For the first game I’m reviewing this semester, I’m going back a little bit into the Pokémon franchise with mobile game Pokémon Masters EX. I don’t typically enjoy gacha games, just because I know I’ll get a little too into the pulling mechanic, but I’m having a lot of fun with this one. I think the key is to only spend a little bit of time playing it every day. For people who are new to my blog, I rate the fun I had playing, the difficulty level, and whether or not I consider it replayable out of five in each of these categories. Typically a three is average, and I adjust for things that are good or bad, rather than either “meh” or a mix of both. Obviously what I rate something may not be what you consider it to be, and I encourage anyone who played the games I’m reviewing to chime in with your own experiences in the comments! You can also read tags for my more casual commentary on the game.
FUN RATING: 3/5. This game has a bunch of things to do, but you might not be able to finish all of the battles available to you if you aren’t a little over the recommended level. I felt a little confined to the main story, and like I had to finish it before I could go through the other events. The scout system where you pull for different sync pairs (sets of trainers and pokémon of different levels of power) is really exciting, but once you get past the first few sets of achievements, it gets a little hard to get enough gems for the 11x scout. However, this game is definitely addictive and I spent a solid couple of hours playing it the first weekend I had it. Making up different strategies for teams is super enjoyable, and it’s not too hard to get strong team members if you don’t mind waiting a few days to get the gems required for the larger scout.
EASE RATING: Depends on if you buy gems. 4/5 if you do, 2.5/5 (wow! Decimals! I didn’t want to give it a three) if you don’t. Some areas of the game, like the Battle Villa, where you battle for as long as you can in one streak (which I believe ends when all of your three pokémon sync teams have fainted), are super difficult even for higher level players. The Legendary Arena, where you can fight legendary pokémon for rewards and medals, is another series of long, hard fights. However, the main story is pretty easy if you use the manuals you have to level up your sync team to their level caps- you can finish battles in a few minutes, even if you don’t have the recommended typing. In higher level / difficulty situations, you really do need the correct strategy and proper strength/weakness pairings to take out the opposing team without suffering losses yourself. However, spending money on gems means you get more incubators for reward eggs (you can sync with the pokémon that hatch from these eggs) and more exclusive scouts (these work like Genshin Impact pulls, where the things you get are left up to chance), some with guaranteed five star scouts (these are the highest level of scouts you can get, and their percentage of being pulled is often very low, happening once or twice at best per eleven scouts). These overpowered units you can get make gameplay a lot easier, as they tend to be incredibly powerful in early game scenarios. You can just turn on auto and let your phone sit if you’re so inclined, and you’ll probably still win (I watched a friend do exactly this). However, gems are pretty expensive, so you should probably avoid purchasing them as a rule.
REPLAYABILITY RATING: 2/5. You get the option to replay the main story in hard mode after beating it in normal mode, but other than that, you don’t have a whole lot of options for playing things again aside from just deleting the whole app and not linking any accounts to it when you redownload. Aside from the extra difficulty, this game actually works for you to not have to replay the game at all- with skip tickets, you can bypass training entirely. You get skip tickets for completing medals (which act as achievements) and for completing certain areas. You also have the option to do co-op after getting to the first main story interlude, but I haven’t done enough of this to form a real opinion on it (most of my friends are far more powerful than I am, and I wouldn’t want to drag them down in co-op). Overall, this isn’t very replayer-friendly.
OVERALL: Sure, this game is pretty basic. It’s a gacha time-suck for sure, but I really enjoy it. I think what I get most out of it is playing it with other people and the sense of community I get from a small group of friends that also enjoy it. Getting the scout you’ve been trying for for a week is super exciting, and I love sharing this kind of excitement with other people. I’ve leveled up my sync pairs as much as I possibly can, but I’m still having fun with it- it doesn’t automatically guarantee a win, I’ve still lost a couple, and I just have to come back with a better strategy and typings than before. It’s a little bit to get used to, because pokémon only have one main weakness in this game, and it differs between the pokémon. Trying to use a fire move on a grass-type and having it not be super-effective sure was disorienting, but it’ll tell you at the preparation screen before the battle what weaknesses to aim for, so you get the hang of it pretty quickly. If you already play a gacha game, I would not recommend it. If you already spend money on one, I guarantee your wallet cannot handle a second- honestly, I would not buy any of the paid gems on offer just because they’re crazy expensive. However, this game is friendly to players who don’t want to spend any money, and you can go really far with just what the game gives you. I think the main thing that gets people to spend money is probably frustration, because you keep spending thousands of gems trying to pull this one character before their banner ends, and then you don’t get them. I tried for ages to get one character, Sygna Suit Red (because his EX form is super cool), and I was just lucky that his banner came back in a couple days (it shows up when you first get the game for a couple days, and it was pure chance that it came back up again for a week or two shortly after the end of the first one). It genuinely almost got me to spend money on gems for him, but one look at the gem prices and I was immediately reversing that decision. Primarily, I just enjoy collecting all the cool-looking character designs. I’m not really here to win, I just like getting trainers with drip.
