I am Really Dislike of trading card games. Although I love myself a little Pokémon And Yu-Gi-Oh Since then, as a child and teenager, I have largely kept my distance from them. I played a few hands HearthstoneI never touched it artifactand I suck at any card game integrated into an RPG except for Blood of the Queen In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Maybe it’s all the stories I’ve seen of players spending exorbitant amounts of money to pull rare cards from booster packs, but the pastime seems to be dominated more by greed and status than the fun of tactics and the interplay between Cards I have always treasured.
I didn’t start playing for such reasons Magic: The Gathering until a few weeks ago. I was going on vacation and knew I would be around people playing the game, so I gave in and gave it a try. Not surprisingly, I found this magic is incredibly fun and rewarding, but when I texted my roommate who plays the game, he warned me about the costs involved. Just like my best friends did when I told them I had succeeded magic-pillated. Of course, that didn’t stop us from going to a store that was having a ridiculous retail sale, buying about $45 worth of cards that I just thought were cool, and playing a few more games before leaving town. My first attempt was a bit difficult, but by the second game I was already able to eliminate another player in a way that even impressed me!
With that experience in mind, as well as a single (and I would like to mention triumphant) game of Pokémon trading card game under my belt I dared to jump in Pokémon Trading Card Game Bagthe mobile and gacha-infused adaptation of the popular card game that has wreaked havoc on my friends and their wallets for the past few years. Unfortunately, it’s good, bite-sized fun and it feels like a trap.
The slow tutorial by Bag does a great job of introducing the basics: playing and evolving Pokémon, investing Energy to deliver devastating attacks, and using items and other support cards to draw cards from your deck and keep your creatures alive. There’s more to know, like retreat, Bench Pokémon, abilities, and so on, but Bag is actually a wonderful place start if you want to get into the actual card game. It offers you pre-built decks and solo challenges that introduce you to the ebb and flow of combat in increasingly difficult steps and ultimately allow you to challenge other players. The battles in these modes are fairly generously timed, making them perfect for beginners getting started for the first time. The winner is first to three KOs, which happens quicker than you would expect. It’s no Marvel Snapbut fights back Bag are not as lengthy as in anime or video games.
However, this is all secondary BagThis is a real attraction and a real danger. The home screen consists of a series of icons, buttons, and panels, but the three largest ones in the middle of the screen are booster packs, a feature called Wonder Pick, and a shop. Let’s work our way down.
First, the booster packs: There are currently three available, all as part of a larger promo called Genetic Apex, and they focus on Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo. (You can choose between the three packages at any time, and it’s free to open one.) Clicking on the box will take you to a screen where you can preview the offers in each package. Cracking these packages will literally give you XP for the game first. Before you do it anythingEven in battle, you will need to open a booster pack and familiarize yourself with it BagThere are many currencies and systems.
For example, cutting open a pack, which comes with a pleasant sound and vibration from your phone, generates pack points which can then be spent on selecting individual cards, the value of which varies depending on the motif, whether holographic or not, and more. However, the most famous of these currencies are Bag‘s hourglasses.
There are timers under the booster packs and Wonder Pick symbols. The timer under the former counts down until the next time you’re allowed to crack a pack – you can grab two every day, or basically one every 12 hours – and the timer on the latter counts down until the next batch of a Wonder Pick. which can hold a maximum of five charges. The Wonder Pick allows you to spend fees to select a random card from booster packs that random players or your friends have recently opened. (Don’t worry, they don’t lose the card.) Let’s say someone has a uniquely good loot. You can then spend a reasonable amount of Wonder Pick fees – which adjusts based on the value of the cards included – to get a chance at at least one high-value pick, so to speak!
Right now I have two Wonder Pick charges, with a third recovering within the next eight hours. This limits the number of packs I can freely choose from, meaning I can do a trio of poorly rated drops, try my hand at a slightly better one that costs two charges, or wait to see if I can get one out for three can. Of course, these agonizingly long wait times can be shortened by simply using hourglasses, which reduce the timer by an hour per unit, and the game is sure to remind you what you’re missing out on by showcasing the extravagant attractions of everyone you meet know on the Wonder Pick page.
The early level experience and tutorial also leave you running with hourglasses, to the point where I was at hundreds within about an hour of playing. It wants You spend those hourglasses so urgently to speed up the timing of the booster pack, reward yourself with a few measly offers and a single full art or EX card, and then get so hooked. There is also already an offer in the game to upgrade to a Premium Pass, which allows you to open a third pack per day for free for two weeks and access Premium Missions with more rewards such as card sleeves, playmats, coins, etc. At the moment, even an exclusive Pikachu card with full graphics. The obvious hope is that you’ll forget to cancel and become a full-fledged sub, or worse, volunteer because you’re so addicted to it.
None of these systems explicitly prevent you from simply jumping into solo or online battles, but I’ve already encountered scenarios where I’ve narrowly achieved victories over players who obviously spent the money (or just) . had been lucky) to draw EX Mewtwos and the like. I now use fairly rudimentary decks and build my Pokedex and folder comparatively very slowly. When I looked at the cards that friends had drawn from me, I actually felt a pang of jealousy so great that I used hundreds of hourglasses to treat myself to ten booster packs, which gave me a lot of cards, but ultimately one a whole lot of nothing.
Bagjust like the base TCG and every gacha and service game in the world, relies on its systems to create this kind of frustration – this Bags of FOMOif you will – pushing you to spend money so you can continue to enjoy the game. And that’s how it is Pokémon We’re talking about the largest media property in the world, and there’s no telling what damage it will ultimately cause.
I’m also afraid of investing too much Bag Because to be honest, I no longer trust digital media. For years Shows are being cut from streaming servicesas well as Games will be delisted and removed from players’ librarieswere a stark reminder that these companies are happy to sell you empty promises. At a minimum, a physical card can be placed in a sleeve or folder that you can safely store and retrieve. The Criterion Collection films I have assembled in my entertainment center aren’t going anywhere unless I want them to. These physical things, be they cards or films, are things that last with care, a care that I and many others are happy to give them.
As long as Bag Make Nintendo and The Pokémon Company richer, there will be. However, once it no longer brings them any material benefit, I am sure that they will have no problem taking everything away from us, and this awareness will inevitably influence my experience of it.
That’s a shame because I really enjoy it Bag. It felt good to defeat this player with the Mewtwo, simply outsmarting and outplaying him. The TCG version of Pokémon will mostly be familiar to someone who has played the games before, but they exist Only enough tactical twist in the management of energies and the overall party to sometimes encourage smart plays over raw power. It’s still very early Bagwhich means it’s impossible to predict how long it will last or whether all of the issues I’ve raised will persist. As much joy as it may bring, never forget to treat it Bagand its developers and publishers, with the caution they deserve.
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