Gonna be real honest with you, Pokemon Black 2 is probably the best Pokemon game in the franchise and the best 2D Pokemon game as well. I don't understand why this generation was hated back in 2011-2012, as I really enjoyed my time with the previous game and the sequel. One thing I forgot to mention with gen 5 is that the sprite work is some of the best sprites we have ever seen in this franchise, by far. The Pokemon just pop out so much more in this game, it's great!
So where do I begin with the final DS Pokemon title? The plot of course. To give a brief summary, two years have passed since Black and White, and you control either Nate or Rosa (aka the best protag design fight me). You are sent off on your Pokemon journey with your rival, Hugh, who is...something else. He's a shounen character through and through, very hot headed, and very cringey with his dialogue at certain moments, but be warned cuz "he's about to release his rage". He's not the worst rival by far, but we'll get to them later in the franchise. Among your travels, you will encounter Team Plasma once again, led by Ghetsis who still desires to rule Unova in an icy winter, with a captive Pokemon under his control for power; Kyurem. But what's cool is that you'll meet former Plasma members who have their minds changed after what N went through, but I wish they played more on that part with the plot. Oh and N? Yeah, N is not a prominent character in this game, just serves a role against Kyurem, and in the post game, and that's it.
So with the plot being not a big part of this game compared to the first game, what's the gameplay like? Well, it is literally just the same as it was but with a few tweaks in there. Obviously, you're catching Pokemon, beating the gym leaders, and becoming the Champion, but there's a few more things you can do in this game, and boy...Unova sure has a lot of things to do, and some features return which I forgot to mention from my Black review. In terms of battles first, you still have your bread and butter formula of how battles work, but you also have the odd Triple/Rotational Battles every now and then. Again, I kinda wanted to see these more in the game, but they are more prevelant in the post game with the Black City & White Forest returning. Pokemon can now have hidden abilities introduced this generation, and are more accessible with this game's Hidden Grottos, scattered around Unova, but back in the day, you could possibly get those with the web browser, Pokemon Dream World. Unfortunately, the servers shut down about 12 years ago so I couldn't try it out, but you can also use Pokemon Dream Radar on 3DS, a side game where you capture Pokemon inside dream orbs to then transfer into gen 5.
What I found really cool with players returning from the first game is the Unova Link feature, a method where players can transfer their Pokemon from Black/White into Black 2/White 2 via the infrared technology on the cartridges, but they can also view cutscenes of certain events between the two years which is just flavour text, and even trade keys which give you more difficulty choices, transfer the Black City and White Forest, etc. In terms of post-game and side content, there's so much more to do. What I didn't talk about in the first game was the Musical Festival, and this mode was okay. It replaces the pokemon contests where you can dress up your mon and partake in a musical to earn items. You could also do the Battle Subway in Nimbasa City where it is treated as a battle frontier in a way, fighting strong trainers and even Ingo and Emmet.
New to the post game is the Black City/White Forest I keep mentioning where this is this game's battle hall but is exclusively tied to triple and rotational battles. Climbing higher and higher earns items, money, and when you reach the top, a free Shiny Pokemon which is most definitely worth it. You can explore the starting areas of Unova from the first game now all souped up in levels, you can collect medals new to the series where any tasks you do net you collectible medals like trophies or achievements, although you can't do all of them now as some of them required Dream World, and the GTS to trade Pokemon over the internet.
The three big features that I think of immediately in terms of side content for this game are Pokestar Studios, the Join Avenue, and the Pokemon World Tournament. The Join Avenue you experience early on, where you can make NPCs join your avenue and become merchants, and even request other NPCs to make the wares more popular. But what was really cool is that you can net more NPCs over through the C-Gear with other players, gaining more popularity with your shops. To me, this is basically the only DS game to have a StreetPass function in a way, especially since this game released a year in the 3DS's life, which was really cool, but now in 2024, you are definitely not gonna be getting many at all.
Next is the Pokestar Studios, a movie studio where you and your Pokemon are sent in to make movies for the big screen, netting you items (and medals) based on how well your movie went. You film with rental Pokemon at first, but you can also use your team if you do more films, and you are tasked with following the script in order to make a good ending. But you can also change it up and go for a strange ending if you wanted and see what results you got. While some of the movies are...interesting to make, looking at you giant lady with rope, the rest of this feature can get a little tedious and even boring at times.
But the best one, is the Pokemon World Tournament. You do a tiny portion of this during the story, but in the post game, there are so many battle options you can do. It is essentially a tourney mode against trainers with your team, and you choose who to use in the battles, you are locked at lvl 25 throughout; locking at lvl 50 later on, you can't heal mid fight, and you also gain BP this way outside the Battle Subway. While it is a cool mode, what really makes it shine is the fact that you can fight the Unova Leaders again in their own tournament, and even some gym leaders you don't fight in the story like Lenora, Brycen, and Cilan. But after you beat those, you also unlock the tourneys against Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh gym leaders all with their original teams and remixed music! Plus after that, you can fight the Champions across all regions to see who is the ultimate champion, and this is what made me fall in love with the battle scheme in Pokemon again. I loved the double battle feature in gen 3, but the battle mechanics entirely in Black 2 at this point clicked with me that point on.
Do I recommend this game? Hell yes I do, if you have the money of course as this is also pricey. But is it also necessary with playing the first game before this game? Honestly no, not at all. The Pokemon are all the same, only except the available Pokemon found in the regional dex is a mix of all regions now rather than exclusively Unovan mons, the story loosely calls back to the first game until the end a tiny bit, and the Unova region is the exact same layout wise. But this game is up there now in my top 3 Pokemon games.
