My Thoughts on Pokémon Black/White 2

On 9 May 2024, I finished the story mode of Pokémon Black 2. I have since dabbled in the post-game, but I am far from having completed it.

I started playing Black 2 in December of last year. Before starting, I was immediately curious about a technical element of the game. It was on a 512 MB card, just over half a gigabyte. As far as I know, this is the only Nintendo DS game that comes on such a large card. Granted, a larger file size doesn’t automatically mean more content; it could just refer to more animations or video files. But it still intrigued me.

And hell, it showed that Nintendo was more than willing to pay for a big card back then, compared to nowadays where you have to download half of BDSP to play proper.

The release also fascinates me. 2012, back when I was nine and ten. I’m just fascinated that it’s such a late Nintendo DS game. It’s so late that the game had trailers on the 3DS eShop, and it has written 3DS connectivity. It’s like those rare times a PS2 game can connect with a PSP game, it just gets me giddy for all sorts of autistic reasons.

I went into this one incredibly positive, as within my own server—and in general online—it’s described as being the best Pokémon game. And aside from hearing some people unhappy about the story, nobody seemed to think it was worse than the first BW.

I was happy trying it at first, although in my initial comments, I noted that the game didn’t feel like it changed a whole lot from the first title. And the whole time, I was constantly told that it would. Unfortunately, my experience tells a different story.

I’m not going to cover elements that are shared between this and the first game, as I mentioned those in my journal of that one. Most of my opinions are the same. I like many of the Unovan Pokémon, I like this 2D-in-3D presentation, the music is good (albeit not Sinnoh good), and I like the more varied battle types.

Everything else? Let’s get into that.

(Artwork of banner here)  
DeviantArt version linked here  

Presentation

The trainers are all animated at the start of battles now. Although unnecessary, this is a nice touch. Admittedly, it’s odd that the first BW didn’t do this like HGSS did. But even then, the smoothness of the animation here is a step up from what HGSS did.

I know people hate the puppet-ness of the animations, in addition to the fact that the sprites look muddy. But I look at them the same way I look at the graphics in a game like Sonic Advance. Yes, in still images and on larger screens, the game can look funky. But when I play this on the system it was made for—the Nintendo DS with its native 192-pixel height—I think it looks beautiful.

And I still can’t get over the fact that the Pokémon are better animated here than in later games.

3D is used more this time around, and I think it’s good. Of course, this is the DS, so the graphics aren’t any better than the PlayStation’s. But they serve as nice breaks when the developers want to do something that would be clunky to show in 2D, like Skyla’s plane flying.

This game uses vocals in the music more than the first one. It seems like Game Freak really wanted to show off here, and I like it. Hearing Roxie sing immediately gives you a better impression of her than if she were silent—a mistake they’d make with Piers in SwSh. I love the guy who sings in one of the new towns because at first it scared me before sounding so soothing. There are more examples I’m not remembering, but the game’s audio is a bump up from the first game’s. It keeps most of the tunes while adding more.

They could have totally been lazy and not altered anything, keep that in mind. So I appreciate what was changed or added.

Character Designs

Most are the same, but I’ll address the few I have something to talk about.

Rosa is not Hilda, and she will never be Hilda. Rosa’s design is okay, but I find her a downgrade in most ways. While Hilda has this confidence I love—like she’s really gonna make me do what she wants—Rosa always looks insecure, like her in versus sprite. And her outfit just doesn’t do it for me. Although it’s more practical for travelling than Hilda’s, especially in the colder areas like Driftveil.

I don’t care for either of the male protagonists in these two games, but Nate looks slightly worse than Hilbert. And the mother here isn’t as pretty as the BW mother.

I prefer Bianca’s design in this game. Originally I liked the BW look more, but just like Iris’, it’s gotten stranger to me more recently. Like her forehead appears too big or something. She just looks better in BW2. I’d say the opposite for Cheren, though.

And Hugh is ugly. We’ll get more onto him in the next section, but I don’t like his design at all.

