Pokemon Masters EX Delivers on 25 Years of Nostalgia

Back in August, Pokémon fans came away excited by brand new footage from both the somewhat open-world Pokémon Legends: Arceus title and the remake of Pokémon - Diamond and Pearl. Yet the only thing I could think about following the Pokémon Presents livestream was, “Wow! They're giving us 6000 gems in Pokémon Masters EX.”

It sounds a little pathetic, but Pokémon Masters EX has been my obsession throughout 2021. I've bounced off plenty of gacha games in the past for an ensemble of different reasons, whether that's not having enough time for the amount of text, too much grinding, or the sparse content at launch. In fact, I stopped playing Pokémon Masters in 2019 for those latter two reasons. At the time, Polygon reported that while it felt great as a Pokémon game, it was heavy on grinding and lacked content outside of the story mode.

In order to evolve your Pokémon, you'd need to purchase Evolution Shards and Crystals with in-game currency. The problem was that you'd need to fight endless battles to earn this currency each day. The battles themselves were well put together—a mix between the Final Fantasy ATB system and Pokémon's traditional mechanics—but the game presumed that you'd want to keep doing these exact same battles all the time. Getting my Servine to evolve into Serperior was such a pain that I quit playing, and it's not like there was anything to achieve with stronger Pokémon, anyway.

It was only after spending 2020 with Genshin Impact and Granblue Fantasy that I finally gave Pokémon Masters another shot. At this point, they'd renamed it to Pokémon Masters EX (You may remember seeing #Pokémonmastersex trending) and added a huge amount of quality-of-life improvements. It took me seconds to evolve my Servine, you could now use Skip Tickets to grind materials, and levelling was a breeze. Also added were challenging enemies to strive to defeat: Legendary Pokémon, and the Champion Stadium where you face off against the Elite Four and Champions of different regions.

But what struck me the most was its events and storytelling. The original appeal of Pokémon Masters was that you could collect and battle with your favorite trainers, but the game was now taking the opportunity to explore them further and give closure on 25 years of stories.

One of my favorite events was Pure Hearts and Rainbow Wings, where Ho-Oh is spotted on the manmade island of Pasio where Masters is set. Ethan (the player character from Pokémon Gold and Silver) and Silver (your rival in that game) invite you to go find the legendary bird in the mountains. They find out that Ho-Oh will only appear before pure-hearted trainers. Ethan is excited, but Silver has doubts. He spent the whole of Gold and Silver being a thief and treating his Pokémon like tools. Worse, he's the son of Giovanni, the region's most infamous crime boss. Lance reassures Silver that he's changed, but Silver finds it hard to believe that he could escape his past crimes. Later, Ho-Oh appears, but his friends are in danger. Silver chooses to save his friends instead, prompting Ho-Oh to team up with him and become his new companion. It turns out that the pure-hearted trainer Ho-Oh chose was the former criminal and son of Giovanni, Silver.

Pokémon Masters EX's events even enhance the storytelling of the original games. Iris becomes the champion in Pokémon Black and White 2, but her event Shining Hearts of Dragons reveals that she feels insecure about it. But with support from Lance and Diantha, she's able to gain the confidence to move forward. Similarly, Lusamine is now a kind, loving mother to Lillie and Gladion, but needs support to overcome the regret she feels about her mistakes in Sun and Moon. And most excitingly, Lillie is able to become a full-fledged trainer herself, even receiving the power of Lunala as part of the 2nd Anniversary banner in September.

It's fun to see how these characters have grown after the events of their respective games. Even when the older games get remakes, it's rare that we get the chance to see how these characters are faring after the events of the main story. People don't change that easily, and Pokémon Masters EX acknowledges that for these characters, it's a process. N from Pokémon Black and White gets the most screen time during Masters to change his perspective. We see him finally reunite with the protagonist Hilbert, face his father one last time, and in the most recent event, give a speech about the bonds between Pokémon and trainers, the exact opposite of the one given by Ghetsis.

It's not like they're all bangers, though. Outside of a couple of neat scenes, the main story is ultimately pretty plain. Team Break, the evil gang in Pokémon Masters, are little more than an excuse for characters to team up against them. Plus, all of the events I've been raving about are only available for a limited time. And, of course, the most damning obstacle is that it's still a gacha game. Each character has their own short episode that is only accessible if you successfully pull them. Most are unassuming, but there are a few gems, like Flint reacting to Red speaking for the first time.

Pokémon Masters EX is a gift to existing fans. It holds little appeal to those who have only recently gotten involved with the newer titles, but has plenty of easter eggs for those who are familiar with the previous games. During an event, Professor Sycamore mentions the uplifting message he left in Couriway Town, and Cyrus confirms the idea of a Pokémon multiverse, since he is explicitly the version from Pokémon Pearl, not Platinum.

And it gets meta as well. Hilda discloses to the protagonist that she's scared that people think she's too intense during battles. This is a reference to her angry-looking battle sprite in Pokémon Black and White. During an event for Pokémon Sun and Moon, they make multiple jokes about the blank looks the protagonists gave in the cutscenes of the original game. Selene even gets the Trainer Move “Stare 'Em Down”.

Pokémon Masters EX had a slow start, but its future is bright. If, like me, you're unimpressed by some of the recent games, there are still ways to enjoy Pokémon, whether that's through the anime, trading cards (sorry), or mobile games. It's easy to be sceptical about gacha games, but with events and challenges being added frequently, Pokémon Masters EX can be rewarding without spending a single cent.

Update: A previous version of this article mistakenly referred to Hilda as Serena. It also wrote that Professor Sycamore revealed in Pokémon Masters EX that he was the one who wrote the mysterious uplifting message in Couriway Town in Pokémon X and Y when that fact was already known from the original game. These errors have been corrected.