There was once a time when Pokemon GO barely featured any actual battles; they were only reserved for laying siege to a Gym. That has changed dramatically in the years since the game's launch. Nowadays, players can not only battle one another through an online Battle League, but they can also find Team Rocket members capturing PokeStops in their community, prompting PvE battles. Pokemon GO is far richer in action now that there are so many more PvP and PvE elements to the game. Nevertheless, Pokemon GO could stand to improve some of its PvE battles to make them more climactic.
Once Pokemon GO players battle enough Team Rocket Grunts, they can usually earn an encounter with a Team Rocket Leader, which is often a much more difficult and intense encounter. Overall, though, these battles are generally very brief, much the same as Grunt battles. As a result, Team Rocket Leader battles can feel fairly anticlimactic, even though they're supposed to serve as Pokemon GO's equivalent of a boss battle. It may be time for Pokemon GO to increase the number of Pokemon that players can bring into a battle with a Team Rocket Leader in order to make these encounters feel more meaningful.
Upgrading Team Rocket Battles
In Pokemon GO, non-Raid battles are all 3v3 encounters, which is a significantly smaller number of overall Pokemon from the base games, where players and NPCs alike can both carry up to 6 Pokemon at a time. Pokemon GO likely does this to make battles shorter, which stands to reason, since it's meant to be played on the go, but in the case of Pokemon GO's Team Rocket Leaders, it feels like a missed opportunity. As long as players know how to counteract the Leader's team, their battles are oftentimes just as brief and easy as battling a Team Rocket Grunt. Increasing the number of Pokemon involved in a Leader battle would make battling Pokemon GO's strongest enemies feel more special than it does now, even if Niantic only increases each trainer's total by one.
Bigger Pokemon GO battles with NPCs would also be fun because it would encourage players to use a broader variety of Pokemon. Longtime Pokemon GO players stockpile tons of strong Pokemon, but when battles are so small and brief, only a handful of their Pokemon ever see the light of day. Making Pokemon GO's Team Rocket Leader battles a little longer and more complicated would let players make use of their variety of strong Pokemon while increasing the number of team compositions that players can assemble.
Pokemon's Boss Battle Issues
Pokemon GO isn't the only Pokemon game that could stand to make its boss battles more compelling. Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Noble Pokemon have proven that Pokemon could really stand to give its most important battles special structures that make them stand out. Most Pokemon boss battles are just standard battles with particularly strong monsters or trainers, rather than featuring a unique structure or mechanical quirks. Bigger Pokemon teams wouldn't totally overhaul Team Rocket Leader battles, but it would at least make them feel a little bit more intense than the Pokemon GO Battle League or Team Rocket Grunt battles.
Changing the number of Pokemon in Team Rocket Leader battles would definitely require some further work from Niantic to keep the fights balanced. It might want to increase item rewards slightly in exchange for the longer battles, or change the amount of shields available to both the player and the enemy. As long as Niantic puts in the necessary legwork, though, it could be a major improvement to Pokemon GO. The mobile Pokemon game may be more about the collecting side of the franchise than battling, but nevertheless, Niantic should do what it can to make Pokemon GO battles more exciting.
Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS devices.