This is your standard spoiler warning. If you don’t want Pokémon Black and White
spoiled for some reason then don’t even bother.
This was the first review I had ever done and was highly
influenced by The Nostalgia Critic.
People who have read it previously have enjoyed it and I hope you do
too. It is very long but I tried to keep
it both informative and humorous.
Ghost here! Glad you could drop by.
When deciding what I wanted to review I wanted it to be something relatively current, something many have played but not everyone, and something I could easily poke fun of. And what better to praise and destroy at the same time than Pokémon.
Ghost here! Glad you could drop by.
When deciding what I wanted to review I wanted it to be something relatively current, something many have played but not everyone, and something I could easily poke fun of. And what better to praise and destroy at the same time than Pokémon.
NO NOT THAT! I’m talking about the video games.
In Feb 1996, Gamefreak introduced to Japan a new Role
playing game called Pokémon Monsters Aka and Midori for Nintendo’s
Gameboy. It took the element of Role
Playing Games and mixed with an element similar to the insect collecting which
executive director Satoshi Tajiri-Oniwa enjoyed as a child. Nothing like
forcing your personal hobbies on the world, but fortunately for Satoshi, the
idea was a great one! It goes without
saying that the idea took the world by storm!
You practically couldn’t breathe at one point without hearing something
about Pikachu flaunting himself about.
Who would have thought that 15 years later, Pokémon would be the second
highest grossing franchise to Nintendo after the Fat Plumber himself. Apparently enslaving small creatures, forcing
them to fight, and telling ten year olds that they can leave their home and
fight their way to the top is profitable.
Who knew?
The franchise has made a multitude of “main” game
versions as well as countless spinoffs and is going strong. On March 6th, 2011, Pokémon Black and White
hit the shelves in America. Pokémon
freaks from all over flocked stores to buy it and I was one such
individual. As any good fan of the
series I did my research. I looked at the
version exclusives and the differences in the games and purchased white because
I found it to truly be the superior game in my opinion.
Don’t even start that!!
The world this time is far away from all the other
regions we’ve been used to seeing, the region of Unova. While all other previous games are based on
Japan, Unova is actually based on the United States, especially notable places
such as New York City. They’re gonna
screw this up aren’t they?
Main Characters
As with all Pokémon games in the Post-Pokémon Women’s
Rights Movement that brought us the glorious forerunner of Krys in Pokémon
Crystal, you get to choose your gender in this game. Also as per usual you get to select a custom
name for your character, however if you don’t want to be bothered to do that
you can go with their pre-set and completely cannon names of Hilbert and Hilda……and they’ve already lost
me. Those names? Really? Why not something like Jacob, Joshua, Ashley,
Amanda… stuff that’s, you know, COMMON in this country. How are the names Hilbert and Hilda supposed
to make me think of the United States?
Because it doesn’t at all.. it makes me think of Eastern Europe! Either that or we are in some sort of fantasy
earth where we all have friends with names like Abigail or something like that.
Yeah that’s not helping matters any… on second thought Taylor Swift songs tend
to be in this perpetual goodie fantasy world, and this game is a fantasy world
so…. What was I talking about again?
Both kids this time are slightly older than our usual 10
year old crowd from past games. This
fact was perceived as blasphemous by some but thoroughly enjoyable by others
(especially artists on the internet but I WON’T be getting into that!) I
personally enjoyed the slight change of age just because it’s something
different that doesn’t hinder anything about the game. Now
while their ages aren’t exactly set in stone they just look older than any
we’ve seen before. But let’s take a look
closer at their designs. The guy seems
pretty standard really. He looks like
like he’s trying to get into junior college but has hair straight out of Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And the
girl…well she looks like something out of a redneck’s fantasy. Can’t get any better than a trucker hat, a
white tank top, and Daisy Dukes for those with only a couple teeth left. Is this seriously what Japan’s view of US
teenagers are? Guys trying to be cooler
than they can possibly be capable of being so they just slip into not being
noticed, and girls that wear clothing that is far too revealing? …Actually yes,
firm grip on reality. Well played Japan,
well played.
Rivals
Your character is
accompanied by two friends who grew up in the same town as you, Cheren and Bianca. They will serve as your rivals for the game.
