Pokemon - Generation V

[jensen]

I'll start the post by stating that I find the DS handheld to be pretty tied into "web revival" as it invokes a similar sense of feeling. "Web revival" is (partially) about having claim and ownership of your webpage and the DS is from an era where you really did just OWN the game. You didn't own a license to play it and you didn't need to buy DLC. I'd also be an idiot not to point out the stylistic similarities of 90s era websites with the DS user interface!

Anyway, onto Pokemon! Looking back, my first Pokemon game was probably Black 2 on my R4 card. My only memory is being stood in a building, and that's about it. I don't even remember playing the game, because my first real memory is playing through PokeMMO on my PC. My first time playing Pokemon on a Nintendo console was X on my 2DS, so it's fair to say I missed out on Generation I - V games.

Back in November, me and my girlfriend got back out our homebrew 3DSs (3DS's, 3DSes, 3DSi ???) and I got us the ROMs for Black and White. We've been playing it on and off since, and beat the Elite 4 (the first time) last week. It's been super fun being able to trade for version exclusives, trade evolutions and starters/fossils.

Man, have I been missing out by not playing the Generation V games! It has very fast become my new favorite Pokemon generation (barely beating VI at 2nd place and VIII at 3rd place.) I'm always motivated to play it because the story is great, and (maybe controversially) I am in love with the regional Pokedex being all brand new Pokemon! I usually like to "attempt" doing a livingdex, but I'm so motivated that I'm even doing variants like gender and seasons. And I'm going to finish it!

Once we're done playing Black and White, we're going to clean our palettes with some Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire but I really cannot wait to play Black 2 and White 2. If I thought Black and White were amazing then from what I'm hearing Black 2 and White 2 is going to be phenomenal for me to play through. I'll miss the regional Pokedex being all new Pokemon but I can live with that.

Please feel free to share some memories about your time playing Generation V Pokemon games in the replies, I'd love to hear about it!

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Oh boy a Pokémon Gen V appreciation topic! My favourite Pokémon of all time is from this generation, so I cannot skip this 

In fact, the very thing that made me depart from one of my earliest Internet communities (a Pokémon forum), was heavy discussion about the Pokemon from this generations' designs. For the record, I like creatures like Trubbish and Vanillite: they make their world funnier. Trubbish in particular has a soft spot in my heart because years ago, I thought to myself "oh they could really make Pokémon out of everything, even... even a trash bag!" Lo and behold.

As for the games themselves, I started to grow distant from Pokémon in that era, so I didn't get to play them in their prime. However, I managed to snag a copy of Black 2 second hand (at a more or less reasonable price) and while I don't remember the specifics of the story and such, I do remember putting a lot of time on the Battle Subway, and of course, enjoyed playing a whole game with my favourite at the head of the team 

My other team members were Sigilyph, Krookodile, Golurk, Scolipede, and Audino. These are also all big favourites, especially Sigilyph: I don't shy away from "weirdo" looking designs and Sig specifically reminds me of something that could be sold on a ren faire.

I was going with a "cool edgy treasure hunter" vibe with my team: before Audino, I had a Hydreigon, but why would I swap him? Because you see, the Audino is shiny Strangely enough, I only find shiny Pokémon "naturally" in games where there aren't mechanics specifically geared towards shiny hunting (Pokéradar, chain fishing, etc.) All my other full-odds shinies are on Gen 3, which are the games I love and play the most.

However, I'd put Gen 5 as my second favourite generation, because I really enjoyed a lot of things added to this game, such as seasons, the aforementioned Battle Subway and PWT, that weird shopping district you own?? and of course, THE ANIMATIONS!!!!  They can look a lil' janky at first sight, because it's kinda like puppet-rigging sprite art, but I really like what they tried to do with them. And my favourite and its pre-evo have very enjoyable animations 

[Slix]

When Gen 5 was released, I played Black, got most of the way through the game, and kind of fell off of it for a bit, and went back to my Diamond game, which I had accumulated a ton of hours in over the previous few years. I didn't have as many friends who were into the Gen 5 games as Gen 4 for the first year, so we kept playing Gen 4 games more.

When B2W2 were announced, my interest was rekindled, and I played through Black again, and my love for the games grew. I mainly wanted to get B2W2 because of a new item, the Shiny Charm. I got White 2 for Christmas in 2012, and having beaten Black earlier in the year, I was ready to dive in. I used the Habitat List to work on my Pokedex as I played through it, and I got the Shiny Charm in less than 7 months! I really enjoyed the little changes they made to the game for quality-of-life stuff, like the improved PC and the new Medals. PWT, Battle Subway, Funfest Missions... So many cool features. The Funfest Missions are still one of my favorite multiplayer features of any Pokemon game, and the gameplay loop of it is still awesome - do fun missions, get Pass Orbs, use them for bonuses while playing the game.

During these years, I also used the Dream World online! This is a big retro-web feeling thing I think, because the site used Flash Player to play with your Pokemon in the Dream World after you had sent them to sleep from your DS game. You'd get rewards, berries, items, and a Pokemon with a Hidden Ability. Fun fact, you can now connect to the "Dream World" to get those Pokemon and items again using Entralinked locally on your computer!

I still think Gen 5 is probably the peak of Pokemon, with the amount of features and different things to do in the game outpacing several other Pokemon games. I loved the style of the overworld, and the seasons and the little things like the ground shaking when you send out heavy Pokemon. I just wish the cartridges weren't outrageously priced right now... They were cheap for a long time because "no one liked those games!"

[garystu]

You do only own a licence to play the game though. That's how it has worked forever. Just because the licence isn't DRM enforced doesn't mean it's terms were legally more permissive.

I also think the pokemon series has done a lot to milk its fans all the time. Look at the GBA era, it was a ransom lol. DLC seems like the better deal over 'third versions'. An R4 is a good deal, easy access to a save editor.

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I liked B/W as a soft reboot. As a genwunner I was getting real sick of the old faces. I think its a shame the series has never done something like that again.

The games were also leagues better than gen 4 in every way (I am a gen 4 hater). The graphics were much nicer, better use of colour and more inventive map design. The creature designs were so much better than the gen 4 designs. It kinda sucked to see the series shed a lot of features it had accumulated from the beginning, but the streamlining removed a lot of vestigial features.

Its no wonder future games moved to 3D though - the resolution mixing - otherwise left behind in gen 1 - was a stain on the otherwise great visuals.

I liked N, yeah. Cool antagonistic. The human designs were good. I made a ton of  fan art.