Niantic Labs has apparently been putting a lot of thought into its augmented reality mobile video game, "Pokémon Go," more specifically regarding its Pokémon Gym battles. This has been made apparent by the recent change in the game's Gym battles, which now adds a bit of strategy into the fighting mechanics.
For the most part, the Gym battles within the game haven't really gotten that much attention as players are mainly focused on catching the different Pokémon and completing the game's Pokédex. One of the reasons for this is that Gym battles are usually won based on the strength of the Pokémon used and not through strategy or skill. Most battles are even won by "button mashing" and then just waiting for one of the Pokémon to go down.
The Pokémon's type and its element still do play a part in the overall battle, but the moves and how they are used aren't really that significant during fights. A lot of players have complained about the lack of depth during Gym battles, and it seems like Niantic has now done something about it with the addition of a new "buffering" feature.
According to reports, the new feature has been discretely added to the game in a previous update and it now changes the way moves are used during battles. Timing is now made more significant when performing moves as a Pokémon will be unable to dodge an oncoming attack due to the new "buffering phase." Button mashing might also not work anymore as moves and dodges now have to be timed correctly for them to be successful.
The change itself might not really mirror the complexity of the battles in the previously released games in the franchise, but it might be getting closer to it as new changes might eventually be added in future updates. Other expected features that would be added to the game includes Pokémon trading, Pokémon trainer battles, and the addition of new generation Pokémon.
