Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they've been chewing over. Today, Andy looks back at a pivotal juncture in the Pocket Monster series which hinted at the path it would take over the following decade...
Like its eponymous creatures, the Pokémon series has undergone many changes throughout its evolution. A major one graced our 3DS screens 10 years ago today with the global release of Pokémon X & Y.
The first main entries to use 3D models, with battles presented in stereoscopy, when Pokéfans took our first steps into the France-inspired region of Kalos, we let out a collective sacré bleu. From its charming medieval villages and dizzying cities to its verdant, autumnal paths, ethereal caves, frostbitten mountains, and fairy-tale forests, X and Y popped with visual splendour. Movement was 8-directional and the camera fixed but it would now zoom, pan, and swing to give this world a sense of scope and sparkle to which its predecessors could only have aspired.
It wasn’t just a graphical overhaul though; there were mechanical improvements at play, too. The first Generation VI games saw the unveiling of the Fairy type. This was the first new type in 14 years, introducing enchanting new nymphs as well as granting old favourites this elemental property to more easily dispatch dragons. Togepi would now brush off a Draco Meteor to the face while Eevee could become the graceful, ribbon-strewn Sylveon.
There might only have been 72 monsters added to the roster but they made up for this with the gimmick of Mega Evolution. This allowed you to temporarily bestow new forms, buffed stats, and often modified typings and abilities to certain critters. It addressed the issue of power creep, letting long-forgotten ‘mons have their moment in the spotlight while imbuing fights with a flair that matched the region’s theme of aesthetical grandiosity. Its essence lives on in Dynamax and Terastallization but these pale in comparison to how beloved and much-missed Mega Evolution remains today.
However, for as much as there is to celebrate about these titles — and the personal fondness I have for them — I can’t help but see them as something of a paradox: the last 'good' Pokémon games and the first 'bad' Pokémon games.
You can’t be groundbreaking without leaving a few cracks and Gen VI is where the series started to feel rushed, unfinished, or generally lacking from a technical standpoint — all things that are particularly noticeable in the most recent generation, Scarlet and Violet. This is widely thought to be due to the modest Game Freak team having to develop for more advanced hardware while beholden to a rigid (some would say oppressive) release cycle. Many were rightly disappointed that these flagship 3DS titles didn't support the console's namesake feature in the overworld.
Whatever the case, Kalos arguably lived up to its name — taken from the Greek for “beauty” — and prioritised style over substance. This was evident in aspects such as corridor-like routes, unchallenging battles (the last Gym Leader only uses three Pokémon, one of which only knows three attacks), and half-baked characters. There’s an attempt at a Stand By Me-style tale of five kids going on an adventure and the notion of a romantic subplot but they’re sadly a forgettable bunch.
Nowhere is this feeling of being unfinished more apparent than in Zygarde, a legendary leviathan that formed a pseudo-trio along with box mascots Xerneas and Yveltal. While the other two play integral parts, Zygarde was stuffed away in an optional cave, its Pokédex entry suggesting that it would show a secret power when the ecosystem fell into disarray. Rayquaza, Giratina, and Kyurem had been stuck in similar positions in the past but had later come back in starring roles in their generations’ third instalments. This tradition, coupled with a reveal of Zygarde’s different forms in Japan’s CoroCoro magazine in late 2015, tacitly made a promise of a 'Pokémon Z'.
This promise was soon broken. The start of 2016 brought the announcement of Sun and Moon, dispelling all hope of Z and breaking an 18-year pattern. The Nintendo 'gigaleak' would later reveal that two subsequent Kalos journeys had been planned, making it doubly frustrating that they never saw the light of day, possibly due to the developers’ attention being spread too thinly across other projects. Zygarde did ultimately find itself shoehorned into these 20th-anniversary titles, awkwardly retconned into a Hawaiian sojourn where it served no purpose other than being a collectible.
Aside from the swindled serpent, there are a number of other curios present in X and Y that are more ambiguous in terms of whether they’re unused ideas or puzzling Easter eggs. An infamous one is the ominous ghost girl, who’d appear on an ostensibly normal office floor in Lumiose City and declare that the protagonist was “not the one” before floating away and disappearing forever. She even gets a page on the Japanese Pokémon website’s section that details spooky in-game events but whether she’s a terrorful tease or another victim of Z version syndrome is still unknown.
