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Pokemon GO's latest update may have caused a few issues, as several players have reported that the event-unique backgrounds for creatures caught during the likes of GO Fest and the City Safaris are now absent. Redditor Koffietijd shared a post on the platform on December 13, 2023, sharing their own experience. Believing it to be a bug, they stated:
"Rayqyaza does not have London background anymore."
During Pokemon GO Fest 2023, Rayquaza was arguably the centerpiece of obtainable creatures across London, New York City, and Osaka, particularly due to the release of its Mega Evolution form during the events. If the creature was caught during GO Fest, it would normally have a special information page background showing the city it was caught in.
However, this no longer seems to be the case, and many other players are reporting missing backgrounds as well.
Pokemon GO fans discuss a potential bug removing special event backgrounds
According to Koffietijd, although their Pokemon GO Fest 2023 Rayquaza could still be found via the "location card" search filter, the graphic of London that would normally accompany a species caught in that city during the event wasn't appearing.
Other trainers shared their own frustrations in the comments, remarking that the Pocket Monsters they caught during recent city-based events were also missing backgrounds.
Based on Pokemon GO player reports, other creatures caught during GO Fest, like Groudon and Kyogre, also had missing location backgrounds. The same was even said for Xerneas, Yveltal, and creatures caught during the Hoenn Tour Las Vegas and the Barcelona City Safari. The latter wasn't even legendary, with a trainer stating that the creatures that lost their backgrounds were Eevee.
While plenty of Pokemon GO players shared their lament, others stated that their unique location card backgrounds were unchanged. This seems to support the theory that a recent update to the game caused some form of bug, removing some backgrounds while leaving others intact.
Fans speculated that the "download all assets" feature might be of help, and some trainers said a few of their Pokemon received their location cards again after restarting the game. Given the methods provided haven't worked for all players, it appears that the developers at Niantic may need to address this issue themselves.
Having a unique background is part of the appeal of obtaining creatures during Pokemon GO events, so it's understandable for trainers to be frustrated at losing them through no fault of their own. However, multiple posts have been made on the topic after the most recent game update, so it's possible that the issue has already caught Niantic's notice, and the studio is working to fix the problem.
To this point, the most recent statement made by Niantic Support concerned scheduled maintenance for Pokemon HOME, but it likely won't take long before players make the problem visible to the developers.
Hopefully, trainers can have their backgrounds restored as soon as possible, as many fans have limited patience considering recent controversies surrounding the game.
