Pokemon: Changing Of The Seasons

By Jo

With so much hype over the new Pokemon Black and White games that will be released in a little less than a week’s time, I thought I’d cover a new feature that I’m pretty excited about – the changing of the seasons. Many have probably seen screen shots of snow and falling leaves, though, the appearance of the Unova region isn’t the only thing that’s changing each month.

In the original games, there was no sense of time. Days didn’t change into nights. Weather conditions didn’t become more extreme. There wasn’t a need for it, since Pokemon that evolve by those means didn’t exist yet. It wasn’t until Johto that time began to matter as Espeon and Umbreon were introduced in that generation. In the third generation, weather conditions like rain were made available in battle. And then in the forth, Pokemon became able to evolve at certain locations into Pokemon that they otherwise couldn’t. So now that seasons have been added, you can expect lots things having to do with them become regular game play with Black and White.

With each generation, the Pokemon games become more and more like our own world. No longer do days blend together into one enormous twilight, but pass like ours would. Time has become relevant. Though, unlike our world, the region of Unova experiences each season three times a year, with each one lasting a month’s time. As of the first of March, Unova will just be starting Autumn and will go onto Spring in April. The natural flow of the seasons will remain the same as our world, though the length has just been shortened for game-play purposes.

So what should you look out for? Besides the different appearance of the region, Pokemon availability in some areas will change with each season. New areas will be accessible only certain times of the year and the background music of most routes will change slightly, adding to the atmosphere. Morning in the Winter begins an hour later and Daytime is an hour shorter, while the exact opposite occurs during Summer; Morning begins an hour earlier and the Day extends an hour. And in spring, certain areas may experience rainy weather. And then there are pokes like Deerling and its evolved form, Sawsbuck, (practically the mascots for the new changing seasons feature) that change appearance-wise to fit the seasons as well.

Sounds pretty exciting, huh? There’s so much to look forward to with just the seasons alone! Makes the wait for Pokemon Black and Pokemon White seem that much farther away . . . So what are your opinions on the new changing season’s features? What season are you most excited to see in the games?

Tags: , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *