BW/BW2 Was BW's post-game really that bad?

Chariblaze

Chariblaze

When you add it all up...
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I've heard a lot of people say it was underwhelming in some way, but there's never been any real elaboration other than it's boring. Granted, it's not GSC or HGSS material, but is there anything that makes it worse than DPP post-game? Were the expectations really high or something?
 
I think the big thing is that there isn't some way of challenging the trainers standing out in the open in various places in Black/White, and because Pokémon Musicals are very uninvolved.

For the former, Gold and Silver had the cell phone, which allowed you to call trainers or them to call you for rematches, which returned in HeartGold/SoulSilver. Ruby and Sapphire had the PokéNav, whose Trainer's Eye function was very similar. FireRed/LeafGreen and Emerald got the Vs. Seeker, which allowed you to go places and challenge trainers again. Diamond/Pearl kept that and provided you with even more trainers. Black and White is the first pair of main series games to not have a rematch function in three generations, so it'd feel empty because of that. There are also a lot of towns that don't really have any post-game purpose, like Opelucid City and Lacunosa Town (the latter which you can only visit post game, so there's no purpose for that town at all except a destination to use Fly to).

For the former, Pokémon Contests always had you inputting something in to keep your Pokémon in the competition, and you could take pretty much any Pokémon, feed them PokéBlocks or Poffins, and win contests that way. The Pokéthlon was a step up, being more like a series of touch screen minigames, which people tend to like, if the Pokémon Stadium games have been any indication. The Pokémon Musicals are entirely about preparation. You put a bunch of stuff of the corresponding catrgory on the Pokémon, sit back and watch sprites wiggle about the screen for 3 minutes, and watch the results. Pokémon Musicals are also unfair as there is an uneven number of possible things to equip between Pokémon--if you don't bring in a Pokémon with two arms/hands and two legs/feet, you're not going to win. Bring in a Pokémon with no appendages like Voltorb or Crygonal and you'll place last every time. There are people into Pokémon Contests and Pokéthlons, and they can add a lot of replay value into a Pokémon post-game. But Pokémon Musicals are really dry and are really only worth seeing for the novelty.
 
I agree with this, fully.
Ophie said:
I think the big thing is that there isn't some way of challenging the trainers standing out in the open in various places in Black/White, and because Pokémon Musicals are very uninvolved.

For the former, Gold and Silver had the cell phone, which allowed you to call trainers or them to call you for rematches, which returned in HeartGold/SoulSilver. Ruby and Sapphire had the PokéNav, whose Trainer's Eye function was very similar. FireRed/LeafGreen and Emerald got the Vs. Seeker, which allowed you to go places and challenge trainers again. Diamond/Pearl kept that and provided you with even more trainers. Black and White is the first pair of main series games to not have a rematch function in three generations, so it'd feel empty because of that. There are also a lot of towns that don't really have any post-game purpose, like Opelucid City and Lacunosa Town (the latter which you can only visit post game, so there's no purpose for that town at all except a destination to use Fly to).

For the former, Pokémon Contests always had you inputting something in to keep your Pokémon in the competition, and you could take pretty much any Pokémon, feed them PokéBlocks or Poffins, and win contests that way. The Pokéthlon was a step up, being more like a series of touch screen minigames, which people tend to like, if the Pokémon Stadium games have been any indication. The Pokémon Musicals are entirely about preparation. You put a bunch of stuff of the corresponding catrgory on the Pokémon, sit back and watch sprites wiggle about the screen for 3 minutes, and watch the results. Pokémon Musicals are also unfair as there is an uneven number of possible things to equip between Pokémon--if you don't bring in a Pokémon with two arms/hands and two legs/feet, you're not going to win. Bring in a Pokémon with no appendages like Voltorb or Crygonal and you'll place last every time. There are people into Pokémon Contests and Pokéthlons, and they can add a lot of replay value into a Pokémon post-game. But Pokémon Musicals are really dry and are really only worth seeing for the novelty.
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Honestly, I found it pretty lacking. I put so many extra hours into Pearl/Platinum/Soul Silver in the postgame, while in Black I practically stopped after the storyline. It really was underwhelming.
 
But how was it underwhelming? All right, I see that many wanted something like Contests and Trainer rematches, but was there anything really missing aside from that? Was the eastern side of Unova not enough?
 
I gave my two cents, but I suppose it's worth giving another.

I really liked eastern Unova. But it felt wasted. Lacunosa Town was pretty much useless except as a Fly destination. I liked that it gave some backstory to Kyurem, but once you got it, you were pretty much done with the town. Undella Town, for a beach resort, felt lonely, even during the summer, and except for Cynthia and her guests, the town is pretty uninvolved once you defeat all six of that battling family. Black City and White Resort demand that you keep visiting them once you have people coming in from other people's games or they'd leave, and it got REALLY repetitive. Of the eastern Unova locations, I personally found Village Bridge, of all places, to be the most interesting one, since there's that berry memorization mini-game and how you can talk to people to modify the music.

