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Little things you like about Pokémon
- Thread starter Kurona
- Start date
I’m not sure if this is in other Pokémon games but in Alola there is a special bit of the bag where you can move items specifically to it. It’s really useful when you need to put a certain item somewhere and can’t be bothered to search for it every single time, like repels or just things you want to keep track of.
currently grinding Mt. Battle to get Ho-oh and was realized that the 9th Area Leader has this team and it's a sweet reminder on how to get the Regis. Dig Flygon really reminds you that in RS Trapinch is one of 2 Pokemon that get Dig per level up. And Flygon has also Fly and Strength while Relicanth has Surf
If only Relicanth or Wailord had Dive, it would have been perfect.
I revisited UsUm to get a Knock Off Weavile bred and I have to admit the QoL improvements in SwSh are incredible. UsUm felt incredibly awkward breeding, moving Pokemon (via PC, Swsh let you do it fucking anywhere), and even moving around (omnibike is amazing). I think SwSh could have been the best games in the series with another year in development but unfortunately they were rushed and are 10/10 ideas in a 4/10 game.
Tauros made breeding obnoxious, but frankly I wasn't a fan of it in gen 8 either. The bike's speed up gimmick is annoying. For my money gen 6 had the best breeding experience.
Also let us carry Eggs without it having to fill a spot on our team. Make a Key Item called the "Incubator" which lets us store an Egg inside it, maybe allow it to be upgraded so that it can hold a few more after certain requirements are met (you can still have Eggs fill party slots if you like, but if you're only hatching one or two you shouldn't have to give up battling Pokemon for it)(BTW, also bring back the Berry Pots and let us grow Berries on the go!). Also allow the Daycare to watch over eggs and let walking effect them, if they want a "punishment" for doing that just have it only count every other step for those Eggs.
I've grown to like the idea of an "Eggnalyzer" that tells us what is inside the Egg before hatching it. Make it available after the player hatches 20 Eggs or something. If they're not that into Breeding, it doesn't break any experiences, as you're unlikely to get to 20 without making the effort. If you're really into Breeding, after 20 Eggs you've really hatched enough of them.
As someone who's bred way too much in their life, the main thing I'd want for breeding is to add back some sort of thing that shows you your team without doing anything; like when it was on the bottom screen on the DS/3DS. Saves a lot of time of going in and out of your Pokémon menu to check how many eggs are hatched.
The Mind Electric
Calming if you look at it right.
I would like to meet the developer who decided to have Juniper just give you the Lucky Egg for free a little over halfway through Black/White and shake his hand, because it makes leveling so much easier when combined with Audino. Much better than Gen 4, where you have to gank it from random wild Chansey. I'm calling this a little thing because grinding would still be bearable without it, but coming from HG it feels like a godsend.
Deleted User 465389
Banned deucer.
Xaviere Posts Something Good About TCG;
What A Surprise
What A Surprise
Now since that was not gonna slide here, they got clever and named it ‘profane punch’.
•still gets the message of the punch
•is a pun because goddamn is a profanity
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... Huh? Oh, sorry, I was too mesmerized by Incineroar's art of it p***ing out a tornado of flame.
Though if I were to add something to the above, "profane" also sounds like "propane" so a nice little pun there if intentional.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
tcg incineroar be likeThough if I were to add something to the above, "profane" also sounds like "propane" so a nice little pun there if intentional.
That's what Incineroar says after its down relieving itself.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
I like how out of the 3 screenshots on the BDSP site showing the starters in a basic battle setting this is the only one with Dawn in it. They didn't need to sneak in an anime reference in the most basic of marketing shots but they did.
The Mind Electric
Calming if you look at it right.
I almost always pick Chimchar in the Sinnoh games so it's hard for me to imagine her using anything other than Turtwig. It is a cool reference though.
I don't like the in-battle character models. They don't look like they are finished and have no outlines something I would expect from something like a SwSh mod instead of a upcoming game from "professionals"
I guess they rushed it for the presentation if anything.
I guess they rushed it for the presentation if anything.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
On the subject of absurd attention to detail:
No joke, this has elevated my confidence for these games by a shocking amount. If nothing else it seems like ILCA have a very keen eye.
No joke, this has elevated my confidence for these games by a shocking amount. If nothing else it seems like ILCA have a very keen eye.
To be fair, it *is* a promising detail.
At least it's a initial sign that they didn't halfass it and they have put some thought in what they're doing.
The Mind Electric
Calming if you look at it right.
It's possible that they didn't know, thought it was intentional, and added it because of that. I certainly couldn't tell, and I still can't looking at the original wall even though I know it's a rendering error. It just looks like a cool design to me.
Today, it is exactly 10 years since B/W were released in Europe. It will soon be 10 years since they were first released in North America and Australia as well. In order to celebrate their international 10th anniversary, I decided to make a post with everything I like about not only B/W, but B2/W2 as well. I guess many members here on the forums already know this, but I love Gen 5. It is my favorite generation. B/W and B2/W2 are not only my favorite Pokémon games, but also some of my overall favorite video games. So here are some short words about everything I liked from these fantastic games. To make it somewhat more structured, I split it in four different categories.
