White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 16: Air show

Considering Mistralton City is the only destination for cargo planes headed into Unova, it’s kind of a hick town – honestly, more of a hamlet tacked onto the side of the (much larger) airport. How it gained itself the name of ‘City’ is beyond me; if the airport is discounted, the only settlement of comparable size in all Unova is Nuvema Town. ‘Mistralton Airfield and Passenger Accommodations’ might be more appropriate. I discuss all this quite loudly with Jim, who tells me in a low hiss to keep my voice down, as we walk through the alleged city. As tiny as Mistralton is, though, it is not long before my highly enlightening speech is interrupted by an encounter with a familiar face – or at least, what would be a familiar face if we had met her yet in this game: Professor Juniper. Juniper takes a moment to inquire after our health and enthuse about our meteoric progress through the ranks of Unova’s trainers. She has, she says with a manic grin, gifts for us. She tells us to close our eyes, and then presses two hard, smooth spheres into our outstretched hands. We open our eyes to see-

Good grief.

Master Balls? I stare at Professor Juniper with a mix of incredulity and swelling egomania. Does she know what she’s just given us? Can she possibly be aware what these things are capable of? She has literally just met us, and-! Why, a Master Ball is the kind of artefact that can bring down entire cities in the wrong hands… and these, I think to myself as my eyes flicker downwards, look very much like the wrong hands. I gently slip my Master Ball into my pocket and thank Professor Juniper gracefully for her generous gift – which, I am careful to explain, will surely be a great help to us in the course of our research work for her and Bianca. I speculate in strident tones about the rare Pokémon I might use it on: an Amoonguss, perhaps, or a Zweilous; maybe even a Golurk. Juniper nods approvingly. Jim glances at me, raises an eyebrow, and follows suit. Before I can continue my effusive facade, someone shouts a greeting to Professor Juniper – Skyla, the young Mistralton Gym Leader. Skyla, it seems, has been engaged to fly Juniper and Bianca across the central Unova basin to a place called Lentimas Town, and is eager to leave. Juniper, however, has yet to conclude her business in Mistralton City, and was actually just about to head north to finish up some investigations of the nearby Celestial Tower. She indicates that one or both of us would be welcome to join her there, and to come with her to Lentimas Town on Skyla’s plane once her work is finished. With that, she leaves for the tower, and Skyla for the Mistralton Gym. I couldn’t care less about whatever Professor Juniper is up to, but figure I might as well challenge Skyla as long as we’re here. Jim decides to follow the professor, more to get in some training than anything else.

When I enter Skyla’s Gym, I am immediately struck in the face by a blast of wind that turns my Princess Leia hairstyle into a pair of exploded hedgehogs. Struggling to move against the wind, I manage about three steps before the gale abruptly cuts out and I stumble forward to fall flat on my face. Taking a mirror from my pocket and surveying my desolated hairdo, I silently vow to make Skyla pay for this. Realising that Clyde the Guide and some of the Gym trainers seem to be watching me, I abandon silence and instead vow at the top of my voice to make Skyla pay for this. I gather my wits, stumble to my feet, and am immediately bowled over by another blast of air from the far wall. Once this one falters, I grudgingly examine my surroundings. The wind is coming from a wall of massive industrial fans stacked at the back of the Gym. I can make out Skyla in the distance, seemingly unfazed by the periodic windstorms that rock her home. Some lights flicker on at the back of the building and the fans begin to come to life again. Thinking quickly, I duck behind one of the statues at the entrance and crouch in its shadow. I still feel the wind, but it doesn’t knock me over this time. I peep out from behind the statue and scope out the Gym’s obstacle course. There seems to be enough cover for me to dash between sheltered spots while the fans are powered down. The moment the wind stops, I leap out from behind the statue and run quickly to the nearest hollow in the floor, where I crouch and wait for the next gust. Moving like this, stopping occasionally to smite any trainer fool enough to laugh at my hair, I manage to pick my way to the back of the Gym where Skyla awaits.

Skyla is tough. As her Swoobat shakes off Daenerys’ Crunch to come back with a devastating Acrobatics attack, I muse that Jim may have had the right idea by going north for some training first. Still, this is now a matter of pride. I bring out Jaime the Dewott to finish Swoobat, then switch to my Growlithe, Barristan, to melt Skyla’s Skarmory to slag. Finally, my ever-dependable Ampharos, Sansa, hammers her Swanna with a powerful Discharge to end the match. As Skyla begins her ‘gracious defeat’ speech and prepares to hand over my Jet Badge, I call Jaime again and have him hold a Razor Shell to her throat. Once I have Skyla’s attention, I demand to know her secret. How on earth does she spend all day in this building without getting her hair and clothes blown into total disarray? Skyla tells me, in a low rasp, to touch them. Her hair is frozen in place by what must be a litre of gel, and her clothes are stiff with starch. She looks perhaps a touch worse for wear, while I seem to have spent two months homeless in Kansas. She snickers and offers to give me the name of a cheap hairdresser.

Jim claims that he heard my howl of rage from as far away as the Celestial Tower.