There are also areas that hint at a wider world that players never got to experience. One is the Power Plant with its multiple entrances that make a point of telling you that you can’t access them. Then there’s Couriway Town with its railway that can’t so much as get you back to the central Lumiose terminus. A persistent wish of the fanbase is to be able to revisit past regions and we thought this redundant station might eventually have been our ticket to ride, but any light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be an approaching train of disappointment.
That’s not to mention the troubling message about “going for help” scrawled on the back of a sign in Lumiose Station or Eternal Flower Floette, which featured prominently in the story and was programmed in as a trainable team member but was never made legitimately obtainable. In fairness, some of the games’ myths have long since been busted: of course Heatran was never meant to appear in Jaune Plaza; the Strange Souvenir was from Alola; and you can’t tip your way into encountering a shiny Pokémon.
And so, a decade on, Kalos continues to hold the title of Most Enigmatic Region, possessing an atmosphere of, at best, mystery and, at worst, incompletion. Equal parts commendable and lamentable, Gen VI’s contribution to competitive mechanics and enhanced graphics can’t be denied but, ironically, for games that modernised Pokémon and brought it into 3D, X and Y were missing a dimension.
Comments 74
Gen 6 really was the turning point for quality in these games. I remember loving X/Y and ORAS, but even then the glaring cut content and step down in quality for the main campaign was obvious. Back then I had assumed that they were on a trial run and could only improve(and don’t get me wrong, ORAS was a huge improvement), but SuMo was when I threw in the towel. SuMo wasn’t necessarily bad, but I could see the direction the series was moving in, and was ultimately let down.
For me, as an avid player since Red and Blue, it was always about the story for me. And X and Y still did it so well, Lysandre was truly a villain with interesting motives and really brought out the evil in the games.
Once we moved on from OR/AS, the stories started to lack. Sun and Moon weren’t bad, and Ultra Sun and Moon were okay.
But the tales became repetitive and boring to me. So I started to lose interest.
For me, X/Y and SwSh are the two most disappointing entries in the series.
The gem of Gen 6 is ORAS. It was really proof of how a remake should be done
You know it's a shame that we never got a third version to this game.
Out of all the 3D pokemon games (at least on the 3Ds) I think that XY had the most potential.
There was a ton of good it brought to the franchises being the models, the refined online, megas and a lot more which makes it my favorite out of the 3D entries, despite it being very flawed.
Hopefully when it's time to remake these games they are done with quality. X and Y got me back into gaming and pokemon in general. Recently starting playing again to complete the pokedex and I'm surprised to find others to trade with on gts. Shame it's not gonna be up after April 2024. Damn you nintendo 👊 lol
Ah yes, the incomplete, incoherent mess of XY.
Which also gave us the Mega Evolutions that addressed power creep by.... massively increasing power creep. At least Z-moves etc are usable by everyone.
But hey, at least they gave Megas to long forgotten Pokemon like Garchomp, Metagross, Salamence, Tyranitar, Lucario, Ampharos, Latios and Latias, Rayquaza, Charizard, Charizard again, Blastoise, Venusaur, Mewtwo, Mewtwo again....wait.
Pokemon Amie and the EV training were the best extras of X/Y. Actually getting to cuddle/feed/clean your pokemon actually made them feel special and being able to immediately get any pokemon ready to level up and battle was wonderful. It wasn't all good though, cause the crit boost would hurt a lot when catching pokemon and the anime moments amie caused sometimes made battles easier than they need to be.
@acuphoria Anyone who says X and Y has a better story than Sun and Moon needs to replay the games. And I love X and Y so so much, but the story did not have it's full potential realized at all.
After B2/W2, Pokémon X and Y were such major disappointments that I haven't returned to the series since, for better or worse. Also hated how they unnecessarily changed prior Pokémon cries.
@Goat_FromBOTW
I respectfully disagree.
UmbreonsPapa wrote:
That would definitely be either HGSS or Platinum, ORAS would an example of how not to do a remake.
pokecucks hate woke gamers like me but pokemon x is peak NOT NOSTALGIA BASED NUH UHHH
@acuphoria I wanna preface this by saying I totally respect your opinion and this isn't an argument. But I'm curious as a fan of both games, what about X and Y's story gripped you more? My biggest issues with it's story are that the friend group is pretty one note, and I would've liked to see characters like Trevor have proper arcs. Lysandre's motivation and ideology is awesome and Team Flare is probably the closest evil team to a IRL terrorist group, but again I wish they'd developed them much more instead of trying to pull the very obvious twist of Lysandre being a villain. The way you encounter the legendary Pokemon was also pretty random and I felt it could've been written into the story better. Not to mention all the weird loose ends that weren't fully tied up, as mentioned in the article. The story wasn't bad per say, it just had potential to be so much deeper than it was and it's kind of frustrating.
