Pokémon TCG Live 9+

This game is ok, but just ok. It feels like it has been made by AI almost right but not, it’s playable but lacks in every detail that a player would want. Pokémon tcgo had plenty of flaws, but many good points. Deck building and copying deck lists was 100x easier and intuitive compared to Pokemon Live. This is by far the part that will need the biggest and most complete overhaul. The game plays like it should (bugs aside) on live but is let down by only being portrait not landscape, and all the issues that portrait causes like not being able to see your whole hand, Card graphics on the bench are also terrible because of the restrictions. Copying lists from the Pokémon tcgo just doesn’t work even though it was promised that it would. Updates need to be bug tested more thoroughly before release because every time it makes the developer seem more incompetent/or not interested in playing Pokémon tcg. Quick fix, being able to play the art of a card in your hand instead of only being able to play the top one. Why spend on special art cards and never get to play them. The only upside is the reward ladder.

Much of what you do in this app is a chore. Glitches everywhere, soulless design but my main grievance is the unintuitive controls. Having to drag cards precisely where they need to be on screen, instead of the app meeting you in the middle and making it more user friendly. At the start of a match, having to confirm that, yes I’m finished putting basic Pokémon on my bench, despite having no more basic Pokémon in my hand. Clicking on a card instantly fills the entire screen with the card you clicked on, obscuring what your opponent is actually doing. There is no kind of battle log (that I can see) to counter balance this design choice.

Overly designed avatars with 30 different designs of the same hat to choose from but no real options to diversify your character such as making them older/younger, fatter/thinner or taller/shorter. Not everyone relates to, or wants to convey themself as some trendy college student. I thought the PTCGO avatars were fine: unobtrusive, minimalistic and, most importantly, secondary to the card game.

No expanded format to play with friends either, which is all I wanted to do. Lots of work needed.

I don’t even know where to start. But before even entertaining the fact, as many others have done, that almost every feature is downgraded from the previous iteration. The game is so woefully unoptimised, I’ve never ever used any app, game, utility that causes a phone to get so hot. Genuinely borderline scalds you at its peak. And as a result kiss goodbye to the battery life on your phone. People have reported depleting an entire charge in an hour. I’ve seen a little more but not much at all. That’s horrific for a mobile game.

TCG (granted offline more so) and the mainline titles are the most popular elements of the worlds most popular and lucrative franchise. Yet the Pokémon Company are in real danger of alienating and destroying their own golden goose by refusing to appropriately invest in their production. Whereas Game Freak clearly didn’t have the luxury of time, the same can’t be said for this app which has been in development for a frankly embarrassing amount of time. I would love to know the size and pedigree of the team that worked on this. It feels like something that could have been made by students or interns as a project for learning app development. One that would receive a low grade at that.

Truly awful in almost every single way