The Basculin in the Battle Subway are scary though, seriously they always mess me up when I face them.
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5th Gen A new look
- Thread starter Bellsprout
- Start date
The Basculin in the Battle Subway are scary though, seriously they always mess me up when I face them.
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that made me lol
my issue with the diversity is that in the beginning there's really not much to choose from. until say pinwheel forest and if you're not feeling anything there you gotta wait until you're past castelia into the desert. i feel like this game had a lot of the pokemon that people wanted to use all the way towards the last two gyms. by that point it's just such a pain to start with a new member. idk maybe this is just a me thing.
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So started playing White again like I said I would, at Nacrene City atm, so not terribly far but still have a few thoughts about it.
I had forgotten how linear the game is and how often it stops you for stuff, and how.....hand-holdy it can get. None of it really bothers me personally though. Linearity never seemed to bug me for some reason (the games have always been very linear anyway, any sort of "freedom" the other games have given the player is just an illusion really since there's always been a set path you've had to take), and the hand-holdyness just seems to me like an attempt to teach people new to the series the game basics so they can fully enjoy the rest of the game (the Striation City gym is a good example of this), though there's a couple of points already that felt kind of unnecessary. Like I'm not sure why Professor Juniper feels the need to introduce herself and say what she does when you visit her in-game after getting your starter when she already did that literally 5 minutes ago when you start a new file? Aurea please, I know who you are you just said it and if I can't remember that then I must be mentally deficient and should stop playing the game. Or why she explains how to catch Pokemon AGAIN right after she demonstrates how to do it? And then there's where you get to Nacrene and Cheren's like "oh btw the gym here uses Normal types and Fighting types are good against them". The guide man at the gym entrance would tell you that anyway so idk why it needs to be told to the player right now. Especially at this point, the game has already given you all the basic knowledge you need to know and should let the player learn most of the rest (with a few exceptions) on their own (thanks for the free Chesto berries tho).
Still love the soundtrack though. Stuff like the music change for the gym leader's final 'mon is so good and I wish that they would've kept that in Gen 6. Though I have to say that the low HP music bugs me. I sorta remember liking that a bit when I first played the game but now it's kinda annoying and I wish it didn't exist.
Some minor gripes I had with the game (or rather the series in general) still exist: why no running shoes from the get-go, why is the how to catch Pokemon tutorial still not fucking optional, I still don't care much for any of the Unova starters, still don't like the monkeys, etc.
I caught a Lillipup on Route 1 (since I don't plan to use the starter or monkey at all) and have already come to really like it, why did I never try this thing before? Even lucked out and it was an Adamant one. Later caught a Woobat in.....it's Wellspring Cave, right? Partly cuz I need something else to eat up exp cuz otherwise Herdier would be like level 40 by the time I clear the 3rd gym or something lol, but partly just to try out a 'mon I never really liked to see how that goes since part of the idea with this is to try some new stuff, yeah? I need something to fly on anyway and have already used Swanna and Unfezant in past Gen V playthroughs and don't wanna do repeats, and Rufflet comes hella late.
idk what I'm gonna do for the rest of my party though. Besides a Petilill I haven't anything else planned out for catching (besides Zekrom obviously but that, y'know, doesn't come until like the very end of the game soooooo). Need something especially for the 4th gym since I'm not using Sandile since I've used it before (I love it tho ;_; ) and fuck Roggenrolla being a trade evolution.
If I can make one little criticism about the story so far it'd be a line a Team Plasma grunt makes in the Dreamyard. He basically lets it slip that Ghetsis is simply manipulating people and doesn't actually care about about Pokemon liberation.....which is something that was readily obvious to me on my first playthrough since when you've played the series before you know that any group with the word "Team" in their name is the bad guys, and half the time in games when someone preaches some noble sounding ideal they're just screwing with people and actually plan to take over the world/kill everyone. But for people new to the series? C'mon, don't spoil it for them when this game actually has some emphasis on story for once.
also terribly disappointed you can't actually slide down the slide in the playground next to the route 3 daycare, missed opportunity game freak
But now back to the game to see how things go some more.
edit: "few thoughts" lmao this is a wall of text
edit2: aw I lost to Lenora ;-;
I had forgotten how linear the game is and how often it stops you for stuff, and how.....hand-holdy it can get. None of it really bothers me personally though. Linearity never seemed to bug me for some reason (the games have always been very linear anyway, any sort of "freedom" the other games have given the player is just an illusion really since there's always been a set path you've had to take), and the hand-holdyness just seems to me like an attempt to teach people new to the series the game basics so they can fully enjoy the rest of the game (the Striation City gym is a good example of this), though there's a couple of points already that felt kind of unnecessary. Like I'm not sure why Professor Juniper feels the need to introduce herself and say what she does when you visit her in-game after getting your starter when she already did that literally 5 minutes ago when you start a new file? Aurea please, I know who you are you just said it and if I can't remember that then I must be mentally deficient and should stop playing the game. Or why she explains how to catch Pokemon AGAIN right after she demonstrates how to do it? And then there's where you get to Nacrene and Cheren's like "oh btw the gym here uses Normal types and Fighting types are good against them". The guide man at the gym entrance would tell you that anyway so idk why it needs to be told to the player right now. Especially at this point, the game has already given you all the basic knowledge you need to know and should let the player learn most of the rest (with a few exceptions) on their own (thanks for the free Chesto berries tho).