For me X and Y represent the beginning of the end of Pokémon. Every gen had different qualities and flaws, but always tried to push the series forward with new ideas. With X and Y the gimmick era starts, Mega Evolutions, Z moves, Dynamax, Terrastalization. Presented in one generation and forgotten in the next, gamefreak gave up on developing the series and focused on marketable gameplay "innovations".
They also took the battle towers away, diminishing the post-game and ignoring the people who play these games for the challenging battles.
@Pat_trick Honestly these past few games would've been a lot more fun if they had just kept mega evolution as the only gimmick and developed it in each game. Z-moves could've been incorporated into it by adding it to your move list when you mega evolve, and just rebalancing gameplay to make it work. Terestalization is pretty cool but in 100+ hours of playing Sword I never figured out how Dynamax was any different than Mega Evolution.
Mega Evolution is still my favorite battle gimmick, and I wish some of those designs were revisited as something more permanent.
I felt the evolution of the games from DS to 3DS was pretty substantial and a huge upgrade, yet from 3DS to Switch I haven't felt like the series has evolved much.
X and Y were truly special. Full 3D Pokemon adventures with a customizable trainer. It was the last time my friends gave the series a shot, with some great trades and battles as we played through it simultaneously. If it had proper endgame content, it would probably be my favorite generation.
Gen 6 saved my love for Pokemon. I really did not enjoy Gen 5 at all and it almost killed the series for me (I know it's unpopular to say but people are entitled to opinions and I will not debate this).
Loved X and Y. Amazing music and I still couldn't believe how successfully it rendered my favorite Pokemon in 3D, which prior games had failed to do so (toxicroak and infernape in particular looked pretty ugly on PBR).
Serena was great as a kind of red/blue rivalry role reversal; to this day I think she's in the top 3 for supporting characters/rivals.
That being said, yeah, the incompleteness definitely started then, and has been felt ever since. 72 is also so low in count that my friends and I were hard-pressed to use different Pokemon. After running around the mazes of Rock Tunnel and certain Victory Roads, I didn't mind the more streamlined versions in XY. But their corridor structure is unquestionably another way their influence has harmed the long-term franchise. 0 post game, disappointing E4, etc.
But man, they are so easy to go back and play. That music!
“The Nintendo 'gigaleak' would later reveal that two subsequent Kalos journeys had been planned…”
I haven’t seen the leak myself, but do we know if this refers to an XZ & YZ scenario a la USUM or B2W2? Or is it talking about a Pokémon Z and then yet another unknown Kalos game?
In either case, it feels like these games had their opportunity cut short by the 20th anniversary, which is ironic because SuMo felt rushed to release, with USUM essentially just being everything SuMo wished to be the first time and with all the legacy content you’d expect from an anniversary game.
For me the worst Pokémon Gen. But I loved the meta game and the autumn area.
Probably the worst main series Pokemon games for me in competition with Diamond & Pearl, but unlike those games there wasn't a 3rd version to fix many of the issues either. Doubly jarring coming from Gen 5 which I deem to be one of the better ones.
This was when the series took a nosedive for me.
X and Y is probably the game that is most in need of a major remake. The story itself is pretty solid, and I really like the gimmick of a group of rival characters that are all friends with each other, and Lumiose City was a big step up in what Pokémon locations could become, but the repetitive routes and the feeling that nothing new is taking place, despite the leap in hardware, started to roll the boulder of “Pokémon is horrible and lazy” down the hill of popular fan opinion where it is now tumbling at Mach 10. A remake that did a little plot retooling and increased the difficulty in a few key areas could make a great game, and the plus side of wishing for a remake means that a BDSP-esque remake would take work to downgrade it, so that probably wouldn’t happen.
@iLikeUrAttitude I am genuinely curious as to why you feel that. I find the ORAS remakes on par with HG/SS and Platinum, and those are my favorites. I'm even going through Renegade Platinum right now and then Soothing Silver after that cause as much as I love those games they have flaws too especially with leveling.
