5th Gen Did you feel connected to Unova?

Unova in the Fifth Gen games has quite an enormous atmosphere; we ventured through the rather large Castelia city, to history-filled Opelucid city, and even significant locations like the Desert Ruins, and the dragonspiral tower.

But despite all that, did you ever feel like you were a part of Unova, or did you feel like you were a constant stranger due to the atmosphere? Feel free to share any thoughts!

When I first played through White, I did feel kinda lost in Unova, with the massive cities and vast areas that took a bit of exploring. But now having played Gen 5 quite a bit, the region has really grown on me and has become one of my favourite regions and I really love areas like Dragonspiral Tower and the White Forest.

It took a while but it has grown on me now that I know the whole map

I feel like I need to replay Gen V honestly. It's my most disliked version out of them all, so much so that I didn't even finish B/W (first time I've ever not played a Pokemon game to completion!) and never bought B/W2 (much to my regret, they're now a fortune to try and buy the cartridges for!).

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, no, I didn't feel any connection to the region at all.

Yes, pokemon bw was the peak of my pokemon excitement. All of my friends used to talk and play it, we watched all the anime, and collected the cards. I remember when I first went to skyarrow bridge following with the massive castelia city...it was great. Good times

it also introduced my favorite pokemon.

Radiating said:

Yes, pokemon bw was the peak of my pokemon excitement. All of my friends used to talk and play it, we watched all the anime, and collected the cards. I remember when I first went to skyarrow bridge following with the massive castelia city...it was great. Good times

it also introduced my favorite pokemon.

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Personally BW was my rock bottom (although XY challenges it). it wasn't until BW2 that I really fell in love with Unova.

I wouldn't say I ever felt connected - that's happened to me with Hoenn and Sinnoh due to a long period where Diamond and Emerald were my only games. I actually enjoy the lack of clarity whenever I replay Black - similar to an extent to HeartGold except that one's post-game is in a familiar region.

Black 2 though, that fills me with a deep-centred feeling of outrage. I bought it when it had barely been out a year, yet already the online capabilities were gone - as you can't see Rufflet in it and I'd bought it as a direct sequel to Black in order to get the best continuity I had no way of importing one, then I can't get even get to the Nature Reserve - not being able to complete the pokédex is the norm for me (except for when HgSs was new and I actually got close to fully completing the National 'dex, including event legends), but lost functionality, particularly that soon on because they were forcing the 3DS on us, really ticked me off and is arguably one of the reasons Gen V is so far my last one.

Radiating said:

I remember when I first went to skyarrow bridge following with the massive castelia city...it was great. Good times

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Skyarrow bridge is wonderful. One of the best sequences of the game is running across it

I did feel connected with this region. I loved black and white, even more black 2 and white 2, and I payed the hacks purewhite and pitchblack too. So counting this, I played the games at least 6 times... (didn't finished purewhite and pitchblack tho, those games were hard! but amazing). It's one of the generation I played more, I loved many of the pokemon, the map, everything. It's a shame it didn't get the attention I think it needed. Black 2 and white 2 had the best postgame imo.

i absolutely loved the scenery and it's beauty, and thinking about it, i probably did have some sort of connection to it. i just loved it so much and i just got a thrill whenever i played the game.

This region was my absolute favourite, second only to probably Alola. I really loved the atmosphere, and there wasn't a single new pokemon I disliked. It's also the birthplace of my favourite pokemon of all time, Deino.
Everything about this region was so exciting. I loved the atmosphere, the story, N and Ghetsis' relationship, the trainer designs... I just loved this generation.

I'd say the only thing I can think to complain about would be the starters. If you put the Alola starters in Gen 5, I would have a perfect region.

Unova felt like a different type of region when I first travelled through it. Perhaps because it was the first to have American influences rather than a Japanese, it was a nice change! I love Unova though, it stands out as a great region with some iconic cities and landmarks.

Not even slightly. In fact, it's been the case that from Gen V onwards I've stopped feeling connected to the games, that the focus has shifted away from me as a player and towards these one-dimensional NPCs that I hardly ever get to see but at the same time get shoved in my face with irritating regularity, a "we're here and we're doing stuff but you're not going to see it because you're not a part of it" sort of thing.

