History VideoGame / PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness

* Foreshadowing: One of the citizens of Gateon Port notes that Mr. Verich has a lot of money as his name suggests. Not to mention his powerful bodyguards.

* ATasteOfPower: Right after the introductory cutscene you're treated to a battle with a Level 50 Salamence against an NPC's Lv.50 Metagross. It's only a simulation, however -- your real starter Pokemon is a level 10 Eevee.

* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Hexagon Brothers, again. They each have their own Shadow Pokémon of a different element. Ironically, their leader Resix has the least amount of Pokémon.

* Foreshadowing: One of the NPCs in Gateon Port notes that Mr. Verich has a lot of money as his name suggests. Not to mention his powerful bodyguards.

* ThePsychoRangers: The Hexagon Brothers.
* QuirkyMinibossSquad: The Hexagon Brothers.

* [[spoiler:FinalBossPreview: The same Alakazam that saves Jovi from Zook's Zangoose is on Ardos's team when you fight him. It's even the same level.]]

** TheDragon: Greevil's personal guards [[spoiler:Eldes and Ardos]], though the former isn't quite as caught up in the whole ''Cipher thing'' as the latter is.[[hottip:*:Interestingly, despite his lack of love for Cipher, it should be noted that Eldes has a whopping ''four'' Shadow Pokemon on his team, while Ardos only has three]].
** TheBrute: Gorigan[[hottip:*:His main strategy is to alternate Protect and Earthquake between his Pokemon]], though he's smart enough to be trusted to oversee Cipher Key Lair.

** TheDarkChick: Snattle, hilariously enough. His chief contribution to the workings of Cipher is to be a political figurehead, much like Colosseum's Venus. Note the purple lips and how he runs away.

* DifficultySpike: Shadow Lugia and 3 of the final boss's Shadow Pokémon have catch rates of 3 (out of 255) while, with the exception of a Shadow Snorlax and Chansey (which are still 30, or 3.9% with no damage and a default ball), everything else has catch rates that can easily be gotten to 20+% (sleep + Ultra/Net ball)

* NintendoHard: Unless you trade over Pokémon, Orre Colosseum.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: Greevil.]] He may be [[spoiler: the leader of [[MindRape Cipher]],]] but he still cares for his sons.[[spoiler: Eldes even convinces him to disband the team.]]

* EyesAlwaysShut: Greevil. [[spoiler: Just before the final battle he opens them to reveal [[RedRightHand his huge, yellow eyes]]]].

** TheDragon: Greevil's personal guards [[spoiler:Eldes and Ardos]], though the former isn't quite as caught up in the whole ''Cipher thing'' as the latter is.[[hottip:*:Interestingly, despite his lack of love for Cipher, it should be noted that Eldes has a whopping ''four'' Shadow Pokemon on his team, twice as many as Ardos]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: Greevil.]] He may be [[spoiler: the leader of [[MindRape Team Cipher]],]] but he still cares for his sons.[[spoiler: Eldes even convinces him to disband the team.]]

* OpaqueLenses: Greevil's glasses. [[spoiler:They hide his [[RedRightHand big, yellow eyes]]]].

* JokeCharacter: One of the Battle Bingo cards only contains Pokemon with a secondary Flying type. One of them is a Gligar... whose only move is Earthquake. [[NoSell Earthquake doesn't work of Flying types.]] Yeah. And if you plan out your moves wrong, you could be ''forced'' to catch it just to have enough EP to continue.

* ConvectionSchmonvection: The Cipher lair at Citidark, which has a room that's a lava puzzle that you solve by pushing steel crates to the ground. With the lava blocked, the ground is instantly cool enough to walk on, and the crates don't show any signs of getting red-hot either. You are told it's too hot to approach the chest if you try to get it before you drop the chest, and the peon who drops down as you're about to run through the door says he got hot waiting for you, but that's it.

[[caption-width-right:250:Yeah, [[{{Emoticon}} we laughed at the title too.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:Yeah, we laughed at the title too.]]

* AscendedExtra: Miror B. went from relatively minor but memorably quirky StarterVillain to a decent sized part of the plot and gameplay in XD.

