Straight from the director’s blog: all new Pokémon in Black/White

While it’s a rather small piece of news, the Gamefreak director’s blog (which used to be updated in English and Japanese but it seems they’ve given up on the English side) recently updated with an interesting tidbit, which you can read here.

In essence apparently Pokémon Black/White will feature absolutely no old Pokémon before getting the National Dex. This means it’s all new Pokémon in Isshu for the first part of your adventure. You could hear the Japanese Pokémon fans cheering across the globe as the news broke at the realisation that, until the National Dex at least, there would be no running into wild Geodude and Zubat in every cave ever. There has been some discontent over this as well as it also means you won’t be able to use any old favourites for a while and if no Pokémon from Generation V interest you then you’re stuck up until you get the National Dex. What do you think of the matter? Leave a comment or tell us on our forums!

Another Leaked Pokémon

With Black and White just over a month away, brand new news could happen at anytime and from anywhere. This time we’ve got a look at a new pokemon curtesy of Yahoo Japan, who accidently put up some Sugimori art earlier today (which was quickly removed).

Unfortunatly we dont have a name or anything else to go with on this guy yet, although he looks like he’s going to be a bug type (and maybe grass as well?). While ordinarily this kind of thing on its own would be taken with a large grain of salt, this was posted on the Japanese Yahoo Server under the usual folders they use for images on thier pages, and there was also Sugimori Art for the yet-to-be named Swan pokemon as well as Shikijika, both of whom were revealed on Oha Suta recently.


Sugimori Art of Shikijina and the Unnamed Swan

One other thing the site revealed was a picture with information on the Victini, numbered #000 in the Isshu Dex. Victini is revealed to be the Victory Pokemon, A Psychic/Fire Type. It will be 0.4m tall and weigh 4.0kg. It has a new ability called Victory Star, which we dont know what that does yet.

There is a chance that all of this is fake, but its a slim chance given that the art matches Sugimori’s very well and the source where these pictures came from. We will however, inform you if these turn out to be fake as soon as we know.

With Oha Suta constantly revealing new pokemon, Pokemon Sunday on every week and a new CoroCoro Magazine due to be released (not to mention there’s only 7 weeks until Black and White is released in Japan), New info could be coming think and fast now and we’ll post it up here as soon as we know it

New Pokémon + Team Plasma Revealed

This week’s Oha Suta has revealed some new Pokémon along with confirming that Pokémon Black/White will follow the standard formula of having an evil organisation – this time called Team Plasma.

Shikijika (シキジカ)

Two Miruhoggu (ミルホッグ), the evolution of Minezumi

Unknown Swan Pokémon, circled

Team Plasma, looking somewhat like mediaeval knights

Shikijika, the small deer Pokémon, may be a pre-evolution for Stantler. They are both deer Pokémon and Stantler’s Japanese name is Odoshishi, lending some similarity. This is all speculation however and has yet to be confirmed – what is confirmed is that Minezumi now has an evolution.

A short video, which you can view here, shows off the differences between Black City and White Forest as well as a look at what’s called the Pokéshifter, what appears to be a touch screen mini-game where you have to ‘catch’ Pokémon by drawing on a bow and arrow on the touch screen as they hop from bush to bush. This is shown to be used in the same manner as Pal Park and has confirmed that you can transfer Pokémon from Generation IV to Generation V.

Black City and White Forest. Also shows off the new larger Pokémon Centre design.

The Pokéshifter building and a screenshot of the minigame.

There is also a 6 minute Pokémon Black/White Promotional Video which shows off just how impressive the games look. The games are using a lot more 3D effects than any past handheld Pokémon game and it seems the development team have found a fondness for large sweeping environments, from huge bridges to trains spanning land masses. It’s worth a look because it reveals a lot of new information about the game. We’ve screencapped pieces we feel important below but it’s recommended you watch the video too to see it all in action.

The Isshu region. It's unknown if this is the entire region or if there is more.

Although difficult to make out as a still, trains are shown passing below the player. Later a shot shows the player boarding a train.

CGear, showing the connectivity the games will utilise between local wireless and Nintendo WiFi. Later the video suggests IR can now be used for linking games.

A close up shot showing character sprites are taller than before.

Dressing up your Pokémon. Curiously shows a signal strength box in the corner.

Your dressed up Pokémon take place in musicals which have apparently replaced contests.

For some reason you can get shot out of a cannon.

Particle effects - not just for intros anymore!

