Pokemon Ranger (Japan Version) for DS

When it first came out I didn't get it because there were other games I wanted more. Finally I got to get Pokemon Ranger, which I just got this past week, because I didn't see any other games I wanted at the time. As soon as I started playing Pokemon Ranger I got addicted to it because it was so much fun to play. If you are thinking of buying Pokemon Ranger read the rest of my review before so you have a good idea before you go out and buy it.

Story:

You start as a boy who really wants to become a Ranger. He has sent Spenser who is the Ringtown's Ranger Leader many letters trying to convince him to let you become a Ranger. You actually start at the harbor of Fall City which is where you are supposed to meet Spenser and you already are dressed in your Ranger uniform. Once you meet up with Spenser he leads you to Ringtown and takes you straight to the Ranger Base there. That's where you meet a friend who is the opposite gender of your character and very soon after you are assigned your first mission which is the rookie mission. A little later in the story you meet Professor Hastings who is head of Technology of the Ranger Union and the inventor of the Capture Styler that you use. You find out that Professor Hastings has been making a Super Styler but unfortunately it was stolen by a mysterious organization called the Go-Rock-Squad and it wasn't even finished because it was still a prototype. After that you will receive many missions that involve stopping the Go-Rock-Squad from doing anything with the Super Styler and try to get it back. You also will meet the Go-Rock-Quads who always seem to show up where ever you are. They are a set of enigmatic siblings who are actually the kids of the Boss of the Go-Rock-Squad. There father is planning to use the Super Styler to make a Power Styler that can even capture a Legendary Pokemon and be able to make them do whatever they want and he plans to use the pokemon to take over the world.

Gameplay:

As a Pokemon Ranger you are assigned missions which are assigned by Ranger Leaders of various towns to protect peace in Fiore. Many of the missions you will be assigned you will have to get help from pokemon. All Pokemon Rangers are able to catch wild pokemon by connecting withe them on emotional levels. When you capture a wild pokemon they will accompany you and they will also provide help with the use of its abilities. Unfortunately you can only use a pokemon's ability once and they are automatically released back into its habitat after it has used its ability.

Now I will tell you about capturing pokemon. A capture actually is the process of befriending a wild pokemon by creating a emotional bond. You use the Capture Styler to capture a pokemon. On this game you actually use the stylus as the Capture Styler. When you make contact with a wild pokemon the touch screen switches to the Capture Screen. Now when you enter the Capture Screen you will see the pokemon you are trying to capture. When you touch your stylus to the ground on-screen the Capture Disc will appear and it will disappear as soon as you lift the stylus from the screen. If you keep the stylus touching the screen and slide it the Capture Disc will move and leave a Capture Line in its wake.You use the Capture Line to draw loops around the wild pokemon you want to capture. The Capture Line must form a complete loop around to pokemon for it to work. Once you successfully draw a loop around a pokemon a blue number above the pokemon will appear . The blue number above the pokemon indicates how many loops it takes before you can capture it. You have to keep drawing loops around the pokemon without lifting your stylus until the blue number is replaced with a orange number with a + in front of it and to complete the capture you have to lift the stylus from the touch screen. Warning if you lift the stylus before the required number of loops the Capture Line will disappear and you have to begin drawing loops from the beginning. The required number of loops to make a capture varies from pokemon to pokemon. Unfortunately when a pokemon's attack hits the Capture Line will not only be broken but your styler will loose some energy too. I will mention more about the Capture Styler later. There are some pokemon that will flee after a certain amount of time. If the Capture Styler's energy drops to zero, it will break and it will be Game Over for you. There are two ways to recharge your styler when its energy is running low, you can either recharge it at any Range Base or use certain Field Moves or Poke Assists of captured pokemon. I will talk more about Field Moves or Poke Assists later.

Once you complete a loop around the pokemon you are trying to catch will become entrapped in a floating orb momentarily. While the orb is showing, the Flee icon will appear on the bottom left of the touch screen. To escape just touch the icon when it shows up. Everytime you are successful in capturing a pokemon you earn some Exp. Points. Once you accumulate a certain amount of Exp.Points your Capture Styler will level up. When the Capture Styler levels up the maximum length of the Capture Line is extended and its maximum energy capacity is enlarged. You can earn more Exp. Points by drawing more loops around a pokemon than you need to depending on the pokemon. If its the first time you have captured a pokemon its data will be entered into the Capture Styler's Browser which I will explain about later.

