Anniversary of Pokemon Masters leads to name change and surprises

One year later after the release of Pokemon Masters, the impact of Pokemon’s second major mobile gaming app has yet to live to the expectations that contained characteristics from the main franchise.

This week will embark on the anniversary of the release of the mobile gaming app Pokemon Masters. The game was released by DeNA that featured 3-vs-3 turn-based battles featuring the franchise’s most notable characters from the main core games. With a year passing since the release of the game, its major impact of Pokemon Masters has yet to reach the ceiling it was intending to reach towards their general audience. With major competition still with Pokemon die-hards still wrapped up in Pokemon GO, Pokemon Masters is still looking for momentum to gain as much popularity as the first spin-off application. The release and development of other Pokemon-themed apps could also eclipse Pokemon Masters due to the changes the Pokemon Company is planning to do in the short-term future.

Pokemon Masters is not leaving the application’s general audience without any satisfaction in celebration for the first year anniversary of the game. Earlier this month, the creators announced what featured will be updated for the app with the name changing from ‘Pokemon Masters’ to ‘Pokemon Masters EX’. The EX concept is to help push trainers go the distance from training their Sync Pair Pokemon to go from five-star level to six-star. The benefits of this training include an expansion for the players, with enhancements of the Battle Stadium be more competitive for the player and the teams the user has unlocked. The Champion Stadium is another feature that includes trainers that are represented in the Elite Four from the core franchise games. Unlocking these new features will sure raise new excitement for the player to challenge battles from the past, and that is not all the new updates have included.

Six-star EX Sync Pairs in Pokemon Masters will also enhance each individual character and their partnered Pokemon. The first to be debuted will be the Sygna Suit Red, Blue, and Leaf who will all have Mega Evolutions of Kanto Starter Pokemon with Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur. Red will have Mega Charizard X with his Sygna Suit, a player will also be able to toggle between the default and the Sygna Suit for the story mode. More event characters will periodically have their own Sygna Suit, Cynthia being the first character announced to have one that is outside the Kanto region. These challenges will be more than rewarding for the trainers who have stayed dedicated to Pokemon Masters and will lure new players to the app.

More events that are were teased to celebrated the anniversary included other major characters from the Pokemon franchise and what new Sync Pairs they include. Team Galactic leader Cyrus will feature a story where you encounter the villain with the legendary Pokemon Palkia, which in turn when he is defeated will reward you with the Sync Pair. This story also includes the character being teamed up with Sygna Suit Cynthia and her mighty Kommo-o. Trainers will also be rewarded eggs to hatch that feature Grass, Fire, and Water Egg events. This will let the trainer hatch all three Kanto starters to their Sync Partner Pokemon. The update will user in the Family Ties story event, which features Lily, Gladion, and Lusamine from Pokemon Sun and Moon. This event will be made available in September where the user will help the relationship of the three characters become secret Sync Pairs.

Pokemon Masters still needs to compete against Pokemon Home and other new Pokemon apps.

Where the first anniversary of Pokemon Masters rewarding users that have stayed dedicated to the app, there are lingering questions about the application’s longevity. Earlier in the year, two additional Pokemon-themed apps were released for the Pokemon Company to reach out more to general users. Pokemon Home was released as a new cloud-based system for Pokemon storage to be accessible for trainers to use in Pokemon Sword and Shield and future Pokemon titles. The concept of Home was also to connect Pokemon GO to the app so that trainers can store more Pokemon to the cloud base, but this update has yet to come. Pokemon Café was also released over spring as a new puzzle application for trainers to work alongside Pokemon at a popular café. The new puzzle game cut into the competition of other puzzle games for mobile gamers, especially when prior Pokemon puzzle games were strictly for the Nintendo gaming systems.

The future of other Pokemon apps and games have yet to be released. Pokemon Sleep was a project announced last year that seems to be lost in production by the Pokemon Company. An application that was going to help trainers monitor their sleeping patterns, the concept of the game was to cross Pokemon GO and the Pokemon Dream World from Pokemon Black and White. Pokemon Unite was also announced this summer as an application that will be in unison with computers, mobile devices, and the Nintendo Switch. A strategic team game that brings the feel of League of Legends with a Pokemon spin, the game will be a network-based game that will be highly competitive. With all these new features presented by the Pokemon Company, where does this leave the audience of Pokemon Masters? The reality will settle on how many users will still be playing the app when these new programs are available to Pokemon fans.

Pokemon Masters is not a bad game, it has performed pretty fairly for its general audience. With the apps’ initial release a year ago, Pokemon Masters set a record of being downloaded as one of the most popular apps. Within a month, the release of Pokemon Masters brought in $33 million in revenue. With the anniversary of the app coming up, it is possible with the new perks that those numbers can be matched once more. The new Pokemon Masters EX will be providing new entertaining concepts for Pokemon fans to enjoy. Perhaps it holds more potential for fans that have a love for turn-based games and RPG’s. Happy anniversary to Pokemon Masters, and here’s to many years to come!