Pokemon Pearl Impressions
After a long wait, at long last, I picked up my copy of Pokemon Pearl today. Having reserved it nearly two months ago, I received my Palkia topped stylus (which, for the record, is much bigger than you'd expect from the pictures) and the salesgirl practically forced the plastic blue holder into my hands, giving me the impression that the promotion left the store with quite the surplus.
Still twitching imperceptibly from my morning coffee, I switched out my disc of the very great Lunar Knights for my shiny new Pokemon Pearl game and pressed power. Follow the jump for the rest of my first impressions of the game.
From the opening images, you get an impression of the visuals of the game. Much of Game Freak's visual aesthetic throughout the series is the same. Small, clean, cartoony images that border on the boring in their simplicity, yet are pleasing to the player. Not to say there aren't any graphical advancements. 3-D is present in a very subtle manner that doesn't clash with the game's look.
Gameplay is how you would expect, but the menu system has been completely revamped. This is the most impressive new element. No longer are you tracking back and forth throughout a oddly organized series of menus to find the item you are looking for or the area in which your selected pokemon can be found. The use of the stylus really speeds things along, and easy to understand large buttons with clear icons on them make traversing the new system quite satisfying and intuitive.
The new monsters are some of the best designs yet, making gathering them quite addictive, especially when one can go into the "underground" portion of the game and run the gamut in activities in an entirely Wi-Fi environment. This is the real achievement of GF and Nintendo, making the game a social network that brings the kids (and stunted folk like myself) back to see who he/she can chat with, fight, trade, and just plain goof around with. We're looking, essentially, at the first real DS MMORPG.
I'm only a few hours into the game and have captured seven pokemon, but I've clearly found a game I will enjoy devoting large chunks of my life on, especially when riding the train, clearly should be working, standing in line at the grocery store, and dare I say it? while in the WC.
Pirate Prince
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 3 May 2007
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: gamefreak, impressions, nintendo ds, pokemon pearl
I found that when I started playing I was thinking, "This is nice. I get to play a more updated Pokemon game again. It's just Pokemon. But that's ok."
Then as I progressed there was something new and exciting in almost every town. The WiFi trading area. WiFi battles. Double WiFi battles. Double Co-op WiFi battles. WiFi berry blending. WiFi underground fossil digging. The GBA to DS migration with the extended Pokedex (and the minigame involved with re-catching those.)
They've done a fantastic job with a game that looks just as simple as the rest at first glance, but is deceivingly deep once you get into it.
Great impressions, Pirate Prince. I found myself agreeing with most of the things stated above. This is my first venture into the land of Pokemon, so I have nothing but my previous turn-based RPGs to compare this with.
I'm loving the character art and monster design. I get the feeling that I'm not exactly doing everything the way I should be doing them, but I'm still able to progress. I'm about 5 hours in, with one gym trainer badge thingy headed to go get a bike. Am I going as slow as I think I am?
You all may find this quite ridiculous indeed, but I have spent nearly 24 hours - a whole day! - worth of time on this game and I've barely gotten the fourth badge. So much of this time has been spent trading, battling and doing little 'side-quests' such as digging, baking, and breeding. I've been playing Pokemon ever since I had my little hands on Blue, Red and yes... Yellow too. This is, not surprisingly, the best to date... and guess what? Pokemon can only get better from here on out.
The menu system and stylus support really make this a great system to use. The gameplay is a little too old school at times but the GTS system is probably the best thing they did on this. And later as many can attest this does feel like a puesdo MMORPG with the large amount of Wi-Fi abilities in game. I love this game a lot. And thanks to GTS and Migration will most likely have a full pokedex this time around.
I am enjoying my Pokemon game to the fullest as well Prince. I haven't yet done all the WiFi stuff yet, nor have I had the chance.
And Game-Boi, don't worry. I have been playing for a total time of 4 hours, and I'm still on my way to get my bike. Basically, which I'm sure you are doing the same thing, I am leveling up all my Pokemon, trying to get them to at least level 20. I'm obsessive like that. But I, right now, only have 5 Pokemon [that I actually use].
Also, I have a question. Is it a bad idea to keep all the Pokemon on their first stage? Like, continue to not let them evolve? Are there any downsides to doing that?
Cory, the only downside is that your the stats of a lower evolution Pokemon won't be as high as if you let it evolve sooner. However, on the upside, your Pokemon will learn their moves much faster than if they evolved instead.
Got my second badge, making some pretty good headway on here. :) I find it funny you get the bike so early in this game too... I mean, what, you got it when you were halfway through in the original R/B/Y series?
I'm glad Pirate Prince has joined the Pokémon! I was one of the many waiting at the local game store at 8 AM for the store to open up and be one of the first to get it (and this was after being up until 4 A.M. in the morning the night before to program) since I've played through every generation (including the "half generation" of Fire Red/Leaf Green). I, myself, only have two badges because I've been running around in the small 1/2 hours every morning that I get to play so that I can recollect berries that grew over the past 24 hours, collect Pokémon from the honey trees, and enter the lottery at the TV station. Just running around amongst all of that consumes up the full half hour. I'm happy that I've at least managed to get the new Pokémon who composes together to be the cruelest of types, Stunky (Poison/Dark).
Hey PP,
Know why you shouldn't take a Pokémon into the bathroom with you?
He may "Pikachu"! ;) *ba dum ching*