Pokémon HOME Reviews

This game is great it has many features that I have always wanted for Pokémon sword and shield but it is lacking some, such as the feature on the GTS where there is a setting where it filters the Pokémon you are searching for four people asking for Pokémon that you have. This is an excellent feature and I am surprised it is not added in Pokémon HOME. Also it would be great if we had some sort of way to battle, maybe on the switch version it would be better than the mobile version but still nonetheless we need a way to battle, especially since on the news category it says battle as a category. Overall this is a great game but there is one more thing I would like to see in it. There should be more boxes in the basic plan of the version one box really isn’t going to help people who want to save money but like to play Pokémon, especially if they might be shiny hunters or they just need extra space in their boxes. Also, people should not be able to make a possible trades such as dittos with genders or legendary Pokémon with genders which there is no way that anybody can trade unless it is hacked. These trades generally annoy me because this is people just taunting others. I’d like to see your future that removes the capability of making any sort of impossible trade.

I love PokémonHOME how it can transfer Pokémon to and from games and I think once it gets updated more it will just keep getting better. :3

I’ve loved Pokémon ever since I could remember, but I’ve never had a chance to play a game until I got Sword. I loved it so much, and when I found out there was an app that could allow me to essentially trade for free, I was amazed. I got PokémonHOME, and it’s been going great. However, there are just a few issues. First of all, it would be best if in the GTS you could only allow possible trades. I’ve been searching for a Zamazenta for a little over five months now, and all everyone wants are impossible to get, such as a level 51-60 Zacian, or a level 1-10 Poipole. That last one really ticks me off, because for every single Pokémon out there, someone wants a level 1-10 Poipole. Second, the whole can-store-from-Let’s-Go-but-not-go-back thing doesn’t make sense. I’m not a computer coding wizard, so I’m maybe just ignorant, but it’s still confusing. Last, and probably the most unimportant problem, is the premium plan. Don’t get me wrong, $16 a year is absolutely fantastic, but it’s the differences from the basic plan that really irk me. Only three Pokémon in the Wonder Box at a time? At least 6 would make it a lot better in my opinion, but now I’m just rambling. Overall, this is an amazing app I would recommend to every trainer out there, but fixing these few issues would make it a lot better. Thank you!

Pokémon home is awesome but Pokémon Co. I hope you’re reading this and take this I to consideration. 1. The world of Pokémon trading is amazing and very vast but your program has a major flaw and that is communication. If I trade with a random person across the world I should be able to speak to them also. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found someone to trade with and then it ended up being a waste of both our time just because we can’t communicate. If I could talk to the other person I’m trading with things would be much better think about that for your next game please. Secondly there’s over a 1000 Pokémon in the Pokémon universe currently for you to limit that in the year 2020 and only allow us to explore one region is ridiculous the games would be more fun and more exciting if every single Pokémon from Kanto to Galar region were available on every game from now on including being able to travel to different regions the game itself would be extremely popular and more challenging to someone who’s been playing Pokémon since they were 10. Finally Pokémon home has not allowed me to friend trade at all not sure what’s going on with that buts there’s been several updates and bug fixes still not working. Your favorite Pokémon Master SaVageOpress .

Overall it is a great app but I dislike the fact that you can't add pokemon back into Pokemon Go because if somebody were to accidentally tap one of their favorite pokemon without noticing into PokémonHOME then they can't get it back which can cause frustration and make that person dislike PokémonHOME and cause them to uninstall it because they could've put a lot of time and effort into trying to evolve that pokemon and build a bond with it and to end up losing because of a mistake. Now you could just let Pokemon that came from Pokemon Go back into Pokemon Go and that would fix the problem but seeing as that might not happen I guess you'll just lose another person who could've helped with the support of PokémonHOME . Now honestly speaking I may have done that exact thing without realizing that my pokemon would permanently stay in there because I didn't know I couldn't get my pokemon back. This has affected me because I spent a long time trying to evolve and level up the pokemon I had accidentally put in there and now I can't get it back. Not gonna lie Niantic is probably not going to read this but I just want them to know that implementing a system that allows you to transfer your pokemon from Pokemon Go back into it would be nice for a lot of people and one more thing is that PokémonHOME was a great idea but that little detail to transfer back would've made me and maybe a few other people happy.