Jim fell behind Professor Juniper battling trainers on the road to the Celestial Tower, but catches up to her before long. She is standing near the centre of the tower’s ground floor, looking about in silence. She murmurs something about the Pokémon that live there – Ghost-types and Psychic-types. Did they live here before the tower was built, or did they gather there afterwards? This, Jim surmises, must be the subject of her research here. A difficult question to answer, but important and fascinating; with the help of a powerful Pokémon trainer, surely it will be possible to-

Oh, no, wait, never mind. She’s all done here. She just wanted to stand there for a bit and think about how clever she is. She beams at Jim, gives him another rare and powerful item (this time a Lucky Egg) and then departs. Jim stays behind to clear out the tower and catch a few specimens for further research, but doesn’t linger for long. The Celestial Tower is a little creepy. It’s one of those places that don’t take kindly to intrusion.

Once everyone is back in Mistralton City, Jim challenges Skyla to a battle, which ends very quickly, thanks to the extra training his own Ampharos, Elisif, has had in the northern areas. Professor Juniper watches and gives a sagely nod, as if to say that our progress is satisfactory, and prompts Skyla to hurry up and get her plane ready so she and Bianca can leave for Lentimas Town. Skyla obliges, and turns to ask me and Jim whether we’re coming. I give an indifferent shrug. Juniper indicates that there are two more Pokémon Gyms in Unova that we won’t be able to reach easily without crossing the central Unova basin. Meh. We’ve got six each of these damn badges, what good are two more going to do us? She attempts to appeal to our sense of duty, noting that there are people in Lacunosa Town and Opelucid City who can help us figure out what Team Plasma is trying to do. I laugh in her face. Surely she has learnt by now that we have no sense of duty. Jim muses, though, that consulting with the Dragon masters of Opelucid City is probably the only way we’re ever going to learn more about the origins of Unova and the history of the legendary Pokémon. I wave my hand, inviting him to continue. This could, Jim speculates, be a potential path to world domination if exploited fully. We have Master Balls now – imagine what we could do if we found a Pokémon as powerful as Zekrom or Reshiram? I consider this. We can always Fly back if the whole experience becomes too banal to cope with, I suppose. The matter decided, we pile into Skyla’s plane and set a course for Lentimas Town.

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 13: An offer we can’t refuse

'Sir, Ah say sir, Ah have important business to attend to and you are wasting mah time; can we *please* wrap this up?'

Clay has no time for frivolity. He is a Serious Businessman who spends his days engaged in Serious Business. Of course, since he owns a mining business, he undertakes this seriousness at the bottom of a mine shaft. Clay is too industrious to take time off to run the Gym, and too cheap to buy separate premises for his official battles, so he’s just opened a section of his mines to trainers as the Driftveil Gym. The maze of elevators, tunnels and walkways provides all the testing most challengers need. We notice, upon entering, that much of his lighting has failed in the past two years and the miners now work mainly in the dark. Many of them have lights in their helmets, and the rest know the mines like the backs of their hands anyway. We are not so fortunate, and consult Clyde the Guide for assistance. He explains, regretfully, that most of the electrical cables have been on the blink for months, and the Gym loses more with every power surge, plunging more and more of the mines into darkness, but because Clay himself doesn’t mind working in the dark, and most of the miners can muddle through as well, he’s never bothered to replace them. We stare at Clyde wordlessly. He shrugs and points to a pile of spare cables sitting in the lobby, suggesting that we rewire some of the lights ourselves. With raised eyebrows and sighs, we gather up the cables, call out Sansa and Elisif, and get to work. The mine is a veritable maze of platforms, bridges and conveyor belts, but our haphazard restoration of the Gym’s lighting serves as a trail of breadcrumbs, helping us to keep track of where we’ve been, and any task involving sparking cables or ungrounded wires is firmly delegated to our Ampharos. Eventually, just as we’re about to run out of spare cables, we stumble into Clay’s arena and come face to face with the ‘Miner King.’

When questioned about the state of his Gym, Clay explains that he doesn’t have the time for- sorry, that he “ain’t got no tahm” for “messin’ about wit’ maintenance,” and that he prefers to let “y’all li’l trainers” take a crack at it when challenging the Gym, apparently to avoid paying an actual electrician to do the work. At this point my understanding of his cringe-inducing accent breaks down as he makes an indecipherable comment about mangoes (I think) before barrelling right through our looks of disbelief to accept our challenges. Nothing if not an opportunist, Clay decides I will open with the Pokémon I have out already – my Ampharos, Sansa. Between Confuse Ray and Take Down, she proves to be more than Clay’s Krokorok bargained for, but predictably falls flat against his signature Pokémon, Excadrill. As a matter of public service, I wish it to be known that Clay’s Excadrill is a bastard of Whitney’s-Miltank proportions, with tremendous excesses of speed and power which Clay exploits without mercy. Even after being slowed and weakened by Daenerys’s Bulldoze and Intimidated by Barristan, Excadrill still manages to take the Growlithe down before being defeated by Jaime’s Razor Shell. Luckily, Clay’s last Pokémon standing, Sandslash, is not nearly so thorny (well… I mean, literally it is, but not in the vaguer metaphorical sense) and quickly falls. Clay grunts some manner of congratulation and hands me a Quake Badge before turning his attention to Jim, whose new Ducklett, Lydia, acquits herself admirably (y’know… for a Ducklett) as does Ulfric the Servine. After being handed his second loss of the day, Clay looks at the two of us thoughtfully, the dollar signs that perpetually swirl in his eyes beginning to tick over slowly. He tells us he has a proposition for us, and leads us out of the Gym.

