My absolute favourite small touch about Gen 5 is just that the traded Pokémon that you trade to the ingame trainers actually can later be battled in the post-game (including the one who gives you two different trades), where it's really nice to see that these Pokémon aren't just boxed and actually do things even if they're not with you.
Weird small touch is how they touched base on the strange house from BW1, with the Dreamyard in BW2. There is a spoon found there, and a lab in the basement with a bunch of medicine & one of the guys have a Drowzee and Hypno......... They are fairly aggressive and strange acting before they battle you.
@@lumeronswift The thing is that I never came across a video on youtube that questions open world mechanics for Pokémon. It's not that it didn't happen, but I haven't watched one myself.
@@0OB08Ohonestly I think Pokémon games should be open world even now, but they simply don’t understand how to make or develop them; the developers simply have zero experience in anything related to it. I’ve played (Minecraft) Pixelmon Adventure servers years ago when those were popular with extremely good fan made regions so it’s why I feel it’s simply a bad product over anything.
They scored well with open world aspect in PLA and wild area for SwSh. Scored 80 hrs just pushing what can be found and what cheese I can think of in launch month. Just SV has so little interactivity except dodging wild PKMN.
@@luckysgi-5karrow378 not sure the wild area in swsh is a plus. I’d like them to keep iterating on open world in legends games, and go back to traditional, curated route design in main series
Honestly its ironic, Black and White (and to a lesser extent Sun and Moon but that's another discussion) are basically everything people today want from the Pokemon franchise, but people just went so berserk at the time GameFreak has played it hyper safe ever since.
It's disappointing since Gen V was my favourite generation of Pokemon, and Sun/Moon was me enjoying Pokemon again after the disappointment of X/Y and feeling a bit meh with OR/AS... only to be followed by Ultra Sun/Moon being a disappointment overall where it made me not want to get new Pokémon games, and Let's Go being the straw that broke the back despite getting it as a Christmas Present. and despite all that, they still seem better than some of the newer games. Like X/Y had some good qualities with the region itself despite REALLY needing that third version, due to it's bleh storyline and lack of challenge, OR/AS had some good new content that helped the game (I don't really know how to feel about it overall though), Ultra Sun/Moon despite ruining the story of Sun/Moon and being too similar that made it dull, is probably good for gameplay and had some really cool boss battles, and Let's Go had an artstyle that I WISH future Pokemon games would make the standard (despite it taking out so many core Pokemon mechanics so it could be a gateway for Go fans). Overall, I just hope for a good Pokemon game that they actually spend time polishing alongside some good region design. Like I can see the potential with Scarlet/Violet from an outsider but it feels dragged down with the lack of polish and the open world angle is making me a bit worried about the future of Pokemon.
I'm not sure that's very true, this was mostly a western phenomena and they arent and especially weren't very connected with western fans. Pokemon company realized that they can pump out hot garbage and fans will still pay 70$ + DLC so why would they bother adding dev time? Especially when they want to coordinate with the TCG, Merch, and anime
They went all out back than. Pretty sure if they had a decent amount of older pokemon to be part of the main game in B/W people wouldnt feel that way, cause almost everybody loved B/W2 (yeah the sales were much lower, so the audience was a more selective and probably pokemon-dedicated/friendly,but still).
Never considered that people who are way younger than me could be completely lost because they didn't spend their whole childhood getting "gotta catch em all" screamed at them. As a child I never would have for a single second thought that I shouldn't have 6 mons in my team.
@@thehayze259This was the firt time someone seemed to think that. i have NEVER met anyone playing the game like that XD. maybe where im from people like to equal their team out to give every team member some playtime? idk when i played my first game with my younger brother we didnt have enough slots to carry all the mons we wanted
As someone who did grow up with that catch phrase the same problem still happens. While I may have spent sometime on raising my other Pokemon it was mainly my overleveled Starter pulling all the weight because grinding isn't fun and the games don't make it easy to level up new members. This also somewhat plays into the meme of everyone having the same Sinnoh team where there is like 10 Pokemon that everyone used on their team without question and most of them are early Route Pokemon. By Sinnoh we all have grown up enough and have enough experience to recognize that we should have a Team of 6 but raising Pokemon is still a pain so people just trained some of the first Pokemon they encountered especially since they weren't that bad
My first game was Silver and I caught a whole team. My starter just was over leveled compared to the rest of it. I think people caught other pokemon they just didn't use them the same amount. Hell you had to catch other pokemon for the HMs if nothing else.
@@nascour5991 Story and spectacle-wise, I kinda agree (nothing like a battle frontier equivalent) but there were Elite 4 + the Champion rematches to substitute for that. And what BW provided in terms of post-endgame exploration and content is actually massive if you think about it. The northeast section of Unova exists simply to be explored and it's wonderful, if a bit modest.
@@kalejuice5701 I loved the side quest of going after the other Sages, feels really grown-up for a pokemon game, chasing down fugitives after defeating and disarming the main threat of the game
Honestly I'm always shocked to hear how many people just relied on overlevelling their starters because even when I was a little kid playing Gen 3 and 4 games I would always catch a bunch of pokemon, I think I was one of the few who actually picked up on the idea of getting a full team early on
I’m glad I’m not alone. I understand only rly using ur starter but not catching more Pokémon? What do u mean u didn’t know? The slogan is “gotta catch em all” what do u think the Pokédex is for???? like, u didn’t encounter a single Pokémon out of 100+ that u just generally liked and wanted on your team? I think this person and ppl like them are a minority if I’m being honest
i think part of it depends on what your exposure to pokemon was before playing the games. i watched the anime and got the "gotta catch them all" thing shoved into my face and the anime made an appeal to catching every new pokemon u run into. and since i couldnt play any official pokemon games since i didnt have a console (still dont) and didnt know how to download fangames i watched playthroughs and learned that teams need to be balanced. ppl that didnt have those experiences before playing would probably just rely on a handful of pkm at most
@@matserpiece9610 adding to that, your starter is almost always the most high leveled Pokemon you have early on so kids are incentivized to use their strongest even if the type matchup is bad and just brute force every battle (I remember beating Brock with almost exclusively using Charmander despite having other Pokemons). This was a time when Exp. Share doesn't exist, most kids aren't going to manually train and grind their weak Pokemon since it's not intuitive; most only change their playstyle once they realize that is not the intended gameplay, either through the anime or other people.
@@AdaWongMistress The leader of team star is a Reddit twink, the protagonists look like highschool first years, and the villains look like discount Ninjalinos. The current gen is ass, but at least Nemoku is alright as a character.
I've replayed Pokémon White like half a dozen times and was confident I knew the game in and out pretty well, but the fact that Route 3 has a bonus fisherman you can fight is something that actually blows my mind; I've never been to that particular spot and that speaks to your point about how strong the route design is.
I also love some of the games' small touches like the hiker guy in BW that got a Boldore from trading with you comes back in BW2 with his Boldore now evolved into a Gigalith. It's not much but I think it really adds alot to the world.
scarlet and violet giving you the option to do the gyms/titans/bases in any order is also pretty useless since there's no level scaling, so the harder ones are impossible early on and the easier ones are completely trivial if you save them for later
It’s not useless, you still have the option to roam around freely and to challenge any gym. You’d just get your butt kicked. Which is a good thing in my opinion. I got the badges out of order and when I found a weaker gym I adjusted with a different and lower level team. Not the best way to do it, but you have the option. The real issue to me is there is almost nothing guiding you towards the “correct” path. Yeah most people won’t challenge the montenevera gyms or the psychic one first but I wish they put more effort into it
nah, I disagree. I found myself at a harder gym and was definitely vastly under leveled, but it was presented the options, grind until I level up enough, go find an easier more level appropriate gym, or dive deep into the battle mechanics available to me. After about 10 trial and error attempts to beat it I was victorious. It was honestly one of the best gym experiences I've ever had in Pokemon. Of course afterwards everything else was piss easy and I ended up getting bored with the game and not beating it.
I think a good way to handle it is to have level scaling only scale upwards Allow you to challenge yourself by doing stuff out of order while not making easier gyms pathetically easy
The pokemon cycle made this game it's main victim: new game is released, fans complain, a decade later they love it and say the new game is bad, repeat.
Oddly enoug, gen 5 was where this sentiment began. You heard murmors when gen 4 was released, but the announcement of gen 5 and the preview of its pokemon at the time were definitely when people started to feel sus with gamefreak
Nah, not really. You don’t see people raving about X/Y, it’s all complaining about how rushed or incomplete they were (and hoping that Legends ZA fixes that).
I have Pokemon Violet and I love it. The game's performance is its greatest downside, but once the switch stops being the main platform it gets played on, I'm sure it'll be better appreciated, tho not to the point of BW I think
I still remember recently rediscovering the cave near Chargestone, even finding a TM I didn't collect until then, not to mention rediscoveriny the cave connected to the sewers, both in B2W2.
White version was my very first Pokemon game and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That lesson they teach you at the very beginning of the game is so important to the game experience and I’m glad it was one of the first things I learned
my first game was pokemon black and i completely agree. except at the time i was disappointed because i thought it would come with zekrom (in my head black = zekrom white = reshiram) ahh the inner workings of a childs mind is so fascinating. especially when the said legendary's were on the cover 💀
Things I loved in gen 5: 1) that nurse by pinwheel Forrest that healed your Pokémon so you didn’t have to keep running back to the pc 2) the guy at the entrance to all the gyms gave you a fresh water 3) you could easily catch Luvdiscs to get heart scales to relearn moves
A fun little factoid about that lack of Badge requirement for HM usage... For folks who still have the hardware and interest to try it, you can trade an pokemon you intend to use as a pre-loaded HM aide to a fresh save file and shortcut to what should've been a late-game content beat like getting the Larvesta almost immediately in the first game.
Dude, you couldn’t have said it any better! White was my first Pokémon game, the first I had ever played, it was like my red and blue back in the day, and now I have overwhelming nostalgia for it. BRO I LOVE SERPERIOR!! Snivy was my first starter pokemon! So seeing you beat the whole game with it is something I’m ecstatic for! Thank you for this video! Long live Unova!
@@tpsam when black and white were announced, i absolutely hated the idea. I was of the "its time to give pokemon a rest" camp. The designs of the pokemon were so boring and forced, not to mention that arbitrary lockout of any previous pokemon to force their new 150 pokemon onto you.I was really not interested in black and white. It wasnt until i played heart gold that i went to try black, and my god, it was SO MUCH better than i expected. The story carried pokemon black for me, and i was right about how i felt about the pokemon, very very few interested me or were a must have for my team. An example being Starly in gen 3. I found it absolutely adorable, and then when it fully evolved, considering im a huge Pidgeot fan, it ticked all the boxes i needed for my flying pokemon, mostly the aggressive bird look. Not to mention its move set, i absolutely loved Bravebird. All of these were new to me, and later on in the game i NEEDED a tropius, the moment i saw one i had to go out and catch one and raise it. I had very very few interactions like that in pokemon black. Everything else, though? *chefs kiss*
BW constantly incentivizes you to use more pokemon im your teams because there was always a pokemon that would be strong against the early gym leaders nearby (monkey for gym 1, sawk/throh for Lenora, Darumaka for Burgh, etc.) So im case your were that stubborn/stupid of a child and didn't get the lesson the first time, you had a fee more chances for it to really sink in.
i honestly wish that pokemon would make another sequel game in a region we've been to before but in a different time period. seeing characters and locations change between bw and b2w2 was such an amazing experience. i love a good remake, but it'd be great if we could just revisit a region after time has passed too :) great video!
So like g/s/c is 4 years after r/b/y? or more like PLA being in ancient Sinnoh? Technically ultra s/m is in a different time, a different timeline but eh close enough. Pokemon z-a (X/Y) is probably the closest thing we'll get for a long time thats like that and by god I hope they do it justice
@@The_Prizessin_der_Verurteilung Terrible opinion tbh. Gen. 2 remake and Gen. 5 games will forever be the best Pokemon Games that Gamefreak has ever made.
