Pokemon White Review by: juuldude - 8.9/10
The games that started using colours again instead of stones for their titles!This vacation, I really wanted to get some new games, so I bought myself 5 DS games and one 3DS game! I like all games a lot, but the one that surprised me more than others was Pokémon White. Before I ever got my hands on this game, I thought of generation 5 games as the 'weird generation' that changed everything I liked. Now that I am playing this game, my opinion changed a lot, even enough to consider this a good game for my next review!
Story: 7
I guess most people know the general story of Pokémon by know, but I'll give an explanation for people who don't yet:
You're a kid in a town with about 4-5 buildings and 20 people. For some reason, you have never traveled the world, and when is a better time to start then when you're a teen and you face all kinds of troubles because you're growing up? But wait, there is something that is kinda dangerous. It isn't thugs, perilous nature disasters or harsh weather, it's wild animals! Or well, pocket monsters, also known as Pokémon. So the only way to protect yourself is when you get a Pokémon yourself so you can fight against them. And luckily, there's a super smart professor in your town who has three ultra rare Pokémon just for you and your friends that you can use to defend yourselves! Not only that, you also get a hightech device that will allow you to get data of all Pokémon you encounter and catch, so the professor doesn't have to go out and do all this trouble herselves.
The only way to accomplish this difficult task is to beat 8 gym leaders, the Elite Four and the Champion, who are all pros at battling and specialize in certain types. But watch out, other people are aiming for the top, so if other Pokémon trainers see you walking past them while they are fixated looking at a certain point, you have to battle them! Also, there's always an evil team that only can be stopped by you, a kid who almost never talks but for some reason inspires people with your fierce battle abilities.
Luckily, this generation changes good things for the better. First of all, we get a female professor! All others have been men, so it's nice to see this change, and this professor, called professor Juniper, also can be seen outside many times. While other professors tried to stay as close to home as possible, professor Juniper travels a lot through the world to not only help you and your friends but also other people requesting her help, making her feel like more of a real professor.
Second, you have two friends who aim for the top as well! The first one is Cheren, a calm and collected boy who has the same potential as you and sometimes even is a step ahead of you. The other is Bianca, a flighty girl who has some trouble with her dad and also realizes she is not as strong as you and Cheren but still does her best to get as strong as possible.
And the last and best one, an evil team who has a somewhat realistic goal and feels very mysterious: Team Plasma. They want Pokémon to be liberated, as their way of thinking is 'How would you feel if you were a Pokémon from a lame trainer?', and what better way to achieve this is battling with Pokémon themselves, because that would make the greatest impact on trainers?
So in general I like some of the changes, although I think the methods of Team Plasma are very strange compared to their goal. But oh well, as they say, 'The end justifies the means.'
Graphics: 10
Pokémon games have always looked pretty good and while the generation 4 games, Diamond and Pearl and Platinum, looked very good, Black and White improve in many ways. In generation 4, the games already showed us a world with depth, but the depth looks even better in generation 5 games. There are a lot of big sprites to make the main characters look even better, and the intro shown before the title screen is awesome. First a star crashes down and changes into the letters Game Freak, and then we see some kind of cutscene where a boy seems to be crowned as a leader in a huge castle, while he thinks back of himself being a young boy. And then it changes to another short intro inspiring you and telling you what awaits you on your journey.
The battle sprites also changed a lot. In the generation 4 games, your Pokémon were static and didn't move a lot, but now all Pokémon have idle animations and to get more of a depth effect, the Pokémon you use during your battle have special close up sprites. And all Pokémon have realistic shadows as well!
Furthermore, there are some small nice changes, like lights showing you how long it will take before your game is done saving, and you can draw memos on your trainer card for example. And there’s a huge bridge that can be explored and just is there to show off. So all in all, this game uses the fullest of its potential to show you the best graphics possible.
Sound: 9
Most of the time, Pokémon games are remembered by their music. For example, the third generation of Pokémon games is known for their trumpet music, so the region of that game, called Hoenn, is known as the trumpet region. And in the same way the fourth region known as
Sinnoh is the piano/jazz region. But the region of Black and White, Unova, has a variety of music, so that could make it less memorable wouldn’t you think?
Wrong. Since other regions all got some kind of unique style I had the feeling Pokémon White felt the most fresh, since the music had many different instruments and themes had some huge variety as well. While Sinnoh felt more of a region that was very calm, peaceful and grandiose, Unova sounds very adventurous, entertaining and exciting. That is not good per se, because a knife cuts on two sides, so is it the same with the music. While I thought most music of especially buildings like the gym building theme and towns like Nimbassa City got
better compared to Sinnoh, the battle music got more repetitive, and while the music gets better when the battle goes on I don’t like the opening of most battle themes, the songs sound a bit lame at first but get gradually better.
