That sucks...considering how good Black and White 1 were.

Well to be fair it was either a B/W filler to include Kyurem and promote the Genesect movie or we suffer a remake of Ruby and Sapphire. And while my fave starter of all time came from that Gen (Sceptile) I hated the fuck out of those two lifeless games.

That said, who knows a remake might actually work this time.

But yeah, Tornadus/Thundurus/Landorus/Victini not being catchable or giftable was dumb but not gamebreaking.

What I hate is Dream World. Or more specifically Dream World Pokemon with damn good abilities which can't be received legally like Solar Power Charizard. That really pisses me off.

It doesn't need to be "Filler" though. Crystal presented a side story with prominence of Suicune. Emerald gave us a 3rd, completely different plot to R/S, by having Groudon and Kyogre in direct conflict with each other, instead of one of the two being entirely left out. Platinum gave us an altered universe, where Sinnoh's temperature drops and is far more snowy and icy, with the entire Anti-Matter dimension business.

B2/W2 gave us a continuation of B/W's story, except this time, there's no excuse for why the Plasma members are so rock stupid it's embarrassing.

Dream World was an interesting concept that just has too many flaws. Can only be accessed once every 24 hours? That's rather inconvenient. Can only be used for one hour at a time? Pray the site doesn't lag (Which is does). Can only bring back one Pokemon found in DW? You better hope there was only one Pokemon worth getting. Certain areas where more uncommon and valuable Pokemon are only available after reaching a certain point amount? You better hope you can find a good two hundred strangers to be friends with, then.

Dream World could have worked, but the needless restrictions put on it plus the retarded time limits prevents anyone who isn't boosting from getting anything of value from it.

Wait...seriously? *checks DeviantArt* huh...not that much R34....but a lot of topless or nude...there seems to be quite a bit of Cynthia too. Why am I not surprised? I swear to God, if there's any of Iris...(no, I'm not checking).

The retarded time limit is there so that kids won't be glued to the computer trying to rack up points and hunt for specific Pokemon which is as you said random as hell. Limits us adults too from sneaking a couple of games at work. I've no issue with the time limit. The number of Pokemon that you can take with you is admittedly the biggest issue I have.

I found a Pineco and a female Swinub which had Thick Fat, an extremely useful ability in one playthrough. I went with the Swinub even if that Pineco would have evolved into a much cooler Forretress.

Ultimately, B/W2 feel more like expansions to the already good Black and White. Problem is its not in obvious places. If you are into EV/IV breeding and training, Shiny Pokemon etc etc...B/W2 actually helps make things much more easier. You can check general EVs with a call to Bianca, you can get a rough feel for IVs through the Ace Trainer in Gear Station. Tired of killing Basculins for Speed EVs? No sweat, just pop into Join Avenue where you've hopefully opened a Fitness Corner and put your Pokemon through a LV 30 speed training to increase the Effort in that one stat. Made a mistake in the EVs? Head down to the Beauty Salon and reset all the EVs back to 0.

To me personally, it seems like Black/White 2 focuses on making life easier for the "competitive" Pokemon players to Breed and train their Pokemon. Heck, I only learned about EV/IV stuff less than a month ago and thanks to all the features B/W2 provide it makes things a hell of a lot more easier to grasp.

In my opinion, the time limit is so that the already stressed servers don't get clogged even more. Nintendo really needs to update their infrastructure if they intend to reuse the Dream World for Gen VI.

I've been playing Dream World regularly for more than a month, but it's starting to bore me too. For me, I just feel the selection of Pokémon just doesn't warrant that much time spent. I don't even bother going to look for Pokémon anymore. My main focus in Dream World is decorating my home and planting those cash-grabbing berries, which makes it feel a lot like a Facebook game. :)

If I'm not mistaken, the Friend Limit is 50, and I have about 42. It's not that hard to find friends, and after a while people start looking for you rather than you look for them. Honestly though, I can't think of many "high points" Pokémon that are really worth it for a person to traverse the Dream World just for them.



Now, about Black and White 2, I finished the story and will probably begin training my team to beat the Elite Four. I know some people have problems with the hand-holding, but personally I quite liked it due to a mildly-OCD need of mine to clear out each area as much as I can before I progress to the next.

