PLASMAAAAAAAAAAA
This one's gonna be a different one than usual, and likely VERY long. These are not games I've beaten for the first time, like I usually write for. I've played both of these games before (well, technically I played White but whatever); Gen 5 was my first generation of Pokémon (kinda. I have vague memories of owning Sapphire, but White was the first game I consciously remember playing).
It's been a good while since I've actually played them. In one of my friend groups, it's kinda a hot point of contention the quality of Black 2, which for a while I considered to be my favorite. So I decided; I needed to revisit gen 5, back to back, black to black, black to back back to black. Is this still my favorite Pokémon game? Why? Let me experience these games with the brain of an adult, and the intentional mindset of analyzing the games.
Just so you know, you're about to feel my page(s of writing)!
So, luckily, it's Pokémon. The base game loop has been the same for years and it's never changed. I don't need to think too much about it. There are things unique to Unova that I do wanna talk about though.
These games are HARD. Like, ultimately, it is Pokémon. You can grind, game made for babies, but I swear the level curve in both 1 and 2 are a little ridiculous. When I play Pokémon games, I do kinda give myself a self-inflicted challenge: I premake a team before I play out of Pokémon unique to that game, and pretty much only use those guys. This time around, other than like, the starters, I wanted to use guys I really never have before but always wanted to. (Speaking of:)
Black: Revolver the Samurott, BellGrande the Scolipede, Sabotender the Maractus, Cagnazzo the Carracosta, Lilith the Chandelure, and Medeus the Druddigon
Black 2: Ganon the Emboar, Maple the Leavanny, Sir the Krookodile, ⬧︎✋︎♑︎♓︎☹︎⍓︎◻︎☟︎︎ the Sigilyph, Frederick the Klinklang, and Mumbo the Jellicent
(Sigilyph's name was made of Nintendo DS symbols, not Wingdings)
ANYWAYS. This does have ranging effects. Sometimes I make a suboptimal team and I just gotta work with it. It happens! 1's team was pretty difficult to work with. 2's was a lot more usable. But even beyond my own self-caused challenges, I felt like I struggled to keep up with the levels. You HAVE to grind if you want to stand a chance. Fight every trainer you can; if you skip any, you WILL fall behind. You better be optimizing that Lucky Egg too. 1 was the harder of the two for me, what with my suboptimal team and minimal grinding until I had to; 2 I pretty much figured out how the games wanted me to play them but I still struggled to keep up (grinding is boring and sucks dude!). I do THINK even not considering my personal factors, 2's level curve is SLIGHTLY better? I think there's a little more content to let your guys catch up easier, it doesn't ramp up AS fast, but still pretty so.
Tangentially related to difficulty and actual Pokémon battles are Gyms (aka I wanna talk about them but I don't know where else to put them). Other than being a test of your battle, they can be good puzzles to work out your brain (in terms of what a kid can handle. It's Pokémon.). The entire series has ranging struggles to this; Unova is no exception.
I think 2 wins here in terms of interesting gyms. They both suffer from the occasional straight line syndrome, but 2 manages to make more engaging gyms.
Going further on comparing the two games, Pokémon availability. This doesn't really affect me because of How I play these games, but I wanna talk about it anyways. When you're working through the main story of 1, you are locked to EXCLUSIVELY Unova Pokémon. You don't get any old faces until the new areas in the post-game. 2 completely drops this, and mixes all gens in right from the start. Some might say this is a bad play, and removes the special identity of Unova. I guess my take on it is that it IS cool to only be able to use new faces, and it really works for a single playthrough, but I do think opening it up in 2 was the play. It's better for if you're working for National Dex completion, cause you can actually Catch National Dex, and also like, the postgame areas in 1 are now main story in 2; it wouldn't make sense to NOT have them available. I think this was logical and the right play, but I can admit it gives 1 a special sauce that no other game since Red and Blue have had.
