It's that time again, folks—the time for a new generation of Pokemon games and all of the hype and new Pokemon that comes with it. However, isn't this just that, another set of Pokemon games? Is there really anything special about it, any reason to get them this time around? What has changed? Well, SkyBlueFox and I set out to discuss these types of questions in our dual X and Y review. Throughout this article, SkyBlueFox's opinions will be denoted in blue whilst mine will be in red.
Of course there will always be those who wish to live in the past with the original 151, but let's live in the present with the advent of the first main story Pokemon game in 3D!
I'm not sure whether to bother mentioning anything about the story, given it's already a fairly small part of Pokemon games (even BW1 and EoS, and I love those games/stories to pieces) and the fact that XY has a paper-thin story in the first place. I'm thinking I might do a blog post breaking the whole thing down once I finish the game, but, well, that won't be for a while.
Now that that's out of the way, how about we discuss the new Pokemon added themselves, along with the Fairy type? I like nearly every single one that I've seen, both in-game so far and through the leaks of the game before it was officially released, and that's a surprise as normally there's a few in each generation that I feel neutral about (though I don't truly hate or despite any of them). Unfortunately, while I like them, I can't help but feel like they're spread much too thinly through the region. Helioptile, for example, I was expecting to be Gen VI's equivalent to Gen IV's Shinx, which I caught quite a ways before getting to the first gym in those games. Instead, I was disappointed to find out that Helioptile shows up just before the second gym, at which point the player will likely have a fairly high-level team due to the gap of time between the first and second gyms.
Part of this comes from the fact that Kalos is an absolutely huge region, but part of it is also due to the inclusion of all sorts of older Pokemon as well. Gen VI introduces the least amount of Pokemon ever in a single generation, with only around 70 newcomers showing their face (not counting a rumored three more event Pokemon that may be downloadable content). To compensate for this, Kalos is chock-full of Pokemon spanning all of the five previous generations, and by splitting the Pokedex into three separate chunks (Central Kalos, Coastal Kalos and Mountain Kalos), it means that the amount of Pokemon that Kalos contains is buffed up quite considerably. However, this also ends up evoking similar feelings to Gen IV, which added a very small amount of completely new Pokemon (just 78) and compensated by having lots of older Pokemon show up, some with new evolutions or pre-evolutions (depending on how cynical you are about Gen IV, some may call this 'padding out the Pokedex').
The reason this is annoying to me, and likely to a lot of other people, is because part of the fun of playing a new generation of Pokemon for the first time is seeing the truly new additions. It's an extremely common choice for Pokemon veterans to forego using most older Pokemon in a new game and try to make a team of newcomers. Gen V pulled this off with aplomb, mainly because BW1 actively forced this caveat on players. With Gen VI, on the other hand, the new additions are sprinkled so widely across the region that it's actually easier to make a team of only older Pokemon than it is to have a team of only new ones.
All I can say about the story without giving out spoilers is that to start there really isn't much. You do have a small story with your friends/neighbors, but you just met them and they don't give you a real reason to do anything except "you can be good!". They don't even explain why you are supposed to fill out your Pokedex, except that the professor wants you to. There's not scientific reason behind it, apparently. The main villains. Team Flare, also don't do much of anything until halfway into the game, and they don't seem serious at all until the very end. However, the finishing parts to the story are really strong, so it's worth seeing them.
As far as the Pokemon themselves go, I personally don't have a problem with only a small number of Pokemon being added. This is partially due to the fact that they created the new Mega Evolutions, which as I believe you mentioned earlier are temporary evolutions of previous generation Pokemon into a stronger form through a held item. This breathes a bit of life into the older Pokemon. Not to mention there were a number of Pokemon who were re-typed and new moves added, and as a result move pools were swapped around. This also isn't significant to most people, but a good number of Pokemon in this generation have had a stat buff, usually 10 points raised in a single base stat, like Pidgeot gaining another 10 Speed. As far as competitive battling goes, this can have a big impact, especially in the case of Speed, where Speed can a lot of times determine who wins.
On the subject of Fairy-type again, I personally love a lot of the new Fairy-types, though they did kind of go generic and make a ton of pink Pokemon, or re-typed pink Pokemon to be Fairy-type. Still, their existence means a lot to the game, especially where the type effectiveness chart lies. Steel and Poison not only resist Fairy-type but are also super effective against Fairy, which in the case of Poison which only had Grass it was super effective against, it's a big help. Fairies also are immune to Dragon-type attacks and super-effective against the powerful Dragon, Dark, and Fighting types. Oh, and Ghost doesn't resist Fairy, so you can guess what that means: Sableye and Spiritomb no longer have no weakness.
The effect of the game from the new type and stat changes, in addition to the inclusion of Mega Pokemon, alters the game in a big way, even if there's not as many new Pokemon.