I got PokémonHOME since it was launched awaiting the Pokémon Go support to roll out. This feature just came out a day or so ago and I have to say, I an very disappointed. I waited around 5 months for this to happen and what we got was really cash greedy. You can transfer a bunch of normal Pokemon such as Larvitar and Dratinis but their CP has to be under 2000 or else the energy it will cost you will add another 300 to it making it 400 energy for an average Pokemon. After you use up all of your transfer energy, you have to wait A FULL WEEK OR YOU WILL HAVE TO SPEND $10 FOR IT TO RECHARGE. This is super cash greedy as I have been playing your Pokemon Go game for 4 whole years. I have spent lots of time, trying to get these Pokemon in my collection to be treated like this. I wouldn’t argue if you had to wait a day or two, really. I know that you’re a company and you need to make money, but this is simply too far. ONE SHINY LEGENDARY/MYTHICAL COSTS ALL OF THE TRANSFER ENERGY. So you have to wait a FULL WEEK or SPEND $10. You can transfer around 5 shiny Pokemon per month if you don’t want to spend money. This is simply disappointing but I will still use it cuz I have some pokemon to transfer, but please make the wait time/coins lower, please, I don’t want to wait a whole week just to transfer a shiny Heatran to Pokemon Shield just so its IVs can get randomized.

Absolutely horrible app. Poor instructions, bugs, unable to connect to different devices and a rushed execution led to me losing over 1700 Pokemon, including some very rare ones. But most importantly, I have submitted 3 help tickets and sent numerous emails requesting assistance with this and I have not received a SINGLE response back. So poor customer service on top of a buggy app and rushed execution and you get this monstrosity they aren’t even worried about, bc it is a necessary evil that they know pokemon fans will pay for. Well, this is one customer that will NOT pay for it again. After my 1-month membership is over, my money will no longer go towards Bank or Home. Be better Nintendo.

EDIT: after months of back and forth emails, where I responded immediately and Nintendo support took weeks to respond to a single email, they restored my lost Pokemon today. Only took 2 months, but they did it, so I can’t complain too much. Thank you for working on this Nintendo and at least doing the right thing in the end. It doesn’t really matter how long it took, just that it got done in the end.

The layout and presentation of Pokémon Home is superb and eye catching. It has most features you desire. It lacks some as well. When trading Pokémon, you are presented with a list of Pokémon that the person wants and you have. The issue is that you don’t know at first glance which Pokémon are from which box. You may accidentally trade a Pokémon you want to keep instead of the duplicates you don’t want because you can’t lock Pokémon from being traded either. This is also assuming you can trade with others to begin with.

The biggest issue with Pokémon Home is one that has been plaguing the Pokémon trading scene for years. Impossible trade requests. Anyone can put their Pokémon up for trade and request something impossible. They can request Pokémon that can never be in a certain level range or even ask for Pokémon with a gender that is also unavailable to that Pokémon! And if you’re feeling bold, why not do both at once? Every single lookup of a Pokémon you might want is filled with impossible requests, pushing the legitimate ones to the wayside and out of sight.

My recommendation at this time is to only use Home for organization of your Pokémon and forget using the trading feature... which is sad because that is in direct opposition of the whole idea behind the Pokémon games to begin with!

