Maybe because Pokemon X/Y is the first Pokemon game I played since Pokemon R/B/Y, but dang it I love this game. I was one of those Gen 1ers for years. - "Any Pokemon after Mew don't count".
And then the first ever 3D Pokemon was announced. A 3D Pokemon game! It's what I had been dreaming about since I was a child. Maybe not exactly like this but close enough. I had a 3DS already, so why not? It looked cool!
I've heard the complaints about this game from seasoned Pokemon fans and I get it. I know this game isn't perfect, but as someone who was coming back to the series for the first time in 15 years, I was enamored. I will forever be grateful to Pokemon X/Y for getting me back into Pokemon and for curing me of my Gen 1 disease.
And then the first ever 3D Pokemon was announced. A 3D Pokemon game! It's what I had been dreaming about since I was a child. Maybe not exactly like this but close enough. I had a 3DS already, so why not? It looked cool!
I've heard the complaints about this game from seasoned Pokemon fans and I get it. I know this game isn't perfect, but as someone who was coming back to the series for the first time in 15 years, I was enamored. I will forever be grateful to Pokemon X/Y for getting me back into Pokemon and for curing me of my Gen 1 disease.
legitimately wanted to murder every single one of the fucking inexcusably annoying child characters that harass you with their attempts at being friendly several times throughout the game.
c'est mediocre hon hon. Maybe releasing after the best Pokémon game is unfortunate timing but there's more to it than that. This is when boys realised they were now men with standards and now spend their time complaining and reminiscing about the pre-3D era at the ripe old age of their early 20s.
Every aspect is undercooked. Except Megas what a neat concept!
GameFreak carefully scrapping their best new mechanics every release:
Every aspect is undercooked. Except Megas what a neat concept!
GameFreak carefully scrapping their best new mechanics every release:
Going back to Pokemon X & Y for the first time since 2014, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I remember when I first played these games, I thought that they were awesome; the next big step towards the complete modernization of Pokemon. Over time, hindsight has given me the benefit of understanding that just because a model is in 3D, doesn't mean that the game is revolutionary.
Pokemon X & Y did a lot right. The additions to the core gameplay are, frankly, awesome. The new Fairy type helps balance out the type chart and gives an added challenge to a Dragon aficionado such as myself. Mega Evolution is a neat mechanic that feels like the natural evolution of the Pokemon formula, and in hindsight is much more fun to use when compared with Z-Moves or Dynamax. The route design is neat, with lots of little mazes that help the player get lost if they are looking for as many extra items as possible (much better than I remember!). The difficulty of the game is actually pretty high if you don't use the EXP Share, but the fact that it is added allows you to level up an expanded party without some Pokemon lagging behind (I rotated about 12 different party members in and out throughout most of the playthrough). And, the music in this game was also far better than I remember; the Gym battle theme in particular was a nice surprise.
However, as someone who is a fan of the much more realized stories of Generations 5 and 7, the story in Pokemon X & Y remains a complete letdown. None of the characters seem to be dynamic at all, and a lot of the narrative is boring and unrealized. It feels like the characters around you are nothing more than tools used to direct the player in the right direction. The game sets up a lowkey romance arc with Shauna near the beginning, but doesn't expand on it at all. Your rival often talks about their aspirations to get stronger in order to beat you, but your interactions feel so bland that it's hard to get behind the "neighborly bond" they so often bring up. And, Team Flare is an incredibly underwhelming group of antagonists when compared to the likes of Teams Galactic or Plasma, with a leader whose vision for the world has potential that the game again does not explore. And, since so much of the story centers around the "rarity" of Mega Evolution, it inhibits the mechanic from being actually used in battle by the majority of your opponents, which is a major disappointment.
The theme that the game's story leaves much more to be desired remains common throughout the rest of the game. For example, some of the environments can be enhanced with the 3D effects, but not all. In a similar vein, some of the trainers in the game appear in battle as fully realized 3D models, but this is a noticeable minority. The choices of who gets to be a 3D model is questionable as well; how come Team Flare Grunts are 3D models with animations, but not Gym Leaders or Elite Four members? There are also several areas that are blocked off in the game (like the other parts of the power plant) that the player never gets to explore, even in the postgame. Whether or not these changes were at somepoint planned in updates, or perhaps a "Pokemon Z," we shall never know, but what it does is leave behind an experience that is simply unfinished.
Pokemon X & Y are not bad games. However, they pale in comparison to other, better realized, more complete games in the series. These games are often labelled as the worst in the series by many, but I think that is a bit too harsh; these games are not as poor as the broken Generation 1 games, or act as complete letdowns like Ultra Sun & Moon. However, these entries do, in my opinion, fall in the latter half of the Pokemon series as a whole. I enjoyed my time with Pokemon X & Y, but I'm glad that it took me so long to return to Kalos, and I don't expect to do so again anytime soon. 5.5/10
Pokemon X & Y did a lot right. The additions to the core gameplay are, frankly, awesome. The new Fairy type helps balance out the type chart and gives an added challenge to a Dragon aficionado such as myself. Mega Evolution is a neat mechanic that feels like the natural evolution of the Pokemon formula, and in hindsight is much more fun to use when compared with Z-Moves or Dynamax. The route design is neat, with lots of little mazes that help the player get lost if they are looking for as many extra items as possible (much better than I remember!). The difficulty of the game is actually pretty high if you don't use the EXP Share, but the fact that it is added allows you to level up an expanded party without some Pokemon lagging behind (I rotated about 12 different party members in and out throughout most of the playthrough). And, the music in this game was also far better than I remember; the Gym battle theme in particular was a nice surprise.
However, as someone who is a fan of the much more realized stories of Generations 5 and 7, the story in Pokemon X & Y remains a complete letdown. None of the characters seem to be dynamic at all, and a lot of the narrative is boring and unrealized. It feels like the characters around you are nothing more than tools used to direct the player in the right direction. The game sets up a lowkey romance arc with Shauna near the beginning, but doesn't expand on it at all. Your rival often talks about their aspirations to get stronger in order to beat you, but your interactions feel so bland that it's hard to get behind the "neighborly bond" they so often bring up. And, Team Flare is an incredibly underwhelming group of antagonists when compared to the likes of Teams Galactic or Plasma, with a leader whose vision for the world has potential that the game again does not explore. And, since so much of the story centers around the "rarity" of Mega Evolution, it inhibits the mechanic from being actually used in battle by the majority of your opponents, which is a major disappointment.
