The Legacy of Pokémon - Part 5 (Generation 4 and 5)
A record of the personal journey of a Pokémon fan, from the very beginning
Generations 4 and 5
2007 – 2013
I purchased my copies of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl on April 26th 2007. It was a few days after the official American launch but still three months before they arrived in the UK, as I was fortunate enough to find American-imported copies from a local independent games store. Shortly after, I sold Pearl to someone I knew, deciding against owning both versions.
While Diamond was an enjoyable game, I had no internet at my new home and wasn’t able to make the most of its online connectivity at the time. I no longer lived in my hometown and, as I previously mentioned, most people I knew had abandoned the series so I couldn’t enjoy the game with anyone else that way either. When I eventually got an internet connection at home and played with friends online, the inability to experience the online multiplayer had already impacted on my opinion towards the game and contributed to my decreasing interest in the series.
According to my copy of Pokémon Diamond’s Hall of Fame, I beat the Elite Four for the first time on May 6th 2007. My team consisted of a Dialga (Lv. 49), an Empoleon (Lv. 46), a Mismagius (Lv. 54), an Infernape (Lv. 54), a Roselia (Lv. 41) and a Staraptor (Lv. 49). I know that I picked a Chimchar as my starter, so I can only assume the Empoleon was originally traded over from Pokémon Pearl before I sold it.
On May 22nd 2009, my order of Pokémon Platinum arrived from Amazon. This was the first time I had ordered a Pokémon game from the internet rather than going to a brick-and-mortar store in person to collect it. I felt a similar way about Platinum as I did about Emerald when that was released: with my interest continuing to decline, and regret for buying a game for the sake of it. To be honest, I believed my time with the mainline games was probably up, and that I’d only be looking back to the past games for entertainment, but something incredible was about to happen that changed this!
On Sunday, May 10th 2009, a Japanese Pokémon television show called Pokémon Sunday, revealed Pokémon HeartGold & Pokémon SoulSilver for the Nintendo DS. Rumours had been circulating a week prior that remakes of the second generation games were going to be revealed, and my excitement was building tremendously. Suddenly, after years of decline, my love for the series was reignited! I stayed up incredibly late to watch a broadcast of the stream as it went live in Japan, crossing my fingers that the rumours were true. I literally cried when I saw them formally unveiled, and I got my first glimpse of the new titles with a few seconds of footage that followed the announcement. I had been waiting for these remakes ever since FireRed, wishing that I could see my favourite generation brought up to date on modern hardware and now it was finally happening.
I was encouraged to try the fifth generation of Pokémon when I read that the Black and White games were effectively a reboot of the series. I liked the idea of the game containing a substantial amount of new Pokémon, seasonal changes, and new battle mechanics: Triple Battles and Rotation Battles. Graphically, the game was a step up from generation IV, and I was impressed with the three-dimensional towns and environments. I purchased the game on March 4th 2011, and swiftly completed it in just nine days, ending my adventure on March 13th. Overall I enjoyed the game, especially the twists in the story and the memorable characters.
The moments that stood out most to me, like most people I would imagine, are those towards the end of the game. The destruction of the Elite Four, which was something truly shocking and unprecedented in a Pokémon game for me, and the confrontation between the six sages with the Unova gym leaders coming in to save the day was truly epic. The most shocking scene for me, however, was the revelation of the true horror of Ghetsis and how N, his adoptive son, was manipulated for his own selfish reasons. The way Ghetsis spoke to N in those final scenes, calling him warped and defective: a freak without a human heart, was deplorable. When he was beaten, it was satisfying to expose him as the warped and defective one.
But at the time I didn’t appreciate the game enough, and despite the excellent storytelling I felt that it didn’t innovate as much as I had believed it would. It still focused on the tired formula I had grown bored with. Shortly after I beat the game it went on to my shelf never to be played again. Unfortunately, I am unable to share my final team as I no longer have my original game. All I remember is that I had a Serperior, and a Krookodile which were both very likely part of the team I used to defeat the Elite Four.
A year later on March 14th 2012, believing I would never return to the games, I traded in Pokémon White and Pokémon Platinum, complete with their boxes and manuals. In return I received fifteen pounds for White, and ten pounds for Platinum. This was a fair price at the time, but over the years the value of those two games soared, making re-purchasing them unfeasible. Even shortly after selling them I regretted what I had done, and even more so in the years to come when I would hear friends talk so fondly about Platinum and the improvements it had over Diamond and Pearl, and how Black and White had such a fantastic story. As I listened to these stories, I deeply regretted that I couldn’t go back to my original copies to give them a second chance.
Based on these conversations with friends, I realised just how much I had missed out on. Generation V was possibly one of the last great generations of Pokémon, and due to the increase in prices over time I felt like I’d missed my opportunity to experience it properly. Thankfully, my mistakes were corrected years later…