Player Reviews

I recently came back to this game after leaving for 9 months over the RMT debacle. I'll get my biases out of the way immediately, I had these issues before the RMT decision, the RMT decision was just the straw that broke the camels back. Before then I could tell myself that the slim progress I was making after I stopped paying to play could return some dividends, however minor, if I found myself in desperate need. With the removal of those, and 9 months to cool down and play other time wasters, I now want to distill some criticisms that people need to see for this game and add my voice the chorus. -This game is pay to win in the extreme. It is a click-based gatcha game with similar progression rates to things like Clash of Clans, Raid Shadow Legends, etc. but with even less gameplay. It is, essentially, a slot machine for pixels. Now here comes the "technically you can play it for free" yeah, you can do the same in those gatcha games but only if you want to progress at 1/10 the rate and 1/100 the efficiency. Here it may be even worse, especially starting out. You're going to need to drop some cash, get really lucky, or play for months before you see even a modicum of progression. They try to hide "energy" behind their scouring mechanic where you wait real world hours to (maybe) get boxes that (maybe) contain progression elements. Or... you could always drop $20 and get them quicker? If you do not want a really penalizing gatcha run. Now. -The site mods and admins are all extremely deceitful and most are rude and aggressive on top of that. The owner himself fosters a vile environment and finds it acceptable to lash out and talk down to users merely asking questions (once again just read the RMT thread from about 9 months ago and see if that's the kind of guy you want to bring your problems to if you have any, I will especially point out where a user talked about trading with a staff member mere weeks before they implemented a ban on the RMT). -This ties back into my previous point but updates are slow, minor, and usually just facilitate more "fear of missing out" to drive sales. I have no illusions that the site is constructed in a way to make as much money as possible, and I truly believe the RMT debacle (seriously just look up real money trading Pokefarm and read staff comments, that'll give you more than any of these reviews) was nothing but another move to bolster sales. Finally, I'll add, there are plenty of time wasters elsewhere, there are other click based pokemon games skirting the lines of copyright infringement even. I would suggest trying one of those and giving that thread a peek I mentioned before trying this game out. At best it's a streamlined browser based gatcha with terrible customer service, and sometimes outright abusive behavior from staff.

without hypermode the game sucks

Without Hypermode, the game shuts down due to lack of money to keep the server running. Seems like a fair exchange to me.

Not only is it atrociously time consuming to make progress, but from what I've seen, the staff isn't very transparent/responsible. Nevertheless, I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't sued, after all, you're making money off the game (the countless pay to obtain aspects, like hypermode), and Pokémon is a Gamefreak/Nintendo owned property... (While Pokémon uranium gets shut down despite being a free to win fangame. Man...) Also wasn't there another game like this? Feels like déjà vu, and from what I've seen, this one will be replaced by another one? Will you let us take our Pokémon over or nope?

- PFQ is a game that will take a long time to "complete". I realise that's not for everyone but it's not inherently a bad thing just because it's not for you. - Have you seen any of our News/Announcements lately? How much more transparent or responsible do you want us to be? What more do you want from us? Genuine question, since you point out "flaws" but offer no solutions. - Please see the "Copyright notice" linked on every page, as we address this. Uranium was shut down because it cheapened the brand, PFQ adds value to it without detracting from existing stuff, so it's tolerated. - PFQ is a Pokémon collectable game. There are others like it, "collectable games" are hardly a unique idea. I like to think we do things better than other similar games but that's a subjective matter. - I am working on a new game, yes. Game devs tend to do that. Funnily enough we don't tend to enjoy having just one project to work on day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day... In my case, it took about 10 years of non-stop work for me to realise I was burning out and needed to work on something new. I'm sorry that this offends you. Your review is appreciated but I feel you haven't really made any effort to inform yourself before making it... And where you have informed yourself, you are misinformed. I hope this clarifies a few things for you, and if you wish to discuss further you are welcome to contact me.

[The contents of this review have been removed by request from the author. -Niet]

After discussion with the review author, they have requested I remove the review. This note is being left for posterity.

