Sunday 22 August 2010

Pokemon White - Change?

It's pre-ordered. It's fantastic. It LOOKS to stur up the Pokemon we know and love... or will it? Think about it.
The graphics look different. It's a new style which has only been emulated on the home console games of constantly moving Pokemon, but this time it will be a constant.
It has been confirmed that without trading or use of the Dream World, there will be only brand new pokes until end game. So it will be a real change to be thrown into the world and only your past game knowledge will help you, no running into pesky geodude and knowing how to fight him.
Triple Battles. A new way to play, with different tactics and whatnot. Surely with 3 pokemon switching will be near useless as you will always have type coverage? Surely will be new.

So there IS changes. But what I am thinking of is the Competitive endgame metagame.
What can they do other than new pokemon and moves? Each generation so far has had massive changes to the actual single battles (singles as they are most used)
1st Generation - Introduced the game. Pretty big.
2nd Generation - New Types to balance it out, eggs to make getting good mon easier.
3rd Generation - Ev's and Iv's introduced.
4th Generation - Physcial Special Split.
5th Generation - ?
What could there be? Nothing obvious comes to mind. Ah, but there are items in battles... Not something I see becoming popular on the wider competitive audience. If it does I say this alone will shake up the metagame, with items such as revives having a massive impact, or being able to heal a freind without wish. But with it being optional, like double and triple battles, it does not affect what is likely to become the final metagame. A bit of fun, maybe, will it draw out battles, yes.
So assuming we choose to disable this feature, what will happen? When we finally get to wifi, will the game change much more than a bunch of new faces? That will shake things up of course, it's not going to change how every pokemon works, as every Gen bar 2 has ensured.
A new type? Unlikely. We have seen over 40 of the new Pokemon with no such thing. The rumored Light Type? I see it as VERY unlikely, as Reshiam would have been the best choice.
3 typed Pokemon? I have considered this, but it would be VERY suprising, seeing as they have not showed it yet, and it would stray from the forumla.

So what else? When it comes down to it, will we really see much change, beyond the adjusting to new pokemon and moves? I don't think so. Unless Game Freak has something quite devious up there sleeves, don't expect much change.

And anyway, I guess most people interested in this post will play on Shoddy or PO anyway - and are they really going to include the moving sprites etc? Will going through the game with only new pokemon affect you there? nope. For shoddy especially, will we see Triple Battles? Unlikely, as they skipped doubles. Maybe for PO, but who knows. So for those on simulators... will you seen any change, beyond going on the CAP server, at all?

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