This review is a condensed version of a rant that I wrote into a doc a couple weeks ago about the Pokemon series, as far as how it started, peaked, and fell off, as well as hopefully, started to trend in an upwards direction again.

Pokemon, by concept, is maybe the coolest video game idea of all time. There is a reason that this is one of the most expensive brands of all time. Pokemon is very simple. It plays with the idea of mystical animals that share a prehistoric bond with humans, so much so that they have been incorporated into pretty much every faccet of human life. Since I am just focusing on the games here, it all started with Red and Blue. You could build a party of six Pokemon that you would use to fight other trainers, become strong, and defeat the world champions in order to become the new champion. Pretty much every main game going forward would play by this concept, adding more bits of story and character each time. The games were also sold in two different versions, each with version specific Pokemon that were tradeable with people who bought the version that you didn't own, and it was genius. This incredibly simple concept for an RPG became one of the biggest things in the world, and deservedly so, because it was just so much fun.

So let me set you up now with an idea of what exactly mattered in Pokemon going forward. Obviously what originally mattered was the games Pokedex, the world map, moves and items, general speed and feel of gameplay, simple things. As the series would go forward, characters and story would become more important, gameplay would become more complex with new gimmicks, bigger Pokedex', more moves, items, types, battles, etc. Another important thing would be bonus content, things that could be focused on after the main story was over, or even just side quest style things you could do in the middle of the main story, and linked/online play, where you would be able to battle other people's Pokemon teams. So, there is a pretty complex balance of things that need to be touched on, and it highly varies generation to generation exactly which parts were done well or not so well.

Generation 1 was smart. It was the first, so all it had to do was be serviceable enough for peoples opinions to be "yeah, that game had some fun battling." It was good, but could definitely be improved. Generation 2 obliged. It had a bigger Pokedex, more interesting characters, a better story, pretty much anything that I mentioned earlier was improved upon. This was a great Generation, and the only thing I think held it back were the technical limitations of the Gameboy. Generation 3 was the last Generation of the "original Pokemon" idea. Still that era where story and character complexity wasn't a main focus. Even then, this was the best yet. Now taking place on the Gameboy Advance, once again everything had been enhanced from previous games due to experience and technical improvement. Emerald to this day is widely seen as the best "pure" Pokemon experience. Generation 3 also introduced remakes of the Generation 1 games in the style of R/S/E, making them the definitive way to experience the first Generation of Pokemon.

Now, Generation 4 came along and it was decided that they needed to make some changes so the gameplay would still feel fresh. The problem is, experiments don't always come with success. Generation 4 was the first game to really delve into more complex themes and ideas, and with that, was one of the slowest pokemon games to date. Earlier I talked about the speed of gameplay... that needs to stay pretty fast and loose in games like these, atleast in my opinion. Platinum was a revision of Diamond and Pearl, and while it fixed a few problems that those games had, I still haven't ever felt like it's amazing or anything. (This is about when my rant became more opinionated than professional. Thats how this works lol.) Generation 4 on its own was not the greatest, but there were some remakes of the Generation 2 games. These were somehow even better than the originals, and once again were the definitive way to experience a previous generation.

Now we get to the Generation that this review was really about. Generation 5 in every right should have had the same issues as Generation 4 did... and yet it didn't? It feels like they sprinkled crack all over Generation 5. Black/White and Black 2/White 2 are in my personal opinion, the peak of the mainline Pokemon videogame series. Every. Single. Aspect. These 4 games feature what I would say is the best Pokedex, best story, most interesting characters, most satisfying world and gameplay, best bonus content, best looking graphics, most well tuned QoL features, and the best major gameplay gimmicks. I might have played a couple better RPG videogames in my life, but none of them have given me more fun than Generation 5 Pokemon has. This to me is what perfection looks like in a videogame. What makes me call myself a Pokemon fan.

