Pretty great Pokemon game. I never played Colosseum but as far as I can tell, this sequel improves upon the gameplay so vastly. If you’ve been searching for an official shakeup to the mainline formula, this is a fantastic option. It’s fun to have your team built around Pokémon that you snag from others. The game only having double battles is such a major boon for the strategic depth of this adventure, it genuinely makes me wish we’d get another game where the main story is all doubles.
One of the game’s biggest assets also happens to be one of its biggest flaws. The battle animations are enthralling, fun to watch, and full of life. However, without the option to turn them off, halfway through the playthrough they start to feel like they’re lasting waaaay too long and easily make up for a good chunk of the playtime.
I still give this my recommendation, but if you have the means to throttle the game speed, you’ll enjoy it even more.
One of the game’s biggest assets also happens to be one of its biggest flaws. The battle animations are enthralling, fun to watch, and full of life. However, without the option to turn them off, halfway through the playthrough they start to feel like they’re lasting waaaay too long and easily make up for a good chunk of the playtime.
I still give this my recommendation, but if you have the means to throttle the game speed, you’ll enjoy it even more.
It’s been probably about two years or so since I played Pokemon Colosseum. While I really liked it, I wish it was a little bit longer, it felt like it ended too soon. Fast forward to now, and I’ve finally gotten around to playing the game’s sequel, XD: Gales of Darkness. Practically any issue I had with Colosseum is gone, and this game is such a great time overall, I’m so glad I finally got around to playing it.
Shadow Pokemon are so fun, even just catching them is super engaging. Having to catch them in Double Battles, where you also have to pay attention to the second field on the enemy’s field. Eventually you’ll have to catch multiple Shadow Pokemon in the same battle, making it a far more delicate balancing act. It’s also really nice that there’s a pretty safe way of trying to get a Shadow Pokemon again, if it faints in the first battle. I haven’t played Colosseum since I played it the first time back in 2022, but I don’t remember it being as forgiving. I was able to get every single Shadow Pokemon obtainable in the game, and I purified them all as well, to boot.
Purifying them as well is so fun. Of course you have the original way, going to the relic in Agate Village once a Shadow Gauge is empty, and purifying it. But the new Purification Chamber is such a handy tool, though it was definitely a learning curve to figure out how it works. The Purification Chamber allows you to purify up to 9 Pokemon at a time, being able to do other things while they purify in the background. You’ll need already purified Pokemon to help them purify though, and that’s where the nuance is. You can place 4 Pokemon around the Shadow Pokemon in the Purification Chamber, and the order that they’re placed in can increase the purification rate. It took me a long time to actually figure it out, In a clockwise order, each Pokemon must be weak to the one placed before it, and doing that for the full circle maxes out the tempo. Doing so is really fun, especially once you get each Purification Chamber Slot at max tempo, and being able to purify 9 Pokemon at the fastest possible rate.
I also think the introduction to Wild Pokemon is also interesting. There’s only 9 Wild Pokemon you can catch, which is fine, but it is quite limited. On it’s own, it’s not very interesting, but I do like how they did it. Simply just placing down a PokeSnack at a spot, and returning once you get notified of a Pokemon Spawning is really interesting. This, alongside the Purification Chamber, are really good ways to add mechanics that can fit naturally alongside the normal campaign of the game, and I really like that.
I think one of the best things about Colosseum and XD is the Pokemon you’re allowed to use. Typically in a Pokemon game, you’re likely to use similar Pokemon, and there’s often some Pokemon you’ll like never be able to use. One of the first things I think of is how in the Gen 2 games, a good number of new Pokemon (Slugma, Houndour, Larvitar) are postgame exclusive. In XD, I had a really fun team, especially with what Pokemon I was allowed to get early on, I think I was about halfway through the game when I finalized my team. My team for XD was Jolteon, Ursaring, Houndoom, Walrein, Dusclops, and Aggron. It was so fun to use pokemon like Houndoom, or Dusclops, pokemon that I’d otherwise be unlikely, or unable to use.
The battles of the game are always fun. Just like Colosseum of course, all of the battles in the game will be Double Battles. I just think by the nature of them, they’re just naturally more engaging. Having to synergize the two Pokemon you have out on the field, and be aware of the Pokemon your opponent is using as well. Sometimes your opponent will just have something you wont expect, and I think it’s really interesting. For a good majority of the game, I didn’t really need to grind all that much, the game was relatively balanced level-scaling wise. Most of the time, I grinded a little bit in order to help Shadow Pokemon I caught be on par with the rest of my party. The only problem I have with the game is the one bit of level scaling that I wish was improved, which was the final location of the game. In there, most of the Pokemon you’ll be fighting are about mid-30s to low 40s at best. But this jumps highly with the last handful of battles, bringing out Pokemon that are mid-40s all the way up to 50. I think it’s a noticeable spike, and I wish it was ironed out a little bit more, probably just adding some more battles to that final dungeon would honestly be enough.
