What's that, Erica has assignments to do this weekend? And she hasn't started yet? And doesn't feel like doing them? Okay, let's post about Pokémon then. :')
So I ended up importing Pokémon Black and it arrived the Monday after its release, much to my enjoyment. Unfortunately, apparently my mind is more tuned to KH because while I could fully understand every single ridiculous plot Nomura came up with for 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep in their original Japanese, I sit here playing Pokémon and go "OMG WHAT AM I DOING". :( I tried playing with kanji but without any voiceovers to help me out (and no real drive to meticulously figure out what every NPC is telling me with my kanji dictionary), the setting was quickly changed to kana and it's just a massive blur of Japanese every time someone says something.
I still pick out the important words, so typically when someone says "OH GOD TEAM PLASMA IS WREAKING HAVOC AND PUNTING KITTENS OVER IN <location>", I can typically stumble in the general direction of <location> with the vague assumption that Team Plasma will be there, but for the most part I haven't a clue what's going on because I'm only picking out a few words here and there. :( Oops!
Miraculously, however, I have made it all the way to Electric Cave! Or I think that's what it's called. It's after the fifth gym, at any rate. I'm going through this fairly slowly compared to recent Pokémon games but, come to think of it, considering the language handicap and the fact that I've really only felt the drive to play when I'm on the bus to/from campus, it's not so bad! I get a badge every few days, I guess. :D
All I really knew about the team I wanted when I went into this was that I definitely wanted a Shimama, a Denchura, and I'd be starting with the grass starter. Of course that's already a very imbalanced team but OH WELL. :( I hadn't really looked at any other Pokémon because I was trying to avoid any spoilers. Eventually I saw enough Pokémon in sigs around PC or in other areas of the internet that I eventually went "screw it!" and looked up a list of all of them, skimming it to see if there was anything I wanted to leave an open slot for on my team.
Fun fact: I got bored partway through writing this and decided to procrastinate on finishing by doing part of my assignment.
THIS BLOG POST IS GONNA LACK CHERRIM
In August, I had to make a really tough decision: did I want to import Pokémon BW or import Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded this fall? After about 5 minutes of inner-monologues, I settled on Black because:- I've already seen the ending cutscene for Coded
- After playing so many KH games in Japanese and understanding the ridiculous plot twists in another language, I figured Pokémon would be a breeze
- I didn't want to wait for US release of BW and wouldn't feel right playing it on a ROM (even on a flashcart)
- It would probably be harder to download and play BW (iirc HGSS's rom was never quite cracked?)
So I ended up importing Pokémon Black and it arrived the Monday after its release, much to my enjoyment. Unfortunately, apparently my mind is more tuned to KH because while I could fully understand every single ridiculous plot Nomura came up with for 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep in their original Japanese, I sit here playing Pokémon and go "OMG WHAT AM I DOING". :( I tried playing with kanji but without any voiceovers to help me out (and no real drive to meticulously figure out what every NPC is telling me with my kanji dictionary), the setting was quickly changed to kana and it's just a massive blur of Japanese every time someone says something.
I still pick out the important words, so typically when someone says "OH GOD TEAM PLASMA IS WREAKING HAVOC AND PUNTING KITTENS OVER IN <location>", I can typically stumble in the general direction of <location> with the vague assumption that Team Plasma will be there, but for the most part I haven't a clue what's going on because I'm only picking out a few words here and there. :( Oops!
Miraculously, however, I have made it all the way to Electric Cave! Or I think that's what it's called. It's after the fifth gym, at any rate. I'm going through this fairly slowly compared to recent Pokémon games but, come to think of it, considering the language handicap and the fact that I've really only felt the drive to play when I'm on the bus to/from campus, it's not so bad! I get a badge every few days, I guess. :D
All I really knew about the team I wanted when I went into this was that I definitely wanted a Shimama, a Denchura, and I'd be starting with the grass starter. Of course that's already a very imbalanced team but OH WELL. :( I hadn't really looked at any other Pokémon because I was trying to avoid any spoilers. Eventually I saw enough Pokémon in sigs around PC or in other areas of the internet that I eventually went "screw it!" and looked up a list of all of them, skimming it to see if there was anything I wanted to leave an open slot for on my team.
MY TEAM SO FAR
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タコ (Taco) ♂
Taco's my starter. I asked my roommate (Dean) for name suggestions. I don't know why I asked nor why I took the suggestion but... well. I guess I technically didn't have any other ideas. @_@; The grass starter was always my favourite from the day the starter silhouettes were revealed and when I heard that no previous-gen Pokémon would be available, I decided I'd choose it instead of Pokabu and do my first run since Diamond of a game where my grass Pokémon was not Cherrim. In fact, Jake even offered to trade me a Cherrim the other week and I said no. Crazy, right!?
パスタ (Pasta) ♀
I was really happy to find a Koromori early in the game because it meant I could ditch my pigeon and I just really think it's adorable. And then I made the mistake of asking Dean, yet again, for a name. You'd think I'd have learnt after Taco (and after the pigeon thing got named "Beer"). :( But yes, I think this Pokémon has arguably been the most useful. XD; She's gotten me out of so many pinches it's not even funny.
