My Pokémon White Adventures: Part One

 

Before I dive into reflections of my playthrough of Pokémon White, I must say that I almost completely forgot that the Nintendo 3DS launch is this Sunday stateside.  Normally a system launch would be a big event for me, but despite the fact that I have the 3DS pre-ordered, I find myself much too preoccupied with things like life, work, and of course Pokémon to be too excited about it.  (In fact, I wasn't even going to buy a launch title until Amazon offered $25 off a game with 3DS orders.) I'm going to give some periodic updates on my adventures in Pokémon White. And if you're not interested in hearing about Pokémon, don't worry, I'll try to intersperse these posts with some other topics.

Now on to the post after the jump.  Spoilers be abound!

A New Beginning...

I intended to write this post after getting the first two badges.  Instead, I used my free time to just keep playing and made myself stop my progress a little beyond acquiring my fifth badge to write this post.  So what can I say? Nintendo and Gamefreak have nailed the formula for keeping the game addictive, even in its fifth iteration. 

First, I must say this game caters itself very much towards players who never played a Pokémon game before, while at the same time making just enough changes and introducing new features to keep veterans of the series coming back for another round. The game pretty much beats you over the head with a sledgehammer in the beginning to make sure you know that Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, etc. This is extremely evident in the first gym where one of three Gym Leaders will challenge you with one of the three elemental monkeys (Pansear, Panpour, and Pansage) that is advantageous to the type of your starter Pokémon.  While this would normally be a challenge this early in the game, someone near the gym will conveniently give you the monkey that can single-handedly earn you your first badge.

...But Haven't We Seen This Before?

Geodude and Roggenrola families

One aspect that sets this game apart from past sequels is that all Pokémon encountered (before completing the main storyline) are brand-new.  At first this seems like a major change from the previous games, but it soon becomes apparent that some of these "new" Pokémon are for the most part rehashes of ones we are already familiar with.  Aside from your standard Grass/Water/Fire starting Pokémon, there is yet another Pidgey equivalent in Pidove.  While you won't encounter a Geodude or a Zubat when you enter a cave, you will find the similar Roggenrola and Woobat.  (Some similarities between Geodude and Roggenrola: Rock-type, Sturdy ability, first evolution at level 25, second evolution upon trading.)  There's even yet another cute, Electric-type rodent this generation with Emolga, continuing the line of Pikachu, Pichu, Plusle and Minun, and Pachirisu.

Note the similar faces

Subtle Things


Aside from some of the more obvious aesthetic changes, there are some subtle changes that are very welcome to see.  A number of abilities and moves have been altered.  The ability Sturdy is noticeably no longer useless.  Previously it negated one-hit KO moves, which are pretty useless given their low accuracy.  Now it prevents most moves from bringing the target from full health to 0 HP by leaving it with 1 HP instead.  Another small change is how Pokémon's sprites change when afflicted with a status ailment, such as closed eyes when sleeping.  Speaking of sprites, Pokémon now move throughout the battle instead of just a static image.  That's a change I've been wanting to see for a while. 


My Current Team

From left to right, my nickname first, species name in CAPS

Deevine/SERVINE - Of course I must have my starter on my team.  It would be blasphemous not to use her!  And yes, I did reset the game until I got a female Snivy.  She was initially called Deeva until she evolved.  Her nature boosts speed, which is helpful since the species has a naturally high speed stat anyway.

DaruMama/DARMANITAN - So as the story goes, I was walking through the desert route and was wondering "Why does this Darumaka look funny..." Yes, the little pink thing was in fact a shiny Pokémon!  I almost went in a panic as I didn't have too many Pokéballs, so I was relieved when I finally caught it.  This is my first-ever wild caught shiny (besides the Red Gyarados.)  I wasn't going to raise it as I was already training a non-shiny Darumaka, but when I saw that its nature gave a boost to an already insane attack stat, I pretty much was required to use it.  It enjoys hitting things hard.

Redunculus/DUOSION - You wouldn't believe how long it took for me to acquire a Solosis that had both the ability Magic Guard and a nature that didn't hinder its best stats.  It still has some more training to do, but in the right situation it will work well.

Zeeba/ZEBSTRIKA - The electric zeebra has served me well so far, so I don't have much of a reason to switch it out for something different.

Fountain/PANPOUR -  Here is where my current team is starting to get a bit iffy.  I needed the water monkey early in the game, but as it stands right now it is too weak to take many hits and it isn't worth it to evolve it as it still has moves to learn.  Also, its evolution is neither cute nor cool-looking, so it's near getting cut for something more useful.

Sixth Slot - So why is this slot empty?  For a while I had a Lillipup/Herdier in my party as its attack was high, but DaruMama nows fills the slot as my heavy hitter, so it wasn't getting used.  I'll have to assess my options for the sixth slot.

Upcoming

I'll continue these posts as I make more progress through the game.  Some thoughts I had for this post I'm saving for the future since I simply haven't played enough of the game to make judgments on certain aspects.  My team is continuing to *ahem* evolve, and will likely change a lot as new Pokémon become available to me.  Should anyone who has the game want to trade/battle, my Friend Code is 0389-8182-5379.  I'm obviously looking for version exclusives and the other two starters.  (I can breed Snivy!)



All images courtesy of Bulbapedia