General
- The games have version differences in more than just which wild Pokémon can be found in them. Some areas have a different design between Black/2 and White/2, such as Opelucid City and Reversal Mountain. One area is completely different between the versions, namely Black City/White Forest. There are also some areas that are mostly similar but have a somewhat different layout, such as the Plasma Frigate and Victory Road in B2/W2.
- The Unova region. It is my favorite region in the series. I love how it is designed. It has amazing variety in environments, many different areas and it feels so large. It also has bridges. A common complaint is that Unova is linear, but I don’t mind. I like linearity in Pokémon games because I think they benefit from it in many different ways.
- B2/W2 added several new areas to Unova and they made changes to some old areas from B/W as well. I thought it was really cool to see how Unova had changed over the course of 2 years, the games did that so very well.
- Like most other generations, the Gen 5 games have references to previous games. But those never take over the spotlight from Unova itself. I think they hit the balance just right with the references. Some good examples are the appearances of Caitlin and Cynthia, as well as the PWT.
- The music. Gen 5 has my favorite soundtrack in the series. My top favorite tracks are Entralink, Emotion, Route 10, B/W Credits, Aspertia City, Route 21/22, Iris Battle theme, Black Tower, Colress Battle theme… and many, many others.
- Dynamic music. At various points, the music in the games can change based on various factors. For more info, here are two more detailed posts on this subject: one by DrumstickGaming here and another one by me here.
- I really like how B2/W2 managed to be different from B/W, yet similar at the same time. I think they absolutely nailed it with the balance between new and old. B2/W2 managed to be more different compared to B/W than what any third/alternate version has been to other first pairs, yet they were still similar enough to the point that it was clear that they were still in the same region and generation.
- The game structure of Gen 5 in general. I think that having a first pair and then a sequel is perfect. It means that you need to play one game from both pairs in order to get the full package. I think this is way better than most other generations with a third/alternate version since those mostly makes the first pair obsolete. And at the same time, they are also 80-90% the same as the first pair, which means they might not be quite as appealing to play if you have already played the first pairs (but for me personally, I played both all first pairs and all third/alternate versions). The only other structure which I think is similarly great would be the DLC/Expansion Pass. I am also very happy about the fact that there were no remakes during Gen 5 as those are my least favorite type of Pokémon games.
- The graphics. While this is not a super important aspect for me when it comes to Pokémon (or video games in general), I still think Gen 5 nailed it with the graphics. Both the overworld and the battles were excellent graphically, way better than in Gen 4. I think Gen 5 has the best graphics from all the main series games prior to the 3DS era, and I think they are graphically very impressive for being DS games.
- This is very personal, but B/W were the games that restored my interest in Pokémon after my previous burnout on the series. I got burnt out at some point during the end of 2008 or in the beginning of 2009 (it is hard to pin down an exact moment, but somewhere around there). That burnout lasted for more than 2 years, all the way until the English release of B/W. These games and Gen 5 on the whole restored my interest in Pokémon again and they even made it bigger than it had ever been before. Because of that, B/W, B2/W2, and Gen 5 on the whole will always be special to me. I think B/W did an excellent job at capturing the feeling of newness, while B2/W2 continued on it by being similar yet new and refreshing at the same time since they were the first sequels in the series. Unfortunately, I have recently gotten burnt out on Pokémon again, and it feels very unlikely that my interest in the series will ever get back to sky-high levels again.
Pokémon
- The Unova Pokémon. The largest number of Pokémon introduced in a new generation so far, and I think the Unova Pokémon themselves are really amazing. I really like the vast majority of them, there is only a small number which I think are “only” okay, and there’s not a single one I dislike.
- The regional dexes. They are very different but I think they are both excellent. B/W only had the Unova Pokémon in their regional dex and I thought that was amazing because they gave the full focus to the new Pokémon during the main game. B2/W2 expanded on the Unova dex and doubled its size, though it still felt like it had the main focus on the Unova Pokémon. The other half of the dex consisted of old Pokémon from all previous generations, but it never felt like the older generations overshadowed the Unova Pokémon or that either of them took the spotlight from the others. B2/W2 also tried something new with the regional dex (as opposed to having a downright necessary expansion which I feel is what Platinum had) which led to the largest regional dex for the time. Even today, they are tied with S/M for having the fourth largest regional dex in the series.
- Great Pokémon distribution and variation on the routes. Most if not all areas have something new to offer, and while there are a few repeats, I never felt that it got annoying. In the new areas that are accessible during post-game in the Unova games, there are also many new Pokémon which can’t be found during the main game.
- Good Pokémon availability on the whole. While you couldn’t get 100% of all existing Pokémon through Gen 5 alone, it was still possible to get a majority of them (even if some had to be obtained from outside sources like Dream World). And the ones that couldn’t be obtained in Gen 5 alone could still be transferred from Gen 4. In addition to that, this was the last time in the series where transferring Pokémon from one generation to the next (through Poké Transfer and the Relocator in this case) was completely free and done in the actual games instead of through a side-app which requires an extra fee in order to be used.