A few other thoughts:

1. This game really amps the aesthetics of a Pokémon game. I quite liked the airplane trip, the Marine Tube, the new cities, the cutscenes, etc. I also simply love how each Gym is now personalized, with Elesa's Gym being hands-down the most impressive Gym I have seen in all generations. GIVE ME WHAT I NEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!
2. As a whole, I liked the new additions. They flesh out Black and White and I think I can't think of a Unova without them. I spent far more time in the Join Avenue than I should, and I think the Pokémon World Tournament would end up being the main selling point of the game.
3. Love, love, love all the nods given to longtime fans! From appearances of past gym leaders and champions (with updated music!) to making EV-training easier, there's so much for an adult fan to enjoy.
4. I liked that the story was still pretty substantial like Black and White was, but I did feel that it wasn't quite as strong a story as Black and White. It did tie up the loose ends of Black and White nicely, though.
5. The fight with Black/White Kyurem was terribly anti-climatic. Surprisingly easy.

Overall, they weren't the revolutionary games that Black and White were, but Black and White 2 are really good additions that break up the monotony of playing mere remakes. Aside from a few polish issues, I'd say Black and White 2 are my definitive Generation V games.

B2/W2 makes it easier for EV training, undeniable. You'll soon find that most competitive players have long since dropped EV training and scouring for a Pokemon with perfect IVs in favor of just cheating. Creating "Perfect" Pokemon then inserting them into the game. Much faster, less hassle, and lets them make all sorts of teams.

I don't really care the purpose of the time limit. 1 hour every 24 hours is a needless restriction.

The problem of placing prominence on story vs. the rest of the game is the lack of feel. At no point do I feel like I'm on an adventure. The entire game has story events coming out of every orifice, which just makes me feel like I'm part of this gigantic team of 20 people all marching across the country.

No feeling of solitude (Lol solitude in a Pokemon game), no feeling of journey, it's just
Bianca: "Player! You need to start crossing oceans! Here's Surf!"
Construction Worker: "Sorry kid. This area is off limits. Come back in a few days."
Bianca: "Wait! Stop! Follow me!" *Leads you to where the next story point occurs."
Bianca: "I know you're in a city filled with buildings, any one of which could hold a necessary item to continue the game, but I don't think you're smart or patient enough to visit them all, so I'm just going to give you Waterfall, rather than let you find it."

Basically, I want to brain Bianca with a car battery. She killed my experience.

Bah. Some of us like things legal. That said I managed to breed a Charmander with Belly Drum+Jolly+Perfect IVs in Atk and Speed. Imma gonna train the shit out of this guy. Belly Drum+Flare Blitz sounds like fun times especially if I can do a Sunny Day set-up.

Anyway have any of you guys caught up on the Japanese Episode N arc? I think its about 3 or 4 episodes in but I pretty much fangasmed at the opening. Lizardon vs Reshiram? Hells yeah.

I stopped watching the anime ages ago. I went through a monitor a week having punched a hole in it each time Assh did something stupid or that annoyed the crap out of me. Which was every fricking episode.

Yeah. It shows that you stopped watching a while ago.
Ash mellowed out so hard over Hoenn through Sinnoh that I'm almost begging for him to do something hotblooded and brash just so something would happen.

Ash has gone from the angry, loud kid to the older brother type character for his current female sidekick, while Brock went from older brother to team mom (And then leaving altogether for BW).

Yeah, Ash has matured quite a lot. And according to some fans he does actually have an adequate arsenal of Pokemon that could actually be tournament worthy. Now if he would only evolve that damn Gibble.

While he does lose quite a bit he does have a couple of major wins under his belt too. People tend to forget he is the Orange League Champ and Battle Frontier champ.

Yeah. It's annoying how often he refuses to let his Pokemon evolve (Yet, ironically, his fully evolved Pokemon tend to have the biggest losses under their belt, such as his Torterra never winning a battle after evolving), but it's a staple of his character, so I don't really have much issue.

Also, you know how well off Ash is when it takes a freaking Darkrai to be the reason why he can't win the Sinnoh league.

Anyway, it's hard to take the Orange League win seriously since it was just a filler arc (Still, it was cool, most especially seeing Taurus and Snorlax battle), but him winning the Battle Frontier was awesome.

Oh, and Gible? Please. Didn't it take Cyndaquil 200 episodes to evolve? I think we'll be waiting on Gible for a while.

I've been watching a bit of Black and White after having not watched since the Kanto region (although I did keep up with the movies). It's not terrible like people say, it's just not a very ambitious anime.

Ash isn't a terrifically exciting characters. His trademarks are still his compassion and justice, his competitiveness, his enthusiasm and sad to say, his err, lack of intelligence. He's not a bad character by any means, and he shines in the movies themselves. Overall he makes a great audience surrogate, and I appreciate that about him.