A captured pokemon can be released back into the wild if you want to release it. You can even release a pokemon even if it hasn't helped you. You can't bring a pokemon outside its natural habitat because that will be going against the Ranger's Rules of protecting nature and pokemon. There is a limit on how many captured pokemon that can travel with you that depends on your Ranger Rank which I will talk about later. When a capture puts you over the limit you will have to release a pokemon. Any captured pokemon traveling with you is called a friend pokemon. You can use a friend pokemon's ability to capture another pokemon. A friend pokemon can use its ability to enhance the performance of the Capture Disc which endows the Capture Line with a special power. There are other kinds of pokemon such as partner pokemon, which are Plusle and Minun, they can provide support in different ways. There are lots of Poke Assist that vary among different pokemon groups. You can only have one partner pokemon and that is either Plusle of Minun and that depends on if you are the boy character or the girl character. Both Plusle and Minun have the Poke Assist ability Discharge which will temporarily paralyze the targeted pokemon. The partner gauge ,which is right under the energy gauge for the Capture Styler, indicates the power of Plusle or Minun's Discharge Poke Assist. Everytime a loop is drawn it will gain energy. There is a Poke Assist icon in the bottom right corner, touch it to use a Poke Assist ability of a partner pokemon or a friend pokemon. Once you touch the pokemon you want to use you have to touch the Poke Assist icon above the pokemon and then the pokemon will use their Poke Assist ability. A friend pokemon's Poke Assist will boost the power of the Capture Disc in some way. There are a variety of Poke Assist, but some pokemon don't have any Poke Assists.

Now I will tell you about the different types of Poke Assist. There are 14 different types you can use and here is a short description of each:

Grass = The grass Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to draw lines of grass around a pokemon making it hard for them to move.

Water = The water Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to blow up bubbles and flick them at the pokemon so they will be caught it one which makes it easier to catch the pokemon.

Fire = The fire Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to draw lines of flames around the pokemon which can cause them to get scared and make them leap up.

Electric = The electric Poke Assist is used to recharge the Capture Styler when its energy is running low.

Fighting = The fighting Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power which makes one loop count as two loops instead of only one loop.

Poison = The poison Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to make a poisonous mist which can slow a pokemon down.

Psychic = The psychic Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to lift pokemon off the ground so it would be a little easier to capture them.

Bug = The bug Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to fling sticky blobs at pokemon which can immobilize them if it hits them..

Ground = The ground Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to churn up the ground which can make the targeted pokemon have difficulty walking.

Rock = The rock Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to flick gravel at pokemon which can cause the pokemon to become immobilized if hit.

Flying = The flying Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to hit a targeted pokemon with a twister which would levitate it on the spot.

Dark = The dark Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to double the length of the Capture Line in exchange for some energy from the Capture Styler.

Ghost = The ghost Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to make a ghost appear in the the center and the ghost will cling to the targeted pokemon causing it to become immobilized.

Ice = The ice Poke Assist endows the Capture Line with the power to make a patch of ice appear in the center and if the pokemon makes contact with the ice patch they will be frozen.

While on a mission you may come across obstacles such as fallen trees and giant boulders that block your way. These obstacles are referred to as "targets." If you touch a target its data will be displayed on the top screen. The only way you can remove or eliminate a target is by using the moves of captured pokemon. These moves used to get rid of these obstacles are called "Field Moves." To get rid of a target you first have to touch the pokemon whose Field Move you are going to use, then draw a line to the target from the pokemon and finally when it asks you if you require the help of this pokemon you say "Yes." It is called a "Target Clear" when you use a Field Move to remove an obstacle. Once a pokemon uses its Field Move it is automatically released into the wild in accordance with Ranger rules. Here are the kinds of Field Moves and what kind of obstacles you can use them on.

Cut - You can use cut on fences, shrubs and others that are similar to these kind of obstacles.

Tackle - You can use tackle on trees and other heavy objects.

Burn - You can use burn on fallen logs and bundled hay.

Soak - You can use soak on fires and vines.

Crush - You can use crush on walls and boulders.

Recharge - You can use recharge to recharge the Capture Stylers energy.

Gust - You can use gust to blow things away.

Cross - You can use cross on a object at the other end of a stream or chasm so you can cross it.

Flash - You can use flash to light up dark places like a basement.

Some pokemon do not have any Field Moves. The kinds of Field Moves and their power vary from pokemon species to pokemon species. For example, while Pikachu and Raichu both use the Field Move Recharge, Raichu's Field Move is much more effective then Pikachu's. The more electric icons the more effective or stronger the Field Move will be. Some targets take two ore more icons of a certain type to be able to get rid of it.