PokémonHOME is the worst pokemon scam in history up to this point, and makes me ashamed I even like playing pokemon. If they made an identical version of pokemon bank that worked for sword and shield then i would switch to that in a heartbeat. Even though it costs more than pokemon bank, PokémonHOME is just so clunky and cheap, with annoying sorting systems and menus, awful repetitive music, and this super ugly light green color scheme. Trading is garbagey, and also why can’t there just be GTS in sword and shield?! Why?! Why can’t things just be like they were in the good old days of DS games when I started playing pokemon? You can’t even transfer every pokemon to sword and shield anyway, and it’s missing a lot of my favorite pokemon. Why does the pokemon company have to be so scummy sometimes but also so good sometimes? Will new pokemon snap be actually at least as good as the original, or be shallow and/or full of premium garbage? Will they ever make a brand new mystery dungeon game with every discovered pokemon up to this point? And will gen 9 come out this year, will they finally add a new pokemon type that balances out stupid steel type, will they finally create the first bug-type legendary pokemon (PLEASE), will they finally make all pokemon usable, and will they STOP TRYING TO TAKE SO MUCH OF PEOPLE’S MONEY FOR EVERY LITTLE THING? All this and more, coming soon in 2021.

Ok so I left a review a while back but I’m changing it as I got the main problem fixed. This is a a great idea but I think it needs tinkering. I definitely think it’s awesome that I can store Pokémon from all my save files and whatnot, plus the trading is awesome... however I think the trading needs to be fixed a little bit. #1 people shouldn’t be allowed to ask for low level full evo starters. That’s just impossible as far as I’ve figured out. Also there should be more specifics about the Pokémon your getting and the Pokémon your giving. You should be able to check the stats and moveset if a Pokémon, that just makes sense, and if your trading away your Pokémon, you should be able to be more specific with what you get back. All the searching mechanics should be more specific. If I’m trading away I shiny I probably want a shiny back, but all I can put is pretty much the name and level and stuff. And when your searching, you can almost only search for level and gender, plus games it can go to. There needs to be more filters. Finally, and this isn’t important what so ever, but is it just me or do the sprites look kind of weird. I don’t really like them.

I got PokémonHOME because I’m planning to complete my SwSh pokédex and start shiny hunting, and I was hoping to find people who wanted to trade some version exclusives, along with a foreign Ditto for masuda method breeding. Joining PokémonHOME , I was really disappointed. The process of transferring the pokes I wanted to offer was fairly simple (if a little clunky due to switching systems), but when it came time to find a trading partner... well. Even with “exclude people searching for legendaries/mythicals” turned on, the pages were flooded with people looking for one-available-per-game unbreedable pokemon like Poipole and the Tapu line. And almost the rest of the time, the pokemon requested was actually impossible like a level 1 Cinderace... or at the very least, it only looks like that, because PokémonHOME only shows you a small handful of different trade offers with no way to view more offers. (This is also why I have low faith in putting up my own offer, because there’s no way for me to know if anyone is seeing it.) I would greatly appreciate more search filters you could apply when looking at the GTS, like a “only show offers I can fulfill” or an “exclude (x) pokemon”, or even just letting people view ALL offers if they fit the search criteria. If changes that improve the trading process are made I’ll change my review.

In the GTS trade, you can search for Pokémon just fine, but seriously, you can get ANYTHING with Poipole. Make an option to exclude asks for Ultra Beasts and mythical Pokémon, PLEASE. Also, I would much enjoy the ability to search for Pokémon that others want to receive; this way, it's a win-win, because I would be trading a Pokémon that I want to trade out for a Pokémon that others want to trade out, and it goes much quicker!
Lastly, the forms. Seriously, separate the forms. People are posting Oricorio and asking for Oricorio in return, and traders have no clue which form is being requested. Same for regional forms. They have different sprites, but not different names.
There is a problem that users are taking advantage of: Traders can request Pokémon that cannot be legally obtained, except maybe with a Ditto. For example: low-level fully evolved starters of the rarer gender, Poipole at levels below 40, etc.

Update: This still holds true for the most part, but everybody wants Kubfu now. It's really aggravating that there is no way to reverse search for GTS trades, i.e. finding Pokémon whose trainers want a certain Pokémon that you have by inputting your Pokémon's data and returning the most relevant requests.

