Well, Yahtzee as usual brings up the nitty-gritty that every single fanboy/girl loves to avoid. But I've already bought it and enjoyed it...but even so I feel surprsingly neutral on his criticism this week, probably for fear that my inner fangirl will rage to defend.
So I think all I really need to point out is how I'm glad that Yahtzee says all the awkward stuff about Pokemon so I don't have to when I argue about it in the near future. Yeah, thanks. Also though...I suppose the very reasons the crtics hate the franchise are the same reasons which make the fans love it. TBC? The traditional storyline? The random encounters? Critics may vary in opinion I suppose but I think it's applicable.
And yet, I have yet to see a single ultimately negative on Pokemon B/W save this one. (well, even though Yahtzee kinda does that anyway) Still, makes me wonder.
Anyway.
I completed the national dex. Again. I...am such...an idiot.
I agree with yahtzee from what I have seen the game has not changed since the original. It never really interested me because of the turn based element, same as playing a game of cards exept less social
Depends on what you mean by sucking. Offensively, they are still bad. Poison still only hits grass super effectively and can't hit steel and has overall poor coverage for just plain STAB. Plus, majority of poison-types have poor offensive stats.
Defensively, they are much better. Setting up and absorbing Toxic Spikes, status passing, and resistance to one of the most commonly used offensive types fighting make them adequate stallers or support.
...The story is mediocre at best, and thats being kind. Some slight changes in the bad guys motivation is about it. Their whole arguement of "People using Pokemon is wrong" is really foreshadowed by the fact they just want a Uber pokemon to rule everyone with.
Same basic Team Rocket principle, just with a more hypocrital approach.
And like I stated earlier no I wont forgive the outdated gameplay. Give me a Pokemon game where you can actually control the pokemon, on a 3D plane, and I might be interested again.
You find out N's dad, Ghetsis. Used that as a means to his end of taking over the world, he was the mastermind behind the vail. N had no idea what his father was planing, He wanted to free Pokemon because all his father did was expose him to Abused pokemon, no human contact save for him. Ghetsis had this planed for N for the longest time. This was by far the best pokemon game in the main line thus far, bar none.
Having read the game's plot and dialogue outlines from a few sources, I will say that while the plot and rivalry with N is very unique and much more intriguing than any other titles before, the game still pulls a Deus Ex moment right at the end and the game's progression is still no different from past titles.
For one, the true mastermind twist of Ghetsis was never foreshadowed throughout the game, in any capacity, for one simple reason: Nowhere before the end do you get any inkling or hints that Ghetsis is N's father, even in casual conversation with NPCs. Even N himself doesn't know that's true until the end of the game. A plot point, yes, but to me, since it wasn't hinted at in some fashion, it sounds contrived instead of thought out.
And what was Ghetsis's goal by manipulating so many people in the game: Take over the Unova region by being the sole holder of any combat worthy pokemon, exactly the same core motivations as Team Rocket, but not quite the same as Team Galactic. Couple that with the Deus Ex revelation of him being N's father at the end, and the story has some pretty large holes in it.
And yes, the game is linear to a near fault. This coming from the games I have played, Gen 1, 3, and 4. It's not terrible, and in the case of this narrative necessary to tell a tale, but it certainly gets to be when from one game to the next, in order to do the same tasks, you have to jump through more hoops, such as the bell ringing task Yahtzee pointed out.
I can see that kind of thing working to help players who don't grind for levels, but here's another idea: Make those tasks into side quests and have some slightly dynamic dialogue to drop hints that maybe you should try them instead of forcing you to do so to level your pokemon.
[hr]
Now, in terms of Yahtzee's review, it was worth seeing him tear into certain parts of the game, such as not having an opinion to kick pokemon if you wish to be cruel. That I found hilarious.
Also, he is correct about not one person being indifferent about pokemon. That's like having no one who is indifferent to Facebook. It's simply not possible, no matter how big a phenomenon it's become or how much a part of life it is.
I doubt he'll review Pokemon Black anytime soon, outside of a possible brief addendum in a future video where he says, "Yep, the plot is no different. Now run along and use GameFAQs to find what creatures you're missing, because I'm not telling. Besides, I've been playing 'insert game here' for 'X amount of time' anyway, so I stopped caring."
*high five* Finally someone speaks some sense. Good stuff sir, valid poits all.
Ya know I really feel for Yahtzee, sure he brings a bitting sarcasam to his reviews, but he just looks at it with rational eyes and sees the flaws. Im glad he picks apart games like he does. In fact I might rewatch his review of Pokemon. XD
Ridiculous Element of Black and White #69: The Plasma leader is named N, is schizophrenic (says stuff like, "Let me hear the voice of your Pokemon!"), poses like a ******, keeps changing his party, and preaches about segregation.
