Since I imported Pokemon White I figure I should do something useful like talk about it. This is likely going to be my only Import Report though since this is the only game I've imported which is relevant. Nobody outside of Japan is getting JUMP Ultimate Stars and, I missed out on the upcoming Fist of the North Star AKA, Dynasty Warriors: Fist of the North Star edition (which I still can't believe is being released outside of Japan).
*This is your warning that you are about to face a wall of text and possible spoilers*
Now then, I got Pokemon White on the 20th of September and recently beat The Elite Four which technically constitutes 'beating the game'. In order to truly beat the game, you need White, Black, Heart Gold, Soul Silver and, to wait for Nintendo to release every legendary Pokemon over Mystery Gift. You also need to play at least one day out of every in-game season but I'll get into that in a minute.
Since this is the first game in the 5th generation of Pokemon, everything is new (in theory). The game takes place in the Isshu region which is a completely new region. Unlike every other Pokemon game ever, there are several cities, caves and, forests locked and unreachable until after you beat the elite four as opposed to the usual one-or-two. Since you've got all badges before getting to the elite four, I see this as a strange move. I've been to White Forest and found nothing but 1 pokecenter and 1 house. The other town is just a collection of houses I've yet to fully explore but, which are likely populated with trainers and people who will give me things if I promise to leave their homes.
Lets talk about the cities and towns a little bit more. Pokemon White (and Black I guess) utilizes more than one camera angle to to convey the scale of each area you enter. For example, in Hiun City when you're on the dock the camera will zoom out to show you as a small sprite. In the same city, walking down the single alleyway shows a close-up of the sprite to convey the closed-quarters. It seems like Hiun is the only city which is a city since many streets of it's streets contain an endless stream of people running back and forth. This is more impresive on Skay Arrow Bridge where the camera obediently follows you as you walk up spiral-stairs and over a large bridge into Hiun City. Below you are cars and trucks and below the bridge boats floating lazily across the river below. It's a really cool scene and shows just how far the series has come.
Hiun seems to be the only City with a city-sized population but, the other cities (while lacking in population) are more than just X number of buildings + 1 gym + 1 Pokemon Center. Each town and city has unique attractions and/or landmarks. Before I continue, there are no Pokemarts in Isshu; the Pokemon Centers and Pokemarts have combined into a two-story building which for whatever reason reminds me of Barnes and Nobel. Granted, each town that DOES have a landmark other than a Pokemon Gym only has one like, the museum in Shippou City. Adding to the look and feel of the towns are the presence of little things like a dilapidated railway, an ice cream stand, a fountain, a Ferris wheel, etc. The places seem to be more alive and more defined than past titles.
Now a Pokemon game would be nothing without the Pokemon. Before you get the National Pokedex, every Pokemon you encounter is new to the series. The types remain the same as they have been since Silver and Gold (no light and dark yet) but telling which Pokemon is a rock and which one is a psychic is a bit trickier than before since many of them don't bother doing this by color anymore. For example there is a Pokemon who is plainly a fish but is brown and yellow. This is a ground/electric type. Another Pokemon looks exactly like a rock but is a psychic type. There are obvious ones though like the ice-cream Pokemon which are ice types. The candle pokemon is a fire type but also a ghost type for whatever reason. As for the starters, there is a grass type snake, a fire type pig (that becomes yet another fire/fighting type) and a water-type otter.
Unlike every other Pokemon, you have 2 'friend' characters and 1 'rival' character. The 2 friends take the starters you shun and for the first time ever, your first 'friend' battle is your Pokemon against the Pokemon who is of a weaker element. After the fight your room goes from neat to disaster area, missing only a small fire. Your Pokemon are healed and you fight the traditional starter-of-a-stronger-elemental-type. Also new to the series is the fact that the first gym leader you fight is completely dependent upon which starter you chose. If you chose the grass type (like me) you fight the gym leader with a fire-type. This would have been cool but before entering the gym, you are given a Pokemon of the element that is better than the gym leaders (I was given a water type).
Other than that the Gyms are continuing their descent into madness disguised as fun. One of them has you riding roller coasters, another has you being shot out of cannons and there is the ice one which is the 7th one once again but at least the 8th gym is a Dragon gym where you fight a different gym leader depending on whether you got Black or White! Oh wait, they have the same Pokemon at the same levels never mind. The first couple of gyms are reminiscent of early games since, even though the first one gives you the best possible Pokemon for the job, the levels of the Pokemon you fight are pretty high which makes grinding very, very necessary unless you enjoy the taste of fail.
