Although I no longer plan to buy any new mainline Pokémon RPGs for the foreseeable future, I was once a big fan of competitive battling. I used to build teams and test myself on ladders quite frequently during Generation 6 when Mega Evolutions were first introduced. Despite this, I wasn’t planning to give attention to Pokémon Champions, the newest official battle simulator, until I heard it was free to play. As a result, I decided to dive back into the competitive scene and see what the experience was like. After spending a fair bit of time with the game since launch, I have concluded that this is (currently) a frustratingly disappointing experience.

Pokémon Champions is first and foremost a battle simulator. The majority of gameplay is the same as the mainline games, with turn-based battles taking precedence over things like story and exploration. When you first start the game, there are a few light worldbuilding elements introduced to flesh out the setting of Frontier City, which is nice. You meet a few characters and take over a gym before beginning your quest to reach the top of the ranked ladder.

To acquire Pokémon in Pokémon Champions, you have two options. You can either transfer them in from Pokémon Home, a cloud service that allows you to store Pokémon you’ve captured from other games or recruit them from a random lineup in game. This lineup refreshes every 22 hours but you can of course shorten it uses two of the in game currencies those being quick coupons or VP. After selecting a Pokémon you can choose to permanently recruit it using in game currency or recruit it for a trial period for free. However, trial recruitment Pokémon cannot have their stats or moves adjusted.

Once you’ve assembled a team, you can choose to alter stats, abilities, moves, and natures with the express purpose of fulfilling specific roles within battle. Each adjustment will cost some amount of VP or a training ticket, which can be acquired through missions. Fortunately, the game gives you enough currency and tools to get a great start, and costs are decently appropriate. Every player is given six free Pokémon, which are relatively solid in terms of their stats and usage. However, even if you don’t want to use them, I was easily able to assemble a decent team completely free through recruitment and selective training while still having currency left over. In this sense, the free-to-play experience is quite decent, and it’s great to be able to optimize your Pokémon in a few minutes rather than hours of breeding and grinding. Though some may have issue with the random recruitment process, I personally found it kind of fun to draft a team from a random lineup rather than targeting exactly what I need. The game also gives you a good assortment of key items you’ll want from the beginning, though the rest are available for purchase using VP in the shop.

However, by far my biggest grievance with the game is the fact that players are only given a total of 30 storage spaces for their collection. This completely kills the drafting model that thrives on free-to-play. Sometimes you may not find a Pokémon in a lineup that fits with your current team, but you may plan to use it in the future and would like to keep it until you can find a few more synergistic partners. As a result of the limited box space, this strategy becomes virtually impossible, as you will run out of room to add more Pokémon at a certain point and will then be forced to sacrifice others you have spent currency training for the sake of simply experimenting with a new strategy. Given that teambuilding is the highlight of competitive Pokémon battling for many people, myself included, you can see how this would be detrimental. Now you can, of course, expand your box space slightly by reaching high ranks, but the increase is very minute, and the only way to make it unlimited is by purchasing it.

Another thing that makes this game frustrating is the overall lack of content. Currently, the game is missing a lot of items that have seen widespread competitive use. Additionally, the ranked mode has a total of two options: single and double battles. I’ve been primarily a singles player throughout my time, but the version of single battles present here only allows for players to pick three Pokémon to battle with out of their six-man team. I understand this is the mode that is officially supported in tournaments, but there is currently no ability to adjust options and rulesets within custom or casual matches. If the main draw of this game is battles, I should be able to battle how I want. It just doesn’t make sense for the dedicated battle simulator to launch with less options than current mainline RPGs offer with their online multiplayer. Now I certainly found enjoyment playing the default rulesets, but I kept itching for the ability to utilize my entire team in each match.

I also would like it if this game offered a challenge mode that allowed players to get a break from competition, try new strategies, and grind for rewards. Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel offers a solo mode where players are given pre built decks centered around different strategies and battle against the AI to complete themed battles. This mode was available at launch and is not only fun but is a great way to unlock specific booster packs and try out a new strategy to see if you like it without investing your currency. Perhaps this isn’t possible, given the AI present in Champions is awful, on par with the mainline RPGs. Normally, I wouldn’t mention this, but the game forces you to interact with the AI more than you would like. Ranked ladders are often populated with bots that offer virtually no challenge. It makes grinding the ladder quite dull, especially in lower tiers. I find this particularly annoying as it can give me an inaccurate perception of my team and make it harder to detect weaknesses when testing.

Finally, the overall UI for this game is quite clunky.  I’ve watched a couple of other people stream Pokémon Champions and have seen enough common occurrences of others having difficulty finding their items, changing team members, and checking options in battle to see it’s unintuitive at times. In terms of some more positives, once you finally fight real people, the game can be quite fun. The starting roster of Pokémon is decent, and the limited scope at launch helps to more easily acquire those you may need now before the pool widens. The overall moves and animations are also serviceable, and it’s nice to have a new Pokémon game that runs with a stable framerate.

Also, Pokémon Champions offers some nice customization options for your trainer with a range of hairstyles and clothing, as well as the ability to change the battle music to songs from throughout the nine generations of mainline games. I could certainly see the game growing into something fantastic in the future with a few adjustments to the systems and the addition of new Pokémon and Items. As of right now, though, I wouldn’t recommend this to even hardcore competitive players, as there are better places to test your skills, though they may not be as official. If you really want to try it out, there certainly isn’t harm, but expect to easily grow bored in an hour or two.

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Pokemon Champions

Free (With Microtransactions)

4

Score

4.0/10

Pros

• Generous free to play model
• Stable framerate
• Good base for a great battle sim
• Cosmetics

Cons

• Limited box space
• Limited battle options
• Clunky UI
• Ranked bots