New Legendary Pokémon Revealed

Pokémon Sunday once again reveales a new Pokémon – and by reveal we mean we’ve actually seen this guy before.

Meet Victini, the latest 5th Gen Pokémon to be revealed by Pokémon Sunday. This little guy actually showed up at the end of the 13th movie currently being shown in cinema’s in Japan at the moment, so his image isnt exactly new, but this is the first time we’ve got a name to the face. Interestingly, this little fellow actualy has one very interesting thing going for it

As shown in the above post, Bukutini actually has the Pokédex number 000 in the Isshu dex, coming in before Tsutaja, a first for any event only legendary (who usually appear a the end of the region’s dex).

Speaking of it being event only, we know exaclty how to get one too. By downloading an item called the Liberty Ticket you will be able to get Victini (possibly through an in game event unlocked by said item). The Liberty Ticket will be available from Black and White’s release on 18th September up till 18th October via Wi-Fi (and the usual Pokemon Center’s and other distrabution points in Japan).

That’s all we’ve got for the moment – we’ll bring you more when we know it

New Pokémon revealed

We know that this Sunday in Japan, Pokémon Sunday is due to reveal even more new Pokémon on its show (after revealing several last week), however Oua Suta, a Japanese veriaty show that has been previewing a lot of Pokémon Black and White Recently, revealed yet another new Pokémon while showcasing the game.

With thanks to Flib.de for the above picture, we see a new Pokémon on the right of the team called Mamanbō, which looks a bit like a Lovedisc – a coincidence or is this a new evolution, only time will tell. The strange rock pokemon in the center of the squad has been previously seen on Oua Suta, but it’s name was shown to be Gigaiasu

We’ll bring you more news when we learn it, hopefully more news will be out this Sunday thanks to Pokémon Sunday, more new Pokémon could be revealed by Oua Suta and there are other sources where new Pokémon could be revealed at any time.

Pokémon Sunday 18/07/2010


Courtesy of Filb.de

This week’s Pokémon Sunday episode recently aired in Japan and while it did not bring about any new Pokémon it did bring some new information as well as the chance to listen to some of the in-game music. The video shows off Black City and White Forest, the two areas that differ depending on which version of the game you get as well as confirming that you definitely battle Cheren and Belle. Also in a first we see the protagonist talking to N in first person with a full face shot against the backdrop of a ferris wheel.

Interestingly the video also shows off the Pokémon Global Link and Dream world. From what is shown it appears that you upload your Pokémon from your game to the Pokémon Global Link which is then accessed through a website on your browser. This appears to be the dream world previously discussed. This is all tentative speculation at the moment – hopefully we’ll learn more about this soon.

Kibago vs Munna

The video also shows off the new more animated battles. We see Kibago using some sort of physical attack that hits Munna multiple times in one move as well as some other battles between known new Pokémon.

Pokémon Sunday promises to go into greater depth about 3v3 battles next week and apparently the next issue of CoroCoro is set to reveal a new legendary Pokémon. We can only wait and see!

Even MORE CoroCoro info

This is the news that just doesn’t stop coming out. We now have clear scans of (hopefully) all the Black and White coverage from CoroCoro magazine and we’ve even found out some more information as a result. So here’s a recap of all the old news plus all the new news as well. (apologies to Pokebeach for copying their layout of this)

First up, Meet Cheren and Belle. Cheren is the guy and Belle is the girl. They’re old friends of your character in the game. At the beginning of the game, Professor Araragi leaves you all a present, which turns out to be the starter Pokémon. You’ll batter both of them during the game. Belle is spontaneous and your main rival, who’s strong willed (and goes on an adventure against her father’s wishes). She can, however, be unreliable at times. Cheren is intelligent and will be handing out advice to you during the game (maybe being the one to do the capture training bit that’s been in the games for generations?). Cheren intends to be the Champion of the Isshu Region.

When you pick your starter, Belle and Cheren get the other two (although which one gets the type advantage over you is unknown at the moment). Since your all childhood friends getting your Pokémon at the same time, all 3 of you will start your journey at the same time (the first game where all 3 trainers with a starter Pokémon have started at once).

To prove even further that the Isshu region is further away from Kanto than any other region before it, you’ll start out on Route 1 again.

The guy with green hair on the left page is called N. He’s kind of a bad guy in the game. You’ll fight him several times during the game, and although he claims Pokémon are friends, he wants to separate humans from Pokémon and is looking for the power to do just that.

