A fortnight from now is the final Video Game Championships of Pokémon generation five. Generation five will come to a close three years after the generation began, and two years earlier than generation four.
Although it’s had a shorter lifespan than its predecessor, that hasn’t made it any less fun. With two consecutive story lines packed into the games, it has already outstripped the previous generation in terms of content. While the Pokémon stories obviously aren’t very deep or involved, it’s nice to see something new in terms of story progression. In particular the characters who grow, learn, and change their roles according to what they learn in the first game. Namely, Cheren and Bianca, my two personal favourite characters of this generation.
While not particularly complicated, theirs is a sweet little story about growing up and learning the path you want to travel in life. Cheren with his pursuit of strength ultimately leading him to become a gym leader, and Bianca’s love for learning about, and discovering Pokémon driving her to become an assistant to the region’s professor.
I know I tend to let my imagination run a little wild when it comes to characters like this, as evidenced by the image I’ve chosen on the left. It takes me to places the creators never intended, but that at least is the truth of their place in the story. Pokémon is never going to have the kind of romantic story that I crave, so the romance between childhood friends off on an adventure together will have to stay locked up with the rest of my crazy fanboy theories.
On a more personal note, this is the third consecutive generation in which I’ve been able to keep and expand my collection of Pokémon.
My personal team is never going to win any kind of award for competitive battling but there’s a decade of history there, with my oldest Pokémon, Aniel, being ten years old now. I suppose Evil and Blade would be older if they were their original incarnations, but since you cannot transfer from the second generation to the third, they’re not really the same.
Ten years and sixty-six ribbons later I’ve done everything that’s possible to do in Pokémon, yet I’m still prepared for more. Come this October, that’s exactly what I’ll get.
Pokémon X and Y were announced at the beginning of the year by Satoru Iwata, (mostly) to the jubilation of Pokémon fans around the world. This marks a major change for the franchise which will see the games move away from the sprite based field and battles that have been a mainstay of the series since its inception, and into a fully 3D environment. Along with a new location, new characters, and a range of new Pokémon, as would be expected from a new generation.
One particular feature that is especially noteworthy for me, is customization. This has been something I’ve wanted in the games for a long time, and at last I’ll be able to change the hair colour and the attire of my trainer to more suit my personal tastes. I’m sure you’ve noticed the custom trainer sprite on my banner and in the image above, and I’d absolutely love to be able to make that a reality. Let’s just hope they have plenty of long red coats and few top hats.
My excitement is palpable, and every day that sees us receive new tid-bits of information only serves to keep me in ever increasing anticipation. Not only for the new features that the game has to offer, but for the continued adventures of the friends I’ve raised and cared for since 2003, and the new world and characters in which I can lose myself.
Graphically, the game is a superb mix of classic sprites, beautifully rendered maps, hand drawn character artwork, and 3D, fully animated combat. The high quality symphonic score is a joy to listen to, and particularly noteworthy is the rousing main theme of Fire Emblem, which never fails to spur me onward and bring a tear to my eye.
There has been slight controversy for Fire Emblem fans in the west, who have had parts of the game undergo light censorship that has varied by region; The Harvest Scramble map in Europe, and the Summer Scramble map in the United States, both of which are paid content. While not game breaking in any way, it is of note that the censored content is the main selling point of the downloadable content in question.