Still love the soundtrack though. Stuff like the music change for the gym leader's final 'mon is so good and I wish that they would've kept that in Gen 6. Though I have to say that the low HP music bugs me. I sorta remember liking that a bit when I first played the game but now it's kinda annoying and I wish it didn't exist.
Some minor gripes I had with the game (or rather the series in general) still exist: why no running shoes from the get-go, why is the how to catch Pokemon tutorial still not fucking optional, I still don't care much for any of the Unova starters, still don't like the monkeys, etc.
I caught a Lillipup on Route 1 (since I don't plan to use the starter or monkey at all) and have already come to really like it, why did I never try this thing before? Even lucked out and it was an Adamant one. Later caught a Woobat in.....it's Wellspring Cave, right? Partly cuz I need something else to eat up exp cuz otherwise Herdier would be like level 40 by the time I clear the 3rd gym or something lol, but partly just to try out a 'mon I never really liked to see how that goes since part of the idea with this is to try some new stuff, yeah? I need something to fly on anyway and have already used Swanna and Unfezant in past Gen V playthroughs and don't wanna do repeats, and Rufflet comes hella late.
idk what I'm gonna do for the rest of my party though. Besides a Petilill I haven't anything else planned out for catching (besides Zekrom obviously but that, y'know, doesn't come until like the very end of the game soooooo). Need something especially for the 4th gym since I'm not using Sandile since I've used it before (I love it tho ;_; ) and fuck Roggenrolla being a trade evolution.
If I can make one little criticism about the story so far it'd be a line a Team Plasma grunt makes in the Dreamyard. He basically lets it slip that Ghetsis is simply manipulating people and doesn't actually care about about Pokemon liberation.....which is something that was readily obvious to me on my first playthrough since when you've played the series before you know that any group with the word "Team" in their name is the bad guys, and half the time in games when someone preaches some noble sounding ideal they're just screwing with people and actually plan to take over the world/kill everyone. But for people new to the series? C'mon, don't spoil it for them when this game actually has some emphasis on story for once.
also terribly disappointed you can't actually slide down the slide in the playground next to the route 3 daycare, missed opportunity game freak
But now back to the game to see how things go some more.
edit: "few thoughts" lmao this is a wall of text
edit2: aw I lost to Lenora ;-;
Last edited:
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Well there is
Lilipup
Patrat(debatable, super gimmicky but can be useful)
Purion(debatable, super frail but still usable)
Munna
Blitzle
Venipede
Woobat(debatable, lesser sigilith but still usable)
Roggenlora(not worth catching when you can catch boldores later for Minipete, only worth if you can trade evolve to gigalith)
Sewaddle(debatable,a pretty decent pokemon hampered by its typing)
Pidove(meh, subpar spatk to make use of super luck, woobat is better, not worth using)
Timburr(debatable, throh and sawk are better then gurdurr but conkeldurr is better if you can trade evolve, Sheer force can be useful for evolite gurdurr though)
Throh/Sawk
Audino(garbage in BW1, very good for solo runs in BW2)
Drilbur
+Tympole
Technically you could have:
Oshawatt, lilipup/purion, blitzle, venipede/drilbur, woobat/munna, Sawk/Timburr
Before lenora and run through the game
Thats what I ment by having good variety. IIRC only route 7 doesn't introduce new and good pokemon. Then again with only 10 routes+3/4caves and so many pokemon its easy to have good pokemon in every route(besides route 7 for some strange reason).
Edit
I forgot tympole as well if you aren't using oshawatt
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Bumping this as I just finished playing through White for the first time since I originally beat it back in 2011 and wanted to briefly say how I felt going through the whole game again.
......I found I did not like it overall quite as much as I thought I would. That's not to say that I now dislike the game, not at all, I'd still say that it's my like top 3 for the main series games, just that it did not, for the most part, quite match up to the (kind of vague) memories I had of it from 5 years ago. I did not feel the urge to play it every day like I have before with say, Black2/White2, or HG/SS, or even Black/White when it first came out. And I think I now know why.
