Black and White impressions

[The REAL Joey]

People's overall thoughts of this new instalment?

I was very much looking forward to it from previews and the Japanese version I had played and once I actually had the English copy in my hands I had a good playthrough and enjoyed what it had to offer. A couple of things disappointed me, namely how short it seemed (Postgame its a bit restricted although that's nothing entirely new) and the linearity of the routes. At least with Kanto and Sinnoh it wasn't so... Straight.

The added focus on the game's plot was also welcome, especially the change in formula when you get to the Elite 4. Either way, it's worthy of calling itself generation V.

[revolvingscott]

I agree with you on the Routes part. I didn't particularly like that.

I went in not expecting much. I'd seen the pokémon and, after cleaning up the vomit, thought I didn't really want it... I was wrong. I thought it was a really good pokémon game. The fact that half the pokémon were repulsive was forgettable in the end. I managed to get 6 together I really liked and just used them.
I did end up ditching Snivy the moment I chose him, though. Despite the fact that he appears to be the best of them (aesthetically), I still couldn't stick him any longer than possible.

It also took me 40 hours of gameplay to get to the E4, something I did not expect!

[The REAL Joey]

The route layout just seemed too clean and tidy. It was literally a speech bubble the entire map. There was a lot of space towards the top left of the map (Except for Anville Town) which could have been built upon but they did keep it needlessly linear.

40 hours of gameplay also sounds about right. I'm not sure what mine was and I did speed through a bit in places as in the beginning I was getting sick of NPCs telling me things i've known since the beginning of Pokemon.

[revolvingscott]

I didn't talk to the NPCs. I, instead, caught every pokémon in each area I visit just to bump my team's levels up. In the end, though, I was horribly under-levelled but I came out of it fine. The elite 4 only have 4 pokémon was strange at first but I did like the way you could choose which order to battle them in. I liked that small addition Victory Road was nice, too.

[The REAL Joey]

I was pretty underlevelled as well. I think that's part of my chagrin with the linear routes. If they had some other routes that deviated from the linearity it'd be that little bit more to explore and train with some extra trainers placed here and there.

Elite 4 i'm still a bit undecided on. Like you I was pleased in the way you could select who you could face first. I'm still unsure of the music, just seems really frenetic with the only melody thrown in being that of Hoenn's Elite 4.

Victory Road felt weird. It was kind of enjoyable but I think it brings up another point I had with the game overall. It just felt odd not using HMs all the time. There were a couple of places but it just didn't feel like Pokemon. I mean it was nice in some cases like Dragonspiral tower where you could use Strength to move a boulder and get to the next room quicker or go the long way round (I had forgotten my HM slave), so it didn't penalise you too much on that. But a Victory Road without boulder puzzles everywhere is sacrilegious!

[revolvingscott]

I was thanking God when I discovered the distinct lack of HMs in this Generation; it just felt so good being able to go somewhere without worrying whether I've brought my slave (and since you can't get your 4th gen pokémon over, I couldn't use my traditional one - Lvl. 52 Scizor - anyway!) with me.

One problem I had was the mass amount of bridges. It just felt really weird going everywhere on bridges - I began craving grass routes after a while. Especially Skyarrow Bridge. That *****er was so annoying. Kinda cool at first but there was nothing to do. AT ALL! And I had to transverse it several times to revive my fossil and if anyone had interrupted me mid-crossing, I may have had to murder them in my intense rage. However, I did love Driftveil Drawbridge... I spent 20 minutes collecting feathers/battling Duckletts.

[The REAL Joey]

That is definitely one criticism I agree with. I think they were trying to be all impressive with the inclusion of bridges but it fell really flat on its face. They were boring, had little to do that could be done on a route (That woman with the Zigzagoon didn't exactly require her being on the bridge to do the shuffle). Sure there was that bridge that connected Driftveil to Nimbasa that had random Pokemon drop from the sky but they felt so barren. The bridges pretty much sum up the route progression in Unova. It's linear. You hardly have to think, it's a case of Exit A and Exit B.

Hm, I don't think there was even any battles on the bridges. :<

[revolvingscott]

That's the one I was referring to - Driftveil Drawbridge. It was very fun for quite a while.

There was that one with the Bikers on it. I only remember them as one had an Afrobull and I fell a bit in love with him.