Pokemon Champions Day 1 Glitches And Their Fix Priority – Editorial

Unfortunately, the streak of Pokemon games that came out relatively clean at launch has ended at two: although Legends: Z-A and Pokopia were solid, Pokemon Champions has come out with more issues than Nintendo Power had. Some of the issues are on the Japanese language support page, some aren’t, but they’re expected to be fixed in patches quickly.

We should also clarify that Champions was developed by ILCA, who Pokemon fans know as the poor suckers who were assigned to bring the relatively fecal Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to Switch in 2021 and instead of polishing it, lit it on fire. There’s also the issue that Champions is intended to be used for official competitive pay starting not at the San Francisco (somehow) World Championships at the end of August, but at a regional tournament in Indianapolis… May 29-31. And the last pre-Worlds major tournament, the North American International Championships, are two weeks after that. So this had to get out now. But now ILCA’s on the clock, and probably need some help triaging the myriad of bugs that emerged on day 1.

That’s where I come in. As not only do I have experience with Pokemon, but I’ve worked in helpdesk roles for most of my adult life and have had some of my own tire fires to put out. So let’s dive into the biggest issues facing Champions on day 2 and see if we can give the devs some guidance on what needs to be fixed, and what can be backported to the main series.

Display Issues: On Switch 2, Game Does Not Display At Full Res Unless Undocked And Redocked

Source: Joe Merrick BlueSky post

Although this is a Switch 2 specific issue, the game’s overview trailer did emphasize that the game should run at a higher resolution on Switch 2. So this is definitely a black mark on the game given that a large portion of the competitive community shifted to the Switch 2 in order to play Scarlet and Violet at a framerate above “snail”.

In reality, though, it may not be as much of a priority. There’s a known workaround (undock and re-dock), and at Indy / San Francisco they’ll be moving from station to station for battles anyway. If it can be fixed quickly, do it, but if more time is needed then make sure you get this right for regulation M-2. Ticket Priority: Medium

Unspecified Pokemon Home Transfer Issues

Source: Support page

Since the only relatively free way to get Pokemon into the game is via Home transfer, this was the highest priority – and it’s already been resolved. Ticket closed.

Mega Evolution Issues

Source: Support page

This covers two issues: an inability to select moves after highlighting the Mega Evolve option in battle, and turn order issues. Both of these are tied to unlocks either in the Starter Pack or in the premium Battle Pass, so Mega Evolution issues are explicitly affecting paid features and are high priority based on their placement in the support page.

Since Champions is the competitive return of the Mega Evolution system – we’ll get Z-A battles at Worlds shortly after we get a TCG Pocket bracket – this needs to be SOLID. Ticket priority: ASAP

Move Functionality Issues (Haze)

Source: Hacker alias “Jason Prime”

The lead singer of Korn might think Haze is the ****, but in Pokemon it’s meant to just clear stat changes. However, that refers to the effects from moves like Swords Dance or Screech, and although it did at one time have a “heal all of a user’s HP” effect, that was in the Sun and Moon games where it was a one time effect because it required a Z-Crystal. That functionality is NOT in the game yet. And also, Haze has 30 power points at base, or less power points than my Dragonite from the Starter Pack came with. (Ice Beam – 10, Fire Blast / Extreme Speed / Draco Meteor 5)

This needs to be fixed NOW, or Blastoise is going to be such a centralizing tank it’s not funny. Ticket priority: ASAP

Move Display Issues (Leech Seed)

Source: Support page

In this case, the text of Leech Seed says the move takes 1/16 (6.25%) of the opposing Pokemon’s HP each round to heal the user’s Pokemon, when in actuality it does ⅛ (12.5%). The attack works as intended, it’s just the description is wrong.

Given that they have confirmed this is going to be patched – and it’s a typo fix, largely – this isn’t as big of a deal, but I hope they give Victory Point refunds to anyone who switched off the move because of the incorrect advertising. (Or just a flat refund of two move changes to everybody as an apology.) Priority: Low

Some Pokemon Display “Incorrect” Gender

Source: Support page, BlueSky user Sebmal

The BlueSky post is one of the most famous examples of this bug, as the player is facing down a female Gallade – what has historically been a male-only species since its introduction in Diamond and Pearl. And honestly, I’m not sure why that restriction exists. Gallade (and the normally female-only Froslass) are the result of evolution with an item – the Dawn Stone – that was only added in Diamond/Pearl as well. And since they’re branches of existing evolutionary families where the other final evolutions have 50/50 gender ratios and can be gained by a normal level up, why not unlock the choice regardless of gender?

Unfortunately, the last time Pokemon had a canonically transgender family (caused by a baby with 75% female odds that evolved to a species with 50% female odds, meaning you were 1-in-3 to have a female transition upon evolution) they changed the rules starting with X and Y such that the gender of the baby was fixed afterwards. Come on, Big PIkachu. Say trans rights. Ticket closed – feature implementation