The Elite Four is different as well. Unlike other games you can face any member of the Elite Four in any order you wish. After all of those gyms, the Elite Four seems a bit anti-climactic though as all of their Pokemon are level 48...except for the last one they chose to use which is 50. Also new is the fact that you don't fight the Champion the first time. You see in every other traditional Pokemon, the evil 'Team' is defeated and gone around the time you either have the 7th badge or right before you pick it up. In White (and Black I guess) Team Plasma is still kicking until the very end. Instead of fighting the Pokemon Champion after the Elite Four you fight the Legendary Pokemon on the cover of your box. Then you fight N who is built up as being the child-leader of Team Plasma (he is also the 1-rival character I mentioned earlier). Then you fight Geechis who is the actual leader of Team Plasma. So instead of one final battle you get 2-and-a-half (since the Legendary Pokemon doesn't have a party of 6 Pokemon for you to fight).
Speaking of Team Plasma, lets talk about the plot. I don't know Japanese but I have picked up on one or two things. Team Plasma thinks Pokemon should be equal to Humans and wants everyone to stop using Pokemon to help them in their day-to-day lives. They do this by practicing the exact opposite of what they preach. They attempt to capture Munna so as to manipulate people's dreams. They also want to summon up two Legendary Dragon types for...uh...well, I'm unsure to be perfectly honest. As for the legendary dragons, check out the box art. N is a Child King and leader of Team Plasma but he is given orders by Geechisu who is actually in charge but whom you never fight until the end of the game. He also looks like a color-blind Kefka cosplayer who isn't into make-up.
Now then I've touched on this a bit but haven't really talked about the difficulty. This is a Pokemon game after all but the difficulty seems a bit inconsistent. For example, being the nerd I am, I used the Mystery Gift feature to get the Liberty Ticket so as to catch Victini. To get to the port, you need to first go through 2 gyms and about 4 or 5 routes/ areas. When you get to Victini your party will likely be 5-10 levels above it and there is a chance of a one-hit KO which isn't a big problem, just an inconvenience. A problem comes after you beat the Elite Four and topple Team Plasma. After the credits roll and you choose continue playing there are still 4 towns and, several areas left unexplored (which I mentioned before). What I didn't mention is this: the first time I went to Route 11 (which is locked until you beat the Elite Four), the first wild Pokemon I encountered was the same level as my Pokemon (about level 48). The first trainer I encountered had Pokemon whose level was in the mid 60's. My Pokemon were barely in the 50's! I felt blind-sided and did the only thing I could, turned the game off to play Dead Rising 2. At the moment, I'm still trying to level. My Pokemon are all level 52 at the moment and I'm still reluctant to fight trainers because they're either grossly over-leveled (lvl65 average) or grossly under-leveled (lvl35 average). As for Legendary Pokemon I've encountered since the Elite Four, the 3 stationary ones I've found were level 42 and the roamer was level 40 making it difficult to get their health low as opposed to depleted completely.
As for toys and features, you can either be a boy or a girl. There are in-game seasons which change every real-world month. Apparently, each season changes the look of Isshu but the change is subtle and, apparently different areas open up in winter. Your character also wears season-appropriate clothes but I haven't noticed that yet. My clothes in spring were the same as my summer garb (blue jacket, black pants, white shirt, red shoes, stupid hat). I still haven't seen Autumn or Winter so there are 2 more opportunities to see different outfits. You are given a C-Gear which is a real-time display of people in your immediate area also playing Pokemon Black or White. Once you detect another player, you have the choice of instantly battling or trading with them. Since I'm the only person I know who has this game and, I didn't get both colors, I haven't used that feature yet.
There is a Dream World which I haven't used yet either because I don't understand how to and a Pokeshifter which is this games equivalent of the Pal-Park. Once again, I haven't used that. I'll wait until the U.S. games come out so I can use my native language as a crutch. Finally there is the Pokemusical which takes the place of the beauty contests from Sapphire and Ruby. I haven't tried this mini-game due to lack of interest although during the mandatory tutorial, I dressed up my Hiyakki (a blue, water-type monkey) in a Top-hat and Cane which was entertaining but, I had leveling to do and couldn't be bothered by mini-games. As for a feature that won't leave Japan, you can chose whether you want to play with Kanji on or, without Kanji like every other Japanese Pokemon release. I am trying to use this to familiarize myself with the characters but it isn't helping much and I'm not surprised although recognizing the Kanji for 'water' was the same kind of fun children have when they finally understand a difficult math problem.