Although both do have some egregiously annoying dialogue
with the main character they are both really well formed characters. These rivals really work and you end up
caring about them…sorta. But before I
talk more in depth about each Character, let’s take a look back at previous
rivals and why they aren’t as good as this set.
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Blue/Gary Oak - Red/Green/Blue/Yellow/Fire Red/Leaf Green
Blue/Gary Oak - Red/Green/Blue/Yellow/Fire Red/Leaf Green
Now it’s hard to knock on the very first rival of the
game series too much especially when it’s Gary Oak. Gary suffers from that generic bully
syndrome. You don’t really know why he’s
being a brat he’s just a brat. His
grandfather is Professor Oak and that may have something to do with the size of
Blue’s Poke-ego but it’s never specifically stated. Red (your character) and Blue grew up in the
same town and Prof Oak lets Red pick his Pokémon first, but I don’t think
that’s justice enough to not only pick the Pokémon that can beats yours in
typing, but keep randomly stopping you at every turn to throw sand in your face
and fight. There’s really not much to
the character at all to make him the least bit likable. I understand he goes on to be the champ and
is booted within just a short time but there really is no character development
and no real purpose for him to exist other than shock value that he’s your
final battle of the game. I give him
credit for being the first true rival but really he’s nothing more than an
annoyance that needs to be taught a lesson.
Silver – Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heart Gold/Soul Silver
Now here was another rival you really just wanted to beat
the snot out of. He was ruthless, but an
absolute idiot! Let’s also not forget the girlish haircut. They tried to build
up the rival a little more by giving him some sort of extra feelings. While Blue was just being an all-around jerk,
Silver was flat being cruel. Another
difference between him and Blue is that he steals his first Pokémon because he
thinks it makes him hardcore. Since the
professor just GIVES you a free Pokémon when you turn ten, this proves his lack
of mental capacity, but oh well it made for something different I suppose. He wanted nothing but power and didn’t even
care about his Pokémon, or at least he said he didn’t care about them. This fact about his character always confused
me. If he didn’t care about his Pokémon
then WHY DID HE KEEP THE SAME EXACT TEAM THE WHOLE GAME?! You’d think if he didn’t care about them his
team would change each time you see him coming.
He eventually turns to a loving Pokémon trainer but up until that point
he falls short in the same area that blue did.
He’s just a jerk because he’s a jerk.
Nothing more to it. There’s no
reason behind his actions or attitude.
Now I understand in Heart Gold and Soul Silver they tried to add a
little extra storyline behind him with his father being Giovanni and his father
abandoning him and so on but honestly it took them ten years to re-release
those games and add that information. I
call this the George Lucas syndrome, but I’m not going to get on THAT topic
today.
Brandon or May, and Wally – Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
This was the first game in which we technically had two
rivals. WOW can you believe it two
rivals instead of one?! I bet this is going to be really great and…. Yeah I
can’t finish that sentence. These
characters are terrible wastes of time and data. Nintendo, need we remind you that quantity
does not mean quality? Which admittedly
is a problem with this franchise period but I’ll get to that later. First you have Ruby and Sapphire or as they
are otherwise called Brendan and May.
Now Nintendo tried to head back to the Gary Oak school of rivals for
this game cause Brendan/May was the kid of the Professor Birch who let’s be
fair here was probably the worst professor of the bunch. What other professor looks like a stoner and
gets himself chased and attacked by a level 2 Pokémon with no ways of defending
himself? And his children were just as
useful. Yes you fought them a couple times
and they gave you a couple cool items just being a nice kid but otherwise they
were completely forgettable.
Wally…… well Wally was odd. You see him just about as often as you see
Brendan and May then he sort of just disappears off the face of the planet. He tries to battle Flannery (I think) and his
Pokémon’s levels are just a joke. But
the next time you see him he’s got a team strong enough to probably beat the
Elite Four. I’m calling hax. Out of absolutely nowhere he shows up and
battles you at the end of Victory Road.
I gotta give him minor props for giving us enough time to forget he
exists before surprising us but just like Gary did. The three of them however are just an
unforgettable bunch.
