LogFAQs > #963214001

Pokemon White (DS)
I have a weird relationship with the Pokemon series. Every few years I fall in and out of love with it. For the past few years I've been out of love with it. I barely played Sun/Moon (I think I made it to the island where the second set of trials is) and have totally skipped ORAS, USUM and SwSh so far. I also never finished BW before, and have only played BW2 to get the Genesect that they issued upon its release, so the only mainline game from the past four generations that I've played completely is Y (I did play New Snap though). But I've been on a bit of a DS kick so far this year and decided to pull this one out and boot up my old save file from 2011. I had gotten four badges (which is actually further than I thought I'd gotten; I thought I only had three). I remember not enjoying it very much at all compared to other games in the series.

And, yeah. I could immediately see why. Even after beating it, I would still consider it my least-favorite of all the mainline Pokemon games that I've either beaten or played extensively enough to judge (RBY, GSC, Emerald, Platinum, SoulSilver, White, Y), and by a pretty decent margin at that. First off, I don't really know why, but I HATE the interface. I'm not sure what it is about it but I find it much uglier and harder to use (sans touch screen) than the other DS games. I hate the seasons aspect. I'm not sure if this was just my own personal experience/bad luck or if it's actually true compared to other Pokemon games, but I found the random encounter rate to be obscenely high. Like, unbearably annoying. On average, I'd say every second or third step on wild tiles. I've never stocked up on so many fucking repels in a Pokemon game before, it was terrible. Despite this, I used most of my wild battles for experience, and didn't catch many Pokemon (I thought this game gave experience for wild battles in which you caught the Pokemon; when did that start, Gen VI?), which is just as well anyway because...

Generation 5 is, by far, my least-favorite set of new Pokemon, design-wise, which led me to a dilemma - do I use Pokemon I like or Pokemon that are strong? My general philosophy is to use Pokemon that I like, and my God, that made this difficult, because, just looking at the list of Pokemon available in this game, it's so hard to create a well-balanced team out of the Pokemon that I like. In most generations, there are Pokemon from previous generations available, and while I try to focus on the newest ones, I usually have one or two older ones on my team. That's not the case here, so I had to be really nitpicky about which Pokemon I could use. My final team ended up being Dewott, Lilligant, Vanilluxe, Chandelure, Krookodile, and the last one rotated a bit at the endgame. It was initially Zebstrika, then I caught a good Bouffalant on Victory Road that I used on the Elite Four, then, at the urging of the game, switched it for Zekrom for the endgame bosses. And let me tell you, this team really made things difficult for me. Most of them have shit stats, compounded by the fact that most of them either evolve late, I had to hold off on evolving them for a long time for learnset purposes, or, in the case of Dewott, I really really really wanted to keep unevolved. Furthermore, this team had a significant weakness to the fighting type with no counter to it, which was problematic because that type is SO prevalent in Unova, including an Elite Four member. The result of this team was a shit ton of running back and forth to heal my Pokemon and stocking up on healing items and using them basically every other battle.

I know what you're thinking, you're like, "dark, just use better Pokemon!" And there's the rub. If I'd done that, I would have been using Pokemon I didn't like, which would have also made the game not very fun for me. A few years ago I did a playthrough of Blue in which I made it a point to play with Pokemon that I have rarely if ever used. I ended up going with Ninetales, Victreebel, Hypno, Cloyster, Chansey, and Zapdos. Even though I'd never used them extensively before, I didn't dislike them, and they all had stats and learnsets that got me through the game pretty handily. I could theoretically do this with GSC as well, using something like, say, Espeon, Ampharos, Azumarill, Miltank, Entei and Hitmontop. There's really no set of Pokemon in Gen V that I could use that would make a balanced team type/learnset wise, have acceptable stats, and be Pokemon that I like. I just couldn't do it.

But I won't say it's all bad. There was some decent nostalgia involved as this was the generation where I was most into the TCG, so it was kinda nice seeing the Pokemon, characters, and other details that reminded me of those times. The story was... okay. It was kinda stupid but I guess I kinda liked N and the fact that they actually gave some of the gym leaders an actual role in the story. Unova isn't the best region but I can't call it the worst either (seriously, fuck Sinnoh). I actually really have a bit of a soft spot for the DS's graphics and this game is no exception. But I guess that's really what I care to say about the positives.

As for a recommendation, I mean, you're either a fan of Pokemon or you're not. I'm probably the last person who considers themselves a genuine fan of the series who hadn't beaten this game so I won't bother telling you that I think you're options are a hell of a lot better with other games in the series, but for some reason I seem to encounter a high number of fans who would be telling me I'm wrong and that Black/White is one of the best games in the series, if not the best, which absolutely baffles me. I will play BW2 at some point, but I'm not particularly itching for it after my experience with this one. I know it fixes some of the problems I had with this game (especially the Goddamn Pokemon availability), but otherwise I dunno.