Pocket Monsters Black and White have been released five days ago (18/09/2010)! I decided to share some of my gameplay shots here as a sort of "hands-on preview" of what's to come:
Title screens for Black
This is Araragi-sensei. She will be serving the role of your main tutor in this game.
As you can see, the in-game camera is now unbound from the vertical top-down position, giving you the freedom to see buildings and characters from a different angle. Note that this angle only happens during cutscenes. If you turn left or right when walking around, the camera will still be facing northwards.
Your adventure starts in your room, where you find a gift box from Araragi-sensei. What could be inside?
Hmm... Which one will you choose?
As soon as you pick a starter Pokemon, you engage in a battle with one of your friends. Aside from semi-3D camera effects in-battle, the Pokemon sprites are also animated when they are idle, making them more realistic.
This is what you get for holding a Pokemon battle in your own room. Expect to be grounded with no Poke-dollar pocket money for a month!
The character on the left is the protagonist, the one above is called Cheren, and the one on the right is called Belle. Both will be your companions along your adventure.
This is one of the first towns, along with a shot of the main menu.
In Pokemon Centers, the camera moves to this lower angle, giving a more sense of depth.
Overall, I'm impressed with all the graphical updates (killed by my phone's camera... sorry about that...), especially the dynamic scenes buring battles, as well as the more "sophisticated" general feel of the game.
It is said that this generation of Pokemon is aimed at older gamers, probably mid-teens. Oh, and there will also be 150 new species of Pokemon to catch. Good luck!
(Note: Since Photobucket has been blocked at my house, I uploaded these images onto Imageshack, which is not approved by Gaia Online. Instead of photos, you may only get links in their place. To see them, you will need to change your settings to "display all images" instead of "display images from approved sites".)
Nintendo Cult!
So long and thanks for the memories.