Gen V Disapointment

[hurristat]

The Exp sustem change is horrible. All the increased complexity pretty much boils down to the easy stuff getting easier and the difficult stuff getting harder. :\

It'd be fine if they used that system for lower levels than 50 or so, but it makes it nearly impossible to get to level 100.

 

[smalllady]

I don't understand why people think the EXP system makes things more difficult. Just recently, my team in Pokemon Black reached level 100. So I don't think its necessarily impossible.

 

[Discover]

I don't understand why people think the EXP system makes things more difficult. Just recently, my team in Pokemon Black reached level 100. So I don't think its necessarily impossible.

My Pokémon level up quite fast, so I'll have to agree with smalllady.

 

[βƹβƹ ɱɪɢηѻη]

Typhlosion - he looks like he's having quite heavy luggage on his back plus the sprite shows like he's erm having s-word with Ponyta...

IGNORE

Sceptile - his colours... ugh

It's colors look fine to me.

Sandslash - odd looking claws

Sandslash does look a bit awkward. A bit stubby to me.

Growlithe - cant name it. Arcanine have the best sprite of all generations, yet his pre-evo looks just bad
Koffing etc etc

I dunno. Growlithe seems fine to me. I do think Arcanine has a cool animation.

And what about Koffing... Good... Bad... ?

 

[J J M]

Team Plasma. I still think the whole "Pokemon liberation" motive was stupid and really forced. The bit with N (only N) was okay but the whole thing still seems very forced.

 

[hurristat]

Team Plasma. I still think the whole "Pokemon liberation" motive was stupid and really forced. The bit with N (only N) was okay but the whole thing still seems very forced.

I think what they were going for was a sort of militant PETA thing. Although, in the end, it was forced (as that was not their actual motive).

 

[HexagonStephen]

I did kind of hate Plasma's motives. It just seemed cheesy, and redundant.

Cheesy because N wants "Peace and freedom for Pokemon" that just seems like a really lazy, and stupid motive to give them. Then, Ghetsis wants to take over the region by taking control of the strongest Pokemon. Where has this been done before, I wonder..? Giovanni. Though, I guess you can argue that Ghetsis was a lot more sinister about his plans in that, he manipulated his son, or whatever his relation is, and lied to him about wanting to help Pokemon just to get his way. But still, they could have given them a better motive. Just like with Aqua, Magma, and Galactic. Their leaders had great motives. Basically, Aqua and Magma wanted to make the world better for different kinds of Pokemon, or humans. And Cyrus wanted to create an entirely new universe just for himself with his own ideals, and only his ideals.

 

[J J M]

Ghetsis is a damn Chessmaster though to think things that far in advance. Practically raising N so that he becomes a man-child and then the "hero" who somehow can awaken Reshiram and....you lose track somewhere around here.

 

[hurristat]

HS: So you think Team Rocket had a better motive than Team Plasma? TR was quite disorganized -- they grunts had hardly any reason to do what they do, and even then there wasn't really a plan other than, be douchebags. Team Plasma, or at least Ghetsis, had formulated a plan in advance to take over the world.

 

[Orion-Sama]

Then, Ghetsis wants to take over the region by taking control of the strongest Pokemon.

Wrong...

Ghetsis' plan was to make everyone else liberate Pokémon, so Team Plasma would be the only people with Pokémon and take over the world easily. He never seeked the strongest Pokémon at all.

As for the new Experience calculation... uh... anyone actually bothered to calculate anything? Because I did, and it proves this system is just that much better.

I calculated the Exp. given by Cynthia's Garchomp in Platinum (Level 78) and Cynthia's Garchomp in Black/White (Level 77), defeated by a Level 99 Pokémon. No Lucky Egg or trade modifiers. I used the formulas in Bulbapedia.

Platinum = 3643
Black/White = 4554

Now I'll throw a Lucky Egg modifier.

Platinum = 5465
Black/White = 6829

I tested the formulas with a Level 99 Pokémon fighting a random Pokémon. I also battled Cynthia's Garchomp myself in both games. Calculations gave me the same yield the game did, so these are accurate.

Heh. Black/White consistently gives about 900 more Experience with the same Pokémon a level below the one in 4th Generation, even at the Level where the yield is the lowest. Now considering lower leveled Pokémon earn much more than that, and the existence of possible Pass Power modifiers... yep. Black/White yields much more experience, and in most cases at higher levels, the yield is so close to previous gens', that there's no real difference, and the benefits of high yields outdo the few drawbacks which, as proven, don't actually exist either.

