Pokemon Black Lacks Magic

[jjboat]

i talked about this in an earlier post. While what you say could possibly be true of Mario's spin of games, Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel are far from rehashes of old gameplay and are truly innovative on a level to level basis. The main Zelda titles have major gameplay differences like ocean travel or being able to transform into a wolf. Same structure but with some really amazing new mechanics. The same cannot be said of pokemon. to say that mario and zelda have not made significant innovations and changes is a very uninformed statement. Seriously? you think Super Mario Galaxy and The Wind Waker took the easy route? Give me a break.

Not similiar in the a way a pokemon game is similar. Each zelda title adds a lot of unique elements that litterally change the way the game feels. Combat is always different, the look and graphics are always a major departure from the previous game. The differences between Ocarina of time and majoras mask? major differences. The time system, the mask transformations are major departures. Wind Waker added a ton of new items and a world divided by the ocean, not to mention the entire look of the game had been boldly redesigned. Twilight princes, while being a throwback to older games was still totally unique in its execution with the twilight world and wolf transformation and much deeper combat. Pokemons changes have never been that drastic, brave, or noticeable. From a gameplay perspective they feel nearly identical every title.

While Zelda has more differences between different games overall, many of them still are way to similar in my opinion.

 

[jjboat]

I still don't understand why people hate the 4th gen so much. Its my favorite generation along with the second generation.

As for pokemon white, I think its great, its not the best of the series but all the little improvements help, moving pokemon sprites isn't revolutionary but it is certainly a welcome change. Graphics have gone up through the roof as well.

Online interactions are also great.

I still don't understand why newer generations keep getting hated by people, and I grew up with this shit since it hit America.

HM wise, it does get annoying to have to teach my bird how to fly when they are a fucking bird. But then again, what ever.

The first generation, despite being the first, isn't close to my favorite generation, there litterally isn't anything to do after you beat the elite four.
The second generation did it just right, everything was just about perfect, I can't think of many complaints towards it.
The third generation, despite having some cool pokemon, just didn't work for me, location wise was awesome and felt limitless, but it also felt....off. I don't know, pretty much either flooding or burning the planet wasn't the best way to go when it comes to teams.
The fourth generation was the stimpak the series needed, I have clocked in, in total 748 hours on my diamond cartridge, why? So I could get that perfect pokemon, I felt the need to get it just right for the online play, not to mention have the designs in the 4th generation were actually cool, this generation has even created my favorite pokemon yet!
the fifth generation is where all the fire seems to be, I love it so far, it's close to being as good as the second and fourth generations but in terms of locations, damn is it awesome.

If there is one thing that does sadden me is that people who enter a pokemon discussion claiming that the first generation was best and there really were no other pokemon after that.

Like I've said before, I am not a first gen loyalist, and with each new title i come in with an open mind, hoping they really blow me away. the last 2 haven't done it for me, although gen 4 did have some pretty cool pokemon designs.

 

[jjboat]

I would now say "Nostalgia Filter", but I haven't played the game yet and that would probably be too cruel.

If that was the case then i would be biased to both the first mario and zelda games i played, but that is not the case, i feel the newer games are just as good if not better, in spite of my nostalgic ties to the older games.

 

[emeraldrafael]

HM wise, it does get annoying to have to teach my bird how to fly when they are a fucking bird. But then again, what ever.

I think the reason for that is because some pokemon are birds but cant fly. Actually, what raises a question to me is how grounded bird (doduo) get the ground immunity when they dont fly. I was hoping they would address that.

 

[Solo-Wing]

I personally thought the story was dry, and the cities are not very memorable either. I hated how you are not required to get the HMs, and what I hated most is that until you beat the Elite Four, you do not see a SINGLE 4th gen and under. That was the one thing that was nawing at the back of my mind during my play-through.
The cities were not memorable because they did not put any thing the players actually needed in any of them. It hurt bad to put the GTS in the pokemon centers. If they made it a building in one city that would give me great reason to keep traveling to that city. Plus I hate the Battle subways. I miss the battle frontier. And none of the 5th gen gyms never really left a mark on me. Mainly because the types were so repetitive. The 7th gym is ice and the 8th gym is dragon? How fucking original.

Though I did like the Elite four. Being able to fight them in any order won points in my book.
Another thing that was eating at me through the game was that pokemon Black and White were advertising Triple and Rotation battles. I played the entire story and only got ONE rotation battle. Like WTF. There are not enough of those battles!

But I never played Pokemon for the Story. I play because I like to collect and battle. Being able to train a team and building the perfect strategy was always fun and brought joy to my younger years and it is good to see that the idiots at GameFreak did not fuck that up.

 

[Solo-Wing]

YOU SEE NOTHING!!!