I downloaded PokémonHOME with a lot of excitement after seeing the features they offer plus the ability to transfer my shiny collection into my pokemon sword game from ultra moon. I was able to successfully transfer about 80 Shiny Pokémon into my Pokémon sword game and the others were left behind as the game does not yet have the ability to hold the others. The day after paying for a year of premium I started experiencing issues with PokémonHOME that started as my subscription having to be refreshed every time I open PokémonHOME but was soon met with communication errors. I was not able to renew my subscription and lost about 74 Shiny Pokémon at first and only 30 were left behind. A few days of hoping for an update to fix this, an update came and I was locked out of PokémonHOME by a constant communication error. I lost shiny Pokémon from the black and white games when I first learned of shiny hunting. I expanded my collection over a 10 year period and now because of their screw up I have now lost over 100 shiny Pokémon and have no way of even opening PokémonHOME to find a way to fix it. Do not download PokémonHOME until this problem is fixed I beg of you. If you value your Pokémon collection as much as I did, wait until these problems are fixed or else risk losing everything.

I’ve had some very successful trades on PokémonHOME, and overall think it’s very nice. HOWEVER! I’m sick and tired of seeing people put impossible trades on the GTS, something they CLAIMED TO HAVE FIXED IN A PREVIOUS UPDATE, (they didn’t by the way,) like impossibly leveled final evolutions for starters, or even for legendaries and mythicals, as well. Also, thanks to today’s update, I can’t search for any Pokémon at all, because apparently, they. Do. Not. Exist. Umm, excuse me? Yes they DO exist, so why are you telling me otherwise?? I’ve seen some other reviews on here hoping for a way to filter trades for just legendaries for legendaries, mythical and rares for mythical and rares, etc. and even a way to filter specific Pokémon, like their regional forms. And I love that idea! Especially the option to choose specific Pokémon. I’m trying to look for a female, unnamed, shiny kanto Vulpix, but can’t find one, because Alola shows up as well. It’s a little frustrating, too. Honestly, I’m trying to complete my Pokédex before the second wave of DLC comes out, and now I’m wondering if I’ll even be able too. Please fix!! Rant over, and even despite all that, like I said at the start, it’s a pretty nice app overall.

I love Pokémon home a lot it’s very very useful to me. An I like it’s compatible with poke bank. my only issue currently is Pokémon forms. For example, for me many people in will only trade for poke I need in Pokémon sword for furfrou with there trim/forms not for normal one/form an putting them in the bank an transferring them to home is for me my only way to get it in home but they always revert to there normal form tho. I know u can get its forms on poke go, but I’ve never yet have gotten one to spawn around my house an I can’t go anywhere due to Covid an being a high health risk person if I were to go out an possibly get it, so my parents won’t let me go outside. an I live out in A country area, So not many poke spawn around my house to start with nor raid areas pop up. So for those of us like me with this frustrated issue can u like add something to home that let’s say change the forms of poke but with in poke home it’s self in a future update please mayb like use the point system an add a option to spend points on changing a Pokémons form or something mayb pretty please. I’d much rather use my home points I save up for that then BP. thank you for your time in reading this

Hello, I’m writing this review because of an issue I’ve been having in the GTS. I can still deposit Pokémon just fine but the “search for Pokémon” button doesn’t seem to work anymore, I was trying to trade some of my other legendaries for the Tao Trio but mainly just Reshiram. I deposited my Pokémon just fine but when I decided to search for each individual Tao Trio member it seemed to glitch or just straight up become unusable. I searched for the Kyurem and two of them popped up which didn’t seem to be broken at all, but upon me accidentally leaving that page I tried to search for Kyurem again but it gave me an error message of “The Pokémon does not exist”. I at first thought the two Kyurem got traded away quickly or the trainers took them back but when I tried searching for Reshiram or Zekrom it didn’t work? I tried every search filter I could think of and also searched for other Pokémon like Urshifu and also some of the starters because I remember starters being very common on the GTS, but none of them worked, is this an internet issue? Should I delete PokémonHOME and redownload it? Please fix this issue as the GTS is slowly becoming unusable.

