Gotta Catch 'em All!

[The Veteran]

Yes I confess, it's a guilty pleasure but a pleasure none-the-less so why should I stop playing? Besides, it's not like I just picked it up today because it looks nice and 3D on the new(ish) DSi is it?

 

I've been playing Pokemon since I discovered the wonderful world of emulators and after a few adventures on my pc with the original black and white ones I moved onto the 'colour' versions on the gameboy colour (obviously) While it should really have been called something more suitable like the gameboy grayscale it was my first experience with Pokemon on a proper console and I've been hooked ever since!

 

Anyway, when Gameboy Advanced generation was released with LEafGreen and FireRed in 2004 that was me completely hooked! Sadly that does put me at around about 18 and in the RAF when the true obsession began but hey, what can I say, I'm a hoarder and this game is a perfect encapsulation of such tendencies! Besides I'd been playing it for years anyway...

 

So here we are now, another 7 years down the line and 5 generations later and I find myself sucked back in with a vengeance. There follows a brief history lesson for those amongst us who may not have discovered the pleasures of the pocket monster yet...

 

Generation 1 - Kanto Region

Original Red and Blue versions with the first 151 pokemon. A special Pikachu edition in yellow was also released.

Remade as FireRed and LeafGreen on the GBA.

Generation 2 - Johto Region

Silver and Gold with special Crystal Edition for GBC add 100 new Pokemon.

Remade as HeartGold and SoulSilver for the DS

Generation 3 - Hoenn Region

Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald releases on GBA only. First revisit of the brand with 135 new pokemon

Generation 4 - Sinnoh Region

Diamond and Pearl with special Platinum edition introduce another 107 pokemon for the DS

Generation 5 - Unova Region

Black and White set a great distance away from the previous titles starts basically from scratch with little mention of faraway places and 150 new pokemon

 

So now we have a grand total of 649 pokemon and that's going to take quite some catching... As I've already said, I'm in this game to fill my Pokedex (read : UFOpaedia) so I have a long road ahead of me having only captured a dozen or so of the critters in White so far to get me to the end of the game. Now I have my national dex it's time to start stocking up on Pokeballs as I can now capture from presumably anywhere I like (not sure how I obtain the pokemon from the other games yet though)

 

I had pleasantly completed the Pokedex at one point after the 3rd generation was released giving me a grand total of just under 380 pokemon in my collection on LeafGreen (my serious game with EVERYONE on it!) I've got a few gaps due to the 'legendary' pokemon being available mostly from Nintendo events but when I've got everything BUT those unfillable gaps filled maybe I'll be able to get myself to Japan and get hold of those too lol

 

For now I'm not touching any of the pokemon in that game as the new DS generations are not backwardss compatible of course... I have already started stocking up on a second set from when I played Diamond and Pearl though. At this point I planned to create a new collection in my Platinum cartridge but now there is a fifth generation it will be moved to my White game.

 

Until I revisit all my previous games I won't know my progress on the list so far but I'm guessing it'll be less than 200 so I still have a great deal to do!

 

If there are any other secret fans in here please don't be shy. There are worse things to do with your time after all

 

I'll prattle on about the game itself at a later date as I think they've done a good job with it, right now though my dinner is burning so I'm off to hose down the kitchen

[FullAuto]

If there are any other secret fans in here please don't be shy. There are worse things to do with your time after all

 

Are there. Are there really.

[The Veteran]

Yes there are... Trainspotting... Bird-watching... Stamp-collecting... Trans-gendering... Interior Decorating... All sorts of stuff ending in ing basically

[Thorondor]

I'm always happy to contribute to others' obssessive-compulsive behaviours so, did you know about these new developments:

 

- The Pok

[Lysear]

*me raises hand* pokemon fan here (havent got Black or white just yet, but im saving ), i confess to owning a copy of diamond with a full pokedex (including event pokemon, not that i attended many *whistles*)

 

but im looking forward to B&W even though most of the new pokemon are fugly.

[Azrael Strife]

B&W is one of the main reasons I wanna buy a DS it is a guilty pleasure as well. Haven't played one since Emerald, beat it along with Yellow and I think Gold.

[chiasaur11]

I may or may not have, in fact, caught them all.

 

If pressured, I may deny everything.

[The Veteran]

See I knew I wouldn't be alone

 

Lysear (and Az) I'd definitely give it a go if you've enjoyed any of the other games as in my opinion this is the best. While I have to agree that the pokemon are ugly they've changed just a few barely noticeable things that help the flow of the game.

 

My experience with White has also been drastically improved due to having played it properly for the first time in many generations! I must've played through each game a dozen times in order to fill up the amount of Dex slots I have but when you simply need to get to the end as quickly as possible it becomes very dull and repetetive so I'll tend to use just one pokemon for the whole game and be at 70+ before facing the Elite 4.

 

This time, partly because it's a brand new game with brand new Pokemon and partly because I wanted to play it as intended, I had a nice selection of Pokemon which travelled with me through the whole game. Right up until near the end when I got Zekrom (my badass legendary Dragon/Electric type ) I was only using 4 pokemon and I levelled them equally throughout the game.

