Welcome back to the Planned All Along third
anniversary review! Go back to read Part 1 if you haven’t!
Aw, I haven’t played this game in almost two years,
yet I still remember my first team. It had a Samurott, a Liepard, a Zebstrika,
a Simisear, an Unfezant and a Musharna. I loved them, they carried me through
all the challenges of the game. It speaks volumes how much one learns to love
these animals, even if they’re nothing else than packets of data. One of the
advantages of Generation 5 was that it tried to have examples of most types
even early on in the game, allowing for a wide diversity of teams over the
first three Routes.
"Challenged"? Please. There is no way he can be a challenge. |
Dammit N. Might doesn't make right. Right makes might. To believe the former, you must be thinking that you live in a video game. |
Yes, Lenora is here, and she will school you from Nuvema to Opelucid and back. |
At the end of the forest, we find a grunt and an old
guy who claims to be a Plasma Sage. There’s seven of them, and this one’s named
Gorm. They give the dragon skull back and Team Plasma leaves the forest. We go
back to give Lenora the skull, then we can continue on this journey… through
the absolutely impressive Skyarrow Bridge. After Skyarrow Bridge is Castelia
City.
Wow, this place is huge. I hope I’m not gonna get
lost. Eh, it’s not as bad as Lumiose City. There are many places to visit here,
many Trainers to battle. One building contains a statistics center, which was very interesting… well, until the Wi-Fi connection was terminated, which
happened before I bought that game. Dammit, I just can’t shake the feeling that
I’m missing so much due to being late on fads all the time. Cheren comes out of
the Gym victorious, and Burgh follows; we meet him on one of the piers, and he
explains that Bianca had one of her Pokémon stolen by a Plasma Grunt. We follow
the grunt inside a building located right in front of the City Gym, and see it’s
inhabited by none other than Team Plasma: Some Grunts, as well as Sages
Bronius, Rood and Ghetsis. So this hideout was located right in front of the Gym, and nobody noticed.
Wow, it IS true; in big cities, we give no damns about who our neighbors might
be. Thankfully, none of the sages put up a fight, and Ghetsis begrudgingly
hands over Bianca’s Munna, stating that by living right in front of the Gym,
someone was bound to notice.
…No, ya think? It’s like a money laundering scheme opening
right in front of the police station. You know someday your neighbors will find
out and bust in with a can of whoopass. In this case, Burgh would probably
blast every Plasma grunt with his Bug-type team. Hell, Plasma, I can't believe I'm saying that, but get some advice from Team Rocket; they were wise enough to hide their headquarters under the casino in Kanto's Celadon City... In Gen 1! And Erika saw nothing!
The honey is a lie! |
But I’m just raving now.
After defeating Burgh, we get a call from Bianca. She
wants to battle Nick. Of course, this means she loses, and at first she’s sad…
thankfully, she soon gets her happiness back by realizing how many experiences
she gains on this journey, and each adventure brings her closer to figuring out
what she wants to do in the world. I wished every review would get me closer to
what I want to do…
Okay, I’m not bothering you with my problems, let’s
move on. North of Castelia City, there’s Route 4, a desert with a heavy
sandstorm. Unpleasant, but a nice chance to catch a lot of new Pokémon!
Darumaka, Sandile, Scraggy… Nick also encounters Cheren again and a rival
battle ensues. When defeated, Cheren admits that the player won because of the
trust he has in his Pokémon, but that giving his Pokémon more power will allow
him to overcome the obstacle you represent. Again, that obsession with power... He's so fixated, I could sell him a Power Glove and with the word Power in it, he'd never realize it's a pile of crap. So, the two friends move to Nimbasa
City, where they meet Prof. Juniper who gives them Ultra Balls. Yay, better
chances at catching Pokémon! Before going into the major cultural city of
Unova, we can explore Route 4 some more, finding the Desert Resort, which
contains a few more Pokémon to catch. Desert Resort is also home to the Relic
Castle, which is mostly inaccessible for now – though enough floors are open to
allow you to catch some particular Pokémon, like Yamask, a ghost which is said
to have been born from the soul of a human who died. So, wait a second, if I
breed Cofagrigus and hatch a bunch of Yamask, where do those come from? …Oh
God… I prefer not to think about that. There are some things in the world you shouldn’t
think too hard about, and Pokédex entries are one of them. Hell, these were probably written by a kid, so I don’t know how much credence I should give that
info.
Hello? Is there anybody in there? |
Also, Yamask may be sad little guys, but when they are happy in Pokémon-Amie it's such an incredibly cute thing... |
However! Here, the fictional location and the
real-life event it represents are separated by a layer of legend. The Relic
Castle’s towers didn’t fall due to a terrorist attack. The Castle was built
long ago, by one of two brothers of legend, one which represented Truth, the
other which represented Ideals. And when I say “long ago”, I mean it – at least
two millennia ago. Very little remains of the story, but it’s implied that the
legendary dragons of this generation had a part in the event that destroyed
Relic Castle. A war between brothers, the clash between truth and ideals. You
can still feel the desolation and the sadness that surround the place, the
impression that what happened here became a regrettable part of History – that’s
the other thing that hasn’t changed between the fictional place and the
real-life event. And here, it’s brilliantly put together. I love this kind of
thing.
