It's hard to believe it, but it was one month ago that Pokémon X & Y were released worldwide, bringing the sixth generation of Pokémon games to the Nintendo 3DS.
Though October 12th was the official release date, the suspense for Pokémon X & Y have been building ever since the first announcement about the two games was made, all the way back on January 8th. Tons of new Pokémon and features were revealed over the months leading to the release date.
Were the games worth the hype? Did they live up to the expectations placed upon them, or did they fall short of perfection? Well, while we all may have differing opinions, I would like to share my personal review of the games along with my impressions, opinions, and disappointments. Please bear in mind there may be minor spoilers, but nothing substantial.
Gameplay
It's easy to say that gameplay is what makes the Pokémon games so successful. It's important for Pokémon games to be easy to maneuver, fun to play, and provide an overall enjoyable experience. I have to say that Pokémon X & Y do that for the most part.
First and foremost, the two games are mostly the same, with only minor differences between the two versions. The legendary Pokémon you acquire throughout the game is Xerneas in Pokémon X and Yveltal in Pokémon Y, and then there are a few other differences as far as wild Pokémon and items go, but other than that, they play functionally the same. This is both a good and bad thing. It's good because you don't have to worry about getting both versions, but at the same time, a little more variety, like the overt differences between Black and White, such as how the appearance of towns and areas were affected, would have been welcome to Pokémon fans.
Without getting into the storyline, Pokémon X & Y follow the traditional recipe of training up a team of Pokémon, collecting as many of the little critters as possible, and fighting to earn all 8 Badges in the new Kalos region and then fighting against the Elite Four and Champion.
The battles themselves — essentially the core of the Pokémon games — are fast-paced and incredibly vibrant. I'll comment on the graphics later, but one early concern I had before the games were released was that all of the animations would slow the battle pace down substantially. That's hardly the case at all. Battles are quick and responsive, moving at a perfect pace, although the option to disable battle animations still exists should you want things to move even faster (though I don't recommend it).
The Super Training mechanic is essentially a mini-game that you can play with your Pokémon that pits them in a virtual stadium where you control them to hit balloon incarnations of Pokémon. The reward for doing this is an improvement for your Pokémon's stats, providing a relatively easy, fun way to train battle-ready Pokémon. It's far easier for people to grasp and understand this than the sometimes-complicated method known as "EV Training," or Effort Value training (you will hear Super Training refer to "base stats,"which are synonymous with the online term "Effort Values" or EVs). Once you have access to decent items after beating the game, you'll find the Super Training system to be slow compared to other incredibly quick methods of "EV Training," such as fighting against Horde Battles, but it's still a nice addition.
Speaking of nice additions, Pokémon-Amie is another mini-game on a similar note that allows you to interact with your Pokémon as if it were a virtual pet. You can play with your Pokémon using your stylus, pet your Pokémon, feed it treats, play mini games with it, talk to it, and even use the 3DS' inner camera to track your movement and facial expressions, although I personally found this part to be very inconsistent in recognizing my face, particularly when it asked me to tilt my head or to open my eyes. Your reward for this comes in the form of battle bonuses that trigger based on your Pokémon's affection level, which can include scoring critical hits, dodging moves, and recovering from status ailments. Pokémon with a high affection level also gain more EXP in battle.
Crazy as it sounds, but I find Pokémon X & Y to be incredibly touch-friendly games. I almost never use my stylus when playing Pokémon games. I don't like holding onto it while I play and I don't like reaching for it every few minutes, just to speed things up very slightly. With Pokémon X & Y, I don't feel punished for not using a stylus, but rather rewarded for using it. It feels very natural to me. If I want to bring up my Pokémon, rather than press X and select Pokémon, I can just tap the little Poké Ball on the bottom screen to bring it up without a dialogue. It's also easy to go back just one step or to totally close the entirety of the status screen or PC screen by pressing either the back button or the red X, depending on your intentions.
I was about 40 hours in before beating the game during my first playthrough of Pokémon X. That's including reading all of the dialogue, playing around with features, finding as many Trainers and items as possible, and catching a variety of things, but I could easily see spending even more time on it. The only point that felt rather awkward pacing wise was after you've earned your first Gym Badge, where it feels like an eternity before earning your second one. That was a little weird. It was still fun, though.Available Pokémon
Pokémon X & Y captured one of my favorite elements of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2: the vast amount of Pokémon available in the wild! Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 had what felt like an excellent amount of Pokémon available in each area, but Pokémon X & Y trump that by a long shot, with more than 450 Pokémon available between the two versions! That's an absolutely insane number!