From the music to the gameplay to the characters to the story to the mons themselves, they absolutely knocked Gen 5 out of the park. Truly some of my favorite games in the series period and because of that I'm terrified about what a potential remake would look like.. Another thing I think worth mentioning is the interactive music of the routes and cities. Hearing the soundtrack change after talking to the musicians was such a nice reward for my exploration efforts - it's such a small thing, but it makes each area so unique and makes the entire region feel alive. Like you said, the best part of Unova is that it feels like a place that can and will move on with or without the protagonist there - it's a huge world that, while linear at first glance, is full of so many secrets to discover that I still find new things with every playthrough. Great video!! So glad to see a half hour video full of Unova appreciation!
sorry but i disagree in regards to the mons. gen 5 had some of the most uninspired pokemon designs in the entire franchise. Everything else though, yeah, they nailed it.
If I remember correctly The protagonists were supposed to be 16 at some point And honestly I prefer that Them being 16 is my personal headcanon because it means that the philosophical questions being asked of the main character can actually be... questioned If they're 16, then N isn't spouting nonsense at a child, he's waxing poetic at a teenager who's probably already asking themselves those kinds of questions
@@unraveki theres also very few references of the protagonist being called a kid, so its sort of easy to self insert without getting that immersion broken.
I’m pretty sure canonically the protagonists in this game are older which makes sense as well cause ain’t no way Cherry and Bianca are 12/14 in Black and White 2
I LOVED Gen 5 growing up, I never understood why it was so hated. I actually loved Gen 5 so much I recently bought Pokémon White and Pokémon White 2. (Kyurem White is my favorite legendary) I still LOVE playing it. There is so much post game content and I can legitimately fight competitively with the NPCs and do EV training and still have it be ridiculously hard, it's so awesome!
because those of us that got to experience the magic of gen 1-4 as they released were probably burnt out. I know for me, personally, it was the design of the pokemon for gen 5 at the time. In hindsight, they arent so bad, but i still believe gen 5 has the most uninspired pokemon out of all the generations. EDIT: for context i was fresh out of highscool and headed into the marine corps when black and white were released, so i already had my fair share of pokemon experience. Maybe i woulda felt different if it were my first rodeo.
Same here. 90% of the games I played as a kid were Pokémon based. Gen 5 was when I started to lose interest. But when I go back to those games I didn’t like as much such as black or ultra moon now (especially with TH-cam videos talking about all the cool stuff I never noticed as a dumb kid) all of a sudden they’re a blast to play because I have other interests/work that keep me busy.
I don’t want to do the whole “oh wow the quality of this editing is so underrated” so instead I’ll sound like a cocky rude bastard and say that I’ll see you when you have 50k subs
Yeah, I honestly didn’t get the complaints about B&W being aggressively linear back in the day. All the little nooks and crannies and side dungeons helped break up the monotony of going gym to gym and tackling the (frankly very interesting) main story. I’ve always had an appreciation for side content like Contests In Pokemon because it can offer a nice diversion from the linear progression of the games. The side dungeons in B&W do an amazing job of feeling well integrated with the core gameplay loop, while still being engaging for those who want to stray from the main path from time to time.
In b/w, the grasses are always the answer to the gym if you are getting walled. I do kinda miss playing this game since I never beat the elite 4 but maybe someday. I still am not into pokemon mood right now.
Yeah, I found the BW1 E4 to be the one that gave me the most trouble of any Pokémon game on my first playthrough since the way my team ended up, I had easy answers for the fighting and Dark ones and virtually none for the ghost and psychic ones without realizing it until I was actually AT the E4, so by the time I actually BEAT all of them I was super nervous about fighting the champion since I had to fill in the weaknesses in my team by replacing 3 of my Pokémon with Durants I caught on victory road that knew Crunch and was dreading the thought of having to potentially get walled by the Champ and potentially go back to the drawing board all over again, fortunately it all worked out in the end and that possibility didn't come to pass but the fact that it could have has left it as a memory I won't forget.
@@EnergyBurst2 I think, still, to this day, pokemon gold and silver were the hardest pokemon games. Faulkner was the first gym leader and dude was like 5 levels ahead of anything you had at that point lmao, and lets not talk about whitney. I thought it was just because i was a kid at the time, but no, the scaling is INTENSE in pokemon gold and silver. Youre at the elite 4 by the time your starter is level 45. The kanto gyms were easier, but then you finally get to red at the end only to see homie is up like 5 levels with the most powerful team you have ever seen in a pokemon game. Black and White certainly come closer than any of the other games in regards to difficulty though. The example cited in the video is one great example, of needing to go get your monkey in a side area to help you with the first gym since they straight up counter your starter.
Great video! Black and White is my favorite generation as well, and I really like the way you make your point about Unova having more player freedom and exploration in practice, even if Kanto and Johto have a surface-level idea of player freedom. I also love your editing, it's snappy and fun. This made me want to replay B&W to see all the little places I missed when exploring the region, and check back up on my Serperior.
I actually haven’t played BW1 before (I recently acquired it but I haven’t gotten to it yet) but BW2 were the first games in the series I played, and I’ve sunk a ton of time into it. I always loved how, despite seemingly fairly linear, the game hides so many cool secrets within a lot of the routes (hidden grottos for one, a lot of the things you mentioned in this video). The whole game just radiates this sense that the world is actually alive. It’s part of what makes those games so memorable
Me too! To this day white 2 is the pokemon game I've spent the most time on. And I didn't even finish most things. 420+ hours before my cart started failing and refusing to save. Never got too far into the battle subway or PWT. Less than 100 pokemon away from completing the pokedex back in the days when you could only ask for pokemon you've seen on the GTS. Battling with my cousin and wiping the floor with my level 99 defiant braviary because we agreed all level 50s except for one wild card that could be any level. Almost getting in trouble with my older sibling because of that until my cousin backed me up and showed the wild card pokemon he brought. Gen 5 was peak pokemon for me. And someday I hope I can play it properly on a console once again. Honestly I don't even want remakes for gen 5 at this point. Just rerelease it on the switch and I'll eat it up.
I don’t know how watching one new video from Pikasprey has caused the TH-cam algorithm to flood my recommended with Pokémon content but hey, it’s introduced me to multiple channels that I had no idea existed and have content I really enjoy. You got my sub, The Hayze
yeah the algorithm is unusually aggressive, my feed is nothing but pokemon content, like yeah bro i get it, i watched a few pokemon vids when i was on a nostalgia trip, but now my feed is fucked lol
One of my fave parts about this game was the seasonal exploration. I just happened to do my playthrough during a winter month, so I casually strolled through that twisting mine in seconds with the snow in the central area with little thought, and I went through the bogs as an ice puzzle Color me surprised when spring comes and the bogs have wild pokemon in the water and the mine became a dungeon now thst the snow is gone So cool
That whole bit of conditioning you to use other pokemon instead of using just your starter speaks so much to me. The first game was Fire Red. I couldn't get through it. Second was coliseum and taught me not a lot. Third was diamond. Used emporeian and dialga with a tanky absnow and staravia (both were HM slaves)and spent everything thing on items and saved scumed to just barely beat Cynthia and get nightmares for life. Gen 5 actually captured evolved and built teams
I've also noticed (from anecdotal evidence) that people are way more likely to switch out their team members in Black and White. Like, in a lot of pokemon games, when they catch a pokemon, that's a permanent team member, and they only ever catch five or so + their starter. But in Black and White, I (and many other people) will catch more like ten or eleven and use all of them extensively at some point, because the exp system makes them easier to raise and we're not bound by needing certain HMs.
This adds a whole new perspective in regards to the linear map design and the «ugly» pokemon the haters «argumented» with. I was 11-13 when I played the originals and later the sequels and I didn’t agree with the negative opinions. Gen 5 is probably the most vibrant pokemon games to date. I objectively believe, nostalgia aside, everything went downhill after gen 6 came out, gen 7 being a bit better but far from gen 5 quality.
You are so right! My first pokemon was White, when I played other entries, like fire red, X, Sun, they felt... empty, a souless road. I don't know if it's the music, the details in that beautiful pixel art, like leaves falling or flowers moving, the events, but i can remember every single location. I can't do that in Sun and Moon, the memorable ones for sure, but every town in B/W has "something", story, lore, secrets, I mean it wasn't much but ti was a big step forward for pokemon. Once I realised that in fire red (I discovered it then because it is also pixel art and it was still so much uglier and uninteresting) I couldn't bring myself to finish it, hell I didn't know you could get a larvesta egg because I had a full team probably and when I encountered it in the desert ruins I thought it was a legendary PD: Unpopular opinion White Opelucid city theme is better than Driftveil's
I mean just look at the whole area that connect flaroma, the routes going to pastoria city, the ones connecting hearthome and pastoria. I can go on all day. Also the lack of mazes and puzzle in gyms and dungeons in black and white 1 is very notable too.
The thing about the region having characters exist outside of the players input is half right. Other regions had things like the chairman from Kanto's fan club vacationing in Hoenn, That one Hoenn psychic getting lost in Kanto, or Hordel steeling Togepie from Cipher. The thing that makes the difference is that Gen V didn't just have the characters stand there and talk about it. When you walk in on the breakup the guy is actively taking his stuff and dipping out of there. When you walk in on the argument at the Abundant Shrine the children are chasing each other and hiding behind you. Gen V put the effort in to create presentation around their events. Events in older games, as well as modern games, don't typically do this. The best and worst examples of presentation in a modern games side events come from that one hotel in Sword and Sheild. There's an event where a bunch of npc's are investigating stolen apples but they just stand around and head talk. Nobody moves around the room and and when stuff does happen it cuts to black. Most events are like this because for some reason they still treat the model's as though they're sprites and think a player's imagination will fill the gaps when that doesn't work in practice. The good example is the one room with the Bellossom that shoves the player out the door. The camera changes to your first-person perspective as the Pokemon charges at you to shove you out of the room. This one is way more impactful than the other despite being so much shorter because they presented it well like they did with side events in Gen 5 but also played to the strengths of the medium.
I mean...you see that stuff in other games too, also events? Gen 5 is where Pokemon events started going downhill too. You see other villians take and steal stuff in games too, including Silver in gen 2 if you see him sneak behind the lab.
@@HaughtyToast I mean not really, they are background details too. I mean eh...most npcs in towns walk around at least a bit, I remember especially seeing this in some towns in Alola actually. Like as if it would still exist without you, then again the background Pokemon cries in gen 7 also help with that and that was a nice touch.
To those asking WHY B&W was so badly received. It's because it was the first generation that removed a lot of previous games content. Before that, GF would only remove things that extremely didn't worked. For all the rest, they would either enhance, or at least keep, the liked content and try to correct the content that didn't worked. Contests were gone. SearchVS that was there for 4 main games? Gone, back to farming the elite4 and limited by day fights. Safari zone, here since the very first game? Gone. Secret bases ? Gone. Minigame to find evolution stones and fossils ? Gone. Growing berries ? What for? just go farming pokemon that maybe hold them instead. B&W had the best story, one of the best OST, the idea to only have new gens pkm available for most of the game was genius and the rebalancing of the whole gameplay, from moves to abilities, made the fights incredibly fun to play. But outside of the basic loop of explore - fight - capture, the game was bare-boned with lack of content not seen since the very first game (which got a better map and the safari still).
Aaah Gen 5. Where the game didn’t sold enough copies despite the company’s efforts, leading them morally deprived of further motivation to put in effort leading to cash grabs in the next generations. While 10 years later people realize that these were actually the best games in the franchise and receive the appreciation they deserve but in reality they should have gotten it way back then. NOSTALGIA
Bro, excellent video! I'm glad I watched the whole video because it seems that many in the comment section didn't lmao. Anyways, thanks for highlighting what the most underrated Pokémon generation did correctly! :D
Also, route 209, really lol? You mean the route that has an optional tower with trainers , the one where you can spiritomb, and there is also a traversal element with the bike and it does require you to have some skill with the bike to gain items from the optional paths.
Man this vid takes me back. Pokémon White was my first game of the series and I played like 400 hours on my old DS. You nailed the exploration part. I would literally spend hours running around and keep finding hidden secrets, like the larvesta egg, which I didn't even know existed even after months after beating the elite 4. I remember being so excited whenever I found a new area, feeling rewarded especially when encountering the secret area where a legendary/mythical would be since I didn't follow any guides. I didn't play another Pokémon game until Ultra Sun came out, but dang, comparing my experiences with the two, I didn't realize how much of a gem the Gen 5 games were in comparison with the newer games that they have been releasing.
