Zero Punctuation: Pokemon White

[Flare Phoenix]

Funny review as always. I like the fact this game is trying to have a plot beyond "kid wants to become Pokemon master and evil guys are jerks for the sake of being jerks".

 

[Maclennan]

Heres the question he missed, what do the people in that world eat since every animal and most of the damn plants are pokemon?

I think a miltank would be quite tasty. Pikachu would probably be kind of stringy. They will probably resort to "iceberg lebtuce" soon.

I'm not gonna lie, there's one of the new ones that looks like ice cream. http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-bw/582.shtml

How was that one not hunted to extinction ice cream is delicious

 

[Maclennan]

Haven't played Black or White at all yet, but I'd say I'm somewhat a fan of the series. Used to like it alot back when I was a kid then lost interest. Now I'm back to playing it again (funny how that seems to happen). Of course it was the discovery of the Nuzlocke run that brought me back in. That helped me to have fun again with Pokemon's constant grind by making it a bit more interesting. I'd encourage players to try one out sometime or another.

Heres the question he missed, what do the people in that world eat since every animal and most of the damn plants are pokemon?

I think a miltank would be quite tasty. Pikachu would probably be kind of stringy. They will probably resort to "iceberg lebtuce" soon.

They eat slowpoke tail apparently. This is canon.

I remember that, you can buy them in silver/gold i think and feed them to pokemon, which i sadistically fed one to my slowpoke, if only they put in an Easter egg for such a twisted act.

 

[jak1165]

You dont even need to catch them all anymore, you only need to encounter them to get an entry in the Pokedex >_>

 

[Flare Phoenix]

You got your game strategy thrown off by EMOLGA enough to complain about it? Pokemon wasn't EASY enough for you that a Gym Leader you COULDN'T sweep with one move is a negative point against it?

The bane of Yahtzee's existence.​

It's less that he couldn't sweep it in one hit and more that the game misled him. Like he said, everybody in the gym, both in and out, tell you to use Ground-Types. The area outside the city is filled with Ground Types. Then the game pulls a 180 and has you face a Flying Type. Confusing players like that is bad game design, and there's no excuse for it.

Not really... Emolga is part electric type so it's not like the player is being mislead when facing the gym. Honestly I'm surprised so many people have having a little whinge the game made them have to think outside the box a little.

Besides... every gym pretty much bold-facedly tells you what type the gym leader specializes in so you can't really say that particular gym was trying to mislead you.

 

[CrimsonDeath]

I always figured the reason their society revolved around Pokémon was because their world is infested with monsters that can shoot lightning, breathe fire, control the weather and tides, rearrange the landscape, and crush people's minds with a thought. I mean, if just Charmanders existed in real life (I think I just dated myself there), there are only a few hundred industries that would be completely different or nonexistent.

 

[profpeanut]

I was expecting Yahtzee to review Pokemon someday...Diamond/Pearl and HeartGold/SoulSilver were probably way too samey-samey for him anyway to have made an enjoyable review.

All those arguments come down to the same: a lot of pokemons with a lot of moves.

Now let's remove the pokemons and moves that are basically useless, the exact same thing, work fundamentally the same way, or are countered the same way.


...woops.

Double woops once you consider playing the same person a second time. Surprise element's gone. Now even if you have millions of pokemons it's irrelevant. You know what your opponent has.

Triple woops: There's only one pokemon active at any one time.

That said, all of that would be very relevant, if it wasn't a spread sheet nonetheless. A very big spreadsheet. But a spreadsheet nonetheless. The match is decided before it starts... Except for the very bane of a good player's existence, the good'ol random factor. Isn't it nice when an attack just suddenly fails, fucking you over royally, due to a random statistic? Yeah. Pokemon seems saturated with that... "True" comp games eliminate random as much as possible. This isn't even like card games where you need the "random" factor of the draw... It's just there to fake some depth.

But hey, if you enjoy it, that's cool. The idea of competitive pokemon to me is akin to competitive rock, paper and scissors

Let's play a game: I've got a Gengar here, moves, stats, teammates and items all set up. Pick a Pokemon and try counter it.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Was kinda waiting for him to address the "why don't the bad guys just use 40 pokemon each" thing since they're breaking the law everywhere else, but good overall. It really hasn't changed, though thanks for the heads up on the electric gym.

