Pokémon Black & White Asks the Impossible | Video Essay

[Music] mainstream video games are in a constant tug of war between their potential as an art form and their profitability as a product one game or set of games that starkly illustrates that conflict is pokemon black and white generation 5 was billed as a revamp of the pokemon franchise a fresh start for a series which though unbelievably successful was entering its teenage years and hearing more and more frequent criticisms on its repetitiveness and lack of experimentation the black and white versions promise to evolve and refine the pokemon formula bringing it into the new decade and when they arrived on japanese shelves in late 2010 they were met with widespread critical acclaim they received a rare perfect 40 out of 40 from the prestigious magazine famitsu among other reviews which largely praised the new direction of the series but despite the critic's approval it quickly became clear that the opinions of the playerbase of the long-time fans of the franchise were much more divided some of the specific ways gamefreak tried to combat the accusations of sameness proved very unpopular primarily the decision to include only brand new pokemon before the post game as well as the design choices of those new creatures there was a sort of reactionary backlash to these changes with many fans wishing for the halcyon days when the games were simpler when pokemon weren't inanimate objects or literal piles of garbage these complaints were shallow mostly and it's fun and easy to poke holes in them but they do represent the emotional truth that to many people black and white no longer felt like the pokemon that they grew up with that they loved and it's true that the fifth generation felt fundamentally different from its predecessors but it wasn't because there's a pokemon that looks like an ice cream cone it was the narrative never before had the series presented a storyline as ambitious and earnest as what's found in black and white while the gameplay and structure remain very familiar at the same time the games raise moral questions which threaten the very foundation of what pokemon is with that said how they develop those ideas is deeply flawed and falls short in some interesting ways that show how pokemon is pulled in many different and incompatible directions that is to say a truly great pokemon game is next to impossible welcome to reconstructed [Music] [Applause] [Music] pokemon have mysterious powers they come in many shapes and live in many different places we humans live happily with pokemon living and working together we complement each other having pokemon battle one another is particularly popular and it deepens the bonds between people and pokemon this quote is the first thing the player reads upon starting a new game spoken by professor juniper a friendly and trustworthy figure of authority the game wastes no time in establishing core ideas that we are supposed to internalize the relationship between people and pokemon is inherently codependent and also inherently good and that extends even to the practice of making them fight each other this is to be the foundation of the player's understanding of the world they navigate so if you've played even a single pokemon game you already know how all of them work the player is immediately given a starter pokemon and by traveling across the region they collect a diverse set of creatures the exclusive means of progression is to engage in battles where you have your team of monsters beat up someone else's in a combat system that while not without potential for a high degree of complexity is mostly just 17 way rock paper scissors the main objective is to collect eight badges from different cities and advance to the elite four all while competing with an ambitious rival character and a mostly unthreatening group of uniformed villains black and white keep all of that this is why some critics were unconvinced by the pitch that this was a new beginning for the franchise but there is i think undeniably a unique flavor to this generation and that starts with the world design this is the region of unova while the first four pokemon maps were each based on different regions of japan unova is loosely inspired by new york city like if you tilt it a little bit you can sort of see the resemblance the comparison is most obvious with castilia city the equivalent of lower manhattan complete with towering skyscrapers and bustling crowds it's hard 10 years later to convey how surprising and impressive it was to see a location like this in a mainline pokemon game at the time gamefreak had always been content with just telling us that these were the big metropolises in their respective regions but now we have a place that is convincingly massive and overwhelming the way the game plays with perspective and the camera in castilia especially across its spectacular entryway sky arrow bridge was unprecedented and demonstrates a clear ambition to expand the scope of what the setting for a pokemon game could be unlike more recent entries unova doesn't stick closely to the real world location at its core like come on i wonder what this group of tropical islands is supposed to represent obviously the bahamas so while there are a fair few elements of unova that are distinctly american there are probably more that aren't unless i missed the sandy desert in the middle of manhattan and the huge mountains in new jersey and the bronx this is because new york was not chosen for aesthetic reasons but rather for thematic ones