White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 18: Chaos theory

Undella Town passes us in a blur. Not literally, of course; we just weren’t paying attention. There are a few new areas – the Marine Tube which supposedly leads to Humilau City, and the Seaside Cave which also supposedly leads to Humilau City, but neither is open to us at present. We’re pretty sure Hugh turned up at some point and demanded some practice battles, but he said little of interest or relevance. The road south to Black City and White Forest was much as it always has been, although the gatehouse at the end of the road is perhaps notable for being host to Game Freak’s most bizarre roadblock yet: a line of dancing fat men, who, when questioned, will explain that they are dancing for no reason, and will someday stop dancing, also for no reason. I stare at them, transfixed, with an immovable look of “wha?” on my face, until Jim manages to drag me out of the gatehouse. The road north towards Lacunosa Town, likewise, is largely unchanged and uninteresting – until we reach the point where it forks toward the Giant Chasm. The Chasm itself is inaccessible, but there is someone at the junction waiting for us: Cobalion.

I tell Jim, insistently, to leave this to me. He raises an eyebrow, but agrees. I approach Cobalion and politely ask him whether we may continue our negotiations. Cobalion lowers his head, ready to charge. I smile, taking this as an affirmative, and open my mouth to begin an impassioned speech on the natural suitability of humans for command and Pokémon for obedience. My plan, of course, is to moderate my position as the debate continues, thus creating the impression that I am a) reasonable (hah!) and b) receptive to Cobalion’s own arguments. Unfortunately, Cobalion delivers a startlingly effective riposte in the form of a Sacred Sword attack, which neatly lops off one of my Princess Leia buns as I dodge to the side. For a few moments I stare at Cobalion, dumbfounded. Has this creature no conception of civility!? I am collecting myself for a cutting remark on Cobalion’s parentage when he prepares to initiate an Iron Head attack. The thought momentarily occurs to me that perhaps a somewhat more aggressive diplomatic strategy would have been apropos. As I contemplate my imminent premature demise, a pair of thick green tendrils lash out of nowhere and snare Cobalion around his neck and one leg. As he screams with rage, I spin around to see Jim’s Serperior, Ulfric, straining to keep a tight hold on the legendary Pokémon with his Vine Whips. Jim orders Ulfric to hurl him into the air, and the Serperior obliges, flinging Cobalion roughly into a nearby tree. The musketeer Pokémon recovers quickly, though, and within moments they are at each other’s throats, Leaf Blade against Sacred Sword. I draw an Ultra Ball from my bag. This has gone on long enough. I lob the Ultra Ball with all my strength, chanting “up, down, A, B, up down, B, A” under my breath. It strikes Cobalion and draws him in with a flash of light. A few moments later, it’s all over. Jim stares at me as though I’ve swiped a sandwich from his open mouth. I poke my tongue out at him and dismiss Cobalion’s ball to the PC network. I’ll deal with you later.

With that behind us, we arrive in the only walled city in all of Unova – Lacunosa Town. I remember this place being kind of pointless, other than for providing some vague hints about- oh. Ah. Right. Better look around. We are soon met by Professor Juniper and Bianca, who have used Fly (i.e. cheated) to beat us here, and as usual have their own ideas about how our investigation should proceed. Juniper drags us to the home of one of Lacunosa Town’s elders, explaining that the town has a legend we should hear. The elder relates the familiar story to us: when the cold winds blow from the nearby Giant Chasm, a fearsome beast stalked the night, snatching away anyone who wandered outside after dark. The town’s great stone wall was built to defend against this monster, but even to this day no-one in Lacunosa Town will leave home after dark. Professor Juniper comments that the wall is probably what gives the town its name; lacunosus clouds are a type of cloud that are supposed to look like a fence or a net. Jim and I have to conceal a snigger at this. Lacunosa Town is named for its wall, but clearly the town’s founders were influenced by either an astonishing lack of confidence in their stonework or a distressingly poor command of Latin – lacunosus means “full of holes” (this, I should note, is its strictest, most literal sense; it could also be taken to mean “collapsed,” “sunken,” “waterlogged,” or just downright “inadequate”). The more sobering thought then occurs to us that, if a legendary Pokémon as powerful as Kyurem were to attack the town, that name might turn out to be chillingly accurate.

