Cool, but you can’t obtain most of those characters in the game, yet.

Pokemon Masters has been out for a few days, plenty of time to get some first impressions and make some observations. Here are some of mine:

• I’m liking that the focus is on the trainers in this game. In times past, it seems like they got ignored in favor of the Pokemon themselves.
• If you plan on playing this game for more than a few minutes at a time, get ready for your phone to get hot. Also, it chews through the battery like a beast.
• This game is a gacha. The player is guaranteed certain characters as they progress through the main story, but there are also random characters that can be purchased with in-game currency.
• The paid currency is a supplement to the in-game currency, and functions the same way. Players that pay can get more attempts sooner, without having to be patient.
• This game is similar to other character-based RPGs, such as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, in that the players collect and rank up characters.
• It’s harder to come across the currency used to purchase chances at characters as the game progresses. No surprise there, as many FTP games use a similar approach.
• Progress in games similar to this is usually limited by a resource like “stamina” or “energy” which replenishes with time. However, in Pokemon Masters, you can play as much as you care to at a time. There are already players that are complaining about running out of things to do, but they would be the ones that already rushed through the available content.
• Rosa is a broken character, and she’s available from the outset. She remains an indispensable character from the beginning and well into the postgame. I wonder how intentional this was on the part of the developers.
• Evolution Crystals become immensely more expensive after the first batch. I regret using my first ones to get Empoleon, because now it takes a huge amount of grinding to get Serperior.
• I’m not kidding. This game is ridiculously tight-fisted with Evolution Crystals. I know that most FTP games include a resource that is difficult to amass in quantity, but the coin cost for just one Evolution Crystal is crazy.
• The idea of smuggling things in afros actually came up:

By the way, she actually does this in the show.

• Spending 100 Skill Capsules on a single Gym Leader Notes seems like a bad deal at first, but considering how many you’ll rack up while grinding for the other items needed to achieve max levels, it’s actually a sweet convenience.
• Raichu (with Hau) is one of the best characters in the game, and I’m okay with that.
• I’m one of the few who managed to get Karen within the first few days of the game’s release. It’s too bad that she was outclassed days later with the inclusion of Blue.
• I’m liking the animations, especially for the trainers. Their personalities are on full display, and some of them were characterized very well. I especially appreciated Agatha’s backstory, which provided a lot of insight into her history with Professor Oak that we didn’t previously have access to.
• I can understand withholding the rest of the story until a future date, but did they have to leave us on a cliffhanger? It’s almost as bad as the ending for Halo 2.
• I’m so thankful that DeNA decided to include Auto and Fast-Forward buttons for battles, which makes grinding demand a lot less attention. I know that those are standard features for games like this, but still.
• If Barry has Piplup, what pokemon is Dawn going to have at the point she’s introduced into the game? Buneary?
• It seems like the real challenge of the post-game is in the scheduled Supercourses, particularly the Very Hard ones. Even at maxed levels, they’re not a guaranteed win when autoing.
• Speaking of Auto, it’s probably no surprise that Auto is no substitution for using strategy, and the computer often uses some very dumb moves, such as failing to use Potion when needed, or waiting to use a higher-energy move when the battle can be won with a move that’s already available.
• For some reason, the 5∗ Power-Up has an expiration date. I suspect that this was an oversight, as it would make more sense if it applied instead to the event ticket used to purchase it. It’s hard to think of a reason to limit a player’s ability to stock up on this resource.

Pokemon Masters is brimming with style, and it has a battle system that’s far superior to that of Pokemon Go (though that’s not a hard hurtle to clear). It wouldn’t be surprising to see some quality-of-life updates down the road, and some content additions designed to keep players coming back. The Pokemon lore has gotten extensive over the decades, so there’s a lot of potential for expansion.

So far, I’m liking it.