Now, before I begin my section on what I dubbed "the fall off," please know that I am in no way a hater. These are my opinions on experiencing each of these games in full. I have given all of these (except maybe 1 set of games) a fair shot, and have come away from all of them feeling at the best, hopefully indifferent, and at the worst, disappointed. This is all my opinion, and is in no way objective. Feel free to disagree. That being said, Generation 6 came relatively quickly after Generation 5 due to it being the lowest selling main game in the series. This is the moment where the games started to feel like they were partially baked, and needed more work. Generation 6 was a HUGE leap into new things, most notably the switch from sprites to models. Pokemon went 3D and... it was pretty damn ugly. The game was a bit slow (not on the level of Generation 4 but still), the story was meh, the new typing was cool and all, but nothing here was landing. In their attempts to revamp everything and make Pokemon feel new again for the 3rd time, it led to some pretty comparatively bad gameplay. Another large change came with the new gimmick, mega evolutions. Something you could do that would make most all singleplayer battles nearly challengeless. This was also the point where remakes were no longer the definitive way to check out an old Generation. A lot of bad changes and forgettable ideas led to a long Pokemon dry spell. Generation 7, just like the previous, looked ugly and played pretty mediocre. True, I would say this was an improvement over the previous Generation, it just wasn't on any good level. If that wasn't bad enough, Generation 8 came.

I did say earlier that I wasn't a hater or anything, but I lied a bit. I am a huge hater of Generation 8. This has got to be where Pokemon, to me, felt the laziest. The gameplay was SO SLOW, the characters and story couldn't be less interesting, everything about all 3 games that took place in this Generation was just bad. X and Y might have been a large turnoff just due to being different, but MAN this drags. As you might have noticed, I really haven't brought up much to do with multiplayer for a while now. I am not very intouch with the going-ons of competitive Pokemon, as I am not interested in it. I just care about the single player experiences. THAT BEING SAID, to me it looks as if this whole Generation lives and dies by multiplayer. I really cant blame people for that. This gameplay kinda blows.

We have approached the current Generation of Pokemon, Generation 9. Right before SC/VL came Pokemon Legends, what is intended to be a series where we experience a Legend about a specific era of Pokemon, the one we got so far being about Arceus. This game is a bit more experimental, having a far more open world, and requiring the crafting of items. This game also plays unreasonably slow and barely attempts to give any interesting characters, but the changes are welcomed. Anyway, Generation 9 is where we currently are, and honestly? This story is a bit better than Generation 7, which I would say was the best of this 6-8 span. The gameplay doesn't feel as slow as the other Switch Pokemon games we got. The characters are becoming more memorable and interesting again. The main gameplay gimmick here is the most interesting one we have probably ever gotten. I actually cared about a new Pokedex again! Things are all genuinely starting to lean in a positive direction again. This is all great news until you get to this games most glaring issue, that this game runs like ASS. Never has there been more graphical and processing issues in the series than this. This on its own drops this game so much for me. You literally cannot ignore it, it is such a glaring, massive issue, and it is so frustrating. I am just really hoping that they can give enough attention to the next Generation of the series so that we can see these positive changes without the crippling performance problems.

Overall, I am a big fan of Pokemon. I have a lot of fun with Generation 2 and 3. I think Generation 5 is peak gaming. I have my problems with various points throughout the series, but it wont stop me from saying that I am a Pokemon fan. I am hopeful for what is to come, and honestly excited at the idea that there is a chance that we could see some genuinely good games again.

Generation Ranking:

Generation 5 (peak)
Generation 3 (great)
Generation 2 (great)
Generation 4 (carried entirely by the fantastic HG/SS, would be below gen 9 without those)
Generation 7 (decent)
Generation 9 (decent)
Generation 1 (rot with programming errors, FR/LG completely obsoletes these)
Generation 6 (not very good but the gen 3 remakes are fine)
Generation 8 (dookie)

eu agradeço a gamefreak até hoje por lançar este jogo, Pokemon black 2 é uma continuação direta de pokemom black/white, onde jogamos novamente na região de unova, mas agora com seu visual reimaginado.

Em questão de gameplay não há nada de novo em comparação ao anterior, o combate é o mesmo, porém com uma adição de pokemon das outras gerações aqui e de uma mecânica para o pokemon kyurem, que pode se fundir com o lendário exclusivo da sua versão usando o item DNA splicer, formando o kyurem white ou kyurem black, essa mecânica é bem bacana e da uma explicação a mais da história do jogo.