The theme that the game's story leaves much more to be desired remains common throughout the rest of the game. For example, some of the environments can be enhanced with the 3D effects, but not all. In a similar vein, some of the trainers in the game appear in battle as fully realized 3D models, but this is a noticeable minority. The choices of who gets to be a 3D model is questionable as well; how come Team Flare Grunts are 3D models with animations, but not Gym Leaders or Elite Four members? There are also several areas that are blocked off in the game (like the other parts of the power plant) that the player never gets to explore, even in the postgame. Whether or not these changes were at somepoint planned in updates, or perhaps a "Pokemon Z," we shall never know, but what it does is leave behind an experience that is simply unfinished.
Pokemon X & Y are not bad games. However, they pale in comparison to other, better realized, more complete games in the series. These games are often labelled as the worst in the series by many, but I think that is a bit too harsh; these games are not as poor as the broken Generation 1 games, or act as complete letdowns like Ultra Sun & Moon. However, these entries do, in my opinion, fall in the latter half of the Pokemon series as a whole. I enjoyed my time with Pokemon X & Y, but I'm glad that it took me so long to return to Kalos, and I don't expect to do so again anytime soon. 5.5/10
The music? Eh
The post-game? WHACK
The difficulty? WHACK
The characters? WHACK
The story? WHACK
The world design? WHACK
The designs? TIGHT AS FUCK
The post-game? WHACK
The difficulty? WHACK
The characters? WHACK
The story? WHACK
The world design? WHACK
The designs? TIGHT AS FUCK
(9-year-old's review, typed by his dad)
I named my Chespin "JONATHAN GD", and now it turned into a spikeball and I don't really like it, because a guy called Jonathan GD's logo is a Chespin. And also I named a bunny "A SACK OF POOP" (uncontrollable giggling)
I named my Chespin "JONATHAN GD", and now it turned into a spikeball and I don't really like it, because a guy called Jonathan GD's logo is a Chespin. And also I named a bunny "A SACK OF POOP" (uncontrollable giggling)
Spent my final hours with the Wii U/3DS servers by messing around playing some of this. It's been a while since I played it, and it's not really one of my favorites, but it's definitely better than Sun and Moon or BDSP. We'll see if Pokemon Legends Z-A can expand upon the game somehow and redeem the lackluster post game.
The beginning of my Least Liked era in Pokemon. This is where they gave up on ever not mostly relying on the most popular Pokemon of the first 3 gens, and also where they started doing special Once A Match Moves for each game.
(Mega Evolutions were alright tho they should have just been Evolutions tbh)
(Mega Evolutions were alright tho they should have just been Evolutions tbh)
Pokemon Y is an odd game. Of the mainline Pokemon games, it was the first to be in 3D, and because of that, it has some issues. It's far from the best Pokemon game, but I think it's still a pretty fun one.
For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to talk about Pokemon X and Y here, since both games are about the same. And Pokemon X and Y have a lot of firsts to their name, the first 3D mainline pokemon, mega evolution, the fairy type, mega evolutions, etc. I think it's probably best to start with them.
The fairy type is one of the most notable things introduced in Pokemon X and Y, for reference, the last time a new type was introduced was back in the Generation 2 games. And genuinely, I can't imagine Pokemon without the fairy typing now, it creates a great balancing change, making dragon, dark, and fighting types a bit weaker, while giving more spotlight to steel and poison types. It's also crazy how many pokemon actually changed their typing to either have the fairy type added, or just becoming a fairy type exclusively. It's really cool!
Next, when it comes to the transition to 3D models, it's so-so, I would say. Not the fault of the game of course, but I find it unfortunate that these were the 3D models going forward. For the new pokemon introduced in the game, I do think the 3D models were really good! But some Pokemon I don't think got the same treatment, and a lot of shiny pokemon lost their luster. My first immediate thought of this is a Pokemon like Lanturn. But when it comes to the environment and player characters, I find them really charming!
Trainer Customization is introduced in this game, and while I really love it, it's also quite limited. See, the outfits in the game that you can buy rotate each day, which I personally don't like. It basically means you have to hope that you get the outfit you want on a specific day, and if not, who knows when next it'll appear. The hair customization as well has some weird limitations. If you don't know what the hair styles or colors look like, you have to take a leap of faith to find the one that you prefer the most, as there's no way to see what it is before you pay for it. Alongside that, the hair colors you get only go to natural shades, and while that's fine, since later games allow for a larger variety of hair color, this feels noticeably limited in comparison.
Now, I think Mega Evolution is cool! Giving new upgrades to older pokemon in the form of kinda evolutions that occur only in battle is really neat! It also gave a lot of weaker Pokemon ways to actually be strong, pokemon like Kangaskhan, Mawile, or Absol for examples. However, in the main campaign of X and Y, there's a noticeable lack of mega evolutions. Not only did 3 trainers in the entire main story have a mega evolved Pokemon, you can only find a small handful of the mega stones until postgame. And even with all of that, how I typically play Pokemon meant that I wouldn't encounter any opportunity to use a Mega Evolution in my main team. For reference, whenever I play a Pokemon game, I like to use Pokemon introduced in that game's respective region, X and Y, I would only use Gen 6 Pokemon. The issues comes with the fact that no Gen 6 Pokemon get mega evolutions during the entirety of X and Y, and only did one Gen 6 Pokemon ever get a mega evolution, and that was the event Pokemon Diancie. While this ultimately doesn't lower the quality of the game all that much, I think it was a baffling choice that I want to mention here.
Now, getting into the main campaign of X and Y, there's one change that I've yet to mention solely as it's really relevant to the general campaign as a whole. And the reason is because it makes X and Y's campaign just too easy. Now, you might be thinking this change might be how the Experience Share works, as instead of giving additional XP to one pokemon, it gives to everyone Pokemon. And, you'd be technically correct, that is part of why X and Y are so easy, but I don't think that's the big issue. What change I think made X and Y as easy as they were is how they changed the XP formula. In the previous games, specifically Black and White, alongside Black 2 and White 2, Experience took into account the level of your pokemon, and the pokemon you're fighting. What that means is that the higher level the pokemon you're fighting is compared to your pokemon, the more XP you would get, and the inverse is also true. The higher level your pokemon is, compared to the one you're fighting, the less experience you get. And this was an amazing design choice, as it allowed you to stay relatively on par with the pokemon you were fighting, while ensuring you were never overleveled. In X and Y, they do not use this Experience Formula, instead, each pokemon gives a specific amount of experience, regardless of the level range. So that, coinciding with how the Exp Share works now makes the game so much easier, thusly, so much faster to beat. And for reference, while most Pokemon games take me about 30-40 hours to beat usually, this replay of Pokemon Y took me under 20 hours to beat in full.
