The game(s) that launched a million 3DS! We all secretly knew the day would come when Pokemon would be on the 3DS, and if you didn’t maybe you should get your common sense checked out. I have to say though, when all else fails, Nintendo just hands out Pokemon to save the day. Thankfully what we get certainly doesn’t feel like a rushed project, yet more often then not I feel like that’s what we got. Look this game is good, but comparing it to the more recent Black and White 2, it just doesn’t live up. Sure there is a lot of pokemon they give you in the main campaign, a new typing, new modes to play with your pokemon in, but overall it just doesn’t seem to satisfy compared to Black and White or its sequel. Perhaps its the fact that X and Y just try to give so much that it just doesn’t feel like something of it’s own. It just feels like X and Y are trying too hard to please everyone that it just doesn’t fully appeal to anyone really. Unfortunately they also pretty much skipped over post game, giving even less to do than the dimond and pearl games when you actually beat X and Y.
Perhaps the set example of X and Y trying so hard have to deal with Team Flare, and the fact the game pretty much doesn’t need them to succeed. While I’m sure there would have been backlash from there being no team this time around, X and Y gave you plenty of characters to always keep it fresh. Instead of just one rival or even two, you are given a whooping 4 rivals to deal with amongst the game. Although you can’t personally nickname any of them, they are at least engaging enough that it would have made for a much more interesting experience to race against them rather than battle team flare. Pretty much everything Team Flare would normally give is rather watered down to the point that it feels like they were an after thought. All the dungeons and hideouts are extremely linear, and are merely used for pokemon to gained unneeded experience. The main villain is also exposed fairly early on, but he isn’t nearly as interesting as some of the past villains that have been used throughout Pokemon. Honestly if he would have worked solely on his own he probably make a more interesting character rather than being the leader of a whole team. Really though the only purpose team Flare really have in this game is to serve as an antagonist, not to be interesting. Say what you will about the other teams, but at their core each team had an interesting thought behind why they were doing what they did. Team Flare however just deludes what could have been a great story about racing against your rivals to the elite four with just mindless antagonism. Either way, Team Flare ends up just feeling more like a filler for this pokemon journey, than actually feeling like apart of the plot.
The other problems that Pokemon X and Y has aren’t just rooted to Team Flare though. Pokemon X and Y seems to have streamlined Pokemon far too much for a game that was already intend for children. Leveling up a team of pokemon in X and Y is a lot easier, but in the end it just takes out a lot of the fun when it comes to battling trainers later in the game. The Exp. Share now works like it did in the first gen, giving all pokemon half experience as long as they are on your active team, making leveling a whole team not nearly as daunting as it was before. The problem with the Exp. Share however is that you get it so early in the game and so easily that it ends up making your pokemon too overpowered early on. This makes trainer battles far too easy that it just stays that way. While overpowered pokemon due to a lot of attention certainly was a problem in the older games, it at least acted as a balance so each pokemon would get their own time to shine for the more cautious pokemon trainers out there that did not want to be stuck with a bunch of level 20s against level 50s in late game. But thanks to early access of Exp. Share, any trainer can just stick with one pokemon during the game and have the rest of the team slowly level up along with it. Virtually making any kind of catch up training or bonding with lesser known pokemon useless. And all this could easily be avoided if they were to simply give you the Exp. Share later on during the game. Of course this is not the case, and unless you are willing to turn off Exp. Share, the majority of your team will likely be 10 levels higher than the elite fours by the time you get there, making what’s suppose to be the final challenge more tedious than anything else.
On top of this, X and Y simply just doesn’t care if you explore or just want to go through the game faster than you normally would. Most exploration rarely nets you anything more than a TM, and more often than not it’s rarely that out of the way to get to began with. The Majority of dungeons that do need to be explored are either extremely short, or have a lot of pokemon healers along the way, making it a small task to heal your pokemon easily compared to the older games. While I agree that always having to return to a pokemon center was annoying, it at least provide a challenge to either keep going and risk it or remain cautious. Not to mention that all the gym leaders puzzles and battles are laughably easy. And that’s really the big problem with X and Y, is that it literally hands you everything you need right away to make life so much easier for you and your pokemon. And while I do appreciate the help because I’m from a older generation and remember these problems, younger ones won’t. They’ll never learn during X and Y the hardships that made Pokemon so much more enjoyable. Going through Mt. Moon or Rock Tunnel scared of not knowing where I’m going as a child is still remember-able to me and makes me enjoy my time with the old red and blue games. Traveling through team rockets hideouts in lake rage, going through the mountains of Sinnoh, exploring the oceans of Hoenn, and even going through the electric cave in Black and White. These are things I remember because they were so tiresome, and what makes me glad I was done with it. But in X and Y, well you don’t really get that, you don’t get challenging caves, trainers, or teams, its just all handed to you, and really that kind sucks the fun out of the game.
X and Y also adds a new mechanic in Mega evolution which really had a lot of potential in helping out a lot of older Pokemon that really needed some sort of boost to their stats. While a good amount of older Pokemon that needed some sort of boost got a Mega Evolution, more often than not Game Freak gave the majority of Mega Evolution to Pokemon that didn’t need any help to begin with. Why Garchomp or Gengar got one when clearly they had no problem with the metagame or being popular really makes me mad at the potential lost when given to Pokemon that didn’t need it. The actual mechanic to Mega evolution is a great addition however, and can really change the ties of battle. What also helps this mechanic though is the balance it has by having only one pokemon being able to mega evolve per battle. A lot of these mega evolutions are extremely overpowered though; so much so that it was pretty clear they get banned from tourney play to began with. Thankfully a good amount are still powerful enough that they simply become viable compared to their original counterparts. At the very least Mega Evolution gives more potential for this series in the future, and is hopefully expand to more pokemon in need of a boost.
At the very least though I can truly say Pokemon X and Y is truly the most beautiful Pokemon as ever been. Not only are all the Pokemon rendered in 3D, but all the little touches are added all over the place. The ability to talk while sitting on benches, being able to change clothes, the different view points that you are able to see whilst traveling. Game Freak really went all out in making this game one of the prettiest in the series. And its not just the 3D models or overworld either, Pokemon Amie, the sprites for Pokemon, and even the artwork for the trainers are all extremely well done and always pretty to look at. Honestly no game has looked this pretty in Pokemon, and its all thanks to the little changes they make along with the big ones. Just being able to see the camera change angles during battle, Pokemon moving a bit with their attacks, status effects showing when you battle too! Your Pokemon taking a hit or performing a critical because your special bond with it! It really is amazing how much Game Freak packed and gave detail to Kalos that makes it so much alive than previous generations. Fundamentally X and Y aren’t that great of a game, but when it comes to making you feel like you live in a Pokemon World, well that is where it excels at.
Final Thoughts:
In the long run, Pokemon X and Y excels at being the closest we got to really living in a Pokemon World, but as a game it isn’t nearly as good as it could have been. With the somewhat forced Team Flare, linear path given, and constant hand-holding throughout Pokemon X and Y; the game(s) overall just end on a more bitter note than a joyous one. The journey through Kalos is fun for a while, but when it’s over there is really nothing else to do aside from training a competitive team or collecting them all.