Agora a historia, pra ser sincero eu nunca fui de ligar muito pra historia de pokemon, já que na maioria das vezes ela não é tão boa assim, mas como gostei bastante do jogo prestei um pouco mais de atenção. No começo o jogo é bem padrão pokemon mesmo tendo aquela história base, o jogo começa a melhorar na questão da historia quando conhecemos o Colress um cientista da equipe plasma, os melhores diálogos do jogo são com ele e com o Ghetsis. a equipe plasma, que é de novo a vilã do jogo da uma mudada também, com o final do jogo anterior N faz a equipe plasma meio que ficar de boa, mas uma parte dela não concorda com os ideais seguindo os passos do antigo lider que esta vivo formando assim uma nova team plasma aos comandos do Ghetsis e dos outros 6 sabios pra dominar o mundo ou sei la o que eles querem.

A trilha sonora eu nem preciso falar nada, pokemon black/white 1 e 2 tem as melhores soundtracks da franquia toda, desde a musica que você escuta andando por ai nas cidades até as musicas que você escuta batalhando, Todas soundtracks incríveis. E os gráficos são lindos até hoje, cada detalhe da pixel art de cada pokemon, os cenários misturando o 2d com o 3d e as animações em 3d são perfeitas, não há o que mudar nelas.

Enfim por mais que eu goste muito desse jogo tenho que admitir, que, por mais que a pokedex regional desse jogo seja vasta a maioria dos pokemon são bem meia boca, mas ainda são bonitinhos. O jogo em si é muito bom e se você curte pokemon vai curtir esse jogo, o anime trouxe uma má reputação para esse jogo mas pode confiar, diferente do anime pokemon BW 2 é muito bom.

Pokémon should have ended with this one and I'm so serious about it. It's not that I dislike the new critters or gimmicks in the next generations, not at all. Some of my favorite monsters came later than Unova (Hydrapple and Mega Mawile my beloveds), it's just that you can actually see with BW and BW2 that Unova was the last time any of the people involved in developing these games actually cared about the finished product.

BW had one of the most ambitious plots that the main games had ever seen, which sure, it's not saying much, but it's impossible not to notice that there is an examination on the very bases that defined Pokémon: is Pokémon training ethical? Is human co-existence with the environment really possible? Even the thematic conflict between Truth vs Ideals is a reflection on the question about what is this saga's ethos and where should it go forward. You can see it for example in the existence of the White Forest and Black City, the first is a millenary woodland frozen in an era preceding human's hegemony over the ecosystem; and the second one is a cutting-edge metropolis shining with neon lights.

This is why in BW there's a concious return to form and numerous allusions to Gen 1 and Kanto: you can only use 156 new regional monsters throughout the main campaign (compare it to the original 151); routes and their numbers have reset (Kanto's routes go from 1 to 28 and Unova's go from 1 to 23); evolution lines that deliberately parallel each other (Machop/Timburr; Zubat/Swoobat; Geodude/Roggenrola, etc.), and you could go on and on.

When I look back at Gen 5, I see Pokémon at its best. Even the pixel art and the animated sprites feel like the culmination of almost two decades of progress. Compare it with the modern 3D of later entries, and it's not 3D itself that is the problem --nobody ever complained that Pokemon Stadium, Collosseum or Battle Revolution were badly done-- there's a palpable sense of detail and care that is missing with the newer models.

BW2 might not be as strong storywise as it's predecessor, but if BW was putting some of the core principles of the series under scrutiny, BW2 was a celebration of Pokémon as a whole. ALL the Pokémon created at the time! Fight EVERY gym leader and champion in existence through the Pokémon World Tournament! A robust post-game with new areas, legendaries and a challenging training facility!

None of the aformentioned elements would all be present ever again at the same time moving forward. There would always be something missing between the cut-corners of every new entry.

BW and BW2 feels like a send-off. It feels like a proper goodbye.

HUSBAND OF THE GAME: Drayden.

Really really good sequel. I think the changes in gym leaders and pokemon was very smart and was able to add the distinction between this one and its predecessor. Now this is the absolute best evil organization in a pokemon game with Team Plasma going so fucking hard in this game.

I thought the whole DNA splicers and Kyrem plot were good, Hugh was fantastic as a rival, and the mix of basically five generations of pokemon was really fun for team building. This probably has my favorite post game battle simulator with the Black Tree or whatever its called. I remember this being the first game where I got my 6 mains to level 100.