Now a Pokemon Ranger is graded using a numbered ranking system called the Ranger Ranks. The lowest rank is 1 and the highest rank is 10. Ranger Leaders are the only ones who can promote you to a higher rank once you complete a important mission given to you by that Ranger Leader. When you advance through Ranger Ranks you will get new benefits. For example, the partner gauge will be extended once you reach certain ranks. You will also be permitted to travel with more captured friend pokemon once you reach certain ranks. Everytime you go up in the ranks you will gain the use of more Poke Assists for making captures. You will also be assigned more important missions the higher your rank goes up. You start out at Ranger Rank 1.

The Capture Styler has various functions that are shown on the Capture Styler Screen. The Capture Styler is shown in the top left. There are two numbers on the Capture Styler which indicates its energy level. The bottom number shows the maximum energy and the top number shows how much energy remains. When you touch the Capture Styler it displays the hero's name and other related data on the top screen. There are 8 different icons on the Capture Styler screen and they are: Mission, Release, Glossary, Browser, Quicksave, Options, Map and Exit. The Browser keeps records of all the pokemon you have captured at one point. Each pokemon is listed with such data as its group and Field Move. The captured pokemon are listed according to a special numbered system used only by Rangers. The Release icon is what you touch when you want to release a pokemon when you don't want them. Mission shows the information of a ongoing mission. If possible it will let you retire if you touch the "Retire" icon once you touch the mission icon. The map icon shows a map of the entire Fiore region. Your present location is indicated with an icon. All the Glossary does is provide detailed descriptions of special terms and phrases used in Pokemon Ranger. Quicksave lets you save right on the spot when absolutely have to stop and you can't access a Save Machine and you will resume play from that point. The last one is options which just lets you change the game settings and of course you know Exit is just used to exit the screen. They way you save on this game is by touching a Save Machine.

Next I will talk about the towns and facilities of Fiore. There are 4 different towns to visit in Fiore and they are Ringtown, Fall City, Summerland, and Wintown. Each town has a Ranger Base which is the center of operations for Pokemon Rangers. There is a Save Machine at every Ranger Base and there also is a operator and if you talk to her she will fully recharge your Capture Styler if you need it recharged. There are Capture Challenges located in Ringtown and Summerland. Capture Challenges are timed field events in which Rangers compete to capture pokemon. there are two challenges, a grassland contest in Ringtown, and a marine contest in Summerland. In these contests the pokemon are assigned points based on their difficulty of capture. The Ranger who gets the highest amount of points in the time limit is the winner. MC Fielder hosts the grassland contest and MC Fisher hosts the marine contest. The Capture Arena is located in Fall City. It holds major capture contests for Rangers to hone their technique against their many peers. These contest are timed events in which pokemon appear one after another. The competing Ranger must capture as many as possible with in the allotted time.

Finally I will tell you about the characters that are in Pokemon Ranger. Each Ranger Base is commanded by a Leader who oversees the peacekeeping efforts of the Rangers. Here are the Ranger Leaders and which town they live in: Ringtown's Ranger Leader Spenser, Fall City's Ranger Leader Joel, Summerland's Ranger Leader Cameron and Wintown's Ranger Leader Elita. Another Key Ranger is Fall City Ranger Aria and here are the names of the Go-Rock-Quads names: Billy. Garret, Clyde and Tiffany.

Controls:

The touch screen is use to make the hero walk toward a location, talk to people, check things and of course capture pokemom. The X and Y buttons indicate which the pokemon are accompanying you when pressed. The control pad moves the hero and the A button is used to choose "Yes", check something, talk to someone in front of you, or advance text. The B button chooses "No" if pressed or go back once screen. The last is the start which accesses the Capture Styler Menu if you press it.

Graphics:

The graphics are similar to the other pokemon games but better because they are on the DS. The pokemon sprites in Ranger are better than Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. The graphics of the towns and the natural habitats of the pokemon are pretty good, they were better than I expected for a pokemon game. The character in Pokemon Ranger is a little bigger and a little more detailed then the characters in the GameBoy Advanced pokemon games.

Sound:

The sounds of the pokemon still don't match the pokemon on the show bu they still did good on the sounds the pokemon make. Just like all the other pokemon games the characters don't have voice overs. The music is pretty nice to listen to too. I usually have the sound on when playing Pokemon Ranger.

Overall this is a great game to purchase. I recommend this game to any one who loves pokemon games and wants to try out a new way of capturing pokemon. It is a real fun game but it can be hard at times though. I'm actually stuck at the final three battles of the of the story.