Iris and Cilan are decent companions. Cilan is no Brock, but he fills that spot competently enough. Iris really channels Misty, from how annoying Misty was initially, to even having a baby Pokémon to carry around in the form of Axew.

Team Rocket has surprisingly become competent. They never "blast off" anymore, and almost all their plans succeed unless they directly involve Ash and co. They've become more dignified villains in that respect.

As always, the main stars of the show are the Pokémon themselves. The anime has propelled Oshawott to the top of my favorites list, and Snivy is freaking awesome too. If anything the anime has succeeded in making the individual Pokémon pretty likable, far more than the humans themselves.

Overall the anime makes for a fun watch when you're just looking for something to spend time on. In that respect, it's become like the Simpsons or Spongebob for me, something fun to tune in to when channel surfing, but not something I'd cry over missing.

Yeah. I like his outlook of adventure though. New region, hey, time to get new Pokemon. He keeps Pikachu as his uber-bro sure but I can respect that he prefers to start from scratch entering every new region rather than rely on his veteran Pokemon. Essentially he is challenging himself.

Also Darkrai guy was a douche. I mean Darkrai and Latios. What the hell?

My problem with the anime is the same one I had with the Simpsons. There are glimpses of amazing characterization and story arcs, but it's muddied throughout by the staff having to fill out a story that has no real end, so they just have to write episode after episode each week.

I'd bet if they took the critical character and plot episodes of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, and collected them all, they'd probably barely have 150 episodes on their hands (Out of 750+).

The problem is that he still has Pikachu, presenting two problems.
1. Pikachu has to weaken significantly at the start. It's kind of ridiculous to have Pikachu take down a Dragonite to having it unable to defeat an Elekid.
2. If Pikachu doesn't lose all it's strength between seasons, you're presented with Ash basically having a panic button (Such as during Johto, where Misty actually called him out on keeping his Kanto starters and Pikachu when he first entered Johto).

And yeah. That was total BS. Really pissed me off because that was Heracross's first appearance since, like, Johto (I don't remember if he appeared in the Battle Frontier).

It would have been awesome, undoubtedly. Sadly it's not that kind of show, but rather the kind that just has to keep churning out episodes. Nothing much the writers can do in that sense, I guess.

Yeah, they really can't do much of anything. And as a painful result, the anime doesn't do much of anything, either.
I understand it's a vehicle for moving games, but the issue arises that "What does it do when the games are out and released?"
We saw in the time between Johto and Hoenn that it just sat and stagnated in mediocrity, but I do wish that when it's not being a Pokemon of the Week vehicle for the current game, that it could do something with any semblance of a story.

BW has gone in the right direction by altering status quo and removing a lot of the running gags that have staled over the years (Most notably around TR, removing Blasting Off and Wobbufett, in addition adding a partner for Ash who isn't a Contest Runner, and (Sad as I am to see it go), Brock and his flirty ways). Perhaps with X and Y coming later this year the Anime will adopt a better prominence on story and plot over a showcase for a new mon of that gen.

Do you think it is ever possible to replace Ash and Pikachu as the protagonists of the series?

Nope.
There's a reason why there are only 26 Chronicles episodes.
Either there just isn't an audience or the writers have no interest in making them.
I don't think we'd be replacing Ash anytime soon.

However, because Ash has so obviously made it clear he's not Red, and previous game protagonists Ethan, Lyra, Brendan, and Lucas have cameoed (With May and Dawn being main characters), I do wonder if we'll ever see the game's Red appear...

Nope. I could see them doing lots of cooler more mature themed side stories in the manga but Ash is the face of the anime and Pikachu is still the most recognizable Pokemon of the franchise and since the anime is the one constant source of media in between games, they can't really make so many changes without throwing off the more hardcore ilk and apparently there are more than a few of those. When OLM did that 4-5min anime trailer for Black and White 2, people were raving like crazy how awesome that would be as the new anime standard.

But yeah, Pikachu's level moderation feels very forced every new season. But its kind of like (bad analogy I know) Superman in the Justice League.

Also to add, Episode N seems like it takes a more serious tone in storytelling. Specifically N and Colress being the centrepiece. This might be the series that actually ties into a movie (Extremespeed Genesect)

For me, the anime is one thing and one thing only:

It lets me hear the voices of the Pokémon instead of the digital shrieks from the games.
Yes, the in-game cries are more "realistic" than hearing a wild animal shout its species, but hearing a Pokémon say its name is just a thing I like.

