I won't lie, marking XY down as something I've only just recently put on my profile feels weird. Not just because it's a game I've played on near-release over... 10 years ago (Jesus H. Christ on a CROSS, where has that time gone?), to say nothing of other runs of X and Y I've done in the intervening years, but with Pretendo only just beginning to re-build the 3DS servers that were recently shut down (Big N, I hear screams of someone not wanting MONEY), I thought now would be a good time to revise my thoughts on the Gen 6 games, because looking back at the 3ds titles as some of the best times in my life, as well as my admiration of Alola (I know this is Kalos, let me get to the point) in spite of my volatile, love-hate relationship for the rest of the series... Gen 6 was the one time in the series history that I thought I'd struggle to get a pulse on. And I'm not quite sure why...
Don't mistake me, I still think that X and Y are good games, very good games even - but the matter of 'how good' seemed to be an itch in the back of my mind that I couldn't quite scratch. Needless to say, I have more of an answer now than I did about 5 or so years ago (to say little of my revised view of creative and interactive mediums given life via the college thesis I wrote on the Xenosaga trilogy). And yes, verdicts on ORAS, as well as... possibly the Gen 4 and 5 titles (?) shouldn't be far behind. I have played them (with or without Cheats... sorry, I don't have patience for the lack of EXP. Share), and they've just never ended up on my profile for various reasons too fragmented and numerous to individually itemize. Oops?
For those that want any kind of 'short version' of my thoughts... well, firstly, you've come to the wrong place (hi! I'm Joycap! I'm British - we speak a lot, and you've been invited to my TED Talk on a fucking Pokémon game!), but secondly, a lot of what little I thought I was going to say about this game going into a re-play overlaps with my thoughts now. Most notably that I think that the series first fore into Kalos is a form of less-is-more approach to design philosophy that I think only it can do. As self-contradictory as this is going to sound, I've heard people describe other leading titles in other JRPG series described as 'sandboxes' in a far more pejorative, 'manner of speaking' sense not there to delineate to it's given genre (Several FE games, Persona 5 Royal, and even Xenoblade 2 and 3 fall in the camp of games I've heard given this observation) - and I think that little diddy right there perfectly describes an average LP through Kalos.
I should note that, before the servers fully shut down, I was given (as per request via my 'Giftlocke' series (basically glorified Egglockes, feel free to DM for Discord server)) several Eggs from a friend of mine, with the initial idea that I would do a Nuzlocke with them this run. But looking at my backlog, and the fact that I could document more games on it (I have herp derp), I just thought 'screw it, I'll do another normal run'. I am actually doing a Hardcore Egglocke of UM right now, and while I still seem to be one of the few human beings willing to give the Alolan Duology the respect it deserves... man, are self-imposed rulesets just fundamentally antithetical to how I enjoy these games.
So, as to not end this on a note of 'it is a Pokémon game' - I suppose I should carry on by saying that these games... definitely still hold up graphically, as well as auditorily. Atmospherically, stuff like the Elite 4 chambers give me a bit of a 'holy shit' vibe (even if the fights themselves are undeniably easy, which I won't lie carries into the rest of these games, although a lot of this can be explained by veterans of the series having optimised runs so hard), and I think a lot of this is thanks to that aforementioned design philosophy. It's hard to explain, it just... clicks with me, y'know?
I've also seen lesser versions of the 'linearity' and 'too much text' complaints levied just as much at XY and Kalos as I've seen at the Alolan Duology. For the former, that's as maybe, but in a way, I also find myself with this overwhelming 'do I care?' all the same. As for the latter... even if it means implicitly conceding the discrepancy in textual density between these games and SM/USUM (which in that sense, do you guys just hate story or something?) - I respectfully disagree that XY has 'too much text' (whether or not that's because Alola made me used to this much text is up in the air). Even when the game stopped me to let the rivals say their piece (which as an aside, I think the set of rivals this gen don't really deserve the vitriol they're given in modern discussions, in part because of my personal mantra of 'semi-minor characters as worldbuilding statements'), they weren't nearly as long as you've been led to believe. If the Alolan 'average text dump' is about 30s-1m, then a lot of XY's text dumps are 10-15s, if that.