game director junichi masuda said in a nintendo power interview i visited new york for the launch of pokemon diamond and pearl and spent a lot of time wandering around i was impressed with how many different nationalities of people lived there and the individual communities with their special events and street festivals it had such an international feel like a world without borders it seemed like it would be an ideal setting for a video game and that inspired me to give it a try what unova lifts most from the big apple is its diversity each corner of the region feels entirely distinct and while that may initially seem disjointed the game works hard to show how the strength of the region comes from the variety of lifestyles and perspectives it contains for example the gym leaders who are typically one-note stationary npcs actually interact with their environment and each other the castilia leader berg is a fancy artist who grew his career in the trendy neck green city before moving downtown but still maintains a relationship with the place he came up and the people who still live there after defeating the fourth gym the suave and chic supermodel elisa has to work together with the gruff mining tycoon play to lower a drawbridge so the player can advance these two are presented as friends with a mutual respect for each other despite being near total opposites and speaking of bridges they symbolize the connections between contrasting places and ideas unova's five bridges are its centerpieces complete with their own cut scenes unique music and camera tricks the connections are important and valuable they're what hold unova up and just in case you weren't getting the point black and white love to give random cookie cutter npcs these half-formed speeches about the value of diversity and you get it unova is a transparent and maybe didactic yet honest attempt at environmental storytelling the region itself is the evidence that you are right and the villains are wrong so let's talk about the villains team plasma are on the surface everything opposite to what unova represents they are uniform the lower ranking members indistinguishable from one another all parroting the same couple of lines they are intolerant of other viewpoints having one specific vision of how the world should be and they're willing to bully their way into making it happen regardless of the moral cost they are hierarchical each member strictly subservient to their superior all the way up to the king of team plasma and believe me we'll get to the king in a hot second because there's a lot going on there but as a group plasma are obviously evil their mastermind clearly untrustworthy and machiavellian and they are contrary to the theme of diversity being good that is the primary message of black and white story and this is fine i agree even variety in perspective and background strengthens a community sure it's all a sort of utopian caricature of what america is supposed to be in reality but this isn't the video to be getting into that things are not always so black and white and i get it this is a children's game after all so these themes are conveyed in simple enough ways for kids to get and they're good ideas for kids to understand but there's another layer to all this that makes it a million times messier and more complex and that's team plasma's stated goal they are not just looking to steal a bunch of money or take over the world they are advocating for pokemon liberation now remember that quote from the professor people and pokemon have to be together it's the very first concept delivered to the player and one that has gone unchallenged for generations of pokemon games before this black and white dares to confront the player with questions about the morality of the pokemon world and its systems this all centers around team plasma's memorable and enigmatic king [Music] as i've already mentioned there is a striking tonal difference between black and white and all previous pokemon entries this is not something that grows slowly over the course of the game rather it slaps you in the face every time you turn on your ds let me show you the intro movie to heartgold the 5th generation's immediate predecessor [Music] now here's black and white [Music] instead of presenting a happy bouncy adventure we are shown a strange and inscrutable scene of a mysterious character ascending to the throne of some secret society and then it presents a happy bouncy adventure the intro tells the player that yes this is still pokemon but also there is more at play here in these games there is a sense of mystery and intrigue unusual for the series who are these people who is this monarch with the long green hair in the second town in the game the player encounters team plasma for the first time their leader whose name is getsis delivers a dramatic speech in the plaza asking the townspeople if their relationship with pokemon is in reality exploitative all the while this very sinister music is playing [Music] in the third town you catch their henchmen physically abusing a baby pokemon while talking about their plans to exploit its power to manipulate other people not long after team plasma also robs a literal preschooler and steals fossils from a local museum like okay they're the bad guys we get it the game doesn't give you much of a chance to reflect on if getzes and his followers have a point because they are instantly exposed as hypocritical liars with an ulterior motive there is another character though who seems to shadow team plasma without being