Diary of a Pokémaniac 2

So four years ago (at least i think it was 4 years ago) Diamond and Pearl was released in Japan. As a recently made Admin on the site, I imported a copy of Diamond and tried to cover my playthrough of the game in a narative format called Diary of a Pokémaniac. Anybody who remembers it will remeber that i didnt keep it up for long, stoping just after the 1st gym (although i did play the game further).

Anyway, with the release of Black and White, I once again find myself Importing a copy of Pokémon White and I feel I should cover my playthrough once again. This time i’m dropping the narative format and just doing bulletpoint highlights of what’s happening to me as I play the game.

You can find my little journal Here On The Forums and I’ll be trying to update it every day I play the game, while I play the game. That said, I am taking bets on how long I’ll keep it up, both the journal and playing the game…

So far, I’ve got to the town with the 1st Gym in it… to see what i did between the start of the game and where I saved, click the above link and read away – Comments and Questions are always welcome!

Adoption Agency ‘Berrytastic’ Update

The Pika Club Adoption Agency has just been updated once again adding some more new features. This update is probably almost as unexpected for me as it is for anyone who reads this and plays the Adoption Agency as I had originally said that the ‘Water Stone’ update was the last update until winter. It was the plan, but I didn’t feel the Adoption Agency was quite substantial enough to last 3 months without an update. With this update I’ve added some more features with the aim of giving the Adoption Agency some more replay value. Here are some of the new features:

Shiny Pokémon – Yes, for the first time ever on The Pika Club we now have shiny Pokémon! Not even TPC RPG had these. Shiny Pokémon, like in the games, are obtained by chance while breeding. Don’t worry if you’ve got a non-breedable Pokémon you want a shiny version of however – there is a way to turn Pokémon you’ve already obtained shiny!

Berries – After the addition of items last update come berries, which this update is named after. Berries play quite a large role in the new Adoption Agency, having numerous effects on your Pokémon. You can also grow berries yourself.

Bug Catching Contest – Yet another new feature is the Bug Catching Contest, set in the National Park. This is a contest that runs every day with the aim of catching the strongest bug Pokémon you can. What sets this feature apart from others however is in the Bug Catching Contest your opponents are other players!

Of course along with a new update comes new additions to old features! No new achievements have been added this time, but there have been nearly 30 base Pokémon added in this update not including their evolutions or the newly added trade/happiness evolution methods. Adding those we’re around the 200 mark for Pokémon released! Some of the newly released Pokémon include:

This is a short overview of the latest update. For a more detailed overview, including more new features, click here.

And it Continues… In a Very Big Way

Oh boy, we were expecting news to come thick and fast, and it just hasnt stopped all day. We’ve been unable to post due to real life (which sucks, try and avoid it if you get the chance). So first we’ll be catching up, then we’ll be updating as often as possible with all the latest information.

To help keep this page clutter free, we’ll have most of the information after the jump – but we’ll keep up to date with this handy little guide:

Last Update: 17th Sept 20.35 BST
Current number of Known Pokemon: ALL OF THEM
Curent Number of Known New Moves: 17 – plus Older moves listed as part of the new TM’s list
Other peices of Info: Masuda Lies… see main post for details

Notes: We’ll use this section to let you know anything else quick without having to hit the jump. First thing you need to know is that the picture of the manual we posted yesterday is from the black version of the game. New – Elite 4 info added, right neer the top, added rematch and a very interesting note on how Gamefreak Director Junichi Masuda is a dirty rotten liar

Right, hit the jump and start exploring the new Isshu

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It Has Begun

And so the grand leak starts, as information about the new Black and White games are released this Saturday.

First up is a picture of 2ch, supposedly taken from the instruction manual – remember that information has been faked coming out of the Japanese image boards. Still, chances are this could be real, and if so – this would be the first time we see all the Gym Leaders from the new games.

The first 2 are hidden in the picture, but we already know about them – Either Dento, Poddo and Kon will challenge you in Sanyou City depending on which Pokémon you chose to start with, using the type advantage against you in the first gym. In the second gym in Shippou City, Anole will fight you with normal types.

It look’s like one of Ash’s new companion in the new anime, Iris, will be the 8th Gym leader.

