It hasn't even been a year, and somehow Pokémon has wormed its way back onto my phone. At least its a different (and new) game this time 😅
Compared to Pokémon Go, PTCG: Pocket (standing for Pokémon Trading Card Game) is a much simpler affair. Nintendo have gone out of their way to replicate the IRL experience of Pokémon cards in every form, which is impressive, but ultimately boils down to: buying cards, putting cards in collections, using cards in self-made Decks to battle other people. Everything has been done to match your nostalgia as closely as possible.
You obtain new cards by "buying" booster packs (you can get free ones twice a day, or pay for more), which are accurate, 3D approximations of the real, aluminium foil packs I remember from my youth. Much like going to a store, you don't just get one randomly assigned either, but are given a screen with a "wheel" of shiny packages, which you can scroll around until you find one that somehow says "pick me, I contain the shiny Charizard of your dreams!".
Opening booster packs required you to swipe along the top, much like how you would tear the real thing, and then reveal each card one-by-one. You can even flip the pack over and open it in reverse, forcing you to flip each card, to absolutely maximise the tension (though, as far as I can tell, you can't replicate the style that has become popular on Twitch and YouTube of shuffling the contained cards into a specific order that makes any shiny or rare items appear last). It's all very skeuomorphic and genuinely very fun; it sounds ridiculous, but it gives you the same loot-box rush that I remember feeling outside corner stores as a kid 😂
Battling works just the same as real life too. You can create over a dozen decks, built solely from the cards you have, which you then use in one-on-one matches with random opponents. Cards are drawn in sequence; you can have up to three benched and one active at any time; and the first to three points wins (points are typically awarded for causing an opponent's critter to "faint", but you get more for particularly powerful Pokémon, so it isn't quite "first to three knockouts"). There have already been a few tournaments, as well as a single-player mode that has preset, bot opponents with known decks.
I will say that I'm enjoying battling somewhat, though the current all-random nature of opponent selection is quite frustrating, and I hope they end up bringing in an ELO or ranking system of some kind in the future. Right now, you yo-yo between playing against kids with very little idea of game mechanics and elite Japanese/Korean players who have either done nothing but grind from the day the game was launched or (more likely) have dropped a few £100 in equivalent currency to buy up the best possible deck combinations. Given that tournaments often only reward win streaks, going 2-0 and then finding yourself up against an unbeatable deck is frustrating. As is the random chance that you find yourself up against a full squad of super effective attacks, though that one is, at least, a core part of the gameplay.
On the flip side, the one change they've made since I last attempted the game, is to simplify energy. I think it was always the case that you would get energy from a different pile to your creature and support cards, but it still always felt like half of a TCG match was spent with the wrong energy type in your hand, unable to move. Not so much here, particularly if you have a one-element-type deck (as almost everybody does). Energy still needs to be carefully managed, but it no longer feels like an active roadblock to strategy, which is nice.
Battling and deck building also fundamentally improves the booster pack experience. As a kid, opening a pack that only contained cards you already had was deeply disappointing, but now it pays to have multiples for stronger decks. You can only have two of a given Pokémon in a single load out, so there is a limit on how often you want to see specific cards, but with trading on the horizon (and the opportunity to "burn cards" for "flair", which I have yet to do) it all feels much kinder.
Speaking of trading cards, the other mainstay of the IRL hobby is currently missing, but slated to come soon. I'm hoping this, at least, breaks the skeuomorphic trend, and doesn't force you to only trade with local players. Some kind of international marketplace (preferably an async one, where I can say "I want these cards; I have these cards" and then return to offers to accept/deny) will be a requirement for my long-term interest in the game, certainly from a collecting viewpoint.
Thankfully, collecting is obviously an element Nintendo is trying to maximise for. Cards already have multiple variants, many of which are only obtainable during specific events and do nothing more than add small watermark stamps somewhere to the design, exactly like the coveted first- and second-generation stamps on the original trading cards themselves. The game also (ridiculously, imo) includes customisable, digital "binders", card sleeves, and display boards, all of which can be used to pimp out your collection and show off to other players on your profile. Plus, again mimicking real life, cards come in multiple languages; I've accidentally ended up with a Spanish (I think) card or two, via another in-game mechanic called "Wonder Picks", which essentially allows you to reroll booster packs that other players have opened, and claim a single cloned card from the known selection yourself.
As I say, the game is maximised for collection anxiety and completionist tendencies, which means its also rammed to the rafters with loot box mechanics and in-game currencies. Thankfully, right now, it feels completely reasonable to be a free-to-play player, but I do think this is a game that will become increasingly hard to "break into" over time. I also think that the monthly subscription is extortionate! It gives you access to a bonus shop, with some more interesting binders and other skins, as well as doubling the number of free booster packs you can open, but that's about it. You get a free two-week trial when you start the game, and it was enjoyable, but it costs more than most streaming services each month if you want it to continue! 😬 A couple of quid a month and I might be tempted, but at this price, not a chance 😂
Which is all to say, I'm having a lot of fun, and I think the game has some serious legs (and excellent pedigree). I've been impressed by the attention to detail that Nintendo has made throughout each mechanic, and its clearly doing well, as there are plenty of people playing. But unless they improve the experience of actually playing the game part of the game, I predict I will grow bored. On the other hand, if they manage to turn it into something as balanced and fair as Magic The Gathering has done, this could rival Go in terms of longevity for me.