 

[Kereminde]

'Disappointment' would be a very strong word, because really I liked Black a bit more than I thought I would. I had a minor few snags . . .

- Dream World not being available until way late in my play is a fault of the earthquake more than the company. It also would have allowed me some Pokemon which would have slightly changed my team for a few gyms.

- I do not like that White Forest's Pokemon are not otherwise available in Black; I do note a large number of them ARE encoded into the Dream World. Any others I can import without much trouble.

- No way of transferring Pokemon from Generation 4 to Generation 5 without two DS units. (I suppose, coming back to think on that, the Wii might be able to be used? Code up a WiiWare unit for transfer in similar one-way only like the Pal-Park. There WAS that "My Pokemon Ranch" thing, and in Generation 3, I could do it with Pokemon Box . . . my roomie had a copy . . . )

- Speaking of event-only Pokemon, a minor gripe: Deoxys hasn't been released in a general sense since Generation 3, I think? And Arceus has only been released via movie promotion? (The event encoded into D/P/Pt was never unlocked.) What . . . the . . . heck?

- Pokemon between Gym cities seemed to be heavily slanted to prepare for the next Gym in the sequence. This became a slight annoyance as I was killing time training stuff and could only seem to train certain types up effectively. Either that or I was spending a lot of healing items . . .

- I don't really like the "community" aspect which was worked and woven into the game through the C-Gear and Entralink. I have a friend who plays Pokemon a lot and if we lived close to each other we would be able to work with it . . . except the games keep my attention a lot longer due to my slightly obsessive mood concerning games which have "open ends". I don't know anyone local to work with and chances are I would be either WELL beyond them or they would be WELL beyond me. The fact a few aspects of the game thrive from the community experience . . . well, it bugs me. I will do without them, sure, I always do leave out doing things which annoy me to do. (Pokeathelon sucked for me, I prefer other methods of getting things than the Safari Zone if I can help it, and the Battle Frontier was something I *COMPLETELY AVOIDED* every time it appeared.)

All these things, and other nitpicks, aren't enough to make me knock the game down a peg from "I really enjoy playing this game". I can't give it a perfect score if I had to give it a rating on a scale of 0-10 . . . no Pokemon game has ever made it to the top of the scale, for various reasons. On the other hand, right now Black is the only game I own where I run the *VERY* real possibility of being able to have a full Pokedex except for event Pokemon. (Deoxys, Darkrai, Shaymin, and Arceus!) All I need is either to find the DS where the touchpad broke from mixing Poffins (dead spot in lower-right center) or save a paycheck for buying a used DS.

 

[hurristat]

- I do not like that White Forest's Pokemon are not otherwise available in Black; I do note a large number of them ARE encoded into the Dream World. Any others I can import without much trouble.

What's the point of White Forest, then, if all the pokemon are in black? Not very many of the things in Black City are obtainable easily in White.

- No way of transferring Pokemon from Generation 4 to Generation 5 without two DS units. (I suppose, coming back to think on that, the Wii might be able to be used? Code up a WiiWare unit for transfer in similar one-way only like the Pal-Park. There WAS that "My Pokemon Ranch" thing, and in Generation 3, I could do it with Pokemon Box . . . my roomie had a copy . . . )

It's easier and cheaper on everyone's part just to do the DS thing. Not everyone has a wii.

- Speaking of event-only Pokemon, a minor gripe: Deoxys hasn't been released in a general sense since Generation 3, I think? And Arceus has only been released via movie promotion? (The event encoded into D/P/Pt was never unlocked.) What . . . the . . . heck?

Um, Deoxys had a GameStop distribution. And the generation is young. They like to spread out their events. Gen IV events went all the way until this March!

 

[Kereminde]

What's the point of White Forest, then, if all the pokemon are in black? Not very many of the things in Black City are obtainable easily in White.

The Pokemon aren't in Black, they're in the Dream World . . . slight distinction. They're available through that As for the point of White Forest vs Black City . . . I use Black City for farming cash (I got a Veteran who pays out about 10k in cash if I beat him with an Amulet Coin.) I suppose for White Forest the point is more "get access to these other Pokemon without needing to do Dream World".

And by "Import" I mean "I still have my games back to FireRed and Emerald. Once I get a second DS unit, there is little to stop me from working up the chain." On a related note . . . I should start stocking Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh starters for trade bait . . .

It's easier and cheaper on everyone's part just to do the DS thing. Not everyone has a wii.

