I think I'm gonna revive this one. I seriously thought I'd never get back into ("back into" in the sense that I play at all) the main series games, but the prospect of playing with a friend and a seriously cheap copy lured me into White 2.
I gotta say, I came in expecting the exact same feeling of sameyness I got from DP (the point where I pretty much stopped gaming seriously to go do other things.) And, granted, the underlying system is still exactly the same. But I will say that the series has changed quite a bit in the fifth generation, and I feel it's actually for the better.
PROS:
*At first I thought I'd hate the nearly "diminishing rewards" style EXP curve after being burned by how poorly it was handled in SMT: Strange Journey. But I actually like the game it encourages me to play. It's basically worthless to grind on level 2 weedles with a level 9 kakuna now. Instead, I end up seeking out areas with stronger wild beasts and, consequently, staying challenged by the game. It's a nice system.
*I've seen several people say they detest the graphics, but I think BW/2 really improved on them. The seasons look absolutely great, the Pokemon animations are so vivid and active and the cities are actually immersive to an extent. The overall Pokemon designs have not changed much in my eyes, but they've always seemed polished to me since the third generation.
*There's so much to do. I never feel like I'm lacking things to go check out or find. And, although the Dream World/Entralink features are fairly "kid-oriented," they do actually add something to the core game that was sorely missing which was a way to get a bunch of National Dex Poke's before even beating the game. Considering I could not give two flips about the new Unova critters, playing around with old early-generation ones like Pineco and Ponyta and such without having to finish the game first feels good.
*The combat has not been upgraded much from DP, but the addition of more helpful utility moves for strategic gamers has improved the core gameplay quite a bit. I of course adore the double battle system, and wild ones were always much fun.
*I also love how much effort the devs put into trying to break the mold. Your house doesn't have two floors in BW2, you start in a city instead of a tiny town, and the NPCs are (usually) fairly memorable.
CONS:
*The plot of BW1&2 just fell flat for me. I don't really care about N or Plasma, and even though they attempted to ad dress how the trainers in game are being "cruel" by basically dogfighting Pokemon, it all pretty much fell flat. Taking on the game world a little bit out of order was neat, though.
*The attack animations felt so slow for some reason. Maybe I'm just thinking about time as an adult more. I ended up turning them off entirely.
*The difficulty seemed pretty uneven throughout the game. It would go back and forth between why is this so hard it's Pokemon and I should really be doing homework instead of pressing A over and over.
*The whole thing with Pass Powers and their tiny boosts seemed awfully trivial to me. I seriously felt like I was playing some kind of hand-holding MMO during those minigames, and without any major point to it all.
*This is probably not a game-specific complaint, but how much faster my battery ran out along with how long communications between the Dream World and the DS took were annoying.
The game is still a great time-waster, though, and I'm glad it's handheld. I can pick it up and play for a session or so like I used to. I recommend BW2 to anyone who's considering getting one of them.
Poll
8 (15.4%)
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Topic: A Thread about the Pokemans: POKEMANS ON MOTORCYCLES (Read 672831 times)