That segues into narrative and, even if Team Flare are admittedly incompetent, Lysandre is an antagonist in the series I've always had a soft spot for... whatever reason. If you've heard any sentiment(s) about 'the angriest men on earth being optimists', I actually really enjoy how he plays with said sentiment in a few hundred words or less (not to mention how his attempted Omnicide and (for those in more 'conspiratorial' circles) his attempt to 'wipe the slate clean' has not only aged strangely well given those behind the 'current thing' (if you know, you know) - but also contrasts spectacularly with a man who, to both those he commands and opposes has this air of 'I'm surrounded by idiots' about him (yo, shoutouts to UD)). Is he blatantly an antagonist the second you meet him? Yes. Do I think that's an issue? In this case, no, actually, and I love how a lot of the deeper aspects of him are communicated almost without saying a word.
Well, I suppose I've said 99% of what I was going to in less words than I was expecting (I'm guessing this wasn't as long as my reviews on SJR or Sonic Frontiers?), so I'll begin to wrap this up by saying, as far as Gen 6 vs Gen 3... which do I prefer to take the silver prize in this series? (Gold obviously being Gen 7 for... obvious reasons if you know me personally). Well... that depends on what these games offer for the sake of future games (up to & including Gen 7, mostly - people have largely abandoned SWSH and ESPECIALLY BDSP despite the ire for the former being rather disproportionate from where I'm sitting, and Gen 9 being it's own thing, and a game I have a... complicated relationship with, despite it's DLC vacillating wildly all of the same). I think of these games and their transfer systems as resources at the end of the day, and I think both offer their own value in that sense, so I'd say both are tied up there. Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm talking about G6/7 servers as if they're still being played despite being shut down, Pretendo's dev team(s) should hopefully have new servers up relatively soon. Either that, or we all die in a soon-to-be-foretold nuke strike (I mean hey, someone had to relate to a red-heads' lost faith in humanity - yes, I am suffering from an existential crisis CAN YOU TELL?!).
EDIT: here I sit 2 weeks later realising I didn't mention Megas. Don't have much to say other than megas are alright k bye.
Don't mistake me, I still think that X and Y are good games, very good games even - but the matter of 'how good' seemed to be an itch in the back of my mind that I couldn't quite scratch. Needless to say, I have more of an answer now than I did about 5 or so years ago (to say little of my revised view of creative and interactive mediums given life via the college thesis I wrote on the Xenosaga trilogy). And yes, verdicts on ORAS, as well as... possibly the Gen 4 and 5 titles (?) shouldn't be far behind. I have played them (with or without Cheats... sorry, I don't have patience for the lack of EXP. Share), and they've just never ended up on my profile for various reasons too fragmented and numerous to individually itemize. Oops?
For those that want any kind of 'short version' of my thoughts... well, firstly, you've come to the wrong place (hi! I'm Joycap! I'm British - we speak a lot, and you've been invited to my TED Talk on a fucking Pokémon game!), but secondly, a lot of what little I thought I was going to say about this game going into a re-play overlaps with my thoughts now. Most notably that I think that the series first fore into Kalos is a form of less-is-more approach to design philosophy that I think only it can do. As self-contradictory as this is going to sound, I've heard people describe other leading titles in other JRPG series described as 'sandboxes' in a far more pejorative, 'manner of speaking' sense not there to delineate to it's given genre (Several FE games, Persona 5 Royal, and even Xenoblade 2 and 3 fall in the camp of games I've heard given this observation) - and I think that little diddy right there perfectly describes an average LP through Kalos.