Clay's lair deep within the Driftveil mines.

Over the past two years, Clay has been studiously building up both Driftveil City’s economic influence, and his own influence within it, by means of a dramatic new attraction: the Pokémon World Tournament, a permanent large-scale facility which hosts regular high-profile Pokémon battles. It’s… not really a world tournament just yet, he admits sheepishly, but it’s already attracting powerful trainers from all over Unova, hence Driftveil’s recent tourism boom. Of course, strong trainers instinctively seek other strong trainers – which is where we come in. Attracting tough trainers has something of a snowball effect; the more there are, the hotter the battles will get, and the hotter the battles get, the more trainers will flock to the city, and the more money will flow into Cl- er… into Driftveil’s economy. Yes. All for the city. Naturally. He’s already started getting expressions of interest from a few of the other Gym Leaders – one of whom has already decided to make an appearance. Cheren is waiting at the tournament grounds, talking to Hugh, who was presumably sent there after defeating Clay, just like us. Clay makes a curt gesture to the staff, who sign up all four of us to take part in an upcoming eight-person singles tournament, and then quickly departs to take care of something else. I frown and start up a conversation with Hugh, hoping to gauge his mental state after his meeting with Rood, while Jim quietly scopes out the other trainers milling around the lobby. He manages to pick out three of the other competitors – presumably more of Clay’s recent successful challengers – but cannot immediately find the last one. Suddenly, just as we’re about to file inside the arena, he notices the scientist Colress watching us from across the room. Colress gives Jim a jaunty grin and a thumbs up before joining the three unknown trainers at the opposite entrance. Hmm.

The PWT building, in all its splendour.

Once we get through all the usual palaver of opening the tournament and introducing the competitors (Clay sure knows how to make a spectacle of things) I am paired with Cheren in the first round, and Jim is paired with Hugh. Evidently fed up with having to tone things down for his Aspertia Gym challengers, Cheren is packing some serious firepower this time, in the form of one of my old enemies from Black and White – Stoutland, who hits like a truck and is built like one too. Sansa, luckily, is tough enough to weather its hammer blows, paralyse it with a Thunder Wave, and finish it with an electrical onslaught. Cheren’s remaining Pokémon, Cinccino and Watchog, are not nearly so menacing and fall relatively quickly to Sansa and Barristan. Jim, meanwhile, seems to have soundly trounced Hugh, unsurprisingly. The next round pits us against… each other. Joy of joys. Jim’s Lucario, Dovahkiin, is first up and gives Sansa a run for her money, weakening her severely, but eventually collapses under her assault. When his Servine, Ulfric, appears, I seize my opportunity and switch in Barristan, whose fire is sure to wither the Grass-type. My Growlithe closes in for a Flame Wheel, and-

Oh, god damn it, Zoroark!

Caught off guard by Jim’s newest Pokémon and on completely the wrong foot, I lose Barristan to Zoroark’s Foul Play, and Sansa, already weakened, doesn’t last long either. The victories do not come without cost, and Zoroark is left too tired to defend against Jaime’s relentless Razor Shell… but now it’s all down to Jaime and Ulfric, not exactly a match made in heaven. Though my Dewott fights valiantly as always, leaf against shell is one sword fight he isn’t going to win. Pouting and sticking out my tongue, I vow revenge, but grudgingly wish Jim luck in the final round – against Colress. Colress, when he appears, is as excited as ever for a battle, exhorting Jim to show him the strength of humans and Pokémon united. Eyeing him warily, Jim calls on Dovahkiin to smite Colress’s Magneton, which has to spend the rest of the match trying to put itself back together. Although he’s brought in a new Pokémon, the Psychic-type Elgyem, Colress fails to make any real headway against Jim’s Pokémon, and Dovahkiin and Zoroark manage to mop up his Elgyem and Klink without much trouble. With much fanfare and glaringly bright stage lighting, Jim is proclaimed the victor and led triumphantly off the stage, where he is unceremoniously presented with a little ticket reading “1 BP” (fine print: “redeemable only at participating battle facilities; expires one year from date of issue; Miner King Enterprises will not accept torn, faded, burnt, soiled or partially digested BP; terms and conditions apply”) and dismissed. Now that the battles are over, this is Clay’s show once again.

Keep at it, and you'll even attract Champion-level trainers to the PWT - just THINK of the advertising revenue!