explicitly associated with them his name is n short for natural harmonia gropius yeah i'll just be calling him n throughout the first third of the story n a boy with long green hair pops up a few times to speak cryptically and confusingly to the player battle them quickly then disappear the game works to make every aspect of this character as distinctive as possible his theme music is memorable and chilling always overtaking the feeling of the scene whenever he enters the text speed of his dialogue is always as fast as possible no matter what the player set it to and the dialogue itself is bizarre and apparently having some sort of psychic connection with pokemon and able to communicate with them directly all the while he fixates on the idea of pokemon becoming perfect beings the mystery surrounding n is cleared up partially in nimbasa city he reappears to help you find team plasma who escaped into an amusement park after being comically evil as always they stole an old man's pokemon together you ride a ferris wheel ostensibly to get a better view instead and informs the player that he is the king of team plasma not their leader not their president their king now this is a frightening revelation it's hard to think of a more vulnerable position to be in than trapped in an enclosure hundreds of feet in the air with the king of a group that is no stranger to cruelty and violence but nothing bad happens you get safely to the bottom beat him in a typical pokemon battle and he smilingly challenges you to get the rest of the badges and defeat the pokemon league before he does or else he'll free every pokemon in the world this twist of ends true identity though quite predictable introduces a lot of nuance to the game's plot the villainous team who at first blush seems evil in an uncomplicated way in fact all serve under a character defined by his uniquely empathetic worldview a character who has had the opportunity to harm the player but has not shown any inclination to do so there is an interaction between n and professor juniper later in the game that sums up his ideology he says you appear to have no qualms about the relationship between pokemon and people you put pokemon into categories using arbitrary rules and think you can understand them like that the very idea of a pokedex revolts me you're saying i should just allow people to think whatever they want and treat pokemon however they want no matter what the pokemons suffer i refuse to tolerate the existence of a world like that n believes that the systems that make up the world around him from pokemon ownership to battling to scientific study are inherently harmful and the only course of action is to rewrite society with pokemon liberation if there are any questions about his sincerity which are fair given the clear hypocrisy of his supposed subordinates look no further than how he participates in the battles that he presents instead of keeping and training a static team of creatures like virtually every other recurring trainer character he recruits his pokemon on the fly his teams are simply pokemon found naturally in the area presumably because he used his powers to ask for help right there and his inability to compete without compromising his values to some degree is part of what spurs him to create change entering the final act and emerges as our primary antagonist even though he's been shown to be a principled compassionate person with a defensible set of views you the player character are equally talented equally kind equally convicted the conflict is not because one of you is bad and the other good but rather two extraordinary people finding themselves with incompatible worldviews this is really cool and gives voice to questions that have always lingered about the morality of this fictional space who will prevail if they compromise what will that look like these are questions that the game doesn't actually ask it likes to pretend that it gives n and the player character equal footing but it's a mirage dissipating as you approach and never really there to begin with let's talk about truth and ideals so obviously the twin pokemon versions of each generation tend to represent an archetypal set of opposites light and dark life and death land and sea i don't remember the fifth generation positions truth and ideals as those opposites pokemon black and its legendary reshiram represent truth while pokemon white and its legendary zekrom represent ideals or maybe it's switched i'm not 100 sure because the game isn't very clear on what it means by those terms whether n represents truth or ideals depends on which version you're playing but his personality motivations and backstory are the same all that changes are a few words in his pages of dialogue in this case the conventions of pokemon games only confuse the messaging so let's take a step back and analyze two other characters whose arcs exemplify what i believe the game tries to communicate with this strange dichotomy in black and white instead of one rival character you have two cheren and bianca they both start their journeys with you but have very different personalities and motivations the cheerful but scatterbrained bianca lacks confidence in her abilities but is nonetheless determined to see how far she can go and what she can learn charon on the other hand is serious ambitious and goal oriented he is laser focused on achieving his ideal of strength becoming the champion of the elite four over the course of the game both rivals grow in ways that make them more rounded people demonstrating