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One of the biggest issues players have with Pokemon TCG Pocket is how many screens they are forced to sit through. While applicable to everything, the recent promo pack event proves this. One player notes they are forced to sit through three to five screens just to open a promo pack, which only contains one card. This includes going to the Gifts tab, pressing Claim, pressing Ok, swiping to open the pack, and then collecting the card. This is further extended if this is a new card as well.
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This may not seem like a big deal, but the amount of time players are pressing a single button on a screen like this adds up quickly when you consider how many packs they open. Promo packs have to be opened individually and cannot be opened en masse like booster packs can with a ten-pull, forcing players to sit through the same screen time and time again.
And this isn’t the only offender of this. There are so many unnecessary animations, screens, and prompts players have to do just to play the game, whether this be in battles, moving from screen to screen, or building decks. Most actions, like opening packs or coin flips, are predetermined the moment the screen appears, so there is no point in forcing players to sit through these screens.
Pokemon TCG Pocket is supposed to be a faster version of Pokemon TCG Live and the physical TCG game, but everything feels like a slog. Every action has multiple screens and players are fed up with it. Adding a simple skip animation or removing the amount of unnecessary actions would speed the game up significantly and improve player experience. The Pokemon Company could input a toggle button in the menu that gives players the option to customize their experience.
Pokemon TCG Pocket has been a hit with fans, but The Pokemon Company and Creatures Inc. need to add quality-of-life features. The multiple updates have simply added new cards and events, ignoring player criticism. Speeding up transitions with the game and implementing a dark mode should be simple fixes and wouldn’t directly interfere with the main features of the game. Other issues do stem from gameplay choices, like the first-turn problem, but these would be harder fixes for The Pokemon Company.