Since I imported and am forced to use the DSlite (FYI: If you plan on importing this, make sure you have either a DSlite or, a Japanese DSi/ Japanese DSiXL) I can't play with the DSi features but it looks like video-chat is the only thing I'm missing out on. No big loss really. Once I am able to use it I won't because I have no friends who are still as into Pokemon as I am which isn't surprising.
On the whole I had fun with White and am not done with it by any means. The next event-only Legendary should be available in mid-October and I am hoping it's Melodia. I plan on getting the U.S. release of Black when that comes out mainly for more Pokemon but also to see just how convoluted the story actually was. I'm hoping the difficulty curve is smoothed out a bit for the U.S. release but based on what I've seen of HG/SS I think the only thing that will change is the language.
-----
Like I said, this is the only relevant game I've imported and I'm already about a month late for a review. This is likely going to be my only Import Report because I don't have a steady source of income, I don't know Japanese too well and, the other Japanese games I have aren't likely to leave Japan. Also, unless you couldn't tell, I'm not too good at this whole writing thing (notice how I didn't tell you if you should pre-order the game or, give it a score). Also-also, the DS is the most import-friendly console so it is unlikely I will ever actually import and/or review say, Monster Hunter on the 360 or, one of the millions of side-scrolling
jet-fighter games like Raiden IV.
EDIT
I forgot to mention the soundtrack. Pokemon White has the best soundtrack of any Pokemon game EVER. The only problem is this: you're fighting a Legendary Pokemon, it knocks your health into the red and you switch from a sweet track to the dramatic, 'your-health-is-low' music which must have seemed like a great idea at the time. Yes, it does impress upon you that you are about to lose a Pokemon and you should probably heal but it interrupts the great music you would be listening to as you battle Team Plasma, a Gym Leader or, Zekruom.
Now go back to ignoring me!
*This is your warning that you are about to face a wall of text and possible spoilers*
Now then, I got Pokemon White on the 20th of September and recently beat The Elite Four which technically constitutes 'beating the game'. In order to truly beat the game, you need White, Black, Heart Gold, Soul Silver and, to wait for Nintendo to release every legendary Pokemon over Mystery Gift. You also need to play at least one day out of every in-game season but I'll get into that in a minute.
Since this is the first game in the 5th generation of Pokemon, everything is new (in theory). The game takes place in the Isshu region which is a completely new region. Unlike every other Pokemon game ever, there are several cities, caves and, forests locked and unreachable until after you beat the elite four as opposed to the usual one-or-two. Since you've got all badges before getting to the elite four, I see this as a strange move. I've been to White Forest and found nothing but 1 pokecenter and 1 house. The other town is just a collection of houses I've yet to fully explore but, which are likely populated with trainers and people who will give me things if I promise to leave their homes.
Lets talk about the cities and towns a little bit more. Pokemon White (and Black I guess) utilizes more than one camera angle to to convey the scale of each area you enter. For example, in Hiun City when you're on the dock the camera will zoom out to show you as a small sprite. In the same city, walking down the single alleyway shows a close-up of the sprite to convey the closed-quarters. It seems like Hiun is the only city which is a city since many streets of it's streets contain an endless stream of people running back and forth. This is more impresive on Skay Arrow Bridge where the camera obediently follows you as you walk up spiral-stairs and over a large bridge into Hiun City. Below you are cars and trucks and below the bridge boats floating lazily across the river below. It's a really cool scene and shows just how far the series has come.
Hiun seems to be the only City with a city-sized population but, the other cities (while lacking in population) are more than just X number of buildings + 1 gym + 1 Pokemon Center. Each town and city has unique attractions and/or landmarks. Before I continue, there are no Pokemarts in Isshu; the Pokemon Centers and Pokemarts have combined into a two-story building which for whatever reason reminds me of Barnes and Nobel. Granted, each town that DOES have a landmark other than a Pokemon Gym only has one like, the museum in Shippou City. Adding to the look and feel of the towns are the presence of little things like a dilapidated railway, an ice cream stand, a fountain, a Ferris wheel, etc. The places seem to be more alive and more defined than past titles.