Gameplay
- Really great training spots. Not sure if I can call them epic like the ones in Gen 6, but they are still excellent. The Nimbasa Stadiums are great since you can battle a bunch of trainers there every day, there are also several strong trainers you can battle once a day (or at other intervals) such as Morimoto, the rival(s), Cynthia and several others. There’s also the Royal Unova. Black Tower and White Treehollow in B2/W2 give really good training as well. Not to mention the fact that you can find wild Pokémon at really high levels, including Audino which gives a ton of Exp. Plus, you get a Lucky Egg as a free gift throughout the games, and there are Pass Powers which can be used to increase the Exp. you gain as well. All in all, the Gen 5 games have really great training spots and I always had a lot of fun when I was training Pokémon in them. I’d say that’s a real strength of the Gen 5 and Gen 6 Pokémon games: if the actual training and level grinding in an RPG is fun and enjoyable, then that’s an example of really good gameplay.
- Improved trading and connectivity. The C-Gear had several good features for connecting to other games and online, and the GTS could now be found in every Pokémon Center as opposed to in just one area in the Gen 4 games. I think the improved multiplayer features in Gen 5 paved the way to make them even better in Gen 6, and the C-Gear has always felt like a precursor to the PSS for me.
- EV-training got a slight improvement in this generation with the introduction of Wings, which could be used to give just 1 EV in any stat without the need to defeat an opposing Pokémon. And unlike Vitamins, Wings can still be used once a Pokémon already has 100 EVs in a specific stat.
- Gen 5 did some breeding improvements as well. Starting from B2/W2, letting either parent hold an Everstone now makes it pass down its Nature 100% of the time instead of just 50% of the time. B2/W2 also updated Ability breeding a bit. While breeding, Pokémon now pass down the mother’s Ability 80% of the time instead of 50% like in previous games. Both B/W and B2/W2 allowed Hidden Abilities to be passed down through breeding as well. If the mother parent has its HA, then there’s a 60% chance the offspring will have it as well.
- A balanced game in terms of challenge. A common complaint within the fandom is that the Gen 5 games are too easy, but I disagree. The Pokémon games have always been easy and I did not find the Gen 5 games to be easier than any previous games. I found them balanced and fun, which is more important to me.
- TMs can now be used infinite times! I think this is a really awesome feature because it meant that you never had to re-obtain a TM if you wanted to teach a TM move to several different Pokémon, nor did you ever have to save a specific TM that could only be used once for a special Pokémon which would be the only one to learn it. Or go through the complications of TM breeding, which I was forced to do at various times in Gen 3. I am very happy that this became a new standard for TMs in the series and that it has been kept in all generations past Gen 5.
- The speed of the games. Gen 5 is considerably faster than Gen 4, especially in battles but I think it is noticeable outside of battles as well. I liked this because it sped up things in general when playing, allowing me to get more things done in less time.
- Story and characters. While I don’t think this is a super important aspect of the Pokémon games, I still feel that I need to mention it. I think Gen 5 is the absolute best in the series when it comes to story and characters. B/W are on the very top but I think B2/W2 did really well too, their sequel story was really great. This is yet another area where the game structure is great, it allowed them to have a follow-up story in B2/W2 instead of just a slightly adjusted story like a third/alternate version would have had.
- I like how B2/W2 had some new Gyms and new Gym Leaders compared to B/W. I also like how they had a new rival, new Plasma members and some other new characters in general. But at the same time, they kept the older characters from B/W in the games although they gave different roles to some of them.
- Speaking of characters, I really like the character designs in the Gen 5 games. This is something Pokémon usually does well and Gen 5 was not an exception. Most if not all of the characters in Gen 5 are really well designed.
- The post-game stories. While not as fleshed out as in the future generations, they were still fun. I liked hunting down the sages with Looker in B/W and doing various things in B2/W2, notably catching the cover legends.
Content and features
- Amazing post-games. B2/W2 has the most content in the entire series, and I think they also have the best-post game of all Pokémon games to date. B/W has a really great post-game as well, I’d say they are tied with D/P as the first pairs with the most content and the best post-games.
- A National Dex. This has become notable since this is no longer a key feature in the main series, starting from Gen 7. Because of that, I feel that any game which has a National Dex in the actual games and not just in a side-app deserves praise for it. The Gen 5 games had a National Dex, and just like for all generations that have one, it was the largest one for its time. They also have the second largest National Dex in the main series games to date, obviously only beaten by Gen 6.
- Seasons. This was a fun and cool mechanic, adding even more variety to the region since the areas changed between the seasons. It felt like the next step up in terms of making the games realistic after the day/night system got introduced. I miss it a bit in future generations as I feel that it would have been cool to see how the other regions changed between the seasons as well.
- Triple and Rotation battles. Fun new battle modes, I am especially fond of Triple Battles which are one of my favorite battle styles, but I thought Rotation battles were fun too. I like how they were kept in Gen 6, but I miss them in Gen 7 and 8.
- Shaking spots and wild Double battles, really fun new ways to encounter wild Pokémon.
- Teaming up with trainers as you go through various areas in B2/W2. First with Hugh in the Castelia Sewers, then with Bianca at Reversal Mountain and finally with Cheren in Pinwheel Forest during the post-game. This is something I really like and I am glad they did it a few times in B2/W2, too bad it hasn’t been done again since then.
