With the release of Pokémon Black and White tomorrow I feel re-invigorated enough about it to devote some time to writing about this wonderful and often totally disregarded franchise.
Most people discount Pokémon on the grounds that it’s “for kids” or purely on it’s cutesy nature. These people are missing out on what makes the series so popular for so many people (even, *shock*, ADULTS), it’s deep strategic battle system and even deeper Pokémon breeding/raising systems. They alone are what make the series so fascinating but equally they are areas of the game that the games themselves never fully explain, the concepts of egg groups, egg moves, effort values (EVs) and individual values (IVs) for example are never even mentioned in-game yet can influence your killer pets abilities in massive ways.
Why they are kept so hidden and never talked about in-game apart from subtle suggestions and hints now and then is anyone’s guess. A subject for another entry perhaps…
Regardless, having a well balanced team, with an appropriate mix of defensive, offensive and support is a unique and interesting puzzle to solve. Using Pokémon you like, those weaker but often more interesting Pokémon, and through selective breeding, thought and training taking out Ubër Pokémon is rewarding in itself.
I’m planning on writing up my thoughts of Black and White whilst playing through the game as well as grapple with the deeper side of the game, perhaps with guides on breeding, EV training, RNG abuse and all that good stuff too. I won’t be focussing on just Black and White either as most of this stuff is relevant to all prior titles too. Pokémon is a pretty inclusive game, no matter which generation you are playing!
If you’ve never really played Pokémon because it’s too “kiddy” or “cutesy” I HOPE that I’ll show some depth to the game you never noticed or realised existed and start you off on that road to catching them all!
See you in Unova!
