The New (Old) Legacy Trainer Challenge

After the recent introduction of the new Theia Sky Ruins map for Standard and Ranked matches in Pokémon Unite, a new challenge was instituted soon afterward that also utilizes said map. The challenge involves a battle with other fellow Trainers as usual (the "new" face that is Unite), but it also involves some familiar faces that longtime (old) fans of Pokémon will recognize, even now. Appropriately enough, it is called the Legacy Trainer Challenge, a blending of the old and the new.

The challenge involves a Standard Match that is played against CPU Trainers. The CPU opponents in this case are (mostly) predetermined and involve five familiar Trainers: Cynthia with Garchomp, Korrina with Lucario, Leon with Charizard, Raihan with Duraludon, and Green with Blastoise. I say "mostly" because one can opt to battle in one of four difficulty levels (Casual, Intermediate, Expert, Ultimate) where the first two has only one or three of these Trainers, the rest substituted by "Ace Trainers" with other Pokémon. The greatest challenge, of course, lies with the last two levels, where the battle goes all-out with all five above.

Each day, a Trainer gets a "challenge token" to initiate one attempt on the challenge, whether with friends or other Trainers. After that, however, one can then partake in the attempt of another Trainer when invited to that match. Therefore, five friends can attempt the challenge five times, each of them creating their own separate lobbies and then inviting the others for each attempt. In this way, Trainers can attempt the challenge as necessary in a day, provided there are willing friends for that purpose. 

Special effects are also all over this unique mode of play. The matching entry screen features all the Trainers lined up on both teams, the human side as they appear. The battle entry has the "legacy Trainers" with their Pokémon as the representing image. Finally, throughout the match, K.O. messages including the K.O. screen has the "legacy Trainer" side shown and represented in images. They make for a totally immersive experience.

It would seem that a CPU match would be meek, and on the lower difficulties, that is relatively the case. But going up into the higher difficulties, the matches are as intense as any match against human opponents. Notably, the featured Pokémon of the "legacy Trainers" are among some of the most commonly used Pokémon by their human counterparts, and they comprise an ideal team of three All-Rounders plus an Attacker and a Defender. Therefore, these matches could be regarded as practice for team building and countering, which are always not as easy as they look, in any case and for any Trainer and their team.

While Pokémon Unite is a newfangled way to play a Pokémon game, there's no reason it can't dip back into the history of other, older Pokémon games, and the Legacy Trainer Challenge proves it can do just that. It's a surprising and workable blend of older Pokémon characters (Trainers) with a new playing field. In that way, it's truly accommodative and fitting of the past that Pokémon has to offer, now in a futuristic form.

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