Apps Review: Pokemon Go [Final Chapter]

After 3 months of hunting Pokemon, I captured 141 Pokemon except Porygon, 3 regional based Pokemon, Ditto and 5 legendary Pokemons. It's time to end this daily routine until they announced an event for Ditto and the 5 legendary Pokemon so I present you the final chapter for Pokemon Go series in this blog.

141 Pokemon Completed in the Pokedex, Pokemon Go
All image belongs to Niantic and The Pokemon Company

The Joy

The first time I exposed to Pokemon was 1999 then 2005 was the year I said Good bye to Pokemon as there was a transition of life from childhood to teenhood. After 11 years, the first 151 Pokemon has returned in an augmented reality game known as Pokemon Go. I believe half of the players enjoy playing the game is because of being nostalgic to experience the adventure of a Pokemon Trainer to travel across the neighbourhood physically.

It may not be the first augmented reality but it is the most successful augmented reality so far that attract fans and non-fans regardless age to play it. With this new wave of gaming introduced in our society, I believe the bonding between friend or family will be significantly grown. Either you saw the 80's born parents bring their 00's born child to hunt Pokemon together in a park  or a 90's born man bring his mother to play it together. Consider that our parents used to criticize us to obsessed with Pokemon 10 years ago, now they joined us to play together. It somehow make the society more lovely. For example, there will be more telegram group, wechat group and whatsapp group that allowed players to gather information together to play the game effectively.

With introduction of Buddy system in the recent month and egg hatching, it really encouraged trainers to walk 2-3km a day. It is definitely burnt some calories but it is really depend on the trainer's behavior. For example, will they be tempted to consume sugary food or drink after the workout?

It is very grateful that they implement the Pokemon Nest system in the game such that the trainers community need to be cooperative to share their knowledge through forum or telegram about the nest of their neighbourhood that allowed the other trainer to have a chance to capture other Pokemon that is rare or not available in their own neighbourhood.

Other than introducing the 145 available Pokemon the game, they also introduce some iconic attack move in the game like Hydropump, Fireblast, Solar Beam and Hyperbeam. In the tradition Generation 1, there are no Fairy Type, Dark Type and Steel Type but they classify the current 151 Pokemon into 18 Pokemon Type which is the modern classification. To fans, is that a sign there will be Generation 2 and so on in this game?

In short, it is still a very entertaining augmented reality game to hunt Pokemon by exploring the neighbourhood, travel to other city and country.

The Bad:

The concept of the game is still new such that most of the mobile hardware may not be powerful enough to handle its software architecture. After 30-45 mins of non-stop playing, the game will be lagged and freeze. It is annoying when you were able to catch a rare Pokemon then the game just freeze such that it takes you another 5-10 minutes to restart the game. In an unlucky scenario, the rare Pokemon was gone once you returned to the game.

Maybe some expensive smartphone or smart tablet can handle the software architecture but not its GPS. With the game, most users realize how inaccurate were their GPS system installed in their device. It is really random, both GPS accuracy would be significantly different although both were from the same manufacturer. Hence, it gave us an idea whether the manufacturer didn't pay much attention on the GPS quality. It is very annoying when hunting Pokemon in a group such that one of you need to travel 5-10m away to capture the same Pokemon.

It required internet connection, it is annoying when you reached area where the reception was bad such that everything in the game would laggy followed by disconnection. As a result, users with slow data plan is unable to compete to defend the gym as the information they received on the game would be slower than others with better speed. In this scenario, it is not really a fair game that Niantic keep emphasizing in the past.

With active GPS and data connection together, this game drained a lot of battery. I can't play this game more than an hour without a power bank. My greatest record was hunting Pokemon in 6 hours. With 3000 mAh phone battery and 10000 mAh powerbank , there was no more 2500 mAh left after the 6 hours. This game somehow reduce the lifespan of the battery. For example, my battery only accept 1A charging only instead of 2A after 3 months of gaming.

The Disappointment:

If you had read the gaming mechanic series previously, I did mention about how the game ruined some beauty from the original game. First of all, 18 type Pokemon has their own unique ability to counter each other. Fighting, Ground, Fire Type are famous for their brute strength and damage, Water and Rock type are famous to have high defence or health, Electric type and Ghost type would be popular to be fast attacker. Other than pure damage, some type like Psychic type and Chansey use recover or heal respectively to make them hard to be defeated Pokemon. Psychic and Poison Pokemon are very good to use special condition like confuse and poison to weaken the opponents. And many many more.

All the beauty of the Pokemon game above are ignored in Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go apply Base Stats, Move DPS , Type effectiveness and STAB to decide the winner in the game. That's the major reason why Jolteon has no chance to defeat Vaporeon as well as both Alakazam and Gengar are not tough Pokemon in the game.

In my own opinion, the reason behind to ignore all these beauty is to simply the software architecture to ensure most players can play the game with an affordable smartphone. Very simple illustration, what is the point to make a money making apps when only 10% of the community has the recommended spec to play the game?

What is the consequences to have a gaming mechanic like Pokemon Go? Everyone who chose Blue's path only who only focus on the most powerful Pokemon, they only interested to Dragonite, Snorlax and Lapras. No one will admire the electric type and psychic type Pokemon. After three month of launching, you will see either Dragonite or Snorlax in the gym battle. It really makes players feel bored to have a Dragonite battle every time.

In a battle, only two moves are assigned on each Pokemon and the Pokemon was unable to learn new move so it make the whole game become a luck dependent. The evolution from Dratini to Dragonite with 125 candies, there is no guarantee you will get a Dragonite with Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw. How about 400 candies that give you Gyrados with Twister as charge move when everyone in the game has Dragonite.

Therefore, I think these disappointments made most of the fans stop playing the game after a week or a month. In addition, perhaps pick Red's path to catch them all is the only way to play this game longer. After 3 months of playing, I captured 141 Pokemon with Porygon remaining, I also feel the time has come to end this game.

Recommendation:

I believe the current hardware technology is not capable to give us the same gaming mechanic like the original Red & Blue series. Perhaps, Niantic need 3-5 years to achieve that instead of simplifying the software architecture.

It will be wiser for Nintendo create a portable gaming console that served the purpose of Pokemon Go without ignoring the original beauty of Pokemon Red & Blue.