Pokemon’s turn-based combat can be best described as an inch wide and a mile deep. Its rock-paper-scissors style is easy to understand, but below the murky surface lies an entirely different game. Moves that may seem useless at first glance take on a different meaning in a competitive setting, where complicated stat spreads are tweaked ever-so-slightly to maximize a Pokemon’s efficiency and a constantly evolving meta-game makes it hard to nail down which strategies are viable and which aren’t. Toss in over 1,000 unique monsters that can be trained in hundreds of thousands of different ways, and you’re left with arguably the most impenetrable competitive video game scene of all time.
For decades, Pokemon’s competitive scene was just that: a near-impenetrable experience that requires hundreds of hours–and hundreds of dollars–to keep up with. Pokemon Champions is The Pokemon Company’s attempt to bring white-knuckled, competitive battling to the masses. The financial barrier to entry, at least ostensibly, is low thanks to its free-to-play model, and the snappy stat-training mechanics reduce a lot of friction. However, Pokemon Champions lacks the necessary onboarding to captivate a new audience while also giving clear advantages to players who’ve invested in Pokemon Home. In its current state, Pokemon Champions falls just short of being the be-all and end-all of competitive play that I hoped for.
Despite Pokemon Champions’ lackluster onboarding, there are a lot of tutorials. When you first start up the game, you’re introduced to a cast of characters who teach you how to battle, obtain Pokemon, and build a team. Assuming you don’t skip any dialogue, it takes roughly 30 minutes before you’re set loose. From there, you can battle online, train Pokemon, build teams, or continue with supplementary tutorials. I opted to do the latter.
There are nine battle tutorials in total, and most of them barely scratch the surface of Pokemon’s competitive depth. The one tutorial that focuses on weather, for example, showcases how water attacks deal more damage under rain and triggers certain abilities, but it fails to mention the other three weather states or other impacts rain can have. Another one covers Move Priority but glosses over how it actually works when multiple moves with different priority interact. There is an in-game glossary that goes a little more in-depth, but even that feels lacking. Not wanting to overwhelm a new player is reasonable, but I can’t imagine jumping into competitive battles without fully understanding why an Incineroar is occasionally outspeeding my supposedly faster Jolteon. Sure, those resources are out there, but players shouldn’t have to reach for external guides just to learn the basics of competitive battling.
Perhaps NPC battles could offset this by giving players a safe space to learn different interactions and try out strategies, but Champions lacks this as well. Casual matchmaking is your best bet, but I’ve found skill levels to be all over the place. Sometimes I’d get paired with a razor-sharp meta-relevant team that wiped the floor with mine, and other times I’d go up against a confounding assortment of Pokemon. The skill instability makes it hard to test whether a game plan is viable or not.
Ranked Battles fare much better. My opponents steadily got tougher as I ranked up, and now–at Ultra Ball Rank 3–I feel like battles can go either way. Whether I win or lose, most clashes feel like they come down to a few hair-raising turns where I either outplay my opponent or they outplay me. It’s those highs that make competitive battling so exhilarating. Just because you know what a Pokemon does and the role it typically plays within a team doesn’t mean you know how your opponent plans to utilize it. Success depends on a strong understanding of the game, sharp improvisational skills, and thinking multiple steps ahead of your opponent. Pulling out a hard-fought win by successfully reading an opponent, or pivoting strategies at the last minute is intoxicating, and it’s easy to fall into that “one-more-battle” rabbit hole late into the night.
Compared to Scarlet and Violet, battling is snappier. Thanks to quick animations, streamlined battle text, and shorter connection times, bouts move at a steady pace. Most double battles I participated in were under 20 minutes, and if they went on longer it was because my opponent was using stall tactics to keep their Pokemon on the field. However, even those strategies have been de-emphasized due to balance changes making them harder to come by.
Champions also makes battling more legible than any mainline game before it by shedding light on obscure mechanics from the series. For example, if you look up the move Iron Head in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, it simply says: “This may also make the target flinch.” Champions says it “has a 20% chance of making the target flinch,” while also showing how many targets it can hit and precisely how the move connects. For years, this has been information that players have had to infer through rigorous battling or by looking up details online. Having all this additional context front and center while training your Pokemon makes the whole process more efficient.
Pick a Pokemon to train, allocate its additional stat points, change the nature, swap out the moves, and switch the ability and you’re good to go.
Training in general is also much easier in Pokemon Champions. Pick a Pokemon to train, allocate its additional stat points, change the nature, swap out the moves, and switch the ability and you’re good to go. As long as you have the VP, Pokemon Champions’ in-game currency, you can train a Pokemon as many times as you’d like. I had my first team up and running in minutes, something that would have taken hours in Scarlet and Violet.