But even then, I absolutely adored this game. As I mentioned prior, I went out of my way to fully obtain and purify every single Shadow Pokemon in the game, I didn’t even do that for of Colosseum. I haven’t even acknowledged Shadow Lugia up to this point, and I am an absolute sucker for that design. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but Shadow Lugia has a similar level of coolness design-wise that I see in Shadow the Hedgehog. I know it’ll never happen realistically, but I’d love to see it appear someway or somehow. It’s so cool to see a Shadow Pokemon be transformed by the shadow experimentation, instead of just getting a shadowy aura. But yeah, I can see myself replaying this game again at some point, it’d be fun to try the game again with a new team, and new eeveelution. Or maybe I’ll try to see if I can beat the 100 battle challenge in the save I do have. This game is an absolute blast.
Shadow Pokemon are so fun, even just catching them is super engaging. Having to catch them in Double Battles, where you also have to pay attention to the second field on the enemy’s field. Eventually you’ll have to catch multiple Shadow Pokemon in the same battle, making it a far more delicate balancing act. It’s also really nice that there’s a pretty safe way of trying to get a Shadow Pokemon again, if it faints in the first battle. I haven’t played Colosseum since I played it the first time back in 2022, but I don’t remember it being as forgiving. I was able to get every single Shadow Pokemon obtainable in the game, and I purified them all as well, to boot.
Purifying them as well is so fun. Of course you have the original way, going to the relic in Agate Village once a Shadow Gauge is empty, and purifying it. But the new Purification Chamber is such a handy tool, though it was definitely a learning curve to figure out how it works. The Purification Chamber allows you to purify up to 9 Pokemon at a time, being able to do other things while they purify in the background. You’ll need already purified Pokemon to help them purify though, and that’s where the nuance is. You can place 4 Pokemon around the Shadow Pokemon in the Purification Chamber, and the order that they’re placed in can increase the purification rate. It took me a long time to actually figure it out, In a clockwise order, each Pokemon must be weak to the one placed before it, and doing that for the full circle maxes out the tempo. Doing so is really fun, especially once you get each Purification Chamber Slot at max tempo, and being able to purify 9 Pokemon at the fastest possible rate.
I also think the introduction to Wild Pokemon is also interesting. There’s only 9 Wild Pokemon you can catch, which is fine, but it is quite limited. On it’s own, it’s not very interesting, but I do like how they did it. Simply just placing down a PokeSnack at a spot, and returning once you get notified of a Pokemon Spawning is really interesting. This, alongside the Purification Chamber, are really good ways to add mechanics that can fit naturally alongside the normal campaign of the game, and I really like that.
I think one of the best things about Colosseum and XD is the Pokemon you’re allowed to use. Typically in a Pokemon game, you’re likely to use similar Pokemon, and there’s often some Pokemon you’ll like never be able to use. One of the first things I think of is how in the Gen 2 games, a good number of new Pokemon (Slugma, Houndour, Larvitar) are postgame exclusive. In XD, I had a really fun team, especially with what Pokemon I was allowed to get early on, I think I was about halfway through the game when I finalized my team. My team for XD was Jolteon, Ursaring, Houndoom, Walrein, Dusclops, and Aggron. It was so fun to use pokemon like Houndoom, or Dusclops, pokemon that I’d otherwise be unlikely, or unable to use.
The battles of the game are always fun. Just like Colosseum of course, all of the battles in the game will be Double Battles. I just think by the nature of them, they’re just naturally more engaging. Having to synergize the two Pokemon you have out on the field, and be aware of the Pokemon your opponent is using as well. Sometimes your opponent will just have something you wont expect, and I think it’s really interesting. For a good majority of the game, I didn’t really need to grind all that much, the game was relatively balanced level-scaling wise. Most of the time, I grinded a little bit in order to help Shadow Pokemon I caught be on par with the rest of my party. The only problem I have with the game is the one bit of level scaling that I wish was improved, which was the final location of the game. In there, most of the Pokemon you’ll be fighting are about mid-30s to low 40s at best. But this jumps highly with the last handful of battles, bringing out Pokemon that are mid-40s all the way up to 50. I think it’s a noticeable spike, and I wish it was ironed out a little bit more, probably just adding some more battles to that final dungeon would honestly be enough.
But even then, I absolutely adored this game. As I mentioned prior, I went out of my way to fully obtain and purify every single Shadow Pokemon in the game, I didn’t even do that for of Colosseum. I haven’t even acknowledged Shadow Lugia up to this point, and I am an absolute sucker for that design. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but Shadow Lugia has a similar level of coolness design-wise that I see in Shadow the Hedgehog. I know it’ll never happen realistically, but I’d love to see it appear someway or somehow. It’s so cool to see a Shadow Pokemon be transformed by the shadow experimentation, instead of just getting a shadowy aura. But yeah, I can see myself replaying this game again at some point, it’d be fun to try the game again with a new team, and new eeveelution. Or maybe I’ll try to see if I can beat the 100 battle challenge in the save I do have. This game is an absolute blast.
While I don't think it's very replayable due to the limited Pokemon games at your disposal, I think this game's story campaign is something unmatched by any of the mainline games outside of Black and White.