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Gen 6 The Legacy of Pokémon X/Y

Discussion in 'Other Pokémon Games' started by Wizard, Mar 1, 2019.

  1. Wizard

    Wizard Do you feel it? The moon's power!

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    Pokémon X and Y are interesting games in the grand scheme of Pokémon. Very few people seem to enjoy these as their favorite games. Also, X and Y are generally grouped into the category of "bad Pokémon generations." Today, I'd like to explore X and Y, why people don't like it, and what its legacy is to the Pokémon series.

    X and Y were the primary reason I invested in my first 3ds. It was so exciting to me to see one of my favorite childhood series enter the realm of 3d. I watched Youtubers play the game after launch and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Soon after, I obtained Pokémon Y and had a blast with it! Many of the new Pokémon were super cool and unique, and the Pokédex was amazing. In fact, X and Y still has my favorite Pokédex from any game to this day. It was one of my favorite generations on release, but now sits in the bottom half of my favorites. So what gives? What is the issue with X and Y?

    The biggest thing that stands out to me is how forgettable to region is. Kanto brought the initial charm, Johto... (I got nothing, some of you like it, so feel free to fill in), Hoenn had trumpets and water, Sinnoh had literally everything (including 8 HMs!!!), Unova had a polished feel on the mechanics and the sprites are my favorite to this day, and Alola made it so we had to sit through dialogue for half of our lives. The release of X and Y brought with it the fairy type and mega evolutions, both of which are large mechanical changes. However, what about Kalos itself? I've played the games a number of times, and I can't remember anything but Lumiose City off the top of my head. Also, the exp share makes the game incredibly easy, if one chooses to turn it on.

    In my opinion, X and Y aren't bad by any means, but they seem to be lacking a lot of that Pokémon charm we're used to. It just doesn't stand out next to the other generations as charming and fun.

    What do you think about these games? Do you think they're bad, good, or inbetween? Why? What legacy does these games leave on the series?
     
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  2. WavePearl

    WavePearl Believer in Possibilities

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    The story could've been so much better--Nothing really happens until the last third of the game, when Lysandre reveals his true colors.

    Also five companions was a bit much--other playable and Shauna would've been more than enough for a party.
     
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  3. Momo Kiseki

    Riolu
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    Ironic but I just finished x. I hadn't played it when it came out and kinda skipped over it in favour of Ultra Moon.
    But...after discovering how easy moon was I went to X and was pleasantly surprised. I beat Ultra Moon both main story and after story within...2-3 days?
    X has taken me months and even then...it leaves a lot you can still do.
    Ultra moon the only real thing I have left to do that is physically possible is catch the legendaries in the ultra worm but X, well there's getting the fennekin I got from Shauna up to Delphox, the ralts getting to megaevolve (eventually...) and a lot of things I could still do.

    I'm not even ready to challenge the league again yet, but in Ultra moon, I've beaten it four times at this point, just to level a Pokémon up. Yup.

    To me X is probably one of my favourites. I think Black and white (both one and two) were my favourites, followed by X and Y. US and UM...probably on the bottom.
    It short I really love X. I love everything about it (except maybe how hard those skating moves are to remember) =)
     
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  4. TripleAAABattery

    TripleAAABattery Look at my fluff! LOOK AT IT

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    well, for me, x/y marked the beginning of my journey to being a competitive Pokémon player, which, it really did make that much easier to do with the buff to the breeding mechanics and how iv's work for legendaries. It also introduced megas, which, while some people dont like them, was incredible to me, and i still really like mega evolution as a concept to this day.

    Unfortunately, it seemed like x/y was more focused on competitive balance and "oh look at all this 3D we have", and less... most other things in general. So uh... prepare yourselves. gonna be a long one lol

    -Even for a Pokémon game, the exp. share made it so that there'd be absolutely no challenge to the game whatsoever. Huge convenience when trying to level mons up for competitive but the game clearly wasn't balanced with that thing in mind. The Elite 4 dont get any stronger when you beat them the first time.

    -They also shoehorned in way too much gen 1 fanservice. Can we talk about how Santalune Forest is literally veridian forest, but in 3D? (Like seriously, you can even find all the same mons that you could in veridian forest) How you get gen 1 starters? How there's literally a snorlax you have to wake up with a pokeflute? i mean these are nice and all but it's clear that this game (or at least the first part of the game) tried way too hard to be kanto.

    -The story and lore? ....it... exists? as someone else mentioned it doesn't have much interesting done until the last third of the game. It also left with many more questions that could have been answered in, like, a third game. but nope. It's the only region that they decided not to revisit for some reason, which... really hurts tbh.