Concerning the new characters, I love Roxie’s design. She looks like she smells really bad, but in a good way. In all seriousness, I just find her ridiculously cute. Otherwise, no one else left a strong impression on me. I find most of the old designs solid, so no complaints for original BW.

Thoughts on the creatures are all the same just because this game didn’t add any new ones. Emolga is precious, leave Vanillite’s family alone, I must lewd the Reuniclus, and I like that deer who just so happens to change with the seasons.

The Story Blows

At this point, it’s obvious how bad most Pokémon games are in terms of story. And I thought the original BW was terrible as well, not seeing how it was a deep story like fans claim it to be.

But BW2’s plot is unquestionably worse than the first game’s.

You’d think it’d be better because there’s less of it. Generally, the more story you add to Pokémon, the worse the game gets. But with BW2, it’s like they took all the little annoying things I hated about the plot of BW and mixed them with some new awfulness.

First, what is the point of Team Plasma this time? Sorry, Neo Team Plasma. At least in the first game, they were trying to make a point with the team and the Pokémon plot; it was just terribly one-sided with Plasma being so obviously evil. Here, they’re doing the same thing, but we already know that Plasma is evil. The characters in the universe know that too. So what little intrigue Plasma had in the first game is gone, and it’s reduced to another generic villain team.

All they want to do is conquer the world again. That’s lazy in itself, but since it’s happening for the second time, it makes the events this time around so much more forgettable.

I also didn’t like that they brought Ghetsis and N back. If they made them better characters, I’d be all for it. But this is Pokémon. They come back and do the same stuff I hated last time. Ghetsis talks exclusively in the language of Villainese again, and N talks like an overly dramatic twat. To be fair, you see them far less this time, but still.

The second thing I don’t like is how this game copies the same flaw as other Pokémon games. The villain plot and the champion plot are treated as separate stories yet again.

To BW’s credit, I love the way they melded the plots together. It made the gyms feel a lot more important since Plasma was actively messing with them, and the player needed to be the champion to stop Plasma (although that has one problem). The appearance of the gym leaders at the end tied it all together nicely. Nothing great, but nice.

Here, we’re back to the old system. Plasma is doing its own thing that we just happen to get caught up in, and we defeat Plasma before reaching the Elite Four. After the previous game, it feels so disconnected.

It’s a problem with Pokémon as a whole, and one that’s hard to fix. The problem is that they never want members of the League to be evil; no one is allowed to be evil in Pokémon unless they’re the villain, and aside from Giovanni, villains never connect to the League. If they made the champion a jerk with ulterior motives, that would be a good motivation for the player to want to beat the gyms. And maybe have some plot point about how the gym leaders are in on his plan, maybe with some older ones being replaced.

There are a million scenarios I could come up, but I don’t think the developers have the guts to try anything different with this.

Finally, Hugh is one of the worst rivals in this series. I’m not a fan of Hau from SM, but man, these games I’m playing now have rivals that are so terrible that they make me retroactively feel bad for dunking so hard on Hau.

Every single scene Hugh is in, I want to yank him by his dirty-looking hair so bad. He will not shut up about his rage and his sister’s Purrloin.

Seriously, if you love him, I dare you to tell me his personality without mentioning his sister.

I’m not heartless. I understand that he cares about his sister and despises Team Plasma for stealing her Purrloin. The basic idea is solid. The problem is that that’s where his character starts and ends, and he’s annoying.

His writing is cringeworthy, and I try to refrain from using that word since it became a cop-out term. But seriously, you could tell me that Chris Chan wrote all his dialogue, and I’d believe you. He will never stop talking about the cat, and the way he goes about it is just stupid.

“Team Plasma, what do you know about a Purrloin that was stolen five years ago!?”