the overarching theme of incorporating a range of values into how you live bianca's main conflict is with her father who sees her lack of natural aptitude for training pokemon as evidence she should not go on any sort of journey whatsoever she defies him though going off anyway and proves him wrong by becoming a competent trainer who successfully travels the whole region however as a battler she falls further and further behind her two competitors eventually putting more time into other endeavors like helping juniper with research bianca's truth is that she isn't destined to be a great trainer but by allowing herself to pursue that ideal anyway she learns much more about what she's capable of and discovers her true calling charon is initially unrelenting in his pursuit of greatness he is going to be the best no matter what however his determination is challenged by the presiding champion of unova himself a fiery-haired man named alder the two meet because alder who has achieved everything charon desires is wandering unova in search of a new purpose after the devastating loss of a partner pokemon what the champion imparts on the young rival is that the single-minded ideal of strength is by itself unfulfilling you have to be grounded by reasons to be strong values and truths worth fighting for by the end of the story charon does internalize this recognizing the player character as the better trainer sacrificing his personal ambition in order to be as helpful as he can in the fight against team plasma the message here is that by striking a balance between what you already know to be true and what you idealistically strive for you can realize the best version of yourself the game expresses this idea in a neat and satisfying way with an important caveat when i said bianca falls behind the other trainers this is expressed only through the dialogue and not gameplay across your numerous battles with the rivals bianca appears to keep up with sharon perfectly fine her team composition and decision making are just as sound if she is any easier of a fight it's only by the slimmest margin because she chose the starter with type disadvantage to yours why aren't the systems of the game supporting its storyline it's time to circle back to the conflict between n and the player in the lead up to the final confrontation both of them collect one of the legendary dragons of unova if you're playing black you get reshiram and n gets zekrom and vice versa if you're playing white these powerful pokemon are a clear allusion to the concept of yin and yang i am extremely not qualified to go into detail but to my understanding yin and yang are about duality about the interdependence of conflicting forces in universe reshuram and zekrom serve as an endorsement of the strength and conviction of both trainers a lure dump reveals that the region itself was founded by a pair of twin heroes with these two dragons they fought over whether truth or ideals were superior but ultimately found that compromise was the strongest solution the dragon's awakening for n and the player equates them with those historical legends all this breeds anticipation of a final battle between complete equals a clash that may not be able to have a clear-cut winner typically in pokemon games the plot is wrapped up with a bow before you take on the elite four and the champion the credits rule not when you defeat the villain but when you prove your worth to a group of allies in its biggest alteration to the tried and true structure of pokemon black and white allows the championship battle to serve as the story's climax upon reaching the top of the pokemon league you find that n has already defeated alder of course he has alder's most distinctive trait is his current lack of purpose and conviction but before you can confront him [Music] so [Music] what the [ __ ] is happening [Music] a massive castle springing from the earth inexplicably yet thunderously towering over the structures of an aging institution it attaches itself violently to the crumbling columns and staircases of the old building the old world standing tall and novel and powerful i really like this scene this castle is what the character of n could be to the pokemon series he comes out of nowhere with intrigue and drama he chips away at the establishment of pokemon this franchise's identity as a piece of art is before anything else safe and repetitive it does not engage in difficult conversation until n so the ultimate struggle on the very top of this thematic castle has got to be something incredible right [Music] nope and lost and loses and loses badly and also he is just entirely wrong about everything then he flies into the horizon to reflect and grow as a person like a youtuber apologizing and nothing fundamentally changes about the world of unova okay so let's be real it was always going to end this way [Music] hey i've got to come clean the previous section was misleading on purpose while the game does have interesting themes which are sometimes executed well by the time you arrive at the final chapter it has already thoroughly undermined its potential to do something interesting in a variety of ways that i have mostly avoided mentioning until now so n fails in his quest because unlike the player character he has allowed doubt to cloud his convictions while he outwardly appears rigid in his beliefs he keeps encountering situations that contradict his understanding of society this is most clear in an interaction between him and the player character in mistleton city and directly asks