Pokemon Black: Finished the main game!
And now for some thoughts!
I guess I'll work away the things I don't like first:
-Using nothing but Gen 5 Pokemon. While I understand they wanted you to use different ones, Gen 3 and Gen 4 did a good job of doing this by having a large number of the newcomers around (especially early on), but still had a few of the older ones in the mix. Taking away all of the Old Pokemon means that some expected typings like Rock/Ground don't exist, and its kind of annoying. It was nice always knowing that Geodude, Abra, etc. were available in case you were afraid of being overwhelmed by new Pokemon, and wanted a few steady strong characters. Furthermore, it promoted them making too many new Pokemon (this is the biggest Generation to date, and there's really little reason why it had to be), many of whom feel like they exist just cause "well, we need something to cover this niche!" Its clear they started running out of ideas when they started making Ice Cream and Candle Pokemon, as its obviously "Umm...we need an idea" "Hmm...Vanilla Ice Cream is good...hey, lets use that!" "Ice Cream Pokemon? Ok."
-Pokemon names. The past games all had far better and more amusing names. They were generally a lot more memorable, and filled with cute puns that helped make them so. Here, the names feel so...generic, and lacking any sort of word play half the time. Sometimes, they feel like direct translations. I understand it was a new localization team, but I went out of the previous games having no problems remembering names and associating designs. Here, I can't say the same thing...and no, I don't study Pokemon extensively and this generation is an exception; that usually happens AFTER I finish the game.
(Mind you, there were some bad names of Pokemon in the past games. For example...I still hate the name "Garchomp" <_<)
-Innate Skillsets. I mostly bring this up cause too many Pokemon have Taunt, Protect, Embargo, etc. Basically, useless shit you should never see outside of serious competitive play with very niche uses. Why do I complain about that? Well, using those 3 examples, Taunt and Embargo are 95% of the time wasted turns that basically say "Why don't you just give me the win?" and make some potentially remotely challenging fights bigger jokes than they should be. Protect is of course just a huge nuisance in the sense of "HA NOW YOU DI-*Protect* OH fuck you". Now, I will acknowledge that one boss had Toxic, I believe, and Protect actually works there cause it works with another move! but when you're beating up Shelmets in the wild, its just a time waster, and wastes PP, in a game where wasting PP outside of the E4 basically translates to MORE time wasting as its just "Walk back to the Pokemon Center."
-Encounter Rate. Pokemon Encounter Rates have always been a bit annoying, since you could get into an encounter by merely turning...but Gen 5 really made it stand out, cause i felt the encounter rate was higher. so many times I would win a fight, then I'd so much as turn (sometimes the wrong way) and an encounter immediately...yes, that's right, an encounter WITHOUT TAKING A STEP. This wasn't once or twice, but more like once or twice per dungeon. That paired with Wild Pokemon often being unevolved with assy EXP and the combined nuisance stalling skillset shit mentioned above, it makes Repel spam even more annoying.
-Dowsing Machine. Ok, more accurately, just the whole "You need to turn this off to access the menu." Seriously, they had a nice convenient Dowsing Machine (though HGSS's was pretty good too admittedly) and ruin it with that bullshit. There's no excuse for that other than being randomly inconvenient.
-The Starters. I've ranted about this before; no excuse for the uninspired (gameplay-wise) shit they pulled there.
So...what good things are there about the game?
-TMs are handled much better. I felt they limited who could learn what but maybe that was what I tended to use. Regardless, being able to use TMs over and over again at first sounded broken, but it works well enough especially since it means enemies can be fought on more even ground late game when they're hurling a their TMed to hell Pokemon at you. It also gets me out of that mindset of "Do I really want to use this now or wait?" The one thing I don't like that it does is kind of defeats the purpose of naturally learned moves, outside of "They learn this early."
-Finally recognizing people are not a fan of HM Whoring. Lowering it down to only the original 5, while keeping Flash a TM (ala Gen 4) and no real Out of Battle Purpose (yay learning Dark Dungeons are NOT FUN, and abolishing them and similar shit entirely), and making HM usage generally optional for special goodies is much better than the old "YOU MUST USE CUT TO GET THROUGH HERE WASTE A POKEMON SLOT!"
-Handling of EXP. Giving bonus EXP for killing a Pokemon of higher level makes raising lower level Pokemon so much easier, and promotes experimenting more!
-Plot. Ok, the plot isn't great or anything, but the fact that the writers actually sat down and tried to come up with something other than "Madman tries to rule the world WITH POKEMON!" and then incorporated it throughout the game, even as far as dealing with Gym Leaders and such (as well as making them actual characters, not just spontaneous bosses) to the point of the final boss actually being relevant, not just "CHAMPION OUT OF NOWHERE WHO WANTS TO TEST YOU HA!!!" ...well, it shows there was actual thought put into it. Game actually had a sense of EPICNESS in the last parts! Epic Plot sections...in Pokemon...ITS CRAZY I TELL YOU!
-An actual theme worth noting. If you try to find a theme in Pokemon games before it, you'll draw a big blank. This game having a genuine theme that's identifiable, and holding to it, and for like the first time ever having MORAL AMBIGUITY in a Pokemon game...seriously, it deserves props if only for at least effort. Granted, your trainer is still basically the ultimate Mary Sue of the world, but whatever.
-Reshiram's Existence FIRE/DRAGON TYPE FUCK YES I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR TOO GOD DAMN LONG! He's actually the reason I bought Black Version; despite how I was picking the Pig as my starter (He's a flaming pig, how could I say no? It also makes it that much more insulting that he ends up so boring
), and planned on using Victini (whose the reason I bought the game when I did; not passing up an easy promotional! Since he's the reason I GOT the game, I figure I SHOULD use him)
-Victini's existence. Oh hey, a Promotional who is a unique typing, and does cool stuff, and is still cute! I decided that once my starter fully evolved, I was doing something I never did in any previous Pokemon game, and punting him, and declaring Victini my new starter! I do not regret this decision, for all that yes, I'm aware that a 600 stat Promotional with good skill and 2 useful STABs is a bit wrong, shut up, its my way of playing!
-Pacing. once I actually got to playing the game, it started moving a lot faster than other games. Each town had a Gym for the most part, less bullshit Cave Dungeons, and trainer infested routes were generally shorter (though not gimped on gameplay), it made the game just far more fluid. Also, NO SURFING ROUTES doesn't hurt.
-Battle Speed. Plays with the above, fights just animated and moved faster than Gen 4 stuff I felt; I don't think I could possibly go back to playing Diamond after this (which I intended to replay for...whatever sake.)
New Stuff that apparently can play an effect but didn't matter to me cause of when I played most of the game:
-Weather system. Apparently this can be a bullshit thing but I found myself never caring so whatever!
Yeah, I left stuff out but shut up, I can't just remember anything! Anyway, its a good game to the series and all that. Honestly, I always felt Black/White came out too fast after Heart Gold/Soul Silver, being MORE entries on the DS, to get out just before the 3DS...but the game does not feel rushed at all, and that's really what counts. Quite the reverse, it definitely shows more effort than any previous Pokemon game.
At Comic-con, someone who imported the Japanese version of the game basically said that after Black/White, it comes off as "This is going to be the very last 2D entry in the series, so they were trying to go all out in every sense of the word!" and compared it to FF6 in that regard...and yeah, I can totally see what they mean. I'm not sure if I consider it the best Pokemon game ever, but...its definitely a good one, and doesn't feel like its lacking something the way Diamond/Pearl did (HGSS brought the series back up to standards...assuming Platinum didn't do it first, and from what I understand, it may very well have!)
So...8/10? Something like that.
