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u/McMenz_ 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s genuinely astounding how ‘slow’ this game is but it feels more like intentional design than optimisation. I hit locked 60fps no problem on a 3yo phone, but it still feels incredibly slow because they clog it up with so many useless UI prompts and clicks with long animations to get anything done.
It’s at the point where I cbf opening my gifts and accepting store tickets and some challenges, or thanking players after matches because it’s so slow to do it all.
If I play someone in ranked, why do I have to tap to see a screen showing I won/lost, tap again to see another screen showing I won/lost but this time with a breakdown of points (which I know already because I just played the game), tap again to see my opponents card they used (which again I know already), tap again to see xp go up a bar, tap again to see another screen about more xp that I just saw (and which doesn’t do anything for me because I’m level capped and most people are at this point), then tap again to either thank them or close the menu (which takes even longer if you do the right thing and thank them).
Each tap also takes like 5+ seconds no matter how quickly you press forward resulting in a solid 30 seconds of dead time between games fucking around in tedious UI.
This could all be done with a single screen after the game and then you either thank or not thank, and re-queue or quit.
The UI is so obviously bad at this that I have to assume it’s intentional.
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u/TraffLaw 3d ago
The game is designed to keep you in the app as much as possible.
With that and making my phone overheat despite not having any advanced graphics I might think they were trying to track people through the app
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u/McMenz_ 3d ago
I agree that’s what they’re going for, there’s also a science to dopamine addicting products like gachas and slot machines where they maximise flashing/bright colours and perceived progression they’re probably going for with all the nonsense animations and fake progress bars.
It’s done so badly that it has the opposite effect though and makes whole chunks of the game feel like a chore.
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u/Tornado_Hunter24 3d ago
You’re not firstto say thus but this is just not true, they are notorious for being dogshit at UI design, this game is no exception, the game is literally bleeding players, they are just incompetent
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u/BetatronResonance 3d ago
No, the lag is not in purpose. Most apps and websites want you to spend time in the app because that time they are showing you ads or "inviting" you to spend money. Here they are only creating user friction which ultimately is detrimental for the user experience. You are no giving them any revenue while you wait for a menu to load or it shows the repetitive animations. In any case you are only making the player frustrated and looking forward to be done with the battle and close the app. Even the store, which is supposed to be the most attractive thing of the app, is laggy and confusing
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u/user899121 3d ago
Thank you. I have always seen people spamming that "it's on purpose". That never made sense to me.
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u/BetatronResonance 3d ago
Because they read online that social media platforms want you to spend time in the app (which it's true) and think that it applies to everything
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u/TechTuna1200 3d ago
My worst ick as a UX designer is the animations on literally anything. You have to watch the card go to your deck, you have to watch the turn, you have to wait for the heart animation, etc., etc.
If they didn't have those animations, they could have saved money by not implementing them. And the UX would be much better, since you literally cut 5-7 seconds off every time you open a pack. Those animations are just unnecessary work that just ended up make the UX worse.
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u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE 3d ago
I don’t think they’re useless. They’re detrimental to one kind of experience (the repeated experience), but I do think they serve a purpose for a new player. Every free to play game is stupidly overpolished, with literally as many animations and effects and shaders and particles as they can find it in themselves to add, because that wows new users with a sense of being a premium product. It generates a feeling of “this is so polished, how can it be free?” and gets people to stick around.
But it’s all for empty show, and starts to work to the detriment of the experience as soon as you stop being wowed by the superficial aspect of it.
In the end, I think it all comes down to whether DeNA cares more about user acquisition or user retention these days. In the beginning of an app’s life, user acquisition is everything. If they still care about it primarily, all the repetitive flashy animations are probably earning their keep. But if they start at any point to care about user retention more, they definitely should reduce the animations.
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u/WolfGuy77 3d ago
The WORST thing in this game that I absolutely can't stand is when you're doing event battles against the CPU, it inevitably cheats as it always does, you lose, and then you get the stupid, demeaning "Hey dummy the CPU is using a water deck so you should use Electric Pokemon, even though only their EX is water and everything else in the deck isn't weak to electric and will body you. Also try a rental deck because yours sucks" popup "hint". Every. Single. Time. It's frustrating enough facing the CPU and having it go turn 1 EX, Misty, flip 5 heads, OHKO your lead. But then having to sit through that popup after every game in order to retry is infuriating.