I wanted to wait a while before posting this, but I feel like it's finally time. I've been on site for a little over a month, and as a relative newbie here's what I've noticed; 1. Some of the staff are great, but the vast majority are completely unprofessional and the site owner, Niet, is the worst of the lot. If you have interactions with them be prepared to be talked down to, have great ideas shot down without any consideration, and also deal with the staff worshippers who think they can do no wrong and you're wrong for disagreeing. 2. The recent attitude in a lot of the announcements about "oh you don't agree with us/we can't make everyone happy so it's killing morale and making it hard to work on things!" is very concerning and is a form of emotional manipulation. By saying that they're trying to make the users feel bad for being upset with them over things like getting zero warning for the increase in HM prices and the scramble afterwards to deal with the backlash, or for saying that the repeating events every year are boring or whatever. The fact that the staff as a whole seem to think this kind of wording and manipulation is perfectly okay to say in announcements just kinda confirms the lack of professionalism. 3. There are several accepted suggestions that have not been implemented despite years since their acceptance, and several rejected ones that are great but we aren't given a reason why beyond "No, never going to happen". Is it just not possible to implement, would it be too difficult with the site's current code, or something else? We'll never know, because we aren't told. 4. Niet is working on a new site, but has repeatedly told people to not be focused on it just yet and stay focused here on PFQ. But also it doesn't seem like the site gets any major updates unless it's policy changes or the like that just get completely dropped with no warning. Apparently Niet has insisted he be the only one coding/working on the site (based on what I've been told in the forums after suggesting the staff get additional help for the coding issues) for whatever reason, so he's not only trying to build a new website but run this one as well and I feel like that can only end in disaster. 5. This site is very pay to win; good luck chasing anything other than normals unless you're willing to buy them off people or are willing to pay. And they did recently nerf the shiny rate, which makes shiny and melan hunting even harder. This is, apparently, to address the fact that as people are melan hunting they're hatching a lot of shinies and the market is 'flooded' with them, but now it's just nearly impossible. 6. To make melan hatching easier there's the coveted Arceus rank; have all eggs and regular versions of Pokémon registered in your dex. This is almost impossible to do on your own due to the site still forcing trade evos (instead of having an alternative for people who don't want to entrust their babies to others) and just how many Pokémon there are. Every few weeks new fakemon come out too, adding to the amount people need to hatch to obtain or keep their Arceus rank. Worse the tournaments that source the new fakemon only give 5 tokens for getting the hardest difficulty, but the new ones cost 12 tokens - which means you get less than 1/2 needed for a new egg if you don't get in the top 100 to get the free one awarded at that point and depending on what the tournament requires that could be nearly impossible if you're newer as you get beat out by the people who have been here for years and have the time to spend here. Overall this site looks cute, and I can't deny the community is great. The recent Valentine's Day event has highlighted that more than ever! But the staff are unprofessional and think emotional manipulation is okay, this place has been basically abandoned to work on a new site that'll come out who knows when while expecting the current users to stay here on the pay to win model, and doing anything even if you pay is still extremely difficult and time consuming. So unless you've got a lot of spare time and disposable income to spend here and you can put up with rude staff I'm going to say......Just don't.

