Thursday, June 21, 2012

BW2 info - It begins!

Some lucky people in Japan already got their copies of BW2, and are gracious enough to share info with the rest of the world! You can check Serebii for all the details, but here I'm only going to discuss the major points. Spoilers after the jump!

- The Shadow Triad can be fought at long last! I always disliked how they did precisely squat in BW1, same for the non-Ghetsis sages. No word yet on whether THESE can be fought.

- Most of the move tutors either return from gen 4, or are TMs lost in the latest gen transition. This is great news for gen 5 Pokémon that were behind movepool-wise, as well as Pokémon with DW abilities. Noteworthy example is that Chlorophyll Venusaur can finally use Giga Drain. There's one new tutor with potential, though, and that's Drill Run, which, if given to Pokémon that don't have Earthquake, could become this generation's Heat Wave.

- Returning gym leaders still have only three Pokémon (bleh), two of them returning from BW1 and one being either an old Pokémon, or in Burgh's case, a Swadloon.

- The final TM, Snarl, is said to be available without having to jump through hoops. Yay?

- I was curious as to how they'd handle Zorua and Zoroark, since the only way to get them in BW1 was through the movie 13 event. Turns out Zorua is given to you as a gift from N.

- Remember when there was a false rumor going around that Bianca was the champion in BW1? Clearly Gamefreak has been taking notes, because of all the people that could be champion now... they chose IRIS. Having her as the final gym leader in White was already awkward enough, but now she's the CHAMPION? Really?

- The old habit of dumping a ton of old legendaries in a generation's later game returns, as Regigigas, Uxie and Latias have been sighted. No doubt their relatives are going to show up somehow. (Edit at 17:34: Regirock and Cresselia have also been sighted, and Heatran is also rumored to appear.)

- Seems like they got lazy with the first E4 lineups... other than Shauntal's Jellicent being ditched in favor of Drifblim, NO CHANGE WHATSOEVER. So those 150 extra Pokémon in the Unova Dex are just for show?

- A change that will definitely prove to be popular: in the post-game, you get a key that can either raise or lower difficulty by adjusting the opponents' levels. There are three such difficulty levels: Assist for sissies (seriously, does Pokémon need to get even easier?), Normal for purists, and Challenge for pros.

- There is one extra difference in Challenge mode, though: the E4 and Iris have slightly different lineups, which results in you facing no less than FOUR pseudo-legendaries during the gauntlet (with only Dragonite and Garchomp being left out).

- As quite a few people theorized, Kyurem's forms are obtained through merging with either Reshiram or Zekrom. This happens once with N's own dragon earlier in the story, then with yours much later on. Kyurem is seemingly encountered between the last gym and the E4 for the first time, but you can only capture it much later on, partway through the post-game (which is what should've been done with Rayquaza in Emerald in the first place).

- Speaking of the post-game, it looks to be rather huge, which is understandable since there are lots of new areas in the vicinity of Undella, and southeastern Unova doesn't seem to be part of the main game either.

- Alder can be fought, but judging by his levels, unfortunately he doesn't seem to be a superboss like Red, Steven, Cynthia and Morimoto have been in previous games. He also has a grandson. What? Alder never struck me as an old geezer...

17 comments:

  1. Do you think we'll EVER get that Flare Blitz tutor?

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    1. Yeah, and it'll be learnable by every pokemon but flareon.

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    2. Stop it with Flareon getting Flare Blitz, it just won't work. Flareon's HP is simply way too low.

      The best that could happen is if they create a Fire type physical priority move that every slow-ass Fire types would get in Gen 6, like for example : Flareon (of course), Magcargo (Wouldn't help at all, but still...), Camerupt and Torkoal. (They, on the other hand, would greatly need it)

      But I'm not a specialist, so I'm probably wrong and I'm sure Slowflake will kindly belie (Is it the right word in this situation ?) my statement.

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    3. ...you do know Infernape's HP is barely higher than Flareon's, and an Infernape without Flare Blitz is just about unimaginable, right?

      Hey, you were the one who asked for it! :P

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    4. Yeah, but at least Infernape doesn't have to take a hit first, a luxury Flareon doesn't have, even its surprisingly decent Special Defense doesn't save it. (Yes, I witnessed it taking Surfs pretty well, I was really surprised)

      And I was talking about belying that the creation of a Fire type priority move would be a good idea... I thought you would instantly say that there are enough priority as there are now, that it would be game-breaking, I don't know...

      That's the second time in a row you simply nitpick a minor flaw/mistake in one of my comments and ignore the main part, I'm confused. xD

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    5. Well yeah, it's not a bad idea, which is why I didn't have anything to say about it.

      But seriously, isn't it better to take a hit, Flare Blitz, then die from the recoil rather than take a hit, use Fire Fang, then die from the next hit?

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  2. Being able to fight the Shadow Triad is old news. We already got a glimpse of it during the animated trailer, in which it was also stated that the intentions of Team Plasma are completely different this time around.

    Maybe it was worthless for you because it didn't have any gameplay footage, but I thought it was nice to get a little preview of the storyline.

    I agree with most of the things you said, especially about Burgh being a total disappointment... He will be even easier to completely destroy considering you have an access to much more Fire types early on.

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    1. I don't understand the leap of logic where seeing the Shadow Triad fight in the animated trailer automatically means they're fought in-game.

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    2. Slowflake, during The Speed Gamers Marathon, someone named the Excadril they needed for the marathon after you. Name of Excadril: Slowflake

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    3. I saw it. That wasn't my doing, though, someone else donated for that.

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  3. What I noticed was the news of a difficulty setting after beating the game. I'm really wondering how that would work. I haven't heard anything about multiple save files, so it probably means that once unlocked, it would be available for all subsequent playthroughs.

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  4. Remember when there was a false rumor going around that Bianca was the champion in BW1?

    I still don't understand how people fell for this, because the listed level-leap was too big for me to believe. (50 > 63 within [or "out", I suppose] a single trainer? Yeah, no.) I can't recall whether the "you battle N again instead" thing was reported earlier or later, though.

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  5. I don't mind Iris being a Champion, but still, it was a bit of a shock. At least they're keeping the tradition of having the Champion be someone you constantly meet in the game beforehand.

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    1. Well, if you talked to the people on the second floor of Drayden's house, there is someone there saying that she is a child prodigy and has a bright future ahead of her or something like that.

      It's still very awkward, but they did actually leave a few signs in the previous games.

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  6. Really happy to see the Move Tutors (THE ELEMENTAL PUNCHES!) return and the appearance of a difficulty level selection option; the latter was all I could think about on the bus to classes this morning, in fact. "Very Hard," here I come! >:3

    It really is a shame that the Gym Leaders retain their "trio trend" in regards to their rosters...

    YOU ARE CHALLENGED BY... CHAMPION CHILD-- IRIS. YES. IRIS.

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  7. Roost + Stealth Rock Gliscor that gets Poison Heal.

    Well that's certainly going to be an annoyance to come.

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    1. WHERE IS YOUR GO... I mean... ARCEUS NOW ?!? xD

      I think I'm going to use a Gliscor in my first playthrough since my previous Ground type used was Mamoswine and I plan on using Kyurem. (Which will also replace Dragonite because of its Dragon type, so Gliscor would fit the gap perfectly.)

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