@betterthanvegas I'll take a leveling curve anyday over content being cut out.
Besides the level curve not being fixed thats the only flaw I can confidently say those remakes has, I can't say the same for ORAS.
X and Y are by far my faves in the series. I couldn't wait to see what was past the next route, and the new type meant I actually had to pay attention for battles. I didn't get as amped to play a Pokemon release since the original.
@KidSparta We may never know. Basically, Game Freak uses a numbering system for all mainline games and remakes, and it was later discovered that there is a two game gap in the numbering between X and Y and Sun and Moon. I personally think they were planning sequels like Black 2 and White 2, just way too many loose ends they never closed.
@iLikeUrAttitude Haven't played Rube/Sapphire in a long time. What content was cut from ORAS? I remember them adjusting the story to include multiverse (I'll admit my least favorite plot macguffin,) making the Lati's important, and adding the Delta episode. And the secret base function was still there and made grinding easier since people would share Blissey bases and other things I can't remember right now.
@betterthanvegas ORAS had almost nothing from Emerald. In fact, like with XY, there's some Emerald content teased but never actually included. Instead of the Battle Frontier, we got the Battle Maison copy/pasted from XY onto a rather empty tropical island with references of "the Battle Frontier is in development" but never included. Likewise, we see hints of Match Call post game but we never get to use it, just regular old Trainer Eyes (and while the Match Call itself is a bit more annoying, there is one feature of it that is sorely missed: the ability to rematch Gym Leaders). The story is almost completely ignored, and the Delta Episode is a poor substitute that has almost nothing in common with Emerald's story other than Rayquaza being a focus. Then there's other assorted things from Emerald that just didn't make it, the expanded Safari Zone, Mirage Tower, Desert Underpass, Terra and Marine Cave (granted Terra/Marine Cave would be difficult to work in to the game because that only really works with a single version, but it's still missing content).
I think X/Y was the beginning of the end of Pokémon for me. Finally a real fully 3D Pokémon game I’d been wanting since the N64 days and…it really wasn’t the jump I was hoping for (I really wanted it to be like DQVIII with big open maps to explore etc.) and generally beyond being disappointed by the ambition of the game it just didn’t do much to wow me mechanically.
Arceus has swung things back for me and S/V is a good foundation but I’m still waiting on that dream 3D Pokémon game.
@Bolt_Strike Ok, I understand where you are coming from now. Thanks for explaining your point of view
Yeah, X/Y was a mess in retrospect and a pretty big step back from Gen 5. I prefer Sun/Moon far more.
Though the PSS has yet to be topped.
@Bolt_Strike I like ORAS but I agree, I was disappointed that it lacked the Emerald content.
But if I have to play devils advocate, ORAS are remakes of Ruby and Sapphire and not Emerald.
Still disappointed back then it lacked that content, but I still enjoyed the games.
Same with X&Y, fun games but I was done quicker with them than ORAS.
SuMo and USUM felt like watching the whole Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and really wanting to go to the bathroom when the 3rd movie just started, but you are unable to.
SuMo felt longer than it should be, also after playing it I never touched it again due to lack of content for me afterwards.
USUM felt like a cash grab.
In contrast to popular opinion I did like Sword and Shield a lot. And while tge DLC stories were meh, the second area was fun too.
I dislike let's go games because they should have gone the FRLG route.
And the D&P remakes were fun, but I didn't like the fact they were 99% same games, while previous remakes always added some nice content.
Also I prefer Platinum
As for S&V, I hate them, but not more than OG Red & Blue I dislike the most of all mainline PKMN games.
And no I don't hate/dislike S&V due to performance, I dislike everything except new pokemon in the games and the post game story which is actually darn awesome.
As for the DS era, I like all the games, but Platinum and B2&W2 stand on top.
GBA era is easy, Emerald ftw but I like other games too.
As for gameboy, well aside my hate for gen 1 games, I could play G/S/S for hours without any issues.
I'm making a general, harmless comment about X&Y which some will like and some will dislike
On a serious note, the best Pokémon game is your favourite Pokémon game. Telling people that thier favourite Pokémon game is bad doesn't make your favourite Pokémon game better.
