Japanese airline ANA has revealed a new plane safety video starring a variety of Pokémon.
The Pokémon brand has a long-standing relationship with ANA, and has adorned several of its jets with Pokémon characters over the past few decades. But this safety video is the first of its kind - and it's worth a watch to see numerous Pokémon getting to grips with good airline etiquette.
While Pikachu and Pichu are the stars, of course, you'll also see a mildly disturbing Jigglypuff scold a man for vaping, Mr Mime appear to mime safety instructions, and Floatzle turn up to demonstrate its own in-built life vest.
Computer peripheral manufacturer SanDisk has announced that it is launching a range of Pokemon-themed microSD cards today in celebration of Gamescom. The Pokemon-branded SD Cards include Pikachu, Gengar and Snorlax. They are available as follows, Pikachu is 256GB, Gengar is 512GB and Snorlax is 1TB. They are available for purchase on the Western Digital store.… Read More »SanDisk launches new Pokemon-themed microSD cards
The Pokemon Company announced at the end of Pokemon Worlds 2024 that a new batch of lovable Pokemon are joining the free to play title Pokemon UNITE on Nintendo Switch and smartphone platforms. Armarouge will be the first to join the battle on 12th September and will be followed by Darkrai in October and Psyduck… Read More »Armarouge, Darkrai, and Psyduck coming to Pokemon UNITE
The Pokemon Company has revealed the locations for Pokemon Worlds 2025 and Pokemon Worlds 2026 and both events will be set in California in The United States. Pokemon Worlds 2025 will be set in Anaheim, California and Pokemon Worlds 2026 will be set in San Francisco, California. This will give potential trainers plenty of time… Read More »Pokemon Worlds 2025 and 2026 will be set in California
You may recall that, back in late February, The Pokemon Company announced Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. The mobile game is currently slated to release on iOS and Android devices later this year. Since then, The Pokemon Company has been very quiet in regards to information about the game. Well, that has changed. The Pokemon… Read More »Video: Pokemon TCG Pocket trailer
For 20 years, Monster Hunter has been one of Capcom’s most successful and enduring franchises. Yet for all its star power, the games themselves have done little to change up the central action role-playing mechanics of hunting kaiju and other beasts in its lush, feudal world.
Little, that is, until Monster Hunter Stories took it into the arena of monster-taming turn-based RPGs, ala Pokemon or Shin Megami Tensei. Having put some time into Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, I can say it doesn’t take the genre to any new heights, but it does make for a solid entry into an overly saturated genre with just enough of its own character to stand out.
For starters, MHS2 does a commendable job of replicating the core cycle of the mainline series — gear up and murder monsters using a wide array of tricks in the hope of harvesting some drops to forge or upgrade weapons and armor. Rinse and repeat with increasingly threatening beasts.
Although mainline Monster Hunter is hardly blood-soaked, this one’s also more family friendly — the protagonist’s talking cat sidekick is only too willing to give the ol’ “Believe in yourself!” between bouts of pining for donuts. Given the genre, it’s clear this title was targeted towards a younger audience with an appropriately-attuned difficulty (AKA, pretty easy.)
The jovial tone carries through the rather serious — although not particularly grim — storyline. A mysterious evil is driving monsters to unnatural rage amid a prophecy foretelling destruction across the world. The player’s avatar must collect monsters and advance their skill as a Monster Rider to save their idyllic island home from these treacherous threats.
It’s not a particularly compelling plot, and characters lack the kind of depth that could give it more oomph, but as is the case with this genre especially, the story and questlines really aren’t important — what matters is the collecting and battling. In this, Wings of Ruin makes a strong case for itself.
Pulling from decades of material, it features some of the series’ iconic, sublime and oftentimes just badass creatures as potential partners — delightfully referred to as “Monsties.” Part of the franchise’s success is due to its memorable designs, here re-imagined in a more cartoony and vibrant graphic style. Rathalos, Tigrex, Nargacuga and more are here, along with weapons and armors that mirror them.
Then there’s the manner in which they’re “caught.” Players enter dens — sometimes spawned when a monster fought in the wild retreats — and steal eggs to raise as their own. There is something intrinsically funny (and awful) about pulling an egg from a nest and watching the player goofily carry it out with both hands to go hatch and fight with — or, in another dark turn that never reaches the tonal surface, sacrifice it to boost the stats of another Monstie.
Stat lines are relatively straightforward — speed, crit rate, attack, defense — with some elemental flavor. There’s a neat gene mechanic where monsters try to line up certain attributes to make a bingo but this isn’t a system that needs a complex Excel spreadsheet to min-max a build.
Similarly, combat is simple without ever being dull. It boils down to a rock-paper-scissors system of power, speed or technical attacks coupled with choice of the type of weapon (slash, pierce, or blunt). Correctly guessing which type to use against a wild monster will yield bigger rewards in damage and charging up a kinship meter, used for flashy skills and eventually to ride the player’s Monstie for a big damage finisher
On the technical side, I never ran into any issues. This release is a port of a previous Switch version, and the while graphics are nothing to particularly herald, Capcom has followed the original hardware’s limitations (and Nintendo’s ethos) in crafting an enjoyable experience, rather than anything particularly pretty.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin isn’t a shining exemplar of the monster taming genre, but it does successfully mesh the iconic aesthetics of its mainline counterpart with no-fat collect and battle systems that are as easy to approach as they are satisfying to master.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed by Capcom and Marvelous and published by Capcom. It is currently available on PS4, PC and Switch. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed.
Parents: According to theESRB, this game is rated E and contains Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. The official description reads as follows: This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of a monster rider on a quest to protect a mysterious egg. Players explore a fantasy world, complete quests, interact with characters, and battle fantastical creatures (e.g., dragons, dinosaurs, giant insects) in turn-based combat. Players can select various weapon attacks (e.g., sword slashes, arrow strikes, oversized-pistol shots) and monster attacks (e.g., flame breathe, dash attack) from a menu to defeat enemy creatures. Battles can be frenetic, accompanied by explosions and screen-shaking effects. During monster tracking, players can collect monster dung; players also encounter a creature that emits a brown flatulence attack. The word “hell” appears in the game.
Colorblind Modes: There are nocolorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Audio cues for NPCs and enemies do not have a visual component onscreen. This game is not fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers partially remappable controls. Action mapping for buttons on the controller can be changed.
Western Digital has teamed up with The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo to drop some epic new SanDisk microSD cards, featuring your favourite Pokémon! These cards are perfect for Nintendo Switch users who want to expand their game library without constantly juggling downloads and deletions. Catch ‘Em All: Pokémon-Themed SanDisk microSD Cards These new microSD…
As revealed by voice actress Veronica Taylor (who plays Ash in the Pokémonanime), on Monday, August 12, 2024, iconic voice actress Rachel Lillis has passed away at 46 years-old after a battle with breast cancer.
We all know Rachael Lillis from the many wonderful roles she played. She filled our Saturday mornings and before/after school hours with her beautiful voice, her terrific comic timing, and her remarkable acting skills. #RachaelLillispic.twitter.com/XOjFqY0C1L
Many other talents from the animated shared their condolences, and it has been announced that there will be a memorial service held at a later date.
