Microtransactions in Pokemon Masters
The only thing you can buy in Pokemon Masters are gems, which can only be used to pull random Sync Pairs (a character and their signature Pokemon). That’s it. No items to keep playing, no items to skip challenges. Just gems for character pulls. Pokemon Masters will launch with 65 Sync Pairs, some of which can be earned by just playing through the campaign. You’ll also earn gems that allow you to do “Scouting Missions” to pull new Sync Pairs as you play through Pokemon Masters. The Sync Pairs feature characters from all across Pokemon games and currently don’t feel like they’re favoring any one generation too strongly over others.
There are also costume variants of characters called Sygna Suits. These variants are paired with a different Pokemon and are treated as an entirely separate entity. As of right now, Brock is the only character with a Sygna Suit. We suspect that, though are plenty of characters for DeNA to still add, we’ll see existing popular Sync Pairs get Sygna Suit doubles for special events.
Scouting new Sync Pairs does come with the chance for duplicates. If you do happen to pull a duplicate, they’re combined with your existing character to level up their important sync move. Much like Fire Emblem Heroes, each Sync Pair is given a rarity rating from 3 – 5 stars with the higher-rated characters granted a lower chance at a pull. If you do happen to pull a certain number of Sync Pairs, you’ll be given the chance to unlock a specific pair of your choosing. This is nice, but what’s not so nice is you’ll have to pull well over 100 Sync Pairs for the privilege to do so.
The New Battle System in Pokemon Masters
Once you’re equipped with Sync Pairs, you get to do the most exciting part of Pokemon Masters: battle. While there is a training mode and other ways to get that three on three experience down, by far the most engaging is the story mode. There you’ll get to learn about how the other trainers grew interested in the Pokemon Masters League you’re participating in and create your own teams of three with your unlocked Sync Pairs. There’s no currency to use in order to progress through the campaign, so you can progress through it as much as you want.
The actual battling system is a lot of fun and quite different from the classic turn-based battling we know and love. Pokemon Masters is in real-time, but rather than furiously tapping like we did in Pokemon Go, you’ll need a strategy to target your desired opponent, wait for the right number of bars to charge in order to perform your desired attack, and use the special trainer abilities to further build a combo for your attacks. The more attacks you make with a Pokemon, the more you’ll build up a special attack called the sync move that can cause massive damage to your opponents. It’s certainly a simplified system — all Pokemon only have one type but can be taught different moves through earnable items — but it’s a fun one.
It’s even more fun to bring a friend into the fold. After completing so many chapters, you’ll unlock co-op play. You can add up to two other friends (an empty spot is filled by an NPC) and take on the challenges of the story mode together, but playing with others won’t progress the story. Each player can pick a team of three Sync Pairs and will be given one of three positions on the battlefield. While in battle, you’ll have one pair on the field and you can rotate between your three Sync Pairs to change your strategy as needed. If your Pokemon faints, you’ll send out one of your other two. Then, if the three players get enough consecutive actions in, they can perform a special unity attack with any of their available Pokemon to deal out extra damage.
Regardless of whether or not you’re battling alone, you’ll be able to automate your play (and speed it up if you’re alone) with the press of a button a la Pokemon Quest. This was surprisingly effective and, though not an option we anticipate using much, a nice feature for people who want to let a computer to optimize their battle. Customizing a team prior to playing the chapter also has an autopick function that will load your team with your available Sync Pairs that are most equipped to face the challenges ahead.
How You’ll Unlock New Items and Evolve Pokemon
Progression is not without its rewards. In addition to the story mode, there are also places for events, several kinds of training, and getting to know more about the characters through Sync Stories. Completing any of these for the first time yields some sort of reward (gems for pulling a new character, items to power or level up your pair, and even items to learn new moves) that are important for growing your Sync Pairs. There’s even an item to increase the stats of a Sync Pair (HP, Attack, Defense, SP Attack, SP Defense, and Speed) so much that they can gain star levels. You’ll also earn items by completing daily challenges. Again, no items can be purchased and must be earned.
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Earning them is as simple as completing tasks, which is fun. I was especially interested in the Sync Stories, a place where you can engage directly with the characters to learn more about them. The Pasio tour and apparently mini shopping spree I went on with Hapu, one of my favorite Pokemon Sun and Moon characters, was a delightful but short series of scenes. You won’t necessarily have to battle here, but it’s a unique and authentic way to learn more about the characters in Pokemon Masters and their reasons for being in Pasio. This is also where, if certain requirements are met, you can evolve Sync Pair Pokemon. You’ll have to use a special evolution currency (again, only earned) to try to evolve the Pokemon, and if you lose the battle, that one piece of currency is gone forever. But if you win, you’ll have a freshly evolved Pokemon on your hands and potentially a new sync move.
Another Way to Explore the World of Pokemon
Though we were only shown a small portion of the campaign, players will get to go through what seems to be a fairly lengthy adventure, at least for a mobile game. The story tasks players to collect Pokemon Masters League badges and will, as is done in Pokemon, encounter a rival, a Pokemon Professor who studies sync moves, and a mischevious enemy team called Team Break. Not much is known about the events of the story or how many chapters it’ll be by the end, but we do know that it weirdly lies somewhere in Pokemon canon. In an interview with Yu Sasaki, Pokemon Masters executive producer, IGN was told that Pasio exists somewhere within the world of Pokemon, but isn’t exactly a place that can be pinpointed. Sasaki also said the characters are aligned with their versions from the Pokemon games, not the anime.
Sasaki said there are plans to continue to bring new experience to Pokemon Masters monthly. We’re assuming we’ll see Sygna Suits for holiday events and maybe something to coincide with the Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield launch, but Sasaki wouldn’t confirm anything for now.
Sasaki also said several times in the interview that DeNA’s intention was to make Pokemon Masters a cooperative game where players can work together to overcome challenges, which was a big reason Pokemon Masters isn’t turn-based. He also mentioned that a key goal was to create a game where players could learn more about the characters of the Pokemon universe, which makes sense given the game’s name. Based on the authenticity of character dialogue we’ve seen so far, I’m optimistic that Pokemon Masters will succeed in that goal. We’ve still got over a month till we’ll get our hands on the full game, and until then, we’ll be combing through footage and new information to see which of our favorite characters will be included as Sync Pairs. Here’s hoping Dawn will be included soon.
Miranda Sanchez is an executive editor at IGN. You can chat with her about video games and anime on Twitter.
