A PokeRant

I never thought the day would come… but after seeing previews for Pokemon Black and White 2, I quit Pokemon.  No, I’m not a militant Genwunner (a derogatory term for someone who loudly proclaims the virtues of the first generation of Pokemon while ignoring all awesome changes they’ve made over the years).  But I can’t justify a $40 purchase for a game I stopped enjoying a long time ago.

I haven’t been with Pokemon from the beginning, so my anger doesn’t come from my childhood being destroyed, like many others.  In fact, I only started playing in the second generation.  Confession: I didn’t even like the first generation that much.  The second generation, on the other hand, was awesome.  It was like two games in one!  If you’ve played it, you know what I’m talking about.  Sure, the graphics weren’t stellar, especially since I was still playing on my black and gray Game Boy Pocket.  But they built on this concept, keeping with the same themes of the first game (towns with color names, Team Rocket, d-bag rival, etc.) while adding new elements (new Pokemon, new moves, the aforementioned post-Elite Four journey).  The third generation?  Also awesome! Kick-ass graphics, more new pokemon, and tons of added features that made it a very different experience while still having the basic structure of the game I knew and loved.

The fourth generation was when it started to get a bit dicey.  I’ve never been a fan of the whole 3-D thing, so the incorporation of 3-D elements into Pearl and Diamond didn’t win them any points in my book.  I wasn’t looking forward to new Pokemon anymore; so sue me, I thought 300 was enough for a while.  It was getting harder and harder to complete the objective on the cover: catching ’em all.  I didn’t have a link cable when I was younger so I couldn’t trade Pokemon with anyone, and therefore I would never be able to catch them all, but at least it seemed like a more accessible achievement.  Now with over 600, I don’t even bother.  An important part of the first few games–getting all the Pokemon you could–was now rendered totally insignificant, nobody wanting to waste their precious cash on Pokeballs they didn’t need.

Given the 3-D trend, I had a sinking feeling I might not enjoy Pokemon Black as I had the previous games.  I’d like to say that I was pleasantly surprised, but that would be a lie.  Long gone are the easily-navigated towns of previous generations, replaced by winding cities that require many screen changes and changes in perspective with each new screen.  Gyms are impossible to locate, because they have no distinguishing factors from the other boring houses full of boring people.  Yes, I know where the Start button is, thank you, random stranger.  Can you give me directions to the gym?  No, of course not.  Thanks for the berry, though.  The PokeCenters were upgraded, so now I don’t have to walk those extra five seconds to go to a PokeMart.  I don’t know about other people, but I always thought 2-on-2 battles were a pain, especially if I was trying to give one Pokemon all the experience.  Well, in Pokemon B&W they upgraded the annoying to a 3-on-3 battle! I’m sure they did it to “add a whole new level of strategy” to the game or something like that, but the multiple battling was my least favorite part of my favorite generation (Gen III) and this is far from my favorite game.

Wait, now you have friends that you sometimes battle, also a rival-type who is maybe a crazy person but also a good guy?  I may hate the hordes of new Pokemon, the graphics, and the battling style, but I’ll give them props for a much deeper plot than a Pokemon game has ever seen before.  I’ll admit, I haven’t finished the game–hell, I haven’t even gotten very far, I’ve been so irritated–but what I’ve seen of the story so far and what I’ve read have impressed me.  I’m not sure if that’s enough of a reason to keep playing, though, and I definitely don’t plan on buying the sequel… because for some reason, Pokemon games have sequels now?

In the end, I’m just plain disappointed with what Pokemon has become.  It’s not fun, it’s just a chore.  You know it’s bad if you’re playing a Pokemon game for the story.

This is CakeVsDeath, being angry so you don’t have to.