    -As far as characters go the quality went waaaaaaaaaay down from gen 5.In fact i think that it's the biggest thing that suffered from gen 5 > gen 6. i dont mind that we started with 4 other friends instead of 1 or 2 but good lord they really got shafted as far as character development goes. I only just now remembered the names of Tierno and Trevor after having to think about it for 10 minutes, because honestly, what else do you remember about those two other than Tierno likes to dance and wants to see dancing Pokémon, and Trevor is just concerned with the Pokédex? Gen 5 gave us gym leaders that had relevancy to the story and played quite a big part of it, actually. Gen 6 did the exact opposite, only really making one gym leader have one bit of importance, but once you get the mega ring, they're naught to be seen ever again, and all other gym leaders go back to just standing in one place and not doing anything outside of their respective gyms.

    Edit: Forgot one more thing. The postgame is practically non-existant. Once you do the looker missions, the only other thing you CAN do is train your Pokémon or go through the battle maison. that's it.

    I'll remember x/y for how it introduced a lot of new mechanics that would change everything we knew about the game and how it made it much easier to go competitive. But unfortunately there are more bad things i'll remember it for, too, and it's honestly a shame, because a third game really could have redeemed kalos for me. Oh well, i guess.
     
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  5. RadEmpoleon

    RadEmpoleon certified EPIC Gamer™

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    As much as I understand there were some issues with X and Y such as Exp. share, I feel no need to bash it further than it normally is. So, I am choosing to focus on the positives it brought us.

    The aforementioned Fairy type and Mega evolutions gave life to some forgotten/overlooked Pokémon, such as Granbull, Wigglytuff, Abomasnow, and Kangaskhan, and gave them a second shot at being liked by casual and competitive players alike. (I’m not saying that no one liked them before). Megas gave me another reason to love 2 of my favorite Pokémon- Ampharos and Absol.

    That aside, the overall aesthetic was given a huge update. Aside from the obvious shift to 3D graphics, we also got character customization. I love this because I can make the main character actually look like me (even though I already kinda look like Serena). Kalos seems to have an overall elegant vibe going for it. This vibe can be seen in the many places around the regions such as the waterfall in Couriway Town, the pink jewel in Anistar City, the Anistar City, and many large buildings such as Parfum Palace, Battle Maison, and Battle Chateau.

    And now for the new features brought to us. One new mode of transportation, the roller skates, were fun to use because of the cool tricks you could do with them. We got several new features for the lower screen: Pokémon Amie, Super Training, and (most importantly) the PSS system. It is a much, much more efficient online experience than the WiFi experience on the DS or the Festival Plaza (aka the join avenue ripoff). It also pairs well with the Friend Safari, like a fine wine paired with excellently aged cheese, since you can add people’s friend codes if you’ve connected with them multiple times. Friend Safari made it easier to find Pokémon with their hidden abilities, and it got people to share friend codes with each other (like what I do in my signature on LV). You could also find shinies much easier there (as a matter of fact, I’ve gotten two shinies in the FS). Speaking of shinies, the base rate for finding shinies was split in half, from 1/8192 to 1/4096, which makes it much easier for casual shiny hunters such as myself to find shinies, and makes them more inclined to go shiny hunting.

    Something I hold in high regards in Pokémon games is the music. I didn’t give the X and Y soundtrack it deserves when I first played it. Many songs sound grand and majestic, like most of the route themes. While many tracks are very techno, we can still appreciate the tracks with real sounding instruments, like the violin in Sanlatune City. Among some of my favorites are: Anistar City, Vs. Mewtwo, Vs. Elite 4, the Pokémon League, the bike track, and Dendemille Town.

    And my last point to bring up is the Pokémon. Yes, I know we got the least amount of Pokémon in this region, but I do feel that we got quality over quantity here. Some Kalos favorites, whether for design, lore, or some other third reason, are Greninja, Talonflame, Noivern, Aegislash, the XYZ trio, Diancie, and Sylveon.

    While not a reason for everyone to love the games, I always hold some form of nostalgia for each Pokémon game, which I see as a reason to love the games. Here is my personal connection to the games. If you think it supports my point then read it.
    I put this in a spoiler tab because it’s not very relevant to the point I’m trying to make, because obviously my personal experience of the games won’t affect any of you reading it.

    Anyway, I was in 6th grade when my friend bought me Pokémon Y. No particular reason, she just got it for me. She named my character and picked my starter, which I told her to pick- Froakie. She also got it in time to get me an event Diancie, which eventually became part of my team. I went to her house and played it there for the first time, and I got far enough to get a Bulbasaur from Professor Sycamore. So this game makes me think of her.