While i do like Pokemon black and white quite a lot, i honestly think there is a huge flaw with the exploration in Black and White, the problem is that the game is not designed in a way to encurage exploration. The unova region is just way too linearly layed out, there are very few looping paths, shortcuts, or easy way to get back to a previous place before you get fly. Hell, in the original Black and White the path you take trough the region is basically a straight line. This causes some huge problems related to its exploration. Fistly, before you get fly, backtracking in this game is a huge pain. For example when you get the Strength HM in Nimbasa, and want to use it on the Boulder on Route 2, you have to run trough almost the entire game including the way too long run over the Skyarrow Bridge, it just takes too long without really any way to make it faster. This is also a huge problem with the Fossil pokemon, where most of the time i don't really want to use them because resurecting them is just too much of a backtrack for it to be worth it. Secondly, since the game never really forces you to revisit previously explored areas, you have to just remember all the new places you can explore and then go out of your way to explore them. which is something most people will not do. Even when you get access to fly, why would you ever to back to something like Wellspring Cave? Compare this to Pokemon Emerald, which i personally think is the best game at handeling exploration. The Hoenn region, especially the first half is really dense, with lots of looping paths and shortcuts. Route 115, Mirage Tower, the Desert Area, New Mauvile, Abandoned Ship, and every single early game water route are all completly optional areas in Hoenn. Hell, even route 117 and Verdanturf Town are never really mandetory that you visit. But Emerald is very good at making you backtrack and giving you new things to find. Even just after beating Roxanne, getting access to cut, and having to go back to Briney's house, there is a cut tree on route 104 with an item and a whole new section of Petalburg woods that you can explore. Probably the best exploration moment of this in the entire series is when you get access to Surf after beating Norman. So much of the game upens up from this, and it basically forces you to find something new. In Petalburg itself there is like 3 items you can get from surfing. Then your next destination is to get to Mauvile City and go East to progress, but there are now 4 paths that go from Petalburg to Mauvile. nr. 1 Which is the quickest one is to go trough route 102 and surf over route 103. On this path you might find the Rare Candy and New Mauvile on route 110. Path nr. 2 is to go up to Rustborrow and trough Rusturf Tunnel. Here you will find some new items on both Route 104 and 117. Nr. 3 is to surf down trough the water routes, this is a way longer route but almost everything here is entirely new. If you stop by dewferd you can grab the Sludge Bomb tm, if you have the Mach Bike you can explore the extra section of Granite Cave, you can go into the Abandoned Ship, and you can do the same stuff on route 110 as path nr. 1. The 4. path is to go up and surf trough route 115, which has a whole new section with some new pokemon and items, and a new item on Route 111. There is a ton here, and whichever path you take you are bound to find at least something new. Compare this to getting surf in Pokemon Black and White, which also opens up a ton of new areas. Here you get surf right infront of Twist Mountain. Twist Mountain, Route 7 and Charge Stone Cave, which is the 3 closest areas you have access to right now doesn't have any bodies of water. The closest area where you can get something new from using surf is on route 8 or Dragon Spiral Tower. Of course you can just fly away right after getting Surf, but that is going quite a lot out of your way, and it also somewhat punishes you because you will have to run trough route 7 again to continue forward afterwards. Comparing this it feels like night and day, Emerald gives you so much to find on the way to the place you are already going, while BW you have to go so much out of your way to find anything new.
Ngl when you put Ns Farewell at the end of the video I got a little emotional. Black and White 1 and 2 are truly the peak of Pokemon. It never got back to that level.
I still remember seeing the commercial for Black & White on tv early on in the year having played Gen 3 & 4 and I was just blown away as a kid. Got it for Christmas later that year and damn was that a good day. Me & my brothers would just lose ourselves in Unova and even to this day, I can’t stop preaching about it being the best generation of Pokemon. It has everything you could want imo. Really well made video man! Hope you continue to pop off!
Watching videos like this makes me feel that Gamefreak have really just stuck out the middle finger with these last few installments. We had it SO GOOD with this generation; and literally everybody hated it when it came out. They made so many small and major improvements and then said, you know what? Let's make SEQUELS, and inarguably created the best pokemon experience in the franchise with B2/W2. If the Pokemon franchise were to ever have a last generation, this felt like it was it and people just hated that notion. All the slop that's come out since is sort of what the fans deserve after how we treated what is unquestionably Gamefreak's most beloved creation (the passion that went into developing this game oozes out in like every corner).
NGL ironically what you said feels like a middle finger actually. To say everyone hated it is laughable, they sold a lot and sold millions and a lot of people enjoyed them. Vocal minority isn't the majority. Debatable with BW2, they have their issues too like how every game has. I disagree, Gen 7 felt like it celebrated everything too with USUM feeling like a true finale that also had a post game plot involving prior characters from older games. LMAO ok what? Are you gonna say ALL of what came after gen 5 is slop? That is just absurd and again a middle finger to all of their effort. And what fans deserve? Nah they bought and liked BW, just because they dared to criticize it doesn't mean they deserve shit games that makes no god damn sense. And Gamefreak's most beloved creation? That would be older games actually. (they had passion for all their games, Gen 5 is far from the only one, they just had an easier time adding in more details since older gens had to make the more bigger important changes)
@@Jdudec367 yeah idk what OP is talking about. However, youre kinda missing the point as well. Current gen of pokemon is objectively HOT GARBAGE, and yet, they sold the most copies ever. Thats not a good datapoint to use. Units sold does not equate to quality. Gamefreak has been milking fans ever since the switch came out. The games sell millions because its pokemon in 3d. Anyways, in regards to B/W, at the time, yeah everyone did hate it. For me, it was the design of the pokemon, they were boring and uninspired, and most people would cope with "hurr durr but Muk is literally a slime" yeah ok, and thats also generation fucking 1, nerds. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum seemed like the peak, and even after black came out, people regarded Platinum as the best pokemon game at the time. Its in hindsight that we see how good black and white truly were, because back when they were new, for all intents and purposes, the pokemon franchise seemed to hit a wall and it wasnt until Sun and Moon that the games felt fresh again. Personally, i loved pokemon black because of the story and setting, but you will never catch me saying its the best game in the series, the pokemon designs are easily the worst of any generation. Like, look at alolan exxegutor. Bro is a literal palm tree, but he looks awesome. The pokemon in gen 5 are literaly household objects, and are just as boring, with no flair to them.
@@dogsbecute Am I missing the point? Cuz I never said that sales are a good datapoint to use. True that is true. Are you sure that's why they sell? It could be because they are on the switch really. Eh no not everyone hated it clearly, a vocal minority did but not most people. I disagree I thought most were fine really. Fair enough, I like designs of all the generations though, like there really isn't any worst design really. I disagree there are ones like flair like Chandelure and EVERY gen has object mon not just gen 5, but most Pokemon aren't object mon clearly.
I do not understand why Pokemon decided to have one of the best features ( the reusable TMs ) introduced in this game only to later discard it in future games. It's always baffling to me that the Pokemon games are some of the few that make great changes in one generation, but then revert to a worse system or lack of cool features from previous games. This has always frustrated me. In gen 5 they didn't add the feature to have your Pokemon follow you around which was so cool In HG/SS. The first B/W games didn't have a Battle Frontier. Despite this, they are my favorite games. I love the music, the Pokemon design, the region. The animated sprites. The attempt at a more serious story. Back then, Pokemon felt like it had a soul. A part of me still wonders how newer games would look if they kept the pixel art going.
I also love that the Pokémon are so much more versatile in gen 5 and in bw2 you can use so many different lineups with Pokémon with different types of moves. I wish they would go back to making the battling and stories and maps like these but with a twist of the future graphics
I really enjoyed this video, and funnily enough Black and White are my favorite games AFTER Emerald. I appreciate the effort and points raised too, so you've definitely earned youself a like and subscription, and i'll share this with friends too. That being said, I feel like you don't give the older games enough credit. For example, I won't say I don't believe you about only using your overleveled starter, but I think that is an experience most people don't run into with emerald. Between your rival, Flannery, Winona (in the case of treecko ofc), team magma etc. there are definitely plenty of reasons way earlier to get more pokemon in your team, and honestly most people never needed a reason to use more pokemon other than 'I like this pokemon too and want to use it.' I also think blaming the game for you going through it 'the hard way' is kind of iffy. If somebody wanted to stick through BW with just overleveling their starter to go through the first gym (which is a lot easier than overleveling them later) they absolutely could, and then they'd have to 'learn that lesson' way later depending on their starter (AT LEAST gym 3, and probably later) which at that point is comparable to learning it later in older gens (although if you picked a torchic you would have to learn it gym 1 in emerald too). I do agree that the dynamic/scaling xp gains in BW make it a lot harder to grind and then sweep with overleveled pokemon and it is great that they do, but that's it. one other thing that bugged me was just that the 'lightyears doesn't measure time... its distance!' is a fucking phenomenal line and a horrible example of something 'weird'; the whole point is that you just started your journey and the trainer right before the intimidating first gym leader tells you 'you're lightyears away from beating brock, kid!' implying that youre weak and will never improve and progress enough to catch up, but then once you beat him reassures you that hey, it's DISTANCE we're talking about, it's all about how much of that distance you can cover rather than an insurmountable time limitation. I think it's one of the more iconic and memorable lines in pokemon games as a whole, so I really think you screwed it up with that one. I also think you don't give the other games credit in terms of exploration and the map/route structure. The nonlinear map structure in older games is very much worth acknowledging as something the older games do well that helps them compete with B&W in the exploration aspect. Being able to travel to all sorts of places out of order just because you went in this direction instead of that direction (as opposed to the map being linear), get a taste of future areas and then go back, or unique ways some areas are connected to eachother are all very fun things, and finding places like pacifidlog town are very memorable experiences, not to mention the regi cave or the flavor encountering Kyogre underwater adds (so what if I'm forced to use an HM? It makes sense and builds atmosphere). As for gyms; my last gen 1 run was like, idk how long ago so maybe there really wasn't a point, but I do remember doing at least one or two of the gyms out of order, and while I don't really remember why I think that does say something about 'freedom' or choice. The fact that going back for Surge or Erika makes them 'not fun anymore' is like arguing any way of completing the game that isn't streamlined/as intended 'wont be fun anymore.' if you can have fun clearing emerald with only your starter you can have fun steamrolling gym leaders you skipped and making that your story. Still, I agree that gyms not scaling better is a big issue for making doing the gyms out of order fun or interesting and agree that it's probably a bit overrated. At least, I'd much rather have interesting routes than this free order with that kind of execution. But a nonlinear map structure is separate from just the gyms. In Emerald for example, the gyms are spread across the map all over and while you are going to the GYMS in order, the locations they're in don't connect linearly at all and you're encouraged to explore the map and move around the region in a lot of different, interesting ways. In addition, while I really like the Unova routes in design, I like routes from the gen 3-4 games just as much. There's plenty of big routes that are fun to explore and aren't particularly linear or just feel more interesting and have a lot of personality even when contained to themselves, like Sinnoh 214 (three different ways to go through it between the grass, trainer ridge or maniac tunnel) or 219, the Kecleon blocking your path in Emerald or the amazing route 119 complete with so many different elements, locations and ways to traverse it (water, bike bridge, two different paths, you can mix and match these for shortcuts) not to mention secrets like the Feebas tiles or the buildup to the route and how it ties into the nearby areas. There is SO MUCH personality in a lot of memorable routes (and caves!) from the older games and pretending B&W simply 'did it better' is plain wrong imho. Routes that can lead to multiple completely different areas tie into the first point about nonlinear exploration/map structure and are great too and very common in those games. I do prefer having unlimited TMs, but I think it's worth mentioning that it does make the game easier, and ALSO that that 'fear of regret' and being freed from it is exactly an example of something that customizes your own adventure. Your decisions matter, and saving a TM or using it early is a significant one that shapes your adventure. I disagree with the argument that 'this gives the players choice back,' there is no choice because there's no consequence. The quality of life is nice and I prefer it overall, though an ideal middle ground would probably be having access to limited or just more additional copies of TMs later or for very high prices only a while after obtaining the first one. In conclusion: I love gen 5 for a lot of reasons, but I think trying to tear down older gens to praise it is misguided and a bit misleading. or at least that your criticism of older gens in comparison to it is kind of lacking. I agree with you about the conclusion though, the 'lived in feeling' of the world does exist in other games but I feel like gen 5 does it best. For me it just has a lot of colorful characters; I love Alder, I love Cheren and Bianca, I LOVE the gym leaders like Elesa and Clay, N is very endearing even if ultimately the themes of B&W were underexplored (because gamefreak/nintendo are cowards). I adore the soundtrack, I adore a lot of the pokemon and the areas you find them in and how you encounter them as well as how relevant they can all be and how colorful runs can feel because of it, and a lot of the random NPCs too (im a heartbreaker... my name... charles), not to mention the absolutely exceptional sound and visual design that both beautifully integrate the narrative's themes. Games are great. But so were Emerald, Platinum and HGSS. 3-5 is definitely the golden age of pokemon for me. and serperior is easily the best gen 5 starter
I agree with you so much with this. When I played gen 4 I never felt like I didn't have enough TMs when I could always buy more in Veilstone City. I also found the parts iffy where the TH-camr blamed the games for his stupidity for not catching and trining several pokemon early in the older games. While having pokemon to learn a bunch of HMs sucked in Sinnoh I also loved that you could explore parts of previously visited areas that you couldn't access before. Overall I didn't like him shitting on the earlier games.
