Pokémon Black Rant, part 3 + some other stuff
As evidenced by the title, I am very good at finding descriptive words!
So... Pokémon. I'll go over the gameplay-related stuff first:
Time for some spoilers - you've been warned! Twice, in fact. Anyway. The main storyline's finale really took me by surprise. It was actually quite dramatic. I realize BW put more effort into the plot than the rest of the series, but... I still wasn't expecting that. The Gym Leaders holding off the Seven Sages was a nice touch, as was the entire part with N's Castle. The event music only amplifies this, really - I don't think I've ever really noticed the background music during scenes in any other Pokémon game, usually because most scenes don't have any at all, but it really helped set the mood this time around.
So... admittedly, I've already been partly spoiled on this, but. Looks like Ghetsis brought up N around abused Pokémon only, completely isolated from the outside world, for the sole purpose of having him eventually become Zekrom's hero in an attempt to separate people from Pokémon. It doesn't sound too horrible, but assuming that Ghetsis is indeed N's father (which hasn't been directly stated in the game, or at least not so far, but I believe I've heard some rumours about it and it certainly makes sense), it gives N a rather grim and sad backstory... especially considering how he raves about how abnormal and weird he finds N after being defeated, when it's his fault he acts the way he does in the first place. I suppose I always feel for characters with parental issues, but still.
As for the "Ghetsis is only trying to make people release their pokémon because he wants them to be powerless so that he can take over the world"/"Ghetsis is EVIL!"-twist... well, that can be seen coming from a mile away. Though I'm sure some of the children playing the game found it interesting. Actually, now I'm kind of curious about how many of the people still playing pokémon are under 13.
I'd like to comment a bit on my LJ-style, too. It's Fire Emblem-themed - or at least the banner is, but the banner is what matters, right? I was thinking about making it pokémon-themed, buuut FE is, surprisingly, the main reason I lurk LJ. Which probably means I should post something FE-related soon. Maybe when the pokémon craze has died down a bit. In any case, I haven't changed the original theme too much. Just a few small CSS edits. (I have to admit, I felt really confused about how I was supposed to go about editing the stylesheet and decided to start searching around for tutorials... until I realized all I had to do was check the source code and go from there. I bet I'm going to be a terrible programmer if I ever do become one. Eheh.)
I've also been making some icons! They're not very good, but that's ok. Still fun to make. For now, I've set my Sanaki-icon to be the default, as the Tellius FEs are my favorites (so having the default icon be one of my favorite characters from some of my favorite entries from one of my favorite series ever only makes sense!). I'm also very fond of the Tabunne icon. It's so adorable! Oh, and then there's this Arcanine icon, because Arcanine is my favoritest pokémon. Across all gens.
... man, I don't even know why I write so much. I should just go to bed.
So... Pokémon. I'll go over the gameplay-related stuff first:
- Victory Road was pretty easy this time around. There's a Doctor halfway through, which definitely helped. Speaking of which...
- I really love the Doctors/Nurses who heal your pokémon - they're a very nice addition to the series. Saves you some time since you don't have to constantly run all the way back to the pokémon center for healing. I approve!
- Also, another thing I forgot to mention is that I'm very pleased by the fact that pokémon no longer take damage from poison outside of battles. I suppose some old-schoolers would complain about how GameFreak are making the games easier, but I never thought of poison damage as more than an annoyance - and it could occasionally lead to those odd situations where your last pokémon faints from poison two steps from the pokémon center... ugh. No thanks.
- The Elite Four this time around were incredibly easy, almost disappointingly so. All their mons' levels were fairly similar to mine, in the 48 - 50 range.
- I've seen a lot of people claim Liepard is useless, which I suppose is partly true for most of the game. It's just a mediocre pokémon and doesn't really learn a good damaging STAB attack until level 43 (Night Slash, for the curious). However... I have to say that dark types are very, very nice to have for the E4, since both Caitlin and Shantal use types which are weak against dark; psychic and ghost, respectively. My Liepard really redeemed itself when it practically solo'ed Caitlin after her Ranculus' Focus Miss allowed me to boost up to +1 Attack with Hone Claws. Awesome moment.
- I had promised myself to not care about natures and such for in-game captures, and I've kept that promise, but... I couldn't help but notice that the Reshiram I caught had a Timid nature! I guess I'm just lucky.
- The post-E4 content took me by surprise, since the enemy trainers now have pokémon whose levels are in the 60 - 65 range, while mine are still stuck at 50 or lower. It feels a little intimidating.
Time for some spoilers - you've been warned! Twice, in fact. Anyway. The main storyline's finale really took me by surprise. It was actually quite dramatic. I realize BW put more effort into the plot than the rest of the series, but... I still wasn't expecting that. The Gym Leaders holding off the Seven Sages was a nice touch, as was the entire part with N's Castle. The event music only amplifies this, really - I don't think I've ever really noticed the background music during scenes in any other Pokémon game, usually because most scenes don't have any at all, but it really helped set the mood this time around.
So... admittedly, I've already been partly spoiled on this, but. Looks like Ghetsis brought up N around abused Pokémon only, completely isolated from the outside world, for the sole purpose of having him eventually become Zekrom's hero in an attempt to separate people from Pokémon. It doesn't sound too horrible, but assuming that Ghetsis is indeed N's father (which hasn't been directly stated in the game, or at least not so far, but I believe I've heard some rumours about it and it certainly makes sense), it gives N a rather grim and sad backstory... especially considering how he raves about how abnormal and weird he finds N after being defeated, when it's his fault he acts the way he does in the first place. I suppose I always feel for characters with parental issues, but still.
As for the "Ghetsis is only trying to make people release their pokémon because he wants them to be powerless so that he can take over the world"/"Ghetsis is EVIL!"-twist... well, that can be seen coming from a mile away. Though I'm sure some of the children playing the game found it interesting. Actually, now I'm kind of curious about how many of the people still playing pokémon are under 13.
I'd like to comment a bit on my LJ-style, too. It's Fire Emblem-themed - or at least the banner is, but the banner is what matters, right? I was thinking about making it pokémon-themed, buuut FE is, surprisingly, the main reason I lurk LJ. Which probably means I should post something FE-related soon. Maybe when the pokémon craze has died down a bit. In any case, I haven't changed the original theme too much. Just a few small CSS edits. (I have to admit, I felt really confused about how I was supposed to go about editing the stylesheet and decided to start searching around for tutorials... until I realized all I had to do was check the source code and go from there. I bet I'm going to be a terrible programmer if I ever do become one. Eheh.)
I've also been making some icons! They're not very good, but that's ok. Still fun to make. For now, I've set my Sanaki-icon to be the default, as the Tellius FEs are my favorites (so having the default icon be one of my favorite characters from some of my favorite entries from one of my favorite series ever only makes sense!). I'm also very fond of the Tabunne icon. It's so adorable! Oh, and then there's this Arcanine icon, because Arcanine is my favoritest pokémon. Across all gens.
... man, I don't even know why I write so much. I should just go to bed.