I do feel that there is still at least more post-game content than the 1st-generation games and, besides trainer rematches, the 2nd- and 3rd-generation games. However, the 4th-generation games were absolutely packed. From Jubilife City and onwards, there is at least one thing in each place. Jubilife City has the TV lottery and the Global Terminal. Oreburgh City has the museum and fossil restoration. Floaroma Town is your main source for Underground decorations. Eterna City has the Nate Rater. Hearthome has the Contest Hall. Solaceon has the Day Care Center. Veilstone City has the Game Corner. Pastoria City has the Safari Zone. Canalave City has the boar that takes you to other islands. Snowpoint City has Snowpoint Temple and the old man with the trendy words. And the northeast island has the Battle Tower/Frontier. That just leaves Celestic Town and Sunyshore City. In addition, there's the restaurant and resort, Pal Park, and the Sinoh Underground.

By comparison, Unova seems somewhat empty. It really isn't--they just put a whole bunch of stuff in a small geographic area. Practically everything is in Castelia City, Nimbasa City, or Striaton City and the surrounding areas. There isn't much of a reason to go anywhere else, so it feels like a lot of wasted space.
 
Ophie said:
I gave my two cents, but I suppose it's worth giving another.

I really liked eastern Unova. But it felt wasted. Lacunosa Town was pretty much useless except as a Fly destination. I liked that it gave some backstory to Kyurem, but once you got it, you were pretty much done with the town. Undella Town, for a beach resort, felt lonely, even during the summer, and except for Cynthia and her guests, the town is pretty uninvolved once you defeat all six of that battling family. Black City and White Resort demand that you keep visiting them once you have people coming in from other people's games or they'd leave, and it got REALLY repetitive. Of the eastern Unova locations, I personally found Village Bridge, of all places, to be the most interesting one, since there's that berry memorization mini-game and how you can talk to people to modify the music.

I do feel that there is still at least more post-game content than the 1st-generation games and, besides trainer rematches, the 2nd- and 3rd-generation games. However, the 4th-generation games were absolutely packed. From Jubilife City and onwards, there is at least one thing in each place. Jubilife City has the TV lottery and the Global Terminal. Oreburgh City has the museum and fossil restoration. Floaroma Town is your main source for Underground decorations. Eterna City has the Nate Rater. Hearthome has the Contest Hall. Solaceon has the Day Care Center. Veilstone City has the Game Corner. Pastoria City has the Safari Zone. Canalave City has the boar that takes you to other islands. Snowpoint City has Snowpoint Temple and the old man with the trendy words. And the northeast island has the Battle Tower/Frontier. That just leaves Celestic Town and Sunyshore City. In addition, there's the restaurant and resort, Pal Park, and the Sinoh Underground.

By comparison, Unova seems somewhat empty. It really isn't--they just put a whole bunch of stuff in a small geographic area. Practically everything is in Castelia City, Nimbasa City, or Striaton City and the surrounding areas. There isn't much of a reason to go anywhere else, so it feels like a lot of wasted space.
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What about the Abyssal Ruins at Undella Bay? I thought those were pretty fun.
 
If you have the event Shaymin (or the one from Platinum), you can get the Gracidea in Lacunosa Town... although after that, it becomes useless again...

btw, Sunyshore City actually has something. The daily Ribbons and the Pokéball seals. Not very important but still...
 
As a Contest aficionado, you can imagine my disappointment in Pokemon Musicals. Ophie (who is a lot more eloquent about this than I) laid out why BW's postgame was severely lacking.

As an aside, the Abyssal Ruins are largely a waste unless you're bent on getting all the items (or all Arceus' Plates). It was fun because ooh, diving, but given that you were on a timer made it less about enjoying yourself and more about oh god which way do I go, is that a dead end or not, where in the name of cupcakes is the next part?

The lack of VS Seeker (or an acceptable substitute) is part of what ruined it for me. Yes, you can challenge the Elite Four endlessly, but it's painfully repetitive. That's not to say that RPGs in general aren't buried in monotony, but BW has so little to do (and what is done is crammed into like 2 towns) that a lot of it seems like a waste.

I will say that I'm at least glad the story kind of continued during the post game. It sets the stage for BW2 quite nicely, so it'll be interesting to see how they handle it.
 
Seriously people?

