Pokémon Black and White are fantastic, nearly-perfect games. They've been widely praised in the years since their release, especially considering they were very underrated at the time of their initial debut. Following the critical praise of these games, Game Freak introduced direct sequels, titled Black 2 and White 2.

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These new games made a number of drastic changes to the Unova region and the characters within it. These games are not remakes like HeartGold and SoulSilver, but rather an entirely new story in a significantly-changed world. Here are the most notable differences between Black and White (BW) and Black 2 and White 2 (B2W2).

10 Story

These sequels contain an entirely new story with very different tasks along the way. Team Plasma is still wreaking havoc on the Unova region, but this time with a new goal. In BW, Team Plasma was attempting to force every trainer to release their Pokémon — something they referred to as "liberation."

Now, two years have passed. Team Plasma has a new leader, Colress (Ghetsis is still controlling everything from behind the scenes, though), and they plan to take over Unova by controlling Kyurem. One branch of the team disbanded and remains loyal to N with different motives entirely.

9 Difficulty Modes

Pokémon games have never really had difficulty modes, instead leaving it to the player to create their own types of challenges if the vanilla games were too easy. B2W2 introduced a new feature, though, allowing players to choose a difficulty setting.

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Players who are struggling to make it through many of the tougher fights could opt for Easy Mode, which will make most in-game NPCs a bit easier to take down. Challenge Mode does the opposite, introducing new strategies and levels of difficulty to many trainers. This is accessed via the new Key System.

8 Champion Iris

In BW's original gym lineup, players will have two options for the final gym leader, depending on which version they have. Players with Pokémon Black will face Drayden, while players with White will challenge Iris. Both use Dragon-type Pokémon.

However, Iris gets a bit of a promotion in the sequels, now reigning as Unova's Pokémon Champion. Alder has retired after being defeated by Iris, so she now helms the Pokémon League. She also appears at different places in the game's storyline, probably due to the nature of her new role.

7 World Tournament

Looking to encourage tourism in Driftveil City, Clay has shut down the Cold Storage and replaced it with the Pokémon World Tournament in the sequel games. Here, players can take on a new type of challenge that BW did not allow for. This is the World Tournament, where special trainers from past games will participate alongside the player in an eight-person tournament.

Many familiar faces make an appearance, including all the past champions, many previous-game gym leaders, and even some reappearing faces from Black and White, like Lenora.

6 Pokéstar Studios

Located in Virbank City is this new attraction in the Unova Region. Pokéstar Studios is a film studio that offers a new type of battle for the player to try out. Here, films are created, mostly featuring Pokémon battles.

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If you help out with making a film, you'll be tasked with choosing directions for the script in order to achieve different endings. Different "opponents" will be battled as part of the films, most of which are pretty cool and intense, like the Mecha Tyranitar or Majin.

5 New Forms of Old Faces

Many legendary Pokémon have multiple forms, but they weren't all introduced at the same time. In the sequel games, some Pokémon received new forms entirely that they didn't have in Black and White.

One prominent example is Keldeo, which received a new Resolute Form, which is triggered by teaching it Sacred Sword. The Forces of Nature — Thundurus, Landorus, and Tornadus — also received new animal-like forms, called their Therian Formes. Kyurem will also fuse with Zekrom or Reshiram, depending on the game, which plays an important role in the new story.

4 Kyurem

Kyurem, the legendary Dragon/Ice-type Pokémon, has a significantly expanded role in the sequel games. In Black and White, it's believed that Kyurem came from space inside a comet. However, Drayden explains in B2W2 that Kyurem is what is left after the Original Dragon was split into Reshiram and Zekrom.

In BW, Team Plasma hopes to harness the power of Zekrom or Reshiram. In B2W2, Colress and the renewed Team Plasma are hoping to find and control Kyurem. It can now transform into either Black Kyurem or White Kyurem by fusing with Reshiram or Zekrom.

3 Gyms

Between the events of BW and B2W2, the Unova League made a few changes. Many of the gyms were completely redesigned, like Elesa's in Nimbasa City, which is now a fashion show inspired design. Reused gym leaders also have new looks, with different outfits or designs.

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But, some gym leaders were entirely replaced. Cilan, Chili, and Cress, Lenora, and Brycen were replaced with Cheren, Roxie, and Marlon. The order of the gym leaders has also changed, since the player starts in a new location.

2 New Locations

The world of Unova was greatly expanded between the original games and their sequels. New towns were added, new areas were inserted into existing ones, and some places were expanded or altogether changed.

Route 4, which was under construction in BW, has been finished and looks entirely different. In addition to Pokéstar Studios and the Pokémon World Tournament, new cities and towns were added too. Lentimas Town, Humilau City, and Virbank City. The player now starts in Aspertia City instead of Nuvema Town. Hidden Grottoes were added as well, which contain special Pokémon encounters.

1 Fuller Pokédex

One of the most prominent criticisms of the original games was the lack of previous generations of Pokémon. Fans were dismayed to learn that only new Unova Pokémon would be available before the post-game. Some did enjoy this system, though, as it allowed players to get acquainted with new Pokémon before playing with the old ones again.

However, B2W2 did away with this, introducing a ton of the older Pokémon into the base game once again. Around 150 Pokémon from previous generations were reintroduced, bringing the total in the Unova Pokédex to just over 300.

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