- Dream World. This was a fun feature, I feel like it was sort of a successor to the Secret Bases from Gen 3 & 4. The minigames were fun, and I think it was a good way to get Pokémon with Hidden Abilities since they would always have their HA if obtained from the Dream World, there was never “just a chance” of getting a HA, like it is when it comes to obtaining Pokémon with HAs in future generations. I used Dream World a lot, especially during the B/W days, and I miss it nowadays. I wish it still existed and I am bit disappointed in how they never did something like it again in Gen 6-8. As a random tidbit, I also want to say this to those that didn’t know: during the early Gen 5 days, Hidden Abilities were specifically referred to as Dream World Abilities and not Hidden Abilities because they could almost only be obtained through Dream World.
- Adding onto the above, I liked the PGL on the whole. While Dream World was the main feature I used it for in Gen 5, it had some other cool features as well. I think I used it the most in Gen 5, followed by Gen 6, and lastly Gen 7 where I barely used it at all. It felt like it was at its best in Gen 5 and then got worse from there, and now it has been removed completely. A bit sad to see that it is gone nowadays, but I guess that if they weren’t going to use it for something useful, there was no need to keep it.
- Also related to the above, I like Hidden Abilities on the whole. They were a great introduction to the series. Giving most Pokémon a third Ability slot was great since it opened up for many new possibilities without creating a new super mechanic. It also allowed several old Pokémon to get a new way to shine in battles, several went from zero to hero just because of their new HA.
- Hidden Grottoes. I never used them that much but they were still a fun way to obtain certain Pokémon that couldn’t be obtained through other means. They were also the first real alternate way to get HAs since Dream World was the first and as said above, it was seen as the standard for a long time. And just like with Dream World, I really like how Pokémon from Hidden Grottoes always have their HAs instead of just sometimes.
- The Battle Facilities. Gen 5 didn’t have a Battle Frontier like Gen 3 or 4 but I still think it excelled in this area. The Battle Subway was ton of fun, a great improvement of the Battle Tower, which Gen 6 & 7 later continued on by improving even further upon it. Personally, I have always found the Subway very hard (unless you use a TruAnt team for Super Single, which makes it very easy). I think it is one of the hardest standard Facilities in the series. The Battle Institute was also pretty fun, a sort of alternate Facility with some different rules compared to the Subway. The PWT was amazing in every way, I loved being able to battle all Gym Leaders and most Champions from all generations that existed at the time. Black Tower/White Treehollow were great too. They weren’t real Battle Facilities but rather a combination of regular battles and Facility battles, I loved them. They weren’t all easy either due to restricted healing and no way to use healing items.
- Gen 5 didn’t introduce any new “super” mechanic like Megas, Z-moves or Dynamax. Instead, it focused on polishing a lot of the mechanics from the previous generations. I thought that was really great. One very notable thing is also that it introduced very few new evolution methods/items, there were only 2 new methods and one new item. Despite having the largest new number of Pokémon, they mostly focused on evolution methods that already existed in past generations.
- Critical Captures. A minor but pretty cool feature, allowing you to get a higher chance to catch Pokémon at random times, increasing as you registered more and more Pokémon in the Pokédex.
- Move Tutors in B2/W2. Continuing on the trend from previous generations, the follow-up games in Gen 5 had Move Tutors which was great. I also like how the MTs required Shards instead of BP, it gave everyone a better chance to use the MTs since you didn’t need large amounts of BP like in Emerald or HG/SS. Farming shards in B2/W2 was very easy, so that’s good.
- The minigames. The Musicals, Pokéstar Studios and the Funfest Missions are my top three favorite minigames in the entire series, but I liked the Entralink Missions and the Xtransciever minigames as well. All of them were tons of fun. I think Gen 5 totally nailed it when it comes to minigames.
- Pass Powers. While I didn’t use them all that much (especially not compared to the O-Powers in Gen 6), I still used them a little and I appreciate their existence. They could give you various bonuses to all sorts of things in the games and that was great.
- It was possible to have random online battles in the games. I think this wasn’t possible in Gen 4 (and to the extent it was, I am pretty sure it could not be done in the 4th Gen main series games, only in PBR – correct me if I’m wrong here). There were also online competitions which started during Gen 5 from what I can remember. While I never participated in either myself, I still appreciated their existence. They were there for me if I ever wanted to give them a try.
- The Oval Charm and the Shiny Charm. B2/W2 were the first games to give you something more than a Diploma for completing the Pokédex. Getting a new area to explore - the Nature Preserve - was fun too.
- B2/W2 had two alternatives (or what they should be called) to shiny Pokémon. First, there were N’s Pokémon which had a special animation when they were sent out or appeared in the wild. Second, Pokémon which had been in a movie that got a strange ending at Pokéstar Studios also got a special animation when sent out. I thought both of these alternate animations were really cool.
- The Key system in B2/W2. While some parts of it could have been executed better, I still really liked it on the whole. Memory Link was amazing all around. Making the Regis semi-version exclusive but still allowing players to get all of them in the same game was great. Being able to switch between Black City and White Forest if you had both keys was amazing. Challenge Mode was fun too, I had a blast playing through it during the entirety of White 2 and during the post-game of Black 2. I never tried Easy Mode and I don’t think I would enjoy it much, but I am fine with it existing.
- The Medal System. I thought it was really cool and fun, I liked collecting Medals. I got 242 on both B2 and W2, wish I had been able to collect them all but I will probably never get more than what I currently have. I like how they continued with it in Gen 6 although with a somewhat different execution, though it is a shame it was dropped in Gen 7 and on because I think this is a feature which could easily have been in every Pokémon game.
