Excessive

Alright, it's been two full days since we got Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, and I've played it almost constantly during the two days, so I figure now is a good time to pull myself away and let everyone know how awesome it is.

I'm not going to go too in depth about the background of Pokemon, just let everyone know that it's a very traditional JRPG, the fun comes from both the grind and from finding and collecting each and every pokemon, and that none of the other pokemon spin off stuff (cartoon/cards/whatever) can be compared to the amazing quality of each of the games.

If you are a person who enjoys RPGs, specifically JRPGs (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest) than you probably know the immense satisfaction of leveling up your party members to the point where they are killing machines. The satisfaction that comes from leveling your party to unlock new abilities that make your current quests easier, and all the things that come with that. That's half of Pokemon. Half of the fun of Pokemon is the idea of turning these weak, untrained Pokemon into huge, killing machines, and instead of like in a standard JRPG where you have between 3 to 8 (or so) characters to build up, there are close to 500 Pokemon (492) to catch, and turn into high level fighting forces. So much of the fun comes from taking time to level up your Pokemon to make them stronger, and while that may be boring to some, to those specific people who grew up playing Dragon Warrior or Breath of FIre, it's extremely satisfying.

There is a another aspect of Pokemon that is just as fun and addicting as the grind. If you've ever played Diablo, then you know that the main motivation, or the main reward for playing is finding rare or unique powerful items. You play and you play for hours in hopes that that next item that drops is some godly rare item, and it's so satisfying to see it there and grab it. And you could play for hours and hours because the entire time you just think, "well, the next one COULD be that rare item, I'll just play one more run" and it goes on and on. Take that exact feeling, that exact system of player gratification, and move it to Pokemon and you have the second half of the fun. Instead of constantly fighting to find rare loot, you are constantly fighting to find rare Pokemon. The satisfaction that comes from finding some rare or powerful Pokemon you have never seen before makes you want to keep playing for hours because that next fight might just be an even more powerful one. It's that same addictiveness that motivates players to play.

I've been playing Pearl and I've put quite a few hours in already (over 20) and I'm not getting bored, I'm not getting frustrated... in fact it was hard to stop playing to eat supper and write this, because I could be making my team more powerful or could be finding rare Pokemon!

They didn't change the game at all, as far as I know. Pokemon Pearl is basically a prettier Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, much prettier Gold/Silver and a stunningly prettier Blue/Red/Yellow. Since the only Pokemon I've ever owned was the very first one for the original GameBoy, I'm pretty stunned by the graphics, seeing these Pokemon that used to be 8x8 pixel art, now in much higher res sprites, it's very enjoyable. Fights play out pretty much the same, 6 Pokemon on the team, four abilities each, each Pokemon type has a counter and a strength... blah blah I could go on about the details but that's not why I'm writing. Basically, the battle system looks simple on the surface, but if you take any time at all to inspect it, you'll find that it's quite possibly the most complicated system in any RPG I've ever played.

Obviously the greatest addition is the ability to trade and battle other trainers over Nintendo WiFi Connection. Each version of Pokemon does not contain all Pokemon and you need to trade in order to obtain ones not present in your version, and trade some specific Pokemon for them to evolve and up until Diamond/Pearl you had to trade with a friend using the link cable... good luck with that... good luck knowing anyone who even plays the game. Now... you go to the GTS building in town, do a search for the Pokemon you want and all matches are shown, including what that person wants in return, and you can trade right then and there. It just adds to the desire to find rare Pokemon so you can trade them for Pokemon that aren't in your version at all.

Yeah bitches!

I may write an actual review of the game at some later date, but I'm not sure I can pull myself away long enough to critique it. It's way too much fun, and if you enjoy games on any level, regardless of what your preconceived ideas of what Pokemon is, you will fucking love this game.

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