Diamond/Lucas and Pearl/Dawn – Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
Sadly this generation was even more pathetic. The both of them were just dumbed down
versions of Brendan and May. I didn’t
think characters that were so useless could even BE dumbed down, but they found
a way. This set hung around the
Professor and helped you out just a couple of times and that was about it. Completely forgettable. It’s as if they weren’t even trying and just
slapped rivals in there for the simple sake that there are always rivals in
these games. This is just an absolute
failure on a platter.
Now that I’ve gone over all of the previous rivals let’s
get right to what is so awesome about Bianca and Cheren….. I haven’t forgotten
anybody have I?
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO DON’T EVEN LET ME GET STARTED ON
THIS ONE! Barry is to Pokémon what Uwe
Boll is to the video game franchise as a whole.
I gotta talk about something else before I break something. Yes, this character is THAT awful and
annoying.
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=======================================================================
Now back to Bianca and Cheren.
Both of these characters are more friends than they are a
rival (which is something we’ve really needed for a while), these characters
have flaws, desires, and quirks like any well thought out character should
have. You do something different in this
game than others. The three of you take
your first step onto Route 1 together. It’s
a little cheesy I admit but it was a nice sentimental touch. They fight you just to evaluate how each of
you has been doing, not to hold you back or anything. As opposed to the previous 2 generations,
they are constantly around you. There
are very few routes, cities, and storyline events in which they aren’t involved
somehow. They fight with you, fight for
you, help in the background, and even heal your Pokémon for you. That’s what a true friend/rival is supposed
to be. Let’s look at each one of them
separately though.
Cheren I honestly can admit is a little bit of an
annoyance at first. He has the generic
dream of being the most powerful Pokémon trainer in the world and wants to
fight you to see who is the better trainer while constantly being surprised
when his devastatingly under leveled Pokémon fail him. I truly thought he was going to be another
vomit inducing bore fest till the both of you meet up with the Champ. The champion of the region has a little chat
with Cheren about the importance of life and goals and Cheren really takes it
to heart. He calms down, quits being
annoying and really just becomes a bro.
Most of the second half of the game he chills out with the champion of
the region and goes in with you to fight off Team Plasma and assist in saving
the world. Eventually he decides that
his goal is not to be the strongest trainer but to be the next strongest
trainer after you and Alder, the champ, just in case the Alder and you fail at
stopping Team Plasma’s plans so he can step in and do whatever he can.
Bianca… Her original name in Japanese was Belle. Why couldn’t they have just kept that? Was the Beast getting confused? OK terrible jokes aside, Bianca is your other
rival. She has a lot of issues in life which make her just this amazing
character. Her parents are the type of extremely
overprotective overbearing parents that I have a personal distaste for in the
first place. Her father pretty much
forbids her to go with you and Cheren but she does so anyway. He later shows up in Nimbasa City to force
her to go back home but thankfully the city’s Gym Leader Elesa shows up and
informs him kindly that he’s being needlessly overbearing and to let her go
about her journey if she wants to. I’m
not exactly sure why Bianca even fights you other than just for laughs really
but she’s a fun character. At one point she actually gets her munna stolen from
her which starts this whole quest involving you, Cheren, her and two gym
leaders. At the end of the game she has
decided she will support you through whatever even though she’s nowhere near as
strong as you. She then decides to help
out the Professor and stay there allowing you to challenge her on Saturdays so
she can learn more about Pokémon.
The Pokémon
While the character selection and the rivals of the game
are excellent points that need development, what you really need is an ample
selection of desirable, powerful Pokémon to battle with. We’re in luck because there are TONS of Pokémon
in this game bringing us to a grand total of 649. But, I do have to say… WHAT THE HECK
Nintendo? Most Pokémon fans, like me,
watched as the Pokémon were revealed slowly in Japan, and most of us were
generally outraged at how most of this generation’s Pokémon don’t really look
like Pokémon. They look like someone
decided to give their five year old a crayon set and then just created whatever
the child drew, like they didn’t really care about quality. Let’s take a look at a few of them shall we?
It’s nice to see that Jack McFarland could make a special guest appearance
for us. Somebody’s FAABULOUS!