*sees anime discussion* on thing that bothers me is how he always forgets that he got previous leauges' badges. Case in point: In the first few episodes of BW that jerk kid says "I have 2 badges" and Ash responds with "I have 1" it's like YOU HAVE LIKE 40 BADGES!!!!!!!

Speaking of jerk characters, was I the only one who liked Paul? He was pretty far and away the only character in DP that was interesting to watch.

Well you have to admit at least he doesn't rest on his laurels. Ash isn't a guy who talks about past glories much.

Because that would mean there's some kind of character development and lord knows we can't be having any of that. He doesn't talk about "past glories" because he's literally reset every season. Like he's some kind of android that just gets formatted every year or so to free up memory.

Hell, according to the dub of the first BW episode (not sure if it was in the Japanese), he's still 10 :lol

That's been a pretty long year.

Yeah, but if it's to make some up-start shut up then why not rub it in his face?

I disagree. Mainly because I usually watch the Japanese version he does cite incidents from previous seasons and such. He just doesn't dwell on them. Lizardon making a return brings back such memories that most people probably think he doesn't have.

And he is a lot more level headed than he used to be as compared to the Johto/Advanced/DP period.

Damn it. 1 pokemon left on my Unova Dex and it had to be Shuckle...

No, that's true in the Japanese version, too.
Does anyone remember the 6 months mentioned between him getting his 8th badge and the Indigo League? (They literally mention the time frame)

Compared to Advanced and DP?
Nah. He's been like that since the end of Johto. They couldn't have him play up the naive, brash angle for a 4rd straight season in a row (Counting Orange Islands), so when May was introduced as the newbie who made mistakes based on inexperience and anger, Ash was changed to become the calm headed, experienced older brother who can give tips to the newbie.

BW is most certainly not the introduction of this version of Ash.

As for Charizard's return (Bite me, I work with English Pokemon names :lol), I don't think it'll hold any bearing. Unless Charizard's time spent in the Valley is over and he'll officially return to Ash's active roster (As in, he'll be with Oak, not in the Valley where he's not instantly available), then his return will just be a one episode thing, and status quo will return.

Ash brings up past events each in the dub as well, but in a sense Ash is always reset in a certain sense after each series.

My hatred for Shuckle...It burns.

Topical

http://i50.tinypic.com/ofo953.png

A Double battle against a Shuckle and Bronzong killed my win streak in the Battle Tower/Factory/Whatever it was called in D/P/Pt.

Now that you've brought it up, yes :lol
It's never been explicitly mentioned in the series, but I've always assumed that the regional tournaments were an annual thing.

Ah probably a Hax. That happens like crazy in any of the in-game Challenge tournaments.

After seeing all these reanimated sequences from the latest episode of the anime, I feel the need to track it down...

I always assumed so, too.
I guess they just dropped the concept of...time.
That, or Dialga is just screwing with everyone.

Nah, it was legit. Trick Room and Power Trick, then Shuckle spammed Earthquake like a bitch :lol

You can find them, easy. Nyaa.eu can get you them if you know how to torrent.

I have torrenting difficulties at home, but its always a last resort if I can't track down a decent stream.

Most of the changes are more to do with changes to the writing style, rather than any kind of character growth. After all the anime has been going for what.. 15 years? That's older than most of the people watching it.

Bringing back Charizard seems to be done for fanservice and not any indication of continuity. In this case, Charizard has always been popular and they're about to release a moderately expensive action figure based on him. Not hard to put two and two together there. And for every past event that's brought up, there's a dozen more examples of him having to use the Pokedex on a Koffing.

Honestly, I don't see the connection between bringing Charizard back and the D-Art.
Charizard has always been wildly popular, despite only being available in 2 game series. This is more of a throwback/pandering/whatever you want to call it.

not to be a drag but do you feel this way about other lengthy franchises such as Batman or Spider-Man who seem to alway be early 30s in age despite having the said franchises being almost 40 years old?

Somehow I don't see why some people can be forgiving of this retroactive continuity in some form of media but can't stand it in others. We have Ash making the same motions as we would have Spider-Man getting framed by the Chameleon and so on.

This isn't a rib against you, this is just what I observe in some of the many fandoms I am a part of.

With Mewtwo being in the new Movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFEAA4JvaM

I thought we might be on the verge of a new Red/Blue renewal. And since we have a new graphic system for X and Y coming out, I think it would make sense that these Gen 1 Pokemon are being revisited for a possible 3DS remake down the road.

So where are you guys watching the latest anime episodes? Now that N's in it and the Charizard return, it's gotten interesting once again. At least for a little while it will be. But my usual place to watch anime streams hasn't had a new episode in quite a while..