First off, it’s a great concept but needs some fine tuning to raise the star count for me. I’ve been using the home system to transfer Pokémon from Pokémon let’s go and sword, which has helped me to finish my Pokédex in both games. But it has become abundantly clear that people are now using the GTS system as more a trophy system instead of what it’s intended. When I try to search for rare Pokémon to add to my collection, I’m met with people who want to show off what they have instead of actually wanting to trade. For example, there is no way I can trade someone a 1-10 Bolthound for a Zacian... I believe if you can’t acquire the Pokémon until like level 60 then you shouldn’t be able to ask for said Pokémon under that level. Also, what’s the point in adding mythical Pokémon that cannot trade through the home system? If that were the case, it shouldn’t be transferrable in the first place. Seems more like a waste of Pokémon storage.... and finally, I think that it should be monitored periodically for offensive names on Pokémon. I have an 8yr old that also uses this system and she shouldn’t have to come to me asking me what an offensive word means....

I’d like to see an option to sort Pokémon by quantity, that way when I’m trying to wonder box breedjects and the like I can sort them to the top easily. Also being able to filter by “Pokémon I can trade for” or “shiny Pokémon only” when browsing gts would be cool. I’d also like to be able to trade meltans because they are NOT special, and frankly I have too many of them (imagine requiring 400 candies to evolve and not letting people trade the excess trash). Thanks. Also, why are people still able to request impossible trades, thought that was supposed to die in gen 7? I don’t want to see a shiny posted for a lvl 10 avalugg or whatever tf else. If you don’t want actually want to trade it, don’t post it just to show off. You’re not impressive, you’re a jerk. Why do we only get 3 room trades per day? If there’s a genuine reason I’d love to know, if not, can it please be uncapped? Why does wonder trade take over 12 hours sometimes? Doesn’t that seem like a bit much? Takes less than 2 minutes in SwSh. Admittedly it is pretty nice being able to transfer Pokémon between users on the same switch without having to trade, but that’s one of few features that isn’t plagued by unnecessary head (and heart) aches.

I downloaded PokémonHOME like anyone else, expecting something that was actually useful. But I found out otherwise. It only lets you hold up to 30 Pokémon for free, which is almost nothing compared to many trainers’ collections, and you must pay for both Pokémon Bank and Pokémon Home to do anything else. $20 just to put a Pokémon in a game that can’t even transfer it into Sword and Shield? Yeah, no! And then I found out it age-locks you out of most everything. Cant access Mystery Gifts, Friends, or various other features unless you’re over 16. So then, apparently the Pokémon Company thinks that only 16-year-olds have friends or go out. And then, when I tried to contact support, they blew me off and told me to essentially try again when it’s more convenient for them. Unacceptable.

This is just a sign as to what’s happening to Pokémon. Rather than care about players, games continue to become pay-to-win, even console games, and the expectation is that you pay for it. You know what? I honestly hope pokemon dies within the next few years. They’re burning out after one failed attempt after another (Pokémon duel, Pokémon Sun and Moon, pokken tournament DX, Pokemon sword and shield, Pokémon masters, and Pokémon home). They deserved a better death than this, and I think that the Galar era just sealed their fate.

The GTS has been around for such a long time in pokemon games and there are still filters that should have been added a long time ago. First, for sword and shield there is no legitimate reason for the GTS to not display a gmax symbol. You just have to guess and hope for any gmax trades. I also still don’t understand why they don’t have a shiny filter to either search for a shiny specifically or ask for a shiny specifically in trade. It makes it impossible to trade shiny pokemon over GTS because let’s be real, most people are not going to trade you a shiny back. It would be nice if the GTS at least had an offer system that you could accept or decline a trade so that way it wouldn’t auto trade your shiny for a normal pokemon. This could also work with trading any kind of valuable pokemon if you aren’t looking for something specific and would like to get offers. Shiny pokemon are extremely well known and hunted for so I see no reason not to have it as an option. It would also be nice to check pokemon stats/IVs before a trade as well but this one I can at least understand why it may not be there.