Part of the reason team building is quicker is because Pokemon Champions is missing a lot of Pokemon and items that players have come to expect. Competitive staples in previous iterations, like Amoonguss and Rillaboom, are absent, as well as popular items like Rocky Helmet and Life Orb. I don’t find these absences all that bad, though. Sure, I’m bummed some of my favorite Pokemon didn’t make the cut, but putting these restrictions on players lets a new meta develop that isn’t dominated by familiar strategies and overpowered Pokemon. It’s abundantly clear that new Pokemon and items will rotate in and out in the future, so I’m perfectly happy working with what we have for the time being.
The only thing that can potentially throttle team building is VP. Like many free-to-play games, Pokemon Champions frontloads you with a ton of in-game currency to get you started, but once that dries up, your team building potential is limited. Recruiting Pokemon, training Pokemon, and buying battle items all cost VP, and because VP cannot be directly purchased, you’ll need to battle, complete challenges, and advance the battle pass. Recruiting and training a Pokemon could cost as much as 5,000 VP, and one ranked win typically earns you a paltry 300 VP. This makes trying to assemble and train a team an arduous endeavor, unless you’re willing to pay $6.99 for the Starter Pack which includes 30 Teammate Tickets and 50 Training Tickets. This offsets the cost, but it means that players who don’t purchase the Starter Pack could be at a disadvantage.
Pokemon Home connectivity levels the playing field–at least for those who pay for the Pokemon storage service and have built up a respectable collection over hundreds of hours of playing other Pokemon games. As long as you have the box space in Champions, there’s no limit to how many Pokemon can visit from Home. The catch is that box space is limited to 30 slots unless you buy the Starter Pack or subscribe to the $4.99/month subscription which ups it to 80 and a whopping 1,000 slots respectively. Additionally, you can buy the Premium Battle Pass for $9.99, which includes Pokemon, Mega Stones (all of which can be purchased from the store for VP), and a sad selection of cosmetics from Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
While I’m not necessarily averse to free-to-play games, Pokemon Champions’ model alongside its Home support make for an unbalanced experience. Players who have a robust collection in Pokemon Home have immediate access to meta-relevant Pokemon, while players who don’t must roll the dice with Champions’ randomized recruitment. Despite having a massive collection tucked away in Pokemon Home, I opted to only use Pokemon Champions’ recruitment mechanics for the first few hours to see if I could build a decent team. I did manage to pull a few staples like the Ghost- and Grass-type Pokemon Sinistcha, and the Water-type powerhouse Palafin, but those Pokemon alone were not enough to carry me past the Great Ball rank.
The free-to-play model makes it an obvious entry point, but it doesn’t always give new players the resources to succeed.
After a dozen or so more pulls, I caved and plucked Incineroar and Sneasler from Home, the two most-used Pokemon in the doubles format according to the in-game stats. I also imported Floette Eternal Flower, a Pokemon Legends: Z-A exclusive that can only be obtained by completing the grind-heavy post-game, which just so happens to be the best special attacker in Pokemon Champions. Once I built a team around Floette, Incineroar, Sneasler, and Sinistcha, battles got easier until I started seeing more teams streamlined for the current meta. Right now, the only thing preventing casual players from getting blitzed by the best Pokemon in the game is the Ranked matchmaking, which, to its credit, is quite good. However, a quicker and more direct way to obtain specific Pokemon for players who may not have a wealth of Pokemon in Home could make for a more symmetrical experience.
This puts Pokemon Champions in a weird spot. The free-to-play model makes it an obvious entry point, but it doesn’t always give new players the resources to succeed. When I purposefully withheld Pokemon Home access, I had plenty of ideas for teams but couldn’t assemble any of them because I was missing a few key Pokemon. When I finally succumbed to Pokemon Home, I immediately pulled the most meta-relevant Pokemon simply because I could. That won’t be an option for everyone.
While I have issues with Pokemon Champions’ onboarding and recruitment processes, the foundation is solid. The punchy battles and added transparency for once-hidden mechanics make this the best official way to play competitive Pokemon. The lack of certain Pokemon and items may seem like a letdown, but the limited roster has allowed for some unlikely picks to flourish in fun ways. Assuming The Pokemon Company continues to support Champions with balance patches, new features, new Pokemon, and new items on a regular basis, it could live up to its potential as the premier avenue for Pokemon Battles.
Right now, though, Pokemon Champions provides two different experiences for seasoned players and newcomers respectively–and unfortunately for newcomers, it’s an uneven one that will require a lot of their own dedication and time to improve. Perhaps the barrier to entry for competitive Pokemon can never be smashed entirely, but Champions wears it down, and those willing to push through it will find one of the most thrilling competitive games on the other side.
Source: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/pokemon-champions-review-the-battle-frontier/1900-6418480/
