‘I’m blown away by your Pokemon’
[Update: Internet sleuths have already figured out Niantic’s code, and once again the community prevails at making Go a better game.]
Yesterday’s update description for Pokemon Go was light, but most of us veteran Pokemon players kind of scratched our heads and said…did Niantic just add an IV mechanic to Go? Well, no.
Initially excited to try out the new “appraisal” function, I was sorely disappointed from the get-go. Now by clicking in the lower right hand corner of the menu after tapping a Pokemon, you can select a new option aside from favoriting or transferring, which brings up a short four-line dialogue from your gym leader.
My boss, Candela, is “blown away” by nearly everything I have, and the lack of tough love is making it harder to actually identify which of my creatures have the highest potential, rendering this concept useless. I thought maybe I’d finally get to pare down my Eevee evolution collection, but that isn’t happening today.
Here’s the rundown on what a trainer will say if you select the appraisal option:
- Vague subjective observation (decent, amazing)
- Its strongest stat
- Its size (why)
I wasn’t expecting a hardcore scientific esoteric IV breakdown here (Niantic was so concerned that the general public wouldn’t “get” Pokemon, it almost didn’t even add evolutions to the game), but this is just as unexplained as the rest of Go. Niantic claims that an appraisal offers “more detailed information” but that’s definitely not the case.
My leader closes out every appraisal by saying “I hope I could help.” You didn’t.
