GameSpy Review of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness

Pokémon has been around for seven years now, and despite its RPG roots, the only RPG incarnations of the series have been on the Game Boy. All of the console (and DS) Pokémon titles have been spinoff games like the photography sim, Pokémon Snap, the way-too-kiddie Pokémon Channel, and the combat-oriented Pokémon Stadium titles. The last GameCube entry, Pokémon Colosseum came close to re-creating the RPG experience on a home system, but it was really just a slightly enhanced Stadium with a story mode tacked on.

When Nintendo announced that Gale of Darkness would be the first true Pokémon RPG for a console system, fans became rather excited. The portable versions of the game are outstanding (if simplistic) RPGs, and the prospect of playing them in full 3D was very exciting. Unfortunately, XD isn't quite the game that people have been anticipating.

Instead of an updated version of the portable titles (FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald, etc.), this is essentially an RPG version of Colosseum. The big difference between the two is the method of collecting Pokémon, which is really the core element of the gameplay. Like in Colosseum, you're out to snag "Shadow Pokémon," critters that have had their hearts closed, turning them into pure fighting machines.


Shadow the Hedg Pokémon

When you take on a challenger who has a Shadow Pokémon in their party, your special eyepiece alerts you to the Shadow's presence. You can then use special "Snag Balls" to steal the darkened Pokémon from their trainer. From there, you must purify the Shadow Pokémon's heart by keeping it in your party or loading it into the special Purify Chamber. If you don't purify them, the poor things will never gain experience or learn all of their potential moves. They also have a tendency to damage themselves during battle. Once the Shadow's heart has been opened, it behaves like a normal Pokémon. The problem with the Shadow Pokémon is that it greatly limits the freedom of creating your own party. Much of the fun from the portable RPGs is wandering around the world, exploring patches of tall grass and seeing what creatures you randomly encounter. Since you're force-fed the Shadow Pokémon during your encounters with other trainers, it feels more like you're being given a roster of fighters as opposed to building one of your own.

In fact, there isn't even a map to explore in XD. Sure, there's a map screen, but it merely shows which locations you can travel to. Just click on where you want to go, and you automatically go there. Sure, the locations that you end up in can be rather large, complete with towns and dungeons, but without a cohesive world linking these locations, the world feel a lot smaller than it should.

Master Baiter

Things seem like they're going to improve a bit after playing for a few hours when it's revealed that wild Pokémon have begun appearing in the world. Could I now freely explore areas and stumble onto new and rare Pokémon? Not really, it turns out. Again, since there's no real overworld to explore, these wild Pokémon only appear in a few different hotspots that appear on the map screen. To catch the wild monsters, you travel to the designated "wild Pokémon site" and deposit some bait. Then, you go back to your main quest. Eventually, you will be alerted when a Pokémon is eating your bait. Now, it's a race against time as you drop what you're doing and race back to the hotspot. If you're fast enough, the Pokémon will still be there for you to catch (the more bait you leave, the longer they wait around), but if you're too slow, then you've not only missed a chance to catch a non-Shadow Pokémon, but you've also wasted your time by interrupting what you were doing.


It may sound like I'm complaining a lot about this game (because, well, I am), but it's really not all that bad. Once you accept that you won't be collecting Pokémon like you do in the Game Boy versions, you'll find a lengthy quest that maintains the same spirit as the previous RPGs. The same rock-paper-scissor style battle system is present as well, with your Pokémon duking it out in full 3D. If you're so inclined, you can link up your GBA versions of Pokémon and import your party into XD. You can them use them to battle in the game's special Vs. mode, which supports up to four players at once.

Full Contact Fighting

Of course, that brings up another issue. If we're gonna have Pokémon fighting in 3D, when will we be able to see them come in contact with each other? I'm tired of this "the Pokémon sit on opposite sides of the battlefield and perform their attack animations which damage their opponents even though they're several yards away" nonsense. The game is 3D, Nintendo, take advantage of it. Let's see those guys mix it up! And while you're at it, how about including some actual Pokémon voices in there? If the anime has taught us anything, it's that Pokémon "talk" by repeating their name (i.e. "Pika-pika. Pika-CHU!"). How come in these console versions, the Pokémon still only make the primitive "roars" that they make in the Game Boy games?

The Pokémon themselves also appear a bit primitive. The simplistic characters models for both the monsters and especially the human characters look a bit out place with the great-looking environments and attack effects. Outdated looking elements like this make XD appear to be less of a "real" RPG and more like one that was slapped together from existing assets. Considering that some environments are reused from Colosseum, that really does seem to be the case.

I really wanted to like Gale of Darkness more than I did. As a huge fan of the portable Pokémon RPGs, I want nothing more than an equivalent game for a home system. XD is a decent enough effort, and it's certainly not a bad game, but considering how well crafted the handheld RPGs are, the unrealized potential and missed opportunities of XD become all the more apparent.

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