Do you have a dream of your own? Let's Play Pokémon: Black and White!

Hey guys, let's play Pokémon: Black and White!

Part 1: Nuvema Town
Part 2: Accumula Town
Part 3: Striaton City
Part 4: Wellspring Cave
Part 5: Nacrene City
Part 6: Castelia City
Part 7: Victory Island
Part 8: Desert Resort
Part 9: Nimbasa City
Part 10: Driftveil City
Part 11: Chargestone Cave

In this thread, I'll be taking you through the latest game in the Pokémon series, Pokémon Black and White! While there aren't as many major mechanical changes to the game as there were in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th gen games, Gamefreak went above and beyond the call of duty renovating the Pokémon formula with Black and White, cutting out a lot of the excess and fixing archaic game design that was a hold over from the original games. One-use TMs? Now they're reusable! HM puzzles getting you down? They're 99% optional now! Hate seeing the same old Pokémon, game after game? The entire regional dex is new! The plot even got a tune-up as well, as Gamefreak focused on building a more dynamic plot and downplaying the gym leader challenge that was the focus of previous games.

Long story short, the development team took a good, hard look at all the criticism levied at Pokémon games past, and worked hard to build a game that addressed as many as they could and brought the formula up to modern standards. Which brings us to this thread: The goal here to show just how much the series has changed or stayed the same over the last fifteen years, and in order to do so I'll be taking you through a personal tour of Black and White from start to finish. Meanwhile, the other thread will give context for this LP as everyone else dives into the rest of the series. Together, we'll catch 'em all... as a team.

So without further ado: Let's play!



Before we begin, we'll need to choose which version we'll be playing. Beyond a few aesthetic changes here and there (Opelucid City, the last city in the main game, will adopt either a futuristic or an historic look in Black and White respectively, and Black City and White Forest are locked off to their respective versions - not that we can really benefit from them anyway, since their features are restricted to local wireless play only) and gameplay tweaks (Black has more of a focus on Rotation, AKA Tag Team, Battles, whereas White is more fond of Triple, AKA 3-on-3, battles) there's not much difference between the two games. The deciding factor, however, lies more in the Pokémon exclusive to each version:

Black:


From left to right: Gothitelle, Mandibuzz, Tornadus, Reshiram.

White:


From left to right: Reuniclus, Braviary, Thundurus, Zekrom.

Note that, although Cottonee/Whimsicott and Petilil/Lilligant can only be found in the wild in Black and White respectively, there's a trainer in-game that we can trade to in order to collect the one missing from the version we're in. Unless whether or not we can nickname them is a big enough consideration (and even then, we can always just breed and hatch a new one after the third or fourth Gym), you shouldn't have to worry about picking one version over the other for them alone

Interestingly enough, unlike earlier generations, the version exclusives are all pretty decent Pokémon and worth choosing over each other. I'll hold off on explaining how and why for now since it's too early in the Let's Play, however it's important to note that Reshiram and Zekrom play a large role in B/W's plot and choosing one over the other will affect it thusly. Other than that, feel free to pick your personal favourites or whichever ones you're more interested in seeing.



Next up: What's our name, and are we a boy or a girl? Default names are Hilbert and Hilda, however don't feel like you're limited to those two options alone. The only effect name and gender have is an aesthetic one, since it affects how NPCs interact with you but never in a major way. Note that Pants, Percy, Fukt, etc. are pre-emptively banned, because reasons.

Lastly, which Pokémon will we choose as our starter? Unlike our main character, this does have affect how we'll be playing, and unlike the version-exclusive above, I CAN go into detail about these guys!



Snivy
Type: Grass
Evolves into: Servine (Lv. 17), Serperior (Lv. 36)
Ability: Overgrow, Contrary (Dream World)
Moves: Tackle, Leer, Vine Whip, Wrap, Growth, Leaf Tornado, Leech Seed, Mega Drain, Slam, Leaf Blade, Coil, Giga Drain, Wring Out, Gastro Acid, Leaf Storm
Notes: As far as starters go, Snivy and its evolutions are fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of utility - while they get a few high-powered and useful attacks such as Leaf Blade (Grs) and Giga Drain (Grs), Serperior's middling Attack means it won't be hitting all that hard without some means of buffing its attack stat, and tends to under-perform when going on the offensive as a result. It doesn't help that its arsenal is, aside from the occasional shit move like Rock Smash (Fgt) or Aerial Ace (Fly), limited almost entirely to Normal- and Grass-type attacks, which are resisted by several different types and stopped cold entirely by Steel-type Pokémon.

