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Pokémon Go hosted its big annual Go Fest event this weekend with enjoyable gameplay and excellent storytelling flourishes. In-game and in the real world, developer Niantic dropped a series of teases for the future of the game, and appeared to nimbly avoid technical pitfalls seen in the past when millions of people logged in to play simultaneously.
Go Fest 2021 was pointedly about Meloetta, the Mythical Pokémon said to inspire music. Day one of the event was dedicated to building a Pokemon Creature Party via a Choose Your Own Adventure style experience that invited Meloetta to catch at the end.
The second day of the event, Sunday, was meant to be just a raid – although Niantic has other surprises in store. As the first day ended at 6:00 p.m. local time, a new mythical creature suddenly appeared on the Pokémon Go loading screen. Then, from 2:00 a.m., the game’s skybox suddenly changed. in a galactic background, dotted with mysterious animated portals.
In Chicago, home to the infamous original Go Fest and many subsequent pre-pandemic annuals, Niantic began live-streaming a huge, very real 50-foot egg in Maggie Daley Park. A countdown has begun, as the egg – apparently dropped through one of the game’s portals – begins to glow.
When it hatched hours later, a small number of players who had requested free tickets to congregate nearby were treated to animated raid battles hatched from the egg, heralding the arrival of the raid battles of mass of the second day around the world.
The story of the second day in the game then began the next morning with Professor Willow from Pokémon Go, alerting players to the arrival of Hoopa, the next mythical creature, who was supposed to be the originator of the appearance. of the many legendary creatures of the day. Some of it was leaked, but for most players it came as a total surprise.
During the first day of Go Fest, players took on global challenges to unlock the next steps in this storyline, which will see Hoopa interrupt time (releasing the shiny versions of the fossil creatures Cranidos and Shieldon) and space (making the Traditionally region-exclusive Heracross available worldwide and in its shiny form for the first time), before presumably making an appearance itself.
Go Fest 2021 wasn’t perfect – fans found Shiny Unown so rare that there was talk of whether it was accidentally made unavailable. Finding a Shiny Unown was certainly more difficult than last year, and no changes to his spawning chances had been announced before. And on the second day, those who didn’t have a reliable raid team said they struggled to organize raids on shorter timelines. Having a physical group of players to raid with, or a friend list of people willing to invite you on ranged raids, seemed necessary.
Overall, however, Go Fest 2021 was probably the most polished ticket event the game has ever pulled off, with last year’s best bits returning alongside a few clever additions. There were fewer rotational habits to juggle and the collection challenges were simpler than Kanto Tour. The focus on simple capture and raid, meanwhile, was less delicate than last year’s Team Rocket shenanigans. Finally, the players I spoke with seemed excited to get two days of fun from this year’s £ 5 discounted ticket – it will be interesting to see if that persists in the future.
Personally, I was impressed with the little flourishes of the event – the various story threads linked to in-game changes, the elaborate designs of Pikachu’s costumes, and the ability for players to earn spare parts for chat with friends, as well as special music composed for the event. (99% of Pokémon Go fans play with the music turned off, but like an Easter egg, adding Meloetta as a Pokémon buddy will re-activate your rock / pop choice of the game’s main theme.) Finally – I completely missed that – another new version of Pokémon Go with lyrics played after the conclusion of the first day for some people. Fans recorded the track, and it’s now available on YouTube. If Pokémon Go gets an ending credits, it’ll be this song:
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