Pokémon Quest (Mr. Mimecraft)

Mostly I wanted to make the title pun. Anyway, anyone besides EofGizmo picked it up yet? Anyone enjoying it? Anyone fed up with the mobile bobbins that may or may not inhabit the game?

Might give it a bash, little-surprised Switch version came out before the mobile version.

I've checked it out and I've already ran into a wall no more than half an hour into the game. I suspect the mobile wallet draining ray will be on at full blast with this one.

From a pure game standpoint, I wasn't digging it at all. There didn't seem to be much in the way of strategy from what I'd gleaned in the opening levels beyond tapping attack buttons when critters pop up and the look of the game isn't really grabbing me at all. Once the novelty of seeing Pokémon rendered in that blocky, Minecraft styles wears off, it actually comes across as pretty ugly.

It's worth a download - in as much as it's free - to kill half an hour, but unless you're willing to drop cash to speed up timers or replenish energy bars (yep, it's got one of those) then you'll not get much out of this.

To its credit, it did give me a free refill after the opening levels, but a sudden and steep difficulty spike meant I burned out the rest of the bar trying to clear the later levels. I found myself left with the option to either a) grind on older levels or b) spend money. The game didn't strike me as fun enough to do either!

It's free, so I'm downloading it, but I can't say I'm excited or anything.

Not even a wiggle down there for me.

It's like a less engaging Rumble in my book, and that didn't deliver the most riveting action in the first place!

I'm kinda enjoying it even if it is quite basic, managing and collecting your Pokemon is the main bulk of it I'd say.

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I tried this out and my brain melted and fell from my nose. I have been rendered a moron by the sheer inanity of this vapid piece of non-entertainment. This was tedious in the extreme, a game which became more bearable by being told to play itself.

I genuinely think that for having played this I am a worse person. It lessens me. This game, its creation and any move to engage with it, is a sin. I am damned now, an unperson. I will wander a lonely Earth pleading with the faceless void.

3/10

I downloaded it, and it's fun, though I'd argue that I'm not really "playing" it as such - whenever I've gone on expeditions I put my effort into choosing Pokemon, giving them the attack and health stone things, and then setting it to auto-attack and doing something else while it does its own thing. (I quite often have the music on though, some of the tracks are pretty funky.) I like seeing what Pokemon appear whenever you've cooked a new thing - I've had a Ditto and a Scyther show up - and once you have a couple of Pokemon evolve it makes the missions a lot easier. My Ivysaur and Kadabra are crushing it.

That said, I have no intention on spending any money on it, and the way it's designed does make progress veeery slow.

Sure does sound like a mobile 'game'. Have you got to the bit where you have to pay to stop Tangela from strangling your Pokémon yet?

Drunkalilly wrote:

3/10

Wait what!? The Drunkalilly scoring system goes below a ten!?

Rum Rapture wrote:

(I quite often have the music on though, some of the tracks are pretty funky.)

I actually did enjoy the music! I considered carrying on, "playing" in the same way as yourself, just to keep listening.

Balladeer wrote:

Sure does sound like a mobile 'game'.  Have you got to the bit where you have to pay to stop Tangela from strangling your Pokémon yet?

I gave up on the game for being a shiter of a game before I even got close to any FTP gubbins.

Rum Rapture wrote:

That said, I have no intention on spending any money on it, and the way it's designed does make progress veeery slow.

Like I mentioned above, I've only ever dropped money on F2P mobile offerings if there's a chance to progress reasonably quickly without dropping any money on it. After enough time with a game, I'm happy to drop some money on it to support it. I could already see the writing on the wall with Quest.

JayMoyles wrote:

I've checked it out and I've already ran into a wall no more than half an hour into the game. I suspect the mobile wallet draining ray will be on at full blast with this one.

From a pure game standpoint, I wasn't digging it at all. There didn't seem to be much in the way of strategy from what I'd gleaned in the opening levels beyond tapping attack buttons when critters pop up and the look of the game isn't really grabbing me at all. Once the novelty of seeing Pokémon rendered in that blocky, Minecraft styles wears off, it actually comes across as pretty ugly.

It's worth a download - in as much as it's free - to kill half an hour, but unless you're willing to drop cash to speed up timers or replenish energy bars (yep, it's got one of those) then you'll not get much out of this.

Hello everyone! OR here to offer a completely contradictory viewpoint

I've been playing Quest, and I'm really enjoying it! My best team is currently at a power of 7000+, and I've unlocked the final 4 routes on the island - one I only have the boss level left, another I have two levels left, which leaves me with two full routes left to start. I've been able to progress without ever really hitting a wall, and although some grinding is needed it's been pretty fine (probably like 5 expeditions, which is a single play session, before I've levelled up pokemon and found enough better stones to then take on the next level).

