Pokemon White: forget it Tepig, it’s Accumula Town

Team Tepig had a huge victory tonight. Huge. A major upset. I can’t really talk about it at this juncture, but let me just say we’re all pretty excited. Don’t worry. I will get to it eventually. Suffice to say, it was pretty sweet. For now, however, you should probably forget we had this conversation.

Hold on a second. Let me call up my Reader Screen. There. Now I’m selecting Forget. Wait another couple of seconds. There. You’ve forgotten it. No worries about that though, because I’ve replaced your Victory Excitement power with Reader Interest. I’m activating that now. Look at that! Your Interest just rose!

Excellent.

I don’t know if you can detect it here, but I’m feeling kind of guilty about messing with the heads of my Pokemons the way I’ve been doing. I’m feeling kind of oogy about it, and not because Team Plasma has been inundating me with all this liberation folderol. Those dudes are clearly abusive jerkwads and I have no intention of listening to them. If you’d seen the way they kicked around Munna you’d understand. I was there. I saw it. In fact, I intervened and now Munna is just fine. In fact, he’s an starter for Team Tepig and an integral part of tonight’s victory—

Crap. Now I have to use Forget on you again.

After the jump, I try to remember not to forget

Now that Team Tepig is starting to level up I find that I’m starting to make some hard choices. Wasn’t expecting that. For a game that seems to want me to put every Pokemon I encounter in the wild into a computer box to suddenly ask me to be selective about the powers of my Pokemons seems odd. You see, most of my little Pokemon dudes have all four of their power slots filled. And while I have a special bag that carries untold amounts of potions and maps and electronic surveying equipment, we do not have the technology to store the powers my Pokemons have clearly earned through hard work. Instead, when my beloved Tepig unlocks a new power, he is required to forget his old power.

Or, more correctly, I am required as his trainer to force him to forget it. To make room for the new power.

I do not like this. It feels needlessly manipulative. Or, to put it as I did earlier…oogy.

I’m really just being squeamish here, and taking the opportunity to whine a bit. The real issue is that I’m only starting to understand these powers. Barely. I finally figured out that by drilling down a couple of screens I can read up on each power and what it’s for. This means I won’t embarrass myself in front of Tepig anymore by forcing him to attack with Tail Whip. This does not mean, however, when one of my little guys gets a new power, and I’m told I have to erase another ability from his memory in order for him to get that new power, that I have any real idea which power should go. I generally just choose the thing I use the least, or understand the least. Feel free to think this is a boneheaded way to go about it. I do.

Perhaps as I go along I’ll get more of a grasp on this. Right now, though, it just feels like I’m making a whole bunch of decisions with little information, decisions I will regret later (as if even I will remember them). It’s weird to me that I can’t store these powers the way I can store weapons in, say, Titan Quest. I will admit a grudging respect for this. Forcing limitations is generally a boon to creativity (see The Prequels for a negative example of this). So I cannot really argue against the design decision. It’s just frustrating from this vantage point.

Also, again, I can’t help it that I find this forced forgetting construct to be disturbing. What a weird reaction, huh? I’m fine with confining these little creatures in balls that I keep in my pocket. I’m fine with forcing them to do battle which confuses, shocks, scratches, and burns them. But when it comes to messing with their memories, I’m suddenly squeamish. Part of this, now that I think about it, may have to do with the fact that I just watched Toy Story 2 again the other day. Jesse’s flashback about her life with Emily always hits me pretty hard. I must have listened to that song about twenty times yesterday. So maybe the whole toys and forgetting thing is still a little too raw for me right now and it’s not fair to judge how this game handles the issue.

I guess I should just forget it.

Next: the joy of taxonomy
Click here for the previous Pokemon White game diary.