Just wanted to give some of my initial thoughts after playing Champions for a handful of matches since release.
In a lot of ways it’s visually better than Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were, but I’m pretty disappointed with the lack of care given to the visuals outside of battle. The main “hub” room does not look great, especially since they probably could have spent a bit of time on it. Move animations look fine in most cases, but it’s weird that many animations look worse than Scarlet and Violet. There’s also a weird visual bug where if you launch the game on Switch 2 docked, the game won’t increase the resolution unless you undock and redock, that’s a really odd oversight that seems to only exist in this game out of the whole Switch’s library.
It’s hilarious to me how limited the roster is with items, but after playing for a bit I think it’s a nice way to ease the more general playerbase in. I haven’t played VGC since Sword and Shield (Scarlet and Violet gave me headaches and I just got interested in other games), so it’s nice to start with a smaller roster to remind myself of interactions.
Though, speaking of interactions, it’s incredible to me how many bugs there are in the battle system. I personally haven’t noticed any, but I’ve seen plenty of clips online surrounding Parental Bond, Haze, Dragon Darts, and plenty of others. For a studio (ILCA) partnering directly with Pokemon and Game Freak, I would have expected the battle system to just be entirely locked in. I guess it’s a side effect of a new engine? Who knows, it’s just really odd and disappointing when Pokemon has had literally decades to build and refine the battle system.
The paid elements of the game aren’t too expensive, but they really provide no value if you just play the game. This is especially true for those that have multiple Pokemon games already, as Pokemon HOME is an easy in-and-out system to store extra Pokemon. Don’t buy unless you’re really compelled or they update the offerings.
I’m also extremely disappointed in how there’s no single player content beyond the initial tutorial (which was honestly a joke). If they want this to be a game that entices new players while also serves as a live-service hub for competitive battling, a really great training tool is a single-player campaign. For years I’ve been hoping for a game like Champions that’s built on Stadium’s system with modern mechanics. Unless that’s something eventually coming, I’ll just remain disappointed.
Either way, this game came out too early. Or, well, it should have started development a few years sooner and then come out.
All in all, the game’s fine enough. It has extremely good bones, but it will need a few iterations of polish and more content to be released before it’s a recommended title from me. Here’s hoping the game improves, I do want to enjoy some VGC battles here and there!
Feel free to share your thoughts as well, I just wanted to get them out there.
