(Today is my birthday, but Planned All Along rarely takes a break ;) )
Go read the parts you may have missed:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Team Plasma is out of the way, the Elite 4 has been vanquished… now it’s time to discover everything else this game has to offer – namely, many Routes and towns you couldn’t go to just yet.
Go read the parts you may have missed:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Team Plasma is out of the way, the Elite 4 has been vanquished… now it’s time to discover everything else this game has to offer – namely, many Routes and towns you couldn’t go to just yet.
First off, as soon as you get the Surf HM and use it
on a Pokémon, you can go back to previous routes and surf on some water
sections. Route 1 has a path that leads to Route 17, which is all water. There,
you can find a lot of interesting items and also many Trainers to battle. This
leads to Route 18, an island where you can get a Larvesta egg. The mighty power
of the Volcarona will be yours in a few thousand steps and 58 levels!
Next is Mistralton Cave. One of the legendary trios
this Generation is a group of Pokémon based on the Three Musketeers. The first
one you can find is Cobalion, at Level 42, in Mistralton Cave (on Route 6).
After getting Cobalion, you can go look for Virizion in Pinwheel Forest and
Terrakion in the Trial Chamber of Victory Road. Then you could also get Keldeo, back when they were giving away Pokémon for the fifth Generation.
I can Angrish too, you know. |
But of course, just because you’ve defeated Ghetsis
doesn’t mean you’re done with the story! You see, after Ghetsis was arrested,
the other six Sages took off to hide in other parts of Unova. When you start
the game after beating the Elite 4 a first time, you’ll meet Looker, an
Interpol-like agent who wants to catch all of these wanted Sages and trusts
that you’ll be able to deal with them. You’re also given an amazing fishing rod
so that you can fish as you please. The Sages are, for the most part, hidden in
places where you’ve already been, like the Cold Storage, so be sure to revisit
every location to find them. It doesn’t really reward you anything… but hey,
when you’re a hero, you want to finish the job, right? You know what they say: Gotta catch 'em all!
Bravo, Looker. Now pack that Sage out of the Cold Storage and question him. Hopefulyl, he won't leave us... *puts on sunglasses* ...in the cold. YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! |
Moving past Opelucid City, we can go on Route 11, then
see the Village Bridge, then Route 12, then Lacunosa Town. By talking to
people, you can learn a legend about the town; one day, long ago, a meteor
crashed near it, and a mysterious creature appeared. If you’re interested, a
Level 75 Kyurem can be caught there. However, be ready to face very powerful
Pokémon in the cave that surrounds the area. You can get there through Route 13 and into the Giant Chasm. Past
Route 13 is Undella Town, a vacation town near the sea where you can find many
rich families during their break. Sinnoh Champion Cynthia can also be met there
and fought. Next to Undella is a bay, and beyond that bay there’s the undersea
ruins of a castle in which you can find tons and tons of interesting treasure.
It’s like the Great Cave Offensive all over again! The ruins also contain the
then-17 Plates needed to change Arceus’ type. In Undella Town, it’s also
possible to battle a whole family of rich people with increasingly strong
Pokémon teams, with the possibility to make a very nice amount of money when
you defeat them all.
You can also catch three more Legendary Pokémon, the
Forces of Nature: Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus. Tornadus and Thundurus are
version-exclusives, and they start roaming Unova after you speak to someone.
Look for the stroms! Once you’ve caught the version-exclusive one and traded to
get the other, you can go into Route 14, enter the Abundant Shrine, where
Landorus will appear if you have the other two in your party. Be sure to catch
it! Damn, there are so many Legendary Pokémon in this region… I mean, it’s not
as bad as Sinnoh, which had one new Legendary for every 7 new normal Pokémon...
Next up are White Forest and Black City, a feature that
differs for each version; you battle Trainers in Black City, and catch Pokémon
in White City, and both sides are improved when using the Entralink feature,
given that you didn’t reach the place too late in the game; personally, I never
got to enjoy these two places due to not being able to exchange about it with
my friend the Pokémon fan. In the end, this is another thing thought up by Game
Freak that will have happened in only one Generation, and it’s probably better
that way. It seems that players thought this mechanic was poorly executed. Past the Black City/White Forest is Route 15 and then the Marvelous
Bridge.
Each subway brings you to a new type of battle. Try not to get lost. |
Zen Mode Darmanitan. |
What else can I think of that I still haven’t said
about this Generation? …Tough question… I could talk about the C-Gear, but I
never could use it… the Global Link, which I couldn’t use for this one but
managed to use in Gen 6, and I love that feature. It’s alright I guess, but it
had some failings when you were trying to, say, trade a Cofagrigus or either
Nosepass or Probopass, due to name censors. They mostly corrected it over time, but not in Gen 5!
Um… this was also the first time Pokémon battle sprites were animated? I guess
that’s pretty cool! I think I got ecstatic when I realized Pokémon put to sleep
actually closed their eyes! Um… this is the first game where TMs, like HMs, are
infinitely reusable! Now that was a breakthrough! And, um… I think that’s it?
Gosh, what a fantastic game. The updates on the
Pokémon franchise were great ideas. Each Generation gets better than the last
in many ways, and Gen 5 saw many upgrades to the series that are really great.
Really, it would be quicker for me to say what wasn’t working as well, but some
of these points are in the previous paragraph. Since there are things I haven’t
tried, namely anything related to the wi-fi connection, I can’t pass judgment
on those. That includes the Dream World...
