5th Gen Giving these games a second chance

I've said it numerous time before that Pokemon went wrong for me with Gen V, so I suppose I don't need to repeat myself there. I've not had fun on any Pokemon title since Platinum, and I've always blamed Black for nearly driving me away from the franchise entirely. But recently I've gotten to thinking - maybe time (and the last two poor quality generations) will have softened my view of Gen V somewhat. Until Gen VII, I had held them as the worst the series had to offer. Now, I'm not so sure. I may not have liked Black, but I didn't outright quit playing it the way I did Sun.

So, like the thread title says, I'm giving them a second chance to impress me. Gen V remains the only gen I have only played once through, so playing White/White 2 - especially after all these years - will be like a completely new experience for me.

So, does anyone have any advice for me? Anything I should try using on my team, or avoid like the plague? Any small features, or things I should look out for, that would make this a...more worthwhile experience, than it was the last time? I'm going to try and keep an open mind - what should I be looking for in Unova that I may have missed? I'd like to hear some people's thoughts so that, hopefully, I can go into this with a more positive frame of mind than what I might otherwise do. At the moment I'm simply curious to see how time will have changed my perspective of these titles, if it has at all. But it'd be nice to know why people still like these games, and be signposted to aspects I should watch out for.

I'll give you some Pokedex suggestions for now! I know Hikamaru will likely have a few suggestions too :)

Starters: Samurott is probably the most useful and coolest.
Watchog/Stoutland/Liepard: Watchog & Liepard are gimmicky, Stoutland actually hits hard so it is a worthwhile choice.
Three monkeys: Definitely worth avoiding they are ok in the short term but better options do come.
Musharna: Slow and bulky. Nice collectable to have as it is really cool.
Unfezant: Doesn't do much and isn't really the strongest...
Zebstrika: Strong but very limited in movepool. Pretty much only Electric attacks are of value.
Gigalith: Strong, and cool. But without anyone to trade with you aren't going to get much.
Swoobat: Oddly really strong, fast and useful. Has Fly but very frail... but it does have Calm Mind!
Excadrill: Strong. :)
Audino: Surprisingly hits hard, useful for double battle healing.
Conkeldurr: Awesome and strong.
Seismitoad: Okay but nothing special.
Throh & Sawk: Only Sawk is worth it - incredible Pokemon with incredible coverage.
Leavanny: Pretty good, decent attacker.
Scolipede: Decent attacker.
Whimsicott & Lilligant: Ehhh, they're ok.
Basculin: Nah not worth it.
Krookodile: Yeah it is cool & strong.
Darmanitan: Yeah hits hard, strong, good to go.
Maractus: Weak, avoid.
Crustle: It is ok but nothing special.
Scrafty: Possibly best Pokemon you can get in the game. Can beat entire E4 on its own you don't need anything else if you have it.
Sigilyph: Decent but nothing special.
Cofagrigus: Cool but better Ghost types.
Carracosta & Archen: Both of their flaws make them not so good to use in game - basically being slow & the half HP thing for Archen
Garbodor: Pretty cool but not a hard hitter.
Zoroark: Great mon.
Cincinno: Use it with its hidden ability in B2W2 - absolutely amazing to use!
Gothitelle & Reuniclus: I guess Reuniclus is ok. Just too slow.
Swanna: Cool and fun to use, go for it.
Vanilluxe: Not really useful.
Sawsbuck: Strong. Have at it.
Emolga: Fun, broken. You'll face it in the gym and hate it. Get lots of ground types before taking on Nimbasa Gym.
Amoonguss: Aweome & fun to use, very slow though lol use in B2W2.
Jellicent: Slow, nice, ain't hitting hard.
Alomomola: Fun to use won't get a win easily lol Very stally.
Galvantula: Strong, fast, wonderful. Awesome.
Ferrothorn: Doesn't hit hard enough to do anything.
Klinklang & Eelektross: Fun to use but not as good as other Pokemon.
Beheeyem: Ehhh
Chandelure: Yes, definitely worth using & super strong.
Haxorus: Yup, gotta get one on your team it is INCREDIBLE.
Beartic: Ok but not doing too much.
Cryogonal: Avoid mostly.
Accelgor: Nothing special.
Stunfisk: Gimmicky. Kinda cool.
Mienshao: Strong but High Jump Kick is a toss up lol
Druddigon: There's better dragons.
Escavalier: It is ok but not a choice I'd make.
Golurk: Amazing, strong, generally... cool. So yeah use it.
Bisharp: Cool. Ok to use.
Bouffalant: Hits hard!
Braviary: Absolute staple. So strong and has excellent coverage.
Mandibuzz: Stalls... will get you a win in about 50 turns.
Heatmor & Durant: Nah don't bother.
Hydreigon: Yup, it and Haxorus are equally as incredible.
Volcarona: It isn't a legend and has awesome move coverage. Just avoid Stealth Rock.

^Now adding to that, there's some very powerful Pok?mon (especially available later in the game) that will not evolve until past level 50. It will definitely take you up till Victory Road or actually after the League to get them to evolve, so if you choose any of those, be prepared for the amount of time it will take. Even Audino grinding won't get you there that fast.

I think Unova has an incredible diversity in Pok?mon and I think these games allow for some great teambuilding. Organizing your team beforehand is probably more fun than going through it blindly.