As we go to leave for Opelucid City, we run into Hugh. Damnit, how do all these idiots keep getting ahead of us!? Hugh is following some rumours he’d heard about Team Plasma activity in the town, and is wondering if we’ve seen anything. We are about to answer in the negative before switching the topic to something more conducive to Hugh’s mental stability, like hobbies or the weather, when – speak of the devil – none other than Zinzolin, the Sage leading the reborn Team Plasma, appears with two grunts in tow. Hugh’s eyes flash and he reaches for his Pokéballs, but Jim and I interpose ourselves and attempt to negotiate. What is Zinzolin after, anyway? The other Sages abandoned Ghetsis when they realised he’d been manipulating them, so why is he still leading Team Plasma? If he just wants to take over the world, couldn’t he, maybe, work with us instead? Zinzolin laughs and explains his philosophy. He’s actually not interested in power at all – from what I can understand, he’s mostly interested in chaos. Zinzolin knows that Ghetsis means to tear the asunder the order of the world and the balance of nature and civilisation by forever separating humans from Pokémon, and he wants to watch. The crazy bastard wants to watch.

I am forced to concede that it does sound like a fascinating sociological experiment.

I offer, in the event of a Team Plasma victory, to co-author a paper with Zinzolin on the extent of human sociological dependence on Pokémon. After all, just because I’m theoretically opposed to them doesn’t mean I can’t try to create a win-win situation for myself. Zinzolin hesitates, but agrees to my proposition. We shake hands on it, and then return to the matter at hand – Hugh is foaming to beat up Zinzolin and his attendants, and Jim and I have a mind to join him. Zinzolin, it turns out, is quite a strange Pokémon trainer. One of his persistent character traits, held over from the original Black and White (which Cheren noted when we first encountered him in Driftveil City), is that he hates the cold. This is strange because Zinzolin is actually an Ice-type specialist – his Pokémon are Cryogonal and Sneasel. Thinking out loud, I observe that this seems indicative of a level of self-loathing. This gets Zinzolin so flustered that my Scolipede, Tyrion, is able to steamroll both of his Ice Pokémon before he can regain his composure. I give the sage a cluck of disapproval as Jim and Hugh finish off his equally inept minions. Zinzolin curses, mutters something about searching Opelucid City and departs with his grunts, Hugh close behind, waving his fist and shouting something unprintable about radishes.

So, Opelucid City sounds like the place to be.

The road to Opelucid City is nearly as boring as the road to Lacunosa Town was, with the exception of the Village Bridge. As the surprisingly apt name suggests, this is a bridge with a village on it. I don’t think anyone actually knows why the village was built on the bridge, as opposed to the more architecturally sound option of building it next to the bridge. I mean, okay, yes, there was the mediaeval London Bridge, but that was a) in the middle of a massive and already overcrowded city, and b) a massive fire hazard. Village Bridge, as it turns out, is guarded – in the middle stands an odd Gentleman by the name of Stonewall, who declares that he challenges anyone crossing the bridge. He has won 999 straight victories, and is eager to win victory number 1000! Well, we observe, if he’s won 999 straight victories he must be pretty str-oh no wait never mind. Though comparable in skill to the sage Zinzolin, with a powerful Durant and Lucario, poor Stonewall soon finds himself twisted into knots by Jim’s Zoroark and its mind-bending illusions. He collapses in defeat, mourning the winning streak he’d spent two years building up (y’know, with only two Pokémon, battling about three trainers every day is actually a pretty good effort), though he vows to try again. Once across the bridge, the rest of our journey to Opelucid City is quick and without incident… until we reach the outskirts, and find none other than the legendary Virizion blocking our path.

