(no subject)
So, Pokemon Black/White. I have White.
WHERE. TO. START.
- I was bolstered from the very beginning! No nonsense, no bullshit- you just get the spiel from Oak With Tits, your Pokemon is delivered, BOOM. FIRST BATTLE. GO FOR IT.
BOOM. SECOND BATTLE.
NOW YOU HAVE A TOWN MAP.
NOW GO! KICK SOME ASS!
After Pearl's utterly interminable intro, that was really good. Really, really good.
- It is just. So good to start on Route 1 again?!?! I honestly grinned so widely when I saw that and realised we wouldn't have to start on Route 4,934,187 or whatever. The music too, hnnngh...
- And the graphics, of course! After a few years of dicking with sprites, I could still catch a few bad-resizing issues, but it was much better this time. Most of the Pokemon so far are pretty cute, the towns have charm and different things, it's all just quite pretty.
- Not too sure about the newer battle system...maybe I'm just used to hammering the fast-forward button on emulators, but it seems a touch slow. Nothing really worth complaining about though, since most all Pokemon games since I've 'grown up' (hahahaha) have had those moments of me looking away or getting a drink while just hammering the A button. YES, KEEP SCRATCHING, COME ON COME ON.
- And on the matter of the most important part: the new Pokemon! I like them. It's really a return to Red/Blue simplicity; I kind of snickered at Patrat, Pidove, and Purrloin because REALLY. REALLY...HI AGAIN, RATTATA PIDGEY AND MEOWTH. They're all nicely done and some are very intriguing, though; the only one I've disliked so far is Lillipup. Stupid fucking hairy dog face. It's just the fact that so many are clearly remixes of old ones that kind of niggles at me. Not that I can complain, they've made nearly 600 of these fucking things. Ideas are surely running low.
Plus, there's a fucking lightning horse. Shit seldom gets sweeter than that.
- However...and this is my 14 years of playing coming out here. You can really tell they scaled down things to bring in the new generation of kids. I was beating the first gym leader within an hour and a half, even while arsing around and not really training much, and that's not even mentioning the first gym being an exercise in HEY
HEY KIDS
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT'S WEAK TO WHAT
FIRST GEN HAD TO FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES
BUT HERE'S A LITTLE QUIZ
JUST TO MAKE YOU'VE REAAAAAALLY GOT IT
also we're gonna flat-out give you a Pokemon to win the first Gym, hope that's cool
And really, that's just bitter old me calling bullshit there. Do we remember choosing Charmander in the ORIGINAL Red/Blue, anyone? Your only hope - ONLY hope - of it not being a hideous battle of attrition with tackles and Potions was to raise a Butterfree and spam the shit out of Confusion...except whoopslol weak to Rock.
Having it just served to you on a platter...water monkey is fucking awesome (because I chose the Grass type like a boss), but idk. Idk idk. Kids aren't going to shy away from a challenge if we set the bar for them! Indicative of the trend of society these days etc etc. Even the wild Pokemon are leveled up a bit to provide more EXP and less grinding to catch them up to the rest of the team.
There was even an NPC saying 'oh, six Pokemon can be hard to raise...some people just do three!' THAT IS THE COWARD'S WAY OUT. WORK FOR YOUR VICTORY! MAKE YOUR TEAM!
- All in all, though? It definitely says something that I played for three hours and only paused to take in some laundry and walk from bus stop to home. It has been so, so long since I've been utterly able to lose myself within a game and not get distracted and bored that that alone is worth a big thumbs-up.
Plus, they actually made the Zubat half-decent. That really says it all.
- ONE MORE THING
Team Plasma! Penny Arcade already commented on the actual questioning of the ethics of Pokemon capture ingame, and I agree with them, but I really feel it wasn't taken that far. I was intrigued by this man, only asking people to Think About It, but then...yup, back to LOL GONNA STEAL YOUR POKEMANZ
GONNA DO IT
The fact that they're dressed as paladins and have a shield as their logo really resonated with me, though. That was a nice touch. I'm actually interested in the crims for the first time since Team Rocket!
