From the moment that it was revealed, I knew Pokémon Champions was going to be a tough sell for fans like me. You see, the battling has always been my least favourite part of the series — I'm more of a "catch 'em all" than "be the very best, like no one ever was" kinda guy — so seeing a game that promised to go all in on the action with very little of the adventure immediately struck me as something that probably wouldn't be up my street.
After going hands-on with the game for around an hour a few weeks ago, I'm still yet to be fully convinced. I can see why Pokémon Champions should exist, and I can certainly see its potential to welcome battle-shy Trainers like me into the wonderful world of Stat Alignments, EVs, and IVs, but I still have questions that leave me hesitant, and most of them revolve around the "free-to-start" game's many, many currencies.
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For those who switched off during the game's strange live-action trailers up to this point, Pokémon Champions is an upcoming battle game in a similar vein to the N64's excellent Pokémon Stadium, or the Wii's not-so-excellent Battle Revolution. It bundles series gimmicks from previous generations like Terrastalisation and the so-hot-right-now Mega Evolutions into single or double battles, while making it easier to tweak your 'mon's moveset, abilities, and stats between matches.
It is planned to be the go-to battle format for the international competitive scene going forward, and on that, it absolutely succeeds. Competitive battling is massive, and anything The Pokémon Company can do to shift things away from a new UI with new visuals every generation is a welcome change. Aside from anything else, it opens the door for the mainline games to be a little more experimental with their battle features without having to worry about throwing competitions off in the process — and if Legends: Z-A taught me anything, it's that a little battle shakeup every now and again is welcome.
I mention all of this because I think that the competitive battle potential is the main reason for Champions' existence. TPC has been somewhat cagey about what'll be included in the game's Pokémon HOME integration at launch — specifying that only "certain Pokémon" you've trained in the past can be transferred to Champions, and none encountered in this battle game can be sent back to HOME — but as the rollout improves over time, HOME will undoubtedly be the way that most Trainers get their beloved critters into the game.
Why? Because Champion's in-game Pokémon encounter method sucks.
a far more accessible approach to crafting and defining team roles
After a brief introduction to the rules of Pokémon battling via the tutorial, my hands-on session moved over to recruiting my team. Pay attention to the word 'recruiting' and not 'catching' there. If you're not importing Pokémon via HOME, Champions' in-game team building is done at Roster Ranch, where you can recruit one 'mon from a random line-up each day.
If the 'free-to-start' nod made you prick up your ears earlier, then the specification of 'each day' there likely won't come as too big a surprise. Yes, Roster Ranch is a place you can visit once a day for free, with returning trips being allowed for those who cough up enough VP (Victory Points) at the door. You'll also need to spend VP if you wish to permanently recruit a Pokémon to your team; otherwise, you'll have to settle for a seven-day 'Trial Recruitment' where you can test out the monster without the chance to tweak its stats.
Bonus 'Quick Coupons' will shave an hour off your wait time until you can recruit again, and 'Teammate Tickets' let you recruit without spending any VP.
That's a lot of different currencies, no? All of the above can be obtained through successful online battles and completing missions — with bonus 'Membership Missions' for those who pay — but I was already bracing myself for some kind of "Get 1,000 Quick Coupons for just £0.99!" message at the bottom of the screen.
Such a message never came, and the rep guiding me through the session couldn't fully comment on which elements of the game would be paid — the Champions website specifies "VP cannot be directly purchased" — but I've played enough of these titles now to know all the hallmarks when I see them, and Champions was covered in 'em.
With my bill settled at the Roster Ranch, things were looking up for Champions in the battle department. I got to explore the Training centre, where I could tweak my team members' Stat Points (HP, Attack, Defence, Speed, etc.), Stat Alignment (much like Natures from the previous games), Moves and Ability, and I was impressed with how simple it all was to grasp. I've never truly managed to wrap my head around EVs and IVs in the mainline games, so being presented with a chart of Stats and the ability to pour Points into them however I pleased made for a far more accessible approach to crafting and defining team roles.
Naturally, I could only push the training through with — you guessed it — more VP or a 'Training Ticket', but it was a nice addition, nonetheless.
After assigning items and picking which six 'mon would make my starting lineup (a handy 'Auto Team Build' button automatically assigns the best-fit items for each of your fighters, if you don't know your Sitrus Berry from your Leftovers), it was finally time to battle.
Despite saying earlier that I'd welcome a change to the Pokémon battle formula, I recognise that there's a reason it has hung around for this long. The battles in Champions are just as strategy-filled as any mainline game, with hundreds of ways to approach each encounter. As has been the case since Gen VII, your Type Effectiveness rating appears under each attacking move, and Champions introduces a new 'Extremely Effective' bracket to really hammer home the advantage.
stacked currency types and prospect of pay-to-win trappings left me with a sour taste in my mouth
While the visuals are far from where I and many others would say that they should be from a franchise as colossal as Pokémon, they are certainly a step in the right direction from Scarlet and Violet, as low a bar as that is. The Pokémon models themselves look cleaner, and select moves even pack some neat new visual effects — I was particularly fond of Weather-changing moves like Sandstorm or Sunny Day, which do a better job of visualising the changes than before.
Unfortunately, with our teams built solely from the random recruitment option, my battles were effectively all decided before a single bow had been dealt — what was my lineup of B-tier 'mon going to do against my opponent, who had been lucky enough to pull a Charizard, Blastoise, Gengar, and Dragonite? I'm sure that some HOME integration will fix that (for anyone who wants to bring a specific team over from a previous title, that is), but be warned: the fairness of any Champions-built teams will come down to the luck of the draw, or who's spent enough money to roll again.
As it stands, Champions strikes me as a solid place for the future of competitive battling. I'm sure that it will bring in some more casual players, too, via its mobile version, free-to-start promise, and the more accessible approach to team building and training. But the stacked currency types and prospect of pay-to-win trappings left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
That April release date is right around the corner, but I'm going to need some more assurances that I won't have to use Payday in the real world to see the very best of the on-screen action.
Are you excited for Pokémon Champions? Let us know in the comments.