Alright, I just finished the main story of Black, so I'm prepared to list of some things I liked and didn't like about it.
Likes
- More Coherent Story: I won't go too much into this so I can avoid spoilers. This is the first Pokemon game (outside of the Stadium/Colosseum series and spin-offs) to have an actually story with reoccurring characters with motivations and development, so it actually feels like a proper RPG for once. I enjoyed how they would show off the Gym Leaders both before and after you fight them, actually integrating them into the story in a more proactive role... in other words, the Gym Leaders in Unova actually DO SOMETHING to stop Team Plasma as opposed to the Kanto and Hoenn Leaders who let Team Rocket run amok. Story is definitely much improved this time around.
- Streamlined Battles: They finally made Pokemon battles quicker by speeding up how things work. Gauges drain faster, animations are faster, switching in and out is faster... everything is just plain faster. This means you no longer suffer from "battle fatigue" because battles take forever to resolve.
- Catching Pokemon is much easier:Exactly what it says. You now have a much higher chance of catching Pokemon, even if they are at full health. This means you don't need to buy a bazillion Pokeballs if you want to catch a Legendary (I got my first legendary with only 4 Ultra Balls) and it makes finishing your dex much easier.
- TMs are no longer single use: This REALLY made is easier to make your Pokemon more powerful/customized and I'm glad they did it... even if it made it much harder to get moves from TMs you need to buy (Hyperbeam/Giga Impact cost 90k!!!). They also made people give them to you more often, meaning you can usually get a move strong against a Gym before you have to challenge it.
- Game is much easier than previous generation: Pearl/Diamond was BALLS. HARD. Especially near the end. Black/White is much more balanced throughout the game, meaning you really don't even need to grind and if you want to, you can usually access most of the Route to the next town before you beat the current Gym. Also, very few trainers carry more than 3-4 Pokemon. This makes it a much simpler to make your team powerful enough to challenge a Gym and advance the plot.
Dislikes
- Lack of Diversity: This game seems to be abundant with Ghost, Dark, Ground, and Psychic types. This means that it's hard to get types that were more common in other games like Fire, Grass, Water, and Rock. What few you do come across don't seem to be spread out evenly, meaning it may be hard to come up with a team that can cover any situtation. It might be different in White, but in Black it's something of a problem.
- Fewer Mini-Games: You no longer seem to be able to grow berries, go to the Safari Zone, and I didn't even find my first fishing rod until after I beat the main story. They seemed to have cut a lot of the side things, which kind bugs me because I really enjoyed entering Contests and raising Pokemon specifically for them. The Musical is a pale imitation.
- Not having Berries really changes how Battles work: I guess Nintendo really balanced this game around the tourney scene because the only berries you get are the ones you get for beating Rangers. This means it's much harder to compensate for having a type weakness or to prepare against a certain status move.
- Some Content REQUIRES Wi-Fi access: You can't use the C-Gear without Wi-Fi unless your physically in the same room as someone playing another game and you can't access the DreamWorld AT ALL without it. This really irks me, as my Wi-Fi uses a format the DS isn't compatible with, meaning I can't access this stuff without ether exposing my network to outside users or making everything else in my house stop working.
All in all it's an improvement, but I still wish they hadn't cut out some of the side things.
Anyway, lets compare teams. I'm currently running...
- Serperior with Miracle Seed or Big Root (Depends on what I need)
- Seismitoad with Rock Helmet
- Darmanitan with Bright Powder (will probably give him Leftovers to help with Flare Blitz)
- Bisharp with Black Glasses
- Unfezant with Sharp Beak
- Gothitelle with Spell Tag
