Professor Willow gets huge improvement in Pokemon Go 

Em Stonham
Professor Willow from Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go has somewhat of a reputation for having unnecessarily time-consuming animations dotted throughout the game.

Whether you’re battling Rocket Grunts, catching rare Pokemon, or taking part in special events, chances are, you’ll come across a few lengthy animations and chunks of dialogue. Professor Willow is particularly notorious for the latter, which is why a recent quality-of-life change has been praised by fans.

As highlighted on r/TheSilphRoad, Pokemon Go players now have access to a skip button for dialogue when it comes to Special Research and other in-game tasks. It’s a small feature, but an essential time-saver for fans who aren’t fussed about the game’s story.

Pokemon Go Professor Willow screenshot with mountain background.An example of the skip button in Pokemon Go.

Plenty of Pokemon Go players were pleased by this improvement, particularly when it came to chatty characters like the Professor. One excited fan exclaimed, “THIS IS HUGE,” while another joked, “Who is behind these QoL changes and what have they done with the real Niantic?”

Another shared their thoughts on the recent Pokemon Go changes and announcements, saying, “Niantic’s track record lately is just too good to be true.”

While many fans were pleased by the small but impactful change, others felt it wasn’t enough, declaring that the skip option should be introduced for other animations and occasions, too.

One collector shared, “Let me know when I can skip evolutions. I have +1,600 Pokemon to evolve,” while another added, “Now let’s do a global option to skip the dialogs with the grunts?”

Other players in the thread were eager to share that, technically, skipping was already a thing in Pokemon Go, particularly for Android users.

“Congratulations to all iPhone users for this “new” addition to the game,” joked one Android player, “We’ve always had the back button to skip these. Lol.” Another chimed in, “I’ve been able to skip forever…..just hit the back button as soon as the dialogue starts.”

While this feature may not be ground-breaking for some users, for others, it’s a necessary improvement that’ll help to make dealing with chatty NPCs a lot easier. Small changes like the addition of this button are promising, and it’ll be interesting to see if any further alterations are made down the line.