Pokemon Go Fest 2021 Review

July 19, 2021 at 4:24pm
By Jason Stettner

This is the second global digital special event hosted by Niantic being the special Pokemon Go Fest 2021 event. I was once again able to check it out, being generally excited to do so. It’s a once a year type of festivity, and it gets players all out working together. A sight that’s rather rare these days. I once again did prep work stocking up on balls and other items that might have been helpful.

I got too much I suppose, as I really didn’t end up catching a ton of things though I’ll discuss that more later on. This was a two day event on July 17 and 18, 2021. The time zones went from 10am to 6pm in whatever local time you’re in.

I spent quite a few hours across both days taking in the festivities in what I believe is the city’s most popular spot, that being Prince’s Island. It’s an area littered with Pokestops and creatures to collect. I also definitely tempered my expectations this year and was mostly satisfied by the value of the festivities this time around.

I once again brought a guest to come catching with me, and that was helpful for seeing how much you could get out of this. I also chatted with a couple of friends that were partaking, with them using slightly different areas of the city. I’ll start first by saying I was extremely disappointed by my shiny Pokemon results. I ended up with only three, the person I went with got five. My friends were nearly hitting on twenty.

This was rather drab in that regard, since I had six last year. I certainly was putting in the time, and just didn’t get many out of it which sucks. I did however get a pile of new Pokemon including a number of Legendaries that I hadn’t acquired prior. You could also get some really cool exclusive options that I’ll be talking about in the next section as I go over what the festivities did end up providing for activities to partake in.

The first day was by far the better of the two. They almost had a perfect balance of activities going on at once. First off you had an eleven part challenge which featured branching story missions if that makes sense. Every couple steps you would get to choose which of two special hat based Pokemon you wanted to work towards.

Once you reached the step you would get it. I was a bit disappointed they didn’t do a flip option the next day however, as I did miss out on one of them. You could have found some in the wild too, but this was rare. Whatever the case, it was neat to have branching choices as I ended up with something different from those around me which was nice. It just adds some good variety.

There were also hourly rolling Pokemon types to work towards in high numbers with incense being highly suggested. Then there were what I call Bingo cards on the far left of your quest tab to collect so many unique Pokemon from the various different hourly slots. This was great to give me something to do while waiting on missions or to finish something off.

Now, if Raids had been included in that day it would have just been perfect to remove down time. That wasn’t the case, so it was a bit slow at times but I certainly had more to do than usual. I really liked this day, it was even musically themed which was awesome. Just the perfect mix of activities really, it was good. I think they were definitely on to something with it.

Now, the second day while good for gathering Legendaries I never had, was ultimately quite disappointing. It was just sitting there and raiding. I did finish off a Bingo card from the other day since I had two Pokemon missing but in general it was a lot quieter. It was literally just sitting and battling without anything much to do.

The small quests you got were just for doing raids over and over. They could have at least mirrored the prior day, or something more as it almost seemed pointless to even spend the time. My one friend there already had all the raid bosses, so the day was essentially pointless to them.

In general I really like this event. It was better than last year with themes and overall goals to work towards. I do feel they can do more with it however. I had really tempered my expectations and while satisfied, I want a year to really blow me away. I got basically no shinies which was almost heartbreaking since I really look forward to this event.

While there was a better variety within the rolling hours, I still feel like they could add further diversity for catching. I also wish that in the future they may consider longer hours for the event in order to assist with those that have to work. The individual I went with last year couldn’t attend this year due to working, and to me that was disappointing.

Still, it was a fun time and it was great to see others out there playing. Celebrating some shiny catches, interacting and enjoy the days. The first day was nice, but the second was a bit gloomy. It also didn’t help that our park was under heavy construction, but still a grand time. I saw some Canadian geese roaming, people enjoy the day and in general those going out there to catch them all.

I have some complaints I suppose, some elements of disappointment but overall I had a good time and I look forward to hopefully doing this again next year. I think with that first day they were really onto something and I hope that continues in the future. Particularly I’d like to see more coop focused stuff, once Covid is more cleaned up I suppose. With that, there’s a spots to catch guide below, and the Pokemon Go hub for further game coverage.

Read our Pokemon Go Calgary Best Spots to Catch
View our Pokemon Go Hub