So, where were we?
Black 2 & White 2:
Freezing Of Opelucid: Let's start with a big one, if not the big one from BW2. We've seen the Plasma Frigate before this but it was docked and just seemed like a transport ship. No one was expecting it to fly above Opelucid, roll out a huge cannon, and freeze Opelucid City in ice. The true horror comes in after the cutscene where you explore the frozen city. No one is outside and all the buildings are frozen in thick ice that not even Drayden's Haxorus can break. Not only that, but the routes besides Opelucid had suffered with damages to the road, fences, and patches of tall grass. It's a taste of what Neo Team Plasma has planned and shows the player why they need to be stopped.
Plasma Frigate Revelations: Speaking of the Plasma Frigate, the Plasma Frigate has several iconic moments the few times you're inside it:
- Powered By Kyurem: Obviously Kyurem was going to play a big role in these games, but not many were expecting it to be the power source of the Frigate. And even if they did, they probably weren't expecting it to willingly be the power source for it wants to complete and sees Neo Team Plasma as the best way to do it.
- Ghetsis is Back: Maybe not a complete surprise, but Ghetsis revealed to have been on the Frigate all along in a secret office was a twist, especially after building up Colress being the "boss" of Neo Team Plasma.
- Hugh BSOD: Hugh's story arc ends on the Plasma Frigate, finally finding his little sister's Purrloin. Except now its a Liepard and has been trained to be loyal to Team Plasma, something that causes Hugh to BSOD. It's not surprising, it's hissing at him the entire time, he's probably thinking how can he take it back to his sister like this? With how fired up Hugh has been through the whole game, seeing him break down like that is yet another way of showing why Neo Team Plasma, or rather Ghetsis, needs to be stopped.
Confrontation In Giant Chasm: Another major moment, especially when it was first revealed in Japanese, is everything that goes on in Giant Chasm's cave. First the player catches up to Ghetsis only for Ghetsis to command Kyurem to surround the player with icicles! When this first was revealed everyone though Ghetsis was commanding Kyurem to kill the player, and though that wasn't quite true, what really happened isn't any better: being frozen in place as you watch Kyurem freeze all of Unova. But before Kyurem can do the deed, N and his dragon comes down and destroys the icicle in a big damn hero moment! But this is exactly what Ghetsis wanted, as he then uses the DNA Splicers to fuse N's Dragon with Kyurem! N doesn't know what to do, as the player has to battle Kyurem's new Forme, unable to catch it due to Ghetsis's can having a Poke Ball blocking device. And after the player defeats both Kyurem and Ghetsis, Ghetsis finally breaks down and later we learn he has entered into a vegetative state. An overall pretty satisfying conclusion to the Unova saga.
Plasma Civil War: Backing up a bit, the little bits of the Plasma Civil War we saw was also shocking, seeing former team members having turned on each other. It helps shows the difference between the old Team Plasma who are doing their best to redeem themselves and Neo Team Plasma who have seemingly dropped their "all for the Pokemon" act (though there are still some who are doing this for the best of Pokemon). It really adds depth to the team. My favorite part has to be the old Plasma spy, it was nice having someone on the inside working with you and showing that old Team Plasma are trying to make up for past evil deeds.
Redone Unova: Now we'd had remakes which added stuff to a region and Gen II brought us an updated Kanto, but that pales in comparison what was done with Unova. Since this took place two years after BW and we were going through it again, they REALLY needed to expand upon Unova. Revisiting Kanto was a bonus so it didn't really need to change that much. Unova though had a lot of changes done, not only to locations but also to the way you got around it. You started off in a completely new section of Unova, traveled a bit alongside the old route, but then flew to the opposite side which was post game in the last game (and some places, including BW's home town, was changed into post game locations!). Not only that, old locations were given new places such as the Sewers of Castelia (which connected to the Relic Passage), expanding of Route 4, Driftveil replacing Cold Storage with the Pokemon World Tournament and access to the Clay Tunnel, Undella Town getting the Marine Tube & Seaside Cave, and getting a completely new Victory Road. The Gyms got major redesigns, including each having unique version of the Gym theme that fit its typing or feeling of the Gym. Not only that, we've got to see changes done with characters:
- Bianca is now an assistant to Juniper. After seeing her struggles in BW in what she wants to do in life, it's nice to see she has settled on becoming a Pokemon Professor.