And while a typical Pokemon campaign at least fun, I wish I could say the same about X and Y's story. To me, most of it just feels underwhelming, and at times just forgettable. There is some cool stuff that happens, sure, but I'm gonna be honest, I don't really have a strong opinion on it overall. At best, the villainous team is mildly interesting, but you can never take them seriously because they're designs are kinda bad, though I do like the visors (I would say the visors are the one good part of their designs, in the case of the admins). And I made an odd realization during my replay of Pokemon Y, in that, I think the story was altered, and Team Flare specifically was just spliced into it, which could explain why they're just... like that. Especially because the game's ending scene in isolation is so powerful, but the game never feels like it justifies having it, like it just comes out of nowhere.
And while in this particular replay, I never did the postgame, I always felt like X and Y's postgame is rather lacking. Particularly, the most the game gives you is one town, and a short 2 hour mini-campaign. And while that's fine, it's such a minuscule postgame in comparison to postgames we see back in the generation 4 and 5 games. It's just kinda sad to me.
But, ultimately Pokemon X and Y aren't bad games, they're just okay. I still had fun with them, and I really enjoyed my replay through Pokemon Y, but at the end of the day, this game could've been a lot more. And I just find that unfortunate.
For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to talk about Pokemon X and Y here, since both games are about the same. And Pokemon X and Y have a lot of firsts to their name, the first 3D mainline pokemon, mega evolution, the fairy type, mega evolutions, etc. I think it's probably best to start with them.
The fairy type is one of the most notable things introduced in Pokemon X and Y, for reference, the last time a new type was introduced was back in the Generation 2 games. And genuinely, I can't imagine Pokemon without the fairy typing now, it creates a great balancing change, making dragon, dark, and fighting types a bit weaker, while giving more spotlight to steel and poison types. It's also crazy how many pokemon actually changed their typing to either have the fairy type added, or just becoming a fairy type exclusively. It's really cool!
Next, when it comes to the transition to 3D models, it's so-so, I would say. Not the fault of the game of course, but I find it unfortunate that these were the 3D models going forward. For the new pokemon introduced in the game, I do think the 3D models were really good! But some Pokemon I don't think got the same treatment, and a lot of shiny pokemon lost their luster. My first immediate thought of this is a Pokemon like Lanturn. But when it comes to the environment and player characters, I find them really charming!
Trainer Customization is introduced in this game, and while I really love it, it's also quite limited. See, the outfits in the game that you can buy rotate each day, which I personally don't like. It basically means you have to hope that you get the outfit you want on a specific day, and if not, who knows when next it'll appear. The hair customization as well has some weird limitations. If you don't know what the hair styles or colors look like, you have to take a leap of faith to find the one that you prefer the most, as there's no way to see what it is before you pay for it. Alongside that, the hair colors you get only go to natural shades, and while that's fine, since later games allow for a larger variety of hair color, this feels noticeably limited in comparison.
Now, I think Mega Evolution is cool! Giving new upgrades to older pokemon in the form of kinda evolutions that occur only in battle is really neat! It also gave a lot of weaker Pokemon ways to actually be strong, pokemon like Kangaskhan, Mawile, or Absol for examples. However, in the main campaign of X and Y, there's a noticeable lack of mega evolutions. Not only did 3 trainers in the entire main story have a mega evolved Pokemon, you can only find a small handful of the mega stones until postgame. And even with all of that, how I typically play Pokemon meant that I wouldn't encounter any opportunity to use a Mega Evolution in my main team. For reference, whenever I play a Pokemon game, I like to use Pokemon introduced in that game's respective region, X and Y, I would only use Gen 6 Pokemon. The issues comes with the fact that no Gen 6 Pokemon get mega evolutions during the entirety of X and Y, and only did one Gen 6 Pokemon ever get a mega evolution, and that was the event Pokemon Diancie. While this ultimately doesn't lower the quality of the game all that much, I think it was a baffling choice that I want to mention here.
Now, getting into the main campaign of X and Y, there's one change that I've yet to mention solely as it's really relevant to the general campaign as a whole. And the reason is because it makes X and Y's campaign just too easy. Now, you might be thinking this change might be how the Experience Share works, as instead of giving additional XP to one pokemon, it gives to everyone Pokemon. And, you'd be technically correct, that is part of why X and Y are so easy, but I don't think that's the big issue. What change I think made X and Y as easy as they were is how they changed the XP formula. In the previous games, specifically Black and White, alongside Black 2 and White 2, Experience took into account the level of your pokemon, and the pokemon you're fighting. What that means is that the higher level the pokemon you're fighting is compared to your pokemon, the more XP you would get, and the inverse is also true. The higher level your pokemon is, compared to the one you're fighting, the less experience you get. And this was an amazing design choice, as it allowed you to stay relatively on par with the pokemon you were fighting, while ensuring you were never overleveled. In X and Y, they do not use this Experience Formula, instead, each pokemon gives a specific amount of experience, regardless of the level range. So that, coinciding with how the Exp Share works now makes the game so much easier, thusly, so much faster to beat. And for reference, while most Pokemon games take me about 30-40 hours to beat usually, this replay of Pokemon Y took me under 20 hours to beat in full.
And while a typical Pokemon campaign at least fun, I wish I could say the same about X and Y's story. To me, most of it just feels underwhelming, and at times just forgettable. There is some cool stuff that happens, sure, but I'm gonna be honest, I don't really have a strong opinion on it overall. At best, the villainous team is mildly interesting, but you can never take them seriously because they're designs are kinda bad, though I do like the visors (I would say the visors are the one good part of their designs, in the case of the admins). And I made an odd realization during my replay of Pokemon Y, in that, I think the story was altered, and Team Flare specifically was just spliced into it, which could explain why they're just... like that. Especially because the game's ending scene in isolation is so powerful, but the game never feels like it justifies having it, like it just comes out of nowhere.