So where do I begin with the final DS Pokemon title? The plot of course. To give a brief summary, two years have passed since Black and White, and you control either Nate or Rosa (aka the best protag design fight me). You are sent off on your Pokemon journey with your rival, Hugh, who is...something else. He's a shounen character through and through, very hot headed, and very cringey with his dialogue at certain moments, but be warned cuz "he's about to release his rage". He's not the worst rival by far, but we'll get to them later in the franchise. Among your travels, you will encounter Team Plasma once again, led by Ghetsis who still desires to rule Unova in an icy winter, with a captive Pokemon under his control for power; Kyurem. But what's cool is that you'll meet former Plasma members who have their minds changed after what N went through, but I wish they played more on that part with the plot. Oh and N? Yeah, N is not a prominent character in this game, just serves a role against Kyurem, and in the post game, and that's it.
So with the plot being not a big part of this game compared to the first game, what's the gameplay like? Well, it is literally just the same as it was but with a few tweaks in there. Obviously, you're catching Pokemon, beating the gym leaders, and becoming the Champion, but there's a few more things you can do in this game, and boy...Unova sure has a lot of things to do, and some features return which I forgot to mention from my Black review. In terms of battles first, you still have your bread and butter formula of how battles work, but you also have the odd Triple/Rotational Battles every now and then. Again, I kinda wanted to see these more in the game, but they are more prevelant in the post game with the Black City & White Forest returning. Pokemon can now have hidden abilities introduced this generation, and are more accessible with this game's Hidden Grottos, scattered around Unova, but back in the day, you could possibly get those with the web browser, Pokemon Dream World. Unfortunately, the servers shut down about 12 years ago so I couldn't try it out, but you can also use Pokemon Dream Radar on 3DS, a side game where you capture Pokemon inside dream orbs to then transfer into gen 5.
What I found really cool with players returning from the first game is the Unova Link feature, a method where players can transfer their Pokemon from Black/White into Black 2/White 2 via the infrared technology on the cartridges, but they can also view cutscenes of certain events between the two years which is just flavour text, and even trade keys which give you more difficulty choices, transfer the Black City and White Forest, etc. In terms of post-game and side content, there's so much more to do. What I didn't talk about in the first game was the Musical Festival, and this mode was okay. It replaces the pokemon contests where you can dress up your mon and partake in a musical to earn items. You could also do the Battle Subway in Nimbasa City where it is treated as a battle frontier in a way, fighting strong trainers and even Ingo and Emmet.
New to the post game is the Black City/White Forest I keep mentioning where this is this game's battle hall but is exclusively tied to triple and rotational battles. Climbing higher and higher earns items, money, and when you reach the top, a free Shiny Pokemon which is most definitely worth it. You can explore the starting areas of Unova from the first game now all souped up in levels, you can collect medals new to the series where any tasks you do net you collectible medals like trophies or achievements, although you can't do all of them now as some of them required Dream World, and the GTS to trade Pokemon over the internet.
The three big features that I think of immediately in terms of side content for this game are Pokestar Studios, the Join Avenue, and the Pokemon World Tournament. The Join Avenue you experience early on, where you can make NPCs join your avenue and become merchants, and even request other NPCs to make the wares more popular. But what was really cool is that you can net more NPCs over through the C-Gear with other players, gaining more popularity with your shops. To me, this is basically the only DS game to have a StreetPass function in a way, especially since this game released a year in the 3DS's life, which was really cool, but now in 2024, you are definitely not gonna be getting many at all.
Next is the Pokestar Studios, a movie studio where you and your Pokemon are sent in to make movies for the big screen, netting you items (and medals) based on how well your movie went. You film with rental Pokemon at first, but you can also use your team if you do more films, and you are tasked with following the script in order to make a good ending. But you can also change it up and go for a strange ending if you wanted and see what results you got. While some of the movies are...interesting to make, looking at you giant lady with rope, the rest of this feature can get a little tedious and even boring at times.
But the best one, is the Pokemon World Tournament. You do a tiny portion of this during the story, but in the post game, there are so many battle options you can do. It is essentially a tourney mode against trainers with your team, and you choose who to use in the battles, you are locked at lvl 25 throughout; locking at lvl 50 later on, you can't heal mid fight, and you also gain BP this way outside the Battle Subway. While it is a cool mode, what really makes it shine is the fact that you can fight the Unova Leaders again in their own tournament, and even some gym leaders you don't fight in the story like Lenora, Brycen, and Cilan. But after you beat those, you also unlock the tourneys against Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh gym leaders all with their original teams and remixed music! Plus after that, you can fight the Champions across all regions to see who is the ultimate champion, and this is what made me fall in love with the battle scheme in Pokemon again. I loved the double battle feature in gen 3, but the battle mechanics entirely in Black 2 at this point clicked with me that point on.
Do I recommend this game? Hell yes I do, if you have the money of course as this is also pricey. But is it also necessary with playing the first game before this game? Honestly no, not at all. The Pokemon are all the same, only except the available Pokemon found in the regional dex is a mix of all regions now rather than exclusively Unovan mons, the story loosely calls back to the first game until the end a tiny bit, and the Unova region is the exact same layout wise. But this game is up there now in my top 3 Pokemon games.