Why are Bert and Ernie in Pokémon and why are they dressed like Dojo
masters? This isn’t Pokémon this is a
gimmick character from Street fighter.
Clown Construction Workers. Just wrap your head around that one for a minute…. CLOWN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS. WHAT??
OH MYYYY!
I'm frightened but I can’t look away…
Give me a break people.
I know we needed some fresh new ideas for this entirely new region, but
some of this is just ridiculous! I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if
someone on the design team was just walking around their house and decided to
make up Pokémon on what they saw.
“Honey the trash needs to be taken out!” “Ok I’ll get it in a minut……HEEEEYY there’s a
great idea!!
“I’m hungry… what’s in the freezer? Pizza Rolls, Frozen Fish, Ice Cream Co… ICE
CREAM CONES????”
UGH that clock in the living room needs some new gears
it keeps getting stuck. New Gears eh?”
What is even going on anymore? I know the creative team that originally started the Mother series was whacked out of their minds but I think something they smoked left some residual effects. At least in previous versions they didn’t just find stuff lying around the house and make a Pokémon out of it.
OH WAIT YES THEY DID
Now having given all that criticism, not every Pokémon I listed
above are bad. Several of them are quite
good to have on your team. There are
some really inventive ideas and excellent looking Pokémon such as Druddigon and
Hydregion in this region so it’s not all a complete failure. And yes I do realize that when you get into
649 individual Pokémon you’re eventually going to have to come up with
something subpar. It’s going to happen
but… why did you dump most of them in the same region????
At least we got some good evolutions from this
generation!!
I mean take a look at those. Most of them seem very logical and well thought out. They flow well. I’m glad they finally gave luvdisc tauros and unown an evolution. They really needed it and… what was that? What? Speak up I can’t hear you.
I mean take a look at those. Most of them seem very logical and well thought out. They flow well. I’m glad they finally gave luvdisc tauros and unown an evolution. They really needed it and… what was that? What? Speak up I can’t hear you.
No 5th Gen Pokémon evolve from or to previous generations.
WHAT?!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Another useless Pikachu rip-off? You’re making unown continue to be a useless
gimmick? Tauros doesn’t deserve an
evolution? And there’s NO WAY you can honestly sit here and tell me that
Alomomola is not an evolution of Luvdisc.
I’m calling a severe foul here!
I also have to question the artistic integrity of some of
this. Some of these Pokémon are
beautifully made and others…Well look at this
This isn’t professional pixel art it’s doodling. I could do better than that in Third Grade
OK NOW YOU AREN’T EVEN TRYING!!!
For every good and well thought out Pokémon this
generation there is at least two piles of snot to bring up the rear, and I
think Nintendo realized this after they got the ball rolling. So, they came up with a plan which I do have
to admit is rather genius on their part.
They took out ALL previous Pokémon from the game till after you beat the
Elite 4 for the first time. This forces
you to acclimate yourself to the new ones, and lower your expectation to
accepting them for what they are and possibly getting rid of any pre-conceived
prejudices about them based on their design. The only way you can get some of your old
favorites is to either have a friend, who has beaten the main storyline
already, trade you a Pokémon/egg or to use what you have and beat the game
yourself. I wanted my heracross! So I begrudgingly played through the game
with the 5th gen only Pokémon so that I could eventually get my
wonderful bug. But it was somewhere
around the second gym that I started realizing the potential several of these
have and started really getting into them.
Darmanitan in particular became a major threat on my team. So as the old moral goes, don’t judge a book
by its cover.
GYM LEADERS
This wouldn’t be a Pokémon game without Gyms and Gym
Leaders. Now in my original review I
spoke about each one of them individually, but I’m just going to give the
highlights this time around. Cut out any
of the unnecessary and unfunny stuff.
This Generation, the gyms were still quite diverse as
before, but the gym leader’s personalities are diverse as well. Meaning that, you know, they actually HAVE
personalities this time. And you get to
interact with most of them not only in their gym but outside of their gym and
in the final showdown. Now that’s
taking care of business and getting to know these characters in a way we haven’t
really seen since Giovanni or to a slightly lesser extent, Crasher Wake.
