I can’t quite untangle my feelings on the latest Pokémon game

The most recent Pokémon Presents showcase went live on July 22, 2025, giving fans of the franchise plenty to get excited about. Amid the new events, cosmetics, and updates, a new title was announced, Pokémon Friends.

Hoping to kill some time after work, I took a look at the new title and found that there’s a lot more to it than expected, and not all of it great. While it is a charming puzzle game with great visuals, it’s also got elements that are already raising eyebrows in the wider Pokémon community.

The Escapist recaps

• Pokémon Friends dropped just before the July Pokémon Presents for both Switch and mobile players
• The game offers relaxing, yarn-themed puzzles that reward players with collectible Pokémon plushes
• While the game is simple and sweet, it has monetisation elements that have become a point of discussion online
• The response to the game has been mixed, with some players loving the whimsical aesthetic and others disliking the paid elements

Simple puzzles that unlock cute Pokémon plushes

The premise behind Pokémon Friends is simple. You can play through a variety of puzzles to earn yarn, which can in turn be used to create digital plushes that can be displayed in a customizable plush room.

The puzzles themselves aren’t tricky by any means – it’s a game aimed at much younger players, so don’t go into it expecting anything too intense – but they’re visually pleasing and fun to complete. You might need to guide Scorbunny over a handful of fences or slide Piplup around an ice maze.

Completing a trio of mini-games will reward you with a particular type of yarn. This yarn can then be put into a machine called the Plush-O-Matic, offering a chance of turning the yarn into a specific Pokémon. 

You have a 25% chance of creating a Fuecoco, Scorbunny, Charmander, or Charizard with Fiery Yarn, for example. 

As the Plush-O-Matic will inform you in the Plush Rates tab, there’s also a 25% chance to grab an extra plush when using Pretty Nice Fiery Yarn, a seemingly rarer variation of the resource. This bonus applies to other Pretty Nice yarn types.

Alongside the puzzles and plush-making, there are simple quests to complete. As shown in the launch trailer, townsfolk may ask you for a particular plush and give you items like room decor as a reward.

The quests, room customization, and puzzle elements are sweet, but due to the bite-sized nature of the puzzles and daily limit for F2P mobile users, I’d say that the main focus of Pokémon Friends is the Plush-O-Matic – which is where some franchise fans seem to be torn. 

Pausing for the Plush-O-Matic

Pokémon Friends has been referred to as “baby’s first gacha game” by Polygon and I’d mostly agree with this. 

The allure of spinning the metaphorical wheel and ending up with a favorite ‘mon as a plush is strong. Psyduck is my favorite Pokémon, so getting it as my third pull was exciting, admittedly – but this does seem somewhat out of place considering the presumed target audience here. 

The game kicks off with a parental guidance warning about paid content and even has a “child lock” on DLC in the store, tasking you with solving a sum to make a purchase. While Pokémon games are generally aimed at children to some extent, this one feels much more deliberately geared towards a younger audience.

I’ve been wondering whether a crafting mechanic could’ve felt like a more natural fit than the Plush-O-Matic due to this demographic, rather than something gacha adjacent. 

The game could prompt you to complete three puzzles to earn crafting resources, for example, before popping the correct ratio of yarn types into the machine to make a Charizard plush. It may not have provided such a moreish gameplay loop, but it would feel like a better match and put the focus back on the puzzles. 

Pokémon Friends isn’t the only game to offer this sort of spin-the-wheel mechanic for collectibles  – far from it – and it’s transparent about pull rates. Still surprises me to see this feature while digging into the game after the Pokémon Presents.

There are some things to help with drops. As more yarn types are added via DLC and the Pretty Nice quality yarn is introduced, the chances of obtaining particular plushes change.

It’s not quite the same as a regular gacha with tickets to spend on spins, and efforts have been made to keep it kid-friendly, but it feels like an odd choice to have in what is essentially a brain-training mini-game series. 

It’ll be interesting to see whether there are free updates for the game in the future or additional DLC packs to purchase. I’m predicting that there’ll be holiday-themed packs with festive puzzles or yarn types, but that’s purely speculation on my part.

Bags of yarn and DLC packs 

The main point of contention currently in the online Pokémon community is that there’s a surprising amount of DLC already for Pokémon Friends. 

If you missed the Presents showcase, note that this game can be played for free on mobile or as a paid game on Switch. The paid Switch version includes one of the DLC packs that the mobile version has for sale in the shop.

Switch players can buy two separate puzzle packs or a pack bundle, while mobile players can buy three separate puzzle packs, a bundle, or a combo bundle. Each pack and bundle offers a handful of new puzzles, plushes, yarn types, and room themes.

I’ve never been a fan of games launching with a barrage of paid DLC right out of the gate, as it tends to make it feel like content was cut from the base game. That’s why seeing five packs in the store already when I logged in for the first time did make me pause.

New puzzles and plushes sound great, but I can’t imagine these packs will be immensely popular based on the responses seen on official social media posts. The title and the art style seem to have been received relatively well, but the DLC price and contents are being picked apart. 

This game was a surprising addition to an otherwise intriguing Pokémon Presents. If you’re wondering whether to play it or not, I’d suggest downloading the free version on mobile first, as it acts like a perfect demo. 

The puzzles are cute and increase in difficulty as you progress – although you’ll have to be patient, as you can only do three fresh mini-games a day on mobile without making any purchases. The room customization is fairly fun too, especially if you manage to pull a favorite Pokémon from the Plush-O-Matic. 

All in all, Pokémon Friends is a cute puzzle game, and it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves over the coming months. While the Plush-O-Matic and paid DLC may put some fans off, it’s worth taking a peek at the free mobile version to see if the gameplay style interests you. 

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References

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoHXLrJHQ7s
2. https://www.polygon.com/impressions/615088/pokemon-friends-hands-on-impressions-nintendo-switch-2
3. https://x.com/Pokemon/status/1947704069138547092