The most immediately obvious change to Black & White is the game's sense of speed. Game Freak has imbued the games with the sensation of a snappier and more responsive form of Pok?mon. To some degree, this is simply an illusion. In fact, there are some areas in which the game is actually slightly slower than its predecessors; there's a noticeable load time for scene transitions, for instance. Yet even these are masked by clever fakery, with minor graphical effects filling in the gaps and creating an impression of seamlessness.
Most of the perceived speed gains are genuine, and these go a long way toward making Pok?mon Black & White instantly more engaging than even the series' current high-water mark, HeartGold & SoulSilver. The pok?mon themselves are now animated in battle, with attacks that consist of more than a static sprite shaking and pulsing in time to special effects. The camera pans and zooms during battle, drawing the eye even as descriptive text overlaps the actions it accompanies. Backgrounds are rendered in full 3D, with somewhat more dynamic camera angles than has been seen in recent titles, and the menu interfaces are sleek and uncluttered. It's still a long way from the presentation you'd expect from a full-on modern RPG battle system, but it's definitely a step forward for the series.
That's a fitting description for Black & White as a whole: They're a big leap for Pok?mon, though their presentation is still lagging behind many other big-name RPGs. Ignore the visuals, though, and you'll find that Black & White throw in some genuinely fresh ideas, some even within the first few hours. The most significant of these is a wireless friend finder function that's built right into the main game. Once you earn your first gym badge, you're given the C Gear, a device that allows you to seek out other Pok?mon players in real time. Unlike the passive tag modes of Dragon Quest IX or Nintendogs, Pok?mon's C Gear works even as you play. (Sadly, I didn't unlock this function until after I left Japan, so I didn't get to test it out on Tokyo's subways -- currently a hotbed of pok?mania -- but Kat Bailey will be reporting in on her C Gear experiences soon on our RPG blog The Grind.)
Even the familiar formulaic elements of the game have been shaken up considerably. Black & White leave you with the impression that Game Freak were determined to make this fifth generation of Pok?mon feel as different as possible without actually straying from the basic structure of the series. Nearly every aspect of the game is different from what's come before in either small or large ways.
As usual, you begin your adventure by picking a fire, water, or grass-themed starter: Tsutarja, a grass-type lizard; Pokabu, a fire-type pig; and Mijumaru, a water-type otter. Once your character makes his (or her) choice, your two childhood friends pick one of the leftovers apiece. I selected Tsutarja, which prompted my female friend, Bel, to grab Mijumaru, while my male friend, Cheren, picked Pokabu. You're then forced to fight both in succession. Bel and Cheren act as your travel companions to a certain degree, visiting the same towns as you, popping up at key plot moments, and frequently challenging you to battles.
Black & White is set in the Isshu region, far from where any previous Pok?mon game has taken place. Isshu is essentially an analog for America, unlike the blatantly Japanese Kanto and Johto regions. Its layout is clearly patterned after New York City, and a long, narrow, highly urbanized central island is sandwiched between two other landmasses. The game begins in a small town at the south tip of the game's Brooklyn equivalent, with the central island clearly a point of high interest a la Manhattan. The routes between cities demonstrate no real continuity with those of previous games, and reportedly all 156 Pok?mon that appear in the main game are completely new, with no alumni from previous titles appearing until the post game.
Even so, the early going feels quite familiar. Once you've defeated your friends in your initial test battle, the local pok?mon professor -- Dr. Araragi -- gives you pointers and walks you through the first steps of your journey. Once you venture outside of town, the rules of engagement are the same as ever: Other trainers will challenge you if you cross their line of sight, and wild pok?mon will attack when you venture into the tall grass. These are totally new pok?mon, of course! But you'll find their roles familiar. For instance, there's Minezumi, a gopher-like creature who fills the Rattata/Bidoof role of "weak vendor trash." Also present in these areas is Yoteri, a puppy-like monster ("yoteri" is clearly meant to be a Japanese-style abbreviation for "Yorkshire Terrier") which is largely indistinguishable from Minezumi. Eventually you'll stumble across a cat-like pok?mon, Choroneko, though you'll probably face it in trainer battles before you discover it in the wild.
The core plot of Black & White revolves around the schemes of Team Plasma, who seeks to liberate pok?mon from humanity -- a plan which sounds potentially noble but fails in practice, since Plasma's flunkies use pok?mon minions to do their dirty work like everyone else. The theme of nature versus mankind seems to play a significant role in the plot and may tie into one of the major differences between the two versions of the game: a portion of city present in Black shows up as a forest in White.
Both the big new additions and minor enhancements of Black & White clearly speak to the failthful: The game's Japanese launch over the past weekend has proven to be one of the biggest in history. And there's little doubt Black & White will meet with similar success when they launch in the U.S. next spring, even with the 3DS launch crowding the headlines. Until then, keep checking The Grind for further gameplay details and updates from 1UP's import playthrough of the latest Pok?mon.
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