- The Xtransceiver miniquest. This was a small but fun quest with the bonus on getting some rare Pokémon which couldn’t otherwise be obtained in the games regularly, as well as going on a date with Yancy/Curtis!
- Join Avenue. This was an amazing feature which allowed you do so much. It could break the game in half if used correctly, but I never really did that, I mostly just used it for random bonuses. While they did something similar with Festival Plaza in Gen 7, I think the original Join Avenue was better. Festival Plaza was still okay though.
- Trade battles, a minor and random feature. I liked how it was possible to battle some trainers after trading them a Pokémon, and how they would use the Pokémon you had traded them during that battle. It was fun and very unique since it hasn’t been done at any other point in the series.
This was all I could think of, but there might be more things which I have forgotten about. Let me know if there’s anything else you think should be mentioned when it comes to the greatness of Gen 5.
To summarize, I guess there’s no wonder why I like Gen 5 so much. All of these awesome things have made it my favorite Generation so far… and maybe forever. I can’t say for sure, but that might very well become the case. I would love to see a future game/generation which is even better than Gen 5, but I have more or less given up my hopes on that happening at this point. I’d still like to be proven wrong though. But until that happens, Gen 5 will continue being my favorite.
General
- The games have version differences in more than just which wild Pokémon can be found in them. Some areas have a different design between Black/2 and White/2, such as Opelucid City and Reversal Mountain. One area is completely different between the versions, namely Black City/White Forest. There are also some areas that are mostly similar but have a somewhat different layout, such as the Plasma Frigate and Victory Road in B2/W2.
- The Unova region. It is my favorite region in the series. I love how it is designed. It has amazing variety in environments, many different areas and it feels so large. It also has bridges. A common complaint is that Unova is linear, but I don’t mind. I like linearity in Pokémon games because I think they benefit from it in many different ways.
- B2/W2 added several new areas to Unova and they made changes to some old areas from B/W as well. I thought it was really cool to see how Unova had changed over the course of 2 years, the games did that so very well.
- Like most other generations, the Gen 5 games have references to previous games. But those never take over the spotlight from Unova itself. I think they hit the balance just right with the references. Some good examples are the appearances of Caitlin and Cynthia, as well as the PWT.
- The music. Gen 5 has my favorite soundtrack in the series. My top favorite tracks are Entralink, Emotion, Route 10, B/W Credits, Aspertia City, Route 21/22, Iris Battle theme, Black Tower, Colress Battle theme… and many, many others.
- Dynamic music. At various points, the music in the games can change based on various factors. For more info, here are two more detailed posts on this subject: one by DrumstickGaming here and another one by me here.
- I really like how B2/W2 managed to be different from B/W, yet similar at the same time. I think they absolutely nailed it with the balance between new and old. B2/W2 managed to be more different compared to B/W than what any third/alternate version has been to other first pairs, yet they were still similar enough to the point that it was clear that they were still in the same region and generation.
- The game structure of Gen 5 in general. I think that having a first pair and then a sequel is perfect. It means that you need to play one game from both pairs in order to get the full package. I think this is way better than most other generations with a third/alternate version since those mostly makes the first pair obsolete. And at the same time, they are also 80-90% the same as the first pair, which means they might not be quite as appealing to play if you have already played the first pairs (but for me personally, I played both all first pairs and all third/alternate versions). The only other structure which I think is similarly great would be the DLC/Expansion Pass. I am also very happy about the fact that there were no remakes during Gen 5 as those are my least favorite type of Pokémon games.
- The graphics. While this is not a super important aspect for me when it comes to Pokémon (or video games in general), I still think Gen 5 nailed it with the graphics. Both the overworld and the battles were excellent graphically, way better than in Gen 4. I think Gen 5 has the best graphics from all the main series games prior to the 3DS era, and I think they are graphically very impressive for being DS games.
- This is very personal, but B/W were the games that restored my interest in Pokémon after my previous burnout on the series. I got burnt out at some point during the end of 2008 or in the beginning of 2009 (it is hard to pin down an exact moment, but somewhere around there). That burnout lasted for more than 2 years, all the way until the English release of B/W. These games and Gen 5 on the whole restored my interest in Pokémon again and they even made it bigger than it had ever been before. Because of that, B/W, B2/W2, and Gen 5 on the whole will always be special to me. I think B/W did an excellent job at capturing the feeling of newness, while B2/W2 continued on it by being similar yet new and refreshing at the same time since they were the first sequels in the series. Unfortunately, I have recently gotten burnt out on Pokémon again, and it feels very unlikely that my interest in the series will ever get back to sky-high levels again.
Pokémon
- The Unova Pokémon. The largest number of Pokémon introduced in a new generation so far, and I think the Unova Pokémon themselves are really amazing. I really like the vast majority of them, there is only a small number which I think are “only” okay, and there’s not a single one I dislike.
- The regional dexes. They are very different but I think they are both excellent. B/W only had the Unova Pokémon in their regional dex and I thought that was amazing because they gave the full focus to the new Pokémon during the main game. B2/W2 expanded on the Unova dex and doubled its size, though it still felt like it had the main focus on the Unova Pokémon. The other half of the dex consisted of old Pokémon from all previous generations, but it never felt like the older generations overshadowed the Unova Pokémon or that either of them took the spotlight from the others. B2/W2 also tried something new with the regional dex (as opposed to having a downright necessary expansion which I feel is what Platinum had) which led to the largest regional dex for the time. Even today, they are tied with S/M for having the fourth largest regional dex in the series.