I started out playing the original Pokefarm many years ago. I never got competitive with it, I just enjoyed roleplaying and chatting with friends and ocassionally grabbing an egg or two. Was not competitive at all. However I did end up buying a few things that I had liked. Then they decided to scrap the original and come up with this. Though we were able to bring our original pokemon over, they are also account locked so you cannot trade them, which really sucked for those who played competitively. Once moving to PFQ I started to play more competitively, on top of enjoying the roleplaying and art forums. Even though they say you don't have to pay to play, if you want to play at ALL the way the game is meant to be, you have to either have no life and play constantly to earn money from other people, or pay to play. The object of this game is to hatch out eggs and try to get specials. (Shiny, Albino, and the most sought after 'Melanistic' which happen when a pokemon hatches out shiny AND albino.) The problem is, without buying the perks and the monthly subscriptions (hypermode), your chances of getting shinies are rare, and your chances of hatching a melanistic are even more rare. Even after paying for hypermode to give you a chance for shinies/melans: Your best chances to hatch a melan is to get shiny charms, which are $1.50 for one and is only good for one day unless you buy a shiny charm box ($20) to recharge it for gold you have to earn in game, which doubles your chances at getting a shiny. Uber charms ($2 each) last a month, and help double the chances of your albinos. The only thing players can do in game to help their chances at getting a melanistic, is to get something called Arceus rank, which means you have hatched every single egg type and had every single pokemon registered in your pokedex. In order to achieve this, you have to make sure you constantly hatch out any new eggs, and when new tournaments are released with new fakemon, only the top 100 people can get this free. Otherwise you have to fork out money to buy tokens from other people in order to buy the egg you need to get Arceus rank. Years of playing, and playing VERY regularly and ruining my sleep, I almost always fell short of the 100th rank. And even if you do get Arceus rank, it is also affected by Hypermode. Even with the hypermode, shiny charms, uber charms, and arceus rank, it sometimes takes months to hatch a melanistic out. So while they classify this as a free game, if you want to play seriously at all, you'll need to either lose a ton of sleep for a CHANCE, or just fork out money to play fully. On top of this, there have been problems with staff for years. Don't get me wrong, some staff have been super helpful through the years and I cannot thank them enough for the work they did. But some can be downright rude, and the rudest of all is the owner of the site, Niet. When people make suggestions and what they would like to see changed or fixed in the game, almost every time Niet responds either sarcastically or gets snippy and just makes threats. (One of which I personally experienced when some of us were suggesting to fix Arceus rank being so unatainable, he ended up telling me he should just ''Get rid of it all together then" instead of any of our numerous suggestions at trying to fix it.) Other staff had admitted they have to often read his posts because of how rude he can be, and if you read through these negative reviews, many he has edited or he'll simply come back with a "not true at all" comment. One of the reasons I decided not too long ago to stop playing, was because he was talking again about wanting to make a new pokemon game because this game isn't what HE wants himself anymore, and made a public announcement that doesn't go away until you open it to read it, about past trauma, despite repetitively saying that this is a kids game and not to talk about adult things publicly. When PF1 switched to PFQ, I was fortunate enough not to have played enough on PF1 to be effected by this, but when I realized he may decide to do this again, I decided I was out. This was fun for a while, I enjoyed the sprites and the thrill of hunting, but it IS something you need to put money into if you want to hunt your own melanistics. And frankly, Niet needs a reality check. If you don't like this game, sell it and make a new one. Don't take past mistakes and regrets out on the users that pay for this game.

I have not actively play for a while now but I lurk on Pokefarm Q every few months to check if the site is ever getting better. I am pleased to announce that the site has only gotten worse since I went on hiatus and that I made the right choice to not come back. 1) Site has little to no updates for an "active" game. New exclusive pokemon being added like clockwork every other month, despite people saying that they're tired of endless tournaments/MCWs, does not count as an update. These features also break very often despite being automated. Every update that is not one of these brings some sort of controversial news or rule change that makes the site harder to play. I started to dread seeing the news bar before I made the decision to log out and browse forums that way. 2) There are no QoL improvements. There are no updates to suggestions approved years ago. Niet is saying he is putting off those because he will implement them on the new site. The new site, the one we have not had an update about in over half a year. I suspected Niet was previously simply sitting around most of the day, then the userbase slowly realized that things never got updated on site, so he announced the new site. and now that he has the excuse of not working in the current site he is doing the same. Even the "regular" promised Dev updates have gone silent. The admins have 0 sense of consistency, work ethic, or discipline and this will not change. 3) Site owner is flat out someone who acts like a 16 year old who never grew out of his snarky, uhm actually stage. I know he is neurodivergent. This is not an excuse for him to behave so terribly, and frankly it is ableist for people to defend him with that excuse. I and every other neurodivergent person have issues with our mental condition being associated with despicable behavior as a site owner toward his audience. I am still in awe of the time that he dismissed someone's opinion on another controversial thread by saying to the effect of "you haven't even hatched a melan, your thoughts aren't valuable on this subject." If this is how ou act toward your userbase and the other mods have to reign you in like a rabid dog, then this is why no one wants to engage you in conversation. I know this will hurt to hear. It needs to be said. Being Coddled all his life and being told that it's okay every time he acts inappropriately is how Niet turned into such a terrible person to interact with. I personally think that PFQ is a case study in how to transform a thriving site and community into a ghost town with a ridiculous mayor complaining no one wants to play his game. No one cannot deny that site activity is slipping, and if it tumbles to its grave I will not be sad to see it go. Peace.