Now a Pokemon game would be nothing without the Pokemon. Before you get the National Pokedex, every Pokemon you encounter is new to the series. The types remain the same as they have been since Silver and Gold (no light and dark yet) but telling which Pokemon is a rock and which one is a psychic is a bit trickier than before since many of them don't bother doing this by color anymore. For example there is a Pokemon who is plainly a fish but is brown and yellow. This is a ground/electric type. Another Pokemon looks exactly like a rock but is a psychic type. There are obvious ones though like the ice-cream Pokemon which are ice types. The candle pokemon is a fire type but also a ghost type for whatever reason. As for the starters, there is a grass type snake, a fire type pig (that becomes yet another fire/fighting type) and a water-type otter.
Unlike every other Pokemon, you have 2 'friend' characters and 1 'rival' character. The 2 friends take the starters you shun and for the first time ever, your first 'friend' battle is your Pokemon against the Pokemon who is of a weaker element. After the fight your room goes from neat to disaster area, missing only a small fire. Your Pokemon are healed and you fight the traditional starter-of-a-stronger-elemental-type. Also new to the series is the fact that the first gym leader you fight is completely dependent upon which starter you chose. If you chose the grass type (like me) you fight the gym leader with a fire-type. This would have been cool but before entering the gym, you are given a Pokemon of the element that is better than the gym leaders (I was given a water type).
Other than that the Gyms are continuing their descent into madness disguised as fun. One of them has you riding roller coasters, another has you being shot out of cannons and there is the ice one which is the 7th one once again but at least the 8th gym is a Dragon gym where you fight a different gym leader depending on whether you got Black or White! Oh wait, they have the same Pokemon at the same levels never mind. The first couple of gyms are reminiscent of early games since, even though the first one gives you the best possible Pokemon for the job, the levels of the Pokemon you fight are pretty high which makes grinding very, very necessary unless you enjoy the taste of fail.
The Elite Four is different as well. Unlike other games you can face any member of the Elite Four in any order you wish. After all of those gyms, the Elite Four seems a bit anti-climactic though as all of their Pokemon are level 48...except for the last one they chose to use which is 50. Also new is the fact that you don't fight the Champion the first time. You see in every other traditional Pokemon, the evil 'Team' is defeated and gone around the time you either have the 7th badge or right before you pick it up. In White (and Black I guess) Team Plasma is still kicking until the very end. Instead of fighting the Pokemon Champion after the Elite Four you fight the Legendary Pokemon on the cover of your box. Then you fight N who is built up as being the child-leader of Team Plasma (he is also the 1-rival character I mentioned earlier). Then you fight Geechis who is the actual leader of Team Plasma. So instead of one final battle you get 2-and-a-half (since the Legendary Pokemon doesn't have a party of 6 Pokemon for you to fight).
Speaking of Team Plasma, lets talk about the plot. I don't know Japanese but I have picked up on one or two things. Team Plasma thinks Pokemon should be equal to Humans and wants everyone to stop using Pokemon to help them in their day-to-day lives. They do this by practicing the exact opposite of what they preach. They attempt to capture Munna so as to manipulate people's dreams. They also want to summon up two Legendary Dragon types for...uh...well, I'm unsure to be perfectly honest. As for the legendary dragons, check out the box art. N is a Child King and leader of Team Plasma but he is given orders by Geechisu who is actually in charge but whom you never fight until the end of the game. He also looks like a color-blind Kefka cosplayer who isn't into make-up.