Rachel Lillis had an extremely successful voice acting career, taking on a number of roles in the Pokémon franchise, including Misty and Jessie. Her repertoire extended beyond Pokémon, playing the titular Utena Tenjo in Revolutionary Girl Utena and Nagi Kirima in Boogiepop Phantom.
Pikachu might be the main mascot of Pokémon, but it just got one-upped at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. And it’s all because a very special Pachirisu captured the hearts of spectators both near and far when it emerged from its Poké Ball.
Players and fans alike gathered for the 2024 Pokémon World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii, over the weekend. The tournament hosted competitions for several games, including the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the most recent generation of video games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. While this meant spectators got to see newer additions to the Pokédex, like some of the powerful Paradox Pokémon, the real showstopper was a Pachirisu that belonged to Sejun Park, the 2014 world champion in the video game Masters Division.
To understand the hype around Park and his Pachirisu, it’s helpful to run down a brief history of their roles in the competitive Pokémon scene. Prior to his win in 2014, Park regularly placed at the top of the global player rankings, but never won. Then, in 2014, he ran a creative team centered around Mega Gyarados and Pachirisu. Because of the success of his team, and the fact that his Pachirisu stood out in a sea of similar but more competitive options, his Pachirisu took on a legendary status within the Pokémon community. Today, a video from the Official Pokémon YouTube channel describes his win as “arguably the most iconic moment in competitive history.”
On Friday, 10 years after his big win, Park decided to bring Pachirisu back again, and onlookers could not have been more thrilled. A recording from the Worlds stream shows the moment when Park sent out Pachirisu and you can hear the crowd roar. Pachirisu had the title “the Chosen One,” and fans watched as the little guy tanked an attack with a critical hit from Aaron Zheng’s Chien-Pao.
I really don't wanna start this conversation right now but people that are like "win with my favourites?? my favourites are calyrex and landorus 🤪🤪" looking a bit silly after the crowd ROARED when Pachirisu showed on screen. pic.twitter.com/4161cBkNTb
Online, people on X hailed the return of “King Pachirisu” and shared clips and art featuring the adorable Pokémon. One tweet, with almost 16,000 likes, showed an image of Park’s lineup and said, “HE BROUGHT BACK PACHIRISU NOOOO WAY?!?!”
Unfortunately, Park’s strategy didn’t work as well this time. Park went up against Zheng and lost two games in a row — and, later that day, his spot in the tournament. Still, I have to give him respect for being loyal to Pachirisu. At the end of it all, he shared a celebratory tweet with side-by-side images from his win in 2014 and the 2024 competition. While it’s been 10 years since Park’s Worlds win, it warmed my heart to see his plushie pal Pachirisu is still by his side.
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Your favorite talking Pokémon is back, and there are more mysteries to solve! Detective Pikachu Returns will release exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on October 6, 2023. As usual, this Pokémon adventure was developed by Creatures and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.
First announced in 2019, the Nintendo Direct on June 21 of this year gave us our first peak at this cinematic sequel. Not a ton of information has been revealed about the gameplay itself. However, it’s fair to assume that it will be somewhat similar to the original. Detective Pikachu released on the 3DS in March, 2018. Check out the trailer to Detective Pikachu Returns below, and find out everything we know about the return of this iconic, case-solving duo.
The adventure continues
Detective Pikachu Returns trailer
The story of the original Detective Pikachu is remarkably similar to the film adaptation, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. The Pikachu of this game belongs to Harry Goodman, a detective who mysteriously disappears after a car crash. Confronted with the need to start asking questions, Pikachu finds that the only human who can understand him is Harry’s son. You play as Harry’s son, Tim Goodman. Together, you and your talking Pikachu scour Ryme city, solving mysteries in search of Harry. But of course, the journey is full of twists and turns.
The Pokémon world is a little different in Ryme city. Here, Pokémon are more than the beloved companions of humans. In Ryme city, humans and Pokémon live side-by-side. Tim is in college, rather than Ash, who is 10 years old. The original, as well as Detective Pikachu Returns are a little closer to a platformer or puzzle game. It’s a welcome departure from the top-down, turn based combat of the core games. It also melds the more modern, world-traversing games like Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
There are some clues available to solve the plot of Detective Pikachu Returns. It’s important to remember that the overarching goal of the series is to find your father and Pikachu’s owner, Harry. However, in the first game, a more pertinent mystery unfolds. Without spoiling anything, it involves a plot for control and a mysterious compound that puts Pokémon into a violent rage. The first game ends with Tim and Pikachu resuming the search for Harry.
Buzzing with excitement… or caffeine?
Based on the first game and the trailer’s short amount of footage, we can surmise a bit about the gameplay. Most obviously, it seems you’ll be able to control different Pokémon to assist in your investigations. Growlithe can use its sense of smell, Darmanitan can break through walls, and there’s sure to be more. We’re introduced to Tim’s mom Irene, and sister Sophia. Something is bound to happen at the local coffee shop. It seems the maps have definitely gotten bigger and more varied, if not just better looking. Detective Pikachu Returns is definitely upping the anti in the sequel, and we’d expect no less of Nintendo.
It also seems like Tim and Pikachu will become wrapped up in another epic mystery that distracts them from their primary goal. If you’ve seen the movie, then it might easy to guess where that plot line is likely going. As such, we can only hope that the mystery at the center of this game adds something new to the story. And of course, you can expect plenty of neo-noir dialogue and quipping from the most talkative Pikachu there’s ever been.
Solve the case in Detective Pikachu Returns next month!
Detective Pikachu Returns releases exclusively for the Nintendo Switch on October 6, 2023. You can pre-order the game on the Nintendo store or wherever you buy your games.
Stay with us, we’ll let you know of any updates as they become available. Are you excited?
A Bulbasaur with retractable vines was built, 3D printed and displayed by an inventive Pokemon fan. As a result, many more enthusiasts have expressed interest in printing or purchasing copies of the original design. As one of the original Pokemon, Bulbasaur has been a fan favorite across all generations of Pokemon games. Although hundreds of […]
I love how the store credit system works on the Nintendo eShop. When you purchase games, you get golden coins that you can use as a discount for other games. If you have enough coins, you can even buy the game outright. One of the games I have bought with this system is Trinity Trigger. From the description, it sounded like an interesting and unique action JRPG, and I’m always interested to play new and unique games. Especially since key staff on this game worked on amazing games like Chrono Cross and the Mana series. Now, is it any good and should you pick up this game, or is it a game that you should skip? Well, in this first impression I have after playing 1/4th of the game, I want to tell you my opinion so far. I’m also curious to hear your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article in the comment section down below. And with that said, let’s dive right into Trinity Trigger.
Just A Bit More
In this game, we take on the role of Cyan. Cyan is an average boy from a small village. He is also a treasure hunter that one day learns he is chosen by the God of Chaos as his Warrior of Chaos.
In the fantasy world of Trinitia, there are two main Gods. The God of Order and the God of Chaos. In ancient times, they used to wage war for control of the lands. Now, they chose a warrior each to represent them and fight the other warrior to the death for dominance. Cyan doesn’t know what that even means, but it might explain why he has amnesia, those weird dreams and that special glowing mark in his eye. In search for answers, he sets out on a journey, and that’s how this game starts.
