POKEMON GOLD!!! POKEMON SILVER!!!
With these long-awaited statements, I'll begin the first of what I intend
to be a running "progress report" on these brand new games. I'll also let
everyone know the new Pokemon as I discover them or they evolve, and provide
readers with the new numbers as well.
THE PACKAGES...
The games are provided in gold and silver metallic printed boxes, and
for the first time, the "The Pocket Monster Trainer" circle logo is gone.
The Gold game has the legendary "rainbow" Pokemon that Satoshi/Ash saw
flying away in episode 1 of the anime on its cover and in the game opening
screens, and the Silver cover and game features the legendary Pokemon Lugia
(seen in last summer's movie). Pretty packaging. No maps are included with
these games.
GETTING STARTED...
When you turn on the game, besides a new Game Freak logo opening, there are a series of brand new animated Opening scenes with new music (and the scenes vary with Gold or Silver). One deadly funny OP vignette included a Purin (Jigglypuff) singing, then getting tackled and knocked off stage by a Pikachu!
The games are fully designed for Game Boy Color use, and the screens look spectacular in every aspect with great shading and nice animation effects in color.
When you start, you have to tell the game what time of day it is (morning, afternoon, or night), and later, what day of the week it is... you see, in these new games, some Pokemon only come out at night, and others only during certain times of the day!
As before, you'll meet Dr. Okido (Professor Oak) in the opening, and either make up your own character name (hiragana or katakana), or pick from a list of "Gold", "Hiroki", "Tetsuo", or "Takashi". Depending on the version you're playing, the names are different as well- in the Silver game, you can be called "Silver", "Tohru", etc.
The world is different in this game as well. Place names include "Fusube City" "Yoshino City", "Kikyou City" "Ruins of Alph" "Hiwada Town" "Kogane City", "Enju City", "Asagi City", "Uzumaki Island", "Tonba City" "Madatsubomi Tower" "Dragon Cave", and several other locations.
As a delightful surprise, Dr. Okido (Professor Oak) does pop up in this
game periodically, but your main advisor is a new character, Dr. Utsugi.
As with the "regular" Pokemon games, you must pick one of three Pokemon
as your starter... a Chicolita (No 152, a Grass Pokemon that looks like
a 4-legged chick with a leaf on its head), a Hinoarashi (No 155, a Fire
Pokemon which looks like a mole with a flaming crest on its back),
or a Waninoko (No 158, a Water Pokemon that looks like a blue mini-Godzilla).
ITEMS...
Gone is the "Pokedex"... you wear a backpack (and have lots of different places/screens to store things), and a new high-tech "all-in-one" device is assigned to you, called a "Pokegear". The Pokegear functions as a cell phone (so you can call your mom, Professor Okido, Professor Utsugi, or others), a map display, etc. It will be upgraded as the game progresses, and you can add features to it as you discover them (this eliminates the need to include things like the Map in your inventory). You carry the "Zukan" separately, but the Pokegear gives you the detailed data on your Pokemon in-hand. And also tells you what time it is...Don't bother trying to "reset" the game clock like people did with Tamagotchi to stagger your catching hours- you aren't allowed to change that once the game starts <g>.
Masaki (Bill)'s PC (as well as yours) and the storage boxes are back with new, highly readable displays of the contents, and the Pokemon Centers have a new look with Nurse Joy behind the counter (in hat) at all times. Pokemon Shops (Pokemarts) may actually vary their inventory at times, so you need to drop in once in a while to see if something different has been added to the list.
Lots of familiar items like Kizugutsuri (Potions), Fushigi ame (Rare
Candy), etc. are here for your discovery, purchase, and utilization; but
you also might find trees that give you "Kinomi" fruits (which restore
health and powers) and other unique things.
GET DA ZE!
Battles are even more fun now; while they have the same format, you now also get a bar beneath the "hit meter" bar that gives you a visual record of how much more experience your Pokemon needs before it levels up. You see the bar fill as you win battles. There are also some new animations that are lots of fun and great to see in color (for example, Chicolita gains Razor Leaf early on, and it's a wonderful little animated sequence to see it used).
When a Pokemon is captured, the new Pokeball catching animation is really cool to watch (lots different- the ball actually splits and "claps down" on the Pokemon, then change color if the capture is successful). Speaking of Pokeballs, besides the usual Monster Balls, Hyper Balls, Super Balls, and Master Ball (s?), there are two new ones- "Lure Balls" and "Speed Balls". More on those later...
And a mystery has been solved- all Pokemon in this game are available in male AND female sexes... and breeding will be possible. Sometimes a whole new "precursor" Pokemon may appear (Guess what? Pikachu is actually the second evolved stage of our favorite Pokemon! The different-looking "baby" progenitor is called a "Pichu")! Different sexes, by the way, don't change the overall Pokemon numbers in this game (even though they were different for the Nidoran male/female).
Many "old" Pokemon are in the game too- I've already encountered male
and female Korattas (Rattatas). There are tons of "wild grass" areas to
find Pokemon in this world, too. Wonder what will be hiding in some of
these grasses in the morning or the daylight?
BADGES!!
And of course, let's not forget that you have Gym Leaders to battle.
Four ladies, four gentlemen. The Wing Badge, Insect Badge, Regular
Badge, Phantom Badge, Shock Badge, Steel Badge, Ice Badge, and Rising Badge...
and of course, a championship to earn.
PROGRESS, DAY 1:
I've begun with Gold; Sarah wanted to try Silver, so I'll let her work through that one later. Since she doesn't read Japanese, I suggested she let me go into Gold for a while so I can help her in the early stages.
Since I started at night, I've already caught a male and female Hou-hou (#163), run into a new spider Pokemon (the Itomaru, #167), and gotten a rare Egg from Dr. Okido, which Dr. Itsugi says I need to take to one of the cities to get analyzed. (Bet I know which Pokemon it'll be, but be warned- there are other eggs in this game as well!) The Chicolina has leveled up to 11 already, and I'm just starting to give the Hou-hous experience.
Monsterballs aren't available for purchase until you've been given some by Utsugi's aide, and then you can buy more at Shops. I've already met my mysterious Rival (who you can name yourself- I called him Shigeru after the one in the first game)- who tends to be rather rough on my in-game character, knocking him around, kicking him in the rear end, etc. Since I picked the Chicolita, he took the Hinoarashi.
I like it a lot so far, and Gold so far is as refreshing and satisfying to play as Red and Blue were a year ago- if not more.
Watch this space tomorrow for a further progress report.
--Richard