The roadblocks the game felt much more forced to me, the lack of Pokemon along earlier routes seemed to be conspiring to put me off by forcing me to use Pokemon I didn't like - I didn't, and as a result I was stuck with my starter only until I'd beaten the first Gym - and the world never really pulled me in. Sure, exploring Unova as a region wasn't so bad, because there were some nice visuals and locations, and discovering a new Pokemon you've never seen for the first time is always kinda exciting. But I felt like I was playing a game I had no part in, and I didn't care for that at all.

Meyneth said:

the lack of Pokemon along earlier routes seemed to be conspiring to put me off by forcing me to use Pokemon I didn't like - I didn't, and as a result I was stuck with my starter only until I'd beaten the first Gym

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This is the only thing that I really dislike about Unova. It's also a slight fault of Kanto and Johto's if I'm not going to use Pikachu. I think Hoenn is the best in this regard offering the likes of Ralts so early. Whilst the monkeys and triple gym leaders seemed fun to start with, it gets boring that you're basically forced to raise one in order to progress. The sequels got rid of these flaws a little but at the same time made Riolu less special for me.

Meyneth said:

Not even slightly. In fact, it's been the case that from Gen V onwards I've stopped feeling connected to the games, that the focus has shifted away from me as a player and towards these one-dimensional NPCs that I hardly ever get to see but at the same time get shoved in my face with irritating regularity, a "we're here and we're doing stuff but you're not going to see it because you're not a part of it" sort of thing.

The roadblocks the game felt much more forced to me, the lack of Pokemon along earlier routes seemed to be conspiring to put me off by forcing me to use Pokemon I didn't like - I didn't, and as a result I was stuck with my starter only until I'd beaten the first Gym - and the world never really pulled me in. Sure, exploring Unova as a region wasn't so bad, because there were some nice visuals and locations, and discovering a new Pokemon you've never seen for the first time is always kinda exciting. But I felt like I was playing a game I had no part in, and I didn't care for that at all.

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Amore said:

This is the only thing that I really dislike about Unova. It's also a slight fault of Kanto and Johto's if I'm not going to use Pikachu. I think Hoenn is the best in this regard offering the likes of Ralts so early. Whilst the monkeys and triple gym leaders seemed fun to start with, it gets boring that you're basically forced to raise one in order to progress. The sequels got rid of these flaws a little but at the same time made Riolu less special for me.

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I guess we did have Munna to start with (early on at least). Maybe if it was swapped with Reuniclus' or Gothitelle's line... or even pushed the fighting mons a little earlier? It's a tough one, there were defs lots of unappealing early Pokemon in BW at least but at least they all had really strong evos?

Or maybe instead of monkeys we were offered something like... Darumaka, Frillish or Petilil/Cottonee. Then ofc being able to catch them naturally later on but yeah, it would've diversified the early game a bit!

Forever said:

I guess we did have Munna to start with (early on at least). Maybe if it was swapped with Reuniclus' or Gothitelle's line... or even pushed the fighting mons a little earlier? It's a tough one, there were defs lots of unappealing early Pokemon in BW at least but at least they all had really strong evos?

Or maybe instead of monkeys we were offered something like... Darumaka, Frillish or Petilil/Cottonee. Then ofc being able to catch them naturally later on but yeah, it would've diversified the early game a bit!

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Well, in previous games there was always one rare and fairly powerful Pokemon along the early routes...Pikachu in RBY, Ralts in RSE, etc. Gen V had plenty of candidates for that sort of thing. Maybe not necessarily swapping anything, but giving Gothita/Solosis/Timburr/Emolga/Tynamo or whatever a 5% spawn rate along an early-game route would have been enough.

I felt it took a very "what you see is what you get" approach to routes in that there wasn't anything rare to hunt for. The game gave diminishing EXP returns so I guess that makes sense from a design perspective not to have super rare Pokemon spawns, but it always felt to me like it was trying to hurry me along to the next place as a result, rather than rewarding me for taking my time to explore and see what was available as past games did.