your pokemon if they are happy and they say yes this scene serves both to prove and psychic powers are legitimate as he learns the player's name and hometown as well and to show that n has seen evidence that he might be wrong but if he can truly communicate with pokemon and he believes that captivity is immoral then there must be something to what he's saying right well no his entire life has been constructed artificially around him with the clear purpose of guiding him to this one world view and has no experience in the real world i haven't mentioned ghetts this much but in reality the game never lets you forget about him he pops up about as frequently as n does and again is clearly just a nasty power-hungry guy his laugh is transcribed as mia-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha and that tells you all you need to know about how the game presents him after what seems like the final battle against n it's revealed that getzes has been puppeteering the supposed king the entire time getsis was always the one really in control he adopted n as a young boy and only allowed him to interact with pokemon specifically ones that had been hurt and abused by trainers and's curated upbringing gave him a skewed inaccurate perception of the relationship between people and pokemon the exploitation of his childhood friends which he assumed to be the norm is instead the rare exception the game argues that n lost to the player character because his convictions his passions were less grounded in reality they crumbled when n saw what the world is really like but it was already obvious to any player that n is wrong long long before the story comes to a close by talking primarily about the plot line i misrepresent how the player's time with pokemon black and white is actually spent the vast majority of your hours are jumping from city to city exploring the forests and mountains and caves in between battling inconsequential trainers and wild creatures all the while growing your team of precious pokemon and becoming more attached to them across the impressive variety of environments and communities in unova there is not a single shred of evidence that abuse of pokemon is a common let alone systemic problem the only people you ever witness mistreating pokemon are team plasma themselves when i say the game undermines itself this is what i mean the tension in the story is kneecapped by depicting unova as a carefree utopia and in case you weren't convinced that battling pokemon is perfectly fine there is one set piece in the game that cosmically confirms the player character is pure and virtuous atop the celestial tower a spiritual place that houses souls of lost pokemon there is a large bell whose toll reveals a person's true character you ring it you are kind and strong you have done nothing wrong you are a very good boy when you pit highly intelligent creatures against each other in combat until they are unconscious over and over again that is simply fine when you capture wild animals in tiny containers and keep them forever that's a good thing actually to be clear i'm not a christian mom from 15 years ago i don't think pokemon games are immoral or anything is pokemon demonic battling and catching pokemon are extremely fun engaging game mechanics and it's not wrong to play with them just because they would be bad in real life fiction is not real life but to pretend within the fiction that these systems are essentially righteous and above criticism is a timid choice they could have written a branching story that changes outcomes based on actually treating your pokemon right after all every pokemon has a hidden friendship value that can be raised or lowered on purpose requiring the player to be cognizant of that friendship with real consequences if they aren't could have created a more holistic experience video games are most powerful when there is synergy between the story and the gameplay by pulling its punches in its characterization of the player character and of the region black and white denies itself that sort of chemistry despite the yin and yang imagery despite the theme of balancing different ideas there are key imbalances between n and the player character the player has experience in the real world while n does not n is flawed and struggling with his beliefs while the player is simply good and right all the time when you finally defeat n he has the epiphany that it's not by rejecting different ideas but by accepting different ideas that the world creates a chemical reaction this is truly the formula for changing the world but we never did that we never accepted any new ideas the values of the pokemon world that are fed to us immediately go unchanged and the world of the game functions identically before and after the events of the story and changed but we did not and then there's another pokemon battle to finish the job and beat the game you have to battle getsis everything said and done your final boss is the wannabe dictator who is transparently cruel and to use social change as a smoke screen to try and seize power he only wants to free pokemon so that no one will be able to resist his conquering unova getzes was always the real antagonist and anne was ultimately less powerful and important than he seemed so n could never have won because the game doesn't actually consider his viewpoint even though it espouses the values of diverse thought he is depicted as unequivocally wrong unova is a world of the distant future where all the big problems have long ago been worked through and