He keeps changing his party because he only uses the pokemon found in the wild in the area your in.
Seriously, he catches them to fight you and then releases them. Also not so much schizophrenic as he is emotionally unbalanced what with the whole being raised without human contact surrounded by abandoned pokemon so that he grows up to think that all pokemon are miserable.
I mean yeah he poses like a fairy and is perhaps one of the most annoying characters in the series, but cmon people target things that are actually wrong not wild misinterpretations.
But seriously, I also hated the anorexic supermodel gym leader. Mainly because I kept using my water starter (bearded samurai that dual weilds shell swords). In fact, I forget how I beat her, since I kinda beat the game on the Tuesday after it came out (on a Sunday).
Maclennan said:
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.
Why would he need to cover that? People have eaten pokemon since the original games (Farfetch'd?). It just doesn't come up much.
Anyway, I disagree with some points in the video. First of all, when making a pokemon, you don't just change one letter in the name. You have to make it punny. Furthermore, video games typically ignore people who aren't involved in the subject matter (how many people in a Harvest Moon game don't live in a quiet farming town and do farming related things?). Besides, the whole 'these are our pets' thing makes the 'lots of people are affected' aspect a bit easier to swallow.
Brief obligatory remark about location differences in the versions here.
EDIT:
SpaceMedarotterX said:
Xman490 said:
Ridiculous Element of Black and White #69: The Plasma leader is named N, is schizophrenic (says stuff like, "Let me hear the voice of your Pokemon!"), poses like a ******, keeps changing his party, and preaches about segregation.
He keeps changing his party because he only uses the pokemon found in the wild in the area your in.
Seriously, he catches them to fight you and then releases them. Also not so much schizophrenic as he is emotionally unbalanced what with the whole being raised without human contact surrounded by abandoned pokemon so that he grows up to think that all pokemon are miserable.
I mean yeah he poses like a fairy and is perhaps one of the most annoying characters in the series, but cmon people target things that are actually wrong not wild misinterpretations.
You really should have picked up Pokemon Black, Yahtzee. It focuses on story rather than collecting a bunch of critters. At one point you have to choose whether to choose between your friend and your journey, with a branching story for each path. It's pretty much two entirely different games and it puts the Bioware writing staff to shame.
I'm sorry you had to get the wrong version to get back into what has become a great series.
I agree on the whole, but I thought the Team Rocket romance subplot and a few other moments were really sub-par when compared to the rest of the story, and it created this awkward separation between brilliant moments and the less awesome moments. It really took me out of the experience.
I'd rather see moments of genius than constant mediocrity, though. I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't played the game, but which of your friends did you choose to follow after the billiant death scene?
See: That's where the katana/gun option comes in. You take the money at gunpoint and steal the gym-leaders pokemon. Then you beat them and don't have to train the pokemon yourself. (would probably end badly though, but not really since nobody goes to school)
If you lived in a world where Pokemon existed, would you need to make weapons? There are clearly Pokemon capable of killing people or destroying places, so making weapons would be a waste of time. Why bother to create TNT or C4 when you can just have a Pokemon use Selfdestruct. You wouldn't need a gun to rob someone, you just threaten to fry them to a crisp with a fire Pokemon. Who needs a katana to slice someone open when you can have a Pokemon do the same thing.
The only reason you have to battle with other people is because that's how Gamefreak has designed the games. There's plenty of ways to make the series darker, but until Gamefreak decides to dive into the angst pool, it's going to have a simple story.Personally, the whole "enslave God and recreate the world to my liking" plot of the 4th gen would have been better as a serious story. You at least have people acknowledging that there's more to Pokemon than beating up Rattatas for experience.
Really funny episode this time!
I LOL'ed pretty hard at the "Cockon" MS paint.
I totally remember the stuck-a-loop fights from back when I played Pokemon (I don't even remember what color edition it was back then, red?). I haven't kept up with the series since then, but I kind of figured it hadn't changed much aside from graphics.
yeah I used to watch the show pretty religiously too, the first series anyways. Don't think it made it in to my 20's though, lol
AND CAN WE PLEASE GET SOME MOTHAFUCKIN OPEN FREE CITY-WIDE WIFI OVER HERE!?!