 

[The Bandit]

You got your game strategy thrown off by EMOLGA enough to complain about it? Pokemon wasn't EASY enough for you that a Gym Leader you COULDN'T sweep with one move is a negative point against it?

The bane of Yahtzee's existence.​

Besides, "catching them all" is no longer viable...or even the point, really. It's all about competitive play, with the advent of wi-fi in D/P/P.

And the game has changed a lot. The basic 8 gyms, 4 moves per pokemon, Rock/Paper/Scissors combat system hasn't. But the other mechanics have.

From the infinite TM use of B/W, to the infinite item bag after R/B/Y's STUPID limit, to the addition of Abilites in Gen 3, The Special split in Gen 2, the Special/Physical MOVE split in Gen 4, and even the removal/addition of new HMs for world exploration, to the key item mapping for easy Bike use.

I think you need to look up the word "change."

 

[Flare Phoenix]

Was kinda waiting for him to address the "why don't the bad guys just use 40 pokemon each" thing since they're breaking the law everywhere else, but good overall. It really hasn't changed, though thanks for the heads up on the electric gym.

The bigger question is why they use Pokemon at all when bullets would seem far easier and less hassle.

 

[Cat Cloud]

I actually enjoy pokemon. I'm not really sure why. Nostalgia? Oh well, great review.

 

[b1u3too]

Love it. Though, in the three weeks after release day, I was a survey mastermind on public transit and at the University. Just serves to show that geeks do indeed congregate.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Haven't played Black or White at all yet, but I'd say I'm somewhat a fan of the series. Used to like it alot back when I was a kid then lost interest. Now I'm back to playing it again (funny how that seems to happen). Of course it was the discovery of the Nuzlocke run that brought me back in. That helped me to have fun again with Pokemon's constant grind by making it a bit more interesting. I'd encourage players to try one out sometime or another.

Heres the question he missed, what do the people in that world eat since every animal and most of the damn plants are pokemon?

I think a miltank would be quite tasty. Pikachu would probably be kind of stringy. They will probably resort to "iceberg lebtuce" soon.

They eat slowpoke tail apparently. This is canon.

I remember that, you can buy them in silver/gold i think and feed them to pokemon, which i sadistically fed one to my slowpoke, if only they put in an Easter egg for such a twisted act.

Yeah, I always wondered about that but never actually did it due to the fact that there were ungodly expensive to buy.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Alrighty...I officially need a Fangirl Card. Yahtzee just ripped me a new one, and I love him all the more for it.

Please print cards, ASAP.

 

[TheZaius]

Love it or hate it, I'm glad he at least reviewed this game. I hope he reviews the next Paper Mario when it comes out for the 3DS.

 

[Falcon123]

I was expecting Yahtzee to review Pokemon someday...Diamond/Pearl and HeartGold/SoulSilver were probably way too samey-samey for him anyway to have made an enjoyable review.

All those arguments come down to the same: a lot of pokemons with a lot of moves.

Now let's remove the pokemons and moves that are basically useless, the exact same thing, work fundamentally the same way, or are countered the same way.


...woops.

Double woops once you consider playing the same person a second time. Surprise element's gone. Now even if you have millions of pokemons it's irrelevant. You know what your opponent has.

Triple woops: There's only one pokemon active at any one time.

That said, all of that would be very relevant, if it wasn't a spread sheet nonetheless. A very big spreadsheet. But a spreadsheet nonetheless. The match is decided before it starts... Except for the very bane of a good player's existence, the good'ol random factor. Isn't it nice when an attack just suddenly fails, fucking you over royally, due to a random statistic? Yeah. Pokemon seems saturated with that... "True" comp games eliminate random as much as possible. This isn't even like card games where you need the "random" factor of the draw... It's just there to fake some depth.

But hey, if you enjoy it, that's cool. The idea of competitive pokemon to me is akin to competitive rock, paper and scissors

Let's play a game: I've got a Gengar here, moves, stats, teammates and items all set up. Pick a Pokemon and try counter it.

I'm not sure how this will work, but I think it's cool enough to try. I'm gonna use Alakazam first

 

[TerranReaper]

So chess or any card game in general is something nobody can be serious about?


