a couple days now, and have also bought some in-game gems to check out the gacha system. Here's a mini review of sorts.
Your character is somewhat customisable, but only for skin, eye, and hair color. You cannot change outfits or hairstyle, but at any point should you decide to change your gender or any above mentioned, you can simply go to your profile to do so.
 | |
|
The team page is pretty simple, that's where you go to change your team members, level them up, uncap their max level, etc.
The shop page is also straightforward enough, where you go to exchange low tier items for mid tier items, and then for higher tier items so you can use those to unlock new skills and passives. The gacha section (Sync Pair Scout) is also under the shop, and while it isn't a new concept, there is this little thing called the Scout Points. This also isn't a new concept, but man, 400 points?? As you can see I've already spent 1600 gems, only to get 16 points.
It's 1 point per 100 gems, and there is also a time limit for the point exchange. The current one ends in early Sept, and while there are daily gems for free I don't think you might be able to accumulate and spend that much to reach 400 points. I suppose that's why they also have a spending notification where they inform you that you've reached a preset spending limit.
There are also paid and unpaid gems, and honestly I was hoping to paid gems might be worth more points, but I guess not. At this point, I'm giving up on the gacha and just seeing what else the game has to offer for now.
So on to the Explore section. There's the Main Story, Events (currently WIP I believe), Sync Pair Stories, and Training Area.
Main Story is self explanatory, as with the Events tab. Sync Pair stories are a spend a day with a Trainer and their Partner kind of thing, and if I remember correctly you might be able to evolve some Pokemon through those stories. I clicked the dialogue a little too fast, so I'm not too clear on that.
Training Area has different tabs you can pick from which will reap different sort of rewards. They have daily time limited courses as well.
Battles wise, there is an 'energy' bar right at the bottom of the screen, and you'll have to wait for it to replenish to a certain amount of bars before you can use certain moves. After using moves a specific number of times, you get to unleash a special Sync Move. It doesn't carry over to the next battle, so use it when you can.
Different Trainers also have different skills. You and Pikachu, for example, have Potion instead of Sp Att Up or Speed Up for example. I suppose this is where you might want to switch up teams to get the best offense or defense? There is an auto battle function, but after trying that out I realised that auto battle tends to somehow only use one Pokemon's attack, and that can drag the battle out immensely.
Battling and grinding for exp also gets repetitive really fast, and each Pokemon seems to only have one weakness? For example a Flying type might have an Electric weakness listed, but an Ice attack doesn't seem to damage it as much. Then again, I have my battles set at a faster speed, so I might have missed the damage number inflicted.
Overall, while the graphics are really sharp and there might be potential for Pokemon Masters to go far, I feel pretty meh about the game. I was excited the first couple hours, and then I quickly got bored of it. Not to mention the gacha system seems to play a huge role in the game so far, and spending can quickly get out of hand if you're not careful.
Pokemon Masters has not been released globally yet, so we shall see if there will be more exciting features (perhaps events) once the world is up and playing.
For now, nerd out!
Written by: ninetylives
No Comment to " Pokemon Masters "