Pokémon Black and White

[Hyruleansoldier]

Direct sequels sound interesting.  It's either going to be really bad, or interesting and good.  I'm not sure I like the merged forms of Kyurem with Reshiram & Zekrom.   If it looks like Pokémon Gray, it probably will be Pokémon Gray.

Then again, the sequel thing might not be that different from what they did with FireRed/ LeafGreen and HeartGold/ SoulSilver: pretty much the same game but a couple of years after the original game, so some Gym Leaders are different, they built a Battle Tower here and there, etc. etc.

But since these obviously won't be remakes, the games should have a LOT of new content to sell - they are coming out with two games instead of the predictable one.    Curious about where this'll go.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

First images and details of the sequels are out now, including the look of the playable characters and your rival. Yes, the playable characters are still cardboard cutouts and not customisable avatars. This gripe sticks with me almost as much as the tired HMs. I understand it was necessary in the first game, and even the second as it added continuity when you faced Ash again, but in this day and age? Oh well, here are the shots:



The game is set two years after BW and there've been a number of tweaks to the map. Ice here, drought there, a sprinkling of new caves and cities. 300 creatures to catch, a mixture of old and new, including the new Kyurems and more than 100 Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh monsters to round up the original Unova Dex's 156. New Gym Leaders too. Bet they still only use two or three 'Mon of one type, though. Best in the world, my arse.

[Hyruleansoldier]

They probably won't risk changing everything TOO much.  It costs more time and money, and people might not like too many changes.

This should get a new thread though, as the sequels will be not exactly like what the third games of each gen were.   Not entirely anyway.

I like finding out about all the new stuff, but I never really play the additional versions since IMO they don't add enough.  And I can only be bothered to round up most of the mon once every generation, regardless of how many remakes and sequels they decide to spit out

They should make the battles go faster.  And the message about the mons' Abilities slows them down even more.   You can't efficiently skip through most of the text boxes, which can be quite annoying (just like healing your mon at the PokéCenter still takes too long).

Shaking Grass should be more frequent too.  Plus, it's annoying when you walk over to it and trigger a random encounter before you make it there -- who wants to be forced to use a Repel for just 5 steps?


I did have a good idea to mix things up for the E4: instead of  sticking with the same Types, we could have an E4 member with mon focusing highly on one or two stats: Attack and/or Special Attack, Defense and/or Special Defense, Speed, and HP (the bulky mon and the ones that like to heal a lot).
Similarly, the E4 or Gym Leaders could also set up their team around status ailments: there's Sleep, Paralysis, Poison, Burn, Freeze, Confusion, Love, and things like flinching (some moves have a high chance of this) and other hazards could come into play too.  There's weather effects, of course, and abilities and moves that don't allow you to switch out your mon, or vice versa, force you to switch out (or switch out themselves with the likes of Baton Pass). There's also some moves and abilities that cause damage over time like from Leech Seed, Sandstorm, Stealth Rock, and barbs from a mon like Ferroseed, that hurt you when you do a physical attack on them.  More than enough silliness to theme Gyms, E4, Teams and other people/places with.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Those cunning bastards at Gamefreak have released more information about the game in the past week that is slowly tempting me back. For all my cries of "I'm done with this series," there's a part of me which still enjoys the journey. I'll never reach the destination of Caught 'Em All Town, but the regional gym and Elite Four challenge, the quest to defeat the evil team... It grabs my interest every time.

And now there's an animated trailer, teasing the return of N, Team Plasma and more.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdp_dLEdqU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdp_dLEdqU</a>

And all that on top of a World Tournament which sees the likes of Brock, Giovanni, Steven Stone and more from across the regions competing to be the very best.

I'm already considering a team which will include Serperior, Arcanine, Lucario, Ampharos... I'm going to get this sonbitch game, aren't I?

[Hyruleansoldier]

The World Tournament sounds really interesting.  I realized yesterday that Cynthia actually hints at this in her beach house in summer in B/W:

"Once every few years, the Champions of each region gather and compete to see who is the strongest! An interesting idea, don't you agree?

Battle Subway got old fast, and apart from Cynthia's cool rematch there wasn't enough tying the game to the previous regions/gens.

Without having to worry about catching them all, I expect to enjoy the sequel more than B/W themselves.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

I only twigged with that quote the other day with one of my rematches with Cynthia. Teasing gits.

And on that note, another trailer has been released. There's a proper look at the new Thundurus, Tornadus and Landorus forms, including the Dream Radar functionality and some clips from Pokéwood, which looks like a vast employment on the ghastly musicals of Black and White.

Other features include the Fes Missions, which act as the remakes' Entralink, and Join Avenue which appears to be a shopping centre you build by linking with friends. It's all in Japanese at the moment so it's a bit sketchy.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSlaZ8GZJNg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSlaZ8GZJNg</a>

Still reasonably excited for this, providing I haven't Pokérun myself into the ground come release time.