Well I mean I ended up spoiling myself a mild amount on the story, so I know the general gist of what goes on in it; I just don't think it's very well-put-together. It lacks a lot of the details that made BW1's (and to a lesser extent Platinum's) story so enjoyable and engaging, and it's mostly a string of events put together without any thought as to how they tie together beyond the surface details, which is what I mean by paper-thin. It's hard for me to explain properly without taking over the entire review, which is why I'm probably going to cover it in a blog post instead. Most people don't play Pokemon for the story anyway, so it becomes a bit of a moot point either way.
I haven't gotten to the point yet where I can perform Mega Evolution myself (and since I'm limiting myself to a four-Pokemon team of newcomers, I won't be using Mega Evolutions myself anyway), but I have encountered a couple Mega-Evolved Pokemon in link battles with other people. Due to the fact that the ability to transfer Pokemon over from BW1 and 2 isn't available yet, I can't make a good judgment on how Mega Evolution will affect the competitive scene, but in-game I feel that it's a bit of a mixed bag. It's reminiscent of the added pre-evolutions and evolutions of older Pokemon that Gen IV included, except the Mega Evolutions are temporary and require the held Mega Stone in battle instead of being a straight-up new Pokemon. It's an interesting idea and I'm sure that we'll see plenty of teams using Mega Evolutions, but I can't help but feel like these are a feature that are going to last through Gen VI and then never show up again, which turns Mega Evolutions into more of a gimmick than a feature. Gimmicks are better left to things like Contests in Gen III and IV, or the Musical of V.
Of course, that's all just me speculating, so only time will tell how Mega Evolutions will be seen later on. Overall, though, I just have a gut feeling that they're going to fall by the wayside, just like how a lot of the evolutions and pre-evolutions of Gen IV fell by the wayside after Gen IV ended.
I do think that the changes and upheavals to the type matchup system are a good thing, though. I'm actually having a little trouble at times remembering that Fairy is a type now, which often throws wrenches into my would-be well-laid plans. It also brings up an interesting, if tangentially related, point about how Gen II added Steel and Dark, which were quite easy for most players at the time to adapt to. A lot of people I know are getting tripped up sometimes because they forget about the fair folk; perhaps it's true that it's harder to teach an old trainer new tricks after all. Fairy's addition also helps to patch up a few small things, like how Dark/Ghosts Sableye and Spiritomb have a weakness now.
I was mentioning this earlier today and yesterday in the thread itself, but something I'm not fond of is the way that the game attempts to discourage grinding. I'm a bit of a grindaholic and will often grind even when I absolutely don't need to do so in RPGs, but even I understand the tedium that level-grinding is to a lot of people. But as I was saying in the thread, I think XY tried too hard to make grinding easy or unnecessary for players. There's lots of changes that make leveling your Pokemon up much, much easier. EXP Share now shares points with everyone in the party instead of just one. Pokemon in general give out more EXP when defeated. Playing with Pokemon in Pokemon-Amie can eventually net them a permanent bonus to their EXP gain (Pokemon you caught get 1.5x instead of 1x; Pokemon you've been traded get 2x instead of 1.5x!). Catching Pokemon now gives your Pokemon EXP.
That all sounds good on paper, but when put into practice it becomes so overwhelming that it makes the game far, far too easy. Combined with the fact that Kalos has a very strong level curve that doesn't correspond to this ease of EXP gain, it turns the game into an utter cakewalk, even moreso than the previous Pokemon titles. Making a game easy and trying to discourage grinding is one thing (and it's something that BW1 and to a lesser extent 2 did very well), but making it so that I'm avoiding battling trainers or even encountering wild Pokemon because I'm too strong and don't want to get stronger is another thing entirely. I imagine that this issue grows less and less of one as the game progresses, but the fact that it even is an issue at all has raised many an eyebrow.
There is still plenty of grinding involved in the game when it comes to the competitive scene. Horde Mode and Super Training have in some ways simplified EV training as it were, but there are still lots of items that you must battle to obtain in the Battle Maison after the game, as well as needing to breed Pokemon of the right nature, and while IVs even have become simpler to obtain, they are still a chore. I find it easier to grind in this game, but I would by no means call it easy outside of the main storyline. Trying to train an Aerodactyl to use just before the Elite Four was still tedious and a bit tiresome, but didn't bother me as much as in older games. Even the Battle Maison is more bearable to endure, as I actually try to attempt to gain the points this time as opposed to just giving up. It still took over 4 hours to obtain the 7 items I wanted, 2 of which were inexpensive as per the norm.
I would completely agree that for the most part it is simplified though, especially considering on the competitive scene you no longer are forced to level your Pokemon up to 100 to be able to play. Then again, there are currently no ways to cheat your way into level 100 Pokemon either, so people do actually have to legitimately train their Pokemon before playing one another.
Is there anything else you wanted to say on the subject of grinding?