Let’s see. The Black City and White Forest seemed like
good ideas on paper but their execution was sloppy. To take full
advantage of that section, you have to access it in less than a week after
you’ve started playing! And you’re likely not to find out about it until after
that week has passed! Not to mention it requires the Entralink, and a copy of the
opposite game… all so much trouble. In Generation 5, the Experience system is
horrible. You need to get into very difficult fights if you want to have any
noticeable amount of experience, which is impractical for those who like to
stay a few levels ahead, forcing even more tedious level grinding. Thanks,
Audino, for existing! (Of course, Audino could also be strong enough to be your doom.) While I'm at it, now that we've seen the menus of Gen 6, those in this game feel really slow, and it's tedious as all Hell to move around 600+ Pokémon in the PC.
I also believe these games really went overboard with rival battles. You can't go from a gym to the other without battling either Cheren, Bianca, or N. Bianca has an interesting character arc and N is the villain, so battles with him are justified; the game also justifies his attitude through his backstory. However, while Cheren is fairly well set up as a character from the get-go, he quickly becomes annoying as he seems to have only one thing to say: "Gotta be stronger! Gotta be stronger!" And even after he has some sense knocked into him by Alder, he's still an annoyance that fights you just because he can. Pokémon X and Y had more rivals, but they were varied and had more interesting personalities.
I also believe these games really went overboard with rival battles. You can't go from a gym to the other without battling either Cheren, Bianca, or N. Bianca has an interesting character arc and N is the villain, so battles with him are justified; the game also justifies his attitude through his backstory. However, while Cheren is fairly well set up as a character from the get-go, he quickly becomes annoying as he seems to have only one thing to say: "Gotta be stronger! Gotta be stronger!" And even after he has some sense knocked into him by Alder, he's still an annoyance that fights you just because he can. Pokémon X and Y had more rivals, but they were varied and had more interesting personalities.
However, for everything else, I don’t have much of a
reason to complain. The designs of some Pokémon? I can live with that. I
particularly enjoy how the types seem to be spread evenly over the Dex,
allowing you to meet many Pokémon of different types very early on, and letting
you thus build a varied team before the second Gym even comes around. And
unless I’m mistaken, this is also the first Generation where Pokémon in the
regional Dex were placed pretty much in the order you encounter them in the
wild, starting in Nuvema Town. The new touches in battle are very nice too,
from how Pokémon are now animated to how things like weather effects appear on
the bottom screen instead of the game reminding the player about them every
turn.
But truly, Pokémon Black and White shine by their
story, which takes more risks than the usual Pokémon plot. Instead of having
villains who try to use unstoppable forces of nature to destroy the world, Team
Plasma represents a moral dilemma for Pokémon owners. Not that big of a dilemma
since it’s pretty clear most Trainers are actually decent people and Pokémon
battles are a regulated competition that forbids anything openly cruel,
anything that goes beyond the loser fainting. Team Plasma marks the first time
in the main series game where the villains a) haven’t already taken control of
the place (unlike in Orre), b) aren’t planning to use Legendary Pokémon to
cause large-scale damage to the world (à la Teams Aqua, Magma, Galactic and, to
some extent, Flare since Xerneas or Yveltal were required to activate the
ancient superweapon), and c) are actually trying to pass off as good guys
following some kind of ideals, thus actually trying to speak with the public
and expose their view. They’re also the first time where the Team leader hid
behind someone else while they schemed in the shadows. This entire story is
basically Game Freak acknowledging the backlash to their formula and actually
showing in which ways the complainers are mistaken. Team Plasma does, however,
manage to convince some people during the story, and some of the grunts bring up
valid arguments. When they're not hypocritically attacking Pokémon behind people's backs, that is.
I should note that after the original Team Plasma
disbands at the end of Black and White, we find them split in two factions in
Black 2 and White 2: One that tries to reform and honestly liberate Pokémon,
and the other that fully embraces the terrorism the Team ended up using. It’s
another interesting spin on the usual Pokémon formula. On the other hand it
does make you wonder which Plasma grunts in the original Black and White were honest about their goals and
which ones knew about the hypocrisy and went along because they wanted Ghetsis
to rule.
All of the characters are well-developed, and this, as
soon as they appear. Cheren and his obsession with strength (as annoying as he may be); Bianca and her
uncertainties; N and his extreme friendliness despite being a villain and,
ultimately, being revealed as nothing more than a pawn; Alder, who shows more
personality in his first appearance than some other Pokémon villains have in
the entire game where they’re featured; and Ghetsis, who excels at manipulation
by pretending to be a reasonable figure, that is, until he turns out to be the
megalomaniacal “Take Over The World” type of guy. As far as Pokémon stories go,
this is pretty much perfect on every side. The Gym Leaders get their moment,
the Champion is given more spotlight, and the villains are great… All in all,
this is a very interesting story.
Should you be put off by not being able to use Pokémon
outside of Gen 5 until you beat the Elite? No. It means you need to be able to
use Pokémon you’re not used to have, but it’s a nice change of pace. And for
the four or five Pokémon designs you don’t like, there are 40, 50 really cool
Pokémon designs! Honestly? I recommend these games. There’s nothing else I can
say. Pokémon is Pokémon; it’s a guaranteed seal of quality. The games may not
be equal in how good they are, but you can be guaranteed that they’re good.
Alright then, I think this round of review has been
long enough. This concludes the third anniversary on Planned All Along. I was
kinda hoping to do something special for it, but then I realized I didn’t have
time… but I’ll find other things to do to make up for that. Next week, a Top
12; then I’ll probably do a Wii game review immediately afterwards. Then I’ll
finish looking at the Kirby games in Kirby’s Dream Collection…
Alright then! See you next week!
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