When this game was originally teased, the main setup for this game was to create a game and story that was nostalgic to those who played old school JRPG’s. A lot of talent who worked on other big titles like Xenoblade, Pokémon and Bravely Default II were working on this game as well. I always find it dangerous to mention these things, since it might set the expectations of players way too high. What if this isn’t going to work out or when the story just doesn’t hit the mark?
You can never predict how the chemistry is between people, and it’s possible that they are unable to work together. But, it’s also possible they hit it off big and make something extremely unique and special. I remember how a game like World’s End Club could have been so much more with two amazing directors behind it, Kazutake Kodaka from Danganronpa fame and Kotaro Uchikoshi from the Zero Escape fame. Yet, that game was decent but could have been so much more if it had more depth and polish.
If I’m honest with myself, Trinity Trigger falls into the same boat then World’s End Club. Take the story, for example. When I started playing this game, an amazing world was being setup and I started to get interested and immersed in this new world. But, it didn’t take long before I noticed that this game hits all the familiar story beats you expect from a JRPG. But the biggest issue in this story is that it doesn’t do anything special during its journey. I have already visited a couple of towns and each time it’s the exact same basic premise that happens.
The best way I can describe the story is that it’s unoffensively bland. It does what it’s supposed to do, but nothing more. It’s a shame, since the amazing voice cast behind this game brought this game to live so much. I have nothing to critique there. The only thing that can be a bit annoying is hearing the same grunts over and over again while you are fighting in the dungeons, but that’s part of the course in JRPG’s.
Playing it safe
For some people, having a bland story in a JRPG’s is a dealbreaker. But, I can handle that if the main gameplay loop is enjoyable. In this game, you go from town to town and explore the town dungeon to become stronger and get new unique abilities.
The battles in this game aren’t turn based like in other JRPG’s. This is an action JRPG, after all, so you have to dodge and time your attacks well. You can even choose to ignore battles if you want to, apart from scripted fights or boss battles, that is. The combat system is decent and does the job. The only complaint I have is that your stamina drains a bit too fast, making your attacks quite weak against enemies. So, you have to use other mechanics like having better damage when you dodge roll an attack in time.
After each dungeon, you unlock a new weapon that has a slightly different playstyle. You can choose between which weapon you use on the fly with a weapon wheel. It works quite well, and it’s fun to figure out which enemies are weak against which weapons. Especially the bosses, since hitting them with the right weapon creates even more damage.
During your exploration, you can find hidden chests with items. Underneath the mini-map, you can find a counter with how many hidden treasures are still left in the area. I find it quite enjoyable to explore the whole map to find these hidden treasures. Some of the hidden passages are hidden away extremely well, and finding them was a blast.
Something I also really enjoy is that you can easily choose between which character you control. Some characters have unique skills and being able to quickly switch between them is amazing. Since, some enemies have a long range attack, and then it’s a blast being able to switch to a character that can use a bow to take them out more easily.
Enemies also drop various items that you can use to craft items in shops or at special stations. And crafting these items actually cost in game money. The amount you have to spend for crafting is a lot lower, but this is a mechanic I’m hesitant about. It would have been quite a lot of fun to be able to craft healing items during your exploration. Maybe these healing items were less effective than the potions you can buy in the shops. But then again, it might break the balance of the game and make you a bit overpowered.
You can only carry so many potions and to be very honest, I never really had problems with a boss battle or a dungeon when I was stocked up on potions. When you don’t do anything crazy and keep your stock high and manage your stat boosting items well, this game becomes quite easy. So easy in fact that boss battles become an endurance test and extremely repetitive.
Each boss battle has the same basic premise. You have to dodge their attacks and use the right weapon to break the shield of the boss. In most cases, this is the newly unlocked weapon. After you have broken the shield, you can damage the boss. If you have broken the shield 4 to 5 times, and kept hitting the boss, you have beaten the fight.
Now, the dungeons play like your typical The Legend of Zelda dungeon to a degree. There is one main theme and puzzle mechanic for you to solve. Once you reached the final room of the dungeon, you fight a final boss and progress in the game. When I think about it, the structure of this game resembles 2D Zelda games here and there. And maybe, the structure of a Zelda game would have fit the game better than an action JRPG. Since, I wouldn’t be surprised if players drop this game and call it repetitive. Since, it really is. I tried to play this game in longer sessions, but I started to feel bored after playing it for an hour or two. Yet, I kept enjoying myself with the game while playing it on my 30-minute train ride from and to work.
Middle of the Road
The more I play this game, the more I feel like this game could have been so much more. The basic foundation of this game is rock solid, and I barely have anything to critique there. Like the controls and the UI for example. The controls are extremely responsive and a blast to work with.
Now, the other characters are AI controlled. Overall, the AI does an okay job following you and aiding you in combat, but it can do some brain-dead actions as well. One of the dungeons where it frustrated me to no end was the ice dungeon, where your AI allies slid into the spikes every single time.
Visually, this game looks pretty decent. There is quite a lot of detail put into this world and the underused area exclusive mechanics are quite a lot of fun to play with. For example, I love how in the forest area the mushrooms can have different effects depending on the color. Especially the one that allows you to light up the area.
But then you have moments where some textures are bland and look like they are from an earlier generation, creating a mismatch. And on top of that, some battle animations can’t be canceled. And the final attack of the bow is just silly. Yet, if a certain attack is in progress, you can’t switch weapons. This is something that annoyed me quite a lot as well.
The soundtrack of this game is quite enjoyable. It fits the atmosphere of the game like a glove. Overall, this orchestral soundtrack is a joy to listen too. But, there are some tracks that are a bit too short and the rather repetitive melody isn’t it doing any favors. Thankfully, these tracks don’t appear to often so I don’t mind it too hard.
The sound effects are pretty good too. I’d recommend that you use the option menu to tweak the sound balancing to your liking, since the basic sound balancing is a bit off when it comes to the balance between sound effects and music. I had to lower the music a little bit so I could hear the important sound effects better during battles.
This game really feels like it’s walking the middle of the road here. My biggest complaint with this game is that it lacks depth in almost every aspect of the game. And it’s just that lack of depth that’s hurting this game. This game has a lot of great idea’s like how easy to read the UI is, but it barely does anything with the stat boosting items.
The game also has local co-op, but I don’t see a reason why to play this game in co-op. There aren’t enough elements to justify for me to have a friend over and play this game. It’s just too bland for that. It’s a shame, since if the combat system was more in depth, it would have been an amazing feature. Now, it’s just another ticked box of features this game has.
Just like how some of the monster design is amazing and sometimes even looks somewhat creepy. They also telegraph their attacks quite well, so you can easily dodge them. Dodging attacks in time is quite important, since you can do special attacks or even more damage. Now, you also have your typical enemies like your slimes and bees, but they look unique and fit their setting quite well.
To be honest, this game is the perfect entry game for young childern to get into roleplaying games. I think that if you have played other more expansive JRPG’s, you will notice the cracks this game has and feel mixed about the game like the whole reception is for this game.