Thats the issues with the video. He doesnt like older gens because bw is his favorite. But there is a lot of things wrong especially when it comes to the explorations aspects. A lot of the things he says gen 5 did, previous gens also did better too.
still dont get why people dont like B&W. Only new pokemon, so all new teams, lovely animation, good map, amaaazinnggg music. Damn gen1 simps ruined pokemon ugh
8:55 i love how early in their development they wanted to bring the orchestra to radio hall in nyc to play but it turned out to be too expensive so it never happened
I wanted to boot up my GBA and replay Emerald, unfortunately the battery died. So I started playing Sapphire on an emulator, it’s been so fun, and I have been trying to encounter every pokemon possible in each area. I even got a shiny Zigzagoon. definitely a nostalgia trip
Awesome video! Serperior is my favorite pokemon too! White was my first game and I went through the whole game using pretty much only Smugleaf the Serperior. I had so much trouble at that last Cheren fight before victory road, his emboar was killing me. I ended up beating the elite four with the help of some random mons I caught on victory road and a wholeeee lot of revives. Now smugleaf is enjoying his retirement in Pokemon home :)
its funny how game freak made the best Pokemon game and ITS SEQUEL (Which is even better) yet decided to throw that away forever and never look back for the next generations
I'm glad they did because they are definitely making more money like this Pokémon isn't a franchise about high quality games and never has been Now they are more in tune with what most fans really want Easy cute games for children with escapism to turn your brain off
Yea, I stopped playing pokemon after the Gen 7 tragedy. Gen 5 was truly the peak. They should've stayed 2D and stopped being money hungry. Just make good games and people will buy them. It's pokemon, people will always buy it. So at least give quality equal to Gen 5 or try to make something better.
@@tpsamnot really, now they made Pokemon a game for children, it’s ridiculous. My childhood was the third, fourth and fifth generation (They were much more difficult compared to the current ones) and that didn’t stop me from beating the game with dedication and patience.
I still play gen 5 a lot to this day. I’m totally addicted to bw 2 as well. I played gen 1 when I was young back in 2000 and raised a Charizard to lv 75 before the elite 4 and the rest of my team was garbage. Never played gens 7 or 8 but gen 5 is a masterpiece
About the play conditioning thing, when I played Pokemon pearl, I’d try to catch numerous Pokemon, but I would only train my starter chimchar. I never beat the game as a kid because I would either hit a wall because there’s something my starter can’t deal with so I’d reset the save to try again or just set the game down for a long time and reset the save when I’d pick it up again.
On my first playthrough of black and white, I picked up a tepig, and only used that. I had WAY more trouble than I'd like to admit, and both the elite four and Nimbasa Gym were the hardest; but when I finally beat the game, I was incredibly happy. I can say that it is now my favorite pokemon game, and I've replayed it more times than I can count.
Oh my heart broke when you told the story of your Emerald playthrough. My first game was Pokémon Red on the Gameboy, and for months before I started playing it, I was watching the animé that taught me all that, and the animé aired for free on public airwaves. I had no idea how good I had it in 1998-99
The season system was lackluster. It made all the routes look samey so their assets could be swapped. As a result you get pretty much 4 routes skins, instead of each route being unique.
There are 2 things that I am not fond of in Unova. 1. Pokemon Designs. They are very contrasting. (Garbage Bags are Pokemons now?) Apart from the design, the stats of most of them suck. 2. They are easy! You have nurses sprinkled across the region. Near the desert, you could run out of pp of your water move, you can ask the nurse to heal you. Poisoned? There's a nurse to cure it. Damn it's easy. There is always someone after some thought battles where you can heal. Finally the Elite 4. The order in which to fight them is your choice! So all of them are of the same difficulty. In previous generations the league gets tougher. This one had to be the same!
A fellow Serperior enjoyer! I started the games with Yellow way back in the day (beat it with my Pikachu and a Mr. Mime) and grew increasingly more disinterested with each game because they are incredibly repetitive in many ways. Black and White, though, had me drawn back in. They refined the traditional pokémon formula and achieved all of the things listed above. On top of that, the developers brought back something that made the original game fun in the first place: an entirely new generation of pokémon unique to Unova. The near-complete exclusion of previous generations made everything from exploration to forming a team to developing strategy more engaging because each pokemon was unfamiliar, even if the same basic concepts applied. Most generations generally add to or build upon previous ones, but never add enough to be able to truly exclude older pokémon. This means that with each game you might find yourself sticking to the familiar rather than seeking new pokémon, or being frustrated with rehashed content in search for more. Besides, we got older pokemon in post-game. On top of that was their inclusion in the sequels, which felt more like incentive to explore the same region all over again to see what changed and seek the unfamiliar within a now familiar context than fan service. The sequels also did this as games in their own right, rather than remakes rehashing the same plot. I know this gen v exclusivity decision wasn’t popular though, and perhaps made for a better single-player experience more than anything else. The pokémon are at the core to the pokémon games, so it’s important that aspect is engaging because plots are never the strong suit (B&W were interesting in that respect too though). I mean, I loved my Charizard in X, but the way they gave it as some sort of soft secondary starter that could potentially overshadow the actual starters was kind of ridiculous.
The experience of your first game with Emerald mirrors my first playthrough with Blue version. I choose squirtle, and felt no need to catch/raise any others outside of hm moves. I ended up smashing my way through the elite 4 and my rival only because my Blastoise was at around lvl 80-90 by then, and I had the foresight to teach it icebeam (which decimated lances dragons, as well as my rivals venusaur). After gold and silver came out, I quickly started learning to put more balanced teams together, and now I generally have a standard party for each region (though I do like to experiment)
I don't know if Black 1 and White 1 have these features, but I love Black 2 and White 2 because you can call the professor to find out how to evolve your pokemon and your pokedex can tell you if you've seen or caught every pokemon in whatever area you happen to be in. I hate having to look that sh*t up. I wish gamefreak would bring back these quality of life features.
Thank you for your video! I used this for notes on advancing my own JRPG game I’m making. Made about 2 pages of note and inspiration as to what makes a good jrpg. Thanks!
If you gonna shit on shinoh at least show the correct tm which you can get in the cave especially when you show brick break is obtained in oreburgh gate a cave you litteraly can return to multiple times as the game goes on to explore it
Watching this video made me realize just how much of the content in Black 2 I missed all those years ago. I still loved the game, but I missed SOOO much
OKAY OKAY OKAY. I get the point, I don't disagree, but a bunch of Psyduck in one place with a headache actually would be a pretty big pokemon world problem. Just ONE caused all sorts of problems in the anime.
Thank you for taking me down nostalgia road. I lost my copy when I was in Highschool because I let (sold? gave away?) my copy to a classmat ewho jsut asked for it, before I realize how far the Pokemon Company jumped the shark.
Dont forget, theres also a hidden route south of sandgem town in sinnoh and a hidden route where you can find Giratina and the hidden surf route next to floaroma town and the haunted house in eternal forest. Tbh sinnoh has some too but not as many as unova.
@17:00 Ain't that the truth!! I remember when I was a kid, playing pokemon pearl. I ran in solo, me and my boy infernape; I caught a bidoof and starly at like level 10, a Palkia like level 47, and Infernape at level 87. Could NOT get past Cynthia; Garchomp was a menace, it would body Palkia then fold Infernape and I was running powerful moves... Just couldn't beat the landshark...
The unlimited use TMs really made exploring for them feel much more rewarding to me. In older games despite being more open and expansive exploring gets really boring after awhile because the rewards aren't worth the efforts I put in the getting them so I'm really glad gen 5 made that change.
My absolute favourite small touch about Gen 5 is just that the traded Pokémon that you trade to the ingame trainers actually can later be battled in the post-game (including the one who gives you two different trades), where it's really nice to see that these Pokémon aren't just boxed and actually do things even if they're not with you.
That's such a cool detail! I didn't know thAt!!!
How can you battle them? That sounds soooo cool!
Weird small touch is how they touched base on the strange house from BW1, with the Dreamyard in BW2. There is a spoon found there, and a lab in the basement with a bunch of medicine & one of the guys have a Drowzee and Hypno.........
They are fairly aggressive and strange acting before they battle you.
And the fact that, from what I remember, they evolved and grew(in Lvl) with their new trainer; its a small but very much appreciated detail.
Yes and also when you release a pokemon you have a chance to find him back during wild encounters which is pretty dope
Finally someone that understands that open world pokémon doesn't mean entertainment.
Finally?
@@lumeronswift The thing is that I never came across a video on youtube that questions open world mechanics for Pokémon. It's not that it didn't happen, but I haven't watched one myself.
@@0OB08Ohonestly I think Pokémon games should be open world even now, but they simply don’t understand how to make or develop them; the developers simply have zero experience in anything related to it. I’ve played (Minecraft) Pixelmon Adventure servers years ago when those were popular with extremely good fan made regions so it’s why I feel it’s simply a bad product over anything.
They scored well with open world aspect in PLA and wild area for SwSh. Scored 80 hrs just pushing what can be found and what cheese I can think of in launch month. Just SV has so little interactivity except dodging wild PKMN.
@@luckysgi-5karrow378 not sure the wild area in swsh is a plus. I’d like them to keep iterating on open world in legends games, and go back to traditional, curated route design in main series
Honestly its ironic, Black and White (and to a lesser extent Sun and Moon but that's another discussion) are basically everything people today want from the Pokemon franchise, but people just went so berserk at the time GameFreak has played it hyper safe ever since.
Seriously. Now all we get is a bland post game and decent dlc. We took these games for granted 😢
It's disappointing since Gen V was my favourite generation of Pokemon, and Sun/Moon was me enjoying Pokemon again after the disappointment of X/Y and feeling a bit meh with OR/AS... only to be followed by Ultra Sun/Moon being a disappointment overall where it made me not want to get new Pokémon games, and Let's Go being the straw that broke the back despite getting it as a Christmas Present. and despite all that, they still seem better than some of the newer games.
Like X/Y had some good qualities with the region itself despite REALLY needing that third version, due to it's bleh storyline and lack of challenge, OR/AS had some good new content that helped the game (I don't really know how to feel about it overall though), Ultra Sun/Moon despite ruining the story of Sun/Moon and being too similar that made it dull, is probably good for gameplay and had some really cool boss battles, and Let's Go had an artstyle that I WISH future Pokemon games would make the standard (despite it taking out so many core Pokemon mechanics so it could be a gateway for Go fans).
Overall, I just hope for a good Pokemon game that they actually spend time polishing alongside some good region design. Like I can see the potential with Scarlet/Violet from an outsider but it feels dragged down with the lack of polish and the open world angle is making me a bit worried about the future of Pokemon.
I'm not sure that's very true, this was mostly a western phenomena and they arent and especially weren't very connected with western fans.