I actually wonder how I would have viewed Black if the early game wasn't such a slog. It's easier to become more invested in Pokemon games when you can use Pokemon you like. Overall I didn't like X/Y at all but I still enjoyed my playthrough more on the whole because of the sheer variety along the earlier routes. It took me the entire game to build a team in Black. That's not necessarily a bad approach to take, but it can still be pretty off-putting in the short-term, despite the long-term satisfaction you'll get when you finally have your ideal team after dozens of hours. A little diversity early-game would have done wonders for it regardless though.

Forever said:

I guess we did have Munna to start with (early on at least). Maybe if it was swapped with Reuniclus' or Gothitelle's line... or even pushed the fighting mons a little earlier? It's a tough one, there were defs lots of unappealing early Pokemon in BW at least but at least they all had really strong evos?

Or maybe instead of monkeys we were offered something like... Darumaka, Frillish or Petilil/Cottonee. Then ofc being able to catch them naturally later on but yeah, it would've diversified the early game a bit!

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Na Munna's fine, I actually really enjoyed the one time I used it - I just feel like perhaps having a type that's neutral to your starter for the very first gym would be better in terms of making the beginning less prescriptive. The sequels got this better with the normal-type gym (even without providing Riolu early on to fight them it would have been fine).

Meyneth said:

Well, in previous games there was always one rare and fairly powerful Pokemon along the early routes...Pikachu in RBY, Ralts in RSE, etc. Gen V had plenty of candidates for that sort of thing. Maybe not necessarily swapping anything, but giving Gothita/Solosis/Timburr/Emolga/Tynamo or whatever a 5% spawn rate along an early-game route would have been enough.

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I never really thought about that before! But yeah, the only rare pokémon before the 3rd gym is Audino in the rustling grass if I'm not mistaken, which is great for defeating but not really fun to play with.

Meyneth said:

I actually wonder how I would have viewed Black if the early game wasn't such a slog. It's easier to become more invested in Pokemon games when you can use Pokemon you like. Overall I didn't like X/Y at all but I still enjoyed my playthrough more on the whole because of the sheer variety along the earlier routes. It took me the entire game to build a team in Black. That's not necessarily a bad approach to take, but it can still be pretty off-putting in the short-term, despite the long-term satisfaction you'll get when you finally have your ideal team after dozens of hours. A little diversity early-game would have done wonders for it regardless though.

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Yeah I get what you mean with that - I tend to find myself forcing myself through the early game with an OP starter, then struggling to capture pokémon for a while due to my starter OHKOing them, then by the time your options open up between the 3rd and 6th gyms there are just so many pokémon that I might use, I end up with an entire under-powered team and arguably too much choice.

Unova is amongst my favourite regions. It felt more... complete. I freaking love the amount of content, and the fact that it actually seems to make sense in how it functions in regards to society; there's roads, cars, subways, planes... it's not just one big dirt route. Plus, with regards to theamount of content, it's a lot, especially with in B2/W2; there's so damn much to do. As the final nail in the coffin, thanks to shaking grass Audino, there was ALWAYS agood place to grind, no matter where you were in the game.The feeling of attachment with the game was more in case of black 2/white 2. Many of you would find this bizarre, but I found Aspertia to be the most mesmerising city in the game, simply because of the Outlook!Castelia and Nimbassa were pretty cool, because of their metropolitan nature and the amusement park respectively. Eastern Unova was the worst though, Nuvema and other such towns were simply meh. Dragonspiral Tower was super cool, I neverwas a fan of that pointless sidequest of running the bell in the other tower though.Mistratlon City was 👌, the addition of an airport for the first time in the series beingit's biggest plus point.The PWT was a cool new addition, which brought back memories. I liked the market thingy they brought from D/P/Pt.To me, Opelucid was just another city, nothing too crazy, same with the city with the water type gym leader. Been a long time since I've touched the games, so I can't remember the names of many of these cities🙀.

Amore said:

I tend to find myself forcing myself through the early game with an OP starter, then struggling to capture pokémon for a while due to my starter OHKOing them, then by the time your options open up between the 3rd and 6th gyms there are just so many pokémon that I might use, I end up with an entire under-powered team and arguably too much choice.

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lol!

I love unova. I love the feel of the regions, and in contrast to a lot of people, I loved most of the pokémon they introduced.

Its a shame, but I think I played through the Black game too quickly as I don't remember a great deal of it. I will have to look for it at some point.