Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

"Fantastic game for fans of the series."

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is the second game in the Game Cube's RPG Pokemon series. It takes place after Pokemon Colosseum but follows the same general story.

For years, fans of the Game Boy Pokemon games waited for a full-length, 3D RPG. Pokemon Stadium, while a great game for battling, just wasn't it. We wanted a real, full RPG in 3D. Colosseum had us salivating, but wanting a little more. XD came around and what followed was a much more in-depth story than ever before.

The main character is a nameless character that the player is given the option to name, much like Colosseum. Time has passed, and the activities of Team Snagem from Colosseum have died down. Everyone is living in peace. All of a sudden, Dr. Krane is kidnapped from his lab you are visiting by a mysterious gang known as Team Cipher. Cipher is an organization intent on turning regular Pokemon into shadow Pokemon to help them accomplish their nefarious deeds. The shadow Pokemon are basically described as heartless tools of war. Upon hearing about this, your job becomes that of saving all of these shadow Pokemon. The story doesn't gravitate much from that, but that's okay, because each of the 9 handheld adventures also followed the same basic story: become the greatest Pokemon trainer around. If you were able to get past the simplistic story of every other Pokemon game, you'll have no trouble with this one - this story is actually even deeper than the handheld titles and you'll find yourself interested in what is going to happen next.

Your starter in this game is an Eevee. That may not seem like a very good tradeoff until you realize that almost immediately you have the option of evolving it into one of its 5 forms: Espeon, Umbreon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, or Flareon. Immediately this offers more diversity than its predecessor because in Colosseum you were always started with Espeon and Umbreon. With the choice of 6 different Pokemon (counting Eevee should you choose not to evolve it) this time around, the game becomes harder or easier depending on your choice. It's just like the handheld titles where one Pokemon made the game easier than the others, but here you get more choices.

As the big, dark blue bird with the piercing yellow eyes suggests, the chief Pokemon that Cipher is using for dirty work is their shadow Lugia. The catch is, as you quickly find out, they are trying to find a way to completely close off the hearts of Pokemon so they are eternally shadows. This leads to a brand new way of purifying your Pokemon. In Colosseum, you were forced to walk around and battle with your shadow Pokemon, one by one. When the door to its heart was completely open, you brought it to the relic statue to purify it. The relic statue makes a return early in this game, but its purpose is only to purify your shadow Pokemon until the Purification Chamber is complete in the lab. The Purification Chamber is an all-new way to purify your Pokemon. You place 1 - 4 purified Pokemon inside the chamber with 1 shadow Pokemon, allowing your shadow Pokemon to be purified without having to battle with it. This makes the task of purifying all of the Pokemon and expanding your team much easier.

The game offers about 80 or so shadow Pokemon for you. When you factor in all of your starters, wild Pokemon (yes!), evolved Pokemon, and in-game trades, this number tops out at just over 100 obtainable Pokemon in the game. This is an outstanding leap from the 40 or so that were available in Colosseum. And yes, there are wild Pokemon in this game. Unfortunately, there are only 9, but it adds even more diversity to your growing team. Also, you can trade away the 3 most rare ones for even more rare Pokemon.

Mt. Battle also returns as a fantastic way to train and level up your Pokemon, something I always enjoyed. Colosseum Mode also returns, enabling you to battle your Pokemon in all their 3D glory. It is basically the same as before, just with new trainers and Pokemon. The first battles are fairly easy, whereas the last battles will require more skill and training than you've ever had to do in any other game.

All of the worlds and items are graphically superior. All of the attack animations have also been redone, and they all look much better as well. Unfortunately, many of the Pokemon look exactly the same as Colosseum, which look exactly the same as the N64 Stadium games. Why haven't these been redrawn? Many of them could really use a graphic enhancement. This is very disappointing and I can only hope that the rumored Wii Pokemon game will finally offer more detailed Pokemon.

Another gripe I have with the graphics is that physical attacks still do not actually strike the oppose Pokemon. Why couldn't they have made it so your Pokemon actually runs up and hits its opponent rather than it swinging from across the field and the opponent taking damage?

The Pokemon games have long been known for having great sounds and music throughout the games, and these are no exception. The music is absolutely fitting for every aspect of the game as you play through, and they really give the game a big RPG-type feel. Sound effects are outstanding as well in regards to attacks done during battles. But where is the voice acting? In the anime series, Pokemon communicate by saying their own name. In XD, just like every other game, there are just quick sounds specific to each Pokemon. This is the Game Cube. There should be plenty more storage than handheld titles. This feature should have been included on such a big title.

Every other aspect about the game is superb. Controls are easy and work smoothly through your efforts.

Overall, I would have scored this game higher had it not been for the disappointing graphical aspects of the Pokemon and the omission of voice acting. A little character development with the main character would have been nice too. However, if those things don't bother you and you're looking for a great, 3D Pokemon RPG, look no further. This game is well worth your time and money.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/07