Pokémon: White Review

Posted By Rollo T about 2 years, 2 months ago

Pokémon: White Review

When you heard about the new Pokémon games coming out, you probably thought one of two things: “Oh my God, new Pokémon! MUST HAVE!!!” or “Meh, don’t care.” A review of Pokémon Black & White for Pokémon fans is pretty much a futile effort because I imagine anyone who bought Pokémon all the way up to Pearl and Diamond also bought the newest titles as well, so this review isn’t entirely for the hardcore Pokéfan. Instead, allow me to explain why there is no better set of games in the franchise for new fans to jump in on than Pokémon Black & White.

The main purpose of playing Pokémon has been the same since the series began: you’re a new Pokémon trainer who has just started his journey to become the greatest Pokémon trainer ever. You travel around the world, catch new Pokémon, battle gym leaders, then you eventually challenge the Pokémon Champion. That’s still true in Black & White, but like past titles there’s a group of evil trainers that serve as the games’ antagonists. What makes the group in Black & White different is that they actually bring a sense of intelligence and ambiguity to a franchise that normally split its morals as black and white.

Fans of Pokémon have been requesting a more serious storyline since the first days of Pokémon Red & Blue, and finally that request has been answered. The storyline of Black & White focuses on a legion of trainers known as Team Plasma who are seeking to liberate Pokémon from their human trainers. Yes, the comparison to PETA is obvious (especially since we first meet Team Plasma as they hold a protest), but there’s a rather intriguing prospect brought up by the villains in Black & White. Unlike past Pokémon baddies, the enigmatic leader of Team Plasma isn’t an irredeemable monster, and his goals actually have a degree of sense to them. We are still meant to side with keeping the status quo in the Pokémon world, but the games do ask some rather bold questions for a series mostly known as a marketing tool.

I won’t tell you this is a deconstruction of the series or that it’s flawless in its execution, but for every person suggesting Pokémon games take a more mature approach to their story, Black & White have done just that. In fact, the story of Black & White is far more involving than past editions have been. Gym leaders actually take a more active role in the plot and return to the story after you defeat them. Your rivals and professor are far more complex than in past incarnations, and recall memories of the fantastic rival from the Gold & Silver games. All in all, Pokémon Black & White go above and beyond what was expected of them.

I wonder if this gym leader uses Bug Pokemon…

Now, the gameplay of Pokémon has been the target of much criticism since Red & Blue. Fans of the franchise love the one on one turn based battle system that requires you to capture and train your own monsters, but critics have lamented that the formula hasn’t really changed since it started. With each new game the style of gameplay remains, at its core, the same. It’s been one of the major problems new fans have with entering the series, and honestly Black & White don’t break this formula. They add new things to it like previous generations have, but ultimately if you hated the way combat worked in previous Pokémon games, Black & White won’t change your mind. That said, Black & White are the culmination of five generations of Pokémon titles and in my opinion perfect the formula originally presented to us in Pokémon Red & Blue.

The gameplay still works the same for the most part. You travel around the world with your Pokémon and whenever you walk through tall grass or catch the eye of another trainer you’ll engage in a Pokémon battle. Once you enter battle you’ll face off against your opponent’s Pokémon team (up to six) in a one-on-one match where you trade attacks and try to KO the opposing team. Your moves are all based on different attributes that are strong or weak against certain types of Pokémon, and combat boils down in most cases to a game of paper, rock, and scissors. This formula hasn’t changed and will probably never change, but damnit, when it’s fun, it’s a blast.

This is supposed to be New York? Where are all the homeless people?

There are no shortages of trainers or wild Pokémon on which to test your skill, and there’s a plethora of new Pokémon for you to catch, train, and evolve. The game’s difficulty curves up and down based on the mixture of your team, so if you have a proper balance of types and attacks the game won’t challenge you too much, though occasionally the gym battles can be a test. Instead the biggest obstacle to overcome is “catch[ing] ‘em all!” with an assortment of 156 new Pokémon for to hunt down and capture (though at least four of these Pokémon are event-only, so consider it 152). There’s a nice balance in how the Pokémon are spread out throughout the new land of Unova, and there’s the proper reward of rare Pokémon for those players who wish to search through an area with a fine toothed comb, with enough common Pokémon to ensure that casual players don’t need to spent hours running around a patch of grass waiting for a new one to appear.

The biggest change in this edition is that, for the first time since the original, each Pokémon you catch on this journey is entirely new to this generation. That means fan favorites like Zubat and Geodude (I kid, I know everyone hated them) can only be captured and used after you complete the main storyline, which takes around 25 – 30 hours. A lot of Pokémon fans are upset that you can’t use your favorites right out of the gate, but personally I enjoyed exploring a world of all new Pokémon. Whether you’ll like this change or not is dependent entirely on your own personal preference, but I will assure you that even after completing the main storyline there are plenty of sidequests for you to engage in with your favorite little monsters.