Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 - Review

 Return to the Unova region in this ‘chilling’ adventure!

Console: Nintendo DS

It’s for this reason I started replaying the one Pokémon game I originally missed out on: Pokémon White 2. There were a few years in high school in which I stopped gaming. It started just after I finished Pokémon White and it ended during Christmas 2013 when I got my spiffy ‘A Link Between Worlds’ golden 3DS XL with a copy of Pokémon Y. Pokémon White 2 was smack-dab in the middle of that gap so I only got to play it after I got it, funnily enough, as yet another Christmas present a few years ago. 

Now that it has been a decade since Pokémon Black 2 & White 2, the only direct sequels in the Pokémon series, what are my thoughts on these titles? Do they do enough to differentiate themselves from their predecessors? How do they hold up? 

Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 are solid Pokémon titles. They’re not as good as their predecessor, more basic in a lot of ways, but they do cram quite a bit of content in those little cartridges of theirs. 

Let’s dive in.

Set two years after the events of Pokémon Black & White; a young trainer’s mom convinces her childhood friend professor Juniper to give their child a starter Pokémon so they can set out on a journey. After meeting with the professor’s assistant Bianca, that is exactly what they set out to do. And more. You see the player’s childhood friend, Hugh, sets out on a quest to find his sister’s Pokémon, a Purrloin that was stolen by a Team Plasma grunt two years ago. This quest leads the two to get caught up in a nefarious plot by the returning Team Plasma.

So, in short, business as usual.

Pokémon Black & White are some of the best games in the series and the story is one of the reasons why. It’s not just because it tackles the ´PETA´ angle but because it weaves all its storylines together. You don´t just try to become the champion because you´re told to. You did it because N, leader of Team Plasma, has set his sight to it and you want to beat him to the punch. The gym leaders have an active role in the story, opposing Team Plasma, and the story of your rivals was ‘thought provoking’ for what they were. 

For the DS, this some well done '3D'.

Here, none of this is the case. The narrative is basic Pokémon. The game pushes you to collect the 8 gym badges with not much fuss with the Team Plasma narrative interrupting it on occasion. To be honest, I feel those narrative elements that carry over from Black & White are her due to obligation more than the team actually feeling inspired. It feels like the story team (which was not the same as Black & White’s) disliked the direction Black & White took and only reluctantly included elements from that story. 

But that’s getting into murky waters. What I can say is that I find the story disappointing as it’s very ‘basic Pokémon’ and foregoes a lot of what made the narrative of Black & White so good. It’s acceptable, it gets you to the credits just fine, but nothing to really write home about. 

The story isn’t the only element that is carried over. As Black 2 & White 2 are sequels to games that came out 2 years earlier on the same console they have a lot in common with their predecessor. They run on the same engine. They have the same graphics, same music, and same gameplay. There are additions and changes and some stuff has been taken out but by and large the same. For better or worse, depending on your view. 

I very much like the generation V aesthetic. I dig the soundtracks and the vibes it gives off. I think the 2D sprite work mixed with 3D elements is the best the sprite-based Pokémon games have looked. The overworld looks gorgeous, if not a little blocky still, and while the constantly animated Pokémon animations are a bit rough they work so well. The seasonal changes don't have a lot of influence on the gameplay but it does make each and every playthrough that much more unique. As if you're playing a slightly different game each and every month. 

The Unova region is a well-designed region with a lot of personality. As Pokémon’s first region that isn’t based on a section of Japan, the region wears its influences on its sleeve. The big metropolitans, the rural areas and the giant bridges. With the extra cities, towns and routes at the southwest part of the map, it’s a good chunk bigger here. Other changes such as new gym leaders, older characters returning in new roles and the inclusion of new characters make the game differentiate itself which is needed.

What I also very much appreciate is how new Unova balances the HM´s; they're barely used. Aside from Surf and Strenght, no HM's are needed to complete the game. Cut, Fly etc. are all optional to use; lead to shortcuts or items. Nice. 

