Pokémon Black and White 2 - More Updates!

Hey all,
The past week has been a big news week for Pokémon Black and White 2, with some reveals by Oha Suta, CoroCoro AND the long-awaited gameplay reveal from Pokémon Smash. If you haven't done so already, check out all the Bulbapedia and Serebii.net posts and their video links for pictures - I'll only be providing one here.

First off, White Kyurem and Black Kyurem have been revealed to have the signature moves Ice Burn and Freeze Shock, respectively. No surprises there, although they're the most powerful Ice-type moves in the game - PokéSma showed an example battle of Black Kyurem vs Reshiram, and it OHKOed Reshiram with Freeze Shock!

The games are set in the Unova region, same as in Black and White 1, but 2 years in the future. Long-time Pokémon fans will remember that there was a 3 year time gap between Gen I's Kanto and Gen II's Kanto, and plenty changed there. A new official Unova map has been posted. Brace yourselves:

"Tonight's forecast - a FREEZE is coming!"

That's right folks, Unova is now half-encased in ice (Bulbapedia says this may just be to hide areas not yet revealed, but I have ice theories which I will share later). I can't find any really big, high-quality images. so I can't look as closely at the map as I'd like, but Bulbapedia has listed some of the apparent differences between the old map of Unova and this one.

• The water around the Entralink tree has dried up, and the tree itself is different. I'm pretty sure the Entralink tree appears in one of the new trailers for the game, and Global Link connectivity has been mentioned for the games, so I think it's safe to say the area is still important.
• There is a new area to the south-west. This contains the PC's home tow, Hiougi City. Not town, city. It's the size of a city too, complete with a Pokémon Centre and a Trainer School, and a lookout point which gives a pretty cool view over meadows and distant mountains.
• The road through the desert between Castelia City and Nimbasa City. It looks like it's flanked by containers, or they may be buildings; I can't tell very well at this resolution (Bulbapedia refers to it as a settlement). Either way, the desert itself may be a no-go area, although the Desert Resort area still appears on the map, so who knows...
• There've been some aesthetic changes to Nimbasa City itself - a gatehouse-looking building connecting it to the desert road, and what looks like a small area next to the ferris wheel.
• The lighthouse in Driftveil city is gone, and there are a couple of craters around the city, including where the Cold Storage used to be. I'll talk about this a little later.
• Liberty Garden and United Tower are now shown on the artwork, on the two islands south-west of Castelia City, and apparently Liberty Garden has been revamped. Maybe we'll get a new Victini event? Or is it canon that the PC from B/W1 caught the one in the basement there?
• There's what looks like a small town on the side of the mountain to the east of Unova, just on the edge of the ice sheet. Perhaps this could be where a new Gym has been put, to compensate for Striaton City, Nacrene City and Icirrus City being iced over?
• Challenger's Cave has disappeared. As it served no major purpose in the game, that's neither here nor there. HOWEVER! In the new intro to BW2, the Musketeer trio/Muskedeers are shown in quite a prominent light, and apparently a legendary Pokémon was training its student Pokémon there... Maybe, if the trio play a bigger role, the cave's been sealed off and more reference will be made to the trio's mythos. Apparently, the event Keldeo does have a function in the new games...
• The webbing over Chargestone Cave is gone. I guess this is just because it's destroyed when the PC gets there in BW1.
• Although not mentioned on Bulbapedia, someone on Facebook brought up a very good point. If you look closely at the ice sheet, where the Abyssal Ruins are, where there was once just a dark patch of water, there's now what looks like an island. Did they rise out of the sea?
• There appears to be some sort of arch structure to the south-east of the map, under the ice, just up from where the P2 Laboratory ought to be.

Anyway, on to other points. The Pokédex has been expanded to a total of 300, including all the Unova Pokémon. In the trailer, it is shown that Azurill is available early on, and from other material, such favourites as Tyranitar, Metagross and Lucario are in the updated Dex too!