And while in this particular replay, I never did the postgame, I always felt like X and Y's postgame is rather lacking. Particularly, the most the game gives you is one town, and a short 2 hour mini-campaign. And while that's fine, it's such a minuscule postgame in comparison to postgames we see back in the generation 4 and 5 games. It's just kinda sad to me.
But, ultimately Pokemon X and Y aren't bad games, they're just okay. I still had fun with them, and I really enjoyed my replay through Pokemon Y, but at the end of the day, this game could've been a lot more. And I just find that unfortunate.
It's a good thing I don't play Pokemon games primarily for a challenge, or this would score MUCH worse. The transition to 3D wasn't perfect, but I enjoy the concept of Megas and Gen 6's PSS remains the best online system in Pokemon to this day. Just a pretty fun time.
the boy one
Essa é com certeza a região de pokemon que eu mais gosto. Amo os pokemon e amo o anime. Além de ser incrível, marcou minha infância de uma forma inexplicável, desde a creche sempre fui fascinado por essa geração. Fui correndo jogar o jogo para poder aproveitar ainda mais e me divertir imensamente. E dito e feito, amei o jogo e me diverti muito do inicio ao fim. Tive alguns pequenos problemas durante a gameplay, mas nada de absurdo. Finalizei o game com maestria e fiquei super feliz por poder jogar essa maravilha. Super recomendo!
XY is in a weird position where it was really cool at the time but is pretty barebones in retrospect, and also feels like the start of a decline in quality.
It's better than X because I played as the girl in this one and caught like three shinies in the first few hours
features magnemite ✓
Villain has the same motivation as Sharpay Evans from High School Musical 2 (2007).
It must be the childhood nostalgia that's making this game feel somehow better than everyone says it is. You do have to admit that the PSS was one of the best QoL changes Pokemon ever had.
loved these games when they launched, loved the addition of fairy types, and mega evos.
my inpatient ass went to wait outside my gamestop when it was coming out and a cop came up to me and asked where my parents.
my inpatient ass went to wait outside my gamestop when it was coming out and a cop came up to me and asked where my parents.
I can't in good conscience call this a good Pokemon game even if it barely keeps the fundamentals of its combat afloat. Although arguably, Fairy type was incredibly unbalanced during Gen 6 competitive and still is even so now, and Mega Evolutions were a complete bust in either devaluing a shitton of the meta or by making this game pathetically easy. So maybe I can say it breaks the fundamentals at least partly.
Even still, a ridiculously shallow attempt at a story with a region that has no real sense of its identity thanks in no small part to having the "everyone is here" nostalgia bait from all past regions of a Pokemon roster, and no aesthetics identity bar a few areas (seriously isn't this supposed to be France??) and a bleh soundtrack should be enough to deter most people who like this series. And if that doesn't set any interest in fucking flames, then maybe how this is by in large the easiest entry other than Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire with the most pathetic balance I've seen, and it's not even Exp. Share's fault, that's actually fine! They just throw all the good mons your way and have the shittiest teams!
I'm very tempted to call this a bad game in general, but it manages to still have a soul at times, although barely. It's certainly a Pokemon game and it has the amalgamation of features people expect from it. It doesn't royally break apart a good enough structure to make a solid enough rpg. It's meh, I still don't recommend anyone play it.
Even still, a ridiculously shallow attempt at a story with a region that has no real sense of its identity thanks in no small part to having the "everyone is here" nostalgia bait from all past regions of a Pokemon roster, and no aesthetics identity bar a few areas (seriously isn't this supposed to be France??) and a bleh soundtrack should be enough to deter most people who like this series. And if that doesn't set any interest in fucking flames, then maybe how this is by in large the easiest entry other than Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire with the most pathetic balance I've seen, and it's not even Exp. Share's fault, that's actually fine! They just throw all the good mons your way and have the shittiest teams!
I'm very tempted to call this a bad game in general, but it manages to still have a soul at times, although barely. It's certainly a Pokemon game and it has the amalgamation of features people expect from it. It doesn't royally break apart a good enough structure to make a solid enough rpg. It's meh, I still don't recommend anyone play it.
I, uh, finished this some time in April and just sorta forgot to log it I suppose. Ironically, something I think sums-up X/Y pretty well; overall skippable.
Now don't get me wrong, the games are well-made and function as they should. The graphics are great for the 3DS standards, the soundtrack is a bop, and the number of Pokemon available gives you a lot of potential teambuilding options. But just about everything else does not hold up... the story has interesting moments and lots of cool ideas (a fucking war happened and we're just not gonna talk about it for more than two cutscenes?) but is overall a huge nothingburger. It somehow feels both rushed and yet sluggishly paced at the same time, with events just sorta happening because... because. But hey, story is rarely (if ever) the main draw for a Pokemon game! So how about the gameplay? Shockingly enough, it's Pokemon. Big surprise I'm sure. But with all the species available to catch, there must be a lot of ways to build your team and be challenged by the game, right? ...right?
...the game is balanced about as well as a dysfunctional wooden beam in the middle of a hurricane; it's not very balanced. Whilst on paper the sheer variety of Pokemon you can use is great, you're given so many gift Pokemon that it won't matter to much of the casual audience. But even for someone like me who caught a number of Pokemon for my team, even rotating some out, the game's difficulty is a joke. I had overlapping weaknesses to a good number of types, no mega evolutions, my fastest Pokemon was a Tyrantrum (base 71 speed btw), was using limited battle items, and I went into the league with an underleveled team... the only battle I really struggled with was Drasna, more specifically her Dragalge. Not just in the league but for the whole game. This was the one time I felt like I was actually at a proper disadvantage, and even then I did it to myself by not accounting for poison-types too well. But my point is the game's balance is shit; the first battle against Lysandre, the BIG BAD EVIL MAN who is BIG and EVIL and WANTS DESTRUCTION gives him two NFE Pokemon. Murkrow is good enough unevolved, fair enough, but Meinfoo? In the endgame portion? Actually laughable. And it's not even consistent given the second battle with him barely twenty minutes later has both of those Pokemon evolved.