The right page shows more info on 3 on 3 battles. Basically if your Pokémon is on the left side of your team, you can’t attack the person on the far right. The only Pokémon who can attack all 3 Pokémon at once will be the one in the middle, and if they use a move that can hit all Pokémon on the field it will do more damage than usual. There is a move button on the battle screen allowing you to change the placing of Pokémon in the middle of a fight (if you enlarge the picture, its on the right page, green box, bottom left corner of the top screenshot).

There is a new ability called ‘Telepathy’ which prevents a Pokémon from taking damage from team mate’s moves which hit everyone. For example, a Pokémon with the Telepathy ability would not take damage if the team mate used Surf or Earthquake, which would ordinarily hit all Pokémon except the user. No Pokémon has been mentioned to have this ability yet

Still on the subject of double/triple battles, there will be a new attack that, for one turn, will be able to protect your team mates from damage from moves that can hit all Pokémon. This move is yet to be named, and no Pokémon has yet to be associated with it.

These two pages deal with version differences. Rankurusu and Gochiruzeru are version exclusive Pokemon, but it doesn’t state in which version they will appear.

The Black City (top left of the left page) will be exclusive to Pokémon Black while the White Forest (to the right of that) will be exclusive to Pokémon White. The scans have both artwork at the top of the page while underneath each artwork is a screen shot of the area from the game.

Below the explanation of the version exclusive areas, it shows two screen shots of the same city. They both look similar but different, which is explained underneath that even towns and cities that will be in both games will look different depending on which version you’re playing.

Here’s the pages dealing with all the Pokémon. Top left, Gochiruzeru, the Celestial Body Pokémon, it will be a a psychic type Pokémon. It will have the Frisk ability and it can learn a new move called Magic Room, which actually stops the effects of ANY items played by you or your opponent for 5 turns (you can stop those full restores from Gym Leaders now). It will be 1.5m tall and weighs 44.0kg.

In the middle of the left page is the green blob, Rankurusu. It is the Amplification Pokemon, and another Psychic-type. It has a new ability called “Dust-Proof” which will stop it from taking damage from weather effects (like Sandstorm or Hail) Whether this ability also extends to other Pokemon is unknown. It also has the Magic Guard ability, which was previously exclusive to the Clefable line. It will be 1.0m tall and weighs 20.1kg.

Bottom of the left page is Wooguru (or Wargle depending on who translates it). It is the Valour Pokémon, a (standard) Normal/Flying type. Its abilities are Keen Eye and Encourage, the same ability as Hihidaruma, which boosts the power of its attacks but prevents any secondary effects. It can learn a new attack called Free Fall, which involves the Pokémon grabbing the opponent, lifting it into the air, and then on the next turn throwing it to the ground. It stands 1.5m tall and weighs 41.0kg.

Top of the right page, Kibago (the Larvitar imitation) is the Tusk Pokémon, a Dragon type Pokémon. It has the Rivalry and Mould Breaker abilities. It will learn a new attack called Double Chop, which (predictably) hits the opponent twice. It is 0.6m tall and weighs 18.0kg.

Middle of the right page is Koromori, the Bat Pokémon. It will be a Psychic/Flying type Pokémon and will have the Unaware and Klutz abilities. It knows a new attack called Heart Stamp, which can cause flinching. It is 0.4m tall and weighs 2.1kg.

Bottom of the right page is Minezumi, the Lookout Pokémon. It is a Normal type and has the abilities Run Away and Keen Eye. It knows a new attack called “You First” that makes the opponent attack first (surely someone will come up with a reason as to why at some point). It stands 0.5m tall and weighs 11.6kg.

Finally, at the top of the right page is Musharna, the Trance Pokémon. It is a psychic type and the evolved form of Munna. Apparently, the dreams of Pokémon are inside its smoke and both Munna and Musharna give off this ‘Dream Smoke’. It has the abilities Forewarn and Synchronize, is 1.1m tall and weighs 60.5kg.

The Dream Smoke is not just some line in a Pokedéx Flavour, you’ll be able to get it as an item. Once obtained, you’ll be able to ‘Game Sync’ which involves uploading your game to the internet.

The woman on the right page is Mokomo, a friend of Professor Araragi. Once you do some kind of quest for her, Mokomo will give you the C Gear, an item involving all kinds of Wireless, Wi-Fi and Infra Red connection options.

The left hand page explains the High Link building in the middle of Isshu. Using this building, you can travel to other players games and adventure with them. To what extent this Co-Op option will be, is currently unknown.

