alienjesus wrote:I always question how someone can think that a ghost chandelier isn't creative but can think that a Seal pokémon named Seel is.
I definitely understand the argument that the addition of Kanto in Gold/Silver was lacking in scope. There wasn't a lot to do there, huge areas had been eliminated for simplicity's sake (Veridian Forest
), and so on. What I loved about it, though, was that it gave me a post-storyline adventure that was different and exciting. One of my biggest problems with the pokémon games is that, after the plot is over, I'm not compelled to continue. I desperately want a reason to go on enthusiastically raising my pokémon, prolonging my involvement with the game's universe -- but nothing excites me about tromping over the same continent, which is then sans cutscenes or interesting encounters, just to level grind or catch 'em all. That, and I have never been interested in any incarnation of the Battle Tower. The battling alone is not what I'm in the game for -- I need some interesting goal or purpose guiding me through it all.
Gold/Silver gave me a continued adventure, albeit a short one. Based on that standard I was sure that Diamond/Pearl was going to give me something big after the credits rolled, but all I get is a boatride to a dinky island for catching earlier generation pokémon, re-battling gym leaders, and decorating a villa. That's not to say that re-battling the gym leaders in a moody café isn't compelling in some way, but it's just not enough. And considering how much more can be packed into a DS cartridge versus an original Game Boy one, I was seriously shocked by the lack of extra areas. I was fewer mini-games and more story.
I do not like White and Black, but that's because I don't like the feel of it. It didn't feel like pokémon to me, but I understand that that's totally subjective. Other people I've talked to love the darker themes, moodier colors, and quasi-3D graphics. The games definitely have style. It's just not the style for me. Of all of those factors, I especially hate the direction the graphics are going in. But I also personally felt that the "complex" story was muddled and didn't achieve what it could have. It tried to seem less like a standard tale of good versus evil, but it didn't succeed. The bad guys were still the bad guys, it's still an ultimate truth that pokémon want masters, and all that. With all the hype behind it I was expecting the game to drop some serious philosophy. It would have been way cooler if