I honestly think this is one of the greatest things that’s been invented for Pokemon. I live how there is a mobile version as well as a Switch version so that I don’t necessarily need my switch all the time to do the things I want to do with PokémonHOME . There are also tons of people willing to trade, so it’s very easy for me to use my spare pokémon to get other pokémon I want. Trades can also happen vert quickly! I was shocked at how fast I completed a trade with the GTS. I think some other suggestions for PokémonHOME that would make it even more beneficial are to add some other filter like nature, moves, and abilities for a specific pokemon because I find myself looking for these kinds of things as well, and if they had those additional features, I think that would take away the hassle of having to transfer or develop these pokemon ourselves. All in all, though, I highly recommend PokémonHOME for anyone who is an avid fan of Pokemon and plays Sword and Shield, Let’s Go, or Pokemon Go frequently!

Why would you need a transfer service for Pokémon that are already found in Galar? Don’t get me wrong, PokémonHOME is very user friendly and brought back some much- needed features that weren’t included in the actual game this time around(GTS). But it has little use, at least until they expand the Galar-dex with more Pokémon not already found in-game, or until another Pokémon game for the switch comes out. For now, it does it’s job- if you want to transfer some of your Pokémon from LGPE to SW&SH it works fine and it’s free. If you want to send a few mon’ from Pokébank that you have from the old Pokémon games on the 3ds, that works too... but it’s gonna cost you. *WARNING*: Just know that as of now, you can only bring over the ones that are already in the Galar- dex(with some exception, like the kanto and alolan starters) also, if you bring them to home and they cannot be moved to SW&SH, they will be stuck there for the foreseeable future. *please be aware* ... anyways, decent enough -looking app, glad this new infrastructure is being rolled out early so they can get rid of any bugs sooner rather than later, just doesn't have much use as of now.

Of course I enjoy the service and its functionality, but I really wish they would make it so that you could do more on the switch version (or make it so that you can have both open at the same time). I hate the fact that I can only do trades via the mobile version, and that I can’t move Pokémon around on mobile. But I do understand to an extent that transferring Pokémon from SWSH to home wouldn’t be feasible from your phone but still. In using the free version, I feel like I’m having to go back and forth between versions to try to accomplish anything, and if I’m trying to send something over quick to take advantage of a GTS trade, by the time I’d get the Pokémon over and get it loaded back up on mobile, that Pokémon would be gone. Trading should be available via the switch. There’s no reason it should be exclusive to mobile other than to attempt to give some necessity to having it (now once we can transfer from GO, I could see needing it but right now it’s silly)

Hi! Incidentally I love PokémonHOME ! Love that I can keep my Pokémon with me all the time and trade without my switch!!!

Although! Today after I updated PokémonHOME it removed my premium plan... I paid for it and it’s charged to my card and I had the premium plan this whole time up until today... after I updated PokémonHOME I was creating a trade room when it force quit and returned me to a basic subscription... it will not allow me to restore my purchase to my previous plan because of a connection issue and the subscription is still active until next February 2021 so I can not purchase a new plan... I have 600+ Pokémon that are saved but not within the “basic box” that I can’t access and that includes my jolteon that I’ve had for the past 22 years... it would be amazing if this could be fixed.

Again PokémonHOME is great, of course there is going to be problems it was just released like 4 days ago I’d just appreciate some help if possible!

PokémonHOME definitely does its job, but the plethora of bugs and glitches here and there really put a damper on the experience. For example, after trading several Pokémon over from Pokémon bank and completing the National dex in Home, PokémonHOME (switch version was fine) claimed none of the Pokémon transferred were in the dex, even though they are in the home. GTS is also the worst it’s ever been, where trading feels almost impossible at times because people keep requesting event Pokémon that cannot be traded. A simple fix would be to either allow these Pokémon to be traded, or better yet, do not allow anyone to request Pokémon that cannot be traded. I could never get friend trades to work either, as my phone was stuck on the “your GPS is being initialized” screen. Other than these glaring problems, PokémonHOME seems to work fine, and the switch version has been working perfectly. Overall, as long as you aren’t trying to complete the National pokedex, PokémonHOME does it’s job and is worth using

Overall, the first reason that I go to PokémonHOME works fine. Storage is great and the ability to transfer Pokémon from the other game makes me feel like doing a nuzlock challenge without deleting my current group of Pokémon.

