Pokemon Gohas always been about playing together. It was one of Niantic’s core tenets when it launched the game back in 2016, and going for your daily walk with a friend has been a crucial part of the gameplay loop ever since.
Whilethe pandemic slightly dampened this spirit, Go tried desperately to claw back some semblance of playing together with the addition ofroutesand parties, neither of which really took off. It seems after these failures, Pokemon has given up on teamwork and decided to become a strand game.
What’s a strand game, you ask? It’s aDeath Stranding-like. Get it now? A strand game is a concept birthed from the mind of Hideo Kojima, wherein players leave items for each other between otherwise single-player games, like shadows of characters who have walked this road long before you. Whether it’s a ladder across a chasm or a vehicle ready to be driven across the barren landscape, this concept of intra-game connectivity was a fresh, new take on player co-operation.
Other games have taken this concept and ran with it.Xalavier Nelson Jr.’s Strange Scaffoldcreated the next strand game inWitch Strandings. Even Pokemon got in on the action with Legends: Arceus’ satchel collection service. And now Niantic has taken the idea and added it to its hit mobile game.
Max battles are the latest addition to Pokemon Go, and they’re precisely what makes it a strand game. While the battling is similar to gym battles – albeit with more teamwork, as your Max Guard and Max Spirit attacks aid allies as well as your own Pokemon – it’s what happens afterwards that feels particularly strandlike. If you win a max battle, you can leave a Dynamax-capable Pokemon to hang around the stop. Instead of acting like a challenge to any who may pass it (like a gym), this Pokemon will come to the aid of anyone who takes on the max battle after you. I hope my Skwovet proves useful, friend.
This is strand gaming. I have left something – in this case, a trusty Pokemon – in the world for someone else to make use of. It’s a very basic level of communication between trainers who otherwise would have passed each other by like Hoppips in the night. I’ve left a digital footprint in the real world, a helping hand to any who may need it.
Pokemon’s shift from straightforward co-operation to strand mechanics makes sense for the game’s trajectory. In my anecdotal experience, my local community was decimated by the remote raid restrictions Niantic enacted last year. Where once we’d get five or ten players wandering around Liverpool together, tackling raids and hunting shinies, now you’re lucky to see even just a couple of strangers come together at the Chinatown Arch to follow a pre planned route through the city to maximise their chances. The five or ten was already down from pre-pandemic numbers. I remember filling five raid lobbies in seconds when Mewtwo was released, 100 people making a pilgrimage to catch a rare legendary in a feat that had previously seemed restricted only to trailers and the dizziest daydreams of Niantic executives.
Pokemon Go isn’t dead, but it’s taken super effective hit after super effective hit over the past few years. It came out of the battle alive, but scathed. And now it’s time to evolve. Monster Hunter Now is Niantic’s first game to successfully iterate on the Pokemon Go formula, but now Niantic is reassessing the game that once felt like lightning in a bottle. That lightning has struck a Garchomp and been dissipated into nothingness.
Will transitioning from true co-operation to strand mechanics bring players back? No. It’s not an exciting change, and Dynamax is too limited in its rollout due to the fact you’re only allowed to use your max monsters in other PvE max battles. But it’s made the Pokemon Go experience better for those of us still playing, however casually. It feels good to leave a Pokemon tohelpanother trainer for once, rather than the combative PvP of gym battles. If the future of Pokemon Go is strandlike co-operation, there may be a Glimmora of hope on the horizon.