The Pokémon World Tournament is what we get instead of the Battle Frontier in Black 2 and White 2. Much like the Battle Subway it awards Battle Points for each tournament victory, redeemable for a variety of useful battle items not available elsewhere, and like earlier versions of the Battle Frontier it collects a number of important services into one place – in this case, the move deleter, move reminder, and Hidden Power dude. It also offers a couple of unusual battle formats; a rental tournament (just like the Battle Factory of old) and a ‘mix’ tournament, in which you borrow one of your opponent’s Pokémon in each battle – and your opponent borrows one of yours (this… can end badly)! Perhaps a little washed-out in comparison to the fourth-generation Battle Frontier, with its tricky Battle Arcade and Battle Castle formats, or the even older and even more expansive Emerald Battle Frontier, but the weird formats aren’t the main draw of the Pokémon World Tournament – the true attractions, Clay notes, are the trainers themselves. Once you progress further in the game, all kinds of famous trainers will start entering tournaments here, including just about every Gym Leader since forever. Want to relive former glories with a battle against Winona’s Altaria or Jasmine’s Steelix, or just enjoy one last punch-up with Giovanni? This is the place to do it. Personally, I was something of a fan of the eclectic battle styles you had to learn in order to complete some of the old Battle Frontier challenges, and the fact that the Battle Points you earned from all of them were universally useful kept them from being too much of a pointless sideshow, but I have to admit there’s something to the ‘all-stars’ feeling of the higher-level tournaments in Driftveil City. Challenging these people on their own turf is one thing, but entering tournaments with them finally puts the players on the same tier, which is a tremendously empowering thing for the game’s atmosphere – and nostalgia is certainly a factor (I have to admit, the designers do seem to know their audience… from time to time). I also like the way the Pokémon World Tournament fits into what’s going on in Unova, because of course Clay is exactly the kind of person who would go to these lengths to boost Driftveil’s economy, and you can see the effect that it’s already had on the town, even in the early stages of the project. Hey, I don’t often get to see sensible world-building from these people; let me enjoy it. In short, while Clay’s latest project isn’t exactly my ‘vision’ of a perfect battle facility, I think it’s a pretty solid addition to Black 2 and White 2.

Discuss.

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 10: City of Lights

Ingo and Emmet, the Nimbasa Subway... twins? Joy/Jenny-style identical cousins-in-law? Unrelated friends who like to dress the same? ...lovers? Whatever.

I hurry into Nimbasa City, and immediately run into Jim, who is standing outside the central subway station, deep in conversation with two official-looking men in ridiculous coats. He seems surprised to see me, and remarks that he thought it would take me at least a day to run Join Avenue into the ground. I shrug and suggest that maybe I’m just that good. Jim rolls his eyes and introduces me to his friends the Subway Bosses, Ingo and Emmet (no, neither of us knows which is which, and we don’t care). They run Nimbasa City’s subway system, which as public transport goes is pretty frightful… not because it’s expensive – it isn’t – or because the trains don’t run on time – they do – or because the subway network isn’t extensive enough – it is – but because you can only use the subway if you are a Pokémon trainer, and must win seven consecutive battles before reaching your destination. If you fail, you are not permitted to get off the train at the other end, and in fact you are unceremoniously dumped back where you started. Since every battle has a winner and a loser, not many people make it to seven consecutive wins and get where they’re going on the first try, but they keep it up anyway, bless them. Rush hour is an absolute nightmare, and heaven help you if you have to take more than one train. For less skilled trainers, getting from the outer suburbs to the central city is a four-day commute. Jim is astonished. In our city of Auckland, the same trip would take three weeks. Ingo and Emmet have apparently agreed to share their secrets if he can defeat them in a double battle, and my arrival is thus rather fortuitous. Jaime and Ulfric are able to deal quickly with the subway twins’ Boldore and Gurdurr, apparently the only Pokémon they deign to use in a casual match. Unfortunately, they prove unwilling to make good on their promise, and instead vanish, cackling, into the subway tunnels.

Nimbasa City, like Castelia, is much as we remember it. The great and small stadia are open for business as usual, the Pokémon Musical theatre still stands, despite the fact that no one ever actually goes there by choice, and the Battle Institute remains open, though it seems to have developed a snobbish streak and is no longer admitting anyone who cannot boast of a Pokémon League victory. We, however, are drawn only by the amusement park – the site of the Nimbasa City Gym. Jim and I make a beeline for the great rollercoaster, only to find that the Leader, Elesa, being even more ADHD than all the other Unova Leaders, was not satisfied with mere renovations and has instead constructed a whole new building in which to hold court. Apparently she’s at the rollercoaster right now, though, doing… something. Presumably something important. One hopes. We obediently fight our way through the rollercoaster, which has maintained a complement of Pokémon trainers despite no longer being a Gym, only to find – surprise! – Elesa has finished whatever she was doing and gone home. With a resigned sigh, we turn around and head for the new Nimbasa Gym, which is also in the theme park. We enter, and…

...oh, good grief.

Okay, well, we knew Elesa was a model, but really? The Gym is her own personal catwalk? Good lord; the place is a monument to her own ludicrous self-absorption. Well, there’s only one thing to be done: take her down a peg or three. Clyde the guide, as usual, appears at the entrance to advise us of the weaknesses of the Gym’s specialty type, in this case, Ground, but he manages this time to add a very important corollary which he forgot on Black and White: don’t try it on Emolga. In fairness, on Black and White most of the trainers in the Gym used Emolga, so if you hadn’t clued up by the time you reached Elesa you were really asking for it, but it’s still a bit of a rotten trick to play on anyone new to the game. Anyway, that’s fixed; whoo. Jim and I make our way up Elesa’s catwalk, knocking her three underlings aside as we go. I note, with amused approval, their names: Nikola, Fleming, and Ampère, doubtless named for Nikola Tesla, John Fleming, and André-Marie Ampère, pioneers in the study and manipulation of electricity. Elesa herself is perched at the far end of the catwalk. She welcomes us warmly, and-

“What, no puzzles?”

Elesa looks at Jim in confusion. He challenges her to explain what kind of half-assed Gym doesn’t have puzzles, or at least some sort of maze. Elesa mutters something about the price of the new construction and all the stage lights. Jim glares at her imperiously and demands a puzzle. Elesa, quite flustered now, thinks to herself for a moment and tries a riddle.