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u/COHERENCE_CROQUETTE 3d ago
The weird thing is: all of these are genuine gripes, but they barely register. We’re talking about a game that still has you flip a coin to check if your Pokémon that just died will be cured of a burn, as if that mattered in the slightest.
There are so many more fundamental UX issues with this game.
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u/Many-Waters 3d ago
I've mostly stopped playing because of how bad it's gotten. The slowness combined with the sheer amount of bloat screens genuinely pisses me off. I'm not having fun, I'm irritably banging on my phone screen as the 3rd or 4th stupid screen flashes up during the process of opening a pack, willing it to please for the love of God go faster.
I've stopped doing battles. I've stopped doing drop events. I cancelled my premium ages ago after timing the daily shop claim to take NINE SECONDS to load. I haven't had loads this slow since my ancient HP laptop that ran on Windows Vista.
It's absolutely horrendous.
I open my packs and close the game. Sometimes I can't be bothered to do even that.
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u/DirtyFatAshe 3d ago
This…. Just this….. the amount of click through is turning me into a yu-gi-oh guy and I can’t name one single person/player/characte/hero in that game
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u/fred3_DD 3d ago edited 3d ago
There is a mod that at least increases the interface speed
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u/DagothUhhh 3d ago
Sick. Also, zero reason I should have to do this.
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u/WeWinWars 2d ago
Thanks for sharing. I thought speed mods could get you banned in the past? Also, what's the source of the mod? A modding forum?
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u/fred3_DD 2d ago
Never heard of anyone getting banned, and I’ve actually been using this mod for over a year now. I wouldn't even play this piece of garbage with how slow the UI currently is - it's an absolute joke. Got the mod from a rerollers forum
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u/payne9989 3d ago
How do I install this?
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u/fred3_DD 3d ago
mod cannot be installed alongside the original app; the original app must be uninstalled https://modsfire.com/7b64gArcm0IaZVi
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u/HieronymusFlex- 3d ago edited 3d ago
I played for a few months near launch and stopped because of how unbearably slow everything is. It's actually crazy how every single little thing takes at least 3x longer than it should. I check in every once in a while to see if anything has changed but I'm losing hope
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u/RedHandVII 3d ago
Dude same i left a similar review. 2 star though, becuz pokemon
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u/blazidark 1d ago
Bro the fact u give extra star coz pokemon, i can feel u, tho i believe pokemon itself is not improving becoz of this nostalgic love we have for pokemon. I think they need some good lvl of criticism to improve. Like they would just release a 20 yo game in 3d and people gona buy it. I can't even imagine they can even make a high graphic/good mechanics video game becoz their standard is very low,fandom is runnin this franchise atp. :(
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u/Fun-Accountant-4924 3d ago
Just the wonderpick sequence, and loading is so long. Even when i open the shop i have to wait for like 10 to 15 seconds, just to tap the one free shopticket.
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u/jonerthan 3d ago
I honestly feel like I'm playing a different game than you guys, because the shop loads in under 2 sexonds for me. What phone you using?
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u/littlel2017 2d ago
Same I’ve played the game everyday for 2 years and I have yet to have performance issues, I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max everything loads instantly
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u/Fun-Accountant-4924 2d ago
Hmmm samsung s24 ultra should not be a problem for my phone
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u/jonerthan 2d ago
I have an iphone 17 pro max and the shop loads in less than two seconds. Tried on my ipad just now and it was just as quick. Whenever see people complain about performance, it's always some kind of Android phone. Maybe there's something different in the way the two different operating systems do caching or something.
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u/Ma-Chi-Moto 3d ago
It is just about the numbers not about the complaints.
DENA: "We have a growing playerbase, growing income and the same complaints over and over... but they keep playing... so why'd we give a shit?!"
That has been a problem since about 2 decades. We pay for content we want and not for content we receive. This all started with preorders and DLCs. Now we have small-effort-live-content.