No VS Seeker / PokéGear / Pokénav = Nimbasa City Sport Halls & Royal Unova gather trainers you can battle. MUCH better than Pokénav and PokéGear (where you have to call or wait for calls) and arguably better then the VS Seeker. (It's not like you went around with the VS Seeker battling all different trainers. :p I battled only the rich people on Route 212.)
´
Ophie said:
From Jubilife City and onwards, there is at least one thing in each place. Jubilife City has the TV lottery and the Global Terminal. Oreburgh City has the museum and fossil restoration. Floaroma Town is your main source for Underground decorations. Eterna City has the Nate Rater. Hearthome has the Contest Hall. Solaceon has the Day Care Center. Veilstone City has the Game Corner. Pastoria City has the Safari Zone. Canalave City has the boar that takes you to other islands. Snowpoint City has Snowpoint Temple and the old man with the trendy words. And the northeast island has the Battle Tower/Frontier. That just leaves Celestic Town and Sunyshore City. In addition, there's the restaurant and resort, Pal Park, and the Sinoh Underground.

By comparison, Unova seems somewhat empty. It really isn't--they just put a whole bunch of stuff in a small geographic area. Practically everything is in Castelia City, Nimbasa City, or Striaton City and the surrounding areas. There isn't much of a reason to go anywhere else, so it feels like a lot of wasted space.
Click to expand...
Is this a joke?
Let's look at the daily/weekly events.
Royal Unova, Nimbasa halls, Undella's rich family (Protip: loose the last fight on purpose! Ka-ching! $_$), GameFreak-battle, Opelucid special battle, Ferris Wheel.
BW City/Forest, fossils, rare item hunter, Pokémon outbreaks, meteor splitting, TM-girl, free weatherstone, Patrat-game, Quiz Family, waiter's job, bring-me-a-type-X-Pokémon, fish-me-a-Pokémon, massage.
Musharna (Friday), item-trading in Anville (weekend), Café Warehouse special (Wednesday), Casteliacone (Tuesday), Black Empoleon (Tubeline Bridge / Friday night), Bianca battle (weekend), Lacunosa's secret (Sunday night).
Ocassionally you can find a fallen lemoade (route 9), forest's offerings (route 12) and sea's offerings (various places). Or you can go take a look at the different trains in Anville every day. lol
Ask me if you want to know more about anything.
 
Infinity said:
What about the Abyssal Ruins at Undella Bay? I thought those were pretty fun.
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Yeah, but like the journey across eastern Unova, it's a one-time thing. Once you've grabbed all of the ancient treasures, it's done. There's nothing else to do that keeps going.

Metalizard said:
If you have the event Shaymin (or the one from Platinum), you can get the Gracidea in Lacunosa Town... although after that, it becomes useless again...

btw, Sunyshore City actually has something. The daily Ribbons and the Pokéball seals. Not very important but still...
Click to expand...

Ah right, I forgot about those.

Teal said:
Seriously people?

No VS Seeker / PokéGear / Pokénav = Nimbasa City Sport Halls & Royal Unova gather trainers you can battle. MUCH better than Pokénav and PokéGear (where you have to call or wait for calls) and arguably better then the VS Seeker. (It's not like you went around with the VS Seeker battling all different trainers. :p I battled only the rich people on Route 212.)
Click to expand...

Actually, I did--I went all around the region looking for those whose Pokémon increased up to the 50s and 60s and remembered all of their locations. The Nimbasa City arenas and the Royal Unova do get repetitive to me, and if I just battled those Gentlemen and Socialites on Route 212, I'd get really bored too. I like having a change of scenery.

Kind of like how when I'm hatching eggs, I go far, far off from the Day Care Center. Volcarona makes it a lot easier for me this time around, as it's got Flame Body AND can learn Fly.

I think traveling around the regions is a big part of what makes post-game Pokémon appealing--you're always seeing different things around you.

Teal said:
´Is this a joke?
Let's look at the daily/weekly events.
Royal Unova, Nimbassa halls, Undella's rich family (Protip: loose the last fight on purpose! Ka-ching! $_$), GameFreak-battle, Opelucid special battle, Ferris Wheel.
BW City/Forest, fossils, rare item hunter, Pokémon outbreaks, meteor splitting, TM-girl, free weatherstone, Patrat-game, Quiz Family, waiter's job, bring-me-a-type-X-Pokémon, fish-me-a-Pokémon, massage.
Musharna (Friday), item-trading in Anville (weekend), Café Warehouse special (Wednesday), Casteliacone (Tuesday), Black Empoleon (Tubeline Bridge / Friday night), Bianca battle (weekend), Lacunosa's secret (Sunday night).
Ocassionally you can find a fallen lemoade (route 9), forest's offerings (roure 12) and sea's offerings (various places). Or you can go take a look at the different trains in Anville every day. lol
Ask me if you want to know more about anything.
Click to expand...