“I am, in truth, a yellow fork, from tables in the sky by inadvertent fingers dropped, the awful cutlery of-”

“Is it a bolt of lightning?” Elesa hangs her head.

“…take the damn badge and get out.”

I step up as Jim heads back along the catwalk. “Can I have a rid-”

“No.”

I call out my secret weapon, Daenerys the Trapinch, whose Rock Slide quickly does in Elesa’s Emolga. Her Zebstrika proves a more difficult customer, but is seriously debilitated by Daenerys’s Bulldoze and Barristan’s Intimidate, leaving it easy prey for the bold Growlithe. Finally, her Flaaffy manages valiantly to overcome Barristan, but has too little strength left at the end to go toe-to-toe with Tyrion, and barely manages to paralyse him with Thunder Wave before succumbing to his attacks. Elesa decides to make the best of her situation and hands me my Bolt Badge with all the ceremony she can muster, before leading me in triumph down the catwalk as fans scream with delight.

Good grief; I hope no one from Pokéstar Studios is watching.

Elesa seems to have undergone a costume change since Black and White, which I suppose is in character for her, if nothing else.

Elesa’s Gym is lovely and flashy, and she certainly knows how to put on a spectacle, but when it gets right down to it, all you’re doing is walking through the Gym in a straight line, defeating the trainers in your way. I like the way the fifth generation games have tried to personalise their Gyms a bit more, making them appropriate to the personalities of their Leaders – Lenora’s library quiz in Black and White, for instance, or even the purely decorative addition of Burgh’s artist’s loft in the new Castelia Gym – and in that respect it is nice that, since Elesa is supposed to be a famous model, she gets a catwalk (I suppose Roxie’s Gym is similar, in that way). Part of the fun of a Gym challenge, though, is that (well, in most cases) you actually have to navigate some sort of obstacle other than the purely combative ones provided by the trainers, obstacles which have tended to become more elaborate and interesting as the series has progressed. I would almost suggest that Elesa’s Gym should have been integrated with the Pokémon Musical system, if not for the fact that the Pokémon Musical is such an irritating and gimmicky little sideshow in its own right. In short, the new Nimbasa Gym is all flash and no substance – unsurprisingly, I suppose, for an Electric-type Gym.

Next time, we’ll be exploring the environs of Nimbasa City… and checking up on dear, sweet Hugh…

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 7: OHGODSPIDERS

NB: There are no pictures because Tumblr is being a jerk. Will attempt to do something about it later.

The Castelia City Gym I remember was… odd. Its residents, a group of clowns who specialise in Bug Pokémon, had modelled the place after a beehive, with hexagonal rooms divided from each other with walls of gluey honey, which challengers could walk through, but only with difficulty. I always found these honey walls tremendously bothersome, since they don’t actually present a puzzle to be solved or a maze to navigate the way most Gym features do, but still slow you down significantly as you move around the building. When Jim and I step into the Castelia Gym, we note that the honey walls are nowhere to be seen, and realise that Burgh has been busy over the last two years – and the other Gym Leaders probably have been as well. The inside of the Castelia Gym is now wreathed in fine white thread, as though some enormous spider has taken up residence – and, hell, for all we know, that’s exactly what’s happened; Burgh’s probably been making some new friends. With this in mind, we enter – slowly, carefully. The clowns are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps Burgh has eaten them. Such a… tragedy. Yes. Quite. The ground level of the Gym is empty, but for a few woven cocoons, connected to the upper levels by long, thick cables of silk. One is inaccessible, separated off by an impassable silken thicket, but the closest cocoon seems to have two openings in it. Jim and I glance at each other and unclip Jaime and Ulfric’s Pokéballs from our belts before walking gingerly up to the thing. Jim touches it cautiously; his hand comes away sticky, but the cocoon doesn’t react. Hmm. Step by step, I move around the cocoon to examine the rounded opening, and-

OH DEAR LORD IT’S EATING ME!

Through some inexplicable force of suction, the cocoon draws me in, swallowing me whole before I can jump away and leaving behind nothing but a strangled screeching noise. I feel myself being dragged upward, though the silken ‘cable’ which I now realise is a hollow tube. Convinced that I have been snared by the monstrous spider Pokémon which has certainly taken over the Castelia Gym, I start kicking as forcefully as I can and try to twist my body around in hopes of wedging myself halfway up the tube. I pop open Jaime’s Pokéball, screaming through the muffling silk for him to cut us free with Razor Shell, and wrench my ensnared hand down to my belt in hopes of finding Barristan or Tyrion. I hear Jim, faintly, through the silk as he calls for a Cut from Ulfric. Jaime, now out of his ball, is squirming for his scalchops but can’t reach them with the sticky threads hindering his movements. Luckily, I manage to get my hand down as far as my waist and tap on another Pokéball, not much caring at this point whose it is. Success! Barristan bursts out and gives a low, distressed howl as he realises our predicament. Convinced that I have the way to freedom, I scream the words “Flame Wheel!” at the top of my lungs.

You can… probably imagine how the situation deteriorated from there.