That said other features are buggy or aren’t the best described in how they work. Room trading is just broken. It forces you out every single time. Sometimes when the initial countdown, other times during the Pokémon selection. At this point, I have been unable to complete any room trade. The other thing that kind of bothers me but isn’t necessarily broken is the wonder box. It’s nice to have and I don’t necessarily expect it to work instantaneously but it takes literal hours for it to do anything. That’s too long of a time frame, imo. At first I though it wasn’t even a functional feature.

The fact that there are premium features in PokémonHOME that are linked to things that aren’t working properly, ie setting up a room trade, is not acceptable. I won’t be asking for a refund, as the 6000 slots is quite nice but please get on this quickly.

I am leaving this 5 star review for Game freak because of how grateful I am for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. These installments are made to not only catch them all, but to discover a new region in the Pokémon world, new never before seen Pokémon, and unlocking the mystery of the Dynamax phenomenon. It’s shameful to see people only caring about themselves, constantly insulting you and the people who are sticking up for you all because they think you’re lazy and didn’t add in all of the Pokémon, and they yet to give you more backlash for over pricing Pokémon HOME’s beneficial features and the Expansion passes that are yet to arrive this summer and fall. I wish the community you have created were to learn to stop demanding for me. I’m already content with my Pokémon Sword copy and I am hyped to see what Pokémon HOME and the Expansion passes have to offer. Thank you for bringing these games into our world, and I’m sorry that some of your customers have to be so greedy.

Honestly, PokémonHOME does its job kind of half assed. They took out a lot of core functions from the trade options and gts. In the original gts, there was an option to show only Pokémon that you have available for trade. That could make things so much easier in Pokémon home. And the room trade is a mess. I’ve joined random trade rooms 13 times over and it just kicks me out saying “you left the room.” A better option for trading would be to allow an ACTUAL link trade. I think the main problem here is that app wasn’t ready to be released. It clearly wasn’t a passion project on gamefreaks part. It feels more like a rushed product to get people’s attention back on Pokémon. Sort of like a “hey! I know you wanted a storage service, so we decided to give you the beta! We’ll update it later, but here’s this for now!”
All in all, half assed but gets the job done. Even though it’s half assed. And glitchy. And crashy. And rushed. Did I mention unfinished?

The fact that you can request a mythical pokemon but can’t trade them is absurd. I never understood why they did that; allow mythicals to be requested but not liable to trade. Also, with “special” pokemon, they should really just let us trade them. If they’re our pokemon now, we should be able to do what we please with them. Its a decent and fun app, but the fact that they aren’t giving us our own control with our pokemon is what ruins it. Hacked pokemon should just be removed but don’t punish the real pokemon. Alongside the crazy requests such as a litten for a necrozma. I understand that that’s how the GTS has been in the past, but it’s time for a change for the better. That’s the main reason some people don’t like using the GTS; way too many restrictions and an abundance of impossible to achieve trades. If this was changed to allow trainers to make their own decisions with their “special” pokemon, a lot more people would enjoy it.

I love most features of Pokemon Home, but just like other games, there are a few problems regarding pokemon that you can't trade. So many people are looking for mew, meltan, celebi, keldeo, and zeraora, but the problem is "This is a special pokemon and cannot be offered for trade". This is really annoying because EVERYWHERE I go, if I look up any pokemon, people are only looking for pokemon that are impossible to trade. I would recommend either not allowing these pokemon to be selected as the pokemon someone is looking for or just plain allowing traders to give their mythicals to someone else. Thank you for taking your time to read this, and thank you for fixing many other bugs people have noticed and written reviews on, Have a nice day!