 

By the time I reached the Elite 4 I was only at about level 50 with each of them and I'll be honest the last few fights WERE cery hard but they should be really shouldn't they?! By using type advantages I still managed to win so I'm really glad I played this one properly.

 

Here is my team;

Samurott - Third evolution of the water type starter

https://www.pokexperto.net/nds/sprites/pkmn_bw/gif/503.gif

Leavanny - 3rd Evolution of a grass type that was a GREAT choice!

https://www.pokexperto.net/nds/sprites/pkmn_bw/gif/542.gif

Pansear - fire type awarded near start of game to compliment water-type starter choice

https://www.pokexperto.net/nds/sprites/pkmn_bw/gif/513.gif

Unfezant - An amazingly good bird type only captured for 'fly' but instrumental at the pokemon league!

https://www.pokexperto.net/nds/sprites/pkmn_bw/gif/521.gif

Zekrom - caught at level 50 after the Elite 4

https://www.pokexperto.net/nds/sprites/pkmn_bw/gif/644.gif

 

It's interesting that while playing this game I seem to have developed some sort of 'Pikachu complex' with my Pansear as I've gone through so much with it I no longer want to make it evolve... It needs the firestone to become Simisear which will drastically improve it's stats of course but I kind of feel like I'd be forcing it to change unnecessarily as it already whoops arse in it's current form

 

It's funny that I feel that way as the story in Black/White is that the bad guys (Team Plasma this time) are trying to liberate pokemon from people to save them being mistreated and forced to battle etc. Of course the player has a deep bond with their pokemon which does play a part in how the story unfolds so the fact that I've actually grown attached to a sprite just goes to show how soft I am

 

As far as the rest of the game goes I thought they did some neat stuff. Most notably 'poison' no longer saps your pokemon's health when they're in their balls which is a vast improvement so they can only ever faint in battle, not while walking... The gyms are pretty much insane, a far cry from the old Kanto ones, still they're fun and the fact they're totally impossible means nothing in a world where strange creatures live in small balls (like sperm )

 

There are some pretty good characters to be met along the way which help the story along and gym leaders are much more involvd this time around. Actual conflict with Team Plasma is fairly limited in contrast, there are no huge 'bases' like a lot of the other games have and it really comes down to a few clumps of trainer fights in specific areas or on a certain route. That doesn't detract from the end game though and any would-be players should be warned not to approach the elite 4 lightly as the game doesn't end right away if you beat them! Although you are able to heal, there are soon even more fights to face that are harder than the last and you can't save between them making it a real nail-biting ending for me which was scary but very good.

 

Another change is that you don't see full details on any given pokemon until you've actually captured it. Personally I don't think that makes sense as we forever see in the tv show that trainers can just sort of scan a pokemon and instantly learn everything about it (not that I watch the show of course ) It is however a good way to keep you learning as you go though as right up to the end I wasn't entirely sure what type combinations I was going up against.

 

Generally it was very easy to ascertain a main type like fire, grass, fighting or whathaveyou. Most of the new pokemon have 2 types though and this was a nightmare. I sent an electric attack against a water type pokemon late in the game only to discover it was also ground type for example so my one-hit-wonder had no effect at all! Similarly there are many type pairings that make the enemy pokemon both weak and strong against mine at the same time! One fight involved an enemy rock type with electric attacks for example so while my water type attacks were super-effective on them, their electric attacks were also super-effective against me!

 

One last word of advice for future players of this game... Get yourself soemthing to counter bird types and more importantly something to counter electric types. Electric types gave me the worst time and they're actually used in the 3rd or 4th gym you visit so I actually had to take a break around there to level up! Get yourself a rocktype, Roggenrola is a good one that you can snare right near the start of the game. It has some hench evolutions and also has 'sturdy' which means it's impossible for it to lose all of it's health in one turn. Makes it easy to catch too lol

 

Outside of gameplay the graphics are as you'd expect if you've seen teh adverts that are constantly airing right now. Not much has changed since D/P/Pt but there are now some new features including some big bridges and certain buildings which show you different perspectives over the course of the game. It's a ncie touch and some of the big features like said bridges really are very impressive.

 

Anyway I'm not completely finished yet (even before I start filling the Dex!) as there is still another matter to clear up after beating the elite 4. A Champion's life is never easy after all Having had precisely 3 hours of sleep last night though, all of which was swamped with pokemon related ravings, I think I'll be taking a short break for now

 

If anyone already has this game feel free to send me a friend code, I don't really know anyone else who plays lol

[Space Voyager]

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/eek-blue.gifhttps://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/SpaceVoyager/Smiley/sokiran.gif

 

[The Veteran]

Counted up what I have in my other games today and I'm further along than I thought. Got 225 out of the maximum 650 pokemon so over a third already. My Leafgreen game has 380/386 with the remaining 6 being legendary and therefore not capturable...