Half an hour later, a rather mournful Burgh paces back and forth in front of us on the ground floor of the Gym. The walls and floors are built from a hardy construction polymer, and are a little blackened but largely undamaged. Unfortunately the webs, which apparently allow the Bug Pokémon and their trainers to move between floors, have been burnt completely to ashes, including Burgh’s spiderweb loft at the top of the building. It will take months, he wails, for the Ariados to repair the place, and he may never replace the paintings he had stashed in some of the cocoons. Jim points out diplomatically that no one has been seriously hurt (or at least, nothing a Burn Heal won’t fix) and suggests that a battle might take his mind off things. Burgh sighs and admits he’s probably right; if nothing else a good battle might at least inspire him to get started on some new paintings.

At some point during the… incident… Jim had called Falk out to help, and a slight misunderstanding with the Gym trainers had led to the poor Magby being surrounded by half a dozen angry Whirlipede and Swadloon and bludgeoned into submission; he is therefore in no condition to fight. Dovahkiin, however, is still fit and ready, and manages to handle all three of Burgh’s powerful Bug Pokémon – a Swadloon, a Dwebble, and a Leavanny – with skilful use of Counter and a little medicinal support from Jim. Burgh hands Jim an Insect Badge, with a brief remark of congratulation, and gives his Pokéballs to a clown to have his Pokémon healed. He then turns to me, slouched against the wall with Jaime and Barristan still at my side. He attempts to give me a friendly smile, but it comes out as more of a grimace. He starts to say something, but chokes on the words. He finally throws a second Insect Badge at my feet, makes a mournful rattling noise in his throat, and leaves the building.

Victory is mine!

Obviously that didn’t go exactly as planned but it’s still worth a celebratory moonlit walk in Castelia Plaza! Jim and I get our Pokémon checked out at the Pokémon Centre, then stroll down Castelia Street to the plaza. Even at this late hour, the main streets are still bustling, though the plaza itself is fairly quiet… quiet enough that Jim instantly recognises the curious-looking scientist he met in the Castelia sewers the day before and points him out for me. He notices us looking and, rather than fleeing as he did in the sewers, begins to approach us. Jim quietly warns me to refuse any candy offered to me and keep my eyes peeled for a white van with tinted windows. I adjust my belt and casually tap my fingers against Sansa’s Pokéball as our new friend gets closer. He introduces himself as Colress, and compliments Jim once again on his battling in the Castelia sewers, before asking to see our Pokémon.

No.

“Are you sure? But this is,” he strikes a dramatic pose, his notebook clasped against his chest, staring intensely into the night sky, “for science!”

…hell no.

Colress thinks for a moment, and offers us a chocolate bar in exchange for letting him see our Pokémon.

Ooh! Gimme!

Jim protests, but I happily accept the proffered candy and munch on it as Colress examines Sansa, who bleats at him and crackles a little bit, but doesn’t attack. He proclaims his delight at seeing a Pokémon so strong and confident, and explains that he studies ways for humans to “bring out the power of Pokémon,” something Jim and I appear to be doing. Colress tells us that he’s heading North, out of Castelia City, and invites us to follow him for a Pokémon battle to further his research. He then turns and leaves without another word. I want to follow see what he’s on about; if nothing else, there might be more candy. Jim admonishes me for taking chocolate from a stranger, but admits that he’s curious to know what Colress wants (he’s probably just jealous because he didn’t get any candy), so we set off for Route 4 together.

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 4: Sex, Drugs and Pokémon

Official Nintendo art of Roxie. Something in this design makes me feel like she should be a Bug-type specialist. Is that just me? I suppose her signature Pokémon *is* Whirlipede... At last permitted to leave Aspertia City and Floccesy Town behind us, Jim and I head for Virbank City. Outside Floccesy Town, Cheren accosts us briefly to explain the significance of dark grass, something we remember perfectly well from Black and White, thank you very much. I decide to muck around in the area for a while to see if any new Pokémon will appear here that we haven’t seen elsewhere on the route, and I am rewarded with a Venipede. I add the spiky little bastard to my party, naming him Tyrion, and hang around to train him up a little. Jim, meanwhile, heads east into Virbank City, and fields a call from our Dear Mother. One of the other contacts available on our XTranceivers, Mother possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Unova region and can tell us anything we might need to know about any area we visit. We prefer to avoid Mother because she is a controlling bitch queen, but she has decided to call us this time, since we simply must know about the Virbank Complex, an industrial sector in the south of the city which is, for no goodly reason, infested with wild Pokémon. The words ‘infested with wild Pokémon’ pique Jim’s interest, and he veers south to check the place out. On the way, he takes a moment to eavesdrop on a domestic disturbance between two of the locals. The captain who runs the ferry service to Castelia City is no longer fulfilling his duties, because he… has decided he would rather be a movie star. Yes. Well. Fair enough, I suppose, but it leaves us trapped in Virbank City. Well, we have Pokémon; we should be able to hijack a ship easily enough. Of course, there are other, far less important, people who are also trapped in Virbank City, and it is on their behalf that the captain’s loud, angry daughter is taking him to task. His daughter’s name is Roxie, and he has apparently been inspired by her – after all, she’s always managed to balance her passion for rock music with her responsibilities as a Gym Leader, so-

Wait, what?

Okay, all right. The punk chick is the Gym Leader. We can work with this.