This brings me to the price. To be honest, I wouldn’t pay the full price for this game. The asking price for this game is 40€. And if you want all the DLC, it’s even more. Around 50€. Now, I don’t recommend buying all the DLC apart from the one that comes with the Deluxe edition. The other DLC is just a one time booster pack you can buy to make the game even easier than it already is.
The asking price is too high for this game and it’s length. This game can be beaten in 15 hours and it doesn’t really have replay value. I personally feel that 25€ would have been a better price for the base game and Deluxe edition should have been 40€. If you are interested by this game, I’d buy it if it were on sale. While this game isn’t doing anything new or innovate, it still manages to be enjoyable.
I’m happy that I gave this game a chance. While I expected a lot more from it, I don’t think it’s a bad game. I can totally understand why people don’t like this game or drop it. Since, it’s a very basic middle of the road JRPG that could do something unique but doesn’t. Now, the Japanese publishers of this game FuRyu have developed a game that became the basis for another larger game (The Legend of Legacy feels like the basis for The Alliance Alive). Maybe this game is creating the basis for another larger and better game.
If that’s the case, I’d love to see more unique puzzles in the dungeons for a start. The dungeons were so easy to beat and didn’t provide too much challenge. Maybe some puzzles were only the unique dungeon weapon has to be used to progress or even exit the dungeon.
I’d also love to see more expansion on the armor and stat items. I felt they barely had any impact in this game and I often forgot you could change the stones in your equipement to increase the damage output in certain cases or decrease the taken damage in certain cases.
The biggest thing I’d love to see improved is more depth in the game. Develop the town more and make them more memorable, instead of just a stop to stock up on supplies to go to the next dungeon. The side quests were introduced too late into the game.
I could go on for a while giving examples of what they can expand or improve, but I want to avoid that you get the impression that this game is bad. This game is decent, but not great. That’s the best way to describe this game. I’d recommend it to younger players who want to give an action JRPG a try. If you are in love with the action JRPG games, I’d highly advice you to lower your expecations. I’d compare to that animated summer blockbuster movie that everybody forgets about in a few months. It didn’t do anything memorable but it a fun time while it lasted. It’s a great snack inbetween games for me and I’m curious to see what the developer does next. Since, the potential is there.
With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about the game for now. I want to thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then have a great rest of your day and take care.
I know that I’m extremely late when it comes to the Palworld hype. Palworld released in early January 2024 and currently, since there aren’t a lot of updates dropping, the hype died out. Yet, the roadmap looks extremely promising. Since this game is still in early access, I’m always hesitant in writing about the game. Since, you never know which mechanics or things will change and evolve during the early access period. Especially since we are currently only at v0.1.5.1. So, I decided to hold off on my first impression/review article for now. But, I wanted to talk about this game. So, here are some things I’d love to see in the full version of Palworld or even in one of the next updates.
First of all, what is a Palworld?
Palworld is a combination of several games, all thrown into one. It’s easy to describe Palworld with saying which games it combines.
Foremost, at its core, it’s a game you can somewhat compare to Ark Survival Evolved. When I first started playing, I noticed the similarities right away. The way how you have a crafting system to build your base, and you have monsters running around you can tame/catch is totally here as well.
I haven’t played a lot of Ark, so I can’t say if this mechanic is also present in Ark… But, the fact you can use your monsters to preform tasks in your base reminded me quite a lot of The Survivalists. A game where you are stranded on an island, and you can train monkeys to preform actions for you. The big difference is that now certain monsters can only preform certain tasks, instead of the monkeys just copying you.
Now, a lot of other articles describe this game as Pokémon with guns. After playing this game, I think that’s a somewhat unfair comparison. When I think Pokémon, I think a journey with gyms and an evil team. I think turn based battles and a big ending tournament as its conclusion. While some Pals share a very similar design language to some Pokémon, most of the mechanics of what makes a Pokémon game aren’t in this game. The other big mechanic is the capture mechanic, but by now this isn’t exclusive to Pokémon games anymore. Especially since we have games like Coromon.
There are also influences of the latest Zelda games. Especially Tears of the Kingdom. There are these huge, strong bosses roaming around on the huge open world map, you can beat at any time. Also, the korok seeds to upgrade your character are also here in the form of effigies and Pal souls to upgrade your monsters.
This game really feels like the developers looked at all the games they liked playing, looked at what worked and threw it all together into one pot and shook it until it all clicked together. The mechanics of this game really click extremely well together. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t be surprised if I said that this was a finished game.
There are some silly bugs here and there and in some spots, this game feels unfinished. But, overall the game we have currently is amazing and if you would enjoy a game like this after reading what I wrote here… Give this game a try. I only told you the most basic things in this game. This game is a survival game with elements from a lot of other games like those I have already mentioned but also Minecraft, Dragon Quest Builders and various others.
Let’s talk improvements
While the game is a lot of fun to play at the moment, there are some things I wish that were improved or updated. While you get a lot of warnings that there are: save corruption bugs, crashes and bugs… Besides sometimes the lighting engine giving up for a moment or the AI of the pals or enemies doing some funky stuff, I haven’t seen too many worrying things.
Take for example this floating rock screenshot here. I have explored roughly half of the map after 35 hours of play, and this was the only floating rock I could find. That’s extremely impressive, especially since if you look at the size of the map… It isn’t small at all. In the future, new islands and area’s will be added so if they deliver them with this kind of quality, I have no complaints.
Well, I do have one recommendation. I’d love to see more landmarks in the map. Currently, almost all the landmarks in the game are based upon the terrain. I’d love to see more villages or ruins of them. I loved finding these things in the Zelda games and letting my mind wonder what happened there. It’s a very difficult balance act, since too many landmarks would make the map feel crowded and limit the amount of possible base locations.
Basically, I’d love more reasons for me to go exploring these regions and get unique rewards. Besides completing the Paldex, there isn’t a lot of reason to go exploring in certain area’s. And when you have set up the right kind of farms and work stations for your pals in your bases, the chance you run out of resources is rather small.
Speaking about bases, currently you can only have three bases. Most likely, this is done to improve the multiplayer performance. Since, the game emulates the three bases in the background, so you can easily have a base close to big ore clusters to farm those while you are working in your other base. If you don’t place a cap on those, it’ll tank the performance of any computer or server. Yet, I’d give the tools to the player to increase the cap. Personally, I think Minecraft has one of the best systems with the game rules. You can almost change anything to your playstyle and even disable or remove caps that are there for performance reasons. You already have quite a lot of toggles and sliders in Palworld, but I’d also expand on that.
Currently, the building system is decent, but it needs a lot of polishing up. The biggest problem I have with the building system are the stairs. It’s a nightmare sometimes to place stairs to go from one to another floor. Also, why can’t we place a full wall next to stairs? Most likely because some pals their hitbox would do some crazy stuff? Also, placing certain items or crafting stations on elevated floors doesn’t always work the best.
On top of that, besides the visual look of the floors, walls and ceilings, what’s the point of being able to unlock stone foundations? As a test, I tried to build a high tower with wood and one with stone. I didn’t find a difference. I’d love to see more meaning to what I unlock. Granted, stone can’t burn down. So, if you have any raids with flamethrower or fire enemies, your base isn’t in danger. But what’s the difference between stone and metal, then?