デンキ (Denki) ♂
Okay I guess I can't harp on Dean for bad nicknames, but I really think this one fits so long as I don't translate it in my head (which, sadly, I do). It's... basically the Japanese word for "electric" but it's a cute name ok? ;_; Zebraika is really cool-looking and I love it, though I miss the adorable Shimama a bit too. XD I think this and Kokoromori are the only Pokémon whose real names I actually know. I've no idea what my Tsutaja evolved into (Janobi or something???), only a vague idea of my ice type... can't remember what Denchura's pre-evo is called, etc. XD
ロクサス (Roxas) ♂
ICE CREAM POKEMON!!! :) He's so, so cute! I saw him in Luke's sig (I think?) and had to know what it was and where to get it. sdklfjs just. so cute. And of course, I couldn't have a Pokémon based on ice cream and not name it Roxas, so I was really happy when the first one I ran into was male. n_n I think, somehow, this Pokémon has become my favourite on my team. He is just so cuuuute! ♥ I hope I still like him as much when he evolves, which is coming up in a few levels, I think. :c
ニカ (Nica) ♀
I only just caught her this morning and was pretty sure what I was gonna nickname her but hopped on MSN to ask anyway. And sure enough, as soon as I mentioned I'd caught one, Nica demanded I name it after her. Again, I was pleasantly surprised it was female. xD; She's behind my team in levels (by about 7) but I'm gonna grind a bit so she catches up. ;~;
Biebs ♀
This thing reminds me of Justin Bieber, idk why. :( I caught it and nicknamed it and then realized it was female but Dean says that's okay because his internet critics say he's female anyway. I intended to make him my HM ***** but I think I've needed to use an HM a grand total of once so far so he just kind of totes along and if I want to send out something to act as a one-turn wall while I prepare something else in a battle, it's Biebs. :([/css-div]
APPARENTLY I'M NOT DONE RAMBLING
As I said, I'm going through this pretty slowly. And I'm not even exploring quiiite as much as I typically do with a new Pokémon game. But I can at least list out the things I like and dislike about the game so far!Likes
- Shortcuts
The shortcut settings are so much better now! Instead of picking a single key item like in past games, you can select pretty much anything in the menu. My three shortcuts right now are the very first Pokémon in my party, my bike, and the dowsing machine. If I wanted, I could also set it to be my status page, any pokedex entry, the TM section of my bag, the game settings, etc. Once you've checked off your shortcuts, you press Y to bring up the menu and just scroll through the options until you find what you need. It's like... unbelievably better! - Pokémon Centre = Pokémart
This is old news and all but it's so convenient to waltz into the Pokémon Centre, heal my Pokémon, and then just before I head back out, - Battle Graphic Updates
I thought the Pokémon moving thing was lame the first time I saw it since it looked like they were just stretching/manipulating the sprites like the basic movement in DPPt/HGSS was... but it looks a lot better than I expected and it feels right. It's gonna be hard to go back to static battles after this. And also, this game fixes what I've been mildly complaining about since the beginning of the series--when a Pokémon is put to sleep? It closes its eyes. - Faster-paced
I know this seems kind of hypocritical because I am slow with this game (for me, anyway), but the game definitely feels faster-paced. I mean this in the... getting from point A to point B sort of way. It doesn't take ridiculously long to get through a given route and there are more places to heal. This means I'm often underlevelled by the time I get from one gym to the next but I vastly prefer it over getting partway through a route and having to backtrack all the way to the previous city to heal up. With BW I rarely even hit that point and, if I do, it's usually when I'm close enough to the next town/city that I can rush there and come back to finish exploring. IDK IF THIS MAKES SENSE BUT IT DOES IN MY HEAD. :(
Dislikes
- Variety
In the beginning of the game especially, the wild Pokémon really lacked variety. :/ I got up to the fifth gym, pretty much, with only my starter, Koromori, and Shimama on my team because nothing else appealed to me and, the stuff I tend to pick up in the beginning (each gen's Bidoof or Starly) wasn't interesting. I didn't like the dog, the cat was weak, and Biebs is already my HM *****. :( And those were all I saw for like 5 routes. idk, I guess that's probably on par but there wasn't much I liked from the early Pokémon. - Camera Angles
Omg I got a headache when I was crossing the bridge to enter Hiun City. :/ I get that they're showing off that they aren't afraid of camera angles anymore but sometimes they seem so unnecessary (like zooming in on me whenever I enter a building, or turning to the left when I enter, etc.) It's weird. Luckily this doesn't go over-the-top THAT often. - Livecaster
A lot of people seem to love this because it has sort of... visual novel-esque "cutscenes" that we've never seen before in Pokémon but I hate when this happens. T_T It's kind of creepy to have people talking and my character just STARES INTO THE EMPTY ABYSS WITH A BLANK SMILE ON HER FACE. :( It's awkward. - Musicals
...I'm not even gonna write it all out again but they suck. If you want more detail, I posted about them here.
Fun fact: I got bored partway through writing this and decided to procrastinate on finishing by doing part of my assignment.