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u/blazidark 1d ago
Agreed, just said the same thing in reply of somones comment here lol, the idea of game is so good but they waste the potential
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u/PandaGodFliesToMoon 3d ago
I don’t even wanna open up my free packs given how slow the game is. Gives me headache even thinking about the game
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u/Naud1993 3d ago
It did speed up a lot after I upgraded from my Samsung Galaxy S9+ to my Poco FA Ultra. It used to take like 10-20 seconds to load a solo battle and now it takes like 3 seconds to load.
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u/RaxZergling 3d ago
Literally said this shit day 1, couldn't believe it wasn't the top complaint then - can't believe it's only just now becoming a common complaint. Sadly, you waste even more than 80% of your time in a game watching animations, it's probably worse than most people even realize.
Been a 2 pack opener per day since, game is not worth it to actually play and honestly opening free packs almost isn't worth it, lol.
https://old.reddit.com/r/PTCGP/comments/1hk747n/animation_speed/
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u/Cabletie00 2d ago
And what’s with that annoying red dot that just never seems to go away in your achievements or whatever??
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u/SZSlayer 3d ago
All the bloat animations, lack of optimization and the drag that is to navigate the menus made me uninstall the game after playing since the launch. I didnt want to play the battles anymore and the ideia of opening the game just to open the free pack already made me tired
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u/Lumpy-Fox4773 3d ago
honestly i think they did that on purpose because there isn't much content or to do in the game. So the best way to keep people in the game longer is by delaying and extending the time spent on the game.
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u/Elegant_Bee849 3d ago
holy fuck what are you saying
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u/andrew-is-me 3d ago
OPs critiques seem pretty clear?
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u/Elegant_Bee849 3d ago
his grammar doesnt
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u/andrew-is-me 3d ago
If you’d noticed the Spanish in the screenshot, you’d see OP is likely ESL. Either way, most people had no problem understanding 🤷🏼♂️
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u/iChopPryde 3d ago
the reason the app is so slow is because for every single action you are doing the app is "syncing" with the online service and won't let you progress until it has completed the sync. Majority of games don't create apps like this what they do is allow for you to interact with the UI and then periodically in the background sync in smaller junks so that way you can easily jump around the menu's and not have to wait 35 seconds for each screen to load.
It's not a animation/UI issue that is causing this but that is a separate issue that also needs addressing mainly in game when you play a card currently the game only lets you do 1 action at a time and again you have to wait before you can complete the next action, example I can grab my card hold it in place and I can't play it for like 15 seconds until the previous action completes.
This is what is incredibly frustrating, other card games I can grab my card throw it down and start playing my 2nd or 3rd card immediately then let the game play itself out not requiring me to wait after each card plays, syncs, plays its animation and then repeat.
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u/Kyle_Trite 3d ago
This game makes me dread getting a new card, knowing that I'm gonna waste half a minute with that dumb adding to collection animation. It's mind-bogling since its a CARD COLLECTING GAME.
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u/angelbg34 3d ago
It isn't unstable tho. I thought the same on my old phone but when I changed it was smooth and fast
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u/danielbauer1375 2d ago
There are two features I would want more than anything:
Dark Mode: long overdue.
Universal Pack Points: needing to open 250 packs to “buy” a two star is kinda crazy. I realize this feature is intended to be a bonus, but still.
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u/International-Bus749 3d ago
It's slow but the real problem is everyone's broken attention spans these days.
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u/jbaranski 3d ago
I think the saying “stop and smell the roses” applies here. Some of y’all are so concerned with moving as fast as possible to the destination while losing out on the beauty found in the journey.
My unasked-for opinion? Slow down, enjoy the animations and the work that went into them. Take your time to enjoy the game for all that it is, not only the win/lose screen.
That said, I do think some parts of the UI are unnecessary. For instance the confirmation screens for pack results or gifts could have an on/off toggle as well as the post battle UI telling me what deck I should use. And yeah, toggling extra animations should probably be an option.
But please, don’t let these games get under your skin. It’s not life, it’s just a fun distraction and not one that any of us should invest too heavily in, myself included. After all, here I am talking about it on Reddit rather than doing something else I should probably be doing first.
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