Another very interesting note is the presence of two new Gym Leaders - a Poison-type (Homika) and a Water-type (Shizui). Homika's Gym looks like a rock café, and Shizui's contains a lilypad platform puzzle which looks quite fun. Interestingly, Homika is due to make an appearance in the anime soon, with her Pokémon... Koffing. Remember how in the anime, Giovanni told Team Rocket not to take their non-Unova Pokémon to Unova because they were rare and would draw attention? Now we'll have another non-native Pokémon, in addition to Pikachu and Meowth. I'll be interested to hear the rationale behind this; maybe Homika isn't from Unova originally? Or it'll give the producers a reason to introduce more non-native Pokémon to the season so Ash can use his old Pokémon in the Unova League ^^'

The new protagonist PCs look around the same age as in the last game - older than is traditional. The new rival is a hot-head, but he's a friend of the protagonist (apparently his little sister is, too).
Another new NPC was introduced too, who I'm very excited about - Akuroma. Although this brings to mind an angel from Magic: The Gathering, this guy is anything but angelic. He puts me in mind of Ein from Pokémon Colosseum, and is apparently also a scientist, researching the hidden strength of Pokémon. He is described as mysterious, and says a few things in the screenshots that makes me think he's going to be VERY important. He talks about 'a tool to activate the Pokémon I made', which makes me think of Black and White Kyurem and activating their overdrive mode. Although he says 'made', I don't think it's going to be Genesect; it's event exclusive, so I'm not sure that it'll play a heavy storyline role like that. The book Akuroma holds in the game's opening puts me in mind of Ghetsis, for some reason. Or at least, it's an older book, perhaps containing some ancient lore from the time of the Two Princes? Also, his name struck me as interesting. A-, as a prefix, means 'not' (like asymmetrical), and chroma is related to colour. As Kyurem is the representation of wuji (the absence of yin and yang, represented by Zekrom and Reshiram, respectively), perhaps Kyurem also embodies the absence of colour, as Reshiram and Zekrom are black and white. If Akuroma's name is romanised as Achroma, and does mean 'absence of colour'...

Finally, I want to talk about the star of the show, Kyurem. As anyone who's reached that part of the game knows, Kyurem is found in the Giant Chasm, to the north-east of Unova. Where does the ice sheet on the map appear to originate from? The north-east. Also, remember how I said there was now just a crater where the Cold Storage used to be? No reason was ever given for why this warehouse was specifically cold, not just a normal warehouse. Could it have been housing Kyurem? Giratina's storyline was changed between D/P and Pt, so maybe in the canon of BW2, Kyurem wasn't always in the Giant Chasm...

That's about all I have to say on the new games for now, but rest assured I'll be back with more info and theories as and when there are more reveals :) Ciao for now!

New Poem

It occured to me that I hadn't posted over the Easter weekend, so I decided I'd post a poem I wrote this evening for my girlfriend ^^

For Mia

Dark is the path I have trodden,
Foolish, the things I have done -
Mistakes that will ne'er be forgotten,
As always I searched for the one.

I once turned away, went without you;
The sin weighs my heart down with stone.
Yet now, our sweet love doth continue,
And with my whole life, I'll atone.

I swear to be with you forever,
The one that my heart so adores.
I long for the times we're together;
Maria, my love is all yours.

Disney

Hey peeps,
I had absolutely no idea what to blog about today, but I felt I wanted to write something, preferably something that a lot of people would enjoy, so in the end I settled on talking about 10 of my top Disney movies ^^' So yeah, enjoy :)
(These are in order of release date rather than in order of preference)

1. Fantasia:
   This musical movie's been one of my favourites since I was a little kid. Apparently I used to know plenty of classical music as a kid based on where certain songs appeared in the movie ^^' Although, being a little kid when I watched it, I always fell asleep at roughly the same point in the movie, so I don't really remember much of it past the dinosaurs part. Two of my favourite parts are probably the Chinese Dance with the mushrooms, and the part with Bacchus (although I can't actually remember the music that plays there, just the animation XD)
   Ironically for one of my favourite movies, Fantasia was released exactly 50 years before I was born - November 13th 1940. More recently, Disney released a sequel - Fantasia 2000. I wasn't quite so enthralled by this, though it wasn't too bad. Certainly not as memorable for me though (the only musical part I really remember was the city piece, and only because it appeared in my GCSE Music exam)
   
   
2. Alice in Wonderland:
   Once again, this one has always been a favourite of mine. We don't have the VHS of this (despite having a sizeable Disney video collection), but we have it recorded from the TV, though I don't know from what year. This movie's the reason I decided to read the two Alice in Wonderland books, and by extension, probably why Jabberwocky is my favourite poem. I've since seen the recent live-action movie, but I still prefer the animated version. The movie also provides characters and backdrops for one of my favourite old-school video games - Mickey Mouse's World of Illusion for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (perhaps I'll talk about Sega in a future blog...)
   