Although I have only been a part of the site since mid '18, I saw the general promise it had as a Pokemon game--despite the numerous legal issues around trademarks and having seen so many others be taken down by Nintendo's lawyers. I was even willing to give the atrocious behavior of the site owner a pass, given it seemed the mods were at the fore with Niet more or less being a background party focused on the backend. After the absolute debacle of the RMT thread, I have swiftly come to see that not only do the mods have to moderate the actual site owner due to his actively aggressive comments, chasing away the userbase with unnecessarily harmful statements directed at real people, constant insults, inability or willingness to implement the most basic functionalitities and instead foisting it upon the userbase ala modding, inflammatory behavior--the list could easily be longer. Everyone can readily see it in his responses to reviews alone. However, even the moderation team is actively guilty of doing the exact same things, which is not surprising given the precedence the owner has set. If it is okay for him to treat people this way with only minor tone adjustments, by golly it should be alright for them as well! I have actively avoided the forums like the plague due to the rampant mismanagement and personal attacks done by the moderation team and site owner. Seeing it now on full display and with new--and numerous--legal questions being put forth, this site is not worth a persons investment . If you want to destroy your mental health and general sense of well-being, this website is perfect for you. Otherwise I recommend giving it a wide berth and saving yourself the time, trouble, and loss of self-worth because you said something the team disagreed with. I am near certain this review will be deleted and I just cannot bring myself to care. This website is going to die on its own sword for refusing to make even mild common sense decisions, both financially and socially.

Going through the entire recent news, made me realize how terrible it was handled. From the surprise factor that it was out of a sudden without prior announcement to the replies coming from the staff and the admin which left me perplexed. This review is coming from someone that isn't really affected by the RMT ban. The atrocious approach of the staff is a deal breaker for me, especially for a community based game such as this where communication is key, between the userbase & the staff.

