Though the mainline games in the franchise may be RPGs, Pokémon is no stranger to the puzzle format. The series has previously explored such a genre many times before, from Pokémon Puzzle League on the Nintendo 64 to Pokémon Trozei on DS, Shuffle on 3DS and mobile, and multiple browser-based games on the franchise’s official site.

Unlike previous console releases, however, Pokémon Friends is a collection of various logic puzzles which are meant to be played in short bursts. Altogether, the game has fifty different challenges, twenty of which are only available as DLC, and each of them has multiple challenge levels to explore. The mobile release also has a free-to-play option which is more restrictive, only having ten puzzles and limiting the player to only playing a single sequence daily.

Players have no control over what challenges they’ll face except for buying DLC to add extra options to the general pool that the game will pick to make a random sequence. It’s not possible to pick or even shuffle the assortment of puzzles, which means players may have to deal with the ones they don’t like more often than the ones they are actually good at or fond of.

By playing the levels repeatedly, their difficulty level will increase, introducing twists and obstacles that make them harder to deal with. While the initial challenge may be too simple and even boring for some people, the later stages can offer a satisfactory and compelling mental challenge. It’s a shame, however, that the game offers no choice or test to gauge player skills or alternate modes so that players can enjoy these challenges in a more varied manner.

Every Puzzle Has an Answer

Each challenge the player has to face revolves around dealing with three randomly-picked puzzles out of the full pool (which varies if the player has the DLC or not). There’s limited time to solve them, which can make even basic challenges more difficult, and the player will be evaluated at the end, receiving a yarn which has a size according to their performance dealing with the challenges.

The yarn will be used in the Plush-O-Matic to create plushes based on various Pokémon, which can then be used to decorate custom rooms. Having a great performance in the puzzles will give players a “Pretty Nice” version of the yarn, which has different odds at creating specific Pokémon and a chance to earn a second plush sometimes.

When it comes to the puzzles themselves, they often demand simple math, geometric understanding and logic. The challenges may be 2D or revolve around understanding 3D spatiality to grasp correctly which forms fit specific places, like those real life kids' toys. A few, like Operation: Bath Time, even seem like a Pokémon version of those games that show up on mobile app ads.

As the logic behind them has some intersections, some different puzzles may feel too similar when playing multiple consecutive times. For instance, there are multiple variations of guessing a geometric form, counting faces, drawing lines. The variations in interaction or presentation may not be enough, especially for adult players, to not draw parallels and lump them together.

Beyond Getting New Plushes

After getting plushes, players can either use them to decorate rooms or to solve quests of the local populace in Think Town. In the rooms, players are free to put however many plushes they want, rotate them and place them on top of each other or decorative items like chairs or shelves. It’s also possible to change wallpapers to fit themes like “beach” or “forest” with some options being part of the DLC.

Players can also gift their plushes to townspeople, which show up on a specific menu. They have personal requests for the player to give them what they want, with specifications like a certain size (like small ones) or a Pokémon type like Fire-type or Grass-type creatures. Some of the quests may even require a specific Pokémon, like Pikachu or Tatsugiri, and no other option would suffice.

Players have no control over what challenges they’ll face except for buying DLC to add extra options to the general pool that the game will pick to make a random sequence.

Fulfilling the demand rewards players with experience and is a way to get extra decorative items for the plush rooms. The caveat, however, is that quests are limited, and it's possible to run out of them. They only refresh daily, so even with the premium pack, progress in this mode is annoyingly curbed and artificially planned to force players to keep coming for more.

Closing Comments:

Pokémon Friends offers a fun, cozy puzzle experience overall. Though it’s geared towards children and its challenges can look deceptively simple, the time limit and extra obstacles can make things harder than they may seem at first. What keeps the game from truly standing out are its user experience limitations that, even at its most premium DLC-complete version, don’t let players actually have control over their progress.