Next, I wanna talk about quality of life. Something playing both of these really made me appreciate is that we don't have to deal with HMs anymore, we don't need items to remember moves, and generally raising Pokémon is much more streamlined. God, how did we survive like this for so long???? But whatever. 2 brings some great things to the table that I really appreciated compared to 1: repels asking if you wanna reup them when they fall off, and the centralization of move NPCs (deleter, rememberer, etc), and the Free Space bag, allowing for customizable item storage. These changes just make the general experience smoother and I love them.
Final bit of gameplay to talk about: side content. Gen 5 came out, and Game Freak seemed very set on incorporating the internet and infrared and all that jazz. As a result, a lot of the content involves the internet. As a wee lad with no friends, and no access to internet on my DS, I... couldn't enjoy any of this. I couldn't enjoy the Entralink, I couldn't enjoy the Dream World, and as such it seems like a good chunk of what I could do after I beat the main story of 1 was locked out to me, which sucks. Now here in 2025, I used an emulator (cause my old DS is struggling and I wanted to take screenshots), once again locking me out of even thinking about online features (not like I'd be able to use them cause Nintendo Wi-Fi is long dead). What does that leave me in 1? Pokémon Musicals which are... Certainly a feature, and Gear Station, this gen's Battle Facility equivalent, which is cool, but doesn't exactly capture me. 2 clears 1 in this sense easily. You have all the same features as 1 (and I think the Entralink got some extra bits, but again, can't do em), PLUS Pokéstar Studios, a set of puzzle battles in the theme of making movies that have several endings and stories based on how you follow the scripts given, Join Avenue, another other people centered feature where you can build your own shopping district, and the Pokémon World Tournament, a similar battle facility that puts you through 3 matches featuring gym leaders and champions from every Pokémon game at the time. I think Pokéstar Studios is a great bit of side content, even if its tutorial kinda breaks the flow of the story, and while this playthrough I didn't 100% it, the bits I did do and the bits in memory still remain positive memories. I'm willing to admit my love for the PWT is largely fueled by "wow cool music and guys that I know", but the variety of characters and shorter bits of gameplay that weren't go through long train made the PWT a lot more appealing as a battle facility than Gear Station. Again, I didn't go all the way through to unlocking the Champion Cup in my modern playthrough, as honestly I have too many things on my plate today compared to as a kid, but with what I did experience combined with memories, it still works. Join Avenue didn't capture me as a kid, and here where I'm primarily focusing on a single gameplay AND I don't have internet, it didn't capture me now. Though I can give it credit for having NPCs you can use it for.
Before I go into the story of these games, I have to talk about the pieces that make it up, and as you might know, my favorite part of any game; its cast.
This is such a long post I'm SO sorry
Unova is so strange when it comes to its cast. On one hand, you have the treatment of all the gym leaders. They all get SOME kind of mini arc or spotlight when you get to their cities, and it really makes them feel more like... characters. More like people that live in the cities and you understand WHY they have their positions. You get some of the best characters in the series like N, Ghetsis, Alder, Cheren, Bianca. But then there's just a lot of characters that don't get what they deserve, like Hugh, or Iris. Not to mention the plenty of Plasma members that feel like filler. I don't know what the solution is, but it's so frustrating to not see EVERYONE get the same share of love and good writing, cause clearly they were on some shit this gen.
Ohhh man. Now that I've kinda talked about the puzzle pieces, I gotta talk about the big picture.
1 is the pinnacle of Pokémon storytelling. It feels, more than any other Pokémon game, like a traditional RPG. Team Plasma is front and center from the start, not just committing light crimes in the back until the big climax. Everything is focused around them and their goal to "liberate Pokémon". Throughout the entire game you see through talking to the grunts that there's plenty of people who truly believe in the cause, and others that are just in it to cause trouble. You have characters like N that embody that theme of "gray, not all black and white" that's LITERALLY in the names of the games. You have Cheren and Bianca there to represent those themes of ideals and truth. The whole game is telling you that these things are multifaceted and there's more to everything. But then you also have characters like Ghetsis; he isn't gray. He's VERY evil, but his character is what makes other characters really shine. The fact that even the Pokémon League is integrated into the plot, it isn't your usual Champion battle because you're STILL fighting against Plasma until the very end makes 1 such a unique entity in the series.