The first thing I would like to point out is how amazing
the first gym is. First gyms have always
been just OK. This time around there are
three separate gym leaders who see what your starter is, and force you to fight
the one that has an elemental advantage against yours. That’s breathtakingly fresh and the kind of
challenge we haven’t seen since Yellow version honestly.
The rest of the gyms are your standard single type gym,
with a slight alteration that all but the last two gyms have alternate
identities as well. First one is a
restaurant, second is a museum, third is an art studio, fourth is a
rollercoaster, fifth is a working mine, and sixth is an airport. I absolutely love how they’ve integrated the
real lives of these characters and the gyms they have. It makes more sense for something like that
to occur.
As a complete side note, you may have noticed Lenora in
the lineup of gym leaders. I am happy to
say that Pokémon Black and White are the first game in the series that has
African American people in it, and Lenora is the first black gym leader. The fact that racial diversity is starting to
show in this series is really cool, and even though the number of black characters
is small, they get props for trying.
However any praise I might have given the team for doing this is
immediately tossed out the window due to how poorly they executed this as a
whole. Don’t believe me let’s take a
look. There are three black “main”
characters. Lenora the middle aged
female gym leader, Iris a female child gym leader, and Marshal a middle aged
male in the Elite Four (who is flipping awesome.) Three out of Twelve isn’t bad at all. Since there are black leaders there are sure
to be regular people of African American descent right? Brace yourself for this one. There are, but all of them are male
break-dancers who have monkey Pokémon.
Really? Someone at Nintendo
thought that was a GOOD idea? Also why
does Lenora look like an Aunt Jemima bottle given sentience? Might as well have given them all chicken Pokémon
with the way this is going. Also aside
from Iris who is a child, Lenora is the ONLY black female. Where are all these male dancers coming
from? Does Mama Lenora get around a
lot? It’s at this point I remember my
previous statement about how White appeared to be the superior game as far as
selection and surrounding. Coincidence?
Ah I kid this game a bit.
The stuff I said above isn’t really distracting unless you sit down and
overanalyze something. Which is
something I would NEVER do right? The
other cool part about the gym leaders doesn’t come till right at the very end
of the main storyline. When you go to
stop N, the six sages of Team Plasma appear to attack you all at once which
would surely crush you. But thanks to
Bianca’s quick thinking on how to help you, she went around to the Gyms and
asked the leaders to help. One by one
they file into the room and take on the Sages for you allowing you to head on
up to fight N. The only ones that don’t
show up are the three from the first gym, which Bianca later explains that she
just didn’t get to them in time.
Now THAT’S what
gym leaders are supposed to be doing in my book. When team rocket attacked the world twice,
what did the gym leaders of Kanto and Johto do?
Absolute Jack! When Team Magma
and Aqua stirred the world up, what did the gym leaders do? Aside from Wallace and Steven… sat around in
their cozy gyms! When Cyrus called upon
Giratina, only Cynthia was there to back you up and help you. Not these gym
leaders. These guys aren’t just faces to
hand you badges. For once they are
important members of the world and they are here to make sure their mark is
seen! This is something I hope continues
as the Pokémon games progress because it adds depth, and it makes it seem like
the world really matters to the characters, not just you and the evil
organization.
ELITE FOUR
Now if we have gym leaders, we, of course, will have Pokémon
League Members. Again those of you who
may have read this before will find this shortened.
As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now. The Gym Leaders were a fresh idea and well
executed. They did perfectly amazing
with them and I was glad for this change.
The Elite Four however, will not be receiving much love or glory. I do have to give mad props to the designers
of the 4 individuals’ rooms. Each room
is uniquely fitted to the style or personality of the Elite Four member and has
very unique and amazing ways of reaching them.
The atmosphere of those four rooms made me excited to meet the Elite
Four. However once I met them, with the
exception of one, I wished I’d never spoken to them, because they’re jerks.
Shauntal the ghost trainer isn’t even paying attention to
you or the battle she’s reading a book.
Grimsly, the dark trainer, doesn’t care who wins or loses nor about
anything in life really. He’s too busy
trying to project the image that he’s a vampire I’m half expecting him to
sparkle at any minute. Caitlin, the
psychic trainer, is ASLEEP when you go into her room. That’s right.. asleep! Marshal, the Fighting trainer however is the
only likable one of the bunch. He’s
tough but just a little generic. It’s
like if Bruno were suddenly a black man.
