It’s been an incredibly long wait, but Pokemon Go finally has PvP battles! Having played a few matches and poked my head around the game’s new systems, let’s discuss how it works, my thought on its current implementation, and where the system could go from here!
My experience with the Pokemon franchise has been one largely devoid of PvP. I never touched it in Pokemon X or Pokemon Ultra Moon, the two mainline games I played prior to Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee. Pokemon Go will be getting a form of PvP soon, but it’s been absent from that game for over two years. The only times I’ve engaged with it were during random instances where I’ve fooled around in Pokemon Stadium on the Nintendo 64 with the default Pokemon.
Taking on Kris from Double Jump the other night in a few Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee battles was an eye-opening experience. Even with just the handful of matches we played that night, it gave me a greater appreciation for the franchise’s battle system and how exciting it can be to go head-to-head with another human.
In Third Person 