2 is a much more traditional Pokémon story. Plasma isn't AS front and center as they were in 1, but compared to other games, they still have more of a spotlight. The themes aren't as in your face, but I do think it still exists. When I was playing through 2, I felt a general vibe of "this game is about how people move forward from pain". Mainly the pain that Ghetsis brought upon the entire region, directly or indirectly. Hugh is angry and vengeful, but learns through experience that there was good and genuine feelings behind Plasma, and that helps him center himself. All the Plasma grunts, Ex and Neo are dealing with the failure of their Team and N leaving in different ways. Ex-grunts are recognizing their mistakes, their selfishness, and choosing to move on. Neo grunts are either doubling down on their behavior, lashing out at N for "betraying" them, or others are in it because that's where they feel their sense of belonging, and it's less painful to stay in it rather than leave. N of course is opening his world perspective to find beauty in the relationship between people and Pokémon, and it helps him move past his traumatic childhood. Then in the center of it all, you find Ghetsis, completely selfishly and narcissistically insisting everyone else is the problem and not him, and you take down the one who hurt everyone for good. It's not as integral, as essential as 1's themes and message are, and honestly they're not as explored as they could be. But I do still think 2 is worth a lot more salt than some of the other games that came before (and a couple after) it.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh........ da Big Apple. Da City o DREAMS.
(don't worry this is the part of the post where the sections get a whole lot smaller)
I love walking through Unova, and I love the towns inside it. 1's Unova is very linear, walk forward progress the story. This isn't necessarily bad; I like FFX and XIII and they do the same thing. But when you get to 2, it feels like it lets you go off the main path a little bit more than usual, and it even seems like it's balanced for you to do so. It taking a different path through Unova, and adding plenty of new locations gives the game enough spice to not just feel like I'm running through 1 again.
I tried paying a lot more attention to how each location changed between games this time around. Emulation really made it easy cause I could savestate and change around files to quickly compare every NPC I could find. I think they Mostly succeeded in making the region feel different, yet familiar. You have cities like Driftveil or Undella that have essentially completely changed, then there are other smaller bits, like Lacunosa, Accumula, or the Village Bridge, where it's not visually much different, but a lot of the NPCs inside have grown and changed in their own ways. It's really nice to see "oh this kid grew up" or "oh this couple had a kid" and "oh this person works here now". It's great! But it doesn't always work. Cities like Castelia and Opelucid feel largely identical, and there are plenty of cases of NPCs having the exact same dialogue, which really stinks. What do you mean you're having this same party in this same building 2 years later? I would have preferred no dialogue (save for maybe tutorial dialogue) to be the same.
2's new locations are great, but I also would have liked a little more clarification on what was where when. I believe it's generally implied that Aspertia, Floccesy, Virbank, Lentimas, and Humilau were all present in the first game, but maybe a little more dialogue saying so would've been nice? I've pretty much always accepted that Pokémon games aren't great at showing what is there in reality, so it's not much of a bother, but you know.
As the famous Youtube video says, Gen 5 music hits really hard. There's SO many good tracks. The cities, the gym battles (especially when they're down to their last Pokémon? Victory Lies Before You goes insane), every Team Plasma fight, the Elite Four, both Champions, FUCK dude. I can't list all the tracks that are good cause it's nearly the whole OST of BOTH games. I think Generally, if there's a song that got a new rendition in 2, I like it a little more than 1's version, but that's comparing high S tier to low S tier.
2 also made the amazing choice to remix the gym music, themed towards each gym, which was incredible. Roxie's sounds like a punk band, Burgh's is creepy and webby, Elesa's sounds stylish, Clay's has that Goron vibe, Skyla's uses windy instruments, Drayden's is grand and powerful, and Marlon's is nice and laidback. I really wish they'd revisit this concept.
