to get this out of the way: outside of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon I'm not really into rougelikes. I am mostly speaking from the cult-managing aspect of the game. that being said....

wowie kazowie did they do a really good job of marrying these two different genres of games. I appreciate how both parts feed into each other - you manage your cult so that you can get crown upgrades, which allow you to get better at crusades. the crusades give you more items that allow you to build up your cult which then feeds back into leveling up your crown. it's genuinely great

I think the only issue I have is that the art style doesn't really... look all that great on some of the follower species. but that's honestly fine when the gameplay loop is just that satisfying

I've been taking a second look at Generation 5 for.... research reasons, for the most part. I started with Pokemon Black and White because that's generally what you start with and because the original team composition I had was quite awful (the three starters, a shiny Stoutland, an Unfezant, and a Zweilous. Serperior in particular was so awful that I stopped using all 3 starters in a playthrough after this and still ranks as my second most despised starter in the series. despite this I am giving it a second shot in my Black 2 playthrough)

for this playthrough I used the following: Empress the Emboar, Tower the Ferrothorn, Devil the Bisharp, Hermit the Musharna, Temperance the Seismetoad, and Priestess the Eelektross. other notable Pokemon captured were Fool the Patrat, Magician the Simisage, Chariot the Zebstrika, Moon the Liepard, World the Reshiram, Death the Kyurem, and a random Victini and Woobat I caught.

early game is brutal and sucks. Lillipup and Herdier do tons of damage to you but using a Lillipup and Herdier on my end in most cases did absolutely nothing or worse than nothing. due to the changes they made to earning EXP, Audino were basically a necessity from start to finish and I'm finding myself grumble far less about how EXP Share has been handled after this game

things significantly turned around by the time I got past the third gym, however - I think a large part of it just comes from not having a good amount of variety at the start but as the game opens up you get access to some really cool Pokemon, which brings me to my next point....

the Pokemon in this game are really cool. I still think was a coward move for Game Freak to walk back on this because people at the time (and even people today judging from other ratings here) lack taste

the soundtrack is also absolutely incredible. you can really tell that they're utilizing all they've learned from Diamond and Pearl onwards because the soundtrack in Pokemon Black and White hits and just continues to hit. it's genuinely phenomenal. please look up the remixes they did for the Super CD collection if you're reading this, their remix on Anville Town in particular is great

as far as the story.... it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remember considering how deeply hamfisted the discussions about truth vs ideals was and how there was often a bit of a disconnect between what the game was saying and what the game actually showed (Bianca being "weak" is a big one), but they did a lot of super cool things with it like the dragon fights and you can really tell that they put a lot of love into it. no wonder Masuda feels like he lost spirit after this game, I would've lost spirit too if I created something with this much love only for people to repeatedly shit on it

I will say this, however - Black and White started a brand new era of Pokemon, and as a result I noticed a lot of things that get complaints even today (the tutorials, the way it insists on telling you a story that while having great setpieces, etc. doesn't deliver itself very well, the handholding, scaling back the experience overall compared to Ruby/Sapphire and Diamond/Pearl before it, the way the map and Gym Leaders are made more simple so going out of order for Gym Leaders is difficult if not impossible). I was shocked that nobody mentioned the way that Professor Juniper basically holds your hand to Route 10, the last route before the Pokemon League. or that the Elite 4 have 4 Pokemon on them and that's it!

but man, you can tell just how much love they put into this game and while the way the story was told left a bit to be desired, the way they gave so much love to the region is a sight to behold. it's a shame it took until maybe a few years ago for people to realize this game was good the whole time

a pretty grand improvement on the first! .... kind of

I remember having to digest the original for a while before coming to the conclusion that I did enjoy my time, but not as much as other people. this game on the other hand I found myself liking immediately!

I definitely do appreciate that the party members are less samey. they're still kind of samey, but not to the extent Hylics 1 was. combat as a whole is far more fun than the original ever was outside of Poolman/Poolmange enemies duplicating

the art style is as mesmerizing here as it was in the original, maybe more! the use of both 2D and 3D with clay makes it a delight for the eye

I really liked it! want to give it 4 stars! unfortunately Hylics 2 insists a lot on platforming, and its platforming is janky and awful. it makes some locations like Foglast an absolute nightmare. the minigames were cute enough but became an annoyance after 5 minutes because of said janky platforming, except that's the structure of the whole thing! pretty bad when I have to turn on God Mode because of how utterly annoying the minigame platforming is

regardless of whether you play the game yourself or watch a playthrough on it online, it's something I suggest anyone who loves a good indie RPG to take a look at. it's not perfect, but it's pretty enjoyable