Pokémon Unite is now available on Nintendo Switch – a mobile version is also on the way later this year – and the development team is looking for your feedback.
If you've been playing the game over the past few days and have any thoughts on what you like or don't like about it, make sure to head on over to the survey page to have your say. Early questions ask about your playstyle (such as whether you play mostly handheld or docked and how far you've progressed through the game's levels), but they soon address more particular topics.
Later questions ask you to give the game an overall rating, say whether or not you find its concept original or unique, and even ask you about how satisfied you are with game elements such as its technical performance, gameplay mechanics, and player progression outside of battle (such as unlocking Pokémon or buying Trainer fashion items, for example).
Towards the end of the survey, players are asked to select any areas that leave them frustrated. Options include having to spend money to be successful, an emphasis on grinding to win, and difficulty when having to communicate with other players.
On the day before the game launched, we ran a poll (which is still taking votes) to see how many of you were interested in trying Pokémon Unite on Switch. At the time of writing, the majority of respondents have said that they are going to try it, with 51% of voters putting that down to being interested in the idea of a Pokémon MOBA.
If you've played it, how are you finding Pokémon Unite so far? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Comments 64
Pay to win scheme.
I typically avoid MOBAs but in giving this a shot I've actually had a decent amount of fun. Looking forward to future updates!
The whole game kinda feels uninspired. I wasn't the biggest fan of MOBA's coming into this game, and it certainly didn't sell me on the genre. You'll know in your first match if this game is for you or not.
It seems the first 5 hours are pretty generous with rewards and earning unlocks, but after that it's either an insane grind or pay to win, and of course there are a ton of amazing Pokemon locked behind the rewards. Better off playing a lot of these other single-player releases that have been constantly coming out. Higher quality!
Pay to win. That’s it.
everything about it, especially the pay to win. And the fact that it’s Pokémon.
@bimboliquido There’s items like Rocky Helmet that you buy to boost your stats. Literally pay to win.
Yeah I was enjoying it while playing but after seeing the held items leveling thing it kind of turned me off from the game. Pokemon has enough hardcore fans that skins on their own would be a viable way to make money without paying to upgrade items.
The MOBA, the pay to win, Tencent's involvement, it took my wife and kids, it bombed Pluto...
Pay to win and free to play.
Also the multitude of different currencies. And no way to actually target what you want to achieve. Just play the one game mode that's there and hope you'll get the currency you need. Feels very chaotic if you'd ask me. Typical mobile-game setup.
Was hooked on the game for 2 days. Then I thought to myself 'why bother'.
@bimboliquido that you can also pay cash to get and boost all your items to max level.
Pokemon Unite = Yojimbo FF X
Pay him with munny to win. (if he uses Zanmato, if....)
No pay, no play, no win.
Right ?
@Cheez Stop. It's not pay to win, it's pay for a slight advantage. You can still get everything with a free account, sure at a much slower rate but still
People dropping out.
@bimboliquido The money rewards are tiny considering the massive impact the pay to win items have, and the price of them too. A streamer dropped $100 as a test and was easily mowing through every single player they came across. It’s pay to win.
@drewber2635 I guess it's a matter of time, really... For somebody who doesn't have the time to grind, mtx is the fast-track. From what I've read, the grind isn't reasonable. In some ways, it's subjective. What you're calling a much slower rate' is somebody else's 'glacial pace'.
The same subjectivity likely applies between what someone considers 'pay to win' and you consider 'pay for advantage'.
Idk. I played the turorial match, but the game just wasn't for me
I wasn’t too interested at first, but once I saw a bunch of people online and a few of my friends enjoying, I decided to take the plunge and download it onto my Switch. It’s been surprisingly fun. I haven’t payed a dime, and yet I’ve been winning a good number of games anywhere between 3rd place and MVP on my team (Talonflame rules!!!). My only frustration is Zeraora. Like…dude. He’s crazy. My play style doesn’t line up with it, but for the people who do…gosh, they’re hard to kill.
And of course people are defending the pay to win. All one needs to do is check out the Reddit post detailing just how many advantages the whales have over normal players. Sure you might feel like you have a chance now but as the game progresses and the whales start to learn the mechanics of the MOBA you're going to find yourself getting stomped. These are people that are experienced MOBA players that have come up with the math. Whales have an inherent advantage if they pay money.
People. We racked EA over the coals when they tried this with Star Wars Battlefront 2. PLEASE do not let Nintendo and Tencent get away with this just because you have blind loyalty to a piece of plastic.
