Pokémon Masters is here and there’s a good chunk of gamers, even some faithful to the Pokémon series, who didn’t even know about its inception. Fortunately, it seems the game will have a good chunk of our favourite Pokémon coupled with familiar faces like Misty and Brock.
However, one of the gameplay mechanics that makes Pokémon so great is collecting your own Pokémon by throwing balls at them until they obey you (this does not seem to work at animal adoption shelters, please stop trying), is not found in this Pokémon Masters at all. Instead, you have your Pikachu as you go around meeting other trainers with their one Pokémon, forming alliances, and earning badges.
Of course, no freemium game comes without an opportunity to spend real-life money to get ahead. You can unlock other trainers through crystals you purchase with real-life money or you earn through the game. Fortunately, unlike other gacha-style freemium games, the microtransactions seem to be largely optional and aren’t in the way of gameplay. However, there still are upgrade items you can purchase (or earn slowly through the game itself). They still need to make money somehow. We don’t blame them.
While this game may be a little different from others in the Pokémon series, the best part of the point-and-click battles of Pokémon Masters are the sync moves and their awesome animations with their trainers. You unleash a sync move once you collect enough energy for that trainer. Think of it as a limit break in Final Fantasy games, except with cartoon animals that spew fire, shoot electricity, and hit you over the head with concussive rocks.
Pokémon Masters was developed and produced by Japanese mobile company, DeNA, and is now available for Android and iOS.