Gotta inform all those people who actually are serious about those things, quick, run!

In chess both players have 16 pieces, and a 64 square board, with very specific movement constraints for each piece.

In card games, the ones taken seriously that I can remember at least, the players hands aren't showing.

Pokemon is like a chess match with 2 lanes and 1 queen each, or a poker game where everyone's hands are showing. It's not "strategy", it's memorizing a spread sheet.

In Pokemon you have six Pokemon, each with an ability, stats and four moves. with nigh infinite combinations. There is a huge amount of strategy involved, who to lead with, what
moves to give a Pokemon to counter its weakness, how one Pokemon in a team can compliment another, how to counter someone who has their bases covered as well, what EVs to give to a Pokemon. There is a lot more strategy to a Pokemon battle than there is to Chess. Go in to a competitive battle without any strategy and watch how well your spread sheet memorization works.

Ha! If there actually was alot of strategy involved with Pokemon then I was a genius when I was six.

My Captcha says "Boose laser". What is that supposed to mean?

If you did this at the age of 6, what are you doing slumming around here?

Okay, what did you seriously mean by that? That I, right now am six years old?! No, but what mean is that when I first played Pokemon Blue I was six years old and was able to beat it. Therefore, the strategic part of Pokemon is obviously not hard if could do it at such a young age. I haven't bought the last 3 generations of Pokemon (Black/white, HG/SS, and Platinum) because I realized that it is the same game as before with minor improvements. Yes Pokemon is still a good game but I don't think it is meant to be played seven generations in a row.

Not sure what the other guys are saying, but basically, you implicitly stated that the games do not have a lot of strategy involved because you beat the games at a young age. You also stated that if the games did, you would be some kind of genius for doing so. But your opinion is mainly formed from the fact you only played the story, and not battles with other people, so I showed a video of an actual battle where strategy does make an appearance and sarcastically said that if you had the capacity to perform what the guy in the video did, why are you in this forum instead of doing better things with your insanely high intelligence?

In any case...

Besides, "catching them all" is no longer viable...or even the point, really. It's all about competitive play, with the advent of wi-fi in D/P/P.

Pokemon is now the middle school version of COD and Halo?

Do you know what Pokemon REALLY is?

It's secretly the deepest competitive strategy game ever.

IT HAS TIER LISTS

http://www.smogon.com/dp/articles/intro_comp_pokemon

I wouldn't call it the deepest when it's based on luck as well. Missing the punch and getting critical hits in is still all chance.

There are moves that have a certain amount of accuracy and power to them. Most people would opt for the more accurate but weaker attacks than the less accurate but more powerful. Crits are a problem, but simulators remove them to remove elements of luck. Also, moves that rely on luck such as double team that increase evasiveness or decrease accuracy are banned in competitive play. When you factor in things such as predictions and indications of how the other person's pokemon are set up based on items and moves, it leaves very little to chance. And that's disregarding damage calculations.

 

[aashell13]

"there's even a social feature where you can connect with other people playing the same game; except what is the likelihood of anyone within wifi range playing the same game as you unless you're in middle school or in japan where there are approximately 10 million ppl in wifi range"


Gee, Yahtzee, it's almost like those are the target demographics...

other than that i agree with most of what was said. I played silver a bit on my brother's GameBoy color back in the day, it was alright i guess, but i didn't like it enough to buy it myself or bother trying any of the sequels. from what i've seen they're similar to the point of sameness anyway.

 

[Alakallanar]

In Pokemon you have six Pokemon, each with an ability, stats and four moves. with nigh infinite combinations. There is a huge amount of strategy involved, who to lead with, what moves to give a Pokemon to counter its weakness, how one Pokemon in a team can compliment another, how to counter someone who has their bases covered as well, what EVs to give to a Pokemon. There is a lot more strategy to a Pokemon battle than there is to Chess. Go in to a competitive battle without any strategy and watch how well your spread sheet memorization works.

Pokemon indeed calls for a lot more strategic planning than most people think. At least in competitive play. But chess definitely is the more strategically and tactically demanding game.

 

[William Ossiss]

you know... i never had trouble with that green haired twat...