This is it, the peak of the franchise.

There's a lot I could say about Pokémon Black 2, mostly good, but I like to talk first about the bad stuff first so then I can talk about the good freely.

First, the story is not that compelling compared to the first one, and I think that having a city be practically nuked, to then tell you to go get the last gym badge, does break the inversion a little bit.

Another thing which, isn't really a complain but more of a nitpick, I wished we could have fought our B/W selves, seems like a wasted opportunity, specially bc the Memory Link is a mechanic that let us use our B/W savefile for some added content, except the most obvious one. But, like I said, its a small complain that doesn't break the game. With that out of the way, let's talk about the good.

Everything else, really. The changes the region has gone through are small but interesting, like having new cities with new gyms, and interconnecting the region a lot more; plus, bringing the old pokemon back for the adventure does bring a lot more variety to the table, fixing two of my biggest complains of the first game.

As a whole, I don't think there's more to tell about this game that hasn't been said before, I just a wonderful experience that shows us how great pokemon can be, and how great pokemon should be.

As an expansion of the predecessor I think this game does an amazing job. Further quality of life improvements, new towns and other areas and a justifiable expansion to the Pokedex.

As a narrative successor I feel like it drops the ball in some areas while succeeding in others. Team Plasma has understandably dropped the facade and has gone full on evil criminals with Ghetsis frustrated at his setbacks from 2 years prior. However, a lot of the nuance from the previous game's story isn't present which is a shame considering how well they did. A lot of the game feels like a generic Pokemon game with lackluster characters (Hugh is so one-note it is insulting to have him share the title of Unova Rival with Cheren and Bianca) and gym to gym mixed with stop the bad guys plot. N isn't present for a lot of the main plot but I do like what time he does have on screen in the later parts and the post game. The memory link functions for the B/W protagonist add some cool extra details to conversations and I wish we got more but alas (I wanted a Red like fight from HGSS). Bianca and Cheren have each chosen different paths and grown as people and it's really cool to see. I like that Cheren actually helps out on your journey and against Team Plasma, further cementing his GOAT rival status.

Looking at the region as a whole, there a lot of changes to places with little side characters gaining new roles / changes that are a natural progression from B/W. The towns have adapted to the changes as well. Eg. Driftveil becoming a commercial capital thanks to the economy boost from Clay's mining enterprise and the PWT tourism profits. This is all reflected in the landscape which can all be explored. All these developments make the world feel a lot more lived in which greatly helps immersion. Significant areas from B/W have their narrative weight acknowledged which is a necessity for any game to function as a good sequel (something Tears of the Kingdom failed at for example). The ruins of N's Castle can be visited and the atmosphere is almost palpable.

I really like this game (8.5/10) and in some ways it surpasses the original B/W but it falls short in some of the key departments for me.

Tá maluco, esse jogo é absurdo. A história dele não é tão grandiosa quanto a do 1, na verdade, não é lá grandes coisas, mas a gameplay é tão satisfatória que eu fiquei completamente tomado pelo jogo. Hoje em dia, vejo a decisão tomada em pokémon black 1 como uma decisão audaciosa e experimental, no sentido positivo. Porém, expandir a dex para além de unova possibilita uma variedade maior de possibilidades, e isso me agrada. Na minha equipe tinham dois pokémons de Unova, um de Sinnoh, um de Hoenn, um de Johto e um de Kanto, pô isso é do caralho.

About a year ago, I replayed Pokemon Black, and it’s still hands down one of the best mainline Pokemon titles. But that truly was all set up to bring me here, to Pokemon Black 2. Of all of the Pokemon games out there, the one game I missed of the bunch was Black 2, and it’s always been a goal of mine to actually play it. And while yes most of the dual versions are similar to each other, I feel like Black 2 and White 2 especially are different enough to acknowledge them somewhat as separate entities. Regardless of either version though, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 are one of the best sets of games in the entire history of Pokemon, and I’m glad I finally got around to replaying them.