@Rayquaza2510 Here's the problem with the mentality of "remakes are only remakes of the first versions, not the third version". The point of a remake is to take an old game and re-release it into circulation for people that might not have had the opportunity to play the original (primarily because they were too young). But... Emerald is almost as old as RS and equally inaccessible. So if someone wants the opportunity to play Emerald in this day and age, how do you do that? They didn't re-release Emerald content alongside ORAS in any way, so it's just gone (aside from paying an exorbitant price to get an original copy of the GBA on Ebay). That strategy would be acceptable if they were going to make a Delta Emerald or something, but if they only want one pair of remakes, it would only be fair to throw in third version content.
I loved X/Y, also OR/AS.
Not "the beginning of the end" for me, because I also loved Sun/Moon and Scarlet/Violet.
Sword/Shield was the worst Pokémon game for me, but I still have several 100 hours in it because of the fun raid system.
So in conclusion I've loved every gen so far.
Despite their many flaws I look back fondly on that gen.
I had fallen off Pokémon after I was done with the OG Diamond and Pearl and didn't get back into it until I bought a 3ds towards the end of its lifecycle. The whole Pokemon GO phase got me remembering the 'Good old days'.
I really dug the french inspired region, wish they did more with it but I still rate it. Megas where of course something really fresh.
The gang of rivals had potential, probably the biggest miss for me personally, that and a lack of things to do post credits.
Pokemon X/Y were the easiest games I’ve played. I beat the entire Looker post game with my team made from scratch at lvs 35-40. And I really really wanted to play Z, or whatever it would’ve been called.
“They didn't re-release Emerald content alongside ORAS in any way, so it's just gone (aside from paying an exorbitant price to get an original copy of the GBA on Ebay)”
Pokemon Emerald just mix-matched both Team Magma and Aqua’s battles and shoehorned Rayquaza before the end of the game (it was really helpful when battling the leage). But ORAS went above and beyond and gave an entire story based on Rayquaza, which I found way better than just remastering Emerald. The only feature from Emerald that I truly missed was the battle frontier.
Pkmn XZ and YZ for switch 2!
Savage_Joe wrote:
I wouldn't call adding a postgame content that can be beaten in a couple hours at most going "above and beyond", especially in replacement to the features that were lost in it's stead.
Personally I found all the endgame content for the 3Ds pokemon games to be heavily mediocre, ORAS probably being the worst offender.
Thats why I immediately went back to XY or even SM once I realized thats all there was to do in ORAS.
@iLikeUrAttitude I did the exact opposite of you. Once I beat ORAS, I never went back to XY. There was nothing else for me to do with that game since I completed the pokedex, post games, etc. and my pokemon from there were already in Pokemon Bank to be used in ORAS
I consider X/Y to be the last great pokemon generation, at least until Game Freak gets their act together again. I mostly agree with the criticisms listed in the article, and I really wish we'd gotten a Pokemon Z to smooth out those flaws and build on the successes, but overall, I think those games had the best blend of new and traditional mechanics the series has seen.
@SpoonySpoons Yeah, that's a good point. X and Y felt like a trial run for something bigger and a solid jumping-off point for future 3D games but ten years later it feels like they still haven't nailed it. I'd say they've even regressed in a lot of ways.
This might be unpopular, but aside from graphical downgrades, I don't think Pokemon has gotten any worse. I enjoyed Pokemon X when I was younger, but playing some of the older ones as well as the recent ones makes me think they're pretty middling without a lot of nostalgia for them.
@acuphoria Fair enough but I found that Sun & Moon had a much more interesting story than X & Y - a family drama centred around Lusamine's obsession with her missing husband and the Ultra Beasts. I don't even really remember much about Lysandre other than he wanted to blow everyone up to make the world prettier.
I don't think Pokémon's ever really been about the story for me but I'd say Gens III, V and VII are strongest if we're judging by that metric.
@betterthanvegas Yeah, I feel like X&Y finally made things a lot clearer in terms of EV training your Pokémon so there was scope for many more people to get into the competitive side of things. I even wrote a guide on it at the time which got me into gaming journalism!
At the time pokemon X and Y were ground breaking showing everyone what a 3d pokemon game looks like and while ground breaking for the time it wasn't perfect. For one thing It was really apparent that gamefreak had no experience with 3D models outside of special set pieces, or even cutscenes. And unfortunately it still plagues them today.
I really honestly do not remember much about X and Y. I found them to be simply okay. It being in 3D was neat, but I don't know.
I feel like Pokemon has struggled generally speaking in terms of its mainline games to look really appealing in 3D compared to the 2D sprites. Some things didn't quite make the transition or look a bit odd.
