Now, before I start, I will say that if you read my last two Pokemon Shuffle-related entries, you will know I enjoy the game despite some of its issues. That said, I find the entire way Mega Lucario/Lucarionite is being handled is awful. There’s no good reason to do it this way and the only real reason I can find in order to do so is just to encourage purchases.
Mega Lucario is sadly only available to the top 20,000 in North America (top 20,000 for PAL regions and top 50,000 for Japan). I am guessing Japan’s total is because maybe it was more downloaded there, but it’s still kind of unfair that the numbers are not the same. At the moment, I am currently in the top 1,000 and I am hoping I can stay there… but nearly 100,000 people have played this level at the time of me writing this–98,716 to be exact. That means 78,716 people will not be getting Lucario’s Mega Stone and that is completely awful.
This is, up until this challenge anyway, a single player game. And in a game where “Gotta Catch ’em all” is a slogan, making something that can only be gotten through competing with other people and then being limited on top of it is really really cruel. Heck, the whole reason I stopped collecting promo cards was due to the special ones being given out at the tournaments and I just do not care for the competitive part of Pokemon (or Battle Frontier-like things as a whole in the games).
While some people think that this is only temporary and others will be able to get this later, there’s no real confirmation for that. And considering you will be using a heart and 10,500 coins (afterall, there are two items to buy and buying both gives you the best chance) for every single attempt, it goes up. Even if you managed to save up some coins, you will run out. And when something is timed and also a competition, you want to try until you’re sure your score is good which means there is a likely chance you’d end up buying gems in order to make sure you can keep trying.
A better way to have done this and to encourage playing/checking in would be if the Mega Stone was a participant prize with the top whatever number getting gems, hearts, or coins. Maybe even some combination or placing depending on what. But the way it is now, it feels that encouragement is being placed elsewhere.
And with Venusaur, Charizard (who can get two), Blastoise, Pidgeot, Absol, Heracross, Sceptile, Blaziken, Swampert, Scizor, and Aerodactyl also missing their Mega Stones, it feels like these kinds of competitions may become a thing and that’s just… incredibly disappointing. Even more so if new Pokemon start getting introduced this way too.