-Some random person on the internet who plays pokemon moon way too much

PokémonHOME is really half assed, and the full experience is split between devices and locked behind a paywall, which has been increased this time around. You can’t access boxes in other games in PokémonHOME, you have to switch to the Switch app. You only get access to one box for 30 Pokémon without a premium subscription, which makes trying to trade for Pokémon a hassle. If you have a Pokémon someone is asking for but it’s not in one of the 30 free spaces, you have to load up the Switch app, move around Pokémon, come back here, then hope the trade is still available. Performance is horrible. You can’t search trades of people asking for a Pokémon you have, so you can only search for the Pokémon you want, and then hope somebody is asking for one you have. A lot of Pokémon are also not able to be used in Sword/Shield yet, so you can end up with free spots being taken up by Pokémon that can’t be moved out yet. I don’t know if this is how the previous service worked, but this is unacceptable.

Definitely frustrated as a Pokémon player who fell off but found my love for the game again with Pokémon go. I fell off around the diamond and pearl era so when I heard the new that i would be able to transfer some of the shiny Pokémon i had caught in go i was excited because they could become a part of my real team. Little did i know that you needed a version of the Let’s Go games (either Eevee or Pikachu) to move Pokémon from go there first then into bank where at that point you could access them in Home. Listen if you looking to move Pokémon from go in to sw/sh let me tell you now without the let’s go version it ain’t happening so don’t purchase this unless you plan to use the free version for something or have been consistently playing thru the years. Such a bummer.

Nintendo should be a little more clear when they hype things up. Waited months just to be let down.

I have 3 suggestions, one for each missing star on this review.

Crashing! Every day I use PokémonHOME I’m certain to encounter a blank white screen or PokémonHOME shutting off entirely. To be fair, this is new and we have plenty of room for updates and optimizations to look forward to I hope.

Wonder box takes hours, Why?? Pls fix

And finally now that we are on this new mobile platform, it’s a perfect time to fix the GTS. Let me filter “Pokemon they want.” If I have a pokemon that I want to trade but don’t have anything in mind, I want to be able to find someone that wants it. In this case I wouldn’t need to wonder trade all my breedject-pokemon and I can give them to people who actually want them. On another note, please expand the list of pokemon you classify as mythical and legendary. Under the filter I’ll still see the likes of regigigas, entei, landorus, and probably many more.

PokémonHOME has such huge potential and I want to love it, but I can’t force myself to pay the subscription for something so unpolished. If you can make the user experience more intuitive and reliable, your customers will be happy to pay for premium.

For the customers out there that read this far, if you love pokemon, of course download PokémonHOME . But I can’t recommend that you pay for premium in its current state, wait until these quality of life features are implemented. It will be worth it.

I love PokémonHOME , I love Pokémon. I grew up with the franchise and will always love it regardless of what happens. PokémonHOME is very convenient and neat to have on the mobile device!

My only issue however is the fact that people can use the GTS to request certain Pokémon like Mew or Marshadow but these Pokémon can’t be traded because they are ‘special Pokémon’. If this is the case why can these Pokémon be requested for trade? Is this something that will eventually be able to be done? I mean there are actually about 22 Pokémon that can be requested for trade but not given.

If this is resolved then I would have no complaints about PokémonHOME at all, and yes I’ve heard that you can trade these special Pokémon among friends but my friends don’t always have the Pokémon I’m looking for and that’s where the GTS comes in. Please Pokémon company, please fix this!

I am a nostalgic player who has played every Pokémon game and has accumulated a collection of Pokémon from many games into a Pokémon bank but I though, what’s the point of having them in there and there’s a new switch game.. but then they combine the 2 and I’m able to transfer all my Pokémon in Pokémon bank and get them to a new updated storage place for even safer safe keeping and I love the graphics and the way you can see the Pokémon stats and ribbons and everything. Just wish sword and shield would allow even more of my favorite Pokémon like legendarys and even other region dragon Pokémon like Salamance and dragonite. I love it and I hope the update allows more Pokémon in sword and shield in the future or is there going to be a new game out by then that holds more Pokémon in the Pokédex???!!!