5th Gen Six Years of Black and White

Ho-Oh

used Sacred Fire!
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    Six years ago today Pokémon changed (September 18, 2010 - Japan time). Isshu was born. Pokémon that are now staples of competitive, like Ferrothorn were born. It scored 10/10, the release was so hyped...

    And then it happened. Black and White was born. :) And to this day the games are still viewed to have the best story ever.

    What were your reactions when the game was released in Japan?

    How did you pass the time waiting for the English release?

    What was your favorite moment if pre-release hype? How did you experience it?

    Discuss the best games ever gogo!
     
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    I EXPERIENCED IT BY GOING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT INTO ISSHU AND BEING BANNED HERE AND THEN MODDED /insidejoke

    and from then on it was me, our bebes, the trolls, you, and I.

    I learned to love the games through this section, honestly. Holding events, creating the best FAQ ever (clearly not holding back my ego here), all the little things that we did for the section when the games were released, they honestly made me enjoy the actual games so much more. In hindsight, the games are frowned upon in the franchise by many I know, but nothing could ever ruin the experience I had with it.
     
    White was my first game, so I didn't have anything to compare the great story to. I remember it being a lot better than the anime. It was an awesome game and the plot went beyond what PokeFans were used to.
     
    It's funny. Remembering the specific release day would have been hard if not for the fact that Black and White was going to finally get its second mod!

    Let's go back a month or so where my story began. I was pretty active in the forum (for BW, this one) and was helping Lightning out with the Thread Index. On a Sunday morning I was randomly messaged on MSN by her and Ausaudriel and at the end of the conversation Black and White was mine... then cue being out ALL day for a Sunday drive.

    Everyday until the release I'd wake up to tons of speculation, tons of reports and lots of crazy events. It really was one of the most fun times ever. We all got SO excited about the games. Every little piece of information released by CoroCoro... everywhere else. It made the games more real and more exciting. Every day it was getting closer and I was loving it.

    Then finally on release day the games were going to get a second mod. She was so excited I was so excited. And then the true craziness came. Pretty much a six month wait was helped by tons of events to help tie us over. It was painful and I managed to avoid spoilers... somehow.

    Kaori and I have some of the best memories together and they're all because of these wonderful games. And we're still close today. Isshu forever.
     
    It was a really great game, honestly. It was so cutting edge compared to the other games, lol. I reallyyyy love Munna so that part of the storyline was so freaking cute to me. Not many complaints to be honest. It's the only game I haven't played through a second time...gonna need to change that. :P
     
    Originally, I thought of Black and White as not being the best Pokemon games. Although the story was really good, I didn't really like the Pokemon or the region. Despite this, I kept on going back to BW and it grew on me to the point where I think of these games as almost classics. I'm playing through White again and really enjoying it, I think that I also appreciate the Unova Pokemon more and currently I'm trying some out that I haven't used before.
     
    Black & White was to me, the first new generation games of the Pokemon series that I actively followed news of on the internet, and seeing every new Pokemon reveal often got me hyped because I noticed the approach these games were taking with the "reboot" thing of having only 5th Gen Pokemon in the Pokedex before the postgame, as well as Unova breaking a long-standing tradition of in-game regions being based on Japan.

    Now looking back on the games, I remember how psyched I was when I got my copy of Black for my 19th birthday and while I ended up beating the main story in 2-3 days, it was the plot that always kept me on the edge of my seat because I never imagined Pokemon would ever be able to go with a darker approach to the series, but it worked well spectacularly.

    And with Sun & Moon fast approaching I am likely sensing a B/W 2.0 with being another deep plot, but to me Black & White were one of the most memorable Pokemon games I have ever played and it was why 5th Gen has stood tall as my favorite generation so far.

    Happy 6th anniversary, Black & White.
     
    Gosh has it been 6 years already...?