Well maybe so, but I do remember a random guy in one of the earlier series that was carrying a katana around... maybe the orange league or something?(It was during a tournament-thing)
Well maybe so, but I do remember a random guy in one of the earlier series that was carrying a katana around... maybe the orange league or something?(It was during a tournament-thing)
There was also the third episode of the series, if I remember. It was the episode where Ash was freaking out about his Metapod being cut in half and then the whole Metapod Battle. The show's for kids, though, so there's not really a lot of exploration of the subject matter. Overall, I've found that expecting Pokemon to be grim and dark is a waste of time. It's a franchise owned by Nintendo and marketed primarily to kids. It's like hoping that the fire won't be hot the 493rd time you put your hand in it.
But seriously, I also hated the anorexic supermodel gym leader. Mainly because I kept using my water starter (bearded samurai that dual weilds shell swords). In fact, I forget how I beat her, since I kinda beat the game on the Tuesday after it came out (on a Sunday).
Maclennan said:
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.
Why would he need to cover that? People have eaten pokemon since the original games (Farfetch'd?). It just doesn't come up much.
Anyway, I disagree with some points in the video. First of all, when making a pokemon, you don't just change one letter in the name. You have to make it punny. Furthermore, video games typically ignore people who aren't involved in the subject matter (how many people in a Harvest Moon game don't live in a quiet farming town and do farming related things?). Besides, the whole 'these are our pets' thing makes the 'lots of people are affected' aspect a bit easier to swallow.
Really I just threw that in to to see how many people i could hook into talking about childhood icons like veal in the freezer. Also Pokemon cannibalism was worked into one reply.
Amusing to see all of the Pokemon fanbois coming out to defend a franchise that at its peak could be considered childish, poorly written and ultimately bad bad bad
EDIT: I do like turn based strategy games though. X-com/UFO (enemy unknown) Battle Isle, Front Mission 3 were all damned fine games.
but Nintendo have like the anti-midas touch.. Everything they touch is turned to poopy
But seriously, I also hated the anorexic supermodel gym leader. Mainly because I kept using my water starter (bearded samurai that dual weilds shell swords). In fact, I forget how I beat her, since I kinda beat the game on the Tuesday after it came out (on a Sunday).
Maclennan said:
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.
Why would he need to cover that? People have eaten pokemon since the original games (Farfetch'd?). It just doesn't come up much.
Anyway, I disagree with some points in the video. First of all, when making a pokemon, you don't just change one letter in the name. You have to make it punny. Furthermore, video games typically ignore people who aren't involved in the subject matter (how many people in a Harvest Moon game don't live in a quiet farming town and do farming related things?). Besides, the whole 'these are our pets' thing makes the 'lots of people are affected' aspect a bit easier to swallow.
Really I just threw that in to to see how many people i could hook into talking about childhood icons like veal in the freezer. Also Pokemon cannibalism was worked into one reply.
Pokemon cannibalism? As in, Pokemon eating each other (which isn't really cannibalism), or Pidgeot eating Pidgey? There's quite a difference, since each is supposed to be a different species. Plus, in the former case, it's well known they eat each other; half the pokedex entries are about how many pokemon that one eats (the other half are about how much the species in question kills people).
But pretty much EVERYTHING has changed since the first generation. Special has been split into attack and defence, IV's function has been overhauled in generation 3 and now applies to HP, breeding and egg families play a very important part in obtaining certain moves, a wide variety of Pokéballs beyond the basic four (five is you count Safari Zone balls) have been introduced, abilities and natures play a crucial part in strategy (along with hold items), moves are no longer physical or special based based on the type of attack they are, weaknesses and strengths have been altered for types over the years, TMs now have unlimited use, Pokéboxes change automatically, the amount of items you can hold in your inventory are no longer finite, etc., etc.
It's one of the few competitive series that drastically changes the metagame with each new installment. It would be more accurate to criticize the games for being nothing like it was 15 years ago. Outside of turn-based strategy and the original 151 Pokémon, it's an entirely different game with entirely different rules.
Amusing to see all of the Pokemon fanbois coming out to defend a franchise that at its peak could be considered childish, poorly written and ultimately bad bad bad
I think people who like Pokemon will admit fully about how juvenile the story is, even the latest installment which has been much better than the previous installment in terms of, ironically enough, providing much more gray situations. Even Mystery Dungeon, which probably has the best story in the franchise (as far as the games are concerned anyway) at this point, is juvenile as well.
Nintendo always focused on the gameplay aspect of their games and aim to rope in younger audiences where having story won't be as appreciated. I don't think that many who are into Pokemon at this point are looking for a complex and much more serious story rather than what makes Pokemon the game it is - a monster game based around battling and collecting.
Not everything grows up with you and there are newer generations taking your place for shit you were once interested in that you just aren't anymore. Shit sucks, but not everything was made tailored to you.
I mean, the games are still successful and the metagame grows every year. Something must be going right.
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