Anyway, so my first reactions after going to the Pokémon.com homepage: "WTF?! (Reads.) (Girlish giggle.) (Thinks.) Whoa... WTF?!" Yeah, I pretty much came full circle after a minute or two, but no matter, I'm still excited for this! This truly is an unprecedented move in my opinion. Also, soon after seeing and reading the new info I couldn't help but think to myself, "This must be exactly what happened to bring this about:
Japanese Game Planner: OK, so how do we make even more money off of these "third versions"? Hm... I've got it! We split them into another two games, instead! It's genius!
Other Japanese Game Planner: Yeah, but what would we call them?
Japanese Game Planner: Um... How about we just call them "Black 2" and "White 2"? I mean, they are sequels, after all.
Other Japanese Game Planner: Oh, yeah! Hey, and plus that solves that whole problem about having to create different logos and programming and everything just for America because of that whole "'Gray' or 'Gray'" thing! We're so good!
Ken Sugimori: But wait, what are we going to do for the cover Pokémon? We only have this one design I made, "Kyurem Origin Forme"!
Japanese Game Planner: Scrap it. We'll just make two new Formes instead, one for each of the other Dragons instead of all three put together like we were planning before!
Other Japanese Game Planner: Yeah, yeah, and then we can have even more merchandise!
Japanese Game Planner: Yeah!
Other Japanese Game Planner: Man, we are so getting pay raises for this."
Yep, and I'm sure that's exactly how it happened, too. Just ask them. Now that I have that vented, though, it's time for a little personal criticism of Black and White Kyurem:
Well, I actually do kind of like the designs, but I'm a little disappointed with the fact that there's two of them. I was kind of looking forward to seeing the "Original Dragon." You know, all three of them put together? That would have been nice, but whatever. What I think is kind of odd is that they seem to have put elements from Kyurem and Reshiram/Zekrom into these new designs fairly balancedly. So, what are they going to do for their types? What, are they going to make this the first three-type Pokémon, or maybe give it an effect that causes it to to be listed as two but also have the weaknesses and advantages of the third, as well (Yes, I'm sure that would never get confusing and/or complicated or anything.)? Or are they just going to make Black/White's respective typing "Dragon/[Combined Pokémon's second-type]" (I can't help but notice that the "2" in the logos are blue for Black and red for White, which gives me the idea that Black Kyurem will likely be linked in some way to Zekrom's Electric traits and White Kyurem to Reshiram's Fire traits. Well, that and the idea that this time the games won't be so "checkered" and that Black 2 will have the black mascot and White 2 will have the white mascot, but that's a whole different discussion.)? Or will they just throw everyone for a loop and give Black Kyurem Reshiram's Fire-typing and White Kyurem Zekrom's Electric-typing for no apparent reason? Then again, I suppose they could always just make all of those types cancel each other out and make them both straight-up Dragon-types. But they would never do something that silly, of course. That would be as ridiculous as the idea of fusing two Pokémon together or something! One other aspect of these two that I find intriguing is the aspect of their signature moves. Will they simply have the respective two moves of the trio's three, or will they have a brand new move or two? I am eager to see.
And on a more general point, will these two be tradable between these two new Versions, or will they be forced to remain in their own games, never seeing the light of day in any sort of linking for a while? Also, does this mean that Zekrom and Reshiram can fuse with each other, perhaps? Who knows, maybe there is still hope for a game that requires an American and everywhere-else version of the logo, if that's the case! And one final thing that is on my mind about these two: Will the two members fuse because of the Fusion Flare/Bolt moves, an item, an event, or will it just be some sort of time travel like some seem to like to think? I'm personally just kind of hoping it won't just be a matter of "In these games' worlds Kyurem was never split from Zekrom/Reshiram. Thus, new Pokémon." That would just annoy me. Oh yeah, and Gray Kyurem (all three together), please!
Maybe just give them both Magic Guard to kludge round the issue instead.