i started August 2020 with this game and played about 1 1/2 yrs now. At the start, the game was exciting and funny, i made a few new friends and had fun. Later, it turned out to be not that great anymore. - there is a huge gap between "arceus" and "champion" rank - the highest ranks in this game. while arceus usually get's a melan after a few hatched pokemon and are drowning most of the time in specials, champion rank players have to wait MUCH longer to get anything. took me 10k eggs to get a melan with champion rank! that said, people always try to get to arceus, when they want to hunt melans - the main activity on this site beside the events. to get arceus without breaks, you have to spend your whole earned money and tokens into the first few eggs each season. (when it comes to these eggs each season, you either have to spend lots of in game currency or be online 24/7 to get into the top 100 and earn these eggs via tournament or you have to buy current tokens and buy the eggs - spending lots of money) that said, it feels more like pay to win than a casual game you can play every now and then. while the amount of specials you get is "luck based", it feels weird that lots of people get a special every 50 eggs and then, suddenly at the start of type race, don't get anything within a whole week or even longer. the trust in staff isn't great anymore, it just feels like someone decreased the special rate somewhere around type race (right after the change, that people are allowed to congratulate for specials in these threads) - there are lots of events, but they're all the same. type race every month, tournament almost every week with several different goals, Mass click weekend every month... pfq really has enough events, but after a certain amount, you just know them all. they haven't released anything special during my time here. no new content except the pokemon they release to tournament seasons and mass click weekends or to get up to date with the current pokemon games. it just feels the same after a few months - type race feels weird since the last changes. i always liked to participate in type race, cause pfq is still a community site after all. yet, people weren't allowed to congratulate eachother during type race for a special pokemon in the team thread. while teams organized themselves the first few weeks each month and helped eachother, the last change now prevents that. Now, people have to suggest a type race thread and the community has to vote which thread they want (if there is someone at all that wants to make one) and teams have just a few days to organize. makes things much harder for the community and kills the motivation for type race. beside, when nobody suggests a thread, the system creates one for the team. while this is basically a good idea, the thread itself feels weird. my last team's motivation for type race was horrible after we got a system thread. it just felt weird the whole time. beside, when you "want" to make a give away, you have to suggest it at the start of the month (2 weeks before tr), because it has to be checked and allowed by staff first. feels weird to ask for permission for a small give away, but of course it has rules too. - while i get that a game needs certain rules to work, it feels like pfq is drowning in them. when i started, i never thought about the rules at all, cause they're usually in almost every game the same - be nice to each other, don't make anything illegal, that kind of rules. in pfq, you have much more rules - enough that i can't even name them all, not even half of them. beside the general rules like being nice to eachother, there are rules like "what you write in the forum, about me, wherever has to be readable" and you get a warning when it isn't. that includes color restrictions (no eyeburning colors, they have to be readable) or size restrictions (no small or big sizes). there are rules how a trade or auction has to be posted in the forum, like "pwyw means people can offer whatever they want" and if you tell them that you don't accept something, because the usual price would be xy and the offered price is too low, it's against rules (cause you mentioned a price x.x) you weren't allowed to post give aways in the type race threads or offer spare evolutions to help your team. that has to be done in the trade section! (they actually changed at least the give away and congratulation rules, so now you're allowed to do that) you're not even allowed to tell people, that their trade post isn't likely to work, cause the average prices are much higher than their offered ones <- that's price policing, a.k. telling people what to pay for. while i understand that there are a few rules needed, i don't get why everything has to be made a rule and everything is so strict. it feels like the staff just want to control their community. - worst, while the forum rules are strict and you have to search every corner of the forum to get the right form for your 5min sale and not be reported, you have a lot of people posting #allcopsarecomplicit or #bluelifesarentimportant or that kind of political statements. while i understand that people want to show their opinion on certain topics, it is still a site for kids after all. not sure if staff hasn't seen these people or don't want to see/allow them at all. i got sick of all this "don't interact with me, when you think cop lifes are important" and just don't read about me's anymore (quality of life script helps a lot to ignore people! <3) - the community and the staff feel toxic most of the time. while there are a few people that are nice, the common community behavior is to report people the moment they make something wrong. (it's not allowed to tell them that they did something wrong, that would be mini modding and forbidden as well!) while i understand the need to report people for harassment, it just feels wrong to report someone for posting his own thread more than allowed (once every second day) the community has the possibility to suggest things via public forum, but beside that, changes are decided from staff and they usually don't ask the community at all. most of the changes aren't that great for the community and the moment someone has another opinion than the staff, there will be a huge drama about it, people get toxic (staff too!) and the situation escalates completly. it doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough that the whole community and the staff feel toxic for me. Beside, while i understand that staff can get emotional when the community attacks them, i can't understand that they get unprofessional almost every single time. they're getting personal and attack the people or even harass them. - there are too many rules and not enough options left, that people could make games with prices. it's just sad that pfq has a forum and people can't/are too scared to even play small games with prices. (i don't mean these common forum games like "count to 100") beside, you're not allowed to make a discord server for pfq games - it's against rules. - after all, it feels like the community is simply dying. there are people posting their quitting sales in the trade section every month. the community get's even more frustrated with every new "update"/release/change. sometimes, it even feels as if the staff wants to get rid of their community, to decrease the amount of time they have to spend checking the reports. i really liked the game the first few months, but lately, it's not that great anymore and it's getting worse. it's sad, because pfq IS a great game after all and the idea this game is based on is great! Yet, it would need a lot of changes that the game feels worth playing more than the average dailys