- Great Pokémon distribution and variation on the routes. Most if not all areas have something new to offer, and while there are a few repeats, I never felt that it got annoying. In the new areas that are accessible during post-game in the Unova games, there are also many new Pokémon which can’t be found during the main game.
- Good Pokémon availability on the whole. While you couldn’t get 100% of all existing Pokémon through Gen 5 alone, it was still possible to get a majority of them (even if some had to be obtained from outside sources like Dream World). And the ones that couldn’t be obtained in Gen 5 alone could still be transferred from Gen 4. In addition to that, this was the last time in the series where transferring Pokémon from one generation to the next (through Poké Transfer and the Relocator in this case) was completely free and done in the actual games instead of through a side-app which requires an extra fee in order to be used.
Gameplay
- Really great training spots. Not sure if I can call them epic like the ones in Gen 6, but they are still excellent. The Nimbasa Stadiums are great since you can battle a bunch of trainers there every day, there are also several strong trainers you can battle once a day (or at other intervals) such as Morimoto, the rival(s), Cynthia and several others. There’s also the Royal Unova. Black Tower and White Treehollow in B2/W2 give really good training as well. Not to mention the fact that you can find wild Pokémon at really high levels, including Audino which gives a ton of Exp. Plus, you get a Lucky Egg as a free gift throughout the games, and there are Pass Powers which can be used to increase the Exp. you gain as well. All in all, the Gen 5 games have really great training spots and I always had a lot of fun when I was training Pokémon in them. I’d say that’s a real strength of the Gen 5 and Gen 6 Pokémon games: if the actual training and level grinding in an RPG is fun and enjoyable, then that’s an example of really good gameplay.
- Improved trading and connectivity. The C-Gear had several good features for connecting to other games and online, and the GTS could now be found in every Pokémon Center as opposed to in just one area in the Gen 4 games. I think the improved multiplayer features in Gen 5 paved the way to make them even better in Gen 6, and the C-Gear has always felt like a precursor to the PSS for me.
- EV-training got a slight improvement in this generation with the introduction of Wings, which could be used to give just 1 EV in any stat without the need to defeat an opposing Pokémon. And unlike Vitamins, Wings can still be used once a Pokémon already has 100 EVs in a specific stat.
- Gen 5 did some breeding improvements as well. Starting from B2/W2, letting either parent hold an Everstone now makes it pass down its Nature 100% of the time instead of just 50% of the time. B2/W2 also updated Ability breeding a bit. While breeding, Pokémon now pass down the mother’s Ability 80% of the time instead of 50% like in previous games. Both B/W and B2/W2 allowed Hidden Abilities to be passed down through breeding as well. If the mother parent has its HA, then there’s a 60% chance the offspring will have it as well.
- A balanced game in terms of challenge. A common complaint within the fandom is that the Gen 5 games are too easy, but I disagree. The Pokémon games have always been easy and I did not find the Gen 5 games to be easier than any previous games. I found them balanced and fun, which is more important to me.
- TMs can now be used infinite times! I think this is a really awesome feature because it meant that you never had to re-obtain a TM if you wanted to teach a TM move to several different Pokémon, nor did you ever have to save a specific TM that could only be used once for a special Pokémon which would be the only one to learn it. Or go through the complications of TM breeding, which I was forced to do at various times in Gen 3. I am very happy that this became a new standard for TMs in the series and that it has been kept in all generations past Gen 5.
- The speed of the games. Gen 5 is considerably faster than Gen 4, especially in battles but I think it is noticeable outside of battles as well. I liked this because it sped up things in general when playing, allowing me to get more things done in less time.
- Story and characters. While I don’t think this is a super important aspect of the Pokémon games, I still feel that I need to mention it. I think Gen 5 is the absolute best in the series when it comes to story and characters. B/W are on the very top but I think B2/W2 did really well too, their sequel story was really great. This is yet another area where the game structure is great, it allowed them to have a follow-up story in B2/W2 instead of just a slightly adjusted story like a third/alternate version would have had.
- I like how B2/W2 had some new Gyms and new Gym Leaders compared to B/W. I also like how they had a new rival, new Plasma members and some other new characters in general. But at the same time, they kept the older characters from B/W in the games although they gave different roles to some of them.
- Speaking of characters, I really like the character designs in the Gen 5 games. This is something Pokémon usually does well and Gen 5 was not an exception. Most if not all of the characters in Gen 5 are really well designed.
- The post-game stories. While not as fleshed out as in the future generations, they were still fun. I liked hunting down the sages with Looker in B/W and doing various things in B2/W2, notably catching the cover legends.
Content and features
- Amazing post-games. B2/W2 has the most content in the entire series, and I think they also have the best-post game of all Pokémon games to date. B/W has a really great post-game as well, I’d say they are tied with D/P as the first pairs with the most content and the best post-games.
