Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: marill, Niantic, Niantic Labs, pokemon, pokemon go

Marill Limited Research Day: Pokémon GO Event Review

Marill Limited Research Day happened in Pokémon GO in a way that couldn't have been predicted. Niantic mistakenly dropped the Timed Research questline early on Friday, days before the event was set to begin. Because of this, some trainers were able to complete two separate questlines. Let's take a look at the whole of the event, though, rather than just the mistake to determine if Pokémon GO got this one right.

What worked in this Pokémon GO event

• The Timed Research: The questline did exactly what it was supposed to do: create a simple and quick way to allow trainers to earn Marill encounters. While the tasks were repetitive, we essentially had twenty pages of easy encounters which is exactly what Limited Research Days are about. The focus is the Pokémon itself rather than the complexity of the task.
• XP: The Research also offered a good deal of XP, especially with a Lucky Egg dropped. That felt quite generous.
• The handling of the mistake: Niantic handled their mistake with class, quickly owning up to it and allowing those who completed it to do so twice. This kind of communication is what the Pokémon GO community has asked of Niantic for some time, and it's nice to see them live up to it.
• The Shiny rate: As with previous Limited Research Days, it seemed quite a bit boosted.

What didn't work in this Pokémon GO event

• Marill: I love Marill. Do not get that twisted. I've loved Marill since before it was officially announced and we all thought it was going to be called Pikablu. The reason Maril ends up on the wrong side of the list is that we had an event much like this last year with GO Battle Day: Marill. The only difference was that rather than tasks, we completed battles to unlock Marill encounters with a highly boosted Shiny rate. Now, Limited Research Days used to come with Shiny releases but those days are gone, and that is more than understandable to me. However, there are dozens and dozens of Pokémon who haven't had events like this that would've made more sense. Jigglypuff and Clefairy, for instance, would work both as tie-ins to the event and have never had a similar event.
• The timing: Mother's Day, Niantic? While this isn't a big deal, and Niantic has hosted events on holidays before… they're usually not as intensive as a Research Day. On Christmas, for example, we had boosted Jessie and James all day, which… hey, an encounter every now and then? I get it. This one just seemed weird. I mean, what was wrong with the Saturday the day right before? No real points off for this one, but it was too odd to not mention.

Overall

When it comes down to it, Marill Limited Research Day may not have had an interesting choice as its spotlight Pokémon, but it was generous in multiple ways which made it worth playing.

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