* BagOfSpilling: While the player character is separate between the two games, a few returning [=NPCs=] have had their levels fall ''hard''. Miror B. in XD no longer possesses his trademark Ludicolo quartet and is nowhere near the level seen in his endgame appearance in Colosseum. The same is true for various other Trainers fought (as XD starts with Level 10 opponents instead of 25/26). Eagun's Pikachu takes the largest hit, as in ''Colosseum'' it was Lv.50, but in ''XD'' it's only Lv.12 (and it's actually implied to be the same Pikachu).
** Though Eagun states before battling you that it's his first time in five years, so the reduced level is probably supposed to represent Pikachu being out of shape.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Cipher Peon Kleef in XD is fairly pathetic (only 3 Pokémon with no Shadow Pokémon, and two of them are pure tanks with no real offense to speak of) in a straight up fight, but he is the only member of Cipher with the brains to attack you when you have just finished a (fairly hardish) boss fight with no healing machine in sight.

* DifficultySpike: Shadow Lugia and 3 of the final boss's Shadow Pokémon of XD have catch rates of 3 (out of 255) while, with the exception of a Shadow Snorlax and Chansey (which are still 30, or 3.9% with no damage and a default ball), everything else has catch rates that can easily be gotten to 20+% (sleep + Ultra/Net ball)

** Silva assures XD's player character that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial he was not saying that he likes to wear women's clothing]].

* LighterAndSofter: Orre is cleaned up in XD (but it is still fairly dark, particularly at the beginning and at the end), more grass and trees are growing, water is spreading, there seems to be more Pokemon League presence in the region, while one WretchedHive is shut down and the other has a now clean white building in it whose inhabitants are dedicated to being helpful. The game makes it pretty clear that Wes shook up the region's status quo pretty good.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Lovrina, Snattle and Gorigan all come to respect you when you defeat them in the post-game colosseum. Ardos, however, gives you a death threat. What a douche.

* {{Emoticon}}: Pokémon '''XD''': Gale of Darkness. It stands for "[[XtremeKoolLetterz Xtra]] Dimension".

* [[spoiler: FinalBossPreview: The same Alakazam that saves Jovi from Zook's Zangoose is on Ardos's team when you fight him. It's even the same level.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Silva assures XD's player character that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial he was not saying that he likes to wear woman's clothing]].

* GoshDangItToHeck: Two scientists who have designed a method for serial abuse of Pokémon use "gosh" and "Gadzooks" in XD.

* LostForever: Picking the wrong questions in an interview (You have to answer all completely truthfully) will make the Amulet Coin inaccessible without trading (you instead get a much less useful item that can be found elsewhere) and evolving the Shadow Togepi will make the special Elekid you can trade it for a plain old Elekid.

** Subverted with the Shadow Pokemon themselves -- you may only have one or two chances to Snag a given one, but you can track down Miror B. later on, who will have whatever Shadow Pokemon you missed out on.
* MeaningfulName: In Japanese, the hero is Ryuto: "to kill". In English, he's Michael: "who is like God?". His other default English names are Adam and David.

** OverlordJr: Ardos and Eldes.

* SurpriseCreepy: Moreso than Colosseum - the game starts out much more lighthearted, and Orre's been cleaned up quite a bit. [[spoiler:Then it sinks in that Cipher murdered an entire boat crew offscreen.]]

** Though Eagun states before battle you that it's his first one in five years, so the reduced level is probably supposed to represent Pikachu being out of shape.

* BagOfSpilling: While the ''player'' character is separate between the two games, a few returning [=NPCs=] have had their levels fall ''hard''. Miror B. in XD no longer possesses his trademark Ludicolo quartet and is nowhere near the level seen in his endgame appearance in Colosseum. The same is true for various other Trainers fought (as XD starts with Level 10 opponents instead of 25/26). Eagun's Pikachu takes the largest hit, as in ''Colosseum'' it was Lv.50, but in ''XD'' it's only Lv.12 (and it's actually implied to be the same Pikachu).

* CurbStompBattle: During your first trip into Gateon port, Michael's little sister bumps into a thug, Zook. They're saved by one of Mr. Verich's bodyguards, whose Lv.40 Alakazam wipes the floor with Zook's Shadow Zangoose.[[spoiler: [[IWasJustPassingThrough This turns out to be less about saving Michael and Jovi than it is about having Zook flaunt his Shadow Zangoose in public.]]]]

** And then there's Eldes, who starts to respect you even before you fight him, and ultimately brings down Cipher and performs a HeelFaceTurn.
* DifficultySpike: Shadow Lugia and 3 of the final boss's Shadow Pokémon of XD have catch rates of 3 (out of 255) while, with the exception of a Shadow Snorlax and Chansey (which are still 30, or 3.9% with no damage and a default ball), everything else has catch rates that can easily be gotten to the twenties (sleep + Ultra/Net ball)