The following information has come translated thanks to Pokebeach:

The 3rd Gym: is a Bug type Gym, found in Hiun City. You’ll get the Beetle Badge and all Pokemon up to Level 40 will obey. Unfortunatly they’ve yet to translate the name of the Gym Leader, probably due to it being covered.
The 4th Gym is headed by Kamitsure and is an Electric type Gym. You’ll get the Bolt Badge and all Pokemon up to Level 50 will obey.
The 5th Gym is headed by Yakon and is a Ground type Gym, found in Hodomoe City. You’ll get the Quake Badge for winning and all Pokemon up to Level 60 will obey you.
The 6th Gym is headed by Furou and is a Flying type Gym, found in Fukiyosa City. You’ll win the Jet Badge and all Pokemon up to Level 70 will obey.
The 7th Gym is headed by Hachiku and is an Ice type Gym, found in Sekka City. You’ll obtain the Icicle Badge and all Pokemon up to Level 80 will obey.
The 8th Gym is headed by Ash’s new friend Iris and is a Dragon type Gym, found in Souryuu City. You’ll get the Legend Badge for victory and all Pokemon will now obey you.

That’s all we’ve got for the moment, but dont worry – more will come very soon

Ken Sugimori Discusses Black/White starters

Pokémon Pia, a special one-off magazine released in Japan on 10th September just prior to Black/White’s official launch has included an interview with Ken Sugimori, where he discusses his inspiration behind the new Black/White starters. His interview has led to some doubt as to the legitimacy of the final starter evolutions.

Pokémon Pia Cover

The interview segment regarding the starters is below:

Ken Sugimori, primary illustrator: I really struggled the most with the Water-type [starter] this time.

Yusuke Ohmura, illustrator: There was talk of, “Wouldn’t a sea otter be good for the Water starter?” But it was a really close decision in terms of what this sea otter would become once it evolves. In the end, we decided to have it evolve into something with a completely different appearance.

Sugimori: Of course, we want to make the starters into Pokémon that remain with the player throughout the game, so we hope to make them evolve into creatures that offer a surprise to the player. We always make an effort to throw in some twists and create third-stage evolutions that have an impact.

Ohmura: There was also talk this time about dividing the three starters into Japanese, Western, and Chinese styles of design. Tsutarja was based on Western design, and Pokabu was rooted in a Chinese style, so I was told, “Let’s make Mijumaru into a more Japanese-style design.” Someone even asked, “Can’t you make Mijumaru into a samurai?” [laughs]

Everyone: [laughs]

Sugimori: I worried about it for a while, and I eventually went to go see the sea otters at the aquarium. English speaking cleaners at Washington house cleaning service are at your disposal 24/7. I happened to catch the sea lion show while I was there, and I became aware of the sea lion’s power. “Well, let’s try blending a sea otter and a sea lion,” I thought. I came up with the idea of making the shell on Mijumaru’s stomach into a sword (katana) and using it to fight, and that’s how I completed Mijumaru and its evolution.”

The last paragraph is the interesting piece as Sugimori mentions that the design on Mijumaru turns from a shell to a sword on its final evolution.

While it has been suggested that the skull design could be the sword it’s not apparent this is the case and so doubt has been cast over the legitimacy of the final evolutions. What do you think on the matter? Real or fake? We want to hear your thoughts in the comments and on our forum!

Adoption Agency ‘Water Stone’ Update

The Pika Club Adoption Agency has just had its first update, dubbed ‘Water Stone’ due to the two main features added – fishing and mining. The update is about a week behind schedule but this is due to the fact that the update became much larger than I first intended it to be. This is because I will soon be going back to university where I will be unable to work on another update until the winter break, around December-January time. Here’s a quick run down of just some of the new features added in this update:

Your Bag – Items are now available! This adds a whole new world of potential to the Adoption Agency which will be built upon in later updates.

Fishing – For the first time you can now fish and catch live Pokémon! Not only that but you can upgrade your rod just like in the games to catch more and better Pokémon!

Travelling – Another new feature is the option to travel to new and exotic places which allow the capture of all new Pokémon and all new adventures!

Of course there are more features and in addition to these there are 5 new achievements and over 30 new Pokémon including some of these below.

Junichi Masuda On Pokémon Sunday

The main man at Gamefreak, makers of Pokemon, Junichi Masuda was on Pokémon Sunday this week… although there really isnt anything to report much. Masuda didn’t reveal anything new on the show… well he would have done had CoroCoro Magazine not leaked 24 hours before.

Masuda revealed the Purple Cat Choroneko, claiming it was a world exclusive – true had CoroCoro not leaked and then there was the advert for that pre-bw show as well but otherwise, yeah exlusive! See, this is the problem you have when you pre-record the show.