There are so many Pokémon that they've actually split the Kalos Pokédex into three regions:Central Kalos, Coastal Kalos, and Mountain Kalos. You won't find any Central Kalos Pokémon in the wild in Coastal Kalos and vice versa, so each of the subregions feels unique, while still feeling like a part of Kalos.
One disappointment is that there are only 69 new Pokémon available in the game, not counting Mega Evolutions as new Pokémon, making it the lowest number of new Pokémon available in any Pokémon game. Because of this, if you had aspirations of crafting a team consisting only of the new Pokémon, you may find your selection limited.
This is mitigated by the extensive amount of older Pokémon available, though. You'll find Pokémon from all of the previous regions in the wild throughout Kalos and they all do a very good job at fitting in. There are also so many different Pokémon available in each route that it's actually challenging trying to decide which Pokémon to even include on your team!
Mega Evolution is also an interesting mechanic introduced in Pokémon X & Y which allows for a temporary in-battle evolution of one of your Pokémon, so long as it is holding the appropriate Mega Stone, such as the Venusaurite needed to Mega Evolve Venusaur into Mega Venusaur. The Mega Evolution increases the Pokémon's stats to legendary proportions and usually grants a beneficial ability. The catch is you have to trigger the Mega Evolution during the battle (it doesn't consume your turn and is activated when you select an attack), preventing you from switching into a bulkier Mega Evolution from the get-go. You can also only Mega Evolve one of your Pokémon during a battle, though it stays Mega Evolved throughout the whole fight. Sadly, not every Pokémon get a Mega Evolution; in fact, there are only a handful of Mega Evolutions, usually only for the popular or competitive Pokémon.Storyline and Plot
The main series Pokémon games aren't generally known for having a strong storyline or compelling plot. Pokémon X & Y don't exactly break from that mold, still featuring the standard obtain-8-badges-and-become-the-champion formula featured in most of the games.
You start off in Vaniville Town after you and your mother move in from another region. Your mother is Grace, a famous Rhyhorn Racer from faraway lands, but they don't play on that too much more throughout the game. You can ride a Rhyhorn at one point, sure, but that's it, really.
You meet four local friends very early on. Shauna, Trevor, Tierno and then either Serena if you're playing as a boy or Calem if you're playing as a girl. You'll run into them very often throughout the game, but they generally don't get in the way or annoy you, which is nice. Of course, you'll have to battle them, too, but, again, not too frequently. They each have their own ambitions and goals, too. None of them seemed too one-dimensional in my opinion.
The main mission that Professor Sycamore has for the lot of you kids is to unravel the secrets behind Mega Evolution, which winds you around on a journey throughout the Kalos region until you arrive at Shalour City, meet the Mega Evolution Guru in the Tower of Mastery, and, of course, discover those secrets. What doesn't make sense to me is that Professor Sycamore is said to have studied at that very tower, so why wouldn't he have known about it in the first place?
The plot mostly dissolves after that point, aside from a few skirmishes with the antagonistic Team Flare, who don't actually come across as overly villainous. They're bumbling and incompetent, often extremely obvious in their hints, although that makes them funny in a way. But their whole reasoning felt a little weak in my opinion.
After earning your seventh badge, or roughly 70% through the game, the plot suddenlyexplodes out of nowhere. Without going into the specifics of it, I'll simply say that it was among my favorite plot arcs of any main series Pokémon game and it brought up some moments so powerful that I had to ask myself if I was still playing a Pokémon game.
But then, after that big plot arc, there's virtually nothing else comparable plot-wise for the rest of the main storyline. By the time you get to the Champion, you have high expectations for a twist, however I found the Champion and the Champion's storyline to be incredibly underwhelming. This character played almost no role throughout the game.
Like most Pokémon games, there's not much in the way of actual storyline after beating the game, but there are a fun series of events that take place in the Looker Bureau that tell an interesting tale of a character dating back from Pokémon Platinum.