That said, Snivy and its evolutions make up for it with balanced Defense and Sp. Defense stats and top-tier speed, and its access to Coil (Psn) means it can shore up its piddling attack power after a few turns and tank physical attacks as well. The boost to accuracy that Coil brings also makes Dragon Tail (Drg) an option, as, though its 75% hit rate is normally pretty shaky, two rounds of Coil can bring it up to a much-more reliable ~90% accuracy. The boosts to defense means he can make great use of Leech Seed (Grs) as well, provided you can get to a point where you're healing more damage than you're taking in.



Tepig
Type: Fire, Fire/Fighting (Pignite, Emboar only)
Evolves into: Pignite (Lv. 17), Emboar (Lv. 36)
Ability: Blaze, Reckless (Dream World)
Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Ember, Odor Sleuth, Defense Curl, Flame Charge, Arm Thrust, Smog, Rollout, Take Down, Heat Crash, Assurance, Flamethrower, Head Smash, Roar, Flare Blitz
Notes: Now that's more like it. Tepig and its evolutions are the best of the three starters, packing raw power, decent defenses and a wide movepool to tear opponents apart with. Flamethrower/Flare Blitz (Fir) and Head Smash (Rck) are the gems of Emboar's arsenal, the former two being solid STAB (i.e. Same-Type Attack Bonus) moves and the latter being the single strongest Rock-type attack in the entire game. In addition to that, Assurance (Drk) is a nice attack for Emboar to have as well, as it can beat down most of the Psychic-types that normally scare Emboar off.

Emboar's biggest weakness is its speed, as its 65 base Speed means that more than half of the Pokémon in Unova can outrun it - a dangerous situation as it means you'll almost always have to take a hit before you can defeat your opponent's Pokémon. However, even that can be remedied through judicious use of Flame Charge (Fir), which deals damage and powers up its Speed stat by one stage (i.e. 50%) with each use.

Beyond that, Emboar has access to awesome moves such as Hammer Arm (Fgt), Scald (Wtr), Grass Knot (Grs) Stone Edge (Rck), and Wild Charge (Elc) via Heart Scales and TMs, so its easy to customize Emboar's moveset to shore up any holes in your team. All in all, Emboar's a powerful, versatile Pokémon - though it's a shame he's, like, the third freaking Fire/Fighting type starter in a row. There are other potential Fire types, Gamefreak! Stop limiting yourself already, geez.



Oshawott
Type: Water
Evolves into: Dewott (Lv. 17), Samurott (Lv. 36)
Ability: Torrent, Shell Armor (Dream World)
Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, Water Sport, Focus Energy, Razor Shell, Fury Cutter, Water Pulse, Revenge, Aqua Jet, Slash, Encore, Aqua Tail, Retaliate, Swords Dance, Hydro Pump
Notes: The last of the three starters, Oshawott and its evolutions are pretty... well, I hesitate to say "bad" simply because of that movepool it has, but its stats are pretty meh across the board and Samurott plays very weirdly as a result. Unlike Serperior or Emboar, Samurott doesn't excell in any one stat, and that lack of specialization really kills its utility as Pokémon is very much a game of extremes - most of the top-tier Pokémon are only there because they're really fast, hit hard, or can absorb damage like nobody's business, and it's very, very rare that you'll find a decent Pokémon trying to accomplish more than one of that at a time.

However, Samurott can count itself lucky in that it's a Water-type Pokémon, which is one of the three very best types in the game, second only to Dragon and Steel. Water's only weaknesses are to Electric- and Grass-type attacks, both of which are easy to cover and not especially common, and very few Pokémon resist Samurott's attacks as well - only Water, Grass and Dragon-types take resisted damage from them, and the latter two are weak against Ice as well.

