While discussing about Pokémon Go as per the "loyalty program" matter the other day, I thought I'll discuss one more matter that's pertinent even before it and other Niantic games became a part of Scopely. That matter concerns the development of the game, which has seemingly prioritized a certain aspect while leaving another to languish. That leading aspect is the graphical quality of the game, while the lagging aspect is the gameplay itself. It might be a serious matter for some, especially with the way things have always proceeded with the game.
For the leading aspect, it is quite clear that the visuals of the game have massively improved from where they were just several years ago or even at the beginning of the game's life. The environments - overworld and Pokémon encounters - have become richly detailed, replete with visual effects from time to time. Even the Pokédex itself, a source of visual display, has recently been updated with plenty of new visual elements while maintaining much of the same functions. All this is well and good, though it does seem to leave the gameplay aspect lagging.
The gameplay is expectedly all the parts that involve battling of some kind, from PvE (Gyms and other virtual opponents) to PvP (human opponents). For these, issues are seemingly abound, including but not limited to lag (that is, sync failure) among parties, imbalance of moves and Pokémon, and initiating and ending battles in general. They come up from time to time - even yours truly have experienced some of them first-hand - and despite claims of them having been fixed, they just seem to keep coming up when Trainers least expect them.
Some due credit for the issues of today has to be given to the present complexity of Pokémon, which has obviously now pervaded Pokémon Go. Even so, that doesn't completely explain why battle issues persistently return in some form; what may constitute some of the remaining explanation may be as suggested above, being that efforts are diverted more to improving visuals rather than gameplay, even if it's not a total diversion. And then comes the "ultimate" diversion, as the sale of the entire games subdivision to be under another management.
Visuals are important for any game, Pokémon games notwithstanding and especially Pokémon Go in this case. Yet there's something to be said for gameplay that just works, which should apply to any and all Pokémon games, including the one under current scrutiny. For that, it seems that at least some extended effort may be needed to improve the gameplay at some point in order to get it up to the standards of both developers and players, and get that gameplay somewhat on par with the impressive visuals, already so for Pokémon standards.
One year ago: Changes to Slow Cooking in Café Remix
Two years ago: Few Abilities, Much Wisdom
Three years ago: One More Day, Time, and Chance
Four years ago: Quickies: Going to the Safari
Five years ago: PvP Charged Attack Technique
Six years ago: Friend Cascade
Seven years ago: Icons, Images, and Such
Eight years ago: These Foolish Things Remind Me of Pokémon
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