I honestly think that it’d be a bad idea if PocketPair only created more content and not make the mechanics have more depth. For example, something I’d love to see them implementing in the pal task system is a mechanic I love in Cult of the Lamb. When you welcome a new member in your cult, you can set the main focus of a member there. I’d love to see that you are able to set the main focus per pal. For example, when things are damaged in the base after a raid, you select one pal to go and get the repair kits and repair all damages first before going to do their usual tasks. Or when you have a pal that can do multiple things, and you mostly need that pal to pick up items, you could disable their other abilities. Maybe we need some items for that and those items can be only found in the wild, and we need to hunt for them. That’s an interesting idea to lure players out of their bases.
Dreaming like a madman
There are some UI elements I’d love to see change as well. First, I’d love to have a mini-map. The compass at the top of the screen only shows things in roughly 300m range, and that’s too short. Especially since in some areas the warp spots are spread quite far apart. A mini-map where you can pin certain things like the nearest warp spot would be amazing.
Secondly, in terms of the weapons. I’d love to see their stats before I craft them. Now it’s a guessing game that if I craft a certain weapon, if it’s going to be stronger or better than the one I currently have. It’d also be amazing if the durability is shown outside the inventory as well. There is some space in the UI element at the bottom right, so why not show it?
Now, in terms of the inventory. Sometimes I have issues with combining stacks of items. Sometimes I have to do it twice or thrice before they are combined. This is a rather small things, but outside of those… I don’t have a lot of small quality of life things that I could recommend. Maybe that if you sleep during the day in your bed, you can skip to night if you are hunting the nightlife pals?
Maybe there is one quality of life feature I think would be amazing. Quite often, when I’m hunting the stronger pals, I have my pal instructions set on “Focus on the same enemy”. I think it would have an amazing option if you have a feature where you are able to say to your pal if they are allowed to kill the wild pal or not. Since, if they are dead, you can’t capture them.
There is one attack that is a double-edged sword. In the Pokémon games, you have the self-destruct attack. You also have this one in Palworld, yet, some wild pals with this attack always take it over their other attacks. These bee pals always swarm me and instead of being able to weaken them, so I can catch them, I just get blown up. You barely have a chance to do any damage to weaken them to make capturing possible.
I just remembered one other quality of life feature. You can create saddles, gloves and other things to do special things with your pals. But, why I am allowed to create more than one? I mean, I can only use one of them at a time and they can be interchanged. So, if you make a saddle for a certain bird pal e.g. Helzephyr, that means you can use it on all Helzephyrs you catch.
But the biggest quality of life feature PocketPair could add is a mini-map inside caves/dungeons. The times I almost got lost in these caves is insane. Especially since there are only a handful of rooms in these and it’s easy to get turned around and confused.
Now, to completely change the subject… I wish there was more music in the game. The soundtrack in this game is amazing. Sadly, there isn’t enough in the game at the moment, so there are some silent moments. A little bit more ambient tracks would go a really long way in this game.
But, I saved one of my biggest things for last. That is inventory management. This is a total pain in bases. Since pals can put things inside chests, you can forget organisation. Thankfully, while crafting, the game pulls from all resources in your base, but if you need a certain item to use at another base, have fun to go searching through all your chests. What I usually do, if I can, is start crafting an item with the one I want to move and then cancel it. Since it drops the resources then and there. Now, how to solve this without breaking the game and the idea that pals can put things in chests? What if you have a new skill that pals can have? An organisation skill and depending on the level, they either put red things with red things or make a weapons chest and come to complain to you when there aren’t enough chests for their organisation?
If your base is fully set up, the proper of a lack of depth starts to show as well. When you build your base, why should you return to it besides needing to craft or repair your weapons? Give us some activities we can do in our base when we build them. I mean come on, we even have the amusement furniture set. If only we could play some mini-games with our pals to increase their sanity for example? Since currently, there is not a lot you can do when a pal is stressed.
Of course, a certain balance needs to be maintained. The more things a pal can interact with, the more chance you have to create lag or overwhelm the player. Also, the more depth you create, the more things you have to maintain and maybe that’s not the type of game that PocketPair wants to create. How I currently see Palworld is a playground sandbox in the schoolyard. It’s an amazing playground where you can make your own fun but it’s only part of the schoolyard and only has a swing, some monkey bars, a climb rack, a small castle and a slide. It’s all solid built and amazing to spend your time in… But, then you notice the potential this sandbox has to grow. What if we enlarged that sandbox with another castle, so the multiplayer can be player vs player as well? Or wait, why don’t we add an underground to that sandbox?
All I’m saying is that currently Palworld has an amazing foundation. The biggest issue at the moment is that the game lacks depth. While the current roadmap has a lot of expansions and more content, I hope PocketPair doesn’t forget to also make it more than just surface level. For example, imagne that the raid bosses can be captured and barely have an unique skills. Why should the player do the raids then? What reward do you get out of it? Not all mechanics can be fun because they are enjoyable to do. Players will get bored and they will look for a way to spice things up or to challenge themselves.
Now what that said, I’m going to close off this article. I’m quite excited for the future of Palworld and I’m going to wait a few more updates before I decide to write a review on the game. But overall, I’m really liking what I see. The basis of an amazing title is here already and I think we are going to get an even better game when this comes out of early access. Let’s wait and see what happens when the first big updates drop. Especially the raid bosses that got teased a few weeks ago.
Thank you so much for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. What do you think of PalWorld and what should be added or changed? Let me know in the comment section down below. Also, what do you think of my idea’s? I’m curious, feel free to leave a comment about that one to. But, I also hope to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.
Pokemon developer Game Freak is looking to expand significantly, by the looks of at. Spotted by DenFamiNico Gamer (via Siliconera), the Japanese company is set to hold a new recruitment campaign at the end of the month through which it’s lookin to hire in a large number of open positions.
In total, the company is looking to recruit in a total of 37 open positions, across disciplines ranging from programming and design to art and more. Several of the open positions specifically mention that they will be focused on development of Pokemon titles, with some being dedicated to new internal IP, others to research and development, and more.
As of March earlier this year, Game Freak had a total of 207 employees, so adding 37 new roles to that would represent growth of nearly 18 percent for the studio. It’s worth mentioning, however, that several of the new positions are set to be contract roles instead of permanent ones.
With the Nintendo Switch’s successor set to be announced (and presumably released) in the coming months, it’s no surprise that studios focused on developing Switch titles are ramping up and expanding, especially amidst insistent reports that the upcoming console will support 4K and thus require more complex development pipelines.
After Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s controversial launch in 2022, The Pokemon Company and Nintendo had to issue an apology for the technical state of the launch, before assuring later that it was looking into ways to improve the state of future releases while still maintaining a packed release schedule. Earlier this year, reports claimed that the company was looking to take serious steps to avoid the technical issues that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet faced at launch.