The fondness I feel for White stems primarily from the late part of the game--from about Opelucid City onward. White has, imo, the best ending part of all the main series games. The Route 10 music is absolutely fantastic (best route music hands down), as is the build-up of the Victory Road music while you walk through the badge checkpoint gates. The fact that while you're going through Victory Road and the Pokemon League as per the usual, you're just doing that to get to the real goal: your Showdown with N and trying to stop Team Plasma. So it's something slightly different and with some gravity. It's all just so beautiful and epic. You finally fight your way through the E4 and enter Alder's chamber to discover that the worst case scenario has happened: N and Reshiram have defeated him, and the only person who has a chance at stopping N/Team Plasma is you. But do you really? Zekrom has yet to awaken. If it hasn't already, will it really awaken in time for your battle? Maybe you're really not the hero and the world is doomed to become Ghetsis's empire. Then Team Plasma's enormous castle makes it appearance, and you go inside (with its great music). You don't get more than two steps inside when you're ambushed by all seven of the Sages. As much of a god of battle you are, this could be too much for you to take on even, at least without Zekrom anyway. But then, in a rare stroke of brilliance, Bianca gets the Gym Leaders to come in and help you out (this bit is particularly nice, since it's unexpected, unlike Ghetsis's "true" intentions being revealed or N beating Alder). It's also nice you get to walk through the castle and look in the rooms and stuff instead of being automatically shoved into the final battle. And then you finally make it to the throne room, where the game's best scene occurs: Zekrom finally awakens. Like, completely serious, my reaction when this started happening was literally:
And then you have your epic fights with N (I love how the game is programmed to have you both send out your dragons at the beginning and have N use his dragon's fusion move, allowing you to use the powered up version of yours and see the sweet animation) and Ghetsis (fuck his Hydreigon though).
*ahem* Long-winded gush aside, the point is, Black/White's climax (essentially from Route 10 to the end of the story) is absolutely amazing--I was legitimately excited playing through that part again. Because my memory is sometimes poor, the entirety of my memory of White was essentially a warm fuzzy feeling and little more. Though the source of said feeling was not necessarily the whole game, but rather just a part of it. I think I sort of fell prey a little bit to the nostalgia that I often don't like to see in other people when talking about certain things.
One side note: Black/White's postgame isn't quite as bad as I remember it being. I used to group it in with RBY as "worst post-game in the main series" (since literally all RBY's post-game is is "catch Mewtwo"), but it's slightly better than that. It's like, in the next tier up alongside X/Y really. There's something to do but there's not a ton of it and it's not amazeballs quality but it's not RBY tier shit.
.....dear lord this post is a bit long
......I found I did not like it overall quite as much as I thought I would. That's not to say that I now dislike the game, not at all, I'd still say that it's my like top 3 for the main series games, just that it did not, for the most part, quite match up to the (kind of vague) memories I had of it from 5 years ago. I did not feel the urge to play it every day like I have before with say, Black2/White2, or HG/SS, or even Black/White when it first came out. And I think I now know why.
The fondness I feel for White stems primarily from the late part of the game--from about Opelucid City onward. White has, imo, the best ending part of all the main series games. The Route 10 music is absolutely fantastic (best route music hands down), as is the build-up of the Victory Road music while you walk through the badge checkpoint gates. The fact that while you're going through Victory Road and the Pokemon League as per the usual, you're just doing that to get to the real goal: your Showdown with N and trying to stop Team Plasma. So it's something slightly different and with some gravity. It's all just so beautiful and epic. You finally fight your way through the E4 and enter Alder's chamber to discover that the worst case scenario has happened: N and Reshiram have defeated him, and the only person who has a chance at stopping N/Team Plasma is you. But do you really? Zekrom has yet to awaken. If it hasn't already, will it really awaken in time for your battle? Maybe you're really not the hero and the world is doomed to become Ghetsis's empire. Then Team Plasma's enormous castle makes it appearance, and you go inside (with its great music). You don't get more than two steps inside when you're ambushed by all seven of the Sages. As much of a god of battle you are, this could be too much for you to take on even, at least without Zekrom anyway. But then, in a rare stroke of brilliance, Bianca gets the Gym Leaders to come in and help you out (this bit is particularly nice, since it's unexpected, unlike Ghetsis's "true" intentions being revealed or N beating Alder). It's also nice you get to walk through the castle and look in the rooms and stuff instead of being automatically shoved into the final battle. And then you finally make it to the throne room, where the game's best scene occurs: Zekrom finally awakens. Like, completely serious, my reaction when this started happening was literally:
And then you have your epic fights with N (I love how the game is programmed to have you both send out your dragons at the beginning and have N use his dragon's fusion move, allowing you to use the powered up version of yours and see the sweet animation) and Ghetsis (fuck his Hydreigon though).
*ahem* Long-winded gush aside, the point is, Black/White's climax (essentially from Route 10 to the end of the story) is absolutely amazing--I was legitimately excited playing through that part again. Because my memory is sometimes poor, the entirety of my memory of White was essentially a warm fuzzy feeling and little more. Though the source of said feeling was not necessarily the whole game, but rather just a part of it. I think I sort of fell prey a little bit to the nostalgia that I often don't like to see in other people when talking about certain things.
One side note: Black/White's postgame isn't quite as bad as I remember it being. I used to group it in with RBY as "worst post-game in the main series" (since literally all RBY's post-game is is "catch Mewtwo"), but it's slightly better than that. It's like, in the next tier up alongside X/Y really. There's something to do but there's not a ton of it and it's not amazeballs quality but it's not RBY tier shit.
.....dear lord this post is a bit long
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