Walkthroughs & Tips

Review by: Jake Delfeir

Reviewers Score: 7 / 10

Posted: June 04, 2006

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness
System: Gamecube
Genre: RPG
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Score: 7/10

The gaming community is split into two minds regarding Pokemon - you either love it, or think it's a demon seed. I'm among the former. The concept may be somewhat childish in execution, but the overall package presents one of the better RPGs available for any Nintendo system. Aside from the core handheld RPG line, though, most of the other games in the series have been cheap spin-offs. Gale of Darkness is the second Pokemon RPG on the Gamecube, and here's my opinion on it.

Graphics (7/10)

Well, there's nothing really that spectacular or special about these graphics. The locales are all fairly nice, and the creatures themselves are all detailed in 3D quite well. There's always a bit of roughness to the edges, however, and it really doesn't grab you as anything amazing. Moreover, the attack animations aren't as diverse as they could be, and the Pokemon animations are fairly limited too. So the graphics serve their purpose, but little else.

Sound (7/10)

Nothing too flash here, either. A number of the background tunes for towns and areas are particularly dull or even slightly annoying, so you tend to tune out and not pay attention to them. The sound effects are as they should be - attacks all sound reasonably appropriate, and the Pokemon still have their cries that they've retained since the original game. This is hardly enough to warrant a good rank, however. The only thing giving this a decent score is the fact that the various battle themes are usually pretty good. Everything else is decidedly average at best.

Storyline (6/10)

Come now... it's a Pokemon game, and these games aren't known for their gripping tales of epic heroes of yore. It's not quite a typical Pokemon storyline either - collect badges, catch 'em all, etc. - but there are still traces of its heritage evident. The game starts off five years after the events of its predecessor, Pokemon Colosseum. In keeping with the traditional humanitarian themes of the series, it focuses more on the fact that Pokemon are living things and shouldn't be used as tools... and you have to show that to the bad guys. Sure enough, five years ago, an evil organisation named Cipher was taking Pokemon and 'closing the door to their hearts', meaning that they could be manipulated and made to do evil things. In the end this ring of evil-doers was broken up by the main character of that game, and the Shadow Pokemon were returned to normal.

Cue the beginning of this game. The hero lives at the Pokemon HQ Lab, where a guy called Professor Krane is hard at work preparing a machine that will help restore Shadow Pokemon to their natural states, just in case another Shadow incident was to occur. Sure enough, the Professor is kidnapped by a bunch of goons claiming to belong to Cipher, so that they could use his knowledge to help make more Shadow Pokemon. Obviously, being a fledling teenage Pokemon trainer, you are destined to go and save him and stop the nefarious plans of Cipher. Really, that's about it. The storyline isn't too long, but it sees the hero all the way through his adventures to stop Cipher. Nothing at all interesting, but if you're a Pokemon veteran, you weren't playing for the story anyway. Nonetheless, Gale of Darkness is not a game that I'd play for the storyline.

Gameplay (9/10)

Odds are you know how Pokemon works - I don't think there are many gamers who can honestly say they've never touched it. Suffice to say, it works on a typical turn-based RPG system. You and your opponent bring out their Pokemon and take turns unleashing moves at one another. You gain experience from battles, experience raises your level, and level raises your Pokemon's stats. If your Pokemon gets to a certain level or accomplishes another special prerequisite, then it may evolve and change into a stronger Pokemon. Simple enough. Each move has a set Power, Accuracy, and Type. The first two are self-explanatory, but the Type is what makes Pokemon interesting and relatively strategic. There are 17 different types in the game, ranging from things like Normal, Grass, and Fire to Psychic, Dark, and Steel. Each of these Types is strong against some things, weak against others, neutral against some and even ineffective in some circumstances. This matters because each Pokemon has one or two types of its own, meaning that it pays to select your moves carefully. Each Pokemon can use 4 moves, which range from a basic attack to a temporary stat boost to an ailment-inflicting strike. Knowing what moves to have and what moves to use make for a lot of strategy, since with 17 types, 386 relatively unique Pokemon, and well over 300 different moves of varying capabilities, there is a whole lot you can do in a battle. This is heightened by the fact that EVERY battle in this game has you using two Pokemon at a time, something which was done only sparingly in the newer handhelds.