This section mainly talks about various connection methods. It explains that if you battle or trade using the Infrared connection instead of wireless, it can speed up both functions. It also says you can quickly exchange friend codes using infrared. Interestingly, the Pokéwalker uses Infrared to connect to HG/SS, so it may be possible to use the Pokéwalker with Black or white, or the infrared will be used to transfer your pokemon from HG/SS to Black and White.

The Passing By feature is part of the C Gear, which most likely means it is NOT a 3DS feature as speculated by us in the last news post. Using this Tag Mode feature, you’ll be able to help other people on their journey, or they can help you. To what extent, we do not know yet.

The Live Caster mode used to video chat with people (4 locally, 2 over wi-fi) and will have pictures on the bottom screen, which you can scribble on during the chats. Interestingly you’ll actually get Live Caster from some characters in the game itself, at one point from N.

A new feature called ‘Feeling Checker’ will check players compatibility. This is more minigame stuff, such as the game shown where two people have to keep a rhythm, the closer you both are to each other and the better your compatibility.

While not a major point for all of us in the west, the games in Japan will now feature a second language, Kanji. It also explains that the story will slightly change for those using Kanji, possibly because its mainly an older audience who use Kanji so it could be a bit darker. Still, as already mentioned, this won’t effect or be reflected in the English version when it’s released next year.

The Pokémon Global Link is the service used to upload you Black or White save file onto the internet (well, a specially made website anyway). You’ll unlock this option when you evolve Munna into Musharna. It will have 2 options when you use the Global Link.

Once registered to the Global Link, You can battle using the Global Link Terminals in Pokémon Centers. You’ll be able to have a Random Battle against a random opponent, or you can use a Rating Mode. Each time you battle, your stats will be tracked and you’ll be assigned a ranking, which will be used when you chose to battle using Rating Mode, assigning you an opponent of similar ability

The other function of the Global Link is being able to let a Pokémon play in a dream. Reading like an evolved version of the Pokéwalker where you don’t have to walk anywhere with it, the ‘World Of Dreams’ will feature rooms where your Pokémon can play, as well as mini-games to partake in. Your Pokémon can befriend Pokémon in this dream world, and using the Game Sync option, you’ll be able to bring one of those Pokémon you’ve befriended back to the real world with you. You’ll be able to get some Pokémon not normally available in Isshu using this method.

Lastly the bottom left page explains that the Daisuke Club is running some kind of World of Dreams event during August, possibly to explain exactly how the function will work. During this event you can encounter any one of the Eeveelutions in the dream world. Whether you’ll be able to send this Eeveelution to your black and white game when its released (and you’ve unlocked the Global Link) is only speculation at this point.

The page on the right explains the Zorua event again (which was already explained last month) as well as how Zoroark’s Illusion ability works (again, explained last month).

And that’s FINALLY it. We’ll try to bring you some vids from this week’s pokemon Sunday when it airs, which is due to reveal new pokemon (most likely all the ones revealed just here). We’ve got about 2 months before Black and White are released in Japan, so expect more stuff to be leaked in various ways between then and now. We’ll bring you more news as soon as we find out about it

More CoroCoro Info

Several new scans have been released from this month’s CoroCoro magazine revealing a wealth of new features for Black and White. First of all, we’ll cover something we missed in the last batch of scanns. In the first 2 pictures after the jump in our last article, one showed the Black City while the second showed the White Forest. These two areas are version exclusive, although we don’t know which area will appear in which version. They should, however, appear in the same place.

An amendment has been made to 2 Pokémon names. the error occurred due to the placement of the name in one of the scans, but it turns out that Rankurusu is the Green Cell like Pokémon, not the Black Purple Humanoid one, which is Gochiruzeru, we (and everyone else in the Pokémon fan community) apologise for any confusion from this.

Right, onto the next bacth of scans. First of all we have a new move announced, Magic Room. This can be learnt by Rankurusu (the green one, remember), and basically negates all effect by held items (both yours and your opponents).

We know a bit more about 3 on 3 battles. Apparently, placement will play a big part in these battles, making them even more strategic. It looks like who ever is in the front of your party will be in the middle of the battle, and that damage from attacks can be different depending on where the Pokémon is positioned in a battle. You should be able to change the positions of the Pokémon around during a battle (but that’s not confirmed yet)

There’s a big building in the middle of the Isshu region where something called ‘High Link’ will be available. This option seems more like something from the Mystery Dungeon games, allowing you to take missions to help out other players, although exactly how this works is unknown.