The difficulty is made even more pathetic by the introduction of megas. These behemoths either snap the game in two or are worth ignoring. Lucky for players, the game hands out broken megas like candy which does include one of the best ones; Mega Lucario. This stupid thing is already really strong in competitive, but in casual the game just becomes an absolute cakewalk unless you do stupid shit like try to hit ghosts with fighting moves. Mega Lucario shows my general issue with the design of mega evolutions as they were implemented; making already strong Pokemon batshit broken. Fuck, I love Tyranitar but even it isn't safe from this syndrome. Yes there are still other powerful megas such as Mawile and Lopunny but these Pokemon were aching for anything good for the longest time. Kangaskhan is the queen of this trope in fact, going from a decent Pokemon to batshit broken because of mega evolution. But these broken megas are the ones you only really hear about... because the rest of them are just sad. I don't know why we live in a world where someone approved mega Lucario, mega Sableye, and mega Kanga yet also decided mega Ampharos having 55 speed just wasn't allowed. Or mega Abomasnow being a slow fat fuck whilst still keeping its dogshit defensive typing... you get the picture. Megas are a cool idea, but very heavily flawed as it comes down to picking the ones that break the game in two whilst the rest of them sit crying in a corner.
So, I've been complaining for a lot of this review. Yet I did honestly still enjoy this game for what it's worth; it's the most standard Pokemon adventure you can get with lots of creatures to catch, battles to be had (however easy they may be), and a story-ish of some description in there to keep you moving forward. There's no doubt that this game did a lot of good for the franchise with it's re-balancing of certain moves and mechanics, making competitive training easier as well. There are good steps here... but the whole of this game is merely fine. It was a start to bringing Pokemon to the new generation, and a good start at that. But replaying it with a critical eye (as well as experiencing Gen.7/8/9 which all built on it so much) I can see how mediocre and flawed it is. It's a great point for newcomers to the series to start, because in spite of being flawed it isn't genuinely broken like OG Red/Blue are. It's just a decently enjoyable game with a lack of substance for veterans or returning players.
Now don't get me wrong, the games are well-made and function as they should. The graphics are great for the 3DS standards, the soundtrack is a bop, and the number of Pokemon available gives you a lot of potential teambuilding options. But just about everything else does not hold up... the story has interesting moments and lots of cool ideas (a fucking war happened and we're just not gonna talk about it for more than two cutscenes?) but is overall a huge nothingburger. It somehow feels both rushed and yet sluggishly paced at the same time, with events just sorta happening because... because. But hey, story is rarely (if ever) the main draw for a Pokemon game! So how about the gameplay? Shockingly enough, it's Pokemon. Big surprise I'm sure. But with all the species available to catch, there must be a lot of ways to build your team and be challenged by the game, right? ...right?
...the game is balanced about as well as a dysfunctional wooden beam in the middle of a hurricane; it's not very balanced. Whilst on paper the sheer variety of Pokemon you can use is great, you're given so many gift Pokemon that it won't matter to much of the casual audience. But even for someone like me who caught a number of Pokemon for my team, even rotating some out, the game's difficulty is a joke. I had overlapping weaknesses to a good number of types, no mega evolutions, my fastest Pokemon was a Tyrantrum (base 71 speed btw), was using limited battle items, and I went into the league with an underleveled team... the only battle I really struggled with was Drasna, more specifically her Dragalge. Not just in the league but for the whole game. This was the one time I felt like I was actually at a proper disadvantage, and even then I did it to myself by not accounting for poison-types too well. But my point is the game's balance is shit; the first battle against Lysandre, the BIG BAD EVIL MAN who is BIG and EVIL and WANTS DESTRUCTION gives him two NFE Pokemon. Murkrow is good enough unevolved, fair enough, but Meinfoo? In the endgame portion? Actually laughable. And it's not even consistent given the second battle with him barely twenty minutes later has both of those Pokemon evolved.
The difficulty is made even more pathetic by the introduction of megas. These behemoths either snap the game in two or are worth ignoring. Lucky for players, the game hands out broken megas like candy which does include one of the best ones; Mega Lucario. This stupid thing is already really strong in competitive, but in casual the game just becomes an absolute cakewalk unless you do stupid shit like try to hit ghosts with fighting moves. Mega Lucario shows my general issue with the design of mega evolutions as they were implemented; making already strong Pokemon batshit broken. Fuck, I love Tyranitar but even it isn't safe from this syndrome. Yes there are still other powerful megas such as Mawile and Lopunny but these Pokemon were aching for anything good for the longest time. Kangaskhan is the queen of this trope in fact, going from a decent Pokemon to batshit broken because of mega evolution. But these broken megas are the ones you only really hear about... because the rest of them are just sad. I don't know why we live in a world where someone approved mega Lucario, mega Sableye, and mega Kanga yet also decided mega Ampharos having 55 speed just wasn't allowed. Or mega Abomasnow being a slow fat fuck whilst still keeping its dogshit defensive typing... you get the picture. Megas are a cool idea, but very heavily flawed as it comes down to picking the ones that break the game in two whilst the rest of them sit crying in a corner.
So, I've been complaining for a lot of this review. Yet I did honestly still enjoy this game for what it's worth; it's the most standard Pokemon adventure you can get with lots of creatures to catch, battles to be had (however easy they may be), and a story-ish of some description in there to keep you moving forward. There's no doubt that this game did a lot of good for the franchise with it's re-balancing of certain moves and mechanics, making competitive training easier as well. There are good steps here... but the whole of this game is merely fine. It was a start to bringing Pokemon to the new generation, and a good start at that. But replaying it with a critical eye (as well as experiencing Gen.7/8/9 which all built on it so much) I can see how mediocre and flawed it is. It's a great point for newcomers to the series to start, because in spite of being flawed it isn't genuinely broken like OG Red/Blue are. It's just a decently enjoyable game with a lack of substance for veterans or returning players.
Megaevoluções, melhor mecânica já feita pela nintendo.
The end of Pokemon.
This review contains spoilers
I'm afraid I don't like Pokémon's Gen VI, moreso than any other generation I've completed (as of the time of this writing, Pokémon Moon is the last mainline game I finished). I fully acknowledge that I'm not in the target demographic anymore, since this was the first game made for the mobile generation (to which I do not belong). This game has a lot of fans from its target demographic, which is perfectly fine. But with respect to what interests me in the series, there's little to draw me in.
Part of the issue is how easy the game is, even on a challenge run (which this playthrough was, see here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM77nBc1XrUqO6eMf6YSvq6Eizp8NHKsn). Pokémon hasn't been difficult for me since I was a kid, and I don't ever expect it to get back there again - but even then, this game is so easy to break. By the second gym, the player has access to two starters (one Kalos, one Kanto), a fossil Pokémon, Snorlax, and Steelix, none of which require much extra effort for the player to attain. By the fourth gym, the player has additional access to Lapras and Mega Lucario, also requiring little to no effort on the player's part. You could make an argument that this is simply the game giving the player extra options, but I dunno, when all of these Pokémon are more or less given to the player, there's pressure on the game's part to use at least some of those (and indeed, on my first playthrough, I used both starters and Mega Lucario).
I also generally don't think the game's theming really comes together in the way they intended. In interviews, the creators have stated that the game is meant to emphasize the confluence of individuals, the idea of the happy fortune that we should get to be alive at the same time as the other people we get to know in our lives. This is a deliberately less complicated than the themes of duality and taoism emphasized in Gen V and is reflected in the emphasis of rivals as a friend group rather than individuals embodying ideals (compare Calem/Serena/Shauna/Tierno/Trevor with Bianca/Cheren) and a lower-stakes villain group (compare Team Flare to Team Plasma). There's nothing wrong with shooting for a lower thematic scope, but to my way of thinking, the game completely fails at that. We don't really experience Gen VI's rivals as friends on shared/parallel journeys so much as we do pestersome individuals who keep crossing our path to exposit what they've been doing and fight badly before running away for a while; I guess we come close to that with Shauna being bi-coded, but that only really matters for the very start of the adventure and was done by complete accident. Team Flare as a whole poses a substantially more serious threat than Team Plasma, despite its individual members being pushover jokes; Lysandre is presented as a fascist who believes in aesthetic purity and the preservation of the elite few in the face of a genocidal pogrom, Malva implies that this movement has invaded both news media and the regional government, and (while I admittedly haven't been interested enough to explore the post-game, as I understand it-) Xerosic proves that Flare is willing to leverage ready slave labor. This is to say nothing of the fact that Lysandre is either the series' first confirmed kill or is immortal and doomed to spend the rest of his days buried under several tons of rock and steel. There is little consistency or deliberate choice in how these actors perform their roles.
There is also a lot of fatigue with the series' established structure by this point. By Gen VI, Pokémon was still adhering to the template of Gen I, resulting in the game trying to stuff 6 generations of content into a single generation's worth of pacing. This is why we see so few new Pokémon, and why so much emphasis was placed on making older Pokémon relevant through Mega Evolutions and the addition of the Fairy type. I'm not necessarily opposed to making older Pokémon relevant again - I LOVE regional forms - but later generations feel like they put a lot more thought into pacing out how older Pokémon are reintegrated. Here... well, I mentioned how many powerful options are thrown at the player early on; this is a consequence of that. After a certain point, the sheer amount of STUFF the player gets between Pokémon and key items is more tedious than anything.
But there are things I like. I think some of the gym leaders are well-implemented; I wish Korrina were more relevant than she was, I think Valerie is a great primer on the Fairy Type and well-placed as she is in the game's narrative, the Anistar gym is a nice spectacle piece, and there's some rare self-awareness with Wulfric admitting beforehand that he might be a throwaway fight. Some clever ideas are lifted from previous generations (Clemont is Elesa by way of Blaine, the Kalos league has the same neat freeform structure as the Unova league), but it's done with solid enough intent here. There is a lot of incidental miscellaneous stuff the player can get up to, and while I myself have little time for it these days, I'm sure I would've gotten a big kick out of it as a kid (certainly, we had a lot of fun making a Trainer PR Video in the challenge run). I don't think Kalos is a great take on France, but France is such an inherently interesting country that what does filter through in places like Lumiose City and Parfum Palace still shines bright.
The one thing I think the game does unequivocably well is the character AZ. What a compelling, concisely, well-written character. He barely shows up, but the few times he does, he carries such a strange, unique presence for the series. "The man's beloved Pokémon took part in the war. Several years passed. He was given a tiny box." is immaculately evocative in a way I never would have expected the series could be capable of. And my very favorite moment, one of those thematic beats that shines brighter than almost anything in a series with generally low thematic aspirations, is that surprise fight against AZ in the credits. Yes, the fight is hardly a challenge after the fight against Diantha - but that's the point. The fight isn't about YOU and YOUR journey, it's about AZ and HIS journey, his own rehabilitation into a society from which he condemned himself. It is the singular moment around which that central theme - the confluence of souls - works. In a game of missed shots, it nailed the one moment it needed to hit more than any other. It is this one, single moment that makes the whole rest of the game worth playing.
Part of the issue is how easy the game is, even on a challenge run (which this playthrough was, see here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM77nBc1XrUqO6eMf6YSvq6Eizp8NHKsn). Pokémon hasn't been difficult for me since I was a kid, and I don't ever expect it to get back there again - but even then, this game is so easy to break. By the second gym, the player has access to two starters (one Kalos, one Kanto), a fossil Pokémon, Snorlax, and Steelix, none of which require much extra effort for the player to attain. By the fourth gym, the player has additional access to Lapras and Mega Lucario, also requiring little to no effort on the player's part. You could make an argument that this is simply the game giving the player extra options, but I dunno, when all of these Pokémon are more or less given to the player, there's pressure on the game's part to use at least some of those (and indeed, on my first playthrough, I used both starters and Mega Lucario).
I also generally don't think the game's theming really comes together in the way they intended. In interviews, the creators have stated that the game is meant to emphasize the confluence of individuals, the idea of the happy fortune that we should get to be alive at the same time as the other people we get to know in our lives. This is a deliberately less complicated than the themes of duality and taoism emphasized in Gen V and is reflected in the emphasis of rivals as a friend group rather than individuals embodying ideals (compare Calem/Serena/Shauna/Tierno/Trevor with Bianca/Cheren) and a lower-stakes villain group (compare Team Flare to Team Plasma). There's nothing wrong with shooting for a lower thematic scope, but to my way of thinking, the game completely fails at that. We don't really experience Gen VI's rivals as friends on shared/parallel journeys so much as we do pestersome individuals who keep crossing our path to exposit what they've been doing and fight badly before running away for a while; I guess we come close to that with Shauna being bi-coded, but that only really matters for the very start of the adventure and was done by complete accident. Team Flare as a whole poses a substantially more serious threat than Team Plasma, despite its individual members being pushover jokes; Lysandre is presented as a fascist who believes in aesthetic purity and the preservation of the elite few in the face of a genocidal pogrom, Malva implies that this movement has invaded both news media and the regional government, and (while I admittedly haven't been interested enough to explore the post-game, as I understand it-) Xerosic proves that Flare is willing to leverage ready slave labor. This is to say nothing of the fact that Lysandre is either the series' first confirmed kill or is immortal and doomed to spend the rest of his days buried under several tons of rock and steel. There is little consistency or deliberate choice in how these actors perform their roles.