    I still remember the day I got this game. I was 8 at the time, and it was Sunday, the day Black and White was released in America. I had to go to swim practice that day, but my mom promised she would take my brother and me to Target after practice to buy the games. I remember coming home and playing the game from about 6:00 in the evening until about 9:30 (I believe I stopped after the first gym leader.)

    White was the 5th Pokemon game I had played at the time, and I felt a little underwhelmed by it. I still loved it and played it all the way through, but I just didn't get the same enjoyment out of it as I did Heartgold or Platinum. I suppose it may have been because at the age I was out, I didn't care for a deep story, simply gameplay, and I didn't love the gameplay nearly as much.

    I still have never completed Pokemon White 2 to this day. I really should do that before the Sun/Moon release.
     
    Well for me the Japan release meant nothing as Pokémon meant nothing to me at the time! Oh how times change! It was only around or a little after it was released in the UK and I kept seeing adverts for it and they were hyping it up in the Official Nintendo Magazine and podcast that I thought it might be for me. I looked at screenshots in the mags and online and I really didn't think it looked that good but I bought it anyway and was blown away! Pretty much haven't played anything else in the years since I found Pokémon! Unova remains my favourite region to this day and I agree the story is the best! I remember coming to PC to see what people were saying about it. I even joined! But never posted! Another decision I regret!
     
    Gen 5 is still my favorite. Whatever your opinions on the games are, you have the agree that Gamefreak definitely put a lot of effort into it, and tried to give the series a fresh, new feeling.

    I love the characters, story, lore, music, region and the sheer amount of new pokemon. The eventual remakes will be glorious. :pink_boogie:

    And screw the Vanillite haters, lol.
     
    Ohh my gosh, no.. Six years? I remember when it first came out so well. I got BW JUST as it came out in Japan, while it was still the day before in western time, 'cause my friends were able to get the ROM quickly. I remember playing through it in Japanese on my Acekard and I still have the Pokemon from that playthrough.

    I really love the art style of these games. I think it captured a bit of retro style city life really well. There were lots of iconic places. Admittedly, the actual gameplay wasn't the best we've had, but it's still Pokemon. The story, however, is the best one we've had in a main series Pokemon game. Wow..
     
    I remember when it came out so well. I couldn't wait until I got home to play it so I played it at lunch with my entire family as soon as I purchased it >.< I'm not sure if it's my favorite generation, but it's definitely an important one; it added a lot of key features and experimented with new mechanics and brought a ton of new people in, which is always good.
     
    I absolutely love Gen 5! I remember the hype and buildup towards these games, I remember how disappointed I was at first they they removed Pokemon following you, but after a while, I didn't care. I remember how blown away I was at how the battles looked, and animated sprites were really charming. I remember how much I loved the characters and my rivals (I hated Bianca at first, but come BW2 I thought she looked really cute, and looking back, her character in BW was really great. There was a lot of growth, and she was fun) Cheren was just awesome, probably the closest we'll get to Blue/Silver but with a lot less dickishness, PLUS HE USED A HAXORUS, and N was like a pseudo-rival, and still remains one of the most interesting and well developed characters to date. The story was just fantastic and epic, fighting a trainer, legendary against legendary was just awesome, Ghetsis was completely insane and had pretty much a competitive team, and it was super interesting not fighting a champion at the end of the game. Speaking of which, fighting the Elite 4 in any order was really neat too (although it sucked that the levels didn't go up accordingly). The Gym Leaders actually all had personality, as they all worked jobs AND helped you fight Team Plasma, they weren't just like "oh someone is threatening the relationship between Pokemon and People, whatever", THEY ACTUALLY DID STUFF . They were all well designed too. You only could use new Pokemon during the main game, which was fun... SEASONS, ****ING SEASONS. I loved a lot of the new Pokemon. Serperior, Samurott, Stoutland, Conkeldurr, Darminitan, Lilligant, Haxorus, Hydreigon, Meinshao, Braviary, Reuniclus, Gigalith, The Musketeers (my favourite trio), The Genies, the mascots, and many more, and you had half the region to explore post-game too. Including Cynthia who is my favourite champion. In BW2, it was just really cool in general seeing a sequel in a different vein than G/S, seeing all the characters I loved grown up, seeing the changes through the region, taking a different path, new gym leaders (Roxie ROCKS), Pokestar studios was neat (I didn't get to try it much), Neo Team Plasma and an even MORE insane Ghetsis and battling N many times. Colress. A huge amount of Pokemon to catch including old favourites right off the bat like Riolu, Mareep, Eevee and Azurill. Memory Link, CHALLENGE MODE, ****ING CHALLENGE MODE HOLY COW. It was poorly implemented but at least it's there! Version exclusive stuff, exploring old towns again, Hidden Grottoes, Hidden Abilities, AND THE MOTHER FLIPPIN' POKEMON WORLD TOURNAMENT HOLY WOW. I didn't even get to experience BW2 that well as I was kind of burnt out of Pokemon at that time, so I stopped playing once I beat the Champion (another cool twist) BUT MY GOD THAT GAME HAD SO MUCH CONTENT. I really need to go back and do another full playthrough of BW2 and fight the PWT after I finish Sun and Moon, because I didn't even get to experience half of what made that game so fantastic, and I still loved it. Seriously Gen 5 was so fantatic, it's tied for Gen 4 as my favourite generation, as they both had such amazing games, and I really hope Gen 7 can reach that level again, Gen 6 seemed so underwhelming compared to them.
     