At least he doesn’t have a monkey though.
The thing that made me dislike them on top of their
terrible attitude is that the villain INFILTRATES THEIR LOCATION and they do
nothing about it. They leave it to you,
Cheren, the Gym Leaders, and Alder. It’s
like they were too high and mighty to move it.
Caitlin probably just fell back asleep.
Now granted you do have to face them again after the
first portion of the storyline to truly be the champion and beat Alder. During this round, Shauntal, Caitlin, and
Marshal become a little more likeable after that. Shauntal wants to write a book about you next
time, Caitlin says she loves battling you, and Marshal respects you. So at least they redeemed themselves in the
end. Grimsly still sucks though… too
much emo.
CHAMPION
Every Elite 4 has to have a champion and this one’s
champion is Alder. Alder appears to be
Native American which I honestly find epic since this whole region is based on
America that an “Indian” would be the most powerful trainer. Alder actually has a storyline to him as
opposed to others. I mean sure Blue’s
storyline was the game’s storyline and that was decent, Lance was just out of
nostalgia, Steven was around a little but not enough to make a big deal out of
things, Wallace…..umm no, and Cynthia
though a fan favorite, also wasn’t around much.
A key factor to all of those previous champions is that you were left in
the dark about their status. It’s as if
their champion status was some secret that you were supposed to be blown away
by, and in Blue’s case it worked. Not
Alder, he comes right out and says it the first time you meet with him. He works with you at trying to stop Team
Plasma and helps Cheren realize he’s going about things wrong.
The most interesting thing about Alder is his
backstory. He was chosen as the champion
rather than earning the right. He also
had a beloved Pokémon who actually died.
WOW! I mean I know we had the
whole Lavender town thing but never have we had a main character come out and
flat have a Pokémon die on them. Don’t
even start with that Blue’s Raticate argument either! As Alder is grieving over the loss of his
friend, he left the Pokémon league to search the world for meaning again and is
still searching when he finds you and Cheren.
Despite his rocky backstory, he doesn’t waste time being a pansy. This guy jumps off the edges of cliffs
without so much as a scratch! Chuck
Norris eat your heart out! The only thing offsetting about him is how he
carries his pokeballs around his neck because he doesn’t understand the Pokémon
box system. Now there’s a chance that
could just be a throwback to Native American’s and how they hold tradition
sacred, but I’m just gonna call it what it is.
If you’re going to be mildly racist to the African Americans in the
game, you might as well do it to any other racial minority. In the
end Alder returns to the Pokémon League to face N and is defeated by him. He’s really a character that you learn to
love with an interesting and dark story.
By far the best champion to date with Cynthia coming in a quick second.
TEAM PLASMA
All games need Antagonists; bad guys to be around and
generally mess up the world, and this game delivers. But is this team all that it’s cracked up to
be? Can it live up to the teams of the
past? To answer that question let’s take
a look at the teams of the past!
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=======================================================================Team Rocket - This group was founded by Giovanni, the Eighth Gym Leader of Kanto. What was their purpose? Well nothing’s really clear but their goal is, obviously, to take over the world!
What did they do to continue their plan? At separate
times they were making a lot money (Not even counterfeiting… just doing stuff
to make money), held a man hostage, killed one Pokémon, and took over the Silph
Company trying to get the top secret Master Ball. As I grow older I realize that they failed
because they were idiots with bad planning skills. When they kidnapped Mr. Fuji is when they
killed the Marowak. However did they
even NEED Mr. Fuji? The answer is NO not
at all. Whoever’s harebrained idea that was
failed miserably and was a waste of time.
Team Rocket was making tons of money, so why couldn’t Giovanni just BUY
the Master Ball? I’m sure he had plenty. Taking over the world requires brains,
people! But I do have to respect them
for being the first evil organization in the game and giving kids something to
remember even if their whole agenda was stupid, weak, and highly corporate.
