I have not placed much time into PokeMMO and sadly I do not believe I will continue playing, at least at this time. I am curious about how this game functions. I would love to see and participate in community events and build a collection of Pokemon with comrades, but the day to day game play and design choices are truly baffling.
This attempts to craft the single-player Pokemon games into one complete package (or as complete as the hardware allows) but this time with friends! What a marvelous idea, but in truth it comes off more as a novelty after playing for a bit. The game has several changes to accommodate the change in style. Some changes are fine; the games have increased difficulty to captivate an older, more experienced audience and quality of life features like IV/EV stats enhance the game. However, other changes seem to make the game worse. The low speed of the game (low exp gain, slow animations, etc.) makes the grinding truly miserable especially when compared to other rom hacks (which this essentially is) that benefit from faster settings and the glorious speed up button even the most basic emulators provides. Speaking of which, playing this game makes me ask "why am I playing this and not another rom hack?" The answer, of course, is its multiplayer component, but what does this mechanic really add to the game? Besides a market place and standard Pokemon multiplayer features (trading, battling, etc.) there is little interaction between players other than a chat box. To most this is fine, as they play the game as normal with the joy of seeing someone playing along next to them, but I wish there was more. I know there are limits to the engine and the skill sets of the developers, but I long for a true co-op experience. One where it feels like you are traveling the region with someone, not just by someone. I have not played while there was an event going on, so those may have elements I would fine desirable, but the average play session just feels worse than playing a rom hack or even the default games on an emulator. Other things which bother me are the changes to breeding (now you somehow lose Pokemon when you breed them) and the tremendously decreased shiny odds. I understand these features exist to highlight Pokemon rarity and incentive trading, but I believe these are lazy ways to manage the system. I want new ideas, not already existing ideas made harder. The plethora of rom hacks showcase how many innovative ideas the fan community has, and PokeMMO just seems underwhelming in comparison to the single-player competition without presenting a compelling enough multiplayer component to compensate. These complaints are particularly an extension of my jaded yearn for more, and I totally see someone being able to ignore them and have an amazing time with this game. Sadly, there is another concern of the game which I believe is a bit more severe.
Rom hacks and fan games often present quality of life features which improve some of the mediocre design decisions of the base game. PokeMMO takes the unique approach of removing quality of life already in the game in the pursuit of the grind. TM are not reusable even in Unova (the game which invented reusable TMs). TMs can instead be bought, but they are expensive and rely on money grinding activities (it is no wonder a quick YouTube search for the game reveals several money making guides). MMOs are known to be grindy, but usually not at the expense of making the game worse than it was before. More sinister to me is the way real money can be used to speed up the process.
Purchasing items in the game gives players redeemable bonuses to money gain, exp earned, and shiny rate. This alone rubs me the wrong way, but most of these items are newly made cosmetics and, fine, it is acceptable to sell custom work for a game you are making. But some of the paid items influence the game itself, like an hour long shiny charm or EV training items. I have a problem with this since not only does it encourage players to become payers, it does so by altering the original games which initially rewarded players with these now purchasable prizes. As a rom hack it seems silly to lessen the quality of a game and as a fan game using copyrighted materials it seems absurd to make money off of the original developers work. I know hosting the server is not cheap, but there are ways to monetize without hurting a game. Cosmetics,. as I said, are perfectly fine and people will pay for those. Messing with the game mechanics is scummier.
I do not recommend this game unless my complaints do not phase you (which, fair, thanks for reading). However, I do believe this format can be expanded to be more worthwhile. More new ideas would greatly change my view on the game and I will happily log in to play more once these hypothetical ideas drop. Right now, it excites me more to convince my friend to use Parsec to play Pokemon Quetzal. a newer rom hack which combines innovation with a true co-operative experience.
This attempts to craft the single-player Pokemon games into one complete package (or as complete as the hardware allows) but this time with friends! What a marvelous idea, but in truth it comes off more as a novelty after playing for a bit. The game has several changes to accommodate the change in style. Some changes are fine; the games have increased difficulty to captivate an older, more experienced audience and quality of life features like IV/EV stats enhance the game. However, other changes seem to make the game worse. The low speed of the game (low exp gain, slow animations, etc.) makes the grinding truly miserable especially when compared to other rom hacks (which this essentially is) that benefit from faster settings and the glorious speed up button even the most basic emulators provides. Speaking of which, playing this game makes me ask "why am I playing this and not another rom hack?" The answer, of course, is its multiplayer component, but what does this mechanic really add to the game? Besides a market place and standard Pokemon multiplayer features (trading, battling, etc.) there is little interaction between players other than a chat box. To most this is fine, as they play the game as normal with the joy of seeing someone playing along next to them, but I wish there was more. I know there are limits to the engine and the skill sets of the developers, but I long for a true co-op experience. One where it feels like you are traveling the region with someone, not just by someone. I have not played while there was an event going on, so those may have elements I would fine desirable, but the average play session just feels worse than playing a rom hack or even the default games on an emulator. Other things which bother me are the changes to breeding (now you somehow lose Pokemon when you breed them) and the tremendously decreased shiny odds. I understand these features exist to highlight Pokemon rarity and incentive trading, but I believe these are lazy ways to manage the system. I want new ideas, not already existing ideas made harder. The plethora of rom hacks showcase how many innovative ideas the fan community has, and PokeMMO just seems underwhelming in comparison to the single-player competition without presenting a compelling enough multiplayer component to compensate. These complaints are particularly an extension of my jaded yearn for more, and I totally see someone being able to ignore them and have an amazing time with this game. Sadly, there is another concern of the game which I believe is a bit more severe.
Rom hacks and fan games often present quality of life features which improve some of the mediocre design decisions of the base game. PokeMMO takes the unique approach of removing quality of life already in the game in the pursuit of the grind. TM are not reusable even in Unova (the game which invented reusable TMs). TMs can instead be bought, but they are expensive and rely on money grinding activities (it is no wonder a quick YouTube search for the game reveals several money making guides). MMOs are known to be grindy, but usually not at the expense of making the game worse than it was before. More sinister to me is the way real money can be used to speed up the process.
Purchasing items in the game gives players redeemable bonuses to money gain, exp earned, and shiny rate. This alone rubs me the wrong way, but most of these items are newly made cosmetics and, fine, it is acceptable to sell custom work for a game you are making. But some of the paid items influence the game itself, like an hour long shiny charm or EV training items. I have a problem with this since not only does it encourage players to become payers, it does so by altering the original games which initially rewarded players with these now purchasable prizes. As a rom hack it seems silly to lessen the quality of a game and as a fan game using copyrighted materials it seems absurd to make money off of the original developers work. I know hosting the server is not cheap, but there are ways to monetize without hurting a game. Cosmetics,. as I said, are perfectly fine and people will pay for those. Messing with the game mechanics is scummier.
I do not recommend this game unless my complaints do not phase you (which, fair, thanks for reading). However, I do believe this format can be expanded to be more worthwhile. More new ideas would greatly change my view on the game and I will happily log in to play more once these hypothetical ideas drop. Right now, it excites me more to convince my friend to use Parsec to play Pokemon Quetzal. a newer rom hack which combines innovation with a true co-operative experience.