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Seems like a lot of people on here are getting the new games, so I thought we'd share thoughts and friend codes.

I'm not very far yet, but I'm happy with Nintendo's approach to the games this round. Making it so you can't bring in your old Pokemon until you finish the game is great, but even better is making it so NONE of the old nearly 500 Pokemon show up until you finish the main game. No caves full of Geodude and Zubat, no ponds full of Goldeen and Magikarp--makes it feel like a whole new game, even when there aren't quite as many changes as I'd like. I really wish they'd kept some of the menu innovation from Heart Gold/Soul Silver, which made the game very touch pad-oriented. Maybe enough people disliked that that Nintendo changed it, but I thought it improved the game overall.

In any case, I'm having fun. Since I've beaten the first Gym Leader (I like how they change based on which starter you picked), I got a Pal Pad, so here's my friend code.

Pokemon Black version
Name: Emperor
Code: 4555 9512 9592 (Changed!)

I'll post here as soon as I get some time to play this.

I just hate the download events. I don't have much wi-fi access, and I don't like having to trek to Gamestop to get one bit of data. Gimme access to ALL the game that I paid for!

Action Replay was made for this - if only to save on the gas I'd use making those trips.

I do like the new approach, though.

I've got White and I'm 7 badges deep, but I don't have much wifi access either so I can't really share friend codes or anything.

Fuck you, man. I've been clean for almost a year now. This is how it starts, you think you're just gonna check out the new game. Next thing you know, you're behind a gamespot sucking off strangers for shinies. But I say no more...

I need to call my sponsor...

Also it was fun for the friends who I "LAN partied" with on Sunday, because I haven't played Pokemon since Red and didn't know anything.

escushion said:

Making it so you can't bring in your old Pokemon until you finish the game is great...

Click to expand...

No, it's not. It's annoying because it means I have to wait that much longer to start transferring my collection of Pokemon (some of which I've had since I was 12-13) to the modern generation. I'm especially annoyed that I once again need two systems to do it. At least with Pearl I could just stick in my old cart and do it by myself.

escushion said:

...but even better is making it so NONE of the old nearly 500 Pokemon show up until you finish the main game. No caves full of Geodude and Zubat, no ponds full of Goldeen and Magikarp--makes it feel like a whole new game...

Click to expand...

This I agree with, but random battles are still too frequent for my liking. I've gotten into battles after taking a single step, but always withing 5-7. I shouldn't HAVE to buy Repels just to advance to the next area within a reasonable time.

I've got you on my PAD, but I'll have to wait till monday to get my cod. Everything else in my house uses the newer wifi security key thing and the DS uses the old one, so I can't do WiFi at home on my DS.

The two systems thing was inevitable unless they just dropped the transfer entirely and made you start from scratch with Black/White, or made Black/White a 3DS game so you'd have the DS slot. How else would you transfer between two DS cartridges?

And I'm still for making you wait. Diamond/Pearl made you wait from the Gameboy Advance games. It's only with Platinum/Heart Gold/Soul Silver that you've been able to transfer stuff from the start, and then only if you had two DS systems and another DS Pokemon game. So this is really nothing new; it's the same waiting period as between the last two generations.

escushion said:

The two systems thing was inevitable unless they just dropped the transfer entirely and made you start from scratch with Black/White, or made Black/White a 3DS game so you'd have the DS slot. How else would you transfer between two DS cartridges?

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They COULD have had the foresight to include the code for the WiiWare Pokeman Ranch thing as an option. That would have made it trivial for anyone with a Wii. Alternatively, they could have made a device that interacted with the DS like the Pokewalker did.

Man, I haven't played since the Advance generation, all this stuff is going way over my head.

My Emerald team was utterly kick-ass though.

Ok, got the pal pad. Really like this game so far. Really feels like a fresh start on the game. More than Perl or Diamond anyway.

Charlie
0218-0252-5303

Oldest son showed me the credits screen to the game. I was like "Really? Really?" -sigh- Luckily though, from what I understand he skipped alot of the side stuff he's going to go back and do the second time around. But now I gotta get the CE guide I promised him and his brother.

AshburnerX said:

They COULD have had the foresight to include the code for the WiiWare Pokeman Ranch thing as an option. That would have made it trivial for anyone with a Wii. Alternatively, they could have made a device that interacted with the DS like the Pokewalker did.

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Glad they didn't do that. No wifi at home means no connection for the Wii. (and Ranch is download only) A Pokewalker-like device probably would have been incredibly cumbersome.

I think the Wii and DS can communicate directly, via their Wifi broadcast abilities.

AshburnerX said:

They COULD have had the foresight to include the code for the WiiWare Pokeman Ranch thing as an option. That would have made it trivial for anyone with a Wii. Alternatively, they could have made a device that interacted with the DS like the Pokewalker did.

Click to expand...

I wonder if they could have designed the hardware to allow hot-swap of DS cartridges. There are any number of sequels that could benefit from the ability to hand off saved-game data.

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

Gods, I still haven't reach the second gym leader. It's gonna be a while before I beat the main story.

I actually started over (already back to where I was though) so I could have a female starter for easy trading on the GTS. New code is 4555 9512 9592 (changed in the OP).

Oh, forgot to mention this in my other post. I'm glad the we got a location outside of Japan for a main game this time. Previous games were set in locations in Japan, but this time the geography is based on New York City. The only other game to be set outside Japan is Pokemon Colosseum, which was set in (I think) Nevada.