If Team Plasma has been active for at least five years, it has stolen dozens if not hundreds of Purrloin. Neither he nor his sister—who has neither a unique design nor an actual name—gave this thing a nickname. It’s just Purrloin. I like Purrloin, but every Pokémon in-universe tends to look the same. And even if they didn’t, he can’t be just the slightest bit more specific? Just a little bit.

This is like walking up to Bill Cosby and asking, “What do you know about that woman you drugged?”

I could tolerate Hugh if he had more to his character, but he doesn’t. And more than that, he doesn’t feel like a rival at all. Certain rivals like Hau and hop have the problem of being too attached to the player. As in, they constantly have to emphasise that they’re a rival. But Hugh is at the other end of the spectrum. I don’t consider us friends, competitive rivals or even enemies. He’s just a dude who does his own thing, and he keeps dragging me into his problems.

I find him so obnoxious, and he doesn’t even have a nice character design to at least make him eye candy like Marnie or Brendan. If Hop did not exist, Hugh would be my least favourite rival. I am genuinely surprised because for as embarrassing as Cheren’s writing was in BW, he never made me loathe him like I do this man here.

BW2’s story is a mess, and I feel that instead of trying to simplify things after BW, they should’ve just tried to improve on doing more serious subject matter. I can’t even say that it’s a Nintendo limitation, even a 2012 Nintendo issue, as the common denominator is always that the Game Freak games have shitty writing.

How hard is it to write a passable story with some intrigue?

Gameplay is Good, But…

Everything mechanically from BW carries over this time around. It’s the same game engine, the same mechanics, everything. And that’s not a bad thing, as BW plays the best compared to other Pokémon games.

One notable difference is that there are old Pokémon in the field this time around. In the first game, they weren’t available until you beat the game, and even then, I think they were restricted to certain areas. I won’t lie, I initially felt like I’d be using the Unovan creatures less this time around. This is currently what’s happening to me in SV, where only two of my creatures are native to Paldea.

But no, I used the Unovan creatures just as much, if not more, than the old creatures.

I think it comes down to the fact that BW introduced the most creatures of the series with 156. And on top of that, it only has 300 creatures in the Pokédex of BW2. This means that there is a greater balance between new and old creatures, with the new creatures slightly outnumbered.

By the way, yes, my team was heavily disadvantaged against Fighting and Rock. I tend to have teams constantly weak to Rock for whatever reason.

The map is largely the same as in BW, although it is considerably expanded. I don’t think anything location from the first game is missing. The old environments largely look the exact same, however, only two years passed in-universe, so I don’t care.

The new environments look very nice in my opinion. I love the new town areas, that underwater bridge with the creepy fish swimming about, the revised gyms, everything.

On that note, the gyms themselves are excellent. I think they’re better than the first game’s because there’s more variety. Of course you have your puzzles to navigate; that’s a Pokémon tradition. But not only are they trickier than the first game’s, but some just have more interesting gimmicks. Roxie has her music playing the whole time, and it gradually gets quieter as you beat her bandmates. The wind will blow you back in Skyla’s gym, which feels more fitting than shooting out of cannons. Elesa’s gym is a straightforward fashion show, and if you liked her rollercoaster gimmick from the past game, they kept that around as a bonus.

The difficulty in general is also higher than the first game’s. I’d say I had a smoother time with this one, but that’s only because I’m much more familiar with how Pokémon works now. I could still note how the battles themselves were more engaging with the tricks and difficulties employed here, and I appreciated that.

All in all, the gyms are cool. I only wish some had more battles, but they get a solid rank. And of course, thank them for keeping my favourite lemonade-drinking leader in.

However, not everything is perfect. The C-Gear is still an obnoxiously useless device compared to the Poketch, and this time around, I noticed major slowdown when having it enabled—slowdown that didn’t exist in the last game.

Additionally, I found it easier to get lost in this game than the past one. And it wasn’t the fun type of lost where you’re just exploring but the game did direct you. No, sometimes the game just doesn’t direct you like it should, and I spent time wankering about in the wrong areas. Calling the player’s mother was a gamble whether she helped.