I should note that, before the servers fully shut down, I was given (as per request via my 'Giftlocke' series (basically glorified Egglockes, feel free to DM for Discord server)) several Eggs from a friend of mine, with the initial idea that I would do a Nuzlocke with them this run. But looking at my backlog, and the fact that I could document more games on it (I have herp derp), I just thought 'screw it, I'll do another normal run'. I am actually doing a Hardcore Egglocke of UM right now, and while I still seem to be one of the few human beings willing to give the Alolan Duology the respect it deserves... man, are self-imposed rulesets just fundamentally antithetical to how I enjoy these games.
So, as to not end this on a note of 'it is a Pokémon game' - I suppose I should carry on by saying that these games... definitely still hold up graphically, as well as auditorily. Atmospherically, stuff like the Elite 4 chambers give me a bit of a 'holy shit' vibe (even if the fights themselves are undeniably easy, which I won't lie carries into the rest of these games, although a lot of this can be explained by veterans of the series having optimised runs so hard), and I think a lot of this is thanks to that aforementioned design philosophy. It's hard to explain, it just... clicks with me, y'know?
I've also seen lesser versions of the 'linearity' and 'too much text' complaints levied just as much at XY and Kalos as I've seen at the Alolan Duology. For the former, that's as maybe, but in a way, I also find myself with this overwhelming 'do I care?' all the same. As for the latter... even if it means implicitly conceding the discrepancy in textual density between these games and SM/USUM (which in that sense, do you guys just hate story or something?) - I respectfully disagree that XY has 'too much text' (whether or not that's because Alola made me used to this much text is up in the air). Even when the game stopped me to let the rivals say their piece (which as an aside, I think the set of rivals this gen don't really deserve the vitriol they're given in modern discussions, in part because of my personal mantra of 'semi-minor characters as worldbuilding statements'), they weren't nearly as long as you've been led to believe. If the Alolan 'average text dump' is about 30s-1m, then a lot of XY's text dumps are 10-15s, if that.
That segues into narrative and, even if Team Flare are admittedly incompetent, Lysandre is an antagonist in the series I've always had a soft spot for... whatever reason. If you've heard any sentiment(s) about 'the angriest men on earth being optimists', I actually really enjoy how he plays with said sentiment in a few hundred words or less (not to mention how his attempted Omnicide and (for those in more 'conspiratorial' circles) his attempt to 'wipe the slate clean' has not only aged strangely well given those behind the 'current thing' (if you know, you know) - but also contrasts spectacularly with a man who, to both those he commands and opposes has this air of 'I'm surrounded by idiots' about him (yo, shoutouts to UD)). Is he blatantly an antagonist the second you meet him? Yes. Do I think that's an issue? In this case, no, actually, and I love how a lot of the deeper aspects of him are communicated almost without saying a word.
Well, I suppose I've said 99% of what I was going to in less words than I was expecting (I'm guessing this wasn't as long as my reviews on SJR or Sonic Frontiers?), so I'll begin to wrap this up by saying, as far as Gen 6 vs Gen 3... which do I prefer to take the silver prize in this series? (Gold obviously being Gen 7 for... obvious reasons if you know me personally). Well... that depends on what these games offer for the sake of future games (up to & including Gen 7, mostly - people have largely abandoned SWSH and ESPECIALLY BDSP despite the ire for the former being rather disproportionate from where I'm sitting, and Gen 9 being it's own thing, and a game I have a... complicated relationship with, despite it's DLC vacillating wildly all of the same). I think of these games and their transfer systems as resources at the end of the day, and I think both offer their own value in that sense, so I'd say both are tied up there. Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm talking about G6/7 servers as if they're still being played despite being shut down, Pretendo's dev team(s) should hopefully have new servers up relatively soon. Either that, or we all die in a soon-to-be-foretold nuke strike (I mean hey, someone had to relate to a red-heads' lost faith in humanity - yes, I am suffering from an existential crisis CAN YOU TELL?!).
EDIT: here I sit 2 weeks later realising I didn't mention Megas. Don't have much to say other than megas are alright k bye.