How are we feeling about Pokemon Champions?

[DrampardonMe]

You know, the game that comes out in a couple weeks for Switch, Switch 2, and... phones, I think? Anyway, the 8th of April is the exact date of release.

I'm not super into competitive, but I still have fun with online battles under the right circumstances, so I might try it. Something happened to my previous SD Card which (as far as I know) made me unable to play Pokemon Scarlet (and Legends: Arceus, but yeah) and I found out YEARS LATER Pokemon Home gives you at least one box for free (Paid obviously gives more storage options, among other perks...), so it'd be a waste to not use my beloved Sandstorm team after figuring out that's all it took to recover it. Question is, how many Pokemon will be available at launch? Because it might throw a wrench in my plans if I can't use all six. Most of my other 'mons on Home aren't battle-worthy, lol

(Yeah I know they'll "add more" down the road, but speaking as a customer, I'm not sure if this is just how developers have to do it to ease their workload anymore, or if it's just Game Freak being weird)

So, uh... Anyone else at least curious about the game like I am? I hope there's a single-player mode, too, just to help refresh my battle skills before I try and go online to do everything. But then I saw some of the character designs and they were cool enough to have me invested to learn more about them. Also why haven't they been prominently featured in Western news stuff that's really bizarre to me

[Del]

looking forward to it, it'll be fun to use my own Pokémon for once instead of just stuff on Showdown, and the graphics look pretty good. a little worried about the "monitization" (although you can't pay real money explicitly for VP) and how much that'll restrict team building early on, but it's pretty promising so far I think.

phone release is going to be Later This Year™, but yeah, the Switch/2 release is the 8th, and then mobile later.
we don't know the exact roster yet, but a relatively safe guess imo would be the S/V+DLC roster, and the Z-A roster, minus all the non-fully evolved species (and the NFE part has been confirmed except for MAYBE Pikachu?).

Being battle-worthy actually barely matters, because you can just do it all in Champions, after all. there are no IVs (everything is just set as if they were max), all moves are available, and natures and EVs can just be set. the only issue you might have is the VP cost, but it sounds like we're gonna have enough to make at least one team.

I think it got confirmed there's no single player content outside of the opening tutorials though, which basically amount to "this is what a super effective move is! this is what terrain is! this is how mega evolution works!" etc.

[DrampardonMe]

Being battle-worthy actually barely matters, because you can just do it all in Champions, after all. there are no IVs (everything is just set as if they were max), all moves are available, and natures and EVs can just be set. the only issue you might have is the VP cost, but it sounds like we're gonna have enough to make at least one team.

Oh, good point. I just meant most of my other Pokemon don't have as much team synergy as the Sandstorm team I made. Should have clarified, lol

I think it got confirmed there's no single player content outside of the opening tutorials though, which basically amount to "this is what a super effective move is! this is what terrain is! this is how mega evolution works!" etc.

Kind of a bummer if so, but that's just me. Not a deal-breaker or anything, but I guess times have changed since *squint* Battle Revolution?* Most people that into Pokemon battles would rather cut out the middle-man, I suppose. I think it's annoying you need VP to customize your character(s), too, but at least the option's there! (I assume there might be some free customization options, but eh, arguably more important features to worry about anyway)

*Never played it, but if I had, I'd have had my character(s) say stuff like [Pokemon], assume battle mode!" or [Pokemon], I release thee." when sending them out. Not expecting full text customization for Champions anyhow, but we'll see?

[Del]

I mean, it's possible for them to release single player content later on I suppose? There's apparently a "Gym" option on the menu screen that we haven't heard about yet (and it's not Training, since that's a different button), so that will either be the (possible future) single player content or like, a guild system? It could also just be the tutorial I suppose?

VP for trainer customisation is Fine™ I think. Unless you're trying to spin up a new team every day, I don't think it'll bottleneck too hard past the original requirement, so once you get your first team finished you can farm for customisation, and then once you've got that, you probably won't need to change it again for a little while, so you can focus on a second team or adjustments or whatever.

I kinda just want it to come out now so I can start thinking about teams and stuff, it's too hard to plan anything when you only know like 10% of the roster.

[DrampardonMe]

^Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, that they'd add it in post. Also now that you mention the "Gym" thing, it does ring a bell. I thought I read somewhere it was to help that old guy make a new gym, and it would be cool to be a "Gym Leader" of sorts yourself, but yeah, it could also just be an encore for the tutorial. Too soon to say!

I guess it depends on how much VP you earn per match on average, but yeah, fair enough. And yeah, I feel you on the team-planning part. If I wanted to try some of the rentals (and I just might, because Why Not?™ ) it might open some possibilities I wouldn't have thought of on my own...

[Del]

The previews showed us getting 200 VP per match, which could obviously be adjusted before launch, but that's not ~too~ bad I think. A full Pokémon adjustment is like 3k or so I think? And most people will have natures/moves pre-prepped, which cuts costs down a ton. We should be fine I think.

I think the rentals seem like trash unfortunate, because the EVs are dumped into random stats, so you end up having to adjust them yourself anyway. The previews had a full Def/Sp.Att Scizor, for example. Maybe they'll have it less random for release? But in the state it is right now, you'd be griefing yourself and your VP stash to take any of them I think lol