Team Rocket Post-Giovanni – This was the attempt to
revive Team Rocket and get their leader to come back. It was laughably weak and overall ridiculous. All they did was chop off some slowpoke
tails, tick off some Gyrardos with radio waves, and then hijack a radio tower
just looking for their leader. If Team
Rocket still had so many members why not just SWEEP THE REGION ON A MANHUNT??? It’s not that difficult he’s in Tojo Falls;
just go get him. I give it a 9 for Nostalgia
and a 2 for pertinence in the region.
Teams Magma and Aqua were our Third Generation
baddies. They were a jumbled cluster of
a disaster to be perfectly honest. One
interesting aspect of Ruby and Sapphire is that whichever team was bad in that
version you were helping the opposing team.
That changed with Emerald when they were both bad so who knows if these
guys are really good or really bad in the long run. Team Magma’s idea is to awake Groudon and
cause the world to dry up and the land masses to increase. Team Aqua’s idea is to awake Kyogre and cause
the whole world to flood increasing the water even more. Which at first sounds cool but if you really
think of the logistics of these plans, these people are dumber than Team Rocket
could ever think of being. If Team Magma
got their way, sure there is plenty of opportunity for the land to expand since
most of the world is water, however doing such would also cause the harshest
deserts to expand as well due to the extreme draught making larger placed where
it’s almost inhabitable. So they haven’t
really expanded available living space they’re just sticking it to the
fish. Also no one is controlling Groudon
at all. So once they got to their
desired land/water ratio what is to stop him from just continuing the drought
and drying up the ENTIRE planet causing everything to die from lack of water? Or even worse, let’s go with Team Aqua’s plan
and flood the whole earth causing all the land animals to drown and contaminate
the water to where it’s saltier than the ocean currently. This also means no trees so nothing is
converting the Carbon Dioxide into oxygen.
So eventually everyone who even made it on to a boat would die or the
world would have so incredibly few people on it that it wouldn’t even be worth
living in. So yeah… they suck
And last but not least we have Team Galactic which was
headed by Cyrus, the self-proclaimed Space Messiah. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum basically had an
entire religious aspect to the villains and the origin of Pokémon
themselves. Between Dialga, Palkia, and
Giratina representing the beings of Time, Space, and Antimatter respectively,
and them having altars to them on top of Mt. Coronet, it really brought an
added scale to the villains that we hadn’t seen before. It was especially amazing in Platinum when
you went into Giratina’s Realm. Cyrus’
plan to use Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina’s powers to destroy the entire world
and rebuild it with him as the ruler was fresh and exciting. It was absolutely insane but it was fun! They were the best team in my
opinion….emphasis on were.
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Team Plasma DOES beat Team Galactic. Now if you were following the news from
Japan on this game, you like most everyone else was confused and uncertain
about Team Plasma as a whole based on what their organization stood for… Pokémon
Liberation! Their policy is that Pokémon
should not be trapped inside pokeballs and forced to serve masters. They should be free and separate from human interference.
Now this sounds exactly like something that would come out of PETA’s backside.
And just as PETA is full of massive hypocrites (don’t get
me started on them) Team Plasma is full of hypocrites. If they are after Pokémon Liberation, then
why do they use Pokémon? The old
argument of “I have to use what I can to save the rest” is absolute bologna and
everyone knows it. So cut the crap, Team
Plasma!! Despite my annoyance at that,
I still stand by the fact that they are the best team at least from a leadership
point because there is a good reason their leader believes this.
Team Plasma is run by N, a young man about the same age
as the Hilbert and Hilda or a couple years older, and Ghetsis his “father”
figure. It is N’s desire that all Pokémon
be freed from their trainers and able to live their lives free and happy. Away from the oppression and abuse that Pokémon
trainers give the Pokémon. He has been
proclaimed the King of Team Plasma and he travels around the world with his team. Ghetsis is the leading sage of the Seven
Team Plasma Sages. Wait… Seven Sages,
that sounds familiar…. Where have I heard of seven sages before……..
OH YES only one of the MOST SUCCESSFUL VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME!!!!