Here´s a small comparison between the map of Old Unova in Black & White (l.) and New Unova in Black 2 & White 2 (r.). Quite a few changes, no?

Leveraging the game's position as a sequel is the memory link feature. If you connect Black 2 & White 2 with a copy of Black & White you get some neat little features such as flashbacks, battles with Cheren & Bianca and the ability to encounter and catch N’s Pokémon. One could say this content is superficial, which it kind off is, but as the fun little bonuses to players who have played both they’re meant to be it's exactly what it needs to be. 

Gameplay-wise, well, it’s Pokémon. Exploration in the overworld, a turn-based battle system that boils down to ‘rock-paper-scissors’, random battles etc. The additions and improvements Black & White brought, like triple and rotation battles, have been carried over but nothing new has been introduced. 

A big change does come in the Pokémon variety. Black & White was a soft reboot of sorts. The only Pokémon you could find until the post-game was the 156 newly introduced. Here, 144 ‘old’ Pokémon make their return in the Pokédex. A small change that goes a long way. Where the limited availability of old Pokémon made Black & White feel unique so does their return make Black 2 & White 2 (more) distinct from their predecessors. It gives you, the player, more variety in building your team and more variety in the teams of Pokémon you go up against. 

Black 2 & White 2 also carries over the game’s online features. Stuff like the Global Link, where you could trade Pokémon over the globe, and the Dream World, a single-player PC game, is gone but Wi-Fi features are still here. Trading, battling and doing mini-games in the ‘Entralink’. 

If such changes and additions don’t do it for you then perhaps the extra content will. It also packs in a lot of extra Let’s tackle all the extra/post-game content Black 2 & White 2 pack in. A Pokémon game’s post-game has always been hit or miss. Either it has a chunky post-game or no real post-game at all. Black & White is the latter, Black 2 & White 2 is the former. A bigger region means more to explore, both new and old. There are more battle facilities to tackle outside of the battle subway like the Pokémon World Tournament, a ton of legendary Pokémon to find and catch and more.

The Pokémon World Tournament, where you can battle old Gym Leaders, Elite Four members and Champions like Cynthia is a feature Pokémon fans still talk about to this day.

Similar to the memory system is the key system. By connecting to the other version, you can ‘trade’ different features. You can switch out Black City/White Forrest, which legendary Pokémon you can encounter and difficulty. For the first, and at the moment only, instance there is a difficulty setting in a Pokémon. Easy, normal and hard. Each setting changes the level of trainer Pokémon, the number of Pokémon and the difficulty of the A.I. Basic, yes, but it works well.

The key system is frustrating to me. A difficulty setting is something fans have wanted for years and still want back to this day. Instead of packing the easy and hard modes in each version, they are version exclusives. White 2 has easy, Black 2 has hard and the only way to get the other is to ‘trade’. This means that 20+-year-old me who wants to be challenged in Pokémon games is stuck with the easy mode. Sigh. 

Conclusion

With that sigh, we move on to my closing remarks. 

Pokémon Black 2 & White 2 are a fun experiment and perfectly good Pokémon games. Seeing how the Unova region has grown and changed over 2 years is a novel experience in the Pokémon game series and while it doesn’t quite stick the landing, the story leaves a lot to be desired and the game is too similar to its predecessor in a lot of areas. They’re not as unique as their predecessors; the story takes a dip and the inclusion of older Pokémon is nice but also means some of that personality of its predecessors is lost. In return, you get an experience that’s bigger but more basic.  The Unova region is a lot larger leading to more exploration; more Legendary Pokémon to hunt down, and more battle facilities. 

You can pick up these games without having played Black & White, if their exclusion of older Pokémon before the post-game bothered you then these are the best introduction to the Unova region. For those who have played Black & White, the game is undeniable similar but it does enough to differentiate the experience that for those interested it’s worth at least giving it a shot.