Pokemon company realized that they can pump out hot garbage and fans will still pay 70$ + DLC so why would they bother adding dev time? Especially when they want to coordinate with the TCG, Merch, and anime
They went all out back than. Pretty sure if they had a decent amount of older pokemon to be part of the main game in B/W people wouldnt feel that way, cause almost everybody loved B/W2 (yeah the sales were much lower, so the audience was a more selective and probably pokemon-dedicated/friendly,but still).
Revisionist history cope from a zoomer who wasn't even around at the time.
Never considered that people who are way younger than me could be completely lost because they didn't spend their whole childhood getting "gotta catch em all" screamed at them. As a child I never would have for a single second thought that I shouldn't have 6 mons in my team.
Most people I know who played pokemon and didn't watch the anime only used their starter the first time through
@@thehayze259This was the firt time someone seemed to think that. i have NEVER met anyone playing the game like that XD. maybe where im from people like to equal their team out to give every team member some playtime? idk when i played my first game with my younger brother we didnt have enough slots to carry all the mons we wanted
@@tenjin5586 i was 10 when i played blue and just ran through everything with my blastoise
As someone who did grow up with that catch phrase the same problem still happens. While I may have spent sometime on raising my other Pokemon it was mainly my overleveled Starter pulling all the weight because grinding isn't fun and the games don't make it easy to level up new members.
This also somewhat plays into the meme of everyone having the same Sinnoh team where there is like 10 Pokemon that everyone used on their team without question and most of them are early Route Pokemon. By Sinnoh we all have grown up enough and have enough experience to recognize that we should have a Team of 6 but raising Pokemon is still a pain so people just trained some of the first Pokemon they encountered especially since they weren't that bad
My first game was Silver and I caught a whole team. My starter just was over leveled compared to the rest of it. I think people caught other pokemon they just didn't use them the same amount. Hell you had to catch other pokemon for the HMs if nothing else.
You go radio silent for over a month and then suddenly drop a half hour video? I love it
Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?
because he was working on it
The original BW's postgame is a bit underrated due to the massive postgame u get in the sequels, but it also deserves more credit.
ehhh it still kinda is meh
@@nascour5991 Story and spectacle-wise, I kinda agree (nothing like a battle frontier equivalent) but there were Elite 4 + the Champion rematches to substitute for that. And what BW provided in terms of post-endgame exploration and content is actually massive if you think about it. The northeast section of Unova exists simply to be explored and it's wonderful, if a bit modest.
@@kalejuice5701 I loved the side quest of going after the other Sages, feels really grown-up for a pokemon game, chasing down fugitives after defeating and disarming the main threat of the game
@@kalejuice5701 I'd rather have the massive post game with the train station and pokemon world tournament than a Battle Frontier
@@nascour5991 Is gen 4 your favorite gen?
Honestly I'm always shocked to hear how many people just relied on overlevelling their starters because even when I was a little kid playing Gen 3 and 4 games I would always catch a bunch of pokemon, I think I was one of the few who actually picked up on the idea of getting a full team early on
I did this in gen 1, but only because I really like the starter . For yellow I made a good team
I’m glad I’m not alone. I understand only rly using ur starter but not catching more Pokémon? What do u mean u didn’t know? The slogan is “gotta catch em all” what do u think the Pokédex is for???? like, u didn’t encounter a single Pokémon out of 100+ that u just generally liked and wanted on your team? I think this person and ppl like them are a minority if I’m being honest
@@snakeswithhats1913 how does one know the best mons, without catching a bunch? A lot of the starters low key sucked too
i think part of it depends on what your exposure to pokemon was before playing the games. i watched the anime and got the "gotta catch them all" thing shoved into my face and the anime made an appeal to catching every new pokemon u run into. and since i couldnt play any official pokemon games since i didnt have a console (still dont) and didnt know how to download fangames i watched playthroughs and learned that teams need to be balanced. ppl that didnt have those experiences before playing would probably just rely on a handful of pkm at most
@@matserpiece9610 adding to that, your starter is almost always the most high leveled Pokemon you have early on so kids are incentivized to use their strongest even if the type matchup is bad and just brute force every battle (I remember beating Brock with almost exclusively using Charmander despite having other Pokemons). This was a time when Exp. Share doesn't exist, most kids aren't going to manually train and grind their weak Pokemon since it's not intuitive; most only change their playstyle once they realize that is not the intended gameplay, either through the anime or other people.
I’m not gonna cap I’m glad we had these protagonists older than the ones we had during those 4 generations
and i HATE that the gen 9 protags look like they´re 8 years old
Then you must love XY gangs. All of them are 16-17 years old
@@AdaWongMistress I think they're at least 13 but the uniform makes them look like elementary schoolers 😭 lack of clothing customization hurt so bad
@@AdaWongMistress The leader of team star is a Reddit twink, the protagonists look like highschool first years, and the villains look like discount Ninjalinos.
The current gen is ass, but at least Nemoku is alright as a character.
But sadly this led to Hilda and Rosa getting um a *certain* type of treatment on the internet.
I've replayed Pokémon White like half a dozen times and was confident I knew the game in and out pretty well, but the fact that Route 3 has a bonus fisherman you can fight is something that actually blows my mind; I've never been to that particular spot and that speaks to your point about how strong the route design is.
I also love some of the games' small touches like the hiker guy in BW that got a Boldore from trading with you comes back in BW2 with his Boldore now evolved into a Gigalith. It's not much but I think it really adds alot to the world.
The worldbuilding is just another aspect of Gen 5 that shines above all the rest.
scarlet and violet giving you the option to do the gyms/titans/bases in any order is also pretty useless since there's no level scaling, so the harder ones are impossible early on and the easier ones are completely trivial if you save them for later
It’s not useless, you still have the option to roam around freely and to challenge any gym. You’d just get your butt kicked. Which is a good thing in my opinion. I got the badges out of order and when I found a weaker gym I adjusted with a different and lower level team. Not the best way to do it, but you have the option. The real issue to me is there is almost nothing guiding you towards the “correct” path.
Yeah most people won’t challenge the montenevera gyms or the psychic one first but I wish they put more effort into it
They shouldn't have made a "correct path" in the first place and instead make different teams depending on how far you've gone@@56ty_
nah, I disagree. I found myself at a harder gym and was definitely vastly under leveled, but it was presented the options, grind until I level up enough, go find an easier more level appropriate gym, or dive deep into the battle mechanics available to me. After about 10 trial and error attempts to beat it I was victorious. It was honestly one of the best gym experiences I've ever had in Pokemon.
Of course afterwards everything else was piss easy and I ended up getting bored with the game and not beating it.
I think a good way to handle it is to have level scaling only scale upwards
Allow you to challenge yourself by doing stuff out of order while not making easier gyms pathetically easy
@@tylertrego1276Wow, it’s almost like you proved yourself wrong with that last bit 🤦♂️
The pokemon cycle made this game it's main victim: new game is released, fans complain, a decade later they love it and say the new game is bad, repeat.
I dont think people are going to be saying they love sword and sheild or scarlett and violette a decade from their release. Maybe about legend arceus
Oddly enoug, gen 5 was where this sentiment began. You heard murmors when gen 4 was released, but the announcement of gen 5 and the preview of its pokemon at the time were definitely when people started to feel sus with gamefreak
Nah, not really. You don’t see people raving about X/Y, it’s all complaining about how rushed or incomplete they were (and hoping that Legends ZA fixes that).
I have Pokemon Violet and I love it. The game's performance is its greatest downside, but once the switch stops being the main platform it gets played on, I'm sure it'll be better appreciated, tho not to the point of BW I think
I still remember recently rediscovering the cave near Chargestone, even finding a TM I didn't collect until then, not to mention rediscoveriny the cave connected to the sewers, both in B2W2.
Chargestone is decent, great design but bare bones as far as gameplay. Prefer the ice path in johto, there is actual traversal to be done
White version was my very first Pokemon game and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That lesson they teach you at the very beginning of the game is so important to the game experience and I’m glad it was one of the first things I learned
Was it weird the next game when electric was no longer super effective against fire?
@@austincosman2907 I am not sure what you’re referring to
my first game was pokemon black and i completely agree. except at the time i was disappointed because i thought it would come with zekrom (in my head black = zekrom white = reshiram) ahh the inner workings of a childs mind is so fascinating. especially when the said legendary's were on the cover 💀
@@asterito1653 you played yourself friend lol
I remember exploring and finding that volcarona and I thought I'd found a legendary
Things I loved in gen 5:
1) that nurse by pinwheel Forrest that healed your Pokémon so you didn’t have to keep running back to the pc
2) the guy at the entrance to all the gyms gave you a fresh water
3) you could easily catch Luvdiscs to get heart scales to relearn moves
A fun little factoid about that lack of Badge requirement for HM usage...
For folks who still have the hardware and interest to try it, you can trade an pokemon you intend to use as a pre-loaded HM aide to a fresh save file and shortcut to what should've been a late-game content beat like getting the Larvesta almost immediately in the first game.
Too bad it still won't evolve until postgame (or if you overlevel for Ghetsis)
Dude, you couldn’t have said it any better! White was my first Pokémon game, the first I had ever played, it was like my red and blue back in the day, and now I have overwhelming nostalgia for it. BRO I LOVE SERPERIOR!! Snivy was my first starter pokemon! So seeing you beat the whole game with it is something I’m ecstatic for! Thank you for this video! Long live Unova!
You would probably enjoy hgss if you like gen 5
And also rom hacks like blazed glaze or XenoVerse or infinite fusion
@@tpsam when black and white were announced, i absolutely hated the idea. I was of the "its time to give pokemon a rest" camp. The designs of the pokemon were so boring and forced, not to mention that arbitrary lockout of any previous pokemon to force their new 150 pokemon onto you.I was really not interested in black and white. It wasnt until i played heart gold that i went to try black, and my god, it was SO MUCH better than i expected. The story carried pokemon black for me, and i was right about how i felt about the pokemon, very very few interested me or were a must have for my team. An example being Starly in gen 3. I found it absolutely adorable, and then when it fully evolved, considering im a huge Pidgeot fan, it ticked all the boxes i needed for my flying pokemon, mostly the aggressive bird look. Not to mention its move set, i absolutely loved Bravebird. All of these were new to me, and later on in the game i NEEDED a tropius, the moment i saw one i had to go out and catch one and raise it. I had very very few interactions like that in pokemon black. Everything else, though? *chefs kiss*
BW constantly incentivizes you to use more pokemon im your teams because there was always a pokemon that would be strong against the early gym leaders nearby (monkey for gym 1, sawk/throh for Lenora, Darumaka for Burgh, etc.) So im case your were that stubborn/stupid of a child and didn't get the lesson the first time, you had a fee more chances for it to really sink in.
i honestly wish that pokemon would make another sequel game in a region we've been to before but in a different time period. seeing characters and locations change between bw and b2w2 was such an amazing experience. i love a good remake, but it'd be great if we could just revisit a region after time has passed too :) great video!
So like g/s/c is 4 years after r/b/y? or more like PLA being in ancient Sinnoh? Technically ultra s/m is in a different time, a different timeline but eh close enough. Pokemon z-a (X/Y) is probably the closest thing we'll get for a long time thats like that and by god I hope they do it justice
gen 5 is a work of art. no more no less.
I consider it a tie for the worst mainline pokemon game along with the gen 7 games. Both are excellent games, but i just think those are the worst.
@@D3sdinova why?
@@shira_yone Because they have an opinion, that's why.
@@The_Prizessin_der_Verurteilung duh. I'm curious about their reason.
Can't even have a discussion on the Internet anymore sheesh.
@@The_Prizessin_der_Verurteilung Terrible opinion tbh.
Gen. 2 remake and Gen. 5 games will forever be the best Pokemon Games that Gamefreak has ever made.
From the music to the gameplay to the characters to the story to the mons themselves, they absolutely knocked Gen 5 out of the park. Truly some of my favorite games in the series period and because of that I'm terrified about what a potential remake would look like..
Another thing I think worth mentioning is the interactive music of the routes and cities. Hearing the soundtrack change after talking to the musicians was such a nice reward for my exploration efforts - it's such a small thing, but it makes each area so unique and makes the entire region feel alive. Like you said, the best part of Unova is that it feels like a place that can and will move on with or without the protagonist there - it's a huge world that, while linear at first glance, is full of so many secrets to discover that I still find new things with every playthrough.