I catch up with Jim as he tails Roxie to a small, dingy building in the middle of Virbank City. I open the door, revealing a dilapidated, poorly lit stairwell, and immediately stagger as I am hit by the stench of dried vomit. The faint sound of music wafts up from the basement. We have apparently followed Roxie to a seedy nightclub. Jim points out the Unova League insignia in flickering pink neon over the entrance, and the sign by the door which reads ‘Virbank City Pokémon Gym. Leader: Roxie. Poison days, poison on the stage!’ Poison in the air too, I think to myself, peering at the unidentifiable stains on the concrete floor. I shake my head firmly and hold up both of my palms in protest. Jim looks at me accusingly and points down the stairs. I hold my nose and continue shaking my head. Jim rolls his eyes, grabs me by the collar and drags me off to the Virbank Complex for some training.

The Virbank complex. Screenshot stolen from Serebii.net.

The Virbank Complex seems to be an oil refinery, filled with tanks, distillation towers, and smokestacks. Naturally the game puts on its ‘educational’ hat at this point by introducing a scientist who wanders around the complex muttering explanations to himself about how all the different pieces of equipment work, and running away if anyone overhears him. As profoundly strange as this man is, I have to applaud the effort. I really do like it when Pokémon tries to do this sort of thing, just because I like entertainment to be educational on principle (if you’re clever, you can trick the kids into learning stuff without even realising it) but it’s not exactly subtle; it feels rather ‘pasted on.’ The Slateport Oceanic Museum in Ruby and Sapphire made a bit more sense, if only because oceanography is actually relevant to the plot of those games, and the Oreburgh coal mine in Diamond and Pearl was at least trying to integrate things into the game by using Pokémon workers. Anyway, in blatant defiance of any pollution the place might be pumping out, the Virbank Complex is overgrown with tall grass and teeming with many different species of wild Pokémon – offering us a perfect opportunity to beat some Pokémon up for their sweet, precious XPs. Most of our Pokémon evolve as we train here; first Sansa and Elisif become a pair of adorable Flaafy, then Jaime evolves into a feisty Dewott and Ulfric into a cunning Servine. Finally, almost unthinkably, Jim’s Riolu, Dovahkiin, evolves at a shockingly low level into a noble Lucario. We both decide to pick up Fire Pokémon while we’re here – Jim catches a Magby and names him Falk, while I find a Growlithe. Ruminating on names, I briefly consider Tywin, but reflect that my party is fast turning into Team Lannister, and settle instead on Barristan (I receive immediate confirmation that I chose correctly when my Growlithe’s nature turns out to be Bold). Suitably prepared for battle, we return to the filthy dive in which Roxie has chosen to make her Gym.

I stagger down the stairs holding my nose as Jim walks ahead trying to pretend he doesn’t know me. We come to the basement and enter what appears to be a studio owned by Roxie’s band. Roxie herself is up on the stage, eyes screwed shut, caressing her electric guitar, accompanied by a second guitarist and a drummer. I am forced to take my hand away from my nose to plug my ears as Jim clambers onto the stage to challenge Roxie, who is totally oblivious to the world outside her guitar. Jim looks down at me, shrugs, and goes to talk to her marginally more aware backup musicians. While he tries to get their attention, I haul myself onto the stage and, unable to take any more, push aside Roxie’s long white hair and scream in her ear, as loud as I can manage,

The Virbank Gym. Screenshot stolen from Bulbapedia.

“YOUR MUSIC SUCKS!”

That gets her attention.

Tyrion, luckily, is quite as annoyed as I am. With the classic Defence Curl/Rollout combo, he manages within a few turns to build up enough force to smash Roxie’s Koffing. Now several turns into his Rollout, there’s no question of Roxie being able to do anything about him, and her poor Whirlipede is made to suffer the indignity of a one-shot knock-out from one of its own lesser cousins. Roxie indignantly throws a Toxic Badge at me and tells me to get the hell out of her Gym, before healing her Pokémon for the next challenger. Of course, with Dovahkiin now a Steel-type and therefore immune to all of Roxie’s most powerful Poison techniques, Jim’s challenge is quite as much a walkover as mine was, and we leave Roxie a broken wreck, sobbing over her guitar as her backup musicians give us dirty looks.

A man with brilliant yellow hair tails us as we leave, apparently anxious to speak to us. He is somewhat taken aback when I collapse, gasping for breath, on the street the moment we leave the noxious Gym, but to his credit presses on, telling us about the exciting new opportunity he wants to offer us at Pokéstar Studios in the north of Virbank City…

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 3: Graduation Day

Official Nintendo art of Cheren. Er... is it just me, or has he gotten really pale and skinny since the last games? Jim and I head back to Aspertia Town, eager to check out the first gym of our new quest. We are delayed on the way by Alder, who leaps off a cliff again to prove that he hasn’t become any less manly since we last saw him. Alder has a precious gift for us, something that will make us even more unbelievably powerful than we are already: a handful of Oran Berries. We stare at him in disbelief for a moment, then throw the berries in his face and run for it.