Want to know what the DSi exclusive feature is? Well this month’s CoroCoro reveals that an item called a TV Transceiver will allow you to use a function called ‘Live Caster’ – this will use the DSi (and 3DS) camera to do video chat with other users. Over Wi-Fi you’ll only be able to do 2 player, but over local wireless you’ll be able to do up to 4 people in a video chat.

Interestingly, it looks like there will be a 3DS exclusive feature as well, using the 3DS’s internal version of the Tag Mode communication method. Dubbed ‘Passing By’ in Black and White, it will allow you to help other people as you pass by them once you advance on your journey. Exactly how is unknown, and its not 100% confirmed this is using the 3DS version of tag mode (meaning you don’t need the game in the console) or if its the standard version requiring the game to be put into sleep mode which is used in various DS games currently (such as Nintendogs, where it was first introduced).

That’s all we have now, check out the latest batch of CoroCoro scans after the jump (they’re not much to look at unless you read Japanese)

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Latest CoroCoro leaks new Pokémon

The July issue of CoroCoro has just leaked on 2ch.net and as expected it reveals some new Pokémon, including the one featured in a silhouette on Pokémon Sunday mentioned below.

Wooguru - ウォーグル

The first scan shows off Wooguru (ウォーグル), the ‘Valour’ Pokémon. It is a Normal/Flying type weighing 41kg and standing 1.5m tall. Its ability is Keen Eye and can learn a new attack known as Free Fall (フリーフォール). It is a two-turn move that involves picking a Pokémon up, flying up and then dropping it on the next turn.

The scan also reveals the names of two previously known Pokémon.

  Rankurusu [ランクルス] (background) & Gochiruzeru [ゴチルゼル] (foreground)

Rankurusu (ランクルス) in the background & Gochiruzeru (ゴチルゼル) in the foreground

Gochiruzeru (ゴチルゼル) – The green cell like Pokémon from which it partly derives its namesake.

Rankurusu (ランクルス) – The black/purple humanshape Pokémon with a name partly derived from ‘chaos’. It is a psychic type, 1.6m tall and one of its possible abilities is Magic Guard.

Musharna (ムシャーナ) (the Pokémon) & Makomo (マコモ), a friend of Professor Araragi.

Musharna (ムシャーナ) above is revealed as the evolution of Munna which has been previously revealed. It has something to do with Dream Smoke (ゆめのけむり) which may have something to do with the Pokémon GTS but right now not much is known.

Kibago (キバゴ) top, Koromori (コロモリ) middle and Minezumi (ミネズミ) bottom

There are some more scans but they don’t reveal any new Pokémon or ground breaking new info – hit the jump for them.

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More New Pokemon coming soon and a new Japanese Wi-Fi Download on the horrizon

Ok, so we’ve just filled you in on some of the new Pokémon that have been leaked during the past week or so, we’ll there looks like there are even more on the horrizon. Pokémon Sunday this week showed another sillouete in a teaser for next weeks show, saying they have more Black and White footage to reveal. The sillouete does not match any of the Pokémon being leaked so far, so we’re guaranteed to know about 1 new pokemon in the next week. However the way it was worded made it sound like they will reveal even more Pokémon, which means we could get confirmation (along with names and other vital bits of info) on some of the Pokémon posted in the previous post.

We’re also expecting the next issue of CoroCoro magazine soon. While not officially released until next week, the info and some scans are usually leaked a few days earlier and usually contains all the info Pokémon Sunday is due to show, so expect More New Pokémon sometime during this week.

In other news, Japan currently has a Wi-Fi event going on that will allow any Japenese Pokémon DS game to download a Scizor representing the one owned by Goon, a henchman in the new 13th movie Ruller of Illusions: Zoroark. This event finishes on the 14th July, so if you have a Japanese copy of any DS Pokémon game, you might want to get on Wi-Fi quickly to download it. On the 15th July, a new Wi-Fi event will occur on the Japanese games. Representing Satoshi’s main Pokémon (that’s Ash Ketchum to you or me), a Lv 50 Pikachu will be available to download. Holding a Light Ball, it will know the moves Volt Tackle, Iron Tail, Quick Attack and Thunderbolt. It will apparently have the Naughty Nature. The event will be available until August 10th.

That’s all we have now, we’ll bring you more news as soon as we can