Great video!! So glad to see a half hour video full of Unova appreciation!
sorry but i disagree in regards to the mons. gen 5 had some of the most uninspired pokemon designs in the entire franchise. Everything else though, yeah, they nailed it.
i was expecting you to just say "everything" and then 30:30 minutes of silence but fair point
If I remember correctly
The protagonists were supposed to be 16 at some point
And honestly
I prefer that
Them being 16 is my personal headcanon because it means that the philosophical questions being asked of the main character can actually be... questioned
If they're 16, then N isn't spouting nonsense at a child, he's waxing poetic at a teenager who's probably already asking themselves those kinds of questions
Oh my god I love this take man I just had to tell you immediately this just became my canon too
@@unraveki theres also very few references of the protagonist being called a kid, so its sort of easy to self insert without getting that immersion broken.
I’m pretty sure canonically the protagonists in this game are older which makes sense as well cause ain’t no way Cherry and Bianca are 12/14 in Black and White 2
NOT ONLY ARE YOU HITTING THE NAIL ON THE HEAD ABOUT WHAT MAKES THIS GAME PERFECT, YOU ALSO APPRECIATE SERPERIOR SUPERIORITY AJFHSKDGUSLGHLSK
The Superior Starter, finally someone gets it
My favorite starter as well, just too much swag (and Contrary Leaf storm goes brrr)
I LOVED Gen 5 growing up, I never understood why it was so hated. I actually loved Gen 5 so much I recently bought Pokémon White and Pokémon White 2. (Kyurem White is my favorite legendary) I still LOVE playing it. There is so much post game content and I can legitimately fight competitively with the NPCs and do EV training and still have it be ridiculously hard, it's so awesome!
because those of us that got to experience the magic of gen 1-4 as they released were probably burnt out. I know for me, personally, it was the design of the pokemon for gen 5 at the time. In hindsight, they arent so bad, but i still believe gen 5 has the most uninspired pokemon out of all the generations.
EDIT: for context i was fresh out of highscool and headed into the marine corps when black and white were released, so i already had my fair share of pokemon experience. Maybe i woulda felt different if it were my first rodeo.
Same here. 90% of the games I played as a kid were Pokémon based. Gen 5 was when I started to lose interest. But when I go back to those games I didn’t like as much such as black or ultra moon now (especially with TH-cam videos talking about all the cool stuff I never noticed as a dumb kid) all of a sudden they’re a blast to play because I have other interests/work that keep me busy.
I don’t want to do the whole “oh wow the quality of this editing is so underrated” so instead I’ll sound like a cocky rude bastard and say that I’ll see you when you have 50k subs
Thanks lol, I appreciate both
"Smell ya at 50K subs Gramps!"
Yeah, I honestly didn’t get the complaints about B&W being aggressively linear back in the day. All the little nooks and crannies and side dungeons helped break up the monotony of going gym to gym and tackling the (frankly very interesting) main story. I’ve always had an appreciation for side content like Contests In Pokemon because it can offer a nice diversion from the linear progression of the games. The side dungeons in B&W do an amazing job of feeling well integrated with the core gameplay loop, while still being engaging for those who want to stray from the main path from time to time.
In b/w, the grasses are always the answer to the gym if you are getting walled. I do kinda miss playing this game since I never beat the elite 4 but maybe someday. I still am not into pokemon mood right now.
Yeah, I found the BW1 E4 to be the one that gave me the most trouble of any Pokémon game on my first playthrough since the way my team ended up, I had easy answers for the fighting and Dark ones and virtually none for the ghost and psychic ones without realizing it until I was actually AT the E4, so by the time I actually BEAT all of them I was super nervous about fighting the champion since I had to fill in the weaknesses in my team by replacing 3 of my Pokémon with Durants I caught on victory road that knew Crunch and was dreading the thought of having to potentially get walled by the Champ and potentially go back to the drawing board all over again, fortunately it all worked out in the end and that possibility didn't come to pass but the fact that it could have has left it as a memory I won't forget.
@@EnergyBurst2 I think, still, to this day, pokemon gold and silver were the hardest pokemon games. Faulkner was the first gym leader and dude was like 5 levels ahead of anything you had at that point lmao, and lets not talk about whitney. I thought it was just because i was a kid at the time, but no, the scaling is INTENSE in pokemon gold and silver. Youre at the elite 4 by the time your starter is level 45. The kanto gyms were easier, but then you finally get to red at the end only to see homie is up like 5 levels with the most powerful team you have ever seen in a pokemon game. Black and White certainly come closer than any of the other games in regards to difficulty though. The example cited in the video is one great example, of needing to go get your monkey in a side area to help you with the first gym since they straight up counter your starter.
Great video! Black and White is my favorite generation as well, and I really like the way you make your point about Unova having more player freedom and exploration in practice, even if Kanto and Johto have a surface-level idea of player freedom. I also love your editing, it's snappy and fun. This made me want to replay B&W to see all the little places I missed when exploring the region, and check back up on my Serperior.
Thanks! And it's nice to meet a fellow Serperior appreciator.
I actually haven’t played BW1 before (I recently acquired it but I haven’t gotten to it yet) but BW2 were the first games in the series I played, and I’ve sunk a ton of time into it. I always loved how, despite seemingly fairly linear, the game hides so many cool secrets within a lot of the routes (hidden grottos for one, a lot of the things you mentioned in this video). The whole game just radiates this sense that the world is actually alive. It’s part of what makes those games so memorable
Me too! To this day white 2 is the pokemon game I've spent the most time on. And I didn't even finish most things. 420+ hours before my cart started failing and refusing to save. Never got too far into the battle subway or PWT. Less than 100 pokemon away from completing the pokedex back in the days when you could only ask for pokemon you've seen on the GTS. Battling with my cousin and wiping the floor with my level 99 defiant braviary because we agreed all level 50s except for one wild card that could be any level. Almost getting in trouble with my older sibling because of that until my cousin backed me up and showed the wild card pokemon he brought.
Gen 5 was peak pokemon for me. And someday I hope I can play it properly on a console once again. Honestly I don't even want remakes for gen 5 at this point. Just rerelease it on the switch and I'll eat it up.
I love the Unova region's vibe.
This is probably the best video I’ve seen about Gen 5
Been my favorite gen since it came out !!
oh mate, i've just revived the fire of pokemon in my soul
yeah this vid made me go back to pokemon black for a fresh runthrough.
I don’t know how watching one new video from Pikasprey has caused the TH-cam algorithm to flood my recommended with Pokémon content but hey, it’s introduced me to multiple channels that I had no idea existed and have content I really enjoy. You got my sub, The Hayze
yeah the algorithm is unusually aggressive, my feed is nothing but pokemon content, like yeah bro i get it, i watched a few pokemon vids when i was on a nostalgia trip, but now my feed is fucked lol
Seeing a fellow Snivy fan makes me very, VERY happy.
One of my fave parts about this game was the seasonal exploration. I just happened to do my playthrough during a winter month, so I casually strolled through that twisting mine in seconds with the snow in the central area with little thought, and I went through the bogs as an ice puzzle
Color me surprised when spring comes and the bogs have wild pokemon in the water and the mine became a dungeon now thst the snow is gone
So cool
That whole bit of conditioning you to use other pokemon instead of using just your starter speaks so much to me. The first game was Fire Red. I couldn't get through it. Second was coliseum and taught me not a lot. Third was diamond. Used emporeian and dialga with a tanky absnow and staravia (both were HM slaves)and spent everything thing on items and saved scumed to just barely beat Cynthia and get nightmares for life. Gen 5 actually captured evolved and built teams
I've also noticed (from anecdotal evidence) that people are way more likely to switch out their team members in Black and White. Like, in a lot of pokemon games, when they catch a pokemon, that's a permanent team member, and they only ever catch five or so + their starter.
But in Black and White, I (and many other people) will catch more like ten or eleven and use all of them extensively at some point, because the exp system makes them easier to raise and we're not bound by needing certain HMs.
Gen 5 truly was the peak of Pokemon, I remember having a blast playing it back in 2013
This adds a whole new perspective in regards to the linear map design and the «ugly» pokemon the haters «argumented» with. I was 11-13 when I played the originals and later the sequels and I didn’t agree with the negative opinions. Gen 5 is probably the most vibrant pokemon games to date. I objectively believe, nostalgia aside, everything went downhill after gen 6 came out, gen 7 being a bit better but far from gen 5 quality.
B&W and B2W2 are 2 of my favorite games in the series.
You are so right! My first pokemon was White, when I played other entries, like fire red, X, Sun, they felt... empty, a souless road. I don't know if it's the music, the details in that beautiful pixel art, like leaves falling or flowers moving, the events, but i can remember every single location. I can't do that in Sun and Moon, the memorable ones for sure, but every town in B/W has "something", story, lore, secrets, I mean it wasn't much but ti was a big step forward for pokemon. Once I realised that in fire red (I discovered it then because it is also pixel art and it was still so much uglier and uninteresting) I couldn't bring myself to finish it, hell I didn't know you could get a larvesta egg because I had a full team probably and when I encountered it in the desert ruins I thought it was a legendary
PD: Unpopular opinion White Opelucid city theme is better than Driftveil's
Something really cool about BW 2 is that they create a whole new way to victory road instead of just keeping it the same as BW.
I mean just look at the whole area that connect flaroma, the routes going to pastoria city, the ones connecting hearthome and pastoria. I can go on all day.
Also the lack of mazes and puzzle in gyms and dungeons in black and white 1 is very notable too.
The thing about the region having characters exist outside of the players input is half right. Other regions had things like the chairman from Kanto's fan club vacationing in Hoenn, That one Hoenn psychic getting lost in Kanto, or Hordel steeling Togepie from Cipher. The thing that makes the difference is that Gen V didn't just have the characters stand there and talk about it. When you walk in on the breakup the guy is actively taking his stuff and dipping out of there. When you walk in on the argument at the Abundant Shrine the children are chasing each other and hiding behind you. Gen V put the effort in to create presentation around their events.
Events in older games, as well as modern games, don't typically do this. The best and worst examples of presentation in a modern games side events come from that one hotel in Sword and Sheild. There's an event where a bunch of npc's are investigating stolen apples but they just stand around and head talk. Nobody moves around the room and and when stuff does happen it cuts to black. Most events are like this because for some reason they still treat the model's as though they're sprites and think a player's imagination will fill the gaps when that doesn't work in practice.
The good example is the one room with the Bellossom that shoves the player out the door. The camera changes to your first-person perspective as the Pokemon charges at you to shove you out of the room. This one is way more impactful than the other despite being so much shorter because they presented it well like they did with side events in Gen 5 but also played to the strengths of the medium.
I mean...you see that stuff in other games too, also events? Gen 5 is where Pokemon events started going downhill too.
You see other villians take and steal stuff in games too, including Silver in gen 2 if you see him sneak behind the lab.
@@HaughtyToast I mean not really, they are background details too. I mean eh...most npcs in towns walk around at least a bit, I remember especially seeing this in some towns in Alola actually. Like as if it would still exist without you, then again the background Pokemon cries in gen 7 also help with that and that was a nice touch.
@@HaughtyToast You sure? Um...ok by then.
another element of exploration i love in bw/b2w2 is the hidden grottos, finding my first one felt so magical and special
To those asking WHY B&W was so badly received.
It's because it was the first generation that removed a lot of previous games content. Before that, GF would only remove things that extremely didn't worked. For all the rest, they would either enhance, or at least keep, the liked content and try to correct the content that didn't worked.
Contests were gone. SearchVS that was there for 4 main games? Gone, back to farming the elite4 and limited by day fights. Safari zone, here since the very first game? Gone. Secret bases ? Gone. Minigame to find evolution stones and fossils ? Gone. Growing berries ? What for? just go farming pokemon that maybe hold them instead.
B&W had the best story, one of the best OST, the idea to only have new gens pkm available for most of the game was genius and the rebalancing of the whole gameplay, from moves to abilities, made the fights incredibly fun to play. But outside of the basic loop of explore - fight - capture, the game was bare-boned with lack of content not seen since the very first game (which got a better map and the safari still).