But yes, that's the core of the battle system. You use Pokemon against other Pokemon. There's a lot more advanced stuff buried deep within the battle system, relating to how the stats work and how they're improved. Those are the words better left for wizened sages, though. Moving on... in order to get new Pokemon, you have to encounter Wild Pokemon, weaken them, and then trap them in a device called a Poke Ball. At least, that's how it works in the other games... in Gale of Darkness, it's a bit different. Shadow Pokemon have returned to the world, and as part of your duties as the hero, it's your job to catch all the Shadow Pokemon and purify them by opening the door to their hearts. As such, you may need to get them away from evil trainers. So, you now have the ability to steal any Shadow Pokemon from an enemy trainer, as opposed to catching them in the wild! Shadow Pokemon act just like regular Pokemon of the same species, except that they don't use their normal attacks - instead, they can only use Shadow moves. These can be decidedly nasty, as Shadow attacks are highly damaging against all regular Pokemon. Ultimately, the same rule applies to catching wild Pokemon in other games - weaken them, and then catch them in a Poke Ball.

There's more to the whole Shadow system than just catching them, though, which makes Gale of Darkness different from the handheld games. Once caught, a Shadow Pokemon cannot learn new attacks or gain experience from battles. Where the experience bar is normally displayed on the screen is something called the Heart Gauge - a purple bar divided into a number of tabs. At first, it'll start out completely full, meaning that the Shadow Pokemon's heart is completely closed. In order to purify them, you need to put the gauge down to the very bottom, and then you can purify them at the Relic Stone found early in the game. The gauge can be lowered by using a Shadow Pokemon in battle, or just carrying them around with you. As the gauge goes down a few tabs, certain things began to change - the Pokemon may recover regular moves that it once learnt, and a few pieces of information regarding it will be opened up. Another way is to put them in the Purify Chamber when it's completed - this allows you to purify up to 9 Pokemon at once by placing them in a chamber with a few regular Pokemon. Once the Heart Gauge is empty, then you can purify the Pokemon, restoring all its old moves and allowing it to gain experience and so on once more. There are 83 Shadow Pokemon in the game, which is more than enough to keep you busy and give you a reasonable amount of usable Pokemon to select.

That's really about it. The core of the game has the player going to various areas, thwarting the plans of Cipher, and nicking off with all their Shadow Pokemon in the process. It's fun, the battles are fairly interesting and provides a nice spin on the typical Pokemon setup. All I wish is that there was more to do and more Pokemon to catch - considering everything available throughout the series, it would have been nice to have an even larger collection possible for the kleptomaniacs in the crowd. Nonetheless, it receives a high score.

Replayability (6/10)

In the main story mode, there isn't that much to do once you've finished. There are a few small side challenges, such as getting and purifying all the Shadow Pokemon, completing all 100 areas in Mount Battle (no easy task), and so on. But there really isn't much, and once the story is over then there isn't much left to do except maybe start again using a different team.

However, there is more to the game than just the main story mode. There is a basic and advanced two-player mode. The basic one just gives you two random Pokemon and lets you duke it out, nothing special. The advanced one is more interesting, though. In the actual game, you can trade between the Game Boy Advance games and get new Pokemon from them. Using those Game Boy Advance games, you can now battle a friend with their Pokemon team while you battle with yours. However, the appeal and benefit of this was really only evident in a handheld game which can go everywhere and is far easier to use, so it's not really worth the effort. At least it's in there.

Overall (7/10)

Far from the greatest game in the world, but a fun game nonetheless for anyone who is in to or doesn't mind Pokemon. The Shadow Pokemon is a nice touch on the whole setup, but it's not to everyone's taste. I wouldn't pass this up if you're a Pokemon fan, or don't mind RPGs, but there are better games out there that the average gamer would find more appealing. If you get the chance and don't mind the subject matter, though, then by all means give it a try.