0:03-0:13: Dun... dun... dun...
DUN DUN!
0:24: Pokemon in the real world? Well that sounds... horrifying! In the game the Pokemon society is essentially a utopia with the periodical mad men/extremist group who thinks they can use Pokemon to take over yet easily stopped by a kid, but real life? In real life we have wars, dictators & tyrants, corruption, and people suffering around the world. And now you want to throw in elemental monsters that does their master's bidding? I want to live IN the Pokemon World, I don't want Pokemon to in real life!
0:26-0:40: Okay, enough joking around, for now. So looks like how this whole thing will work is that your app will come up with an
alert that there's a "wild" Pokemon and will tell you how far away it is, in what direction, and show you a silhouette of it. The app seems to take in mind where you are currently so there may or may not be Pokemon for specific parts of the world. Sounds neat in concept, making you feel like an actual trainer looking or Pokemon, but I have concerns.
First if we don't like the Pokemon can we refresh for a different one? Is it random chance if there's a Pokemon in the are or do we get a certain amount of "guaranteed" encounters each day? If the latter, are they going to provide us a way to get more encounters (they mentioned did in-game purchases... (which I'll get to))? And if we can pay for more encounters that dangerously enters into "pay-to-win" territory.
Second, while going to where there's a Pokemon sounds fun, what if the way is blocked off? Or to get to the place I have to possibly do something dangerous like cross a river or climb up someplace high? It's be kind of unfair to tell me I need to toss away the encounter and try again (especially if we only get a limited amount each day) after having spent some time looking for where the Pokemon is (and if I had spent money to get this encounter I'd probably be a bit more angry). I've looked up articles about Niantic's Ingress and there are reports of people having been arrested for trespassing. And that's just to tag a portal, what lengths would someone go to if the goal was to catch a Pokemon?
Third and finally, if location is going to be a factor than the game might be a bit imbalanced. Simply put people want some Pokemon more than other's and I imagine it could be frustrating trying to get a certain Pokemon. We'll soon see there looks to be trading but how far will the trading go?
0:47-0:50: So items are in the game so I guess it's time to talk about the
in-game purchase speculation. My guess how it would work is that Pokedollars would be in the game. There's probably a PokeMart built-in (they can joke it's a free delivery service so you don't actually have to go someplace or they just teleport you the product) where you can spend your Pokedollars for Pokeball, Potions, and Honey (from what I've seen). So, how will we get Pokedollars? Well there's probably a "free" way to generate it like we get a small amount each day/waiting a certain amount of time/maybe after walking a certain distance. Being there's also battling with other trainers maybe you get money that way, winner gets a nice chunk while loser probably gets a small amount if anything (though it would suck if the loser actually would have to pay, if they need to justify it they can say there's a virtual audience watching battles who tosses money at them). Also wouldn't be surprised if maybe catching a Pokemon earns a little bit of revenue. HOWEVER this will be chump change as the way to get the most Pokedollars would be real money transactions. Maybe 1 buck equals 1000 Pokedollars, I'm sure they'll have it figured out how much people would be willing to pay. However there's probably more you can do with Pokedollars than just buy items, like maybe forcing/getting an extra encounter or possibly buying the ability to catch a certain Pokemon you wouldn't normally be able to in the area you live. That said I don't they'll charge you for expansions which I'll get into.
As for
the items, they too bring up questions:
Pokeballs are obvious, you gotta catch the Pokemon with something. We see the usual Pokeballs, Great Balls, and Ultra Balls. While I imagine those always being in stock (appropriately priced of course), I do wonder if maybe they'll have some of the special Pokeballs like limited time offer things. And of course what about Master Balls, I'm guessing they might be prizes for events?
Potions are also obvious though it does raise some questions like is there a way to heal your Pokemon for free or do you need to use potions? Like can you ship your Pokemon to a Pokemon Center which will heal it for free but it'll take some time compared to using potions which costs money? Will it just be the normal potions or will we have stuff like Moo Moo Milk, Fresh Water, Soda Pop, Lemonade, etc.? What about the status healing items and their variations? Should we even go into the vitamins and Rare Candy?
Honey is in the game so there's more to get than just Pokeballs and potions. Honey makes sense as it helps make encountering Pokemon easier (maybe this is the way you get force/get extra encounters?), but what about other items? Will we have hold items to power-up our Pokemon when they battle?
