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I think the worst part about 1v1 is that as soon as a Pokémon is knocked out, you go to cool down while the opponent can get all the items around while waiting for you.
Had the 1v1 been like in-game battles, it'd be amazing, but currently, even a 3-player battle is kinda meh.
I'm just getting the hang of it so I'm commenting to follow it. Playing the GC showed me I'm getting quite bored at the turn based competitive Pokémon, but this is almost anime style battling, I want to get better.
I believe "not evolving" is also an important part of being a pikaclone, because other than Pikachu itself, none of the others evolve iirc but they could've changed that here.