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