But that’s my only complaint. The rest of the music is what you’re used to expect in a Pokémon game, very catchy, good use of instruments, and memorable. The small sounds you hear in battles and outside when talking to characters haven’t changed a lot, since those were already very good in other games, so that’s a good thing.
Difficulty: 5
Pokémon games have never been very difficult, and that’s because you can make them as easy as you want if you want to grind a lot, but you can also make it very hard for yourself. But this game has been the easiest I’ve played so far. Most of the time you can prepare yourself for a tough battle to come because your rival can be seen on a route before you face him or because they call you.
And the game helps way too much when it comes to gyms. At the first gym, you’ll face a Pokémon that has an advantage over your starter Pokémon. But don’t worry, there just happens to be a girl who has a Pokémon herself that she’s giving away and guess what, it’s strong against the Pokémon that the gym leader will use. The second gym leader uses normal Pokémon and you’re lucky because a route nearby the gym is a living place for 3 differenty fighting type Pokémon.
Last but not least, there’s also a Pokémon named Audino who gives a incredibly high amount of experience points when
defeated, making grinding a lot easier as well. If that isn’t easy, I don’t know it anymore.
Luckily, the game still has some hard moments, gym leaders aren’t total cakewalks if you don’t want to train, and your rivals and team Plasma pop up all the time so you need to be prepared. And some trainers can take you by surprise, although most use familiar Pokémon.
Addictiveness: 8
All Pokémon games are about as addictive in my book, although it might be more addictive depending on new mechanics and Pokémon in the game. The biggest new mechanic game is the addition of seasons! But they don’t follow along with the seasons in real-life, instead they change per month. For example, August will be the Winter month. The effects are small though, you will hear that the music slightly changes on routes depending on the season, and in Winter you can access certain places thanks to big heaps of snow on the ground.
And uhm… other mechanics aren’t there. Berries can no longer be planted in the game (although it used to be possible on an online service) and there’s no day-night system as well. Instead of the Pokétch that could do tons of cool stuff like showing the time, Pokémon
weaknesses and such, we have the C-Gear, a thing that’s only useful if there are people with the same games close to you, which doesn’t happen a lot.
We still get most of the cool things back though like bycicling, fishing, surfing, traveling with trains, double battles and hey… we also get triple battles! And rotation battles! Yes, this game spices things up with new ways of battles and that’s pretty cool! I myself haven’t been in any of those battles yet since they’re not common but they are very interesting and a cool addition to this game.
Depth: 8
I haven’t competed Pokémon White yet, so I can’t say a lot about the depth of the game unfortunately. But heck, it’s Pokémon! There’s always a lot to do after finishing the main story, like new and incredibly strong trainers, new places to explore, legendary Pokémon to be
caught and lots more! It’s the same with this game.
First of all, a large part of the Unova region that wasn’t accesable at first can be explored, with Pokémon from previous games as well! Cynthia, the champion of Sinnoh can be found and can be battled as well. There is a small quest where you have to search people who
give you nice rewards, there is a dude who will hand out fossils, you can go to a version exclusive area and swarms return!
Does that make it more deep than other Pokémon games? Well, yes, but that’s only because a large part of Unova can be explored. Most of the other things that can be done have been there in previous Pokémon games, so it’s not all that interesting sometimes.
Overall: 8.9
Pokémon White is just another great entry in the Pokémon franchise and has everything you expect to be there in a Pokémon game. Critics complain that ‘it’s to similar’ or that ‘it removed too many good mechanics from generation 4’ but it still is an amazing game. If you’re a more
casual player, I think Pokémon Black and White are great games to jump into the Pokémon franchise. If you want more of a challenge, I think going for Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum might be better.
Pros and Cons!
Pros Cons
+ Very accesible -Removing the Pokétch
+ Story continues in Black and White 2 - Some of its Pokémon are very bland
+ Great graphics and music -Trainers use common Pokémon all the time
+ Grinding has become much easier
That marks the end of my review, and apparently the first review for this game as well, because Pokémon Black got reviews so far but this
game didn’t, kinda racist weird. I hope you liked my review! If you have questions, you want to be critical, think I missed certain parts, want to shout your opinion about this game, or just want to make a certain joke, go ahead and do so! I’m off to catch more games for my next review, smell you later!
Graphics
10 Sound
9 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Story
7 Difficulty
5
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