Review: Pokemon White, Nintendo DS

[angik20]

I recieved Pokemon White for my birthday on July 2nd, and beat the game in a little more than a week. I've been talking to my (less Pokemon- obsessed) friend about it for months on end, telling everyone how much I wanted the game since it came out, and I was excited when I finally got the game. However, I was dissapointed when I had beaten the game in not even two weeks, That being said, I enjoyed the short time spent on it.

The graphics have improved since the fouth generation. I especially was impressed with the detailed design of Skyarrow Bridge just beyond Castelia City. The CGI cutscenes were dazzling to watch as well.
The dialog box has been changed into speech bubbles that point to the characters speaking, so more than one character can speak at a time. In battles, the Pokemon sprites are fully animated, and the camera shifts around the field to highlight specific parts, so that's another improvement.
The day/night system returned, but I've heard about a season system as well, but since I breezed through the game, I hadn't experienced this yet. (But the game said it was autumn... of course I heard the season system shifted every four months instead of going by the calendar.) Certain areas are only available in certain seasons, and two Pokemon, Deerling and Sawsbuck change their appearance when seasons change.

The audio has improved as well since Generation 4, and two new themes have been added. One is a remix of the beeping sound effect that plays when your Pokemon's health has dropped to what I call the "red zone." I admit, I panicked the first time I heard that. The other theme that was added plays during Pokemon Gm Battles when the Gym Leader is down to his/her last Pokemon, and is somewhat reminiscent of Pokemon Stadium.

The game introduced three modes of battle, Triple Battles, Rotation Battles, and Double Battles against Wild Pokemon. Triple Battles are 3-on-3 Pokemon battles that play similar to Double Battles, the Pokemon that can target their opponents with any speific attack depends on where the Pokemon are placed. The pokemon on the sides can only target either their own side or the center while the center Pokemon can target all three. Rotation battles are set up like Triple Battles, but are more like one-on-one, with the option to rotate among the Pokemon. Double Battles against Wild Pokemon take place in darker-colored grass, and work like Double Battles against Trainers. Also, rare Pokemon encounters take place on tiles of rustling grass and bubbling water, where you can catch Pokemon like Audino, Emolga, or Alomamola. in tiles of dust clouds and shadows on bridges and in caves, you can either find rare items or encounter pokemon like Drilbur or Ducklett, these can't be found anywhere else in the wild.

The C-gear is only for better access to the connectivity in this game, and the only way to access the Pokemon Dream World. The Dream world itself isn't neccessary for completion of the game, but it's fun for acquiring items and Pokemon to bring back to the game, and is kinda cute and fun.

The basic plot's been the same classic I've always loved since Yellow: you assume the role of a Pokemon Trainer, after choosing between the three starters, Snivy, Tepig or Oshawott, Professor Juniper gives you and your "rivals" as a gift, who then sets out on a journey to collect all of the badges from the eight Gyms in the Unova Region, so you can ultimately challenge the Elite Four and defeat the Champion of the Unova Leauge.
I thought it was interesting to know the Gym Leaders have double jobs, like the three Leaders in Striaton Gym are waiters, Lenora of Nacerene Gym is an archaeologist, Burgh of Castelia Gym is an artist, etc.
Your two "rivals," Cheren and Bianca, are friendly and helpful, Cheren is more helpful though, he actually does stuff like heal your pokemon after a couple of battles against him. His goal was to become stronger, but he doesn't know what to do with that power. Bianca is a little flighty, saying that she doesn't know what she wants to do on her jouney, and her dad was reluctant to let her go in the beginning. Depending on which starter you choose, Cheren will pick the starter with a type advantage to yours, and Bianca will choose a starter with a type advantage to his.
In addition to the standard gameplay every veteran fan of Pokemon knows by now, the player has to fight against Team Plasma, whose costume designs are based off the Knights Templar, but they actually act more like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). So what would make THIS group? People for the Ethical Tratment of Pokemon? PETP?
Anyway, the leader of Team Plasma is N, an somewhat disturbing guy who has long bushy green hair and goes off on tangents on how Pokemon are friends, not tools for sport, and how all Pokemon should be segregated from humans every time you run into him. Why did he disturb me? Just... listen to the theme that plays when he shows up. And his battle theme.
He claims that by capturing one of the Dragon Legendaries, eithe Reshiram or Zekrom, depending on the version of the game you have (Since I have White, N captures Reshiram), and becoming the new Champion, he'll become a hero, so he can convince everyone to set free their Pokemon. (Being a Hetalia fan, I was telling him in my head that he can't be the hero, because America IS the HERO!)
After you get all the Badges and defeat the Elite Four and when you enter the Champion's chamber, you'll see that N DOES get Reshiram and defeat the Champion, Alder. After becoming the new Champion, N raises this HUGE FREAKING CASTLE AROUND THE LEAGUE CASTLEVANIA-STYLE! He challenges you to try to find him (he's on the top floor) and to capture Zekrom before you take him on in one epic, though easier than I thought, battle, with a revamp of his final theme. After you beat him, he says that his ideals were possibly mistaken. Then, Ghetsis, one of the "Seven Sages," shows up, and reveals that the whole "liberation of Pokemon" thing was all a scam, using his own son N to make sure that he was the only person who owned Pokemon, and use them to take over the world. Then he challenges you to the very last Pokemon battle, which was somewhat difficult, and when you beat him, he gets arrested, Alder becomes the Champion again, and N, unlike the othe syndicate bosses, Giovanni of Rocket, Maxie of Magma, Archie of Aqua, or Cyrus of Galactic, actually THANKS you for helping him see the error of his ways, and leaves the castle.
All in all, I really liked this game, the only things I found I didn't really like were some of the Pokemon designs. Some of them were just plain WEIRD! For example, who thought Trubbish was a good idea?!
OVERALL SCORE: 9.5/10