What Black and White Does Better than Any Other Pokemon Game

My absolute favourite small touch about Gen 5 is just that the traded Pokémon that you trade to the ingame trainers actually can later be battled in the post-game (including the one who gives you two different trades), where it's really nice to see that these Pokémon aren't just boxed and actually do things even if they're not with you.

Finally someone that understands that open world pokémon doesn't mean entertainment.

Honestly its ironic, Black and White (and to a lesser extent Sun and Moon but that's another discussion) are basically everything people today want from the Pokemon franchise, but people just went so berserk at the time GameFreak has played it hyper safe ever since.

The original BW's postgame is a bit underrated due to the massive postgame u get in the sequels, but it also deserves more credit.

Never considered that people who are way younger than me could be completely lost because they didn't spend their whole childhood getting "gotta catch em all" screamed at them. As a child I never would have for a single second thought that I shouldn't have 6 mons in my team.

scarlet and violet giving you the option to do the gyms/titans/bases in any order is also pretty useless since there's no level scaling, so the harder ones are impossible early on and the easier ones are completely trivial if you save them for later

I’m not gonna cap I’m glad we had these protagonists older than the ones we had during those 4 generations

You go radio silent for over a month and then suddenly drop a half hour video? I love it

I've replayed Pokémon White like half a dozen times and was confident I knew the game in and out pretty well, but the fact that Route 3 has a bonus fisherman you can fight is something that actually blows my mind; I've never been to that particular spot and that speaks to your point about how strong the route design is.

I also love some of the games' small touches like the hiker guy in BW that got a Boldore from trading with you comes back in BW2 with his Boldore now evolved into a Gigalith. It's not much but I think it really adds alot to the world.

gen 5 is a work of art. no more no less.

Honestly I'm always shocked to hear how many people just relied on overlevelling their starters because even when I was a little kid playing Gen 3 and 4 games I would always catch a bunch of pokemon, I think I was one of the few who actually picked up on the idea of getting a full team early on

White version was my very first Pokemon game and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That lesson they teach you at the very beginning of the game is so important to the game experience and I’m glad it was one of the first things I learned

I still remember recently rediscovering the cave near Chargestone, even finding a TM I didn't collect until then, not to mention rediscoveriny the cave connected to the sewers, both in B2W2.

The pokemon cycle made this game it's main victim: new game is released, fans complain, a decade later they love it and say the new game is bad, repeat.

Yeah, I honestly didn’t get the complaints about B&W being aggressively linear back in the day. All the little nooks and crannies and side dungeons helped break up the monotony of going gym to gym and tackling the (frankly very interesting) main story. I’ve always had an appreciation for side content like Contests In Pokemon because it can offer a nice diversion from the linear progression of the games. The side dungeons in B&W do an amazing job of feeling well integrated with the core gameplay loop, while still being engaging for those who want to stray from the main path from time to time.

A fun little factoid about that lack of Badge requirement for HM usage... For folks who still have the hardware and interest to try it, you can trade an pokemon you intend to use as a pre-loaded HM aide to a fresh save file and shortcut to what should've been a late-game content beat like getting the Larvesta almost immediately in the first game.

If I remember correctly The protagonists were supposed to be 16 at some point And honestly I prefer that Them being 16 is my personal headcanon because it means that the philosophical questions being asked of the main character can actually be... questioned If they're 16, then N isn't spouting nonsense at a child, he's waxing poetic at a teenager who's probably already asking themselves those kinds of questions

its funny how game freak made the best Pokemon game and ITS SEQUEL (Which is even better) yet decided to throw that away forever and never look back for the next generations

From the music to the gameplay to the characters to the story to the mons themselves, they absolutely knocked Gen 5 out of the park. Truly some of my favorite games in the series period and because of that I'm terrified about what a potential remake would look like.. Another thing I think worth mentioning is the interactive music of the routes and cities. Hearing the soundtrack change after talking to the musicians was such a nice reward for my exploration efforts - it's such a small thing, but it makes each area so unique and makes the entire region feel alive. Like you said, the best part of Unova is that it feels like a place that can and will move on with or without the protagonist there - it's a huge world that, while linear at first glance, is full of so many secrets to discover that I still find new things with every playthrough. Great video!! So glad to see a half hour video full of Unova appreciation!