Pokémon Duel Review – Strange yet Interesting

<p>The Pokemon Company is full of surprises&period; When <em>Pokémon Duel<&sol;em> released on January 24th&comma; 2017 it hoped to not only capitalize on the success of <em>Pokémon Go <&sol;em>but also expand on Nintendo’s growing mobile catalog&period; <em>Pokémon Duel<&sol;em> brings common elements from the <em>Pokémon<&sol;em> series and tweaks them to provide a unique experience that manages to be incredibly interesting despite being a little strange&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Pokémon Duel<&sol;em> is a strategy board game where you collect and battle with figures that represent your favorite Pokémon&period; As in other mobile games of its kind&comma; the Pokémon you collect have a rarity rating which scales from Common to EX-rare &lpar;which is a level above rare&period;&rpar; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Duels” play out on a board with the goal being to capture your opponent’s goal point while protecting your own area by utilizing the Pokémon in your party&period; If your Pokémon moves next to an opponent&comma; a battle ensues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117592" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117592" style&equals;"width&colon; 563px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117592 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;27003241&sol;Pokemon-Dual-Board-563x1024&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Pokemon Duel&comma; The Pokemon Company&rpar;" width&equals;"563" height&equals;"1024" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117592" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Pokemon Duel&comma; The Pokemon Company&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Battles play out as a game of chance with a spinning wheel containing your Pokémon’s moves&comma; as well as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Miss” section&period; If you do more damage than your opponent&comma; then you win the duel and if you miss&comma; your opponent gets a free hit on your Pokémon&period; This will send them to the Pokémon Center where they must wait for a few turns&period;  If two &lpar;or more&rpar; of your Pokémon surround an opponent&comma; you automatically win the battle&period; This adds a layer of strategy in having to keep track of where your figures &lpar;and your opponent’s figures&rpar; are&period; This also of course helps add more the gameplay than just the battles themselves&period; Status effects such as poison and paralysis return from the main series&comma; adding even more of an emphasis on keeping a balanced and effective team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Leveling your Pokémon can be done through repeated battles&period; These can be done in multiplayer league battles or in single player quests&period; Another way to level up is through fusion&comma; which merges items and figures into your chosen Pokémon to increase their level&period; Microtransactions are present in the form of gems&comma; which are a premium currency used to purchase booster packs with new figures&period; They also can contain plates&comma; which are one-time use battle items like X-Attack and X-Defense&comma; which can change the outcome of battles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;117593" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-117593" style&equals;"width&colon; 576px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-117593 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;01&sol;27003330&sol;Pokemon-Duel-Party-screen-576x1024&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Pokemon Duel&comma; The Pokemon Company&rpar;" width&equals;"576" height&equals;"1024" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-117593" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Pokemon Duel&comma; The Pokemon Company&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Other mobile mechanics include things like daily missions &lpar;which reward you for doing certain things each day&rpar;&comma; a daily login reward&comma; and an interesting mechanic called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;featured duels” in which you can watch other players duel&period; You can also set up rooms to play with friends in what are called &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;room matches” even locking them with a room key so only people you know can join in the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Pokémon Duel <&sol;em>has promise but in its current state&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t recommend it&period; It is incredibly buggy and just in the time I’ve spent with it&comma; I’ve had to restart the app multiple times&period; Even when it isn’t freezing or locking up&comma; the loading times are horrendous and take far too much time&period; It would be fine on any other platform&comma; but on mobile &lpar;designed for quick matches or a quick time-waster&rpar; as it stands now it needs a lot of work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another large drawback to <em>Pokémon Duel<&sol;em> is that it takes a bit of time to learn the game&period; It isn’t something that you could dive into and intuitively understand&period; Some aspects of the game are common sense if you know the mainline series&comma; but there are parts &lpar;such as the element of chance during battles&rpar; that can take some getting used to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Pokémon <&sol;em>fans will probably greatly enjoy <em>Pokémon Duel <&sol;em>and I have high hopes for it&period; The long load times and bugs need to be fixed if this game is going to experience any level of success though&period; <em>Pokémon Duel<&sol;em> is different than most Pokémon adventures fans are used to&comma; but it could become an addictive game in its own right&period; It looks like the developer is going to be fixing many of the bugs&comma; so within the next month&comma; we may see Pokémon Duel in an entirely new light&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;