After visiting whatever little can be seen of the
Relic Castle (and getting a fossil on the way), we can see Nimbasa City. This
place is simply beautiful. No wonder it’s the center of arts in Unova. I’m gonna
like this place.
There’s the Battle Subway, where a Trainer can participate in all kinds of Pokémon battles. North is the Musical Hall, one of the new features in
the game. See, this takes inspiration from Broadway and allows your Pokémon to
partake in a bit of dancing. Cute to an extreme and kinda interesting… the one
downside I can think of is that the Pokémon aren’t scaled to their real sizes,
but that would be a lot of trouble to set up. Some would dwarf everyone
else. On the other hand, if the bigger Pokémon were in the background and the
smaller ones at the front, maybe… Oh, I’m overthinking things again. Musicals
are simple; you dress your Pokémon in different props (which can be collected,
there’s a big number of those), then it goes on stage and you can control some
of its actions. Finally, after the show, your Trainer can go around to get the
audience’s reaction to your Pokémon’s performance and be rewarded with more
props. An interesting concept, with a lot of interesting ideas, but it’s not
for me.
Still, Nick meets Bianca there and they learn about
the mechanics, then come out to encounter Bianca’s father. Uh oh. Is my mother
sending you to punish me for leaving with my room still a mess? Oh, he’s here
for Bianca. The two get into a big argument, but in the end it just turns out
her father is a little overprotective and doesn’t want her to get harmed. This
is a strong, touching moment, where Bianca affirms that she’ll figure out what
she wants to do before she comes back home. I like moments like this. I swear,
it’s like I can only say good things about this game! It’s crazy! What happened
to my anger outbursts? Oh right, they’re still around, just not as awful as
they were back in my second year doing this site. I’ve gotten more analytical
lately. I don’t want to think about the next thing that could set me off…
So, next to the Musical Hall there’s a sports center
where you can fight Trainers. East of the city there’s an amusement park with a
nice ferris wheel. Oh, and N. Uh oh. N says Team Plasma is hiding nearby and
they should use the ferris wheel to see where they might be. Um, sorry, I don’t
take amusement park rides with my enemies. Well… you’re not an enemy per se, but by principle I try not to spend too long around people who may be my enemies. However, the game doesn’t give you a choice, so you take a ride with N. The
green-haired boy explains that he’s actually the King of Team Plasma, and he
was given this role by Ghetsis on his quest to free all Pokémon from their
owners.
"Spoiler alert: I am the bad guy." |
After this encounter, we can get into the Nimbasa Gym. Led by Elesa, this Gym contains Trainers using Electric-type Pokémon. Nick travels across floating platforms thanks to roller coasters, defeats Trainers, and reaches Elesa. She’s not a very simple opponent to defeat as her two Emolga and her Zebstrika know many annoying tricks, but soon she’s defeated and hands to the player the Bolt Badge.
Alright then, I believe it’s time to continue on our
adventure. Moving northwest of Nimbasa City, onto Route 5 the road for
entertainers of all kinds: Dancers, musicians… A neat place on the way to the
next City, the next Gym. However, as soon as we enter that Route, we meet
Cheren who wants a battle. Aw, again? I swear Cheren, you always want to battle
me! It’s getting ridiculous! It’s like I can’t make three steps without you
running at me and going “Let’s battle! I gotta be stronger than you this time!”
Gotta give it to him, he does get stronger with each encounter. But still,
he just can’t win. The story doesn’t allow him to win.
That’s when Elesa comes in, and brings the boys to a
man named Alder. With his weird outfit and his extravagant haircut that would
make Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists blush, the guy sure attracts people’s attention. He’s quickly revealed to be none other than the Champion of Unova, on
his umpteenth trip across the region. Hearing about Cheren’s ambitions of
becoming stronger, Alder puts the two boys to the test against a duo of
preschoolers. Nick and Cheren win the battle, but Cheren still won’t shut up
about becoming stronger. Alder knocks his ego down a few notches by asking him
the perfect question: Why. Why become stronger. What will you do once you’ve
become stronger. You can be the strongest Trainer, but that means nothing if
you have no reason to keep such strength. Power without reason is pointless.
Alder encourages Cheren to find a purpose, then leaves. At the end of Route 5,
we reach Driftveil Drawbridge, which is currently raised. Elesa will ask for
the drawbridge to be lowered, and Nick can now run through it towards Driftveil
City.
The adventure continues!
…In Part 3!
No comments:
Post a Comment