HeartGold and SoulSilver demo

[Guested]

I played the demo for HeartGold and SoulSilver at the Pokemon Center in Tokyo yesterday. It's been there for a while now, but I had been out of the country so yesterday was the first chance I had to get down there and see it.

There have already been videos of the demo posted elsewhere on the web, and between that and the screenshots, there wasn't any thing much that surprised me in the demo (other than the presence of Eusine). But I'll give you my impressions and we can use this thread to discuss what we think about the demo.

If you don't know anything about the demo, the premise is that you have 5 minutes to go from Route 37 to Ecruteak City and deliver a package. Your character gender and name are random. My character was the girl and her name was Heart, just going to show you all that the gender does not determine the name Heart, Gold, Soul, whatever, it's the VERSION of the game that determines which name is suggested. Your party starts with three Pokemon (starter, Pikachu, and one other big pokemon), and you fight a set of twins and a psychic with Dunsparce along the way through Route 37.

-The first thing that jumps out at me about HGSS is that the battle menus look a lot cleaner/shinier. I really like the new look that they have.

-The new menu system outside of battle was VERY good, and I'm really glad that they've finally made the menu systems all at least somewhat similar. Using the stylus for everything will be very nice and easy.

-My party was Chikorita, Pikachu and Snorlax. I hadn't seen a Snorlax in the videos yet, so that was a small surprise.

-You may have noticed, but the Pokemon that follows you around simply slides onto the screen during battle instead of coming out of a Pokeball (for obvious reasons).

-The Running Shoes button is indeed a toggle, so that's great.

-One thing I forgot to do was to check the Pokemon menu to see if I could get any info on how to change whether or not your Pokemon follows you around. If I go back down there later this week, I'll definitely try to check that out.

[COBHC]

wow it sounds so amazing

[FLOOTENKERP]

TOGGLE? This is gonna be awesome. Thanks for sharing Guested! I can't wait.

[codemonkey85]

Your party starts with three Pokemon (starter, Pikachu, and one other big pokemon)

-My party was Chikorita, Pikachu and Snorlax. I hadn't seen a Snorlax in the videos yet, so that was a small surprise.

You do know that they were encouraging you to make that Snorlax follow you around, right?

Anyway. Seen a bunch of videos of the demo, very nice. The only thing so far that I possibly could complain about is that the battle music sounds a bit too FRLG. Of course, it's a mite hard to make out with all the background noise.

Actually, I also have to complain that so many people spend so much demo time in battle. Why? Battles haven't really changed since Platinum, so I'd be spending more time on the new features, personally. (I guess there's a man blocking the entrance to the Pokémon Center, so that's unfortunate.)

[Guested]

Well, I tried to skip the second battle, actually (the one with the psychic). But his vision is pretty good, so he saw me trying to sneak by him. THAT battle is unavoidable. However, it's possible to walk around the twins, but I didn't realize that until after the battle had already ended.

The mart was open, but I didn't go in. I did have a chat with Eusine, but didn't bother paying attention because I figured it'd all be stuff I heard 10 years ago.

If I go back, I may try to complete the "quest." Ha. But I really want to take a better look at the menu features (and try to make Snorlax walk around).

[av10231]

Ohh u r soooo lucky

[Toffeuy]

Wait... so you mean instead of just having your starter, in the start you obtain 3 pokemon instead of 1 unlike the other games? And someone gives you a Snorlax as well? or did I get something wrong?

[DanteKoriyu]

It's only in the demo, to showcase some of the Pokemon, and Probably to help prevent your team from fainting for the little kids. Wonder what would happen if you did though, since you start below Ecruteak, would you blackout to a Pokemon Center you have yet to visit? Just a thought.

Anyway, for the demo, you start off on the route below Ecruteak with a team of three Pokemon, your starter and two others (pre set by what starter you pick, so I've heard, I don't know if you actually pick your starter or if it is just random.). Don't expect any of this for the actual game though. It will start almost exactly as GSC did, and fairly similar to all the other Pokemon handheld games as well. 1 starter, catch the rest as you go.

[Toffeuy]

Oh... I get it now, so the 3 pokemon are only for the demo not the real game...

[Neo]

My Penpal got to play this. He was praising most of the feature like the toggle running shoes and how well the battle system was since D/P/Pt.

[Guested]

Okay guys, I went back and played it again, so here's what I found out:

- I had the boy character this time, but my starter was Chikorita and I once again had Snorlax as the third Pokemon.

- Snorlax's new HGSS Sprite is awesome.

- Changing the Pokemon in your first slot immediately changes who is following you. When I did this, the top screen cut back to the overworld and showed Snorlax popping out of it's Pokeball... but it only showed this animation the first time I changed (maybe only once per play session/area?)

- Snorlax walking behind you is absolutely precious. It was gigantic, and like Totoro or something. Coincidentally, my Snorlax's characteristic was "likes to run."

