Are people taking Ball Guy’s name a little too literally? Well, of course they are. You know the fandom of the super-wholesome Pokémon franchise. Let’s take a look at some of the wild things people are doing with the Trainer Card customization feature.
Pokémon Sword and Shield may have taken their share of flak in the run up to launch, what with the whole National Pokédex situation and all, but there’s no doubt that the games have brought a whole array of new features and tweaks to the familiar formula. We never knew how much we needed to be able to cook curries and watch Snorlax enjoy them, but now we have that feature in our lives, we can’t imagine ever being without it.
There haven’t been any major shake-ups in Gen VIII (this is Pokémon, after all), but little things like that have made a big difference. It’s hardly an open-world adventure, but the expansive Wild Area has brought us one baby-step closer to that Pokémon MMORPG fans have been desperate for. Who would have thought, though, that one of the additions with the most creative potential would be the humble Trainer Card?
As players will know, the Trainer Card is a simple feature that identifies your character online. It’s the equivalent of the Trainer Passport from the previous generation, but it features more prominently in online play this time around. Before battles, each player’s Trainer Card flashes on the screen, and you can share them with players you’ve encountered and keep them in an album. Prominent NPCs also have their own (and a special rare version you can get in the post-game, in the Gym leaders’ case), which give you interesting details about each character on the back.
They’re not all that customizable, to be brutally honest. You can choose a background, position your character in front of it, choose a pose, a special effect like flames, and… that’s about it. If there’s one thing gamers are good at, though, it’s taking the limited options they’re presented with and using them to fantastic, hilarious, and often disturbing effect. Take a look at this doozy from Twitter, for instance:
Oh, that Leon. He’s so dreamy. Redditor KyloZae then presents us with this less-than-classy Trainer Card featuring the caped Galar legend:
This is just solid gold. Finally, just in case you were worried that the mistreatment of Ball Guy and Leon by the world’s Trainer Card customizers would never end, here’s something a little more mellow, courtesy of Reddit’s Uberj4ger:
That’s super sweet.