Now then I've touched on this a bit but haven't really talked about the difficulty. This is a Pokemon game after all but the difficulty seems a bit inconsistent. For example, being the nerd I am, I used the Mystery Gift feature to get the Liberty Ticket so as to catch Victini. To get to the port, you need to first go through 2 gyms and about 4 or 5 routes/ areas. When you get to Victini your party will likely be 5-10 levels above it and there is a chance of a one-hit KO which isn't a big problem, just an inconvenience. A problem comes after you beat the Elite Four and topple Team Plasma. After the credits roll and you choose continue playing there are still 4 towns and, several areas left unexplored (which I mentioned before). What I didn't mention is this: the first time I went to Route 11 (which is locked until you beat the Elite Four), the first wild Pokemon I encountered was the same level as my Pokemon (about level 48). The first trainer I encountered had Pokemon whose level was in the mid 60's. My Pokemon were barely in the 50's! I felt blind-sided and did the only thing I could, turned the game off to play Dead Rising 2. At the moment, I'm still trying to level. My Pokemon are all level 52 at the moment and I'm still reluctant to fight trainers because they're either grossly over-leveled (lvl65 average) or grossly under-leveled (lvl35 average). As for Legendary Pokemon I've encountered since the Elite Four, the 3 stationary ones I've found were level 42 and the roamer was level 40 making it difficult to get their health low as opposed to depleted completely.
As for toys and features, you can either be a boy or a girl. There are in-game seasons which change every real-world month. Apparently, each season changes the look of Isshu but the change is subtle and, apparently different areas open up in winter. Your character also wears season-appropriate clothes but I haven't noticed that yet. My clothes in spring were the same as my summer garb (blue jacket, black pants, white shirt, red shoes, stupid hat). I still haven't seen Autumn or Winter so there are 2 more opportunities to see different outfits. You are given a C-Gear which is a real-time display of people in your immediate area also playing Pokemon Black or White. Once you detect another player, you have the choice of instantly battling or trading with them. Since I'm the only person I know who has this game and, I didn't get both colors, I haven't used that feature yet.
There is a Dream World which I haven't used yet either because I don't understand how to and a Pokeshifter which is this games equivalent of the Pal-Park. Once again, I haven't used that. I'll wait until the U.S. games come out so I can use my native language as a crutch. Finally there is the Pokemusical which takes the place of the beauty contests from Sapphire and Ruby. I haven't tried this mini-game due to lack of interest although during the mandatory tutorial, I dressed up my Hiyakki (a blue, water-type monkey) in a Top-hat and Cane which was entertaining but, I had leveling to do and couldn't be bothered by mini-games. As for a feature that won't leave Japan, you can chose whether you want to play with Kanji on or, without Kanji like every other Japanese Pokemon release. I am trying to use this to familiarize myself with the characters but it isn't helping much and I'm not surprised although recognizing the Kanji for 'water' was the same kind of fun children have when they finally understand a difficult math problem.
Since I imported and am forced to use the DSlite (FYI: If you plan on importing this, make sure you have either a DSlite or, a Japanese DSi/ Japanese DSiXL) I can't play with the DSi features but it looks like video-chat is the only thing I'm missing out on. No big loss really. Once I am able to use it I won't because I have no friends who are still as into Pokemon as I am which isn't surprising.
On the whole I had fun with White and am not done with it by any means. The next event-only Legendary should be available in mid-October and I am hoping it's Melodia. I plan on getting the U.S. release of Black when that comes out mainly for more Pokemon but also to see just how convoluted the story actually was. I'm hoping the difficulty curve is smoothed out a bit for the U.S. release but based on what I've seen of HG/SS I think the only thing that will change is the language.
-----
Like I said, this is the only relevant game I've imported and I'm already about a month late for a review. This is likely going to be my only Import Report because I don't have a steady source of income, I don't know Japanese too well and, the other Japanese games I have aren't likely to leave Japan. Also, unless you couldn't tell, I'm not too good at this whole writing thing (notice how I didn't tell you if you should pre-order the game or, give it a score). Also-also, the DS is the most import-friendly console so it is unlikely I will ever actually import and/or review say, Monster Hunter on the 360 or, one of the millions of side-scrolling
jet-fighter games like Raiden IV.
EDIT
I forgot to mention the soundtrack. Pokemon White has the best soundtrack of any Pokemon game EVER. The only problem is this: you're fighting a Legendary Pokemon, it knocks your health into the red and you switch from a sweet track to the dramatic, 'your-health-is-low' music which must have seemed like a great idea at the time. Yes, it does impress upon you that you are about to lose a Pokemon and you should probably heal but it interrupts the great music you would be listening to as you battle Team Plasma, a Gym Leader or, Zekruom.
Now go back to ignoring me!
Can't wait to get this game, heh. Pokemon's managed to hold my interest fairly well since the days of Red/Blue/Yellow. Can't wait to see what the new game is like.