There is also a lot of fatigue with the series' established structure by this point. By Gen VI, Pokémon was still adhering to the template of Gen I, resulting in the game trying to stuff 6 generations of content into a single generation's worth of pacing. This is why we see so few new Pokémon, and why so much emphasis was placed on making older Pokémon relevant through Mega Evolutions and the addition of the Fairy type. I'm not necessarily opposed to making older Pokémon relevant again - I LOVE regional forms - but later generations feel like they put a lot more thought into pacing out how older Pokémon are reintegrated. Here... well, I mentioned how many powerful options are thrown at the player early on; this is a consequence of that. After a certain point, the sheer amount of STUFF the player gets between Pokémon and key items is more tedious than anything.
But there are things I like. I think some of the gym leaders are well-implemented; I wish Korrina were more relevant than she was, I think Valerie is a great primer on the Fairy Type and well-placed as she is in the game's narrative, the Anistar gym is a nice spectacle piece, and there's some rare self-awareness with Wulfric admitting beforehand that he might be a throwaway fight. Some clever ideas are lifted from previous generations (Clemont is Elesa by way of Blaine, the Kalos league has the same neat freeform structure as the Unova league), but it's done with solid enough intent here. There is a lot of incidental miscellaneous stuff the player can get up to, and while I myself have little time for it these days, I'm sure I would've gotten a big kick out of it as a kid (certainly, we had a lot of fun making a Trainer PR Video in the challenge run). I don't think Kalos is a great take on France, but France is such an inherently interesting country that what does filter through in places like Lumiose City and Parfum Palace still shines bright.
The one thing I think the game does unequivocably well is the character AZ. What a compelling, concisely, well-written character. He barely shows up, but the few times he does, he carries such a strange, unique presence for the series. "The man's beloved Pokémon took part in the war. Several years passed. He was given a tiny box." is immaculately evocative in a way I never would have expected the series could be capable of. And my very favorite moment, one of those thematic beats that shines brighter than almost anything in a series with generally low thematic aspirations, is that surprise fight against AZ in the credits. Yes, the fight is hardly a challenge after the fight against Diantha - but that's the point. The fight isn't about YOU and YOUR journey, it's about AZ and HIS journey, his own rehabilitation into a society from which he condemned himself. It is the singular moment around which that central theme - the confluence of souls - works. In a game of missed shots, it nailed the one moment it needed to hit more than any other. It is this one, single moment that makes the whole rest of the game worth playing.
In my usual Pokemon escapades, it took me far too long to finally see the credits of Pokemon Y. While the other games could just be excused by their sheer amount of content or even some grinding, Pokemon Y took me months to complete because of sheer boredom.
The personality, story beats, and challenge of Gen 5 is gone.
The expansiveness of Gen 2/4, vanished.
What's left is a member-berry salad of half-hearted nostalgia bait, fueled by a boring story with incredibly annoying characters. Everything culminates into an experience that's too easy to remain engaging on a gameplay front, and too dull to hold interest in its narrative.
I have negative interest in doing any of the "post game," honestly considering just jumping straight to Omega Ruby to just rip the bandaid off.
The personality, story beats, and challenge of Gen 5 is gone.
The expansiveness of Gen 2/4, vanished.
What's left is a member-berry salad of half-hearted nostalgia bait, fueled by a boring story with incredibly annoying characters. Everything culminates into an experience that's too easy to remain engaging on a gameplay front, and too dull to hold interest in its narrative.
I have negative interest in doing any of the "post game," honestly considering just jumping straight to Omega Ruby to just rip the bandaid off.
The selection of Pokemon are pretty fun and that is absolutely all this game has going for it.
Once you beat the 4th gym, the quality and overall enjoyment goes downhill remarkably. My personal favorite being the three Team Flare invasions immediately after the 7th gym.
Aside from that, it's the same arguments everyone else has already made countless times. The game is incredibly easy, with or without exp. share, AI trainers will constantly go for setup moves even if they're seconds away from death, each elite four member only has 4 pokemon on their team, which does not change in the postgame, I 🛌🛌🛌
i shouldn't be able to sweep the champion's entire team with a single pokemon that was literally given to me
4/10, i feel like every replay only makes me like this game less and less
Once you beat the 4th gym, the quality and overall enjoyment goes downhill remarkably. My personal favorite being the three Team Flare invasions immediately after the 7th gym.
Aside from that, it's the same arguments everyone else has already made countless times. The game is incredibly easy, with or without exp. share, AI trainers will constantly go for setup moves even if they're seconds away from death, each elite four member only has 4 pokemon on their team, which does not change in the postgame, I 🛌🛌🛌
i shouldn't be able to sweep the champion's entire team with a single pokemon that was literally given to me
4/10, i feel like every replay only makes me like this game less and less
Really cool Pokémon and nice region, but very bland characters aside from AZ, a weak story and the game being too easy make it a reason you should watch the anime instead.
Also, I got a shiny Floatzel in exchange for a Bidoof on wonder trade, lol.
Also, I got a shiny Floatzel in exchange for a Bidoof on wonder trade, lol.
Flabebe
dude it's like whatever idk
Depois de 10 anos jogando e rejogando esse jogo pelo menos uma vez por ano, eu fico impressionado com o quanto esse jogo é - eu acho que eu já escrevi essa introdução - MEDÍOCRE EM TODOS OS SENTIDOS POSSÍVEIS. Praticamente todos os pontos positivos que esse jogo tem, qualquer geração anterior fez melhor. A pokédéx é bonita, tanto o equipamento in game quanto os bichinhos "novos" que compõem ela, ambos são visualmente atrativos, porém a todo momento ela parece incompleta (a variedade de mons originais no caso), em vários momentos eu senti que metade da dex parecia estar faltando e que deveria ter mais bichinhos compondo a mesma.
