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.