In terms of movepool, Samurott has a ton of useful attacks going for it as well - it learns high-powered moves such as Razor Shell (Wtr), Aqua Tail (Wtr) and Hydro Pump (Wtr) by level up at convenient times, and Aqua Jet's (Wtr) priority means Samurott can shore up its low speed as well, as the move is guaranteed to go first regardless of your opponent's speed (except against higher priority attacks, of course - more on that ]here). Samurott can also learn moves such as Megahorn (Bug), Ice Beam (Ice), X-Scissor (Bug), Grass Knot (Grs), Surf (Wtr), and Waterfall (Wtr) for type coverage via Heart Scales and TMs, so it can also act the role as a very versatile attacker and take on a wide range of different opponents. The fact that it learns Swords Dance (Nrm) by level up means it can turn into a VERY scary attacker indeed as each use of the move boosts Samurott's Attack stat by two stages, or 100% of its original value.

tl;dr: In terms of utility, my personal preference is towards Tepig, Snivy and Oshawott, in that order (though you could maybe swap Snivy and Oshawott, since I've played through B/W twice with the former and I'm kind of sick of Snivy at this point). That said, feel free to vote for the one you like best as all three are decent Pokémon in their own right, and even then any weaknesses they may have can be made up for by the other members of our team. Feel like saddling me with Oshawott named Timothy and quoting Deptford comics all the while? I don't see why not.

That's it! The voting will close by Monday, August 8th, and once the polls close, I'll tally everything up and start playing.

___-References-

Bulbapedia: Quite possibly the most useful Pokémon resource in existence. With comprehensive articles spanning gameplay mechanics from all five generations, one of the best Pokédexes ever made, and page-by-page breakdowns of every item, route and trainer in the game, you can rely on this as your only source and do perfectly well. It also has a lot of coverage for the auxiliary content as well, such as the anime or the TCG.

Smogon University: The competitive center of Pokémon fandom. While it has very little to do with the main campaign, the competitive articles and research on the site are great for developing strategy and figuring out how the game works. Their 5th gen research thread in particular is a thing of wonder.

Serebii: Serebii's relevance has declined over the past while, as Bulbapedia and Veekun have better Pokédexes and Smogon has usurped it in the realm of competitive thought. However, Serebii still has an extremely comprehensive Pokédex in and of itself, and sometimes has information not easily found elsewhere - its Dream World coverage, for example, is top-notch. Just stay away from the news articles, however - Serebii has a tendency to print rumours as fact from time-to-time and likes to edit older posts, which makes him a bit unreliable as a news source.

Veekun.com: Another online Pokédex. Easy to use and extremely comprehensive - if all you want to do is look up a Pokémon's in-game stats, this is the best site for it.

Psypokes A more obscure Pokémon fansite, this one's useful for its mechanics articles and research, most notably the attack type analyzer and stats guide. Also notable is the Amnesia Attack, a timed test that puts your knowledge of Pokémon trivia to the test.

Pokémon Marriland: It's not as comprehensive or thorough as the other fansites, but there are a few good articles on the site worth mentioning. The biggest attraction is the B/W team builder, which can help you figure out and address any shared weaknesses on your team.

Pokébeach: As I understand it, PB is considered the foremost online authority on the Pokémon TCG. In addition, it also covers a lot of the latest news about the Pokémon games as well and tends to be more reliable a source than Serebii.

Pokéjungle: Pokéjungle tends to be more of an auxiliary source of news than any of the other major sites, but at the same time it covers a lot of news the other fansites don't cover and is great for keeping up-to-date with any recent rumours, especially since it at least has the forethought to note them as such. It's declined in relevance recently as there hasn't been much new on the horizon from the Pokémon Company since Pokémon Black/White, but it seems to be putting forth the effort to writing its own Pokédex and it's looking to be a good one, at that.

R^2's Game Guides: TT and Bronto regular R^2 explains the game's mechanics in simpler terms. They're a bit out-of-date as they focus solely on the 4th gen games, but they're still quite good.

Other stuff:
-Item Locations
-Pokémon Locations & EV Training Suggestions
-Dream World Pokémon Released
-Abyssal Ruins Map

Black version
boy named Felix
Snivy

White.

Girl named White.

Oshawott named Revolver.

Can you guess the theme between my choices?

White, because not only is Zekrom the better looking of the pair, but he's clearly powered by a GN Drive.

White. Girl. Name her Flutter, don't know why.