There are noticeably more side modes this time around, along with sidequests or side content in general. You get poll suggestions from NPCs, there is a medal collectable system (which I didn’t pay attention to), Join Avenue (where you make your own street), Pokéstar Studios (where you make your own movies), etc. It does feel like a lot, and so I get why people feel this is the superior game. It’s hard to argue that it’s not.

It’s just that… A lot of this just isn’t as new or fun as I expected.

The medal system is comparable to the Trophies or Achievements used on PlayStation and Xbox respectively. You know, just a way to get little marks for doing something in the game. I don’t care for these systems in general, but when they’re in-game, like Kirby’s Air Ride, I do tend to appreciate them more.

Here though, I never felt an urge to collect the medals since there wasn’t a real reward in sight. And it felt like the dude was just giving me medals for regularly playing the game versus doing anything special, and those are the worst types of Trophies/Achievements.

I barely used Join Avenue, but I see the value in that. The street is long, so I imagine you can add a ton of buildings and shops to really make your own little community. And back when online existed, I can imagine it would’ve been fun to visit people’s streets and have them come to yours. However, put a pin in that.

I initially thought the Pokéstar Studios stuff would be cool. Normally I’m not good at creating my own levels in games, but considering how much I used Flipnote Studio when I was younger, I’m pretty interested in making things like custom videos. Of course, I kept my expectations in check, this being a Nintendo DS game.

But it’s pretty lame that all the scripts are preset. I certainly think these options should’ve existed for players, but considering they have all these assets, why is there no fully customisable mode? I’d want to write my own stuff, direct things in my own manner. Like a Pokémon version of the Rockstar Editor GTA V had. Just make tons of potential assets and let players go wild.

I know storage memory limits how much can go in there, but many of the more detailed images are stills; still images are nothing taxing for DS memory.

Of course, you’ll also argue that it’d be too much effort put into a side mode. But they have all the stuff in place already, so just make it available for free usage. I’ve seen enough other games do that for their side modes that it wouldn’t have been impossible for this one.

The game might have a more expansive post-game than the past one, but I didn’t play much of BW after beating the game—or rather, beating Ghetsis, as I never beat Alder. For what it’s worth, this Black Tower here seems pretty fun, but other games have similar concepts, and I’m pretty sure this building was in the first game.

Really, what it comes down to for me is that this game suffers the most from my having played it late. Every Pokémon game is in a weird position where it needs a single player campaign to be played through, but a lot of the replay value and extended play comes in the form of the multiplayer.

If those games on the original Game Boy didn’t have multiplayer, players would have far less to do because of how shallow the world and characters are. And because, frankly, Pokémon only has one type of gameplay style. Other RPGs are similar, but their systems are usually more active (Mario; Kingdom Hearts) or they’re more complicated (Persona; Final Fantasy).

A lot of the content in BW2 feels like it’s counting on you not only having friends to play with, but having an online connection. And I think that’s a big problem, although it’s not solely the fault of the developers. It’s largely Nintendo’s fault.

Nintendo discontinued Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in 2014. These games effectively had a lifespan of two years, which is pathetic. And the first game didn’t get off much better, with three years. In contrast, at least if the fourth-generation games relied heavily on online for engagement, they had a lifespan of eight years.

Sure, by 2024 the community would’ve moved on anyway, especially since only the DSi supported modern Wi-Fi standards. But still, the decision to remove all online connectivity from Nintendo’s oldest hardware is irksome.

And it makes me wonder what this game was like when it was first released. Because if you were someone who was initially sceptical about BW2 because of the history of the infamous third versions, and only got it later once you realised it was different, you got played.

While this is not by any stretch a bad game, I do think it suffers from being so similar to the first one. Even for a direct sequel, they could have changed way more. Maybe even more battle mode types, or more different gameplay modes in general. Something for actual experimentation. Of course, it’s limited because it has to be able to connect with the first game, but they could have definitely altered things more.