WHERE. TO. START.
- I was bolstered from the very beginning! No nonsense, no bullshit- you just get the spiel from Oak With Tits, your Pokemon is delivered, BOOM. FIRST BATTLE. GO FOR IT.
BOOM. SECOND BATTLE.
NOW YOU HAVE A TOWN MAP.
NOW GO! KICK SOME ASS!
After Pearl's utterly interminable intro, that was really good. Really, really good.
- It is just. So good to start on Route 1 again?!?! I honestly grinned so widely when I saw that and realised we wouldn't have to start on Route 4,934,187 or whatever. The music too, hnnngh...
- And the graphics, of course! After a few years of dicking with sprites, I could still catch a few bad-resizing issues, but it was much better this time. Most of the Pokemon so far are pretty cute, the towns have charm and different things, it's all just quite pretty.
- Not too sure about the newer battle system...maybe I'm just used to hammering the fast-forward button on emulators, but it seems a touch slow. Nothing really worth complaining about though, since most all Pokemon games since I've 'grown up' (hahahaha) have had those moments of me looking away or getting a drink while just hammering the A button. YES, KEEP SCRATCHING, COME ON COME ON.
- And on the matter of the most important part: the new Pokemon! I like them. It's really a return to Red/Blue simplicity; I kind of snickered at Patrat, Pidove, and Purrloin because REALLY. REALLY...HI AGAIN, RATTATA PIDGEY AND MEOWTH. They're all nicely done and some are very intriguing, though; the only one I've disliked so far is Lillipup. Stupid fucking hairy dog face. It's just the fact that so many are clearly remixes of old ones that kind of niggles at me. Not that I can complain, they've made nearly 600 of these fucking things. Ideas are surely running low.
Plus, there's a fucking lightning horse. Shit seldom gets sweeter than that.
- However...and this is my 14 years of playing coming out here. You can really tell they scaled down things to bring in the new generation of kids. I was beating the first gym leader within an hour and a half, even while arsing around and not really training much, and that's not even mentioning the first gym being an exercise in HEY
HEY KIDS
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT'S WEAK TO WHAT
FIRST GEN HAD TO FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES
BUT HERE'S A LITTLE QUIZ
JUST TO MAKE YOU'VE REAAAAAALLY GOT IT
also we're gonna flat-out give you a Pokemon to win the first Gym, hope that's cool
And really, that's just bitter old me calling bullshit there. Do we remember choosing Charmander in the ORIGINAL Red/Blue, anyone? Your only hope - ONLY hope - of it not being a hideous battle of attrition with tackles and Potions was to raise a Butterfree and spam the shit out of Confusion...except whoopslol weak to Rock.
Having it just served to you on a platter...water monkey is fucking awesome (because I chose the Grass type like a boss), but idk. Idk idk. Kids aren't going to shy away from a challenge if we set the bar for them! Indicative of the trend of society these days etc etc. Even the wild Pokemon are leveled up a bit to provide more EXP and less grinding to catch them up to the rest of the team.
There was even an NPC saying 'oh, six Pokemon can be hard to raise...some people just do three!' THAT IS THE COWARD'S WAY OUT. WORK FOR YOUR VICTORY! MAKE YOUR TEAM!
- All in all, though? It definitely says something that I played for three hours and only paused to take in some laundry and walk from bus stop to home. It has been so, so long since I've been utterly able to lose myself within a game and not get distracted and bored that that alone is worth a big thumbs-up.
Plus, they actually made the Zubat half-decent. That really says it all.
- ONE MORE THING
Team Plasma! Penny Arcade already commented on the actual questioning of the ethics of Pokemon capture ingame, and I agree with them, but I really feel it wasn't taken that far. I was intrigued by this man, only asking people to Think About It, but then...yup, back to LOL GONNA STEAL YOUR POKEMANZ
GONNA DO IT
The fact that they're dressed as paladins and have a shield as their logo really resonated with me, though. That was a nice touch. I'm actually interested in the crims for the first time since Team Rocket!