White 2 Playthrough Journal, episode 17: Sifting through the ashes

Lentimas Town, of course, wasn’t in the original Black and White; it’s a completely new area. Perhaps the town was only founded recently? As Skyla’s plane swoops in, we see dead trees, parched red soil, homes built from mud-brick, and a rickety wooden fence marking out the border of the town. Even the airfield is strewn with boulders. Charming little place. ‘Rustic,’ I think to myself. Yes, let’s call it rustic. We later learn that Lentimas isn’t a new settlement at all – it’s just downright inaccessible. Aside from the airfield, the only way into Lentimas Town is from the east – which is dominated by the imposing Reversal Mountain. Why would anyone even want to come here, with such obstacles in their way? We discover the answer not long after landing. Lentimas is a pottery town – the area’s industry is centred on the production of fine ceramics and porcelain from the local volcanic clays. Not exactly a matter of any great importance for Pokémon trainers, but towns have been founded on shakier grounds than that. Professor Juniper explains that we can reach Undella Town through the recently-dug tunnels in Reversal Mountain, encourages us to travel that way to reach Opelucid City, and leaves us to it. Her own reasons for coming to Lentimas Town remain obscure, and I assume she is here to purchase some of the local porcelain. Bianca departs to explore Reversal Mountain, while Jim and I check out the town. It is, much as we surmised from our aerial survey, a grim place. Still, I do find two very important things: a Fire Stone and a Move Tutor. My Growlithe, Barristan, has been falling behind my other Pokémon for some time now, so with the Fire Stone in hand, I evolve him into an Arcanine and enlist the services of the local Move Tutor to teach him Dragon Pulse. Thus equipped, I depart Lentimas Town with Jim, fully intending never to come back.

Lentimas reminds me a little of Fallarbor Town, in Hoenn, only much more depressing. Fallarbor makes the most of Mount Chimney’s volcanic soils to produce thriving crops, and the nearby river keeps the place from drying out too much. It’s recognisably a ‘desert,’ but as deserts go, it’s not so bad. Not much of anything grows in Lentimas Town. Clearly a forest surrounded the town at one point, but those trees look long dead. I get the sense people only live there out of sheer obstinacy. All of this, I think, is intentional on the part of the game designers, and provides a nice contrast to the fairly idealised cities we see in the rest of Unova, where everyone’s needs are easily met. It’s sort of a shame that not much of anything actually happens in Lentimas Town, because it could make a pretty fun backdrop for a battle against Team Plasma or similar, or even a Gym battle. Although there’s little of interest in the town itself, we do soon find something worth closer investigation just outside it…

The slopes of Reversal Mountain are inhabited by a variety of Pokémon that remind me again of Hoenn, since many of them are associated with the volcanic ecosystems around Mount Chimney – Numel, Spoink, and Skarmory, as well as a couple of desert Pokémon like Trapinch. We hack our way through to the main tunnel entrance, but realise there’s more to explore outside the mountain. Passing east through a long, overgrown defile, we find our way to a large, abandoned house, built in the same style as those in Lentimas Town. We scratch our heads over the place for a moment. It looks like it ought to be part of Lentimas Town, but it’s set so far away – whoever lived here didn’t want to be bothered. What’s more, the owner must have been quite wealthy; the building is much larger than any of those in the town. We consider ignoring it and getting on with our quest, until we remember that our quest is currently to find and talk to a couple of Dragon masters who probably aren’t going anywhere. I give a disarming smile and suggest that Jim take point; after all, there’s no telling what might have caused this place to be abandoned.