The first thing that’s always interesting to me about Black 2 and White 2 are that they’re the only direct sequels to prior Pokemon games. While some take place or continue storylines from older games, none are really as directly sequels like how Black 2 and White 2 are. It’s really interesting to see how Unova has changed between the two year time gap, and how characters have changed between then. Cheren is now a gym leader, Bianca is a full on assistant for Professor Juniper, so on and so forth. It’s really nice to see these characters grow beyond the game they first appear in, which happens so rarely.

One of the first big changes to Unova that’s noticeable from the start is the introduction of so many non-Unovan Pokemon. The regional Pokedex is practically doubled from what it was in Black and White, adding about 150 non-Unovan Pokemon. While I do really adore the soft-reboot style of Black and White, it makes perfect sense why they chose to do this here, and I really appreciate it. It allows for you to sort of re-experience Unova, but with Pokemon from older regions, though with my habit, I still use only Unovan Pokemon. My team for this run of Pokemon Black 2 was Samurott, Stoutland, Leavanny, Mandibuzz, Chandelure, and Beeheyem. The team itself was really fun, and I was able to really figure out how each Pokemon worked. Chandelure was without a doubt the best Pokemon in my team, and it’s one of the few Pokemon I ever kept a status move on. My team was kind of on the slow side too, which added an interesting challenge to the mix.

I mentioned in the introduction that Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 feel distinct enough to count them as different enough games. Of course they differ somewhat in story, since one features Reshiram, and the other Zekrom, but there are more differences as well. Some places are notably different aesthetically, much like in the original Black and White, Opelucid City is entirely different aesthetically. But locations like Route 4 are not only different aesthetically, but the layout and how you explore that route is different depending on the version. Some of the game’s dungeons, including Victory Road itself is laid out different depending on the version. I’ve been so used to playing White 2 that during the areas where the layouts were different, it felt so wrong, but that also made me adore the experience so much more.

Another interesting aspect when looking specifically at Black 2 and White 2 are the key systems. Upon beating the game for the first time, you unlock certain keys, depending on which version you play. One of the most interesting aspects to the Key System is that it makes it so that Black 2 and White 2 actually have difficulty settings. I’ll admit, I edited my save file so that I could play in Challenge mode. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try out, but never had the chance to. It’s unfortunate that you have to beat the game to unlock these difficulty settings, because playing Challenge Mode was exhilarating. Never was I more scared by the first battle in a Pokemon game, or the fact that each gym leader has an additional Pokemon. While I honestly didn’t struggle all too much, it was still a really fun and unique experience that I would love to see in future Pokemon games.

And in a similar vein to this, one of the coolest features that Black 2 and White 2 have is the memory link. Being able to link up with another DS with a save file of Black and White to incorporate that history of that save file into the save file of Black 2 or White 2 is awesome. That’s why I chose to play Pokemon Black and Black 2 specifically, it felt more thematic to line up those two games specifically, and allow for a sort of chronology between them. It makes these games so much more personal, and I absolutely adore it.

I think the one thing that’s somewhat weaker compared to the original Black and White is the story. While I do think Black 2 and White 2 both have amazing new characters, and still a really good story, it just simply doesn’t hit the same highs as Black and White does. What it does do though is create the perfect conclusion for the story of Unova, of Team Plasma, and of N. Hugh is probably one of the best written rivals in the Pokemon series, and these games also introduced one of the fan favorites of the series, Colress. Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 especially have one of my favorite League endings of a Pokemon game. From the music alone, it feels like a proper celebration of all you’ve accomplished, and at the end of it all, it’s time to show how strong you’ve grown from this journey. It’s such a beautiful song for the final battle of the story, I adore it.

I’m so glad I finally got a chance to play through Pokemon Black 2 proper. While I’m not unfamiliar with the Unova sequels, playing it in Challenge Mode, alongside all of the differences to the region in Black 2 specifically, made this playthrough such a unique experience for me. As well since Pokemon Black 2 was the one game I never got as a kid, it feels like some sort of destiny has been fulfilled by me finally playing it. It feels unfortunate that no Pokemon game after this, even the ones I like, never hit the same highs that Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 did. I hope maybe one day down the line we’ll be given Pokemon games that are of this level of quality again, though I’m unsure of when that will be. Regardless, Black 2 and White 2 are absolutely some of the best that mainline Pokemon has to offer.