Aaah Gen 5. Where the game didn’t sold enough copies despite the company’s efforts, leading them morally deprived of further motivation to put in effort leading to cash grabs in the next generations. While 10 years later people realize that these were actually the best games in the franchise and receive the appreciation they deserve but in reality they should have gotten it way back then. NOSTALGIA
Bro, excellent video! I'm glad I watched the whole video because it seems that many in the comment section didn't lmao. Anyways, thanks for highlighting what the most underrated Pokémon generation did correctly! :D
20:20 Why is Snivy the only starter that can singly handed run through the game? Oshawott can learn Cut too.
*the only non-water starter that can single handedly run through the game
Also, route 209, really lol? You mean the route that has an optional tower with trainers , the one where you can spiritomb, and there is also a traversal element with the bike and it does require you to have some skill with the bike to gain items from the optional paths.
Man this vid takes me back. Pokémon White was my first game of the series and I played like 400 hours on my old DS. You nailed the exploration part. I would literally spend hours running around and keep finding hidden secrets, like the larvesta egg, which I didn't even know existed even after months after beating the elite 4. I remember being so excited whenever I found a new area, feeling rewarded especially when encountering the secret area where a legendary/mythical would be since I didn't follow any guides.
I didn't play another Pokémon game until Ultra Sun came out, but dang, comparing my experiences with the two, I didn't realize how much of a gem the Gen 5 games were in comparison with the newer games that they have been releasing.
While i do like Pokemon black and white quite a lot, i honestly think there is a huge flaw with the exploration in Black and White, the problem is that the game is not designed in a way to encurage exploration. The unova region is just way too linearly layed out, there are very few looping paths, shortcuts, or easy way to get back to a previous place before you get fly. Hell, in the original Black and White the path you take trough the region is basically a straight line.
This causes some huge problems related to its exploration. Fistly, before you get fly, backtracking in this game is a huge pain. For example when you get the Strength HM in Nimbasa, and want to use it on the Boulder on Route 2, you have to run trough almost the entire game including the way too long run over the Skyarrow Bridge, it just takes too long without really any way to make it faster. This is also a huge problem with the Fossil pokemon, where most of the time i don't really want to use them because resurecting them is just too much of a backtrack for it to be worth it.
Secondly, since the game never really forces you to revisit previously explored areas, you have to just remember all the new places you can explore and then go out of your way to explore them. which is something most people will not do. Even when you get access to fly, why would you ever to back to something like Wellspring Cave?
Compare this to Pokemon Emerald, which i personally think is the best game at handeling exploration. The Hoenn region, especially the first half is really dense, with lots of looping paths and shortcuts. Route 115, Mirage Tower, the Desert Area, New Mauvile, Abandoned Ship, and every single early game water route are all completly optional areas in Hoenn. Hell, even route 117 and Verdanturf Town are never really mandetory that you visit. But Emerald is very good at making you backtrack and giving you new things to find. Even just after beating Roxanne, getting access to cut, and having to go back to Briney's house, there is a cut tree on route 104 with an item and a whole new section of Petalburg woods that you can explore.
Probably the best exploration moment of this in the entire series is when you get access to Surf after beating Norman. So much of the game upens up from this, and it basically forces you to find something new. In Petalburg itself there is like 3 items you can get from surfing. Then your next destination is to get to Mauvile City and go East to progress, but there are now 4 paths that go from Petalburg to Mauvile. nr. 1 Which is the quickest one is to go trough route 102 and surf over route 103. On this path you might find the Rare Candy and New Mauvile on route 110. Path nr. 2 is to go up to Rustborrow and trough Rusturf Tunnel. Here you will find some new items on both Route 104 and 117. Nr. 3 is to surf down trough the water routes, this is a way longer route but almost everything here is entirely new. If you stop by dewferd you can grab the Sludge Bomb tm, if you have the Mach Bike you can explore the extra section of Granite Cave, you can go into the Abandoned Ship, and you can do the same stuff on route 110 as path nr. 1. The 4. path is to go up and surf trough route 115, which has a whole new section with some new pokemon and items, and a new item on Route 111. There is a ton here, and whichever path you take you are bound to find at least something new.
Compare this to getting surf in Pokemon Black and White, which also opens up a ton of new areas. Here you get surf right infront of Twist Mountain. Twist Mountain, Route 7 and Charge Stone Cave, which is the 3 closest areas you have access to right now doesn't have any bodies of water. The closest area where you can get something new from using surf is on route 8 or Dragon Spiral Tower. Of course you can just fly away right after getting Surf, but that is going quite a lot out of your way, and it also somewhat punishes you because you will have to run trough route 7 again to continue forward afterwards. Comparing this it feels like night and day, Emerald gives you so much to find on the way to the place you are already going, while BW you have to go so much out of your way to find anything new.
Hello fellow algorithm riders, let’s see how high we can pump this guy’s sub numbers and then sound like hipsters who were here before it was cool.
Ngl when you put Ns Farewell at the end of the video I got a little emotional. Black and White 1 and 2 are truly the peak of Pokemon. It never got back to that level.
I still remember seeing the commercial for Black & White on tv early on in the year having played Gen 3 & 4 and I was just blown away as a kid. Got it for Christmas later that year and damn was that a good day. Me & my brothers would just lose ourselves in Unova and even to this day, I can’t stop preaching about it being the best generation of Pokemon. It has everything you could want imo. Really well made video man! Hope you continue to pop off!
Watching videos like this makes me feel that Gamefreak have really just stuck out the middle finger with these last few installments. We had it SO GOOD with this generation; and literally everybody hated it when it came out. They made so many small and major improvements and then said, you know what? Let's make SEQUELS, and inarguably created the best pokemon experience in the franchise with B2/W2. If the Pokemon franchise were to ever have a last generation, this felt like it was it and people just hated that notion.
All the slop that's come out since is sort of what the fans deserve after how we treated what is unquestionably Gamefreak's most beloved creation (the passion that went into developing this game oozes out in like every corner).
NGL ironically what you said feels like a middle finger actually. To say everyone hated it is laughable, they sold a lot and sold millions and a lot of people enjoyed them. Vocal minority isn't the majority. Debatable with BW2, they have their issues too like how every game has. I disagree, Gen 7 felt like it celebrated everything too with USUM feeling like a true finale that also had a post game plot involving prior characters from older games.
LMAO ok what? Are you gonna say ALL of what came after gen 5 is slop? That is just absurd and again a middle finger to all of their effort. And what fans deserve? Nah they bought and liked BW, just because they dared to criticize it doesn't mean they deserve shit games that makes no god damn sense. And Gamefreak's most beloved creation? That would be older games actually. (they had passion for all their games, Gen 5 is far from the only one, they just had an easier time adding in more details since older gens had to make the more bigger important changes)
@@Jdudec367 yeah idk what OP is talking about. However, youre kinda missing the point as well. Current gen of pokemon is objectively HOT GARBAGE, and yet, they sold the most copies ever. Thats not a good datapoint to use. Units sold does not equate to quality. Gamefreak has been milking fans ever since the switch came out. The games sell millions because its pokemon in 3d. Anyways, in regards to B/W, at the time, yeah everyone did hate it. For me, it was the design of the pokemon, they were boring and uninspired, and most people would cope with "hurr durr but Muk is literally a slime" yeah ok, and thats also generation fucking 1, nerds. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum seemed like the peak, and even after black came out, people regarded Platinum as the best pokemon game at the time. Its in hindsight that we see how good black and white truly were, because back when they were new, for all intents and purposes, the pokemon franchise seemed to hit a wall and it wasnt until Sun and Moon that the games felt fresh again. Personally, i loved pokemon black because of the story and setting, but you will never catch me saying its the best game in the series, the pokemon designs are easily the worst of any generation. Like, look at alolan exxegutor. Bro is a literal palm tree, but he looks awesome. The pokemon in gen 5 are literaly household objects, and are just as boring, with no flair to them.
@@dogsbecute Am I missing the point? Cuz I never said that sales are a good datapoint to use. True that is true. Are you sure that's why they sell? It could be because they are on the switch really. Eh no not everyone hated it clearly, a vocal minority did but not most people. I disagree I thought most were fine really. Fair enough, I like designs of all the generations though, like there really isn't any worst design really. I disagree there are ones like flair like Chandelure and EVERY gen has object mon not just gen 5, but most Pokemon aren't object mon clearly.
120 hs in.. its not good i still prefer legends and hg
I do not understand why Pokemon decided to have one of the best features ( the reusable TMs ) introduced in this game only to later discard it in future games. It's always baffling to me that the Pokemon games are some of the few that make great changes in one generation, but then revert to a worse system or lack of cool features from previous games.
This has always frustrated me. In gen 5 they didn't add the feature to have your Pokemon follow you around which was so cool In HG/SS. The first B/W games didn't have a Battle Frontier.
Despite this, they are my favorite games. I love the music, the Pokemon design, the region. The animated sprites. The attempt at a more serious story. Back then, Pokemon felt like it had a soul. A part of me still wonders how newer games would look if they kept the pixel art going.
BW began development before HGSS. Development for BW started right after DP released in 2006. 0:14
"black and white don't have any stupid roadblocks" this is dancing-for-no-reason guys erasure
Bro this video made me want to boot up my old Black and White 2 saves just to see all the locations you mentioned.
I also love that the Pokémon are so much more versatile in gen 5 and in bw2 you can use so many different lineups with Pokémon with different types of moves. I wish they would go back to making the battling and stories and maps like these but with a twist of the future graphics
17:38 i was really enjoying that bass line...
He was talking about dialogue and I was reminded of the one girl who was like ‘are you here to see Cynthia in a bikini?’
I really enjoyed this video, and funnily enough Black and White are my favorite games AFTER Emerald. I appreciate the effort and points raised too, so you've definitely earned youself a like and subscription, and i'll share this with friends too. That being said, I feel like you don't give the older games enough credit.
For example, I won't say I don't believe you about only using your overleveled starter, but I think that is an experience most people don't run into with emerald. Between your rival, Flannery, Winona (in the case of treecko ofc), team magma etc. there are definitely plenty of reasons way earlier to get more pokemon in your team, and honestly most people never needed a reason to use more pokemon other than 'I like this pokemon too and want to use it.'
I also think blaming the game for you going through it 'the hard way' is kind of iffy. If somebody wanted to stick through BW with just overleveling their starter to go through the first gym (which is a lot easier than overleveling them later) they absolutely could, and then they'd have to 'learn that lesson' way later depending on their starter (AT LEAST gym 3, and probably later) which at that point is comparable to learning it later in older gens (although if you picked a torchic you would have to learn it gym 1 in emerald too).
I do agree that the dynamic/scaling xp gains in BW make it a lot harder to grind and then sweep with overleveled pokemon and it is great that they do, but that's it.
one other thing that bugged me was just that the 'lightyears doesn't measure time... its distance!' is a fucking phenomenal line and a horrible example of something 'weird'; the whole point is that you just started your journey and the trainer right before the intimidating first gym leader tells you 'you're lightyears away from beating brock, kid!' implying that youre weak and will never improve and progress enough to catch up, but then once you beat him reassures you that hey, it's DISTANCE we're talking about, it's all about how much of that distance you can cover rather than an insurmountable time limitation. I think it's one of the more iconic and memorable lines in pokemon games as a whole, so I really think you screwed it up with that one.
I also think you don't give the other games credit in terms of exploration and the map/route structure. The nonlinear map structure in older games is very much worth acknowledging as something the older games do well that helps them compete with B&W in the exploration aspect. Being able to travel to all sorts of places out of order just because you went in this direction instead of that direction (as opposed to the map being linear), get a taste of future areas and then go back, or unique ways some areas are connected to eachother are all very fun things, and finding places like pacifidlog town are very memorable experiences, not to mention the regi cave or the flavor encountering Kyogre underwater adds (so what if I'm forced to use an HM? It makes sense and builds atmosphere).
As for gyms; my last gen 1 run was like, idk how long ago so maybe there really wasn't a point, but I do remember doing at least one or two of the gyms out of order, and while I don't really remember why I think that does say something about 'freedom' or choice. The fact that going back for Surge or Erika makes them 'not fun anymore' is like arguing any way of completing the game that isn't streamlined/as intended 'wont be fun anymore.' if you can have fun clearing emerald with only your starter you can have fun steamrolling gym leaders you skipped and making that your story. Still, I agree that gyms not scaling better is a big issue for making doing the gyms out of order fun or interesting and agree that it's probably a bit overrated. At least, I'd much rather have interesting routes than this free order with that kind of execution. But a nonlinear map structure is separate from just the gyms. In Emerald for example, the gyms are spread across the map all over and while you are going to the GYMS in order, the locations they're in don't connect linearly at all and you're encouraged to explore the map and move around the region in a lot of different, interesting ways.