Stay strong, poe. Stay strong... one day at a time, you don't need pokemon.
Added at: 23:06
.............

I'll suck yo dick for a pidgey

Poe, you know you want some doctor asking if you're a boy or a girl.

Ash, see if you can set a virtual network on your router. That's what I did, allowed me to keep my existing WPA2-Personal AES encrypted network while adding a WEP network just for the DS.

My experience with the C-Gear has been pretty bad though, I usually leave it off when I play just so I don't have to put up with that annoying blinking green light. Also me and a friend can be sitting next to each other and the games can't find us. Damn shame.

Any info on how to add a virtual network to my current one?

Allen who is Quiet said:

Poe, you know you want some doctor asking if you're a boy or a girl.

Click to expand...

The Gamesync/Dreamworld server has been down for maintenance for days, so I've not gotten to figure out what that's about yet.

But I've been able to detect other people nearby, both my fiancee and apparently someone else in the building was playing Pokemon too.

Dreamworld won't be opening up until later in the month... and that's assuming Nintendo hasn't shut down their work place in order to conserve power during this disaster situation. It was scheduled for the 30th, I believe, but I wouldn't count on it until at least April.

*walk of shame*

Name: Poe
Friend Code: 4856-6117-8077

Tell me, are you a boy or a girl?

Allen who is Quiet said:

Tell me, are you a boy or a girl?

Click to expand...

Yes.

The Battle Subway is too easy. I've soloed through 14 matches with just my Darmanitan... that tells me ether he's unbalanced or they need to up the diff.

I have two gym badges. With two more, I'll be able to breed Oshawatts for anyone who needs one.

Goddamn Victini was hard to catch

Gods, you just bought the game and you're way past me; I've had it for two weeks and haven't made it to that island yet.

Ravenpoe said:

Goddamn Victini was hard to catch

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I went back at level 40 and used my Grass-type's Grass Knot to do tiny bits of damage to Victini. Once it had a sliver of health left, I switched in my Electric-type with the Static nature, which has a chance to paralyze upon being hit.

Once Victini had 1 HP and was paralyzed it was pretty straightforward. This has been my ongoing strategy against most legendaries I've encountered so far.

escushion said:

Gods, you just bought the game and you're way past me; I've had it for two weeks and haven't made it to that island yet.

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If you have two gym badges, you should be right around where I am. Go through pinwheel woods, over the big bridge, to the big city, and take the boat on the very last dock.

Gusto said:

I went back at level 40 and used my Grass-type's Grass Knot to do tiny bits of damage to Victini. Once it had a sliver of health left, I switched in my Electric-type with the Static nature, which has a chance to paralyze upon being hit.

Once Victini had 1 HP and was paralyzed it was pretty straightforward. This has been my ongoing strategy against most legendaries I've encountered so far.

Click to expand...

I noticed that Victini almost always opens up with Endure, so I opened up with my most powerful water move. It would endure it with 1 hp left, I'd then paralyze it, and throw great ball after great ball after great ball.

It still took a lot of great balls (don't have access to ultra yet).

See, I don't have these problems. I just have Bisharp use False Swipe and go to town with my Pokeballs. Then again, most of the legendaries are ether in caves or can be caught at night, so Dusk Balls are you best friends. I STILL have my Master Ball.

It's probably so hard for you guys because your stuck with normal Pokeballs. I suggest buying the special types from the other vendors in the Pokemon Centers. I think you can get Timer Balls pretty early.

Or keep a Lillipup with you that has the Pick Up ability. We've been getting Hyper Potions and Ultra Balls that he's just finding after enough steps.

I still need to fuck up Team Plasma's shit in the forest before I can head on to the bridge, and I spent my remaining time and energy tonight playing Persona 3, so it'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Covar said:

Ash, see if you can set a virtual network on your router. That's what I did, allowed me to keep my existing WPA2-Personal AES encrypted network while adding a WEP network just for the DS.

Click to expand...

Can you go into more detail on this? I was able to set up a vwifi network on my laptop (Win7 64 bit) but it kept the WPA2 Enterprise security of my school's wifi network. I'd love to know if/how I can make the security on the vwifi into WEP.

Baerdog said:

Can you go into more detail on this? I was able to set up a vwifi network on my laptop (Win7 64 bit) but it kept the WPA2 Enterprise security of my school's wifi network. I'd love to know if/how I can make the security on the vwifi into WEP.

Click to expand...

I am no expert in this by any means, in fact you should probably ignore anything I say about it. But if you're using win 7's internet sharing tool to create a new wifi network, it won't work. Those are ad-hoc networks, which the DS does not support.

I just picked up Pokemon Black a couple of days ago. I just beat the second gym leader so I am not very far into the game yet. I will post my code in a few days after I get my 3DS so I can access my WPA secured wireless network without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

Here we go... finally got on a public Wi-fi spot.

Code: 3525-1765-1496
Name: Michael

Been a little distracted with Red Dead Redemption this week, but I'm almost ready to take on the Elite 4 again. Current team is...

- Serperior with Miracle Seed
- Golduck with Water Plate
- Darmanitan with Leftovers
- Bisharp with Black Glasses
- Unfezant with Sharp Beak
- Metagross with Steel Plate

EDIT: And done. Finished in 43:43. Now I just need to fight the bonus boss and I'm done until I can transfer in my previous gen Pokemon.

Nice try, Team Plasma!