The game is surprisingly tactical, with deeper gameplay than I was expecting from a mobile-style title. Team lineup needs to be switched up regularly as you move between worlds to take advantage of the significant type bonuses, but it's in the stone management that the strategy really lies. Getting a good set of moves is crucial, and then the idea is to stack move stones to really boost their effectiveness. To give an example, currently Hitmonlee is my main guy, sticking in my team even as the other two pokemon change. This is because he has the move bulk up with 2 stone slots on it. Bulk up boosts Hitmonlee's attack and defence for a while, but I've attached to it 2 share stones. These allow 25% of the move's effect to be applied to the other pokemon in my team, which stacked means I get a 50% boost for my other pokemon, which is really allowing me to punch above my weight in levels.

When it comes to actual gameplay, the management aspect comes in as I try to use bulk up just before entering combat, and then with the cooldowns I tend to alternate between bulk up and his round kick move, so that I always have buffs in effect. I'm of course juggling this against the moves of my other two pokemon, which for best effect need to be used at opportune moments. Currently that's an Onyx with Stealth Rock (I have 2 whack-whack stones attached to it, which means it attacks three times) and a Cubone with Bonerang (I have stacked 3 wide range stones on it, which means he throws out 4 bonerangs in a horizontal line as opposed to the usual one, which really boosts its effectiveness).

Layered on that is the ability to tell your pokemon to scatter, which depending on who you are fighting can actually be integral to making sure you dodge the most devestating attacks. The added tactics come in when you realise pokemon won't scatter if they are currently using moves, so you don't want to just spam them if an attack is coming up you need to dodge.

Finally I am also enjoying the stacking of abilities on power stones. To use Hitmonlee as an example again, because he is usually taking most of the hits and doesn't have the best defence, I have given him a 20% natural healing boost as well as getting back 2% of damage dealt as health, plus I think about 4% on a killing blow.

So yes, I like it! Given my current rate of progress, I imagine I should finish the game quite soon too, which is really pleasantly surprising from a mobile styled game that I was expecting to hit a brick wall in.

On the latest episode of Its Super Effective they were pretty positive about this as well. Between them and OR, I am willing to give this game a little longer and hopefully find the goodness. I guess I just need to think of it like Football Manager instead of FIFA?

I finished worlds 7 and 8 last night, and got three levels into world 9 this morning.

What I really need now is another psychic type and a couple of electric pokemon. I think I might have to look up the food recipes, because I have just been getting them through guesswork, and remembering what makes what is a massive hassle.

I got an Onix by attracting one with a recipe, and to be honest it has made life quite a lot easier. He has Harden and Flash Cannon, and approximately one million HP, so even if my other Pokemon get knocked out he can almost always survive an onslaught from the boss until they get back on their feet. So paired with Scyther, who is a complete glass cannon with sky-high attack, they actually work pretty well together.

So yeah, there is a degree of strategy to the game - but it takes a while to get to the point where you have Pokemon you can actually use strategically, as to begin with it's mostly just "punch those guys!"

Anyway, this is my jam:

I'm still at that "punch those guys" degree of strategy, although I'm using a Lv. 71 Arbok, a Lv. 34 Tentacruel and a Lv. 34 Porygon to do so. I'm on the eighth world, but I'm really starting to slow down after a week of solid progress. As far as Pokemon freemium games go, it's good. But I'm happy that I didn't have to pay for what I've played: it's good, but not 'WORTH £7!' good.

Level 71... that's gotta be a typo right?! I'm on world 9 and my highest level pokemon are 48, 42, 42, 39, 38...

I got a Lv. 70 Ekans from ingredients I cooked in a silver pot, which I trained, leveled up and then evolved. I read online that all the recipes give you Pokémon between Lv. 40 and Lv. 70 if you use that silver pot - I think I got lucky with that high-level Ekans there, because it's stats and attacks were brilliant too.

I've now switched out Porygon and Tentacruel for Persian and Exeggutor, after getting Meowth and Exeggute at Lv.50-something each. I'm starting to use a bit of strategy now - Persian only knows the move Growl, which distracts the enemies while Arbok ambushes them with two Ground-type attacks and Exeggutor sucks their life away with Leech Seed. It's a pattern that's got me punching well above what I should be - my team's power is about 8,200, but I'm beating zones that recommend a combined power of closer to 10,000, even a little bit more. 💪

Glad to see positive views on this, it does seem a shameless cash grab at first but soon enough it becomes a good game in it's own right, I've also found you have to play it a bit more as it goes on, I can leave it to autoplay on some stages if I'm grinding but when you get some hard hitting Pokemon to face you need to take a thoughtful approach.

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Currently blasting away at levels with Rhyhorn, Onix and Arbok, which is working well because the zones I'm at give a bonus to Rock and Ground types, so I'm razing Pokemon to the ground - though I'll be gubbed when it comes to the next zones, I think. Have finally got a silver pot though and had a couple pogeys arrive at level 49, which is neat.

Max I've got from a silver pot was level 50.

I've now completed all the worlds, which has unlocked a final level B) Gotta grind up a bit to tackle it though as there are no type advantages.

Apparently I've played this for over 15 hours...

The amount of positive chat about this does make me want to give it a second try and see if I can overcome the somewhat passive and grindy open that I played.