I recently purchased a japanese copy of White version and I am fairly far into the game and I have to say in my honest opinion these games are an excellent edition to the pokemon franchise. First and foremost the new pokemon. Honestly I love a lot of them but I hate the rest there are no in between pokemon for me like in previous generations. I feel that the new pokemon bring a lot to the games. Like new dual typings are amazing and addition of pokemon to previously under-repersented types or underpowered types (E.X. Bug). I rather enjoyed constructing a team of pokemon from all new pokemon I hadn't throughly studied beforehand as I have in previous generations. So for pokemon I give this game a 7/10.
Next topic, Gym Leaders. I really liked the first gym I love the concept of having a starter counter no matter what starter you have choosen. And the fact a gym leader changes for the starter you have picked amazing concept! The second gym leader presented a tough early game challenge. The second gym leader however was the only gym leader I had to rematch and I did no grinding what so ever. So overall I give the gym leaders a 6/10.
The Rivals: I consider there to be 3 rivals in this game. Belle, Cheren, and N. The frequency of these battles is decent. The spacing is good and the level increases offer a challenge. The team variety is good. However the final storyline battle with both Belle and Cheren only contain 4 pokemon which was a bit of a letdown I was hoping for a full battle of 6 pokemon I was just expecting it. That just feel more rivalish to me than 4 pokemon. So for rivals I give the game a 9/10.
The game difficulty: This games difficulty level is more of just tedious than hard. Such as longer routes, while harder it just becomes tedious and I think part of the difficulty for me was not being able to read anything (lol) but it just became repetitive and boring at certain points but the games flow is much better than previous generations. I have been begging for a more challenging pokemon game forever without the need for endless grinding which this game is until the E4. From the 8th gym to the E4 is relativly short gameplay wise and the level increase is almost too much. The endless grinding starts then. And the only decent grinding method is once again tedious and boring. So overall difficulty I give it a... 7/10
Replay value: I think this game has a really high replay value as many pokemon games have. Just for the fact of exploring new team combinations for gym leaders etc. So for replay value I give this an 8/10.
Ok so tl;dr version
New Pokemon: 7/10
Gym Leaders: 6/10
The Rivals: 9/10
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Overall: 7.2/10
Next topic, Gym Leaders. I really liked the first gym I love the concept of having a starter counter no matter what starter you have choosen. And the fact a gym leader changes for the starter you have picked amazing concept! The second gym leader presented a tough early game challenge. The second gym leader however was the only gym leader I had to rematch and I did no grinding what so ever. So overall I give the gym leaders a 6/10.
The Rivals: I consider there to be 3 rivals in this game. Belle, Cheren, and N. The frequency of these battles is decent. The spacing is good and the level increases offer a challenge. The team variety is good. However the final storyline battle with both Belle and Cheren only contain 4 pokemon which was a bit of a letdown I was hoping for a full battle of 6 pokemon I was just expecting it. That just feel more rivalish to me than 4 pokemon. So for rivals I give the game a 9/10.
The game difficulty: This games difficulty level is more of just tedious than hard. Such as longer routes, while harder it just becomes tedious and I think part of the difficulty for me was not being able to read anything (lol) but it just became repetitive and boring at certain points but the games flow is much better than previous generations. I have been begging for a more challenging pokemon game forever without the need for endless grinding which this game is until the E4. From the 8th gym to the E4 is relativly short gameplay wise and the level increase is almost too much. The endless grinding starts then. And the only decent grinding method is once again tedious and boring. So overall difficulty I give it a... 7/10
Replay value: I think this game has a really high replay value as many pokemon games have. Just for the fact of exploring new team combinations for gym leaders etc. So for replay value I give this an 8/10.
Ok so tl;dr version
New Pokemon: 7/10
Gym Leaders: 6/10
The Rivals: 9/10
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Overall: 7.2/10