Definitely use Sawsbuck, Braviary, and Zebstrika

I personally think that Gen 5 had some of the coolest Pokemon designs
And I want to get Black

Thanks for the feedback! I've been working on organising my team, the problem is that the majority of Pokemon I would use are on later routes, aha. Right now I'm stuck with my unoriginally-named farting Pignite Ganondorf (sorry, I despise Oshawott almost as much as I do Popplio!) and Adelaide, my womb--uh, I mean, Drilbur, who is infuriatingly frail. Right after catching her I encountered a trainer named Adelaide too...that wasn't awkward at all.

I'm not sure what else to use right now...I used Blitzle and Pidove in my Black run so I'm going to avoid those, and I want to use Zekrom when I get it, so I need three more Pokemon to fill my team out. Ducklett is practically a given, so that's my Water/Flying type. But that leaves two others...I was considering Scolipede, it looks pretty cool. I like Lilligant, but its movepool is frustratingly limited, and I generally avoid Pokemon that have friendship requirements, so that rules out Leavanny.

Looking at recommendations...toss up between Sawsbuck and Scrafty, for type coverage. Or maybe Lillipup if I NEED a third Pokemon now...do I? I have two badges and I'm around level 20 right now. Thoughts? At the moment I have fixed Emboar/Swanna/Zekrom in my mind, a strong preference for Scolipede, and I'm looking at Sawsbuck/Scrafty/Stoutland for the last ones.

They all need nicknames, too. Although ironically only Scolipede has no name in my mind right now - Sawsbuck would be Bambi, Stoutland would be Doogal, and Scrafty would be Sad Sack. Swanna will be Darkwing.

I'm a lot less annoyed with White than I was with Black...being interrupted by NPCs doesn't seem so bad after Moon, and its actually quite nice to see Plasma right from the start. Although I can feel the grind coming as experience gains begin to diminish, and I do like levelling up in set amounts, aha.

If in a pinch Scrafty should always be the choice. Sawsbuck is great but nothing beats the incredible Scrafty. Plus the things you can breed onto Scrafty are legitimately crazy - check out its overall learnset.

Perhaps name Scolipede after what it really is? Haha. There's nothing else I can think of that would really suit it... other than like Scoliosis but that's a bad thing.

Nica has already listed the usable Unova Pokemon, but I can agree with her that Scrafty can make for a really good choice. Has two great abilities, especially Moxie which can turn it into an easy killer of teams with multiple Pokemon, and it also has a type advantage against 3/4 of the Elite Four.

It's slow, but can take a hit as well as hit hard in return. Unova has a lot of powerful Fighting-types but Scrafty can never go wrong.

I never used Scrafty so I can't share my experiences with that (I always forget its darn typing), but for the grind there's always Audino. That's one beacon of light in this sad, sad EXP system.

Is there an easier way to get Audino to spawn? Grinding is horrendously time consuming, and I've encountered exactly one Audino in my hours of play thus far...and the grind is very frustrating when my Drilbur is made of paper.

I'm going to bite the bullet and use Scrafty, despite a general aversion to fighting-types and the fact that I'll be doubling up on the hated type with Emboar in my team as well...should have chosen Snivy. But there's always White 2 for that.

Where are you right now? I noticed that Audino start appearing more as you progress in the game - I especially note a considerable rise in shaking patches after defeating the Driftveil Gym. If you can't find enough Audino the second best bet is to enter the darker-coloured grass for slightly higer-leveled Pokémon.

Really? You're not running around in the grass yeah? Just ride back and forward right next to a patch of grass while on your bike and within two minutes shaking grass should appear. Just running into the grass and hoping for shaking grass unfortunately will not get any :(

I'm actually still in Castelia City, I want to get my miserably under-levelled Venipede up to par with my other two team members, but there's no quick way to do it and I keep burning out, aha. I have a lot of patience for grinding, but when I take so much damage, give so little in return, and get a paltry amount of EXP, it makes one hour feel like five or six, and I go up maybe a single level or two. It's very badly designed =/

That said, the visuals made me smile a little. I've always felt that BW were very washed-out compared to HGSS, but the scale is more impressive than I remember it being, especially considering these are DS titles and honestly Gen VI wasn't a huge step up in anything asides character models. xD

I personally think B2W2 will be easier for it with the grinding, but yeah, just... run around like crazy. Luckily Unova releases tons of mega strong Pokemon post-game so you have that to look forward to (the massive level jump :|)

I don't think I'll be bothering with White's postgame at least, although I will almost certainly mess around with the PWT; that was my favourite part of Black 2. I'm not sure if I'll dig up my Action Replay to give myself Challenge Mode like I did the last time...will depend on my patience, I guess!

One thing I would like to comment on at this point is that Castelia City is perhaps the only location in any Pokemon title ever that actually feels like a city. Having your player character's sprite shrunk and distorted is a bit irritating, but it does lend itself to a sense of scale. 2D sprites on semi-3D backgrounds is a bit weird, but things look bigger...something no game before or since can boast, I don't think. I'd never noticed that before...or if I had, I'd forgotten about it.

You're honestly not missing out much by skipping the White postgame; there is not a lot to do and the sudden level jump makes it very demotivating to continue actually. I only now got my Pokémon above lv. 65, having long cleared all there was to the postgame (minus Cynthia). It'd be better to immediately go to BW2, yeah.

Black and White still main the most visually impressive Pokémon games to me. I'd never looked forward to playing a Pokémon game for its visuals, except BW. It's still exhilarating to walk on the Skyarrow Bridge or any other location where the camera shifts to a more 3D-esque view. Even if you can still see a lot of pixels, I think it's absolutely beautiful.