- Cheren has become both a teacher and Gym Leader. After having to face the reality he has to think what he should do after his journey, him choosing to be a teacher and Gym Leader seems appropriate so he can passed down what he learned to other aspiring trainers.
- Alder retired from being Champion, you always getting a feeling he didn't quite like the job and is now much more satisfied there's someone more qualified and he can spend time at home, exploring, or training with his grandson.
- Iris has become Champion, going from Drayden's student to most powerful trainer in the region.
- Rood, Anthea, Concordia, and the rest of old Team Plasma who stuck around have settled in Driftveil after Clay deciding to give them a chance to redeem themselves.
Memory Link: It's one thing to hear a character tell you what happened between BW and BW2, but it's always nice to see at least a glimpse of it and Memory Link did that wonderfully from moments both funny to touching. The Striaton triplets deciding to retire as Gym Leader and train to become stronger individually after losing to the Shadow Triad, Iris becoming Champion & Drayden giving her new dress while she says what kind of Champion she wants to be, Elesa & Skyla deciding what they should do next in their career and joking around, Owner of the Pokemon Musical remembering BW's players performances after seeing they left their Prop Case, and N wondering what he should do at the end of BW. In addition you could re-battle Cheren and Bianca with the teams they used in your version of BW as well as catching Pokemon that N used. It was a great feature to include and I can only hope Ultra Sun & Moon will have something similar.
Credits: The credits for BW2 in particular are rememberable, showing the player retracing their steps and visiting the towns and important NPCs they met along the way. One of my favorite scene is for Castelia City where Burgh had thrown the player a parade! And of course it all ends with the player meeting their mom and coming back home. :)
Accomplishment Celebrations: While you could say PokeStar Studios and Join Avenue are iconic themselves, being this is about iconic moments I'll just focus on how they really celebrate you reaching the end goals for them. After completing the final PokeStar Studio movie you get a tour of the backlot, getting congratulated by every NPC that helped you make the movies (including Brycen and Sabrina) until being shown the VIP room you weren't allowed into (and finding the easter egg of popular movie titles getting the Pokemon treatment). For Join Avenue, after reaching Level 20 you parade down the avenue with your assistants, confetti falling from the ceiling, as the shopkeepers walk forward and reintroduce themselves, until ending with a final scene of you and your assistants looking down the avenue. Both moments really made completing those side attractions feel worth it and wished other side features would take note.
Pokemon World Tournament: How could I not mention this? Getting to re-battle Gym Leaders and Champion from all regions at that point in time in several types of tournaments? Only thing that would have made it better would be including the Elite Four, Frontier Brains, Rivals, and other important NPCs from past games, but what we got was still nice.
Strange House: One of the more interesting of the haunted locations in Pokemon, this one had an interesting story to tell. The house itself is creepy, furniture is shaking by themselves and they rearrange themselves each time you re-enter the room. As you go all around, you encounter the ghost girl from the Marvelous Bridge in BW and slowly learn her sad story: she was a victim of Darkrai's, having been put into an eternal sleep (which she obviously didn't awake from) as her parents desperately tried to get a Lunar Wing only for it to be too late. It's quite a chilling story since its about a human being killed by a Pokemon in a horrible and sad way. It makes you want to learn more about what happened, especially what was the deal with the Darkrai who appeared to the girl in guise of her father telling her to stay with it.
Outrageous Roadblocks: Well that was heavy, how about something a little lighter? Pokemon has had plenty of strange roadblocks as we discussed, but I think BW2 takes the cake of just how ridiculous they can get. Like how about the dancers who sing how they appeared out or no where and one day will will vanish just as quickly, or how they decided to test a bridge's weight capacity by having a many people as possible stand on it. Makes a group of confused Psyduck look tame and logical in comparison.
White Treehollow & Black Tower: Finally, I'd like to end on a post game location which I wished GF would bring back in some form. The White Treehollow and Black Tower are locations where you battle down to roots of a giant tree/up floors of a mysterious tower. Both locations had a subtle story connected to it, and not only that, the location around them (White Forest & Black City) will changes as your progress, several NPCs having an on-going story (one of the most rememberable is about a woman in Black City who begins optimistic, starts having tough times, but at the end she's successful and is starting a family soon).
PHEW! That was lot! Imagine if I did all of Gen V in one sitting? Well, Gen VI doesn't have that problem as we look into the iconic moments of XY and ORAS!