To all of those who have early access, what do you think so far? And what are your best pulls?
So far I have pulled one immersive and one 
pictured below:
My experience so far has been really fun with a ton of packs to open for free, but now that I am at level 15, the freebies are drying up. Battling is really fun though
For anyone interested in playing the game early, here is a tutorial on how to do so.
So far Iâve pulled the FA gyarados, dragonite and the 2 star charizard. Theyâre cool, but I donât feel emotionally attached in the same way as pulling an irl full art.
Playing through the battle system right now, and seems like fun strategies could evolve. Overall I think they succeeded in their goal to rework battling to be more accessible
This is a common tactic for mobile games with in-app purchases/gacha systems. Give the player a lot of freebies at the start and let them progress quickly. After a couple hours the free tendies dry up and progression slows.
Maybe this game does stuff differently but the âhoneymoonâ phase is a tactic used to form attachment via sunk cost and get players with addictive tendencies to spend real money.
Glad people are enjoying the game but just stuff to be aware of. 
So far my favorite thing has been the solo battles!
I just finished all of the challenges and wish there were more.
I like the trophy section on each players profile, it adds some bragging rights for people who sink more time than money into the game.
Pack openings are fun but the odds are quite low and itâs disappointing opening 10 packs at a time and pulling nothing (this has happened to me both times I have saved for a 10 pack draw).
IMO what separates this from Pokemon GoâŠis that there are long period of down time.
If youâre not battling, opening 1 pack every 12 hours IMO isnt enough to suck the F2P or casual onto the app for a long time. Whereas in Pokemon Go, there are always Pokemon to catch, power up, shiny hunt etc.
I feel as though Pokemon Pocket is missing that hourly hook.
They are probably most concerned about initial downloads for the next 1-2 months and then introducing more game specific events
That very well could be. I would think though at initial download youâd want to hook your audience.
Similar to video games, your launch is âbigâ shot to make a first impression and gain a foothold. If you dont keep those users engaged, theyâll just delete the app and have a harder time hearing news of new features added over time.
Halo infinite launch was a train wreckâŠhad a very high initial play rate. Once people found there wasnt much to do, they deleted the game. Although now, new features have been added, the mass population already had that sour initial taste/wont hear about the new features added.
Thereâs also some interesting psychology at play here.
Launch the game and make it intentionally frustrating to progress and/or be incredibly stingy with free premium currency (or whatever is needed to do pulls/open packs) after the initial honeymoon phase. This will cause some players to spend money to maintain that initial sense of progression or gamble at pulling their favorite card. Then the developers will gradually add more quality of life features to make progression more streamlined and add events or other sources of premium currency income.
The game will lose some of the playerbase over time, but they were never the group interested in spending money anyways. The core playerbase, however, will be thankful for these changes, feel the game is now âgenerousâ and continue spending.
Another thing Iâve witnessed with these types of games that have any PvP is that theyâre incredibly prone to âpower creepâ, which incentivizes whaling on meta cards/units to be able to keep up with the competitive playerbase.
The same product life cycle can be observed in just about any free-to-play gacha game out there. Itâs an incredibly optimized system that preys on people who want to collect everything, be the top dog in PvP or just have general poor self control.
True. Weâll see how it goes. Pokemon unite continues to implement more greedy practices as it ages. 3 years into the game and itâs discontinuing service in the Netherlands and Belgium due to their strong anti-gambling laws
Thats an interesting take as well. I think no matter what, the game will have massive whale population.
My just initial impression of the game is that it wont have that âmassâ appeal that Pokemon Go brought in. Making the TCG more accessible was clearly a goal TPC had in mind. Otherwise, they would have pushed promotion on the TCGO. With the features currently available in the app, I personally just see people downloading and maybe playing for a week or so, then moving on. The whales will whaleâŠbut I think the average normie who doesnt play the TCG wont get addicted to the app.
I myself find myself checking the app throughout the day wanting to do moreâŠbut nothingâs changed unless I either spend money on packsâŠor use the limited powerups given to reduce my next pack opening time.
I didnt play the TCG before hand, and even with the simplified mechanics, not sure if thatâll get me into playing still.
If tou change la guage, you get cards in that language. Does anyone know if you keep the cards in that specific language if you change again?
I have been playing a gacha game for roughly 6 years now. All your points are on the nose! I donât spend money on the game anymore but in the beginning I would catch myself putting money in just because I enjoyed it. Its a slippery slope if you let it take hold.
I am not sure, but I do know you can own another language card on an English speaking account.
You can do this through the wonder trade thing
The only reason my points âare on the noseâ is because I also fell victim to gacha games during my early 20s. Spent more than Iâd like to admit but learned some valuable lessons the hard way. 
Yeah I have learned a ton over the past couple years. I enjoy the game far more now because I spend next to nothing on it. Spent years trying to play catch up with my coworkers and all they did was quit in the long run.
Putting aside my Gran Torino-esque boomer negativity towards virtual collecting as a premise entirely, some objective thoughts so far on the initial release version:
Also hereâs my rare pulls lol:
Just downloaded it yesterday and have been enjoying ripping packs. The battling mechanic, while fun, is a simplified, less enjoyable version of the actual card game. Ironically, Pocket somehow has a system for acquiring cards and building decks that is eons ahead of the actual PTCGO app (at least when I was last into it). Its actually very frustrating that they are capable of designing a system that streamlines acquiring singles and deck building, yet they refuse to implement it into the actual digital trading card game. Idk if this has changed on PTCGO/ Live since i last used it, but Pocket literally does everything I wanted from a Pokemon TCG app.
Anyway, aside from that, its pretty cool. Heres some of the cards Ive pulled so far. Also got a look at the interactive Charizard.
I think I pulled a god pack lol. Also you can sign up for premium to get this sweet Pikachu exclusive card. I was gonna sign up for the free trial and then cancel, but it wouldnt let me use my card or paypal because its not available in my country 
Woah!!! Haha Iâve opened over 100 packs and have not seen a god pack yet! Iâm very jealous!
It looks like youâll have an incredible articuno ex deck right off the bat!
If you are looking to make a purchase (or sign up for premium) you can change the region of your Google Play store (assuming you have android if you got the APK).
Just add a new profile and make the country New Zealand!
I added my PayPal account to my NZ profile and it works flawlessly
This battling system is starting to look like the Pokemon GO version of battling. I think it will play fine for the casuals. Itâll pull in the people who wouldnât bother with the real thing anyway. And it might convince people to try out the real thing once theyâre in.
I found the area where it says profiles and country in the play store, but its allowing me to change my main profile country to new zealand, but not make a new profile (i dont wanna change my actual profile cause it says you can only change it once a year lol)