 

[Sir-jackington]

probably just because its so old and played out now

 

[jjboat]

I personally thought the story was dry, and the cities are not very memorable either. I hated how you are not required to get the HMs, and what I hated most is that until you beat the Elite Four, you do not see a SINGLE 4th gen and under. That was the one thing that was nawing at the back of my mind during my play-through.
The cities were not memorable because they did not put any thing the players actually needed in any of them. It hurt bad to put the GTS in the pokemon centers. If they made it a building in one city that would give me great reason to keep traveling to that city. Plus I hate the Battle subways. I miss the battle frontier. And none of the 5th gen gyms never really left a mark on me. Mainly because the types were so repetitive. The 7th gym is ice and the 8th gym is dragon? How fucking original.

Though I did like the Elite four. Being able to fight them in any order won points in my book.
Another thing that was eating at me through the game was that pokemon Black and White were advertising Triple and Rotation battles. I played the entire story and only got ONE rotation battle. Like WTF. There are not enough of those battles!

But I never played Pokemon for the Story. I play because I like to collect and battle. Being able to train a team and building the perfect strategy was always fun and brought joy to my younger years and it is good to see that the idiots at GameFreak did not fuck that up.

Uhg i didnt even mention the gyms. They should be challenging in design, instead you just go in with a pokemon that is the right type and own everything. The first gym was actually really cool, the others were just poorly designed. Sure they were visually appealing but the puzzle element was far too easy. the next game should introduce difficulty levels.

 

[Erana]

Well, I feel very different than you, but that's OK. I just... can't understand where you're coming from. I feel like RSE was a horrendous nosedive from which I didn't think the franchaise would recover. Its just... Like if you shoehorned the anime into a Red Version cart.
If it weren't for the severe jolt of Nostalgia I got from the anime, I'd utterly despise it, too.

Now, I loved G/S/C too, and really liked it because its pretty dark for a pokemon-related thing. I mean, the experience was that I played sportsman using my skills in raising pokemon to stop gangsters from abusing animals.

Diamond and Pearl, for me, were them picking up the pieces after having crashed the series with R/S/E, and turning it into something new and cool. Rediculous, cartoony designs? Hell yeah, let's embrace that! Crazy, stereotypical anime bad guys with good ideals? Let's go with that too, then. Rival confusion? Um, have more likable characters and more tough battles?

From what I've seen, Black and White are building upon everything Diamond and Pearl did right, along with throwing in some of the things they forgot in G/S/C, and try to put it in a whole new setting. I'm waiting for a price drop or two, but I bet I'm gonna love it.

Oh, and one more thing that I like from Diamond/Pearl: a feeling of use for training pokemon outside of the metagame. I'm glad to see that they're really embracing the full level scale, rather than stopping at level 55 like in the original. I went back recently to my Blue version, doing a Poison-type run, and thought to myself: I just kicked Koga's butt ten levels under his weakest mon. Why should I bother putting any effort into training?

That's just one factor that's going to be there, simply because the game industry has grown up a bit.

I dont watch the anime, haven't for years, But i don't understand your stance against R/S/E. The Music was the best in the series, it introduces double battles and the Hoenn region had some very memorable locals. The Storyline was simply par for the course but not any worse than the later games. The pokemon where also very cool. My only complaint is the omission of the day and night and day of the week cycles, though they added the awesome weather effects. Also it has to be noted that it was the first game with the running shoes, and the incredibly deep berry system. Diamond and pearl really just showed the series' age. It introduced nothing revolutionary and many of the pokemon were sub par. Black and white is the best from a balance and streamlined gameplay perspective, but the journey never feels special.

Just personal prefrence- I LOVE 8-bit chiptune, but generally dislike 32-bit music, for one. The storyline was too... anime-ie for me. "We're an evil gang, but not really! We're just trying to help the world. The super-demigod pokemon is going to HURT the world? Our bad. Please go save the world now, thanks!"
I don't like saving the world, especially when I'm supposed to be just a kid participating in a sport about supernatural puppies and fire chickens. At least infiltrating Team Rocket was relatively feasible.
The locales were just... very unbelievable, and right out of the anime. People living in identical treehouses? Sure. People living on coral pokemon? GREAT!
Pulling that sort of stuff would have never worked out in RBY/GSC, and marks a dramatic change in the level of realism the pokemon world itself. Because pokemon is totally realistic.
I've defended the new designs of pokemon many times (The pointless stripes 'n spots, lack of defined physical features, and utterly pointless whirly-gigs) because Pokemon follows the style Japan in general produces mascot art with. It doesn't mean I like it.
Why couldn't they have left rayquaza green? WHY DOES THE SKY DRAGON NEED LIPSTICK?

I can't imagine NOT liking Black and White; I'll see for myself, but I'm going to be terribly biased by the terrier pokemon. I fucking love terriers.