The Pokemon franchise is in an interesting place. After November 2021's Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were followed up by January 2022's Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Game Freak announced Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will come out this holiday season as the series' first fully open-world mainline entry. That's not to mention the ongoing success of mobile titles like Niantic's Pokemon GO, as well as DeNA's more niche Pokemon Masters EX.
Whereas Pokemon GO thrives on the hook that Pokemon can appear in one's real-world neighborhood, Pokemon Masters EX is more a celebration of the franchise's human characters. Most fans could point to a favorite Gym Leader, rival, or villain, and Masters is a gacha game that brings those characters together. More are introduced all the time in order to keep players engaged, all of whom work with one Pokemon as their "Sync Pair" partner, but the recent addition of Serena and Zygarde highlights an issue with DeNA's design approach.
How Pokemon Masters' Sync Pairs and Mechanics Stand Apart
In most mainline Pokemon games, players travel around a given region and collect monsters to fill out their Pokedex and train toward becoming Champion of the Pokemon League. Trainers can carry up to six Pokemon at a time, and battles take the form of a turn-based RPG in which players need to consider the elemental typings each monster embodies for strengths and weaknesses. Most fights are one-on-one bouts, but the series has introduced more formats over the years: double battles, triple battles, and horde battles among them.
Pokemon Masters is fundamentally different. It features real-time combat in three-versus-three matchups that are simplified for a mobile experience. Every Sync Pair has a job; broken into three overarching categories of "Strike," "Tech," and "Support;" and they all have one type with a single weakness. Dual-type Pokemon like original protagonist Red's Charizard is now just Fire-type Strike Pokemon who is weak to Rock moves, for example.
Battles hinge on players keeping track of an energy gauge, with every Sync Pair having four move slots filled with attacks that cost energy or limited trainer moves; either the use of items like Potions or a stat buff, usually. Speed determines how fast the player's gauge refills, and there are new field conditions that affect the game's unique mechanics akin to weather effects. Ultimately, every action contributes to a Sync Move countdown, letting one trainer activate a powerful attack that can change the course of a battle.
Zygarde and the Abundance of Dragon-types In Pokemon Masters EX
More mechanics have been introduced over time to rectify early complaints about Pokemon Masters' rigidity. For example, players can rank up each character using items or scouting multiple copies using the microtransaction currency Gems. At a high rank most can access a full Sync Grid with panels that amplify their moves or add new passive abilities. However, the important thing to note is that each character comes with a pre-baked strategy at their core: Red and Charizard will always be a high-damage Fire-type Strike pair, meanwhile Sabrina and Alakazam are a Psychic-type Support pair that set up Reflect and heal allies.
This is where the question of DeNA's character choices comes into play. For Pokemon Masters' two-and-a-half year anniversary, it unveiled three limited-time characters in alternate costumes: Hoenn protagonist May with Latias, Unova Gym Leader Skyla with Tornadus, and Galar Gym Leader Raihan with Flygon. The "fear of missing out" tactic is common for mobile gacha games to encourage player investment, as seen in fellow Nintendo-published title Fire Emblem Heroes. However, the decision to make Raihan a Dragon-type Sync Pair raised eyebrows among fans.
As Flygon is a dual Dragon and Ground-type Pokemon, it theoretically could have gone either way. Yet, 12 Dragon-type trainers were in the game prior to Raihan, with Cyrus and Palkia recently getting a buff as part of an ongoing story event; Pokemon Masters only has five Ground-types total, only two of which are always available. While the anniversary scouts persist, DeNA also added the "Master" Sync Pair Serena and Zygarde, which has the powerful Ground move Thousand Waves but is still considered a Dragon-type pair.
Why Type Diversity Matters in Pokemon Masters
In some respects, the way DeNA allocates dual-type Pokemon makes sense. Zygarde's signature technique that allows it to access 100 percent Forme is the Dragon-type move Core Enforcer. Similar arguments could be made for older additions like Lysandre and Yveltal, who took up a Flying-type moniker because of the signature move Oblivion Wing despite coming at a time before Dark-type pairs like Sidney and Absol were better represented.
It's harder to make that argument for characters like Raihan, whose weather-changing gimmick would arguably work just as well - if not better - if he were a Ground-type trainer. Champion Iris and Hydreigon recently had their scouting banner return, serving as another example of a Dragon-type pair who could have been Dark-type. In fairness, DeNA does also balance with some Sync Pairs such as May and Latias; Psychic rather than Dragon.
Ultimately some might also ask whether the distinction matters. Flygon can still be placed on a Ground-type team to set Sandstorms in spite of its base Dragon-type set. It matters due to the way DeNA has expanded its playable activities to include modes like Champion Stadium, in which players can take on gauntlets of Elite Four members and Champions to earn prizes. Every battle is against an opponent with a specific weakness, so if players want to take advantage of bonuses based on using teams with matching types, mixing characters might not be the best approach.
For some better-represented types like Water, Dragon, or Psychic, it's easy enough to find options for diverse teambuilding. Types like Ground or Poison are much harder, as DeNA's seeming preference to add Dragons like Zygarde leave less interesting teams available. There's almost 1,000 Pokemon out there to rectify this, so hopefully Pokemon Masters focuses on fleshing out its lesser-used Sync Pair types after this one-two Dragon punch.
Pokemon Masters EX is available now on Android and iOS devices.