   
3. The Sword in the Stone
   Okay, this one's definitely got to be in my top 3. As a kid, my favourite parts of this movie were undoubtedly the parts where Arthur gets turned into a fish/squirrel/bird, and the wizard's duel. And Archimedes' epic laugh still makes me crack up XD For those of you who haven't seen it, behold the hilarity!:
   
   
   
   
4. The Jungle Book
   This one's one of my favourites if only for the musical numbers. Bare Necessities was one of the Disney songs we managed to find in English at karaoke, if I recall, and I wanna be like you is a classic. Again, this is a movie I used to fall asleep to as a child, at the part just before Mowgli meets Kaa for the second time (there's even photographic evidence of this fact in one of our family photo albums XD). I've never seen the sequel, nor read the book; I should probably at least do the latter ^^'
   
   
5. The Aristocats
   Again, one of my top 3, I reckon. I even made a very amateurish Youtube Poop of this a few years back.
   
   
   
   As with The Jungle Book, the music is one of the main draws for me - Everybody Wants To Be A Cat. Oh, and the part with Uncle Waldo XD That makes me chuckle muchly.
   
   
6. Robin Hood
   This is probably one of the ones I've watched most of the ones on this list, and as with The Sword in the Stone, is based on an English legend. Not sure what to say about this one, really, except that it comes highly recommended. My favourite part's probably the archery tournament, especially when Hiss gets drunk, and Little John starts calling Prince John PJ XD
   
   
7. The Great Mouse Detective
   Being a huge fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories, this one had to feature on my list. I think this must have been my first introduction to the series, come to think of it. For a Disney film, it's actually kind of creepy in places, such as the opening when *spoilers* the toymaker gets kidnapped *end spoilers*. There is one slightly facepalm moment in the movie which I just have to mention though - when Olivia asks Toby if he wants a 'crumpet' which is blatantly a muffin. I blame spies from 4Kids Entertainment trying to sabotage Disney ("These donuts are great, Brock!"). Aside from that minor complaint, great film :)
   
   
8. Beauty and the Beast
   This is a movie I've not seen in entirely too long, and hence there are large parts of it which I can't entirely remember. My two main reasons for including this movie in the list are 1.) the countless YouTube poops which usually make me laugh, and 2.) the Gaston song. Even being a villain's ego trip, that part of the movie is probably my favourite. Another karaoke moment too, with Derek playing my Lefou (no homo). I definitely have to watch this movie again in the near future...
   
   
9. Aladdin
   This is one I have a pretty good recollection of, probably from having watched it a lot of times. "Friend Like Me" was yet another karaoke song, and I used to be a fan of the Saturday morning cartoon show. Although, I've only seen the sequel once, and I've never seen the third movie. But as with most sequels to classic Disney movies, I'm willing to bet that the original is the best. I'm sure there's got to be a drinking game in this movie somewhere *evil grin*
   
   
10. Mulan
    This movie is the one which has the most recent memory attached - that of mine and my brother's hilarious drinking game. We came up with a set of rules (which I think I posted as a note on Facebook), but did NOT think them through beforehand, meaning we got pretty decently buzzed by the end ^^' My brother's idea of each choosing a word the other had to drink to certainly backfired on him though - turns out the word 'father' turns up a lot more than 'dragon' *evil laugh*
    

Well, that wraps up today's list. Just because I've not mentioned a movie, doesn't mean that I dislike it. I'm still a big fan of movies such as The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, and The Rescuers, I just don't have so many memories or such a good recollection of them. I know there are plenty of bigger Disney fans out there than myself, but I'm certainly a fan of the animated classics ^^
Ciao for now!