By the same token, not everyone has two DS systems! All the same, I know the point and counterpoints are valid, and I can do the logistics analysis easily enough to see it's not very effective to put time into a WiiWare development simultaneous with Black/White development. It still annoys me so I listed it.

Um, Deoxys had a GameStop distribution. And the generation is young. They like to spread out their events. Gen IV events went all the way until this March!

Deoxys did? Huh . . . I stand corrected! Though GameStop distributions have . . . shall we say, messed with me before. "No, we don't do that here. I know what it says on the website but we don't. Are you going to buy something?" BUT that is a topic for somewhere else and not here.

 

[hurristat]

The Pokemon aren't in Black, they're in the Dream World . . . slight distinction. They're available through that As for the point of White Forest vs Black City . . . I use Black City for farming cash (I got a Veteran who pays out about 10k in cash if I beat him with an Amulet Coin.) I suppose for White Forest the point is more "get access to these other Pokemon without needing to do Dream World".

No, I know they're not in Black, they're in the DW. Which was what my point was -- what was the point of the divergence between Black and White with respect to the White Forest if the pokemon were available in Black?

 

[The Outrage]

Um, Deoxys had a GameStop distribution. And the generation is young. They like to spread out their events. Gen IV events went all the way until this March!

Deoxys also had a Guardian Signs event, and that's an unlimited amount of Deoxys. If you don't count that, then Manaphy's incredibly rare as it would only have had one movie release.

By the same token, not everyone has two DS systems! All the same, I know the point and counterpoints are valid, and I can do the logistics analysis easily enough to see it's not very effective to put time into a WiiWare development simultaneous with Black/White development. It still annoys me so I listed it.

And yet its cheaper to buy two DS's, which some people have due to upgrading their systems, or borrow a friend's. Their choice helped more people in general.

 

[mariowie]

Deoxys also had a Guardian Signs event, and that's an unlimited amount of Deoxys. If you don't count that, then Manaphy's incredibly rare as it would only have had one movie release.

But to use that you need two times Guardian Signs and DS since it't a multi player mission.
But okay you did got a Heatran a Manaphy and a Shaymin

 

[The Outrage]

But to use that you need two times Guardian Signs and DS since it't a multi player mission.
But okay you did got a Heatran a Manaphy and a Shaymin

Yeah, and to get GameStop events you have to live in the US, and near a participating location.

Some things are easier than others depending on your situation.

Point is, Deoxys was made readily available by the end of Gen IV

 

[Kereminde]

No, I know they're not in Black, they're in the DW. Which was what my point was -- what was the point of the divergence between Black and White with respect to the White Forest if the pokemon were available in Black?

Well, again, not ALL of them . . . where are my notes? . . . about a hundred Pokemon aren't available in Black either due to being White exclusives or not being available at ALL in Black/White.

As for the point of divergence: the question is not "what was the point of the White Forest?" it's the question of "why make some exclusive at all?" which has been asked from the first pair of games. And I'm not going to TRY guessing on that

 

[bluesun]

- Speaking of event-only Pokemon, a minor gripe: Deoxys hasn't been released in a general sense since Generation 3, I think? And Arceus has only been released via movie promotion? (The event encoded into D/P/Pt was never unlocked.) What . . . the . . . heck?

Japan got a Deoxys event for BW three months after release, and also got the Enigma Berry from it. Same with Arceus. So there's hope for them soon yet.

 

[Kereminde]

Hmm, re-reading, it rather struck me:

Gym-Leader Rematches being a 3rd version thing . . . I thought you could do rematches in Heart Gold / Soul Silver? I haven't bothered yet to go do those but I thought you could collect them to the Fighting Dojo for rematches.

Also, been going back to playing earlier generations . . . well, because I want to fill my 'Dex and not totally depopulate my cards/cartridges. (Note to self: find Pokemon Box or borrow it from old roomie to pull everything off it. Also, finish grabbing from Pokemon XD.) I am finding Pearl the hardest to play, for a reason which . . . is also why I never was able to play Final Fantasy 7 through the first disc: The fonts kinda hurt my eyes. And I can't put my finger on why.

Also, I still apologize for not knowing about the few event releases . . . I was going by availability as found from trying to review both Serebii and Bulbapedia and having a few difficulties putting it all together. Yes, I should have done better research, mea culpa, I stand corrected.

Anything further I have to say veers more into a review and comparison with nostalgia filters on and different expectations of games currently than I had back at the generations I played on. I'm not doing that here