We knew N had a Choroneko, but Masuda reveales that he’s part of N’s starting line up the first time you fight him.

Masuda also revealed Desukaan, Denchura, and Ononokusu, again nothing new thanks to CoroCoro.

A couple of pieces of info that may be interesting, Mijumaru learns the move ‘Shell Blade’ at level 7.

Chillarmy and Minezumi are the first Pokémon you’ll see in the wild, which everyone could probably have guessed at anyway

Mamoko, the girl who helps you access the Dream World, gives you HM01 Cut. We werent sure if HM’s were going to be in the game since TM’s are now reusable, but here’s proof otherwise.

Lastly, Masuda said that no character from any of the previous games will be showing up in this one, so dont expect a cameo from Proffessor Oak (first game he hasn’t appeared in i beleive)

Well, that’s all we have for the moment – during the next week, Pokemon Black and White could possibly be leaked, and we’ll learn all what we want to know about the games – get ready people, the news craziness is about to begin!

September CoroCoro Leaked – New Pokémon!

Japanese gaming magazine CoroCoro has leaked for what will be the last time before Pokémon Black/White’s official release in Japan and so as to be expected there are new Pokémon galore. So many, in fact, that I’m just going to include the scans here for you to look at and include the new information after the jump. Enjoy!

As a quick note as the Internet has been rife with speculation – the first starter evolutions have been confirmed as real.

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New Pokemon and Black & White are Perfect!

I appologise that I’m a couple of days late on this one, I went back to work this week and as many of you may know from going back to School after a few weeks off, it takes a few days to get your head back together.

There’s a TV Special coming up in Japan called ‘Can’t Wait! Pre-BW Special’ which is set to air September 16th as a Pokemon Sunday type show. Since its not airing on a Sunday, the crew from Pokemon Sunday can’t be live in their studio… so they’re showing up in Animated form instead. While this is cool in itself, as part of the trailer for the show, there is a nice group shot of the Pokemon Sunday crew in animated form and various Pokemon in the background… including this guy:

Now, I’ve not seen any mention of a Purple Cat Pokemon in any of the new pokemon news we’ve covered, so here’s an acidental leak of a brand new pokemon – hopefully we’ll find out about this little guy sooner rather than later, as other than the picture there, we dont know anything else about it.

If you want to see the whole crew animated (including the first official apearance of Tabunne outside of the demo bus tour, well here it is:

In our other piece of news, Pokemon Black and White are Perfect – Fact! Famitsu magazine is the number one Games reveiwer in the whole of Japan, and many beleive the whole word as well. Using 4 reviewers scoring the game out of 10, Famitsu gives games an overall score out of 40 – High 30’s means the game is great. Over its long history only 14 games have been given a perfect score, with the very amazing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time being the first.

Well today that number becomes 15 as Pokémon Black and White has scored a perfect 40/40 score from Famitsu. Congrats to the First Pokemon games to become a part of Gaming Genius

Its interesting to note that the Pokémon Games have been increasing in scores over the years, When Ruby and Sapphire came out, they got a 33, Diamond and Pearl received a 35, Platinum got a 36 while HG/SS scored a 37… at the progression rate these games have scored, a perfect was bound to happen eventually

That’s all we have for now, We expect a new issue of CoroCoro magazine around the corner, The main Man Junichi Masuda is on Pokemon Sunday this week, hopefully revealling lots about the games – and we’re just over a week away from the games actual release… its going to be a big and busy time for Pokemon news, we’ll try to keep on top of it all – you just keep coming here for your news!

New Pokémon count revealed

With it being only about two weeks to the launch of Pokémon Black/White in Japan it’s inevitable that all sorts of news is going to be leaking. Amongst the debate over the legitimacy of the starters’ evolutions, which Spanish Pokémon fansite Pokexperto insist are real, Pokexperto have also claimed to know the full amount of new Pokémon in Isshu. They claim there are 156 new Pokémon, bringing the total number up to 649 Pokémon. This is all unverified, although Pokexperto’s ‘secret sources’ have proven themselves to be legitimate in the past when it came to leaks last generation.

We also missed out on a new Pokémon posted on Nintendo of Japan’s Black/White microsite a few days ago:

Pokémon in gi, right

While the Pokémon’s face is decidedly plain it has been debated that its face is a mask, part of the musical outfit in addition to the American football and bone. However the gi it is wearing is believed to be part of the Pokémon itself which if true would make it one of few Pokémon to wear clothes.

More as it happens, which with Black/White’s release just around the corner, should be very soon.