See, most of those are either exhaustible (the family if you've beaten the last one), lose their point after some time (the swarms once you've gotten them all), are pointless to begin with (the warehouse special--it's a Soda Pop), or are trial-and-error (beachcombing). Once you've seen everything, you're still left with Accumula Town, Mistralton City, Icirrus City, Lacunosa Town, and to an extent Driftveil City with nothing to do in those places. And Challenger Cave, which looks to be completely pointless. There's no incentive to collect things because most of them are not particularly involved. And any trainer battles with low-level Pokémon are impractical because you're given a Lucky Egg throughout the course of the game, so you can go beat up Audinos or the people with Level 50-60 Pokémon in Nimbasa and Royal Unova if you want to train a new Pokémon and do it faster that way, making Opelucid City, Tubeline Bridge, Nuvema Town, and eastern Nimbasa as pointless as well.
---
Note that all this does not mean I dislike Black/White. In fact, it is one of my favorites. Rather, it feels like there was a lot that could've been in there but wasn't. That's why I look forward to Black 2 and White 2--I think it'll be more complete with a more even distribution of post-game content.

I'd like to see the Pokémon Musicals become more minigame like, like with the Contests and the Pokéthlon; and perhaps some item-collecting mini-games like Sinnoh Underground.
 
I have found the B/W post-game play lacking at first, but have warmed up to the end game content.

When I first got Black I took my time finishing it. I wanted to see how they did the story and all the new pokemon. After I finished the game, I had such high expectations that what there is of the end game content made me sad on the inside and outside : (

I left the game for a few months (aprx 9months) and have come back to the game. I still find it wanting when it comes to end game content. I loved the Underground in DPP, and how many different kinds of rematches there were in the previous generations. Nimbasa City's Ball parks are great and convenient but I do like a challenge too.
 
Chariblaze said:
Granted, it's not GSC or HGSS material, but is there anything that makes it worse than DPP post-game?
Click to expand...

Call me crazy, but I feel DPPt's post-game content is a lot stronger (or at least more entertaining?) than GSC/HGSS's post-game content. But this isn't the thread for that, plus I suppose it's mostly opinion anyway.

There have been many points brought up already that I would have said, so I'll just keep my post short:

I think the biggest issue I had with Black/White's post-game is the lack of VS. Seeker. Like Ophie, I actually did go around to all of the trainers I could fight and battled them again. The Sports Halls are nice, but it's all crammed into one city. Being forced to go around an entire region to re-battle trainers may be tedious to some, but to me it made the region feel a lot bigger and it made every inch of the region matter.

The other issue I had is, as has been said already, there are too many places in Black/White that there's no reason to return to other than sight-seeing. (And that's coming from someone who does enjoy visiting areas just to look around.) There are tiny little daily events here and there (some of which are pretty cool), but a lot of them feel lacking. (I'd write more but this was meant to be short and I've gotta sign off.)
 
Yeah, I stopped playing White after I beat the game. I didn't really fined the post-game to be that interesting. Although I did find myself playing random matches quite a lot after I beat the game.
 
Okay, so. Here's my little opinion/say in this whole thing.

I have to admit, White was the first Pokémon game I have ever played. It's how I got into it. (I /just/ started playing SoulSilver again [it got sucked up by the vacuum a couple years back, lol. v.v], yet I cannot remember what part I'm on. Oh well. That's not the point.) Since WHITE was my first game I've played, there's really no . . . experience? I have with the previous games. Thus, I can't be a 100% opinionated person on the subject of "Did BW's post-game suck?". But what I can do is give some of my thoughts on the post-game of White (the game I have) and its attributes.




My adventure started on 8/21/11 with Oshawott as my starter, and it was finished on 8/23/11.
The Pokemon which accompanied me on said adventure were . . .


Deception the Zekrom, lv. 50
Titus the Samurott, lv. 65
Bobby the Sawsbuck, lv. 34
Chief the Rufflett, lv. 46
Leafy the Leavanny, lv. 50
and last, but not least (^^;)
Static the Zebstrika, lv. 54


The number of Pokémon caught was (and still is!) extremely low, due to me and my noobish tendencies with this game. I kept saying to myself, "How do you even do this?" and "Why do people get into this so heavily? IT'S SO CONFUSING!!!" But shortly after finishing the game, I got a hang of it. It was really exiting: beating my first Pokemon game, and in 2 days, no less! It sorta lost all the zest a couple months later, though. I stopped playing for a while and only recently just picked it back up to start right back up from where I left off. My number of caught Pokémon in the Unova 'dex is 75 and the number of seen is 144. The number of caught Pokémon in the national 'dex is 147 and the number seen is 440. Again, noobish tendencies. Yes, I've been diligently working away at this game since December, but the post-game lost all of its 'oomph!' for me. I know a lot of the Pokémon, so I don't really have an urge to complete the National 'Dex, the battles have just lost all excitement and . . . I don't know. It just got boring. "//​
 
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