compromised on there is no real strife the people and pokemon are happy and are happy together any systemic change is entirely unnecessary and the only remaining threat are individual actors motivated purely by greed the game communicates that these systems we already have are good do not challenge the systems pokemon black and white presents an ambitious heartfelt story for the very first time in one of the most successful and influential video game franchises ever made they could have played it safe like always and still been guaranteed an incredible payday but they instead took the significant risk of a new direction offering a novel tone and setting the games are clearly trying to steer pokemon into more mature and complex waters while still maintaining a recognizable marketable experience most of the problems i have with the end result could be fixed with one major change allowing the systems of the game to interact with the compelling storyline and it would have been nice to have younova be as morally grey as n wants you to believe it is i'm not saying we need pokemon slaves in gun factories like that one ed trailer from a few months ago [Music] yeah someone remind me to keep an eye on that game but something to give actual weight to team plasma's words would have gone a long way after all the elephant that has always been in the room with pokemon is how easy it is to draw parallels to real world dogfighting and other forms of animal abuse to allude to those concerns without actually addressing them is disappointing black and white stops short of having that challenging conversation and its messaging should not be translated to the real world systems it resembles what's most striking to me though is not how it fails but rather how visible the ambition to create a story with real depth and moral ambiguity is in spite of pokemon's identity as safe and charming on top of that it proudly displays a level of polish that outclasses previous generations the animated sprites make the battles actually feel alive and look good to this day the environments push the graphics of the original ds to their limits the soundtrack is outstanding as you've been hearing throughout this video black and white go all out to be the best pokemon games while simultaneously trying to elevate the series to having the sort of intricate thoughtful storytelling jrpgs are known for in my opinion this effort does fall short but i am left with far more positive feelings and negative ones and the failures are intertwined with what pokemon is outside of the games pokemon is one of the most valuable media franchises on earth and by that i mean it is the most valuable media franchise earning over a hundred billion dollars a year it is no longer a simple creature collecting game boy game it is a mind-numbingly huge super organism that the games are now but a small part of but that small part is the spy 100 billion dollars of yearly revenue is structured around those mainline pokemon games each generation a single vertebra there is unbelievable pressure on each entry to remain strong and profitable and that means they need to above all else deliver on player expectations the writers and developers of pokemon black and white show a strong desire to tell an unconventional story to take the established framework of the series and twist it into something new and interesting at the same time they are tasked with maintenance of the behemoth money-making machine pokemon has become it's tug of war they cannot do both perfectly making significant changes to the gameplay may be too big a risk to take even if it would enhance the storytelling the fifth generation of pokemon sold worse if only slightly than everything before and after the new direction it promised was swiftly reversed and the games have largely been safe and repetitive ever since don't you dare challenge the systems this was an episode of reconstructed my series where i dive into a piece of media and combine appreciating its aesthetic and unique qualities with a personal interpretation of what it communicates i'm going to make a whole lot more of these so please do like and subscribe if you'd like to see any more and feel free to comment suggestions for future videos the best thing you can do to help me out is share the video wherever it fits reddit posts and retweets are often the only way for channels my size to reach new audiences lastly throwing me a few bucks on patreon if you can afford it would mean the world to me you can get access to weekly updates my discord server polls on future videos and your name could be in the credits forever if you made it this far let me know what you think of my interpretation do you agree or disagree did i miss anything i always respond to comments that honestly engage with my work and i'd love to hear what you think as always thank you for watching i've been skyhoppers and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Skyehoppers

Views: 200,653

Keywords: pokemon black and white, pokemon black, pokemon white, black and white, skyhoppers, skyhoppers pokemon, skyehoppers, pokemon analysis, pokemon black analysis, pokemon black and white analysis, pokemon white analysis, pokemon video essay, pokemon black essay, pokemon white essay, gen v, gen v analysis, gen 5 analysis, gen 5 review, pokemon black review, pokemon white review, pokemon black and white review, video essay, pokemon black story, pokemon black and white explained

Id: RMrxviAASQM

Length: 33min 53sec (2033 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 30 2021