 

I'm going to keep a full pokedex in leafgreen so I need to start from scratch in White but that 225 is how many I have stocked up ready to fill up the Platinum dex before I knew there was going to be another generation of games so they'll all be moved over to White asap

[Azrael Strife]

No chance to capture the legendary ones in LeafGreen? how does that work? I recall only how legendary ones worked in Blue/Red/Yellow. In Blue you could capture Articuno, Moltres in Red and Zapdos in Yellow (good old times with decent pokemon). MewTwo was captured at end game, and Mew I think was given away at certain events. Lugia was obtainable in Silver and Houtou (whatever the name was) in Gold, I think there was another super special called Celebi, but I don't recall the edition.

[chiasaur11]

Event legendaries.

 

Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Deoxys, and that sort.

 

Still, that's only 4. Who else you missing?

[The Veteran]

Indeed, event legendaries Just checked my list and as I made the main rundown of pokemon before silver and gold was re-released I have Lugia and Ho-oh marked down as 'uncatchable'. If they can now be caught in soulsilver and heartgold then you're right and there are only 4 in the first 3 generations now

 

The fourth generation has me puzzled as there are loads on there that I'm not sure how to get. Not looked into it too much just now but Cresselia, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin and Arceus are all further down the list than anything I've ever captured in those games so how many are event pokemon?

 

Of course this means I now need gold and silver to fill just 2 spaces... I already have EVERY other pokemon from those games. The Johto starter pokemon are obtained in Emerald by completing the dex right up to 220 and I did it 3 times to get them all then bred them to get 3 of each (I stock 1 per evolution so I literally have one of each type when I'm finished )

[Azrael Strife]

Weird, Lugia and Ho-Oh are not uncatchable, I had both of them, Lugia could be obtained in the original Silver and Ho-Oh in Gold.

How to catch legendaries in Black/White

[The Veteran]

Thing is Az they only re-released Gold and Silver last year so between the GameboyAdvance release of LeafGreen and FireRed and now there hasn't been any way to catch them. As I said, you can capture EVERY other second generation pokemon in the GBA games but Lugia, Ho-oh and Celebi weren't catchable. Celebi is an event legendary as Chiasaur says.

 

That means Mew, Celebi, Jirachi and Deoxys are all unobtainable in the first 3 generations. Gen IV gets a little more complicated as Phione and Manaphy must be traded over from a Pokemon Ranger game so while not unobtainable they're still pretty stupid... Darkrai, Shaymin and Arceus are event legendaries 2 making this generation the worse to date. It gets worse in Gen V sadly and Keldeo, Meloetta and Genesect are all event pokemon as is Victini (though if you buy the game soon you can get this one, I do!) In addition to these 4 uncatchables there are also a further 2 pokemon that require a vast list of prerequisites to capture, none of which I or I imagine many Brits at all, will have completed...

 

Anyhow, the good news is, the missus bought me Pokemon Black yesterday as she knows that's the one I really wanted and feels bad for picking up the wrong bundle from Gamestation (they sell the White package with the special DSi and Game sells the black one) so now I have both! That actually means I'll end up with 2 Victinis I think so if anyone needs one in the future let me know and I'll trade lol

 

ALSO! More good news lol. Anyone who remembers the 'roaming' legendaries from the older games (I'm thinking specifically Raikou, Suicine and Entei, the legendary dogs from Gold and Silver made capturable in FR and LG) will know how irritating they can be to catch sometimes. I had a stroke of luck yesterday with one of White's roamers though, Thundurous it was. He makes it rain on the route he's currently in and I just happened to notice the weather was off so I stepped into the long grass. He was the first pokemon I met but these guys ALWAYS flee the first chance they get and I had no pokemon who could prevent it. I have a feeling they even flee when asleep actually but didn't even have anything to put him under so don't know Anyway, I figure I only have one shot before he legs it so I throw a 'quick ball' (rate of capture success is greater if used on first turn of encounter with wild pokemon) Guess who scored a legendary Also bagged a level 50 Zangoose to help fill up the ol' dex so I'm on the way but I really need to get my hands on a spare DS in the area to trade over all my old ones at some point...

[Thorondor]

Time to link?

 

::

 

[The Veteran]

Yay more features

 

I must confess, my catching is on hold as of right now with only a tiny amount of progress made in Black so far. What with building computers and tanks and stuff and playing all these multiplayer AARs and raising a child and so-forth my time is already fairly stretched I'll return once a project or two are out of the way but I already have the next few lined up so not sure how long that may take

[Lysear]

I`d be willing to trade you my event legendaries so you can get the dex entrys for them if you wanted, as long as i got them back though

 

I also do EV training too if you needed a team for competitions and didnt want the tedious job of training them

[The Veteran]

Thanks Lysear I may well take you up on that! At least it would fill the Dex, I really want to get a bunch of my own at some point though Like I said, I'm massively behind right now anyway but almost all of the Pokemon I do have are in D,P and Platiunum so I need to trade them over somehow