    I played through the game and ended up loving it. My favorite part of the story line was the AZ part, which for years I’d only remembered two things about it: his Torkoal used Body Slam and paralyzed one of my mons on my team (which is unimportant, but really random that I remembered that), and specifically AZ falling to his knees when Floette returned. I almost cried.

    Post game wasn’t too exciting after looking for Moltres and catching Mewtwo, I’ll admit, but when I finally got enough money to get a pass for Pokémon Bank, I transferred almost every single Pokémon from White 2 to Y. The only ones that stayed were hacked in some way and therefore unable to be transferred. So my Pokémon Y is essentially a time capsule. Also, I’m not too far away from getting the shiny charm- I only need somewhere between 100 and 150 Pokémon to complete the Dex.

    Finally, for the conclusion of this big thicc text block. While there are apparent flaws, I think it’s also important to acknowledge the good things that Pokémon X and Y brought us. With these games, Pokémon made its grand entrance into the 3D realm, and left a legacy on the franchise.
     
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  6. Neb

    Neb Cosmog Enthusiast

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    When X and Y were announced I was so excited. A full 3D Pokémon game on the go. On the day it came out, I picked up my preorder copy at GameStop, went home, and spent the entire weekend binging through the game. While the game was really easy until the elite four, I still had a ton of fun. The new region, Pokémon, and music kept me going, even at the lowest points of the story. After playing the content filled masterpiece that was Black and White 2, I expected X and Y to follow suit. Maybe there could’ve been a few additional routes or a well thought out battle facility. Unfortunately we got the chateau and the short, albeit enjoyable Looker missions. The lack of anything substantial after the Hall of Fame made me quit the game not long after and I’ve only touched it since to do a couple of challenge runs. All of which I dropped out of boredom. The magic I felt when playing the game for the first time was gone, and I could see the game for its flaws.

    None of the characters stand out, the lineup of native Pokémon is paltry, and everything outside of Lumiouse City felt like stock Pokémon environments. The result is a game that feels lifeless to me. Even Diamond and Pearl, as slow as it was, still had personality.

    I’ve been doing another challenge run of the game and while it’s been more fun than I expected, it still hasn’t given me the rush I felt the first time. Perhaps a remake with an updated story and more vibrant region could make me like X and Y again, but until then, these will be my second least favorite entires in the series.
     
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  7. Bigredlittlepup

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    To me, X/Y was less about region and plot and more a game where they wanted to explore.. mechanics.

    To me, X/Y has a lot of replayablilty because of the variety you can get on the routes. Now, it's almost definitely because I'm a nuzlocker, and genuinely NEVER knowing what you're going to get as that first encounter is just... such a nice feeling compared to playing through other games.

    It introduced Pokémon Amie, the ability to dress up your character, the battle cafes in Kalos -- something that made for great grinding spots if you decide not to use the EXP Share, fairy types...

    That said, I've also noticed that the Kalos games appeal to people that just like having mindless things to do with no apparent end goal. You can go back and challenge the battle cafe's over and over, the berry farm will always be there (Got trapped in that for a few days once), there biome of the maps are all different, and there was literally a trick for hatching eggs in luminos where you just held down the circle pad and let it go? I don't know why, but this just FEELS like it was meant to appeal to a different kind of player.

    Not only that but apparently it caused a huge shift in the competitive scene? I'm no competitive player, but I am friends with people that are. To my knowledge, it made the competitive scene not only far more accessible thanks to the PSS system, but a lot more fun to watch and play through? While thats entirely subjective, and I understand that, it's just a general censuses I've noticed a lot of people have.

    Another thing thats subjective, but.. Pokémon design. Baring maybe one Pokémon line, I don't think I've heard of one universally hated Kalos Pokémon. They all have really nice designs, and I think some of my personal favorites come from Kalos.

    Overall, I don't think X/Y was ever meant to be a game where the plot or characters stuck out (Especially like they do in Sun/Moon.) I think that Pokémon also went into that knowing this. X/Y Feel like they're more transitionary games then anything else. It was a new system, with new mechanics and an entire overhall of how the graphics and overworld functioned. And like, hell, a new type was added. It was testing the new waters, and then building the boat after they sat to swim.
    to roughly quote a friend "The Kalos games are a lot more fun when you just ditch the plot and imagine your own in its place"

    Then again, I'm bias. the Kalos games were some of my favorites ; )

    Edit: Also the music. The MUSIC!!! More like Good Ear Juice am I right.
     
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    #7 Mar 26, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2019
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  8. Azazel

    Azazel Better count your blessings

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    I feel like they phased through gen 6 way too fast and introduced mega evolution only to basically ditch it? The same could be said about gen 7 and Z moves, I bet we will never see them again.
    I wish they'd keep some of these concepts in light.
     

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