Pokémon is one of those series that’s endlessly malleable — the cute creatures can work with almost any form of entertainment and video game genre. It’s practically a universal language; everyone can know and love the likes of Pikachu. That’s why it’s a genuine surprise to see something like Pokémon Friends, a brand-new puzzle game that looks like it crosses the creature collecting series with Professor Layton. It’s an ingenious idea that, when you see it, feels like it should have been made years ago. But while the game looks fantastic, there is, unfortunately, one big catch with its monetization.
The July Pokémon Presents livestream was a surprisingly low-key event, with a lack of substantial updates on any of the franchise’s big upcoming projects (although there was an adorable trailer for a new series by Aardman, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit). Pokémon Friends was the sole “new” announcement, and it looks adorable. It’s a brain-teaser game that gives players over 1,200 Pokémon-inspired puzzles to solve: in one, you might help Piplup navigate an ice maze, while in another, you connect mine cart tiles to help Sableye reach a pile of jewels. While some of these puzzles look quite simple, solving them means you’ll unlock increasingly difficult versions.
The brain teaser format is reminiscent of the puzzling Professor Layton franchise, and that comparison only gets more apt when you learn about Pokémon Friends’ setting: Think Town. There seem to be some light narrative elements that involve you helping the townspeople by solving brain teasers (again, similar to Layton). You also earn yarn that you can insert into a kind of Build-a-Bear machine to produce virtual plushies, which can be used to adorn a virtual photography studio.
All of those similarities might not be a huge surprise, as GameFile’s Stephen Totilo pointed out Pokémon Friends is developed by Wonderfy, a Japanese company focused on creating educational software for children. While Layton isn’t explicitly educational, the series has long adopted some of the same design elements as edutainment games.
So all of this sounds great, right? A charming new Pokémon puzzle game with loads of content, collectibles, and even a light story. But that’s until you look at the game’s aggressive monetization scheme, which puts a damper on the whole affair.
Each puzzle features a different Pokémon, and there’s more than enough to choose from.
The Pokemon Company
The game is ostensibly “free” on mobile, using a stamina system to meter out puzzles. You get one free puzzle per day, which means you’d need to play over 1,200 days to see everything, unless you want to spend money. That 1,200 number presumably includes the multiple difficulty iterations as well, rather than distinct puzzles.
The game has a variety of “packs” you can purchase to instantly add puzzles. The Basic Pack is $9.99 and adds 20 additional puzzles. Then there are two Puzzle On! packs for $14.99 each, while a bundle with all three costs $33.99. It’s not the most egregious pricing model out there, but it also isn’t great, and it’s not how the game was billed in the presentation or reveal trailer.
The format is different on Nintendo Switch, where the game costs $9.99 outright. It appears the Switch version has the Basic Pack content as the default, and doesn’t use a stamina system. Instead, you need to pay for the Puzzle On! packs to get the complete experience. Previous Pokémon games like Pokémon Rumble and Pokémon Cafe Remix also functioned differently on Switch versus mobile, so there’s precedent here.
Your reward for completing brain teasers are cute plushies you can use for some digital photography.
The Pokemon Company
While Pokémon Friends is a winning idea that looks adorable, it continues the Pokémon Company’s tendency to aggressively monetize nearly everything about the franchise. In a vacuum, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but when you put Pokémon Friends alongside all the franchise’s other games on the market right now, it’s hard not to be a little cynical, especially in a franchise focused on the idea of collecting.
And that’s the root of the issue. Pokémon is one of the most joyous properties out there, and I love it when it experiments with new formats and styles. It still has so much potential, so I hate seeing these interesting new properties get bogged down with mobile mechanics and add-ons that instantly make your eyes glaze over.
I love Pokémon and I love puzzles, so Pokémon Friends is something I’ll still give space to, but it’s a piece of a larger trend that’s slowly building up worry in the back of my brain. I hope that doesn’t continue, because I’d rather focus on my virtual plushie collection.
