A couple of 12 months in the past, I reviewed Pokémon Buying and selling Card Recreation Pocket right here at Nintendo Life, awarding it a good 7/10, largely as a result of accumulating ‘mons from that preliminary set of packs felt kinetic and thrilling.
Positive, there was far an excessive amount of monetisation within the type of a number of totally different currencies, and the battles lacked a much-needed strategic edge, however for a cellular recreation you may largely play without cost, it scratched an itch that saved me from ripping overpriced real-world packs and linked me with quite a lot of associates doing the identical.
I’ve saved up enjoying since then, acquiring all One- to 4-Diamond playing cards of every of the 11 units whereas additionally managing to tug every Immersive card. I’ve additionally reached the Grasp Ball rank in every ranked season. But regardless of being somebody clearly nonetheless invested, my opinion on TCG Pocket has flip-flopped round like a Magikarp that may’t determine if it needs to succeed in the water or perish on dry land. Each constructive comes with a damaging for this Coalossal gacha recreation.
Over the past 12 months, each key characteristic or replace developer DeNA applied to make the accumulating and battling expertise higher has come paired with an try to fleece the participant base for extra real-world {dollars}.
A great instance of this (that later acquired ‘mounted’) is the way you commerce. TCG Pocket launched with out the flexibility to take action — regardless of the secret — and when it did debut, it got here with one other new forex and restrictive guidelines round what playing cards you could possibly commerce, engaging you to spend extra real-world cash on packs, as gacha video games are wont to do.
Notably, you couldn’t commerce playing cards from the present set, and also you couldn’t commerce Two-Star playing cards or above. In case your favorite Pokémon is Dragonite and also you actually need that rainbow-border Dragonite EX, higher get away that bank card as a result of the Pack Factors system isn’t going to get you there except you spend a number of hundred {dollars}, as you couldn’t commerce a pal with duplicates for it.
After fan backlash, DeNA course-corrected from this restrictive system. They first Axewed the trade-based forex and merged it with Shinedust. And someday quickly — maybe even as you’re studying this — they promise you’ll get to commerce Two-Star playing cards whereas additionally implementing the flexibility to present Diamond rarity playing cards to associates.
These modifications will undoubtedly make TCG Pocket rather more player-friendly, but from my anecdotal expertise, that is too little too late. Many individuals I do know dropped it as a result of it was far too annoying to maintain up with the fast launch schedule of latest playing cards.
And regardless of enhancements to buying and selling, I’m undecided accumulating goes to get significantly better. The newest set — the limited-time Deluxe Pack EX — has gamers each completely happy and offended like a Morpeko. There’s no mechanically new playing cards on this pack; nevertheless, each pack has an EX card inside. This makes it a completely wonderful catch-up pack for gamers who missed key playing cards in previous units.
On the similar time, this set is unattainable to complete with out spending cash earlier than it leaves the sport, till a while within the nebulous future when DeNA re-releases it. They went forward and included 353 complete playing cards, which is quadruple a standard pack of about 75 playing cards. It consists of reverse holo playing cards together with common reprints of frequent playing cards, making most packs filled with fluff for these — like me — which have saved up with their collections.
Worse, the playing cards from this set don’t retroactively clear previous units regardless of being the identical in each different approach, that means that if you wish to seize these previous couple of EX you’re lacking to finish them, this pack is basically ineffective.
Many individuals I do know dropped it as a result of it was far too annoying to maintain up with the fast launch schedule of latest playing cards.
Whereas my opinion on the gathering side of TCG Pocket has soured, I’ve come to understand growing strategic depth to ranked on-line battles. I do know many don’t agree with me right here, however as somebody who has frequently performed on-line TCGs since Hearthstone’s debut, I discover quite a lot of the matches require attention-grabbing performs and selections that maintain me coming again to succeed in Grasp Ball each season. DeNA has carried out an amazing job concentrating on points with the battle system, akin to introducing Child Pokémon that alleviate the drawback of going first should you’re working a deck with them.
Nevertheless, not the whole lot is ideal as we’re mired in a Suicune EX and Greninja meta in the meanwhile. DeNA doesn’t rebalance their playing cards, as an alternative selecting to energy creep their older units, which suggests the final pack mascot — Suicine — is dominating the meta, showing in about 60% of my matches. Greninja is the one non-Coach Genetic Apex card that also sees common play. I used to be carried out enjoying in opposition to the blue canine and frog a couple of week into the September season. Even when the matches in opposition to it are sometimes thrilling, no new playing cards from the Deluxe Pack EX sadly ensured we acquired one other month of their ‘rain’ of terror.
Of all of the individuals I do know nonetheless enjoying TCG Pocket, I’m the one one who persistently climbs the ranked ladder each season. Most individuals simply log in to tear their day by day packs, verify Wonderpicks, and transfer on.
Each constructive change DeNA makes to TCG Pocket both comes with or is in response to a damaging, nonetheless. The Mega Evolution-themed set has three packs to open as an alternative of 1 or two, making it tougher to gather ‘em all. However instant buying and selling of that set means you may seize the meta-relevant playing cards or playing cards you wish to construct decks for faster, making the climb to the Grasp Ball rank that rather more thrilling as extra individuals could have playing cards to remain aggressive with the Wailords amongst us.
If the upcoming buying and selling options deliver a player-friendly breath of contemporary air to the sport, I may see myself having fun with TCG Pocket for one more 12 months or extra.
After a full 12 months of updates, I wouldn’t change my evaluation rating; nevertheless, it would be a 7/10 for various causes. Battles are much more strategic now, however the assortment side can oftentimes really feel overwhelming, particularly should you’re free-to-play.
With additions to the buying and selling system on the horizon, TCG Pocket may attain a spot the place it feels much less prefer it’s a floundering Magikarp and one thing extra just like the raging Gyarados it was when it first launched. However as at all times with cellular gacha video games, I haven’t got quite a lot of hope that potential will ever materialise.