- A National Dex. This has become notable since this is no longer a key feature in the main series, starting from Gen 7. Because of that, I feel that any game which has a National Dex in the actual games and not just in a side-app deserves praise for it. The Gen 5 games had a National Dex, and just like for all generations that have one, it was the largest one for its time. They also have the second largest National Dex in the main series games to date, obviously only beaten by Gen 6.
- Seasons. This was a fun and cool mechanic, adding even more variety to the region since the areas changed between the seasons. It felt like the next step up in terms of making the games realistic after the day/night system got introduced. I miss it a bit in future generations as I feel that it would have been cool to see how the other regions changed between the seasons as well.
- Triple and Rotation battles. Fun new battle modes, I am especially fond of Triple Battles which are one of my favorite battle styles, but I thought Rotation battles were fun too. I like how they were kept in Gen 6, but I miss them in Gen 7 and 8.
- Shaking spots and wild Double battles, really fun new ways to encounter wild Pokémon.
- Teaming up with trainers as you go through various areas in B2/W2. First with Hugh in the Castelia Sewers, then with Bianca at Reversal Mountain and finally with Cheren in Pinwheel Forest during the post-game. This is something I really like and I am glad they did it a few times in B2/W2, too bad it hasn’t been done again since then.
- Dream World. This was a fun feature, I feel like it was sort of a successor to the Secret Bases from Gen 3 & 4. The minigames were fun, and I think it was a good way to get Pokémon with Hidden Abilities since they would always have their HA if obtained from the Dream World, there was never “just a chance” of getting a HA, like it is when it comes to obtaining Pokémon with HAs in future generations. I used Dream World a lot, especially during the B/W days, and I miss it nowadays. I wish it still existed and I am bit disappointed in how they never did something like it again in Gen 6-8. As a random tidbit, I also want to say this to those that didn’t know: during the early Gen 5 days, Hidden Abilities were specifically referred to as Dream World Abilities and not Hidden Abilities because they could almost only be obtained through Dream World.
- Adding onto the above, I liked the PGL on the whole. While Dream World was the main feature I used it for in Gen 5, it had some other cool features as well. I think I used it the most in Gen 5, followed by Gen 6, and lastly Gen 7 where I barely used it at all. It felt like it was at its best in Gen 5 and then got worse from there, and now it has been removed completely. A bit sad to see that it is gone nowadays, but I guess that if they weren’t going to use it for something useful, there was no need to keep it.
- Also related to the above, I like Hidden Abilities on the whole. They were a great introduction to the series. Giving most Pokémon a third Ability slot was great since it opened up for many new possibilities without creating a new super mechanic. It also allowed several old Pokémon to get a new way to shine in battles, several went from zero to hero just because of their new HA.
- Hidden Grottoes. I never used them that much but they were still a fun way to obtain certain Pokémon that couldn’t be obtained through other means. They were also the first real alternate way to get HAs since Dream World was the first and as said above, it was seen as the standard for a long time. And just like with Dream World, I really like how Pokémon from Hidden Grottoes always have their HAs instead of just sometimes.
- The Battle Facilities. Gen 5 didn’t have a Battle Frontier like Gen 3 or 4 but I still think it excelled in this area. The Battle Subway was ton of fun, a great improvement of the Battle Tower, which Gen 6 & 7 later continued on by improving even further upon it. Personally, I have always found the Subway very hard (unless you use a TruAnt team for Super Single, which makes it very easy). I think it is one of the hardest standard Facilities in the series. The Battle Institute was also pretty fun, a sort of alternate Facility with some different rules compared to the Subway. The PWT was amazing in every way, I loved being able to battle all Gym Leaders and most Champions from all generations that existed at the time. Black Tower/White Treehollow were great too. They weren’t real Battle Facilities but rather a combination of regular battles and Facility battles, I loved them. They weren’t all easy either due to restricted healing and no way to use healing items.
- Gen 5 didn’t introduce any new “super” mechanic like Megas, Z-moves or Dynamax. Instead, it focused on polishing a lot of the mechanics from the previous generations. I thought that was really great. One very notable thing is also that it introduced very few new evolution methods/items, there were only 2 new methods and one new item. Despite having the largest new number of Pokémon, they mostly focused on evolution methods that already existed in past generations.
- Critical Captures. A minor but pretty cool feature, allowing you to get a higher chance to catch Pokémon at random times, increasing as you registered more and more Pokémon in the Pokédex.
- Move Tutors in B2/W2. Continuing on the trend from previous generations, the follow-up games in Gen 5 had Move Tutors which was great. I also like how the MTs required Shards instead of BP, it gave everyone a better chance to use the MTs since you didn’t need large amounts of BP like in Emerald or HG/SS. Farming shards in B2/W2 was very easy, so that’s good.
- The minigames. The Musicals, Pokéstar Studios and the Funfest Missions are my top three favorite minigames in the entire series, but I liked the Entralink Missions and the Xtransciever minigames as well. All of them were tons of fun. I think Gen 5 totally nailed it when it comes to minigames.
- Pass Powers. While I didn’t use them all that much (especially not compared to the O-Powers in Gen 6), I still used them a little and I appreciate their existence. They could give you various bonuses to all sorts of things in the games and that was great.
- It was possible to have random online battles in the games. I think this wasn’t possible in Gen 4 (and to the extent it was, I am pretty sure it could not be done in the 4th Gen main series games, only in PBR – correct me if I’m wrong here). There were also online competitions which started during Gen 5 from what I can remember. While I never participated in either myself, I still appreciated their existence. They were there for me if I ever wanted to give them a try.