In Aspertia City, we quickly learn that the new Pokémon Gym is actually an extension of the Trainer’s School we saw earlier. The interior of the building contains the School itself, which boasts all the usual books and blackboard diagrams explaining things like status ailments and type matchups, complete with a couple of intense-looking students trying to memorise everything. Out in the backyard is the Gym – a fairly plain dirt field with a couple of battle areas marked out in white. The Gym Leader is none other than Cheren, the other rival character of Black and White. Cheren is an uptight, bossy fellow who is nonetheless very clever, hardworking and loyal. He’s also a great deal more powerful than either of us have any right to be at this point. We shrug and decide to go for it anyway. Cheren orders his minions to assume their positions, before taking his own place on a platform at the back of the arena. This place turns out to be a tremendously unimaginative Normal Pokémon Gym. Both of Cheren’s trainers boast one Lillipup and one Patrat each, and fare poorly against our now quite well-trained Pokémon. Cheren himself is just as uninteresting (and appears surprisingly sweaty) – he turns out to have only a Patrat and a Lillipup himself, although much higher in level and spiced up a little with his signature move, Work Up. He complains later that he’s having trouble getting used to battling without his regular partners; I guess he’s supposed to tone it down for us noobs. Sansa manages to defeat both of them quite soundly by paralysing them with Thunder Wave, while Jim has been level grinding with Dovahkiin so obsessively that the little guy now knows Force Palm, a move Cheren’s Pokémon are utterly unequipped to deal with. Cheren muses that he’s glad his first ever challengers were so impressive, and hands over a pair of Basic Badges (the same badge formerly given out by Lenora in Nacrene City), along with the TM for Work Up.

This Gym is meh.

The Aspertia Gym. Screenshot ganked from Bulbapedia.

The first Gym of a game usually is, I grant you. Unlike most other Pokémon Gyms, which normally sport gimmicks or puzzles to work around as you fight your way to the Gym Leader, the first one typically features only a winding path that may or may not allow you to bypass the other trainers and head straight for the leader (Brock, Roxanne and Roark’s Gyms allow this; Falkner’s does not). The first Gym of Black and White, the Striaton Gym, went the extra mile to change that with its triplet Leaders, who took on challengers with a Pokémon that had an advantage against the player’s starter. Now, I certainly think this could have been done better, but I really loved the concept as a basic introduction to the type system by new players; if nothing else it really hammered home the importance of the Grass/Water/Fire relationship and encouraged players to use it to their advantage rather than simply blundering in with the strongest Pokémon available. Cheren’s Aspertia Gym doesn’t do any of that, which is especially ironic given that it’s based in the backyard of a school for Pokémon trainers. I don’t mean to suggest that the Aspertia Gym should have tried to replicate the lessons of the Striaton Gym, because it should be clear that it would just feel forced and artificial for anyone who’d played Black and White. It would make more sense, since the Trainer’s School has just been teaching us about status conditions and battle items, to have players fight Pokémon that emphasise one or both of those themes. It might be effective, for instance, to give players some firsthand experience with the different status conditions by including one trainer who uses paralysis, one who uses poison, and one who relies on sleep, before giving Cheren a selection of Pokémon that employ all three. Anyway, that’s enough soapbox time for me; back to the story.

Remember how awesome these Pokémon are? Neither do I!

As we leave the building, Jim and I are once again accosted by Bianca, who, delighted by our progress, presses upon us the TM for Return and a pair of C-Gears, the godawful devices that permanently occupy the lower screen of the DS and facilitate the multiplayer functions of Black and White 2. Cheren emerges from the school and greets Bianca, whom he apparently hasn’t seen since the events of Black and White, almost two years ago. He doesn’t even have her XTransceiver number, which provides the opportunity for everyone to swap contact details. Jim and I are thus introduced to the people we can contact for help on the XTransceiver (a wrist-mounted video-phone capable of managing up to four-way calls) and the types of assistance they can offer. Bianca can check the strength of your friendship with each of your Pokémon, any time and any place. Cheren can list the weaknesses of any Pokémon in your party, or explain the effects of your Pokémon’s abilities (including a few details that aren’t included in the ability description, like Magma Armour’s secondary effect of making eggs hatch more quickly). Professor Juniper, of course, can check your Pokédex and will give you hints about catching more Pokémon, but she can also tell you how to evolve any Pokémon in your party. She even knows the really obscure ones; I later tested her on Eevee and she listed all seven methods. While these are clearly useful features, I have mixed feelings about them. They greatly diminish the amount of important information the game hides from you, stuff you need to know but probably won’t find without looking up a walkthrough on the internet. Goodness knows I would have loved Professor Juniper’s help when I was mucking around on Sapphire version trying to evolve my Feebas. On the other hand, they put all of that information right there, just for the asking, so that there’s no longer any interest in playing around with the game to try and find it for yourself. I suppose what I’m asking for is a middle ground, where the game will tell you how all the weird evolutions go, but only if you work for it. Of course, perhaps this way of doing things simply recognises that most players in this day and age will just look it up on Bulbapedia or what have you.

Once all this is done, Hugh arrives to challenge Cheren to a Gym battle, right there on the street. Cheren indicates that he’d be happy to have another battle, but he needs a moment to prepare, and asks Hugh to follow him into the school. When Cheren leaves, Hugh explodes with indignation at being put off, and proclaims Cheren ‘weak’ before storming into the school after him. I… am beginning to think that every entry of this playthrough journal is going to include at least one hint that Hugh is a dangerous psychopath. Jim firmly declares that he is not our problem, and we turn to leave Aspertia City for our next destination: the second Unova League Gym in nearby Virbank City.