Pokemon Shuffle Tutorial Stages Review

As of February 18, 2015, Pokemon Shuffle is out on the eShop market and free to play! o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o When the game was first announced, I thought that it was going to be another Pokemon Trozei / Pokemon Battle Trozei (or Pokemon Link: Battle for our friends in Europe & Australia). However, it has its differences, such as not having a trozei chance and implementing some Mega Evolutions. And so far, I'm digging this game. ouob

It starts off with Amelia, a reporter who'll help guide you along the way during the "tutorial" stages. You'll see her face a lot, so learn to love her. *laughs* Basically you have a chronological order of wild Pokemon that appear, which you need to "battle" and catch. The battle system, of course, being the puzzle. But more on that in a moment.

Anyone who's played mobile app games (for otome apps, Shall We Date+ immediately comes to mind) is probably familiar with this system: the game is completely free to play, with free currency and free "turns". You can use real money to buy premium currency, or just wait a certain time limit to obtain more free turns. And that's exactly what Pokemon Shuffle does here. You start with 5 free hearts, with 1 being obtained every 30 minutes from the last time you used a heart. Free coins are awarded when you complete battles.

Here's how the battle system works: any matches you make are turned into attacks to deplete the wild Pokemon's health. You need to be able to do so in the remaining amount of moves left, or they'll flee. Afterwards, any extra moves are turned into points, which increases the percentage of actually catching it. So you throw your Pokeball, and if the percentage is high enough & if luck is on your side, then BAM that Pokemon is yours!

Of course, there's still a fair amount of strategy~. Type advantages/disadvantages for example are still very much in effect depending on which Pokemon you bring into future battles. But that's not all: Certain Pokemon have certain Special Skills that can be quite effective if used efficiently. For example, Espurr's is "attacks can occasionally deal greater damage than usual." When you have so many turns, you really need to make the most of these abilities and combos. There will also be various obstacles along the way as well.

In my opinion, the tutorial stages end when you get to Stage 12 Mareep, who is the start of area #2 (Sandy Bazaar) since that's when Amelia runs off to write her report. The only Pokemon I wasn't able to catch on my first try was Togepi, because it has a fairly low base catchability rate. ;v; (But fear not, you can always try again if you don't catch it on attempt 1)

Final Thoughts

This game is so charming and I love it already~. And the best part? IT'S FREE! Granted, there are people complaining about the microtransactions, but they're completely optional. Nothing to fret over in my honest opinion. After all, we all know those mobile and console games alike where they actually make you pay for something in order to advance the plot, or extra little things that cost an arm and leg for what should be in the game already.
 (；¬д¬) However, all you need is a bit of patience to get more hearts in Pokemon Shuffle. If you just simply sleep or go to school/work, you can have a full set of hearts by the time you get to it again. c: And this system works perfectly fine with me, because I don't always have a lot of time to play anyway. I don't really think it's the type of hardcore game where you pour 80+ hours into it; it's a fun relaxing game to start up on a break. So in conclusion, it's a fabulous, little Pokemon Puzzle game with some pretty rad music at times, and I recommend you play it. ouob

P.S.! Make sure to "Check In" through the Internet to obtain the Mew Special Event! 〜(￣▽￣〜) There are also some other upcoming events, which can be viewed here.

Happy gaming and until next time!