As is, I frankly don’t feel like BW2 is worth existing. All this additional content here is content that could’ve and should’ve been in the first game, which has a better story, would’ve grabbed more people’s eyes since it was entirely new, and which had a longer lifespan.

Lastly, BW2 has one genuinely idiot element: the difficulty modes. This is the dumbest difficulty system I have ever seen in a video game, and I’ve played a lot of old games with bullshit unlock systems.

Who in Game Freak decided that to unlock the easy and hard modes, you have to own both B2 and W2, beat both games, then trade keys to unlock a mode in the other game? That is embarrassingly convoluted, and unlocking difficulty after beating a game is bullshit anyway. Let me play on the easier or harder mode first. On top of that, the harder difficulty doesn’t do jack shit. It raises the creature levels of all the bosses, but their stats are the exact same. The result is that for most of the adventure, the hard mode is actually way easier because your creatures are overlevelled. Just… How did these people make games?

Conclusion

I didn’t want to come to this conclusion, but Black/White 2 is a huge disappointment.

It is better than all of the previous third versions, fans aren’t wrong there. However, it’s only better because it changes more than the bare minimum. Crystal, Emerald, Platinum and Ultra Sun/Moon are the same games as their predecessors, just with a few tweaks.

BW2 does a lot more to differentiate itself from the first game. The map is much larger, the difficulty is noticeably higher, there are more side modes, the presentation sees smaller bumps that make a substantial difference, etc.

But while they make BW2 stand out enough, are they really something unique to this “third version”? Emerald and Platinum have slight map expansions, and Crystal and Emerald added animations to the Pokémon that didn’t exist in the old versions.

The story is so much worse this time, even though it’s smaller. In that respect, it’s similar to USUM.

Even at the time of release, a lens through which I’m trying to view the game, the multiplayer elements were dead on arrival. Not only would more people be playing BW, but XY was one year around the corner. Most players would have chosen to wait for the exciting 3D transition, so it was only a matter of time before this game died. The online part is Nintendo’s fault, but Game Freak still chose to release BW2 too late or XY too early.

It’s hard to tell from my tone, but I actually like this game. I had as much fun with it as I did BW.

The gyms are great, I don’t mind the old creatures being included, the music has only gotten better, the little visual improvements are sweet, and I can see it as a worthy title of being the swan song to one of my favourite consoles.

It’s just that I wish I could’ve had more fun with it because of how much it was hyped up, especially by those I know. If people weren’t saying that BW was the series’ peak, they were saying BW2 was. And I simply disagree.

Considering that the fifth generation of Pokémon is the only one after the Game Boy [Color] that didn’t have a remake in it, I wonder how ORAS would have played on the DS. I imagine it would’ve played better than what you guys got, considering Game Freak and 3D is like a monkey on a computer. Controversial as it may be to say, especially having not played ORAS, I would have preferred a Generation III remake to BW2. At least it would offer something a little refresher, and hell, if it were in 2012, it’d meet the 10th anniversary.

I see why many consider BW2 to be the best game. After all, it largely takes all the good stuff of BW and adds more on top of that. However, it doesn’t fix the few glaring issues of BW. And games don’t exist in a vacuum; I have to compare them to each other.

It’s a solid game, just a very disappointing sequel.

So, as of writing, my current ranking is this:
1. Black/White
2. Diamond/Pearl/Platinum
3. Black/White 2
4. Gold/Silver/Crystal
5. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
6. Red/Green/Blue/Yellow
7. Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
8. Sword/Shield

After beating SV, which is definitely a game, I’ll probably take a break from the Pokémon games for a while. I’m not burnt out, but I just want to let them simmer while doing some other stuff.

Whenever I decide to continue, though, the one game I need to try is XY. Then I’ll have played all of the mainline non-remake entries.

What do you think about BW2? Were you someone who missed it because you thought it’d be another third version or you were waiting for XY? Do you consider it your favourite Pokémon game of all time? Nostalgic for this 12-year-old title now?