- The Oval Charm and the Shiny Charm. B2/W2 were the first games to give you something more than a Diploma for completing the Pokédex. Getting a new area to explore - the Nature Preserve - was fun too.
- B2/W2 had two alternatives (or what they should be called) to shiny Pokémon. First, there were N’s Pokémon which had a special animation when they were sent out or appeared in the wild. Second, Pokémon which had been in a movie that got a strange ending at Pokéstar Studios also got a special animation when sent out. I thought both of these alternate animations were really cool.
- The Key system in B2/W2. While some parts of it could have been executed better, I still really liked it on the whole. Memory Link was amazing all around. Making the Regis semi-version exclusive but still allowing players to get all of them in the same game was great. Being able to switch between Black City and White Forest if you had both keys was amazing. Challenge Mode was fun too, I had a blast playing through it during the entirety of White 2 and during the post-game of Black 2. I never tried Easy Mode and I don’t think I would enjoy it much, but I am fine with it existing.
- The Medal System. I thought it was really cool and fun, I liked collecting Medals. I got 242 on both B2 and W2, wish I had been able to collect them all but I will probably never get more than what I currently have. I like how they continued with it in Gen 6 although with a somewhat different execution, though it is a shame it was dropped in Gen 7 and on because I think this is a feature which could easily have been in every Pokémon game.
- The Xtransceiver miniquest. This was a small but fun quest with the bonus on getting some rare Pokémon which couldn’t otherwise be obtained in the games regularly, as well as going on a date with Yancy/Curtis!
- Join Avenue. This was an amazing feature which allowed you do so much. It could break the game in half if used correctly, but I never really did that, I mostly just used it for random bonuses. While they did something similar with Festival Plaza in Gen 7, I think the original Join Avenue was better. Festival Plaza was still okay though.
- Trade battles, a minor and random feature. I liked how it was possible to battle some trainers after trading them a Pokémon, and how they would use the Pokémon you had traded them during that battle. It was fun and very unique since it hasn’t been done at any other point in the series.
This was all I could think of, but there might be more things which I have forgotten about. Let me know if there’s anything else you think should be mentioned when it comes to the greatness of Gen 5.
To summarize, I guess there’s no wonder why I like Gen 5 so much. All of these awesome things have made it my favorite Generation so far… and maybe forever. I can’t say for sure, but that might very well become the case. I would love to see a future game/generation which is even better than Gen 5, but I have more or less given up my hopes on that happening at this point. I’d still like to be proven wrong though. But until that happens, Gen 5 will continue being my favorite.
Is this a Gen V appreciation bit? Because I'm all about this!
It is truly a shame that they never reused the idea of dynamic music. It was a damn good non-material reward for exploration (in the case of Accumula Town & Village Bridge). It also helps reinforcing immersion, and is just something to make your eyes shine when the different layers appear.
Even the simple difference between running and walking overworld music is something that was fresh, and I don't get why they didn't keep that moving forward, as it doesn't seem that hard to implement. It suits two styles of exploration: the more dynamic your gameplay is, the more dynamic the music is. On the other hand, if you're more of a casual stroller, the music lazily accompanies you. It feels a bit like the map/battle variations (Normal/Storm, Rain/Thunder, etc.) in Fire Emblem games.
And then, there are Pokéstar studios. This, in my opinion, was a good idea for a minigame, and a fresh take on the battling system.
However, what prevents it from being boring is the existence of the "strange endings".
If you follow the script, you get a good ending, and you earn fame. If you don't, you get a bad ending, and you flop.
But then, if you break the script just right, you can unlock a secret ending, which is usually quirky, and you get a ton of fame. Looking for these endings was a good part of what made Studios fun, and it gives great replayability.
Also Brycen-Man is great, and it helps fleshing out Brycen's character, being a League representative that's also an actor before Diantha was cool.
It is truly a shame that they never reused the idea of dynamic music. It was a damn good non-material reward for exploration (in the case of Accumula Town & Village Bridge). It also helps reinforcing immersion, and is just something to make your eyes shine when the different layers appear.
Even the simple difference between running and walking overworld music is something that was fresh, and I don't get why they didn't keep that moving forward, as it doesn't seem that hard to implement. It suits two styles of exploration: the more dynamic your gameplay is, the more dynamic the music is. On the other hand, if you're more of a casual stroller, the music lazily accompanies you. It feels a bit like the map/battle variations (Normal/Storm, Rain/Thunder, etc.) in Fire Emblem games.
And then, there are Pokéstar studios. This, in my opinion, was a good idea for a minigame, and a fresh take on the battling system.
However, what prevents it from being boring is the existence of the "strange endings".
If you follow the script, you get a good ending, and you earn fame. If you don't, you get a bad ending, and you flop.
But then, if you break the script just right, you can unlock a secret ending, which is usually quirky, and you get a ton of fame. Looking for these endings was a good part of what made Studios fun, and it gives great replayability.
Also Brycen-Man is great, and it helps fleshing out Brycen's character, being a League representative that's also an actor before Diantha was cool.
The Mind Electric
Calming if you look at it right.
I only wish they used it more. The additions almost always made their respective themes better IMO.