    colours said:
    Happy six years B/W!

    You may have had the worst post-game of every Pokemon game to date (and it took B2W2 to fix that), but I have to give credit where credit is due: at least you had a damn good story that kept me entertained.

    Props to B2W2 for basically being one of the best games in the franchise.
    Click to expand...

    Hey, it was better then R/B/Y at least.

    My favorite memory was staying up all night playing White, when I was supposed to be asleep. Fun times.
     
    CUTIEFLY!!! said:
    I actually think X/Y's was slightly better, at least it had some story, and breeding was made a lot easier.
    B/W just didn't have as great a battle tower facility, internet services were harder to use, and breeding was a pain.
    Click to expand...

    Ah you're right in that aspect, Gen 6 was padded out by how easy it is to train and breed competitive Pokemon (god bless hordes), the internet was a lot easier to use and more fun and stable, and the Battle Maison had more options than the Subway and a different boss for each battle mode.

    In terms of other ingame content though, BW had half of Unova to go through, a tougher Elite 4 (And you could fight Adler for the first time), Cynthia, Morimoto, The Sage Hunt, The Royal Unova, Muskateer Trio, Landorus + other genie from your respective game, Kyurem, Volcarona, Swarms, and Bianca rematches.

    XY had the Looker Missions, Zygarde, 1 Kanto Bird, Mewtwo, Serena rematches, Mega Stone hunting, Friend Safari, and Luminose Restaurants. So BW didn't have too much more, but it had a decent amount. XY just didn't really have you exploring too many new areas, battling new faces or finding as many Pokemon.
     
    It's really awesome that so many people loved the games. A question though... If it was a worldwide release at the same time (so releasing everywhere in September) would've that made a difference to your opinions of the game? You'd gain six months of playtime (in English) and the best part is it wouldn't feel like such a jump into B2W2. What do you guys think?
     
    If there was a worldwide release of the games, I don't think I would have as many fond memories of being excited for the release. One of the main memories I have of waiting for Black/White to release in America is playing a Japanese ROM of the game because I was just too excited.

    But Black/White still hold great memories for me. It was the first time a new generation released for the franchise while I was really active in the fandom. So it was the first time that I was talking to everyone about the information being leaked and what could it all mean.

    Inadvertently, I started a Black 2 Nuzlocke on B/W's anniversary. But it's still fitting, because B/W's story did deserve a direct sequel like the one it got.
     
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