@Axecon Gen V felt very different to any other game in the series until that point (and still does.) It was probably due to there being no old Pokémon involved until the post-game and the designers really pushing the boundaries in terms of what the new ones could look like. I personally enjoyed them and only using new 'mons is something I'd love to see them try again in future but I can also see why it's a divisive choice.
@Zaruboggan The music on Route 15 and on the way to the snow cave is one of my favourite pieces from the series. I love the Santalune Forest music too as well as the trainer battle theme with that lead guitar lick!
@traceman They're certainly not perfect but they didn't really have to be on the first attempt - X&Y are a perfectly fine blueprint for making a 3D Pokémon world. The problem is, as you mentioned, that they still haven't really built on it or got more experienced designers in to help refine it, making things just look worse and worse as hardware improves and expectations get higher.
@ShonenJump121 I've seen a fair few people express a desire for the games to return to 2D sprite-based graphics. It's probably a bit of a regressive, nostalgic take, but I can see what it comes from - Game Freak are very visibly struggling to make a cohesive 3D Pokémon world.
@KidSparta We don't know for sure but it would undoubtedly have been a pair of sequels, i.e. XZ and YZ (I originally speculated these titles in the article but had to make some cuts to meet the word length!) They'd perhaps have had Zygarde's two new forms on the covers. Given the fact they never got round to making even one sequel in the usual timeframe, it's almost impossible that they'd be thinking about doing another original game set in Kalos.
I found US&UM to be the most insulting and cash-grabby in terms of third instalments. You could make that argument about Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, but those felt more like retellings with different features. US&UM, as you say, just felt like they had rushed S&M out the door to meet the anniversary deadline then got around to finishing them.
@AndyMcDonald I simply do not think Gamefreak is capable enough of delivering a full focused 3D Pokemon game on the level of a Xenoblade Chronicles or something.
From what I have seen from the latest entries anyway.
it's my favourite entry.
has a great ambience, glad it featured in Smash Bros.
@iLikeUrAttitude I felt like ORAS was the best way to experience gen 3. BDSP are the example of how to not remake a game.
@traceman I believe that Colosseum and XD showcased better how 3D Pokemon games were capable of (they were so good that GF actually poached animators and 3D artists from Genius Sonority for their recent games). And both games had surprisingly dark and mature stories to boot. I expected GF to beat them with their 3D games, but so far, only Legends Arceus managed to do that in my view.
I know I'm in the minority, but I hated ORAS, and only liking the introduction of Megas & the Fairy-Type in XY make Gen 6 my least favorite by a landslide. Even back then I thought, 'well maybe I just have rose-tinted glasses for RSE'. Nope - went back, played Emerald, and had a blast. There were still instances against some Gym Leaders, the E4, & Wallace where I needed to think or use items. I haven't needed to use Items since the start of Gen 6. And I can't help but double-down on this opinion since the only main series games I've truly enjoyed since Gen 5 were Let's GO & Legends: Arceus.
If anything the start of the 3D games' debatable quality is bittersweet for me. I feel almost nothing but contempt for current Pokemon now, but it driving me away has also gotten me to try other RPGs and different genres that I would've never touched before. At least they can't take away the old games, as much as they go out of their way to make them unavailable... gonna be like losing a pet when my Colosseum disc gives out. Had that sucker since I was 5 - my first game ever.
@Savage_Joe I guess I should've been a little more specific in mentioning for handhelds. While pokemon colluseum did have a story it was more of a battle simulator with a story attached. Gale of darkness however was more of an earnest attempt to make a console pokemon game though it also has it's own problems.
I have much love for Pokemon XY, a game of highs and lows.
Character customization, easy online communication, and 3D models really brought the series forward.
The best things by far though, are the in-game Pokemon distribution, and the wonder trade mechanic. With many great creatures potentially to use, each playthrough was exciting. One of the most replayable main series games for me.
Online battles were a ton of fun. Gen 6 competitive is my most played, even surpassing the great gen 4.
While they didn't hamper my personal enjoyment, the story and post game content felt weak. Mega evolution was fun mechanically and opened up lots of interesting strategies, but I only really used a handful of megas because I couldn't stand most of their designs...
Overall I hold XY much, MUCH higher than the 5th generation games that immediately preceded, because of how much more fun XY is to play. There are some areas of the Kalos region that could have used more fleshing out, that I think a proper Z version could have greatly improved on.
