Generation V is the best generation of Pokemon games. Pretty frustrated that I ignored all the voices beforehand, telling me to save it for later. "It can't be that good, right? It's a Pokemon game!" I was very wrong.

- Bringing back old Pokemon was definitely a positive thing. Refreshing the dex in BW was a good change of pace
- A POKEMON GAME??? WITH STORY??? AND IT'S ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD??? 😱😱😱
- The game has effort put into it. It has soul; that's what Switch era Pokemon is missing.

You know the region. You know Unova. You went through it with Bianca and Cheren before, your best friends. You encountered new Pokemon, fought new Pokemon, explored new areas, made friendships with other people, and stopped Team Plasma from ending the world.
All of that happened two years ago.
But you're going to do it again, but a little differently this time.

You're starting in Aspertia City. You meet this kid who's kinda rude and brash, but he turns out to be a great guy after he gets his sister's stolen Pokemon. He's just kinda hot tempered, but he's not mean or anything.
You meet Bianca. As the player, you know who that is. Bianca was that friend who you steamrolled every fight, and who wanted to help out Professor Juniper. The sight of a familiar name turns on a few signals in your brain.
The more you progress in the story, and collect your gym badges, and catch more Pokemon, and fight more trainers, you learn that Unova's changed a lot in two years. You jump when you see that you're fighting Cheren for your first badge. You're a bit confused when you go to Virbank- who's this Roxie girl? You catch a ship back to a familiar place. You see Burgh in an always artistic Castelia, Elesa in a fresh Nimbasa, CLay in a funky Driftveil- pause. There's one of the Seven Sages, relaxing in Driftveil. He's terribly sorry for what he has done. He knows that he was wrong, and Ghetsis was just a powerhungry criminal organization leader. He learned from N. He's changed. He's not a bad guy anymore. Anyway, there's a cheerful Skyla in Mistralton- wait, what's this? You're fighting Drayden for your seventh? Huh, odd. Then Opelucid gets frozen over by this new Team Plasma. You run towards Humilau for your final badge, and eventually you have eight badges. All of a sudden, you're going to get killed by Kyurem, inside Giant Chasm.
And then N stops that from happening. N, the same Pokemon Trainer who fought atop the Pokemon League with your past self, two years ago. But Kyurem fused with N's dragon. And now you have to fight it.
Then you win, you saved the day, you go towards the Pokemon League, you fight the Elite Four, you fight Iris. What happened to Alder? But you still win anyway.
You're the Champion now. You decide to go towards southeast Unova. You learn what happened in Nacrene, Striaton, how Brycen's doing, and more. The time skip of two years gives so much world building to flourish.

Black 2 and White 2 are excellent examples of a sequel done right. Not too much has changed; there's still a sense of familiarity when you travel across the region. But it's all a new experience. They're my favorite games, topping Legends Arceus (which I love very dearly).


My only complaint with this game is that challenge mode wasn't coded correctly (I think)? The displayed levels are not accurate to the actual stats of the Pokemon.

-wrote this before I finish Black 2-

- Easily the best mainline Pokemon game if Legends Arceus is considered a spinoff
- Region felt great to explore
- Liked only being able to use new Pokemon for my playthrough
- An actual story in a Pokemon game is shocking, and it's a good one at that
- so much soul compared to the Switch era generations

I'm glad I finally got around to finishing it. Gen 5 deserves to be called the peak of Pokemon