All things considered, the best way to describe Pokémon X & Y's storyline is that it's amazing when the plot is going on, but once it dries up, you're left thirsty for more. I applaud them for introducing heavier storyline elements, such as recurring suggestions of wars from previous time periods and even death of Pokémon, which is a subject rarely touched since the days of the first generation of Pokémon games with the restless ghost of Cubone's mother killed by Team Rocket.Difficulty
Pokémon games aren't generally known for their difficulty. After all, the games are intended to be accessible to anyone from very young kids to the elderly, so what may seem easy for hardcore or seasoned gamers may still seem challenging for newer or younger gamers.
That being said, though, any seasoned Pokémon fan who diligently catches as many Pokémon as possible on each route and ensures they've bested every Trainer around will find the flaw in what at first seems to be a very helpful item, the Exp. Share, which is given to you after you've earned your first badge. What's that flaw? The Exp. Share makes the game way too easy!
See, in earlier Pokémon games, if you earned 100 EXP from knocking out a Pokémon, it would be split amongst any Pokémon participating in the fight, so if you used two Pokémon in the battle, each would receive 50 EXP or 50% of the total amount. If three were used, each would get 33 EXP, and so on.
In Pokémon X & Y, any Pokémon that participates in the fight will receive the full amount of EXP, without splitting it. This means the two Pokémon participating in the battle mentioned above would each receive 100 EXP. That's more or less acceptable, as it means you don't have to leave a Pokémon out in a fight just to avoid splitting EXP. There's no need to slowly peck away at your opponent now with a weaker opponent when you can just switch to your stronger Pokémon and not suffer any EXP penalty for Pokémon you're trying to train.
The Exp. Share item has changed in Pokémon X & Y, though, as it is now a Key Item and has the incredible effect of granting all of your party Pokémon that didn't even participate in the battle a staggering 50% of the EXP earned. This means even though five of your Pokémon didn't fight in battle, they all get 50% of the EXP yield, while the lone fighter picks up 100% of the EXP yield. That means your collective team is effectively gaining at least 2.5x more EXP with each and every fight! A fight that gives 100 EXP for a single Pokémon is in reality giving a total of 350 EXP for all of your Pokémon.
This may seem incredibly useful early on in the game, because it lets you train up new additions to your team without investing any effort into them, but as you battle more and more Trainers and catch more Pokémon — which now give you EXP when you catch them — you'll find that your levels are substantially higher than your opponents to the point where there's very little challenge. If you try to keep your levels even, you'll find you rarely use your higher-level Pokémon, as no matter what you do, their levels will continue to rise while you try to keep the rest of your team balanced.
Now, don't get me wrong, I still think the introduction of the Exp. Share is a good thing. Remember, there are a lot of younger or inexperienced players that play Pokémon games. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been asked for help on a Pokémon game, only to find that the kids asking have only one high level Pokémon with the rest completely uneven and essentially unusable without hours of training.
Not every player knows how to keep their Pokémon team levels balanced! Experienced players obviously do, but younger players might not. The Exp. Share helps ensure that these players don't have to fuss around with training up a new Pokémon and instead should have Pokémon usable simply by including them in their team, which most kids can figure out.
Without a doubt, the Exp. Share is the single largest detriment to the game's difficulty, making it almost impossible to explore everywhere and catch a wide variety of Pokémon without becoming vastly overleveled.
However, to anyone looking for a challenge, simply turn the Exp. Share off until after you've beaten the game. I've played through a separate copy of Pokémon X leaving the Exp. Share off for almost the entirety of the game and I found that my levels always felt just right. Things were challenging. Not impossible, but certainly not a walk in the park, and I've had to use tons of healing items to keep up in some instances.
Even at that, it was mostly just the random Trainers that provided a challenge. Gym Leaders and even the Elite Four and Champion weren't too challenging, despite being a few levels underleveled.
If you're into playing through Pokémon games with various challenges, such as the Nuzlocke challenge, you'll be satisfied with the difficulty level provided you keep the Exp. Share off. In fact, there's even a new variant called a "Wonderlocke," where you utilize the Wonder Trade feature to receive essentially a random team of Pokémon to use, all sent from other people playing the game.....
Now i am more desperate for a 3ds emulator... :(
Now i am more desperate for a 3ds emulator... :(