You can find a full list of Game Freak’s open positions below:
Planner
Planner (scenario/setting creation)
[Contract] Sound Planner (Pokemon series development)
Character Model
Effects
Background Model
Cutscenes
Section Director
Lighting Artist
Human Motion
Pokemon Models
2D Art Designer
2D Art Designer: Background
[Contract] 2D Artwork Designer (Pokemon series development)
Project Manager
[Contract] Assistant Project Manager
Game Programmer
Game Programmer: Communication System
[Contract] Game Programmer: Characters (New IP)
[Contract] Game Programmer: Events (New IP)
[Contract] UI Programmer (New IP)
[Contract] Communication Game Programmer (Pokemon series development)
[Contract] Unity Engineer (Assigned to R&D Department)
[Contract] Animation Programmer (Assigned to R&D Department)
[Contract] Infrastructure Engineer (Server)
[Contract] Information Systems: Windows Infrastructure Engineer
Since Mega Evolution came to Pokemon GO,fans have wondered when we’ll see other battle gimmicks make their way to the mobile app. Now, a recent update seems to confirm that Dynamax is coming to Pokemon GO sooner rather than later.
For some players, a Pokedex search in Pokemon GO reveals a new, mysterious category with a familiar-looking symbol.
While not all players are able to see it yet, some have located what appears to be the Dynamax symbol as a possible new Pokemon label. This leads fans to speculate that Dynamax mechanics are coming to Pokemon GO very soon – possibly within the next month.
It’s no secret that players have been wishing for something new to re-ignite the joy of playing Pokemon GO. And with the 8th-anniversary art featuring a giant Wartortle, many fans anticipated a Dynamax announcement would follow. However, opinions are mixed as to whether Dynamax will really breathe new life into the mobile game.
If you’re unfamiliar, Dynamax is a transformation mechanic from Pokemon Sword & Shield that makes Pokemon giant. These massive Pokemon are not just impressive looking – they’re also boosted in battle. In Sword & Shield, the transformation could take place only in special areas, which raises questions about how it would transfer to Pokemon GO.
Some players are excited to see massive versions of their favorites, with hopes for giant forms of critters such as Rookidee and Snom. And let’s not forget Gigantamax Meowth, who is very, very long. Others are just stoked to be able to drop superpowered Pokemon into gyms – if that’s how this will work.
However, many players aren’t so sure Dynamax will be a winner. As one Redditor puts it, “You think they’re gonna screw up the Dynamax gimmick at first like they did with Mega Evolutions?” With faith in Niantic feeling relatively low after features like Party Play and the continued Remote Raid debacle, skepticism seems to be a popular reaction.
Another common refrain is that fans want to see the Sword & Shield-era mechanic come alongside an infusion of the missing Galar-region Pokemon who’ve yet to appear in GO.
It’s also unclear how having Dynamax mechanics will work in a game that already has another gimmick in the form of Mega Evolution. As much as some players want to be excited for a new way to play, right now the questions and concerns seem to outweigh excitement.
Pokémon is a franchise with a loaded history that’s managed to stand the test of time with video games, a solid anime adaptation with multiple spin-offs, a manga, a TCG – the list goes on.
The heart of this series lies in its games, of course, and while there have been a few misses – there are a plenty of key standouts in the franchise, especially with its spin-off titles, that have helped it stay relevant for so many years.
Pokémon Red & Green (1996)
It May Seem Cliche, But Red & Green Deserve Recognition For Starting It All
While the first game in the Pokémon franchise may be lacking in all the features that have kept the game popular today, it will always and forever be iconic for being the game that started it all. There’s hardly any Pokémon more iconic than the original 151, and many still hold the game in high regard today.
Approachable to young gamers at the time, bugs and glitches that are still talked about today, and still managing to tell compelling environmental stories in the way of Lavender Town, PokémonRed & PokémonGreen will always and forever be one of the best entries in the franchise.
Pokémon X & Y (2013)
The First 3D Mainline Pokémon Game Introduced New Mechanics & Franchise Staples
The first fully 3D mainline Pokémon title, Gen 6’s X & Y introduced a number of new mechanics, gimmicks, and story beats that are still beloved by modern Pokémon fans a decade later. This batch of mainline games were the first to introduce full character customization, and also included the Mega Evolution mechanic.
While its storytelling isn’t as strong as other mainline titles, X & Y still had a umber of compelling lore implications for the series, tying its main trilogy back to Norse Mythology. Plus, plenty of diehard Pokémon fans interested in the franchise’s greater lore are still waiting to learn more about the mysterious Zygarde.
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005)
The Heavily Underrated Sequel To Pokémon Colosseum Deserves More Love as One Of the Franchise’s Best Spin-Offs
The heavily underrated sequel to PokémonColosseum is an absolute must-play to any Pokémon fan that has access to a GameCube system. Despite the tragedy that the game is doomed to become more obscure than it already is with the passage of time, Gale of Darkness was a unique entry in the franchise and a bold departure to the standard approach to Pokémon‘s formula. Mechanically, the game operates in a similar fashion to other mainlines titles, but allows the player to find wild Pokémon in specific locations, which is a huge improvement on Colosseum‘s gameplay.
Taking place five years after the events of Colosseum, Gale of Darkness opens with the Orre Region’s criminal organization, Cipher, after creating “Shadow Lugia”, a sinister Pokémon immune to purification that’s meant to wreak havoc on the region. You, the player, embark on a journey with your trusty Eevee at your side to purify different Shadow Pokémon around the region and get to the bottom of the Cipher organization’s schemes.
Pokémon Snap (1999)
The original Pokémon Snap Gave Players a Low-Stakes, Adorable Experience With Their Favorite Pokémon
PokémonSnap holds a fond place in many Pokémon fans’ hearts thanks to its laid back gameplay and adorable snapshot into the normal activities of Pokémon out in the wild. With a completely different gameplay loop compared to what’s in the mainline titles, PokémonSnap just focuses on the player exploring the world and trying to get the best possible photograph of whatever Pokémon they can stumble across.
That’s not to say it’s that simple, though, as there are specific Pokémon evolutions and encounters that players can only find after triggering specific, timed events in the world as they explore.
Pokémon Emerald (2003)
Gen 3 Introduced a Number of Fan-Favorite Pokémon
The capstone of Gen 3, Pokémon Emerald ties together what makes Ruby & Sapphire so iconic and builds on specific mechanics to improve the overall gameplay. In addition to shaking up the resolution of the game’s main story by showing off the omnipotent Rayquaza, the game also allows players to catch Ruby & Sapphire‘s respective exclusives with no need for trading with friends.
There were also massive redesigns to many of the locations players can access across the Hoenn regions that improves exploration and makes the world feel more alive. As far as battling goes, Emerald built on the double battle mechanic, allowing players the opportunity to re-challenge gym leaders and participate in double battles against them. Gen 3 was a huge turning point in the franchise by introducing massive changes that would effect all of the mainline titles going forward.
Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver (2009)
Gen 2’s Remakes Rival Newer Games In Content & Quality
PokémonHeartGold & SoulSilver were gorgeous reimaginings of Gen 2’s Gold & Silver titles, and combined some elements from Pokémon Crystal as well. Using many of the new core features introduced in Gen 4 and adding beautiful new scenery to iconic locations, HeartGold & SoulSilver stood out as being the first batch of mainline remakes to add just as much as they restored.
Additionally, HeartGold & SoulSilver added the adorably fun overworld mechanic of having whatever Pokémon in the player’s first slot follow them around. This was paired alongside the admittedly gimmicky pedometer called the Pokéwalker that was sold alongside the games to track player’s real-world steps and earn “watts” tht could be exchanged for in-game rewards, and the ability to catch Pokémon.