@drewber2635 "It's not pay to win, it's pay for a slight advantage."
Can you name 1 game ever in the history of video games where "pay to win" means - you are playing a match and in the middle of the match you pay a certain amount of money and the game then automatically gives you the win? B/c if "a slight advantage" is NOT pay to win as you seem to be claiming the only alternative is pay to win means there is no game play, you just pay and then the game grants you the win. Which isn't a thing.
Pay to win has always meant and will always continue to mean pay for an advantage, b/c if people are too lazy to say "included with Switch Online" rather than just "free" like they always do, nobody is going to start staying "pay for an advantage". We all know what pay to win means, and it isn't "pay to automatically be granted the win".
@nessisonett
I have that ítem without paying a dime, I almost have all the items without paying.
@Alexneon Do you have it max level? Because you need 2587 Item Enhancers for that. Which is 2587 Aeos Gems. Which is almost $50.
It has the same problems I had with VainGlory and League of Legends. I love MOBAs, but they're designed to make you want to pay for things that really have no real world worth, and I have sunk a not-insignificant amount of money into both.
Pokemon Unite is actually a fun game, but I can't see being engaged with it super long. It's very stripped down as far as MOBAs go.
I would imagine the fact that they already have a survey pre-written and expected in the event that people would not be happy with their game, already expecting and offering all the options on things specifically designed to be anti-consumer, then that tells all that needs to be known about how the game should be taken.
I just don't want the grind. One thing I oddly appreciated was Arena of Valor and just being able to play offline against bots and occasionally pick up a new hero via login events. I don't think I played it against other players more than a handful of times. If Pokemon Unite could do that, I'd play more
Players that just sit in the starting area and do nothing for the team.
Its a free to pay/pay to win game. I ll try not to bash the pay to win model because its quite common in free to play games. What I dont like it's that there is few pokemons now and they are quite uninspired. Other thing is that the skills have too fast cooldowns. U just smash buttons and your pokemons deals tons of damage.
Still havent been able to give it a try yet, since last Tuesday I got covid and haven't been in the mood to play games
@bimboliquido Ok so if your a dude that is willing to buy upgrade after upgrade, then yes it counts as pay to win.
@UltimateOtaku91 Oh I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you get well soon.
@nessisonett What don't people get? LOL, Tencen't defenders over here LOL.
People really need to fill out this survey and voice their opinions against the P2W stuff. This is one of the few ways we can actually do something about it.
I thought we could at least contain the poisonous P2W model to the mobile ecosystem but people have decided it's time to let it come to console games. I'm going to find myself drifting more and more to Indies and AA games at this rate...
Over-monetization.
I actually think it's pretty good, from what I've played.
@drewber2635 look up twitch players, they've found playing for maxed held items they can go 1v5 without too much difficulty. To get maxed level items without paying it was calculated to take over 500 days of playing.
The game is fun and I do like the simpler version of the MOBA genre, but the monetization is questionable. Held items, battle items, and upgrades should not be monetized since it does give an advantage over other players.
@Pokester99 someone a bit not educated on the world or Canadian economy.
Anyone saying this is pay to win, didn't play the game, you can unlock everything for free eventually.
@Screen Want me to send you links to Charlie's (penguinz0) Unite videos? He does 2k damage with 1 ability cause he payed to show how the game can be pay to win. What's the point of unlocking everything in 3 or 4 years if people can play to destroy your games today?
Pay to win. It's a decently fun game but after running into a couple people who had insane amounts of health and attack even though we were literally the same level and Pokémon I had to delete the game. It's no fun to know unless I pay, every so often I'll just get crushed.
Also hated it limited the coins I could earn to 2000 a week even if I complete challenges. They just disappear.
Easy answer; Tencent.
@nessisonett - Not to defend this game, at all, but your example of the streamer seems to lack a lot of context.
His "mowing" of opponents can easily be done if you're familiar with MOBA strat and a widely popular theme of a NEW RELEASE is going to draw a lot who don't understand such a concept.
I am willing to bet I would likely win my first 50 matches understanding the basics of MOBA from what I have seen in videos. Each one showing "epic plays" where the play is entirely reliant on the most fatal mistakes taken by newbies of the genre (overreach, non-communicative diving, timing last hits, etc).
So the streamer could been mowing people over, but there is a likelihood he's doing that curbstomping due to his familiarity, not cause an item boosted the damage from 110 to 120 of a skill that resets after the encounter.