Ghetsis is actually a cunning and devious piece of
work. He had studied Team Rocket, Team
Magma, Team Aqua, and Team Galactic before starting Team and swearing to not
make their same mistakes. He started up
the team in complete secrecy and only once they were fully formed and ready did
they ever act. Quite possibly the
crowning jewel on his cruelty is what he authorized to have happen to N which
caused N to believe the way he does about Pokémon in general
N was a small child with a wonderful gift. He could talk to Pokémon and fully understand
them as if they were speaking English.
Ghetsis found out about this boy and kidnapped him while he was still
very young. Ghetsis isolated N deep
inside the Team Plasma Castle giving him no human interaction whatsoever other
than Ghetsis himself. In the place of
human interaction, Ghetsis “rescued” Pokémon from abusive trainers and gave
them to N. N spent his whole life around
Pokémon who feared humans or were resentful against them for the terrible
mistreatment that they had encountered.
N had no idea that there were trainers who loved their Pokémon. He only knew of the cruel acts which his Pokémon
friends had told him. Thus he grew up
with that mindset.
Which brings up the next point…HOW CAN N SPEAK WITH
POKEMON? How is that possible? Are we going to get some explanation as to
how this great ability is given?
No? You have no comment on that,
do you, game? Of course not; why should
I expect a game to explain something slightly magical? Speaking of which, how on earth can the chick
from Pokémon Coliseum see the shadow Pokémon for what they actually are?
Got nothing to say on that either? Of course not! Why am I surprised?
One of the best/most disturbing things about the whole
game, apart from N’s back story, is the fact that N still believes he is
right. He is fighting for his beliefs
just as much as you are, and he actually LIKES YOU. It’s always a little bit creepier that the
main bad guy flat out tells you he likes you and that he wants you to be the
one to fight him because he simply wants to see if his thoughts and dreams are
stronger than yours. The nonchalant
nature of it all is a little unnerving at times. He even flat tells you he is the leader of
Team Plasma at the mid-way point of the game.
Not a single care is given in this fact.
He just wanted you to know. In
the end he gets control of Reshiram/Zekrom and defeats Alder where he waits for
you to challenge him. After your battle
with N, Ghetsis reveals that the only reason this whole plan was started to
begin with was so that the general populous would get rid of their Pokémon so
that he and his team would be the only ones with Pokémon and therefore could
overtake the world with ease. Overall
this team has a devious background, a creepy friendly main front, and a secret
agenda that you don’t even know about till the very end. They really knew what they were doing with
this storyline.
Which brings me to the last section of this review, and
I’m sure you’re thinking “it’s about time!”
STORYLINE
This game ACTUALLY has a storyline. Sure there have been hints of a story
before. Stopping bad guys from taking
over the world and so on but this one has a REAL true story. Most people have a backstory and anyone
important in any way makes repeat appearances.
The only thing I can fault on the storyline is that at
times the history or a character or event is bigger or more exciting than the
actual character or event you will witness during gameplay is. The finale of the main storyline is slightly
cliché as well. The finale culminates
with the history of Reshiram and Zekrom.
At one point the two dragons were one single dragon who could be
summoned by two heroes of the world.
Slowly but surely the two heroes began to disagree. One began to give more importance to ideas
and ponderings, while the other kept importance on feelings and emotions. This split the dragon into two different
creatures, one following the other. Now
you can obviously tell where this is going.
N represents the hero who favors ideas while your character represents
the hero who is true to his heart. And,
of course in the end heart wins like it always does. While I don’t necessarily mind those clichés,
and actually still love the ending anyway I guess I was just expecting
something different.
CLOSING
So in the end, I do have to say despite the absolute
garbage and weirdness at times, this game REALLY is the best of the bunch. There are a lot of amazing features
introduced in this generation that I didn’t even have time to cover such as GTS
Negotiations, Rotation Battles, Triple Battles, and the PokeTransfer
Machine. TM’s are now reusable, and the
seasons change with the month. A lot of
thought and effort was put into this and it shows. This is, by far, the best Pokémon game to
date. Pokémon Black and White 2 are
supposed to be coming out soon in the US (or has it already been released??? I
don’t know) and I hope they continue the trend of excellence with those
games.
Thank you for reading all of this and I hope if you don’t
already have the game… go out and get it.
This is Ghost, fading into the shadows.
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