Pokémon Sun & Moon (2016)
Despite Some Spotty Mechanical Adds, Gen 7 Explored a Deeper Narrative That Hit Close To Home For Many Players
While Gen 7 sometimes gets a bad rep from disgruntled Pokémon fans, Sun & Moon had a stellar story that dove into surprising depth for a mainline Pokémon game. With Lusamine being a more than compelling villain, especially factoring in the storylines following her two children that become a rival and companion to the player, Sun & Moon has more than enough to keep players entertained, and earns it a high spot amid other titles in the franchise.
While the games does have its misses mechanically, its still incredibly fun, and also shook up the traditional Gym Leader dynamic found in past Pokémon games.
Pokémon Black & White (2010)
Gen 5 Bookends the End Of an Era For the Franchise With One Of Pokémon’s Best Stories
PokémonBlack & White was the final 2D mainline entry in the franchise, and ended that era of Pokémon on an incredible note. While Gen 5 does suffer from a few questionable mechanics that never permanently carried over to other games, it did bring some of the liveliest sprite’s in the franchise’s history, and hands down has the most compelling story in a mainlines Pokémon game.
The game’s villains were also compelling, with the dynamic between N and Ghetsis remaining iconic now, with many players voicing their desire to see more complex antagonists like N in the future. From its character and Pokémon designs, to the infectiously catchy OST, PokémonBlack & White will always be beloved entries in the series.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (2009)
The Mystery Dungeon Series Is Known For Tear-Jerking Stories, & Explorers of Sky Delivered
PokémonMystery Dungeon is a unique take on the Pokémon franchise that sees players being transported to a world inhabited only by Pokémon as a Pokémon, and going on dungeon crawling adventures as members of a guild trying to discover what caused them to become a Pokémon in the first place. While the gameplay is fun, the storyline of Explorers of Sky is absolutely iconic, and an absolute tear-jerker.
Despite being a spin-off title, Explorers of Sky has some of the best storytelling in the entirety of the franchise, with many fans wishing to see the spin-off series make a comeback after a handful of lackluster entries since Explorers of Sky dropped.
Pokémon Platinum (2006)
The Final Mainline Entry of Gen 4 Gave Pokémon Fans Everything They Want Out of the Franchise
Pokémon Platinum is hands-down the best Pokémon game. Not only is Gen 4 well-regarded for adding many of the series most iconic Pokémon, including Giratina and Arceus – the literal God of Pokémon – Platinum also introduced a variety of upgrades from Diamond & Pearl that truly made it stand out.
Of these, some of the best additions included the game running faster – Diamond & Pearl chug along far more than players might remember – story improvements, with many of the core themes surrounding creation and time, culminating in Platinum‘s box-art showcase Pokémon, Giratina, representing anti-matter and chaos. Platinum also marks the return of the beloved Battle Frontier, and much like Emerald, allows for a broader Pokédex that’s easier for players to complete.
Flailing, the Trump Campaign attempted to spin the disastrous story of Vance yelling at his son to shut up so he could accept the job of VP to "America's Hitler."
By now, we all know that JD Vance chose to be Trump's Vice President over helping his son catch all the Pokemon. — Read the rest
During an interview on a podcast, MAGA Party Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance discussed his parenting style, which includes telling his 7-year-old to "shut the hell up" when the child is speaking about something that interests him.
Good news everyone, a fantastic Pokémon game is being added to Nintendo Switch Online! And while it isn’t Emerald or any other mainline entry, it is one of the series’ best spin-offs. The Game Boy Advance’s Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team will be added to the service and available to all subscribers with the…
Today The Pokémon Company releases the TCG’s latest special set, Shrouded Fable. It introduces Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s strangest monster, Area Zero’s Pecharunt, who works in tandem with Teal Mask’s Loyal Three, Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti. Which must be a whole lot of nonsense if you didn’t play the most…
Palworld, the highly controversial but mostly fine “Pokémon With Guns” monster tamer game from Pocketpair, has reached over 25 million players on PC and Xbox. That’s already a whole lot of people playing the legally distinct knock-off of Game Freak’s RPGs, but why stop there when there are other platforms with other…
It was eclectic week of gaming news, and we’ve got a diverse sampler platter for you with the week’s biggest stories, or at least, the biggest ones from before Summer Game Fest kicked off on Friday. For more on that, see our roundup of everything shown off at this year’s Keighley-fest, and our look at the games shown…
Pokémon cards and crime are intimately intertwined at this point, as the collectible cards are often wrapped up in robberies and scams due to their high resale value. Some of the stories surrounding Pokémon card sales have reached tragic ends, and the entire subculture of scalping, stealing, and reselling these pieces…
As someone who mostly passes through Animal Crossing each time a game comes out, it’s easy to draw comparisons between why people love that series and the ways in which players connect to Pokémon. Sure, in Nintendo’s life sim you’re not “capturing” all the animal villagers, but people still collect their favorites and…
The market for high-end collectibles like rare Pokémon cards has exploded in recent years, and GameStop seems to want a piece of it. The gaming retailer told some store managers this week that it would begin testing buying Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) graded trading cards later this month as it flails…
Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer. It's a series that highlights some of the features in games that are often overlooked. It's also about having your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below and join in!
Every year, there are awards given to the best lead and supporting characters in games or movies, or TV shows or whatever else. They are, after all, the characters that the stories usually revolve around. But what about all of the other characters in those fictional (and sometimes factual) worlds? They might be less integral to the overarching story but I don't know if they're any less important to the feel and impact of the world. Some, of course, can go on to be so memorable they actually replace some of the main characters in our memories of the game, and that's who I want to highlight here. The question is, which minor character do you most remember from a game, and why?
You don’t have to have ever played Magic: The Gathering to be familiar with its mythical Black Lotus: a powerful card from the game’s first set that now routinely fetches eye-popping amounts in the collectible market. But no Black Lotus, no matter how pristine or rare, has ever sold for $3 million. It’s such a…
If you're looking to add the mythical Celebi to your Pokémon Go collection, you need to complete the A Ripple in Time Special Research tasks, which were added to the game back in 2018.
There are 22 tasks to complete across eight sections, and we've listed all of them below, along with their respective rewards, so you can plan ahead by knowing what Pokémon Go expects of you. We've included some tips on how to complete certain tasks as well, but a lot of them will simply require a lot of time and patience.
As a dual Psychic and Grass type, Celebi is naturally a good counter against Water and Fighting types, particularly with its Psychic and Magical Leaf attacks. However, it's not considered an optimal choice for PvP or PvE battles due to its low damage output and lack of moveset versatility. You get Celebi more for completion's sake than anything else.
Pokémon Go: A Ripple in Time tasks and rewards
Image via Niantic
Part 1
The first set of tasks are:
Power up a Pokémon 5 times—Requires Stardust and Candy, which can be acquired simply by catching Pokémon or hatching Eggs
Battle in a Gym 2 times—This only applies to regular Gym battles, not Raids. Also, you don't need to worry about winning; just battling in a Gym is enough
Battle in a Raid
Your rewards for completing these tasks are 10 Poké Balls, a Fast TM, and a Super Incubator for hatching Eggs.