- There was nothing I could see in the Pokemon menu that was an option to let you put the Pokemon away and have none follow you. Maybe there's an option at the PC like the Capsule Seals or something? Maybe it's impossible? No idea.

- It may have just been the lighting, but I could not see any coloration of the stats of my Pokemon. Some screenshots of the legendary dragon trio look as if one stat is red and one is blue (possibly indicating highest IV and lowest IV). Perhaps this feature isn't in the demo, or maybe it is activated with some kind of key item, or NPC that checks for you.... I have no idea. Maybe I just couldn't see it well... Maybe the coloration of the menu just makes it LOOK like some stats are different colors...

Look at the bottom of the page here:

http://www.pokemon.co.jp/special/hgss/news/03.html

What do you think?

- The health and Exp bars in battle are just a little bit taller so it's a slight bit easier to see, which I think looks really good.

I made it all the way to the monk guarding the way into the tower, but then ran out of time because I spent so much of it playing around with the menus (which still stand out, and I still really like).

[KyoMcFizzle]

It's the picture, Guested. You're just seeing things.

[Guested]

Someone else brought it up first.

To be honest, I can't even tell anymore. Stupid optical illusions (maybe).

[DanteKoriyu]

Well, the colors are for sure in the pictures on the HGSS site, the shadows on one stat are red, while the other is blue, compared to the standard black/grey. As for your demo experience with the stats, it is just a demo after all, maybe its not implemented in that build?

[Guested]

Really? You can tell?

I'm gonna try enlarging one to get a better look.... but I'll do that later.

It could be that it was in the demo, but I just couldn't see it clearly. I didn't want to look too weird.

[DanteKoriyu]

Yeah, its there. Bottom two stats for the Giratina Picture:

[Guested]

Oh yeah, you're definitely right.

I guess I just couldn't see it well on the screen on the DS I was using. It's kinda tough to tell with the menus being those altering shades. I was TRYING to see (but thought my eyes might be playing tricks on me)... and I THOUGHT that it looked like the Snorlax's Special Defense and Speed were a different color. I originally thought that Sp Def was Blue and Speed was Red, but when I got home to check, it's characteristic of "likes to run" indicated that Speed would be it's highest and should have been blue. I could just be remembering wrong, because I had a really long night before I came home to check. Sorry for the sloppy report, but we'll have our answers in a matter of days.

I could have just memorized it backwards since I was trying to not look TOO fascinated by the game, and I was also giving battle tips to the kid playing on the other demo unit. Ha.

[Eon-Rider]

Oh... I get it now, so the 3 pokemon are only for the demo not the real game...

It was like that for the Diamond & Pearl Demo as well. I remember one of the three was Lucario.

[Mewtwo Ex]

A running Snorlax... That would have been something to behold. Was it its actual size or is it shrunken down?

[Toffeuy]

I was going to ask that too. In DPPt when you walked with Torterra, it was shrunken down to your size so it would look more agile when turning corners... so is it still like DPPt or is it different and left back to a suitable size, now?

I guess legendaries would be an exception. Cuz it's gonna look weird having something 20 times your size walking around with you. I do expect the pokemon following you to look like something in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Games.

[Guested]

Well, here's an example of how big a big Pokemon is.

Here is Arceus with the player:

The Snorlax was a little big shorter than this Steelix:

There are also some shots of the Player with a Tyranitar in some of the recently released videos, so you can check that out.

By the way, like I said, this time around I was the boy character in the demo, and his name was Soul.

I'd like to point out again that the characters do not have any specific names, but that the suggested names are based on what version you are playing. So think about that if you plan on referring to the girl character as Soul.

[Mewtwo Ex]

Guested i am curious about something. In the Mystery Dungeon series a Wailord was for more that 1 tile even though it moved like the rest. So it was in the other Pokemons dungeon sprites. Do you have any idea if it will be the new games like that?

[Guested]

I have no idea. I'm guessing Wailord probably won't show up naturally in HGSS (unless it's way at the end of the game), so we might not ever know the answer to that until someone gets the game and trades one over from DPP.

But I'm guessing it might look big, but only take up one tile of space.

You can look at the sprites for Arceus, Steelix, Kyogre, and Groudon to see what I mean, but then Lugia and Ho-oh look like they'll take up a lot of space too... but maybe fit on one tile... I'm not sure.

http://www.pokemon.co.jp/special/hgss/pokemon/02.html

http://www.pokemon.co.jp/special/hgss/pokemon/01.html

[Mewtwo Ex]

That is exactly what i mean. Those are quite large (Ho-oh and Lugia). I cannot help but think that they will not have their sprites like before the protagonists battles them. Unless the developers have found a way to make them levitate while standing still, otherwise there is no way (at least to me) to have them not ''sink'' into the ground or route.

[Neo]

Yeah, its there. Bottom two stats for the Giratina Picture:

They definitely different. Second bottom is red, Bottom is blue. Must indicate Lowest/Highest Iv's