Pokemon Unite is brilliant. I’ve personally logged almost 200 matches in the game and have climbed to a relatively respectable rank over the last few weeks, and there are still no signs of me putting it down for the foreseeable future. At the moment, I’m a Zeraora, Gengar, and Lucario main, which might make what I’m about to say appear a bit hypocritical – Pokemon Unite doesn’t understand support characters.
Yeah, I’m a speedster and all-rounder main – in this game. Although I was never particularly into MOBAs prior to Unite, I’ve played loads of other competitive games and almost always main either tank or support. While I enjoy the former more, I am – unfortunately – much better at the latter, so it’s reasonable for me to say that out of all possible roles in competitive games, I’ve logged the highest number of hours playing support characters. Theoretically speaking, Unite shouldn’t be the game to buck this trend – I care more about my rank here than I have for any other game I’ve played in years. The problem is that Unite’s current support roster is so intensely unappealing that it is fundamentally impossible for me to play a support ‘mon without compromising my enjoyment of the game.
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Right now, the only support Pokemon in Unite are Wigglytuff, Eldegoss, and Mr. Mime. While Wigglytuff’s status as a beloved genwunner makes its presence in the game fair enough, what’s up with the other two? Mr. Mime is also from Gen 1, sure, but who actually cares about that complete and utter weirdo? Eldegoss is from Gen 8, Pokemon’s most recent generation, but how can someone in good conscience suggest it as a healer over the likes of Blissey – hell, even Hatterene, also from Sword & Shield, would have been cooler. That’s not to mention that the term ‘support’ in competitive games goes far beyond healing in general – I would love to see Unite implement its take on Moonlight/Toxic-stall Umbreon or Toxic/Recover Reuniclus, or actually go ahead with adding Clefable to the game after mysteriously distancing itself from it despite its appearance in the first beta.
There are currently seven attackers in Unite, four all-rounders, four speedsters, three defenders, and three support characters. Blastoise is probably going to be a defender, which means support will officially have the lowest variety of ‘mons in the entire game. This tends to be the case with lots of different online games due to the fact that most people want kills and points and top spot on the scoreboard. Really, though, you shouldn’t be able to go out the gate without a support Pokemon – the fact entire matches transpire without one on either team is stupid, and it’s all attributable to the fact that not only are these Pokemon not particularly good… they’re just not all that likable, either.
There’s plenty to criticise about Unite. While I don’t buy the claims of it being pay-to-win, its microtransactions are still gross. Whether you think Zapdos is broken or, like me, reckon it’s a decent idea that could easily be improved, it isn’t even remotely comparable to an issue as prominent as the absence of worthwhile support ‘mons. Even the weirdly inaccurate scoring message system hasn’t got a patch on the fact Umbreon was done dirty by including Pokemon like Cramorant and Crustle over it.
I’m not trying to be uncharitable here. I will, almost definitely, log into Pokemon Unite about ten seconds after typing this because it’s the last piece I’m writing today. I’ll probably play at least five matches, if not closer to ten, and I’ll come away both frustrated by the fact I’ll probably win one or two and plateau and satisfied that we have a Pokemon MOBA that is genuinely good. Most of all, though, I’ll be disappointed in how this game totally misunderstands the significance of support characters. We know there are loads of ‘mons coming in future – why not make them support Pokemon who are actually capable of snagging themselves a spot on the team, eh?
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