Day 44: Pokémon Black & White 1 & 2
Last double decker entry for the marathon and it's for my favorite Pokémon games. Many people as well as myself believe that the franchise peaked at the DS era, and the highest point being the main series games of Generation 5, Pokémon Black & White 1 and 2.
Both games have a similar overall story. You know how it goes: Travel town to town, eight badges, rival fights, evil team with legendaries, blah, blah, blah. We've heard it all a million times.
But one interesting thing I like about the first game is that you don't initially fight the Champion. You take on the Elite Four and find that one of the game's main antagonist's, N, has beaten the Champion and you take the fight to his castle. That's a really cool change of pace.
On that note, let's talk about the main villains of the two games, Team Plasma. These guys are my favorite villains in the series. In the first B/W game, they bring up an interesting point on liberating Pokémon and how they feel they are oppressed by trainers. Never before this game has an evil team made you question the morality of this series' main concept. Like, would Pokémon be happier in the wild, not owned by a trainer? But what if the Pokémon and the trainer bonded so much that they can't bear to be apart? Team Plasma is a unique team with excellent motivation…until Ghetsis comes along and reveals it was all a ruse so that only he can be allowed to use Pokémon. Basically another dickhead looking for world domination, never heard that one before! (By the way I'm being sarcastic)
In Black 2 & White 2, Team Plasma has since broken up, forming two forces in the process. One is led by N, who seeks atonement for what he's done in the last game, and the other is lead by Ghetsis who resorts to terrorism to control Unova. I personally liked Team Plasma a bit more in the first game, it's interesting to see how we have two different Team Plasmas, one fighting for peace and the other seeking endless destruction. Speaking of Team Plasma I want to talk about the character Colress. An interesting specimen his character is. He's one of the highest ranking members in Neo Team Plasma, and for the most part he doesn't really seem to care about what the team is doing, mainly focusing on figuring out the true strength of Pokémon and occasionally helping the player out with any Crustle that are blocking the way. While his allegiances do align with Neo Team Plasma, as he doesn't agree with Old Team Plasma's view of Pokémon liberation, Colress is such an interesting character in that his motivations aren't in line with the motivations of his team, and he remains mostly neutral throughout the game.
On the subject of these games' characters, you'll notice that the Black and White duology is slightly more mature when compared to its predecessors. And that's mainly shown with the rival characters, Cheren and Bianca in the first game, and Hugh in the second game. Starting with Cheren, he wants to become a strong trainer, but many times when he reveals that fact he's often met with the question of why he wants to become stronger. It's a question that even Cheren himself wonders. It's almost like when you ask a kid what he or she wants to be when he/she grows up. Bianca wants independence from her father so she can follow her dream of being a Pokémon Trainer. And Hugh wants revenge on Team Plasma for stealing his sister's Purrloin from years ago. These themes of independence, growing up, and revenge are things not previously seen in games prior and I have to respect this duology for shining light on them. Hell, in terms of Cheren and Bianca they end up turning out to be great people with the former being Aspertia City's Gym Leader and Bianca being Professor Juniper's assistant.
Another thing that sets these games apart from the rest of the main series are how the Gym Leaders get more involved that in previous entries. They all have unique personalities and have their own roles in the main story. They're more than just roadblocks you have to beat in order to progress.
Next thing I want to talk about are these game's Pokémon roster. Generation 5 gives us arguably the largest number of Pokémon so far, clocking in at 156. While I like Generation 4's roster a little bit more, this generation's Pokédex still brings a lot to the table. My favorites in this generation have to be the starters, Stoutland, Zebstrika, Excadrill, Krookodile, Seismitoad, Sawk and Throh, Darmanitan, Scraftly, Sigilyph, Archaeops, Zoroark, Vanilluxe, Escavalier, Jellicent, Ferrothorn, Eelektross, Haxorus, Chandelure, Braviary, Volcarona, and most of the legendaries.
One interesting thing about the two games' dexes are how the first Black and White only has Pokémon of this, at the time, new generation, leaving you to figure out the types and stats of each new mon as you encounter them, basically telling you not to rely on only your favorites. But for those of you who do have a problem with this (*cough* Genwunners *cough*) Black 2 and White 2 give us familiar faces from previous generations for you to catch as well, giving you near limitless possibilities for a great team.
This is a great duology of games in terms of roster, story, and characters, that I have yet to bring up other mechanics like the new Triple/Rotation Battles, adding new layers of strategy to battles, this generation being the one to introduce reusable TMs, and time wasters like the Pokémon Musical, Battle Subway, Dream World, and Black 2/White 2 exclusives in the forms of Pokéstar Studios, Medal Collecting, and this games substitute for a Battle Frontier, the PWT, a place where you can battle a plethora of trainers, including gym leaders from this generation and previous ones.
These games pack so much and do so much to innovate the franchise (the sprites actually move now holy shit!) that I can easily this is as nothing more than the best game in the Pokémon series so far. Unova forever indeed!
