Attempting to Explain the Trade from Black and White to Black 2 and White 2

As with every main-series Pokémon game, Black 2 and White 2 will undoubtedly feature the ability to trade Pokémon with their previous installments. However, this time around, it’ll be interesting to see exactly how the games justify the act of the trade. Seeing as the games belong to the same generation of games (the fifth), moving Pokémon from game to game will surely be done through simple trading rather than the more involved process of transferring, or migrating, from previous generations. This time around, though, games taking place during two specifically unique time frames within the same region will be linking to one another…and that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In previous instances, say with the trading of Pokémon between Silver Version and Crystal Version, the games were virtually the same. There were some minor differences, but at the end of the day, they ended up in the same place and shared the same time frame. It made sense in that way. Black(2) and White(2), however, are the first games with a continuing story line into sequels, meaning that no matter how you slice it, Black 2 and White 2 take place after the events of Black and White and in the same region to boot. Therein lies the problem.

Trainers living in post-Black and White Unova, where everything is hunky-dory, will be trading with other trainers dwelling within Black 2 and White 2’s Unova which is at that point covered in ice and set in a time frame months after the first games. See the dilemma? Players would literally be trading across time.

It’s always possible that the games won’t simply ignore this paradox, but fully embrace it and involve the act of time travel in the trading process. Celebi can roam through time and Dialga controls it – it’s not like the series has strayed from this before, and it’d be great if such a concept was used to liven up the act of trading.

It’s also possible that Game Freak will use the Global Link to pursue the act of trading, implementing a sort of Pokémon cloud involving the Dream World to transfer Pokémon from game to game in light of this unique situation Black(2) and White(2) find themselves in.

Call me Doc Brown, but I’d kill to see the games actually mention the issue of time when trading inevitably becomes an option. Share your thoughts on this paradox in the comments.

Name's Michael Fletcher. I'm a college graduate, and I earned a Bachelor's Degree in English with a focus on professional writing. Programming never clicked for me, so the only realistic way for this lad to make a career out of playing games is to write about 'em. Luckily, this is something I enjoy doing anyway. Live to play, play to live.

19 Comments

  1. why do barely any of the articles on infendo have the “continue reading” option anymore.
    I liked it better when you had to click over to continue reading and it allowed more space on the frontpage. now you get like 5 really long articles you have to scroll through to find one thats interesting.

    also i cant imagine the page hits you are missing by making readers click to read the whole article. thats like blog 101

  2. Obviously they will use the Time Machine used to trade between Gen 1 and Gen 2 games. The real question is if if will allow trainers to transfer their entire party from Black and White to B2 and W2 to continue the story.

  3. Pokemon is pretty inconsistent lately. I didn’t think about this trade issue with these games, but the problem I am seeing is with Pokemon Conquest. It makes no sense that Mewtwo is owned by one of the warring generals, yet he is. Every Pokedex entry for Mewtwo mentions he was made using experiments involving genetic engineering.

    Genetic engineering in ancient Japan? Hmm

    And yeah, I realize it’s silly to argue logic when it comes to a fantasy game with monsters with super abilities, but still, they’re defying their own logic. I wouldn’t buy Pokemon Conquest either way, it looks so awful. Such bland environments, and only 200 some Pokemon. Odd

  4. Are you serious? Did you not play Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal? The “Time Machine” mechanic in that was quite justified and worked well. “Black(2) and White(2), however, are the first games with a continuing story line into sequels”. Not true, Gold and Silver were effectively sequels to the events of Red/Blue, with what Team Rocket hoped to achieve Post-Giovanni. Same place, same timeline, continuing story. This entire post is completely redundant.

  5. Blaise: It’s a fun game. Not canon at all. Doesn’t need to play by the rules already set in stone by the actual main series.

  6. I was going to comment, but Cameron said it all. Looks like Infendo will be searching for new writers again.

  7. @Cameron: I never said this sort of thing has never happened before, I was simply saying that this is a unique situation for Black(2) and White(2). The method of transfer is up in the air at the moment – it isn’t necessarily going to be one thing or the other yet. Also, Black 2 and White 2 are the first main series games with this kind of sequel status, taking place in the same exact region for the entire game with major changes going on. Believe me, I didn’t forget about RBY/GSC. You can’t deny this is significantly different this time around. I was merely speculating for fun, wondering what route they’d take with this set of games.

  8. This post is wrong in so many ways…

    First, “time travelling” does NOT affect in any way possible, normal gameplay on the “older” game, as it has already been done in older portables. It doesn’t matter what you trade (as long as it exists in your current version), since it won’t have ANY significance in your gameplay (HMs were related to badges before). That’s why I don’t see the reason of this article, unless it’s only one of those “let’s rant about a new pokemon game!” articles that flood the internet.

  9. Perhaps they’ll use the time machine mechanic that was used for trading between Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal. That’d make a bit of sense.

    There’s no real reason not to use the same gimmick for trading between two games in the same generation.

  10. I see them using the time machine function like in R/B/Y with G/S/C. Honestly though some of the other people are very…uh, good, at voicing their opinions it seems. They’re just games, you shouldn’t get in an argument over something that’s based for children.

  11. If anything trading from black and white to their sequels will be done using the IR option on the C-Gear to trade which I think many of you overlooked compared to the drastic changes you guys noticed the C-Gear does not change at all including that skins can be added to it the only change to the
    C-Gear is that there are no shapes to push on to activate the functions also DW will be set up to take on Black 2 and White 2 sync’s finally the only trade difference between original black and white and their sequels will be that pokemon in their 2nd forms will be reverted to their original form (minus meleotta)when going to trade between the two games

  12. Do you need two DS’s???

  13. I want my bisharp. How come I can’t transfer any of my pokemon over! that’s stupid!vI don’t care if it breaks time! Give me my bisharp and don’t force me to play BW 2 without it post-game! Seriously, its post game, just hand it over…

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