The house is a wreck inside, with furniture strewn everywhere, and seems to be infested with Ghost Pokémon. I call Barristan to keep them at bay, and we attempt to pick our way around the detritus to search for some clue to the owners’ fate. Most of the rooms are blocked off, but we do find a library downstairs. The reading material is surprisingly morbid – most of it details the sinister powers of a variety of Ghost- and Psychic-type Pokémon. Who would collect books like this, and why? When we emerge from the library, we find that almost all of the scattered furniture has been rearranged – by Ghost Pokémon trying to psych us out? Maybe not. We catch sight of what appears to be a human ghost, a little girl, muttering something about a dream of darkness and trying to find her parents and her Abra. We try to follow her, but find our path blocked by more piles of rubbish. We stumble across a couple of other Pokémon trainers hanging out – a backpacker simply exploring the place, and a decidedly nutty psychic who seems to be using the area’s latent energy as a power source. Both are singularly unhelpful in figuring out anything about the house’s former occupants. Every time we turn around, though, more debris has moved, and different rooms open up while others are sealed off. We catch another glimpse of the dead girl, who talks about hearing her father’s voice in her dream, and mentions something about the Lunar Wing – the powerful dream talisman associated with the crescent moon Pokémon, Cresselia. Hmm. With only one room left unexplored, we consider calling on all our Pokémon to shove aside the immense, ugly credenza blocking the doorway, but think better of it. Instead, we simply turn our backs on it and close our eyes. A moment later, there is a thunk, and we turn back to see that the door is clear. Entering the room, we find it rather differently furnished to all the other rooms in the building, and also substantially better lit. The light, Jim soon points out, is coming from a sparkling golden feather lying in the centre of the room. Gesturing to him to cover me in case something horrifying happens, I edge closer to the feather and pick it up. The ghost of the little girl appears. She explains to us that the Lunar Wing will be no help to her now, but urges us to return it to the Pokémon it came from, who will be waiting on a bridge. She disappears before we can ask for clarification.

So what happened here? It seems like the little girl must have fallen under Darkrai’s nightmare curse, prompting her family to research possible causes for her affliction and a way to cure it, hence the library. Clearly, they succeeded and found the Lunar Wing – so why, then, is her ghost haunting the place? Why was the house abandoned? Why was the Lunar Wing left behind? The only explanation I can think of is that the Lunar Wing didn’t work for some reason, and the girl died. Maybe she was already too far gone by the time her family found the talisman – or, perhaps even more unsettling, maybe it wasn’t Darkrai’s curse at all but something else that had similar symptoms?

More could have been made of this place, but I like it – the atmosphere is suitably eerie, and unlike the Old Chateau of Diamond and Pearl, it gives you a mystery to investigate and think about. If nothing else, it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than Lentimas Town proper.

I stash the Lunar Wing in my backpack. I have no idea where I’m supposed to take it, but I figure it’s not too much effort to take it out and wave around it in the air whenever I’m on a bridge. Jim and I put the abandoned house behind us and return to Reversal Mountain. Almost immediately upon entering, we encounter Bianca. She has a research project in the works here, and apparently needs our help with it. Bianca is studying Reversal Mountain in the hopes of learning something about Heatran, the legendary volcano Pokémon whose life force is supposedly tied to its home’s volcanic activity. She can’t get through the tunnels on her own, though – the Pokémon are too strong. She offers us her services as a healer if we will agree to be her bodyguards, and promises that she and her Musharna will do their best to pull their weight. We consent with a shrug. Reversal Mountain turns out to be a bog standard cave, really – albeit with a little more lava. We find the heart of the volcano, which is depressingly empty, and Bianca murmurs something about a Magma Stone (the item used in calling Heatran) to herself while taking some notes. I think she had been hoping to find the stone here, or at least somewhere in Reversal Mountain, but although we scour every inch of the place, it doesn’t turn up. Eventually, Jim and I grow bored and decide to leave through the eastern tunnels to Undella Town. Bianca stays behind – doubtless she wants to keep trying to summon Heatran and take its power for herself – and gives us a cheery farewell as we leave the stifling tunnels of the volcano behind us.

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.