Go with Oshawott, and name him Jack. And then drop him asap because I almost never see Pokemon LPs that ditch the starter.

+1

Yes, and I know the avatar that goes with them. :/

Hahahahaha... No. I'll counter-vote this if I have to.

That said, I vote for White, Boy named Fei, and Tepig. Don't care about nicknames, since I never use them.

Do you just like the starters a lot? Or did I say something wrong?

For the record, I am a-ok with votes for dropping the starter if that's what the audience wants - it just means we'll have a full six slots to choose our team from, instead of five.

(Also: anti-votes won't be counted.)

I've never even touched this generation of games, or played much of the 4th. But you just don't turn down the sort of stats starters have. ...Not to mention the sentimental attachment. The only time I've approved of ditching one was for that psychopathic Totodile in one of SA's LPs, which also was one of the few to bypass my 'screw narratives' stance. (The game has a story of its own, made by more competent writers... usually.)

Important edit: To clarify my last point, I'm referring to LPs that forsake discussion of mechanics and the like to tell a fan-made story... As opposed to the FFV threads, or what I imagine this one will be.

Fair enough.

...But stats? Really? I get what you mean, but if we let that sort of stance dictate things, we may as well just watch our host's party fill up with all the legendaries the games give you.

RedChocobo was hilarious, and was actually the sole contributor to what made me say "almost never" before.

White version.

Also you WILL use a Pawniard.

Eh... Stats were probably a pretty stupid thing to bring up there. I almost always take one of the first Flying types you find just because they look cool.

...Speaking of which, we need one of the version-specific birds mentioned up there. They both look awesome.

Male Trainer.

Oshawatt. Named Timothy.

This shouldn't even be up for a vote.

- Eddie

...That was a thing. That was certainly... a thing. ^^;;

Also probably evidence why we should never mention the name Timothy ever in any LP now or in the future. ...Unless Papillon wants to run with it, in which case let the pun-ishment commence!

I've played Black, so my vote goes to White. Girl named Daisy, Tepig named Duke.

White Version.
Boy trainer. No preference on name (other than not Hilbert).
Tepig or Oshawott. I think I have a slight preference for Oshawott. And I don't care for Snivy - he looks like too much of a smug douche for my tastes.

Hmmm... I don't think I could get behind this suggestion - unless the eyepatch is added to the in-game trainer sprites.

There is a reason some people nicknamed it Smugleaf. Funnily enough, it seems Soren's the only so far to vote for it. X3

Black,

seriously, Tepig?

oshawott, name it Wotter.

Gothitelle is too amusing not to choose Black. Girl Selphie with a weird obsession over trains, Tepig Ol'Yeller because he will not survive.

White, Girl, no name preference, so long as it's not a gag name.
Oshawott... well, why not, Timothy.

It doesn't matter what version or starter you get, because my vote, the only vote that matters, says that you're going to be playing a mystery egg run.

What is a mystery egg run? That's where you get a bunch of random internet chucklefucks to send you eggs at the start of the game, and that is your team.

We can place further restrictions on it in order to demonstrate the unique features of this game. For example, it would be appropriate to accept only eggs from generation 5 mons. You might also get a great deal of entertainment value of following Nuzlocke rules, where if one of your pokemon faints you can never use it again, instead replacing it with a new egg from one of us, your sadistic audience. This will demonstrate the scaling EXP system, and also allow us to show off combinations of egg moves.

Black purely for the Gothitas. Too cute.

Oshawott because its evolutions are just so insane. A panda turns into an otter turns into a being of pure madness. And name it Pandamonium.

Play a boy since it seems like most Pokemon LPs use girls. Of the names suggested so far my preference is Felix.

The Fire Emblem hack trained bolded votes into me.

I'm the only one who will vote for this, but I say go with White, pick the girl, and name her Honoka.

Because shut up I like Pretty Cure.

Oh man, I gotta change my trainer votes to this!

I'mma go with White, then I'll saddle you with a boy named I say (�.�).

In the event that Snivy is chosen, I dub him/her Smugleaf.

That being said, an Oshawott named Timothy is my preference.

I vote for Black, female trainer named Naomi, and Tepig as your starter.

I see what you did there.

White, because Braviary

Boy, no name preference