Special shoutouts to the PWT giving us covers of plenty of previous gen battle themes as well.
ANTI shoutouts to my least favorite song, the low health theme. I get it's cool and cinematic and "oh no I'm at low health", but like Xenoblade 3's chain attacks, all it does is interrupt the absolute banger I was already listening to.
I notoriously don't care for Gen 4 because its color palette just drains the joy from my brain. Some kind of neurodivergent shit I dunno lmao. Gen 5 does not have this same problem, I really like the way it looks. You can tell that Game Freak was really going insane with the DS, with all the camera angles they chose, and the cutscenes featuring the box legendaries. 2 goes even more insane here, doing a lot more full on cutscenes that really succeed in certain moments feeling properly climactic.
Another thing Gen 5 does that I love: Moving Sprites. 1 started it off with animating all Pokémon, which fills battles with so much life; but 2 perfected it by animating all the trainers just as smoothly. It's a small touch, something that isn't as clear compared to everything else, but it really completes and polishes the experience. It honestly makes me sad that it was the last game to do sprites, cause they had finally figured it out before moving on.
This one was a lot. That's what happens when you're basically talking about 2 games in one post, I suppose. Before I wrap it up, some things I wanted to talk about.
First off, this is not a part of the game's fault at all, but GOD DAMN my luck was AWFUL lmfao. I was getting crit SO many times, constant paralyzation and even getting frozen more than I ever had. This was the case in both 1 and 2 I was getting really frustrated like "goddammit of COURSE I get crit here" and then on the last Hugh battle that fucker got paralyzed and didn't Actually get paralyzed for like 7 turns so he wiped my team. It was all worth it until the end though, where my Jellicent managed to freeze Iris's Hydreigon, allowing me to juice him up with X items, leading him to wipe her team entirely (and get off 2 more freezes). It felt like my sweet, cathartic reward.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier but just couldn't figure out how to fit it in: Seasons. Neat feature, having the region look different every month, different areas being available, different Pokémon being available, but honestly? I don't think I like it as a feature? You're not gonna be playing the game straight through AND have the seasons matter, so it just kinda locked some items or Pokémon or even bits of lore away from me that I had to cheat to find out. Cool for the time, did not age well. Both games are pretty equal in this sense.
The other thing I forgot to mention: 2's Memory Link. I had mentioned this in my Characters section, but to give more of my thoughts on this; Memory Link/Unova Link is a really cool feature, but it sucks that it's like, optional. I looked up all the cutscenes it gave, and I really wish they were in the base game. I can accept missing my character's name mentioned, or the special battles with Cheren or Bianca with the right starter, but damn. Wish I could have gotten that in base game.
Anyways, let's finish this up.
I'm really, genuinely glad I decided to revisit these games. I think it was really needed for me to figure out Why exactly I liked them, to refresh my memory of what's actually there so I can form a real, adult opinion about them. Black and White, Black 2 and White 2, are a lot more than just a kid's game with no substance. Even the sequels which aren't as powerful as the first games have a lot in there that I can appreciate. But also, they're both flawed. Neither are perfect. For a while, I considered Black 2 to be my favorite Pokémon game. I don't think it's the case anymore. I also don't think Black 1 is my favorite, either.
But, together. Considered as one entity, Gen 5 IS my favorite part of Pokémon. When I think of both of these games, what 1 does in its story, what 2 does for that traditional Pokémon experience, I love them a lot, and I think this still remains the peak of what Game Freak has made. The characters are something special, the music is outstanding, there's so much to love about both of these games. So with that being said:
Black and White: 9/10. The pinnacle of Pokémon storytelling, but with other gameplay features very much lost to time and internet. The Pokémon game you HAVE to play if you're going through it once.
Black 2 and White 2: 9/10. Amazing gameplay and features, perfect for a game to always have with you and to revisit, but not quite reaching the narrative peak of its predecessor.