It’s hard to believe, but it’s been eight years since the release of Pokemon Go. The game has managed to become a titan of mobile gaming throughout that time and managed to pull in millions of players to capture pocket monsters and battle out against their friends!
There’s no doubt that the game’s success can be attributed to Niantic’s drive to consistently push out updates and bring new additions. However, it seems like Niantic needs to learn from EA FC 25, out of all games, to move past one of the most clunky mechanics in the mobile spinoff.
Niantic Must Learn From EA to Fix Pokemon Go
In EA FC, in-game players face fatigue as they play matches, and fitness cards are essential to boost their fitness back to acceptable levels. Gamers universally hated this horrible system, but the company decided to remove it, which was met with a positive reaction from the community.
That’s not all; even the horrendous contract system that has plagued the FIFA franchise for years will be removed in the upcoming game. Clearly, EA realized that it needed to move away from outdated mechanics and features.
For years, gamers have been waiting for Niantic to realize the same thing as Pokemon Go‘s buddy system is in desperate need of an overhaul.
Buddies should “Join your adventure” by default without the berry chore.
byu/Arthian90 inpokemongo
Even though the Buddy System is a core part of the mobile spinoff, it simply feels too tedious. As pointed out by trainers on Reddit, whenever you’re trying to make your buddy join your adventure, the extra animations and the fact that you need to feed them multiple berries at a time make it frustrating.
Sure, walking your buddy can help you get a Pokemon rare candy, but it simply isn’t worth going through the tedious process.
The developers must bring a smoother and more enjoyable experience for everyone by making the “Join your adventure” feature a default option without needing to feed Pokemon berries.
Pokemon Go’s Next Feature Might Prove to be Trouble
Niantic will eventually hopefully improve the buddy system with future updates; that’s almost a guarantee. However, the studio must carefully plan the upcoming Dynamax and Gigantamax features as they could prove to be troublesome.
There’s a major roadblock in the way of Dynamax’s implementation in the game, and it’s the same one the game has always faced. Pokemon games tend to introduce a new battle gimmick in one game and drop it in the sequel. The Mega Evolution started it all, which created various issues for later mainline games.
The mainline games have always been able to separate their respective gimmicks thanks to housing more complexity, which the mobile spinoff can’t offer. The mobile version is meant to be a simple game and doesn’t bring the same depth.
Due to the obvious similarities between the two gimmicks, Pokemon Go certainly has much less room to work with when it comes to introducing these mechanics. Mega Evolution provides a power boost with a design overhaul to add on. Dynamax would function the same, but it lacks the design changes Megas brings.
Let’s hope the studio can manage Dynamax and Gigantamax introduction in the mobile spinoff. This new mechanic needs to be different from the existing Mega Evolutions; otherwise, the player’s interest in the game would simply start to wane.
With that said, can the developers improve the Buddy Pokemon feature in any other way? If so, let us know in the comments.
