Pokemon Go needs an option to cut down time-wasting animations

Pokemon Go wants to keep players playing indefinitely, and the best way to do that is with a QoL feature that prevents gameplay from being interrupted.

The mainline Pokemon games have annoying gameplay aspects, such as the slowness of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl or the annoying beeping noise when your ‘mon is at low health in the Gen 1 titles.

These issues are a finite problem, as you will eventually move on to other games. But with Pokemon Go Niantic and The Pokemon Company want you to keep playing, which hopefully leads to you paying.

To this end, fans are asking for QoL changes that make the day-to-day playing more comfortable. Namely, the ability to skip repetitive animations that they see all of the time.

Users on the Pokemon Go Reddit have outlined the animations they want to skip, namely the ones used with Shadow Shards, Purified Gems, Team Rocket Go encounters, spinning PokeStops, and the actual catching animation.

Pretty much everything associated with Gifts in Pokemon Go could be tightened up. The number of pointless animations and the inability to mass send/receive items means the mechanic is too annoying to use when you have a packed Friend List.

Asking Niantic for animation skips might be a tall order, as The Pokemon Company took out this option in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, forcing players to endure endless turns, especially when status effects and weather conditions are on the field.

But cutting (or giving the option to cut) lengthy animations in Pokemon Go could be a way to win over fans and earn some goodwill, which is something the game badly needs, especially given the ongoing player avatar drama.