@Paraka Taking Rocky Helmet as an example, without having bought that item you’d have a bonus HP and defence of 0. With that at a max level ($50), you have an extra 270 HP and 42 defence. Plus 5% of damage taken is reflected. These are beyond just little advantages.
@nessisonett - What's the baseline HP of most Pokémon that use the item to its fullest? Does it scale?
An item like that would be used by most defensive characters due to their high HP to utilize the damage output.
Cause if the mons are all in their 4-digit HP, the usefulness of the item is minimal.
Pay to win. As in they actively limit the amount of in-game currency you can earn by playing the game per week. And mind you, it's a pretty low limit considering i hit it in like a day or two. Additionally getting one character took me two days to get my first pokemon but is gonna take me around a week or two to get the second because of the lack of points from winning or other one time event missions.
Love the hottakes from ppl who admit never playing the game.
Ok but all the people complaining this much should really then answer to the survey, it's very complete and specific.
The game is tons of fun. I wasn't into. MOBA's at all before, never played one, but I think they are interesting. The strategy with your teammates isnt all that different from other team games like overwatch. It is unfortunate that you can get an advantage over your enemies by paying money and speeding up progression by a lot, but this only really matters in ranked where winning is everything. If your playing ranked mode that seriously then you were gonna grind/pay for those upgrades before going into that mode anyway. Even then you'll have plenty of fair and fun matches in regular mode with non-paying players anyway. The occasional whale will come along but if your team isn't throwing those little boosts he has won't make much of a difference. Bottom line is that it's a very fun game and only demands grinding or paying at a competitive level. If your a casual you should have a fun time just downloading and trying a free game
@spiderman0616 To be fair to LoL, I think it's decently monetized. The things that are available for purchase are largely just cosmetics. It could be argued you're at a disadvantage by having an initially smaller champion roster than someone purchasing champions with actual money rather than earned in-game currency, but it doesn't take an insane number of games to have enough currency to unlock a new champion, at least.
@PerishSong Valid points. And I was really encouraged by the questions on their player survey. I’m willing to stick around a while and see how things “evolve”. (See what I did there?) It really is a pretty fun game, but I still think of it as more of a MOBA Lite.
@hyperballad Yep—they do seem to care what players think of the game. I was very impressed by the breadth of the questions.
@ItsATM pay to win but it's a free download...so I mean whats spending 20$ on a free game gonna do to anyone 🙄
Zeraora. that's it. Just, Zeraora
@AFCC it will most likely take longer then that given that more pokemon are probably going to be eventually added and odds are things that curbstomp everything currently will be eventually added in behind gems
Is it even pay-to-win? I have been playing it since the day after it came out. Haven’t paid a cent and don’t feel as though I have to. You could pay to get Pokémon or items even though they give you plenty if you play every day. You could pay for cosmetics if that matters though. I’m personally satisfied with the amount of free content in the game.
@Pokester99 lmao O-K boomer
@antonite that truly is the lamest response anyone can give these days. 🙄
@Yoshilapin the problem is that these games rely on psychological manipulation to make money. It doesn't sit well with most people. There's a reason lootboxes are classified as gambling and therefore banned in a number of countries. It's developing addictive behaviours especially in young people, it's just bad practice all around and defending it is kinda sickening.
I haven't even been able to play it since I kept getting that stupid login error day after day of trying to play, so I deleted the game.
Sounds like I avoided a hot mess of a game from what I'm seein' though.
Not even played it but I wouldnt go near anything with the payment system they have here.
It's ironic that I complained so much about the hate and how much I enjoyed the Canadian beta. I haven't touched this game at all since launch.
My complaint? Don't release it so damn close to a freaking Nintendo game! I'm still busy with Skyward Sword HD.
@PerishSong I have to admit that I'm playing more and more Pokemon Unite every day, even after I originally thought I would be tired of it by now. It's a solid, if not a little too simplistic, MOBA with a really easy point of entry. All the addictive elements of MOBAs are still there, while a lot of the annoying elements of most MOBAs are mostly not there. I still don't think we've seen what Tencent REALLY has in store as far as micropayments and gacha and all that stuff, but I hope it in no way resembles VainGlory's system, where 99.99% of the time, the risk is not worth the reward.
I hate it when I need to sleep or go somewhere and when I ex out I lose those stupid play points, u need some ingame button or whatever that allows you to log out of a match but force you to not play for, like, an hour to 3
I feel like switching pokemon after u die should be a thing...
Please make the game more compatoble for old device like 1 gb ram phones and tablets pleasee😢
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