And here's a few other factors concerning items: Can we find some randomly on the ground like in the games? Will we be able to sell any extra items we get (and if so would the selling fodder items like Gold Nuggets be in)? Would we be able to trade items like we'd be able to trade Pokemon?
0:52-0:59: Wow, it was pretty easy to catch them, especially that Charizard. So is that all you can do to wild Pokemon, throw Pokeballs at them? Can you battle them, because that's what you have to do most of the time in the game. Though once again it would get annoying if you spent real money on Pokeballs only for the Pokemon you catch to be stubborn and not catching. In the games if you felt you wasted your money you can just reset, but I doubt you can do that in real life. And if you can battle them, what happens when you knock them out? Do you lose the encounter like in the game? Once again if you spent money on the encounter like getting it or items used in it that would suck.
1:04: Wait, the lady is with the guy & the kid? Where were they again... according to their location tags the lady was at Chateau de Murol in France and the guy & kid was at Banne D'ordanche, Murat Le Quaire which is also in France. Okay, at least their in the same country but according to Google Maps these locations are still an hour drive from one another. Why do I bring this up?
1:07-1:15: Trading! Are trades only local? THAT'S GOING TO SUCK (if that's true)! I hope there's a GTS because if Pokemon are location specific that's probably going to be frustrating enough for some people who can't get to certain areas easily, but if the only way to trade is via local then a lot of people are going to be stuck only having access to a few Pokemon. And even if there is GTS, as I said, some Pokemon are more wanted than others. Some people are going to get lucky by having a chance to catch rare Pokemon and ask for anything they want while some people may have to "paper clip trade" their way up to get a Pokemon they want.
Also, it looks like we
only have the Gen I Pokemon. I guess that makes sense, doing all the Pokemon at once would be a huge undertaking and they'd rather see if the game is successful before doing the rest. I imagine future gen expansions would be free (otherwise F#$% YOU!) but will take time to develop as they need to make the model and plan where they'll be placed around the world (I'm going to guess they're just going to classify locations as a type of area (city, highlands, plains, forest, etc.) so placing Pokemon would be much easier. But that said they may decide some specific location would have special Pokemon (can you imagine Vivillon in the game?)). Also what about the cross generation evolution for the Gen I Pokemon? Will we be able to breed our Pokemon?
1:16-1:26: Oh, that poor Snorlax! You need a Pokeflute to wake it up so you can have a fair battle you bit... wait, the Snorlax is owned? WHAT A JERK! You left your Snorlax sleeping in the middle of a BRIDGE?! I feel sorry for that Snorlax but that guy deserve what he get!
1:37-1:50: So it looks like you'll be able to
battle with multiple people at a time. So how would that work? How will you issue attack? Will Abilities be a factor? Hold items? What about stats, notably Speed?
Also the Pokemon have
levels, can you get experience to level up your Pokemon? What about evolution, especially for those who don't evolve via levels but Evolution Stones and trading? Considering the next part how long would it take for your Pokemon to level up and is still the max level 100?
2:18: BECAUSE THAT'S F#$%EN FAIR! A mob of a few hundred people against one Pokemon, even if it is Mewtwo! I'm sure you all feel real proud of yourself. At least Mewtwo was defending himself fairly well in the beginning but he got cheap shot and from then on the Flying-type Pokemon pecked and air-bombed him to oblivion.
2:44: Anyway, so looks like they'll have these
major boss battle events for the Legendaries (makes sense). They're timed I guess to add some rarity to the Legendaries though I still see some problems. First how do you catch it? Is it just the first person who defeats Mewtwo? Do they need to use a Pokeball or just defeat it? If you need a Pokeball what if you have a Master Ball or would Mewtwo deflect any Pokeballs until defeated? Also I would imagine Mewtwo be having tons of HP... except his Level is 70. Is that just to tell you what kind of Mewtwo you'll be getting or is he just a level 70 Mewtwo during the event as well? If so what if someone has a Pokemon trained up that high, wouldn't they probably be able to one-shot Mewtwo?
2:58-3:00: Illusion break? Is this what the app would actually look like? If it is than wow, did this trailer ever overblow this premise.