A variedade de bioma é pobre, não que pokémon fosse um exemplo de variedade nisso, mas praticamente tudo que tem no quesito mapa a própria gamefreak já tinha feito antes e melhor, seja uma cidade grande e densa no meio do Mapa (Castelia City de BW e BW2), seja uma área arenosa e/ou desértica (Desert Resort de Unova ou a Rota 111 de Hoenn) ou até uma área/cidade tematizada de gelo (Snowpoint City de Sinnoh ou até o MT Silver), nenhuma dessas variações de ambiente criada pela GF são realmente boas ao ponto de se destacarem na franquia, cidades como Lumiose, Anistar e Geosenge Town são "memoráveis" pelos seus pontos turísticos, não necessariamente por terem uma mecânica ou plot realmente bom por trás (talves Geosenge se salva, mas não muito).
Falando de plot... Por mais que a franquia Pokémon nunca foi conhecida por ter plots bons e desenvolvidos, principalmente em relação a QUALQUER RPG do mercado, chega a ser broxante o plot desse jogo, principalmente pós BW1 e BW2. A todo momento parece que a história aqui desenvolvida, não foi desenvolvida. Personagens como AZ, Sycamore, os Rivais, as Admins da Team Flare, a própria Team Flare e o Lysandre (ou Wolverine) funcionam mais como ferramentas de gameplay -já que tutoriais e itens importante ficam atrelados a eles- do que personagens dentro de uma história. Os rivais começam e terminam no mesmo ponto, talvez o principal (Serena ou Calem, depende do gênero que você escolhe no começo) tenha um desenvolvimento um pouco melhor, mas nada que mude a vida de alguém. As Admins aparecem do nada em momentos chave da história e somem. O AZ que, pela lore, é o fio condutor da história é desenvolvido em 5 falas e uma apresentação de slides bonitinha👍. O Sycamore, é um professor pokémon que nem quase todos (aparece no começo, spawna no meio da história pra falar nada com nada e depois surge no final te parabenizando), com a única diferença que ele é bonito👍... No final restaria o protagonista e o vilão principal que, esse ultimo, por mais que seja o mais desenvolvido de todo o jogo, tem uma motivação boba, ao ponto que olhar pro Lysandre falando da beleza do mundo me causa preguiça...
O que realmente salta os olhos nesse jogo são só as mega evoluções, que realmente são incríveis, mas são sub aproveitadas tanto nesse jogo quanto na franquia como um todo. Sendo que pra desenvolver direito a mística por trás desse fenômeno, eles enfiaram isso na lore de Hoenn com os Remakes de 2014 pra logo em seguida, deixarem de lado na sétima geração e abandonarem de vez nas gerações subsequentes.
Por fim, a sexta geração como um todo (XY e ORAS) deixa um gosto agridoce na boca, XY em específico, por mais que seja o jogo que trouxe a franquia principal pro 3D de vez, é um jogo incompleto. O pós game é pífio, tendo só a quest do Det. Looker de DPP em Lumiouse, que quase te obriga a entrar pro competitivo do jogo (que sim, era incrível em 2013 - 2016) e com os elementos principais do jogo serem fracos ao ponto de terem o gosto de inacabados e/ou feitos de qualquer jeito...
A variedade de bioma é pobre, não que pokémon fosse um exemplo de variedade nisso, mas praticamente tudo que tem no quesito mapa a própria gamefreak já tinha feito antes e melhor, seja uma cidade grande e densa no meio do Mapa (Castelia City de BW e BW2), seja uma área arenosa e/ou desértica (Desert Resort de Unova ou a Rota 111 de Hoenn) ou até uma área/cidade tematizada de gelo (Snowpoint City de Sinnoh ou até o MT Silver), nenhuma dessas variações de ambiente criada pela GF são realmente boas ao ponto de se destacarem na franquia, cidades como Lumiose, Anistar e Geosenge Town são "memoráveis" pelos seus pontos turísticos, não necessariamente por terem uma mecânica ou plot realmente bom por trás (talves Geosenge se salva, mas não muito).
Falando de plot... Por mais que a franquia Pokémon nunca foi conhecida por ter plots bons e desenvolvidos, principalmente em relação a QUALQUER RPG do mercado, chega a ser broxante o plot desse jogo, principalmente pós BW1 e BW2. A todo momento parece que a história aqui desenvolvida, não foi desenvolvida. Personagens como AZ, Sycamore, os Rivais, as Admins da Team Flare, a própria Team Flare e o Lysandre (ou Wolverine) funcionam mais como ferramentas de gameplay -já que tutoriais e itens importante ficam atrelados a eles- do que personagens dentro de uma história. Os rivais começam e terminam no mesmo ponto, talvez o principal (Serena ou Calem, depende do gênero que você escolhe no começo) tenha um desenvolvimento um pouco melhor, mas nada que mude a vida de alguém. As Admins aparecem do nada em momentos chave da história e somem. O AZ que, pela lore, é o fio condutor da história é desenvolvido em 5 falas e uma apresentação de slides bonitinha👍. O Sycamore, é um professor pokémon que nem quase todos (aparece no começo, spawna no meio da história pra falar nada com nada e depois surge no final te parabenizando), com a única diferença que ele é bonito👍... No final restaria o protagonista e o vilão principal que, esse ultimo, por mais que seja o mais desenvolvido de todo o jogo, tem uma motivação boba, ao ponto que olhar pro Lysandre falando da beleza do mundo me causa preguiça...
O que realmente salta os olhos nesse jogo são só as mega evoluções, que realmente são incríveis, mas são sub aproveitadas tanto nesse jogo quanto na franquia como um todo. Sendo que pra desenvolver direito a mística por trás desse fenômeno, eles enfiaram isso na lore de Hoenn com os Remakes de 2014 pra logo em seguida, deixarem de lado na sétima geração e abandonarem de vez nas gerações subsequentes.
Por fim, a sexta geração como um todo (XY e ORAS) deixa um gosto agridoce na boca, XY em específico, por mais que seja o jogo que trouxe a franquia principal pro 3D de vez, é um jogo incompleto. O pós game é pífio, tendo só a quest do Det. Looker de DPP em Lumiouse, que quase te obriga a entrar pro competitivo do jogo (que sim, era incrível em 2013 - 2016) e com os elementos principais do jogo serem fracos ao ponto de terem o gosto de inacabados e/ou feitos de qualquer jeito...
I defo first tried Diantha...