Part 2
The second set of tasks are:
Make 3 new friends—If you don't know enough people to complete this one, there is a dedicated subreddit and website where other players will happily share their Friend Codes
Evolve an evolved Grass type Pokémon—This refers to Pokémon that have evolved once already, such as Ivysaur and Bayleef
Catch a Pokémon 3 days in a row
Your rewards for completing these tasks are 1,500 Stardust, a Sun Stone (which you'll need for the next set of tasks), and a Premium Raid Pass.
Part 3
The third set of tasks are:
Reach level 25—You will earn player experience just by playing the game and completing these tasks, but you can use Lucky Eggs to double the amount of experience you earn for 30 minutes. You can buy a Lucky Egg from the in-game Shop for 80 PokéCoins or a bundle of eight for 500 PokéCoins
Use a Sun Stone to evolve Gloom or Sunkern—Both of these Pokémon can be found in grassy areas, especially in sunny weather
Hatch 9 Eggs—Use the Super Incubator you got from Part 1 to help expedite this. You can purchase more Super Incubators from the Shop for 200 PokéCoins each
Your rewards for completing these tasks are an Eevee encounter (be sure to capture it since you'll need for the next part), a King's Rock, and a Premium Raid Pass.
Part 4
The fourth set of tasks are:
Walk 10km with Eevee as your buddy to earn Candy—This will also contribute to evolving Eevee into Espeon
Evolve Eevee into Espeon during the day—After completing the previous task, Eevee must be given 25 Candy during daytime to evolve into Espeon. Make sure it's still your buddy before you evolve it, otherwise it won't turn into Espeon. If you've never acquired an Espeon before, you can nickname your Eevee "Sakura" to trigger the evolution
Send 20 Gifts to Friends
Your rewards for completing these tasks are another Eevee encounter (again, keep this Eevee for the next section), 2,500 Stardust, and a Metal Coat.
Part 5
The fifth set of tasks are:
Walk 10km with Eevee as your buddy to earn Candy—Yes, you have to do this again, but you need to anyway for evolving Eevee into Umbreon
Evolve Eevee into Umbreon at night—Just like with Espeon, you need to give Eevee 25 Candy and evolve it at nighttime while it's your buddy. You can nickname it "Tamao" to instantly trigger the Umbreon evolution, but this only works if you've never acquired an Umbreon
Trade a Pokémon—Trading costs Stardust, so stick with trading a regular Pokémon for one you already own since this trade is the cheapest. You can only trade with a player who's within 100 meters of your location, so you'll need to find a local group if you don't know anyone else who plays Pokémon Go
Your rewards for completing these tasks are a Star Piece (which awards 50% more Stardust for 30 minutes), 15 Pinap Berries (which, when fed to wild Pokémon, double the amount of Candy they drop when captured), and an Up-Grade.
Part 6
The sixth set of tasks are:
Visit PokéStops 7 days in a row
Use 25 Pinap Berries while catching Pokémon—Aside from the ones you earn from completing Part 6, you can acquire Pinap Berries from PokéStops and Gyms
Use items to evolve Pokémon 2 times—The King's Rock, Metal Coat, and Up-Grade items you've earned so far can be used to complete this task, but any item-based evolution will count
Your rewards for completing these tasks are 3,500 Stardust, a Dragon Scale, and 5 Silver Pinap Berries (which, when fed to a wild Pokémon, increases the odds of catching it and how much Candy it drops).
Part 7
The seventh set of tasks are:
Catch 40 Grass or Psychic type Pokémon—Grass types can be found in any grassy areas. Psychic types can be harder to find, but can show up in grassy and urban areas. Exeggcute and Exeggutor are dual Grass/Psychic so catching these will help
Make an Excellent Curveball Throw—If you're struggling, there are guides on YouTube to show how it's done
Earn a Gold Johto Medal—This is earned by catching 70 Pokémon from the Johto region AKA ones that debuted in Pokémon Gold & Silver. Examples include Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile
Your rewards for completing these tasks are a Charged TM, 10 Silver Pinap Berries, and an encounter with Celebi.
Part 8
At this stage, Celebi will appear, and you can capture it. Celebi will teleport, so you'll need to constantly turn your camera to look for it, but you'll be granted an unlimited amount of Poké Balls for this and there's no time limit. Just keep throwing Poké Balls at it and, once you've hit it three times, it'll be yours. You'll also be rewarded with 5,500 Stardust, a Super Incubator, and 20 Celebi Candy.
We’ve had several posts on the video game sensation that is Palworld in the past. Given that the game has been described by others as “Pokémon, but with guns”, we kicked things off both wondering if Nintendo was going to try to take some kind of misguided legal action on the game, while also pointing out that the game is an excellent case study in copyright’s idea/expression dichotomy. After all, the game does not do any direct copying of any Pokémon IP, but does draw obvious inspiration from some of the base ideas behind that IP. In fact, highlighting the dichotomy further was a mod that injected actual Pokémon IP into Palworld, which Nintendo then managed to get taken down.
One of the things writers of this sort of content like me tend to fret about, however, is how often rank hypocrisy suddenly shows up among subjects such as the creators behind Palworld. It’s not uncommon to see a content creator attempt to go after folks doing to them exactly what the creator did in drawing inspiration from others. If you were worried the people behind Palworld would fall into this category, however, it appears very much that you were worried for nothing.
With the success of the game, it was only a matter of time before someone, or many someones, tried to cash in on its success by making similar games, or “clones.” PocketPair CEO Takuro Mizobe noticed this was happening with Palworld and reacted thusly.
“Tencent is already making a Palworld clone game!” PocketPair CEO Takuro Mizobe recently tweeted,” according to a translation by Automaton. He seemed happy about it. “These are incredible times,” he wrote. Some initially interpreted Mizobe as being critical of these moves. An IGN story described him as accusing other companies of ripping off Palworld, a framing the CEO rejected.
“To ‘accuse’ someone of something, means to say they are doing something wrong,” Mizobe wrote in a follow-up tweet responding to the IGN story. “I don’t think what Tencent is doing is wrong. I’m proud that other companies want to make games like Palworld. The industry historically innovates when we borrow ideas from games we love. I’m surprised that many high-quality mobile games are already in development.”
No going legal. No threats. Not even a hint of a complaint. Instead, Mizobe acknowledged what we all already know to be true: video games, like other forms of culture, are and have always been built on what came before it. If the success of Palworld spawns similar games after the fact, that’s not only not a problem, it’s a good thing for gaming culture. Hell, Mizobe even went so far as to praise some of these games’ quality.
Imagine Nintendo doing anything like this. You simply can’t. In fact, when Palworld was released, Nintendo made some vague comments about looking into the game to see if it wanted to pursue any legal action. You know, the exact opposite of the route Mizobe took.
Who knows if these new Palworld clones that Tencent and others are apparently developing will ever see the light of day. We won’t know if they’re actually rip-offs until they’re out, but Mizobe doesn’t seem to mind either way.
And why should he? I imagine he’s far too busy counting all the money his company is making by focusing on making a successful game rather than wringing his hands over some clones that may or may not ever gain any traction.
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