In addition, while I really like the Unova routes in design, I like routes from the gen 3-4 games just as much. There's plenty of big routes that are fun to explore and aren't particularly linear or just feel more interesting and have a lot of personality even when contained to themselves, like Sinnoh 214 (three different ways to go through it between the grass, trainer ridge or maniac tunnel) or 219, the Kecleon blocking your path in Emerald or the amazing route 119 complete with so many different elements, locations and ways to traverse it (water, bike bridge, two different paths, you can mix and match these for shortcuts) not to mention secrets like the Feebas tiles or the buildup to the route and how it ties into the nearby areas. There is SO MUCH personality in a lot of memorable routes (and caves!) from the older games and pretending B&W simply 'did it better' is plain wrong imho. Routes that can lead to multiple completely different areas tie into the first point about nonlinear exploration/map structure and are great too and very common in those games.
I do prefer having unlimited TMs, but I think it's worth mentioning that it does make the game easier, and ALSO that that 'fear of regret' and being freed from it is exactly an example of something that customizes your own adventure. Your decisions matter, and saving a TM or using it early is a significant one that shapes your adventure. I disagree with the argument that 'this gives the players choice back,' there is no choice because there's no consequence. The quality of life is nice and I prefer it overall, though an ideal middle ground would probably be having access to limited or just more additional copies of TMs later or for very high prices only a while after obtaining the first one.
In conclusion: I love gen 5 for a lot of reasons, but I think trying to tear down older gens to praise it is misguided and a bit misleading. or at least that your criticism of older gens in comparison to it is kind of lacking. I agree with you about the conclusion though, the 'lived in feeling' of the world does exist in other games but I feel like gen 5 does it best. For me it just has a lot of colorful characters; I love Alder, I love Cheren and Bianca, I LOVE the gym leaders like Elesa and Clay, N is very endearing even if ultimately the themes of B&W were underexplored (because gamefreak/nintendo are cowards). I adore the soundtrack, I adore a lot of the pokemon and the areas you find them in and how you encounter them as well as how relevant they can all be and how colorful runs can feel because of it, and a lot of the random NPCs too (im a heartbreaker... my name... charles), not to mention the absolutely exceptional sound and visual design that both beautifully integrate the narrative's themes. Games are great. But so were Emerald, Platinum and HGSS. 3-5 is definitely the golden age of pokemon for me.
and serperior is easily the best gen 5 starter
I agree with you so much with this. When I played gen 4 I never felt like I didn't have enough TMs when I could always buy more in Veilstone City. I also found the parts iffy where the TH-camr blamed the games for his stupidity for not catching and trining several pokemon early in the older games. While having pokemon to learn a bunch of HMs sucked in Sinnoh I also loved that you could explore parts of previously visited areas that you couldn't access before. Overall I didn't like him shitting on the earlier games.
Thats the issues with the video. He doesnt like older gens because bw is his favorite. But there is a lot of things wrong especially when it comes to the explorations aspects.
A lot of the things he says gen 5 did, previous gens also did better too.
Idk man I love the confusingly weird dialogue of the old games. Oddly charming in a way lol
still dont get why people dont like B&W. Only new pokemon, so all new teams, lovely animation, good map, amaaazinnggg music. Damn gen1 simps ruined pokemon ugh
Because of ICE CREAM and TRASHBAG pokemon when some of the older ones have the same theme...
Dude I love Pokemon Black and White! Also Great video glad you are popping off you deserve more subs and views!!!
Any-order gyms COULD be something made to have story implications and contribute more to the ending. Its still an idea with value!
great video man! way over 2000 likes :) hope to see that run real soon
Yeah... it might be a while lol, it takes a long time to make these
11:14 Umm actually in Japan a 14 year old is still considered a Middle Schooler 🤓👆
8:55 i love how early in their development they wanted to bring the orchestra to radio hall in nyc to play but it turned out to be too expensive so it never happened
I wanted to boot up my GBA and replay Emerald, unfortunately the battery died. So I started playing Sapphire on an emulator, it’s been so fun, and I have been trying to encounter every pokemon possible in each area. I even got a shiny Zigzagoon. definitely a nostalgia trip
Awesome video! Serperior is my favorite pokemon too! White was my first game and I went through the whole game using pretty much only Smugleaf the Serperior. I had so much trouble at that last Cheren fight before victory road, his emboar was killing me. I ended up beating the elite four with the help of some random mons I caught on victory road and a wholeeee lot of revives. Now smugleaf is enjoying his retirement in Pokemon home :)
its funny how game freak made the best Pokemon game and ITS SEQUEL (Which is even better) yet decided to throw that away forever and never look back for the next generations
I'm glad they did because they are definitely making more money like this
Pokémon isn't a franchise about high quality games and never has been
Now they are more in tune with what most fans really want
Easy cute games for children with escapism to turn your brain off
@@tpsamtbh not my cup of tea as a child but I respect that most peeps enjoy handholding as a playstyle stay safe my g.
Yea, I stopped playing pokemon after the Gen 7 tragedy. Gen 5 was truly the peak. They should've stayed 2D and stopped being money hungry. Just make good games and people will buy them. It's pokemon, people will always buy it. So at least give quality equal to Gen 5 or try to make something better.
@@tpsamnot really, now they made Pokemon a game for children, it’s ridiculous. My childhood was the third, fourth and fifth generation (They were much more difficult compared to the current ones) and that didn’t stop me from beating the game with dedication and patience.
Gen 5 was seen as the worst game easily when it came out, it’s sad. Everyone made fun of the Pokémon and the fact they made route 1 route 1
I still play gen 5 a lot to this day. I’m totally addicted to bw 2 as well. I played gen 1 when I was young back in 2000 and raised a Charizard to lv 75 before the elite 4 and the rest of my team was garbage. Never played gens 7 or 8 but gen 5 is a masterpiece
About the play conditioning thing, when I played Pokemon pearl, I’d try to catch numerous Pokemon, but I would only train my starter chimchar. I never beat the game as a kid because I would either hit a wall because there’s something my starter can’t deal with so I’d reset the save to try again or just set the game down for a long time and reset the save when I’d pick it up again.
On my first playthrough of black and white, I picked up a tepig, and only used that. I had WAY more trouble than I'd like to admit, and both the elite four and Nimbasa Gym were the hardest; but when I finally beat the game, I was incredibly happy. I can say that it is now my favorite pokemon game, and I've replayed it more times than I can count.
Oh my heart broke when you told the story of your Emerald playthrough. My first game was Pokémon Red on the Gameboy, and for months before I started playing it, I was watching the animé that taught me all that, and the animé aired for free on public airwaves. I had no idea how good I had it in 1998-99
Ah yes, a circle, best for exploration.
“Like a cool new weapon, something pretty permanent”
**tears of the kingdom has entered the chat**
The season system was lackluster. It made all the routes look samey so their assets could be swapped.
As a result you get pretty much 4 routes skins, instead of each route being unique.
There are 2 things that I am not fond of in Unova.
1. Pokemon Designs. They are very contrasting. (Garbage Bags are Pokemons now?) Apart from the design, the stats of most of them suck.
2. They are easy! You have nurses sprinkled across the region. Near the desert, you could run out of pp of your water move, you can ask the nurse to heal you. Poisoned? There's a nurse to cure it. Damn it's easy. There is always someone after some thought battles where you can heal.
Finally the Elite 4. The order in which to fight them is your choice! So all of them are of the same difficulty. In previous generations the league gets tougher. This one had to be the same!
A fellow Serperior enjoyer! I started the games with Yellow way back in the day (beat it with my Pikachu and a Mr. Mime) and grew increasingly more disinterested with each game because they are incredibly repetitive in many ways. Black and White, though, had me drawn back in. They refined the traditional pokémon formula and achieved all of the things listed above. On top of that, the developers brought back something that made the original game fun in the first place: an entirely new generation of pokémon unique to Unova. The near-complete exclusion of previous generations made everything from exploration to forming a team to developing strategy more engaging because each pokemon was unfamiliar, even if the same basic concepts applied. Most generations generally add to or build upon previous ones, but never add enough to be able to truly exclude older pokémon. This means that with each game you might find yourself sticking to the familiar rather than seeking new pokémon, or being frustrated with rehashed content in search for more. Besides, we got older pokemon in post-game. On top of that was their inclusion in the sequels, which felt more like incentive to explore the same region all over again to see what changed and seek the unfamiliar within a now familiar context than fan service. The sequels also did this as games in their own right, rather than remakes rehashing the same plot. I know this gen v exclusivity decision wasn’t popular though, and perhaps made for a better single-player experience more than anything else. The pokémon are at the core to the pokémon games, so it’s important that aspect is engaging because plots are never the strong suit (B&W were interesting in that respect too though). I mean, I loved my Charizard in X, but the way they gave it as some sort of soft secondary starter that could potentially overshadow the actual starters was kind of ridiculous.
fantastic video, you put everything i've ever thought about gen 5 + more, into one video. thank you, and keep up the great work
The experience of your first game with Emerald mirrors my first playthrough with Blue version. I choose squirtle, and felt no need to catch/raise any others outside of hm moves. I ended up smashing my way through the elite 4 and my rival only because my Blastoise was at around lvl 80-90 by then, and I had the foresight to teach it icebeam (which decimated lances dragons, as well as my rivals venusaur).
After gold and silver came out, I quickly started learning to put more balanced teams together, and now I generally have a standard party for each region (though I do like to experiment)
I don't know if Black 1 and White 1 have these features, but I love Black 2 and White 2 because you can call the professor to find out how to evolve your pokemon and your pokedex can tell you if you've seen or caught every pokemon in whatever area you happen to be in. I hate having to look that sh*t up. I wish gamefreak would bring back these quality of life features.
Thank you for your video! I used this for notes on advancing my own JRPG game I’m making. Made about 2 pages of note and inspiration as to what makes a good jrpg. Thanks!
If you gonna shit on shinoh at least show the correct tm which you can get in the cave especially when you show brick break is obtained in oreburgh gate a cave you litteraly can return to multiple times as the game goes on to explore it
Watching this video made me realize just how much of the content in Black 2 I missed all those years ago. I still loved the game, but I missed SOOO much
I actually think the stupid npcs and silly roadblocks are charming and hilarious
OKAY OKAY OKAY. I get the point, I don't disagree, but a bunch of Psyduck in one place with a headache actually would be a pretty big pokemon world problem.
Just ONE caused all sorts of problems in the anime.
I'm reminded of my first pokemon game and starter, Bark, the Feraligatr from Crystal who was level 100 with scratch, cut, surf, and whirlpool.
Thank you for taking me down nostalgia road. I lost my copy when I was in Highschool because I let (sold? gave away?) my copy to a classmat ewho jsut asked for it, before I realize how far the Pokemon Company jumped the shark.
Thank you for Making this Video
It’s an Awesome Video, I enjoyed all Of it 💯✨ I am Currently playing Pokémon Black
Dont forget, theres also a hidden route south of sandgem town in sinnoh and a hidden route where you can find Giratina and the hidden surf route next to floaroma town and the haunted house in eternal forest. Tbh sinnoh has some too but not as many as unova.
there is a reason why I had over 3000 hours clocked in to my playtime in this game..
As a Pokemon fan back when Red and Blue first came to the USA, Gen 5 was the breath of fresh air I never knew I needed.
@17:00 Ain't that the truth!! I remember when I was a kid, playing pokemon pearl. I ran in solo, me and my boy infernape; I caught a bidoof and starly at like level 10, a Palkia like level 47, and Infernape at level 87. Could NOT get past Cynthia; Garchomp was a menace, it would body Palkia then fold Infernape and I was running powerful moves... Just couldn't beat the landshark...
The unlimited use TMs really made exploring for them feel much more rewarding to me. In older games despite being more open and expansive exploring gets really boring after awhile because the rewards aren't worth the efforts I put in the getting them so I'm really glad gen 5 made that change.