@SpoonySpoons Never mind what I said. I misread your comment. I do agree. (But the Sapphire and Ruby remakes were really good though.)
For me, X was a return to the series after skipping the DS era. I was disappointed at how easy it was, uninterested in the story, and realized that I had outgrown the series.
Never went back, though I may give Arceus a crack some time..?
When gen 9 was revealed I felt tempted but remembering my experience keeps me from setting myself up again.
I just want to revisit Kalos during the Switch 2 era, so that we can see a truly beautiful, fully explorable region of France. It was such a letdown that France of all places is still the only region we've been able to visit once.
@TheRealMr_Carpainter
This honestly isn't talked about enough. So many great Pokemon cries were completely neutered after XY. And they still haven't been fixed. It's a big part of a Pokemon's identity.
X and Y were the beginning of the end for Pokémon. The move to (bad) 3D, the gimmicks like mega-evolution, the addition of fairy type, the linearity and lack of exploration...
I can understand why they maybe wanted to do this for generations 1 and 2, but I think they went too far with the idea. I remember how jarring it was hearing what the new cries were while playing through X.
X and Y... I still remember them like it were yesterday.
They were key in making Pokémon mainstream again for the coming years, yet they also had many shortcomings. Particularly, they felt like the only "incomplete Pokémon game" feeling of the 3DS generation, as Game Freak eventually managed to get hold of the hardware until USUM.
Afterwards though, it was pretty clear they needed to adapt to the next generation of Nintendo hardware that was looming over. It certainly wasn't easy task.
@Savage_Joe The changes they made to the Magma/Aqua storyline were very important actually, because they showed up in areas that actually made sense. As opposed to RS and ORAS, where you have nonsense such as the sea based team trying to blow up a volcano or the land based team stealing a submarine to visit an underwater cavern.
As for Rayquaza, its role in Emerald actually brought it into the main conflict and lore with Groudon and Kyogre. Meanwhile the Delta Episode, while a neat storyline, completely separates itself from the main plot and does its own thing. So it's hardly "above and beyond" when the Emerald stuff is missing. Above and beyond would be if they had the Delta Episode AND the Emerald storyline, not the Delta Episode INSTEAD OF the Emerald storyline.
The Battle Frontier was the only major other feature missing from Emerald, but there's also a bunch of other smaller things they omitted too. None of the Emerald exclusive areas (such as the Safari Zone Expansion, Desert Underpass, Mirage Tower, Terra/Marine Cave) made it in, you couldn't get the second fossil, there were several Pokemon you could catch in Emerald's post game that weren't in ORAS at all. Individually that stuff isn't much, but when you add it all up it's kind of a lot missing.
So yeah, excluding so much of that stuff just makes ORAS feel far from the definitive Hoenn entry. Honestly I feel like there IS no definitive Hoenn entry and you need to play both Emerald and ORAS to get the full experience. And if you have a situation like that, it means the remake has failed its purpose.
@AndyMcDonald USUM also feels like a retelling with different features TBH. USUM's problem is that few of its changes feel significant other than the storyline which felt like it was changed for the worse. Most of what USUM added were new areas that took all of 5 seconds to explore and felt nearly pointless and new features and sidequests that barely added anything to the game. It felt like most of what they did barely moved the needle to the point where it almost felt like the same game, in a way that a 3rd version hadn't felt in a VERY long time (the last 3rd version to feel that similar to the original was Crystal).
@Dark_Isatari You skipped the DS games? Pity, because the DS games were some of the best IMO, and the 3 third versions/remakes (Platinum, HGSS, and BW2) are among my Top 5 favorite Pokemon games and were the Top 3 for a very long time. If you ever have the opportunity to play those 3, do so because it feels like Game Freak actually tried with those games.
@SpoonySpoons Exact same story here. Even as a teen it felt like, compared to Gen 4 and 5, the postgame was totally stripped down. You literally only got a Mewtwo sitting in a tiny cave, random Legendary Birds roaming around, and one small town with the Friend Safari (which was a little cool, I admit).
XY for me was a disappointment but still gave me hope, as the online was incredible and it gave me hope for the future of the franchise. Though SM came out and it felt like more of the same, in fact a downgrade in terms of the online and performance of the game, and so I dropped the series until SV.
Tap here to load 74 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...