Well I didn't mean that grinding everything in the game is easy. I haven't gotten to the Maison yet but I'm sure that battling for BP and useful competitive items is still as hard as it's ever been. I was mainly talking about just straight up EXP points and leveling up. I'm training a team of three Pokemon currently, and all three are nearing level 36. I've only just finished the second gym and the wild Pokemon are in their early level 20s, while the Pokemon that trainers have are in their mid level 20s. I had a much more grind-y - and, ironically, much more enjoyable and fulfilling - time trying to level up a Pikachu and Litleo before the first gym so they'd be around the same level as my Chespin. It's sort of like the level curve in Johto (both in GSC in Gen II and HGSS in Gen IV), where training one or two Pokemon was much more bearable than training a full team (which is what the game devs expect people to do).
I don't have much else to say about the grinding (or rather the lack of it), though. Summed up, XY looks and sounds good and has a lot of great new features that I'd love to see as permanent new additions (Pokemon-Amie, PSS and Super Training, trainer customization), but it comes at the expense of the story and the main gameplay itself, with the former being lackluster (which is worse than if the game simply had an excuse plot, like RBY or GSC) and the latter being easy enough that you can snap the difficulty in half as early as after the first gym. The new things that XY brings to the table are for the most part really, really good, but the flaws that XY also brings to the table are also very, very glaring.
I am interested in hearing what you took issue with, though, given that I'm mostly speaking with the experience of someone taking it slow and very gradually, while you've beaten the game already (I think) and have firsthand experience with most of the game by now.
Yes, I recently finished the game and have and began working on a team, or, multiple teams, to play online. However, there were some things that bothered me a great deal when going through the games, even when going back to certain places to do things.
Something very early in the games you will discover is that you can run straight away, which is cool, and while you are still snapped to a grid while running despite this is a 3D game, it's not a problem to me. On the other hand, before the first gym of the game you battle someone who, upon defeating, gives you a pair of roller skates you can use to ride around which actually don't snap you to the grid. This sounds cool, and in fact admittedly looks a bit cool, but it creates a nightmare situation when you find out that the rollerskates are rather unwieldy to control due to their speed and the way they don't automatically conform to moving you in straight lines. This also causes trouble when you try to talk to somebody or do something after having rode around on your skates, as since you are not attached to the grid but the characters are, it requires some positioning to accomplish at times, even if you just hop off your skates.
The worst part of it to me, though, is that the skates are automatically bound to your circle pad on the 3DS, and there is no way to turn it off in the key items menu like with the EXP Share, even though there are very little times when the skates are absolutely required to do something in the story, one of the gyms being the only example I can think of. I personally use the circle pad almost exclusively when I play because it is the easiest to position my thumb onto, with the directional pad for walking, in addition to having to hold B to run being awkward now. Thankfully, there is a way around this later on if you are unable to get used to the controls of the skates, though. If you equip the Dowsing Machine, your character won't go onto their skates when you use the Circle Pad, since the Dowsing Machine operates based on the grid. This means that you can walk and run using the Circle Pad instead of the D-Pad. As I said, with practice you do actually learn how to use the skates better, but it still causes problems for me every now and again, and especially did so for me at the start of my game.
Another big issue for me were the forced camera angles in the game. Most of the time, this isn't an issue, and the moving camera allows for you a lot of times to see some rather neat looking backgrounds or features, but there are some times when it is downright frustrating for me. The biggest example I can think of is when attempting to backtrack through a route, cave, or especially in the dreaded Lumiose City. Your character spins around toward the camera, but the camera does not, and you can't see as well, or sometimes at all, objects as you are coming toward them. In Lumioise City, which by itself is a nightmare to navigate already, there are tons of objects like trees blocking signs as you move through the avenues, and backtracking you can't see half of what you normally could.
There's a ton more I could complain about the city in addition to the fact that it is pretty much solely responsible for a recent game patch due to corrupted saves in its streets, but I'll keep it to myself.
Ahh... yes, I'd forgotten about the skates. I rarely if ever use them myself, and in general the complaints I have about them are the same as yours. I do think, however, that part of the issue is the fact that one of the skating tricks with using them is a "sprint" function where if you push the circle pad quickly in one direction, you will start speed-skating in that direction at a high speed. You'll ease off into the standard speed after a second or two, but considering that most people will press the pad all the way forward when using it because that's how control sticks have functioned since Super Mario 64, it can throw a lot of people off. I honestly find hopping on the bike and controlling it with the circle pad much more enjoyable since it's a fixed speed.
I don't dislike Lumiose quite as much as you do, but I think it's because that's where the roller skates really shine. Skating around Lumiose makes it far easier to navigate simply because the camera controls exactly how you'd expect it to that way. When you're not on the skates? It controls a bit like a dungeon-crawler game, where turning around will spin the camera around to face that direction, then you press forward to move forward. Getting around Lumiose on foot is unwieldy and it's a surprising slip-up considering that skating does it the right way (and, notably, the way that most 3D games have been using cameras since Super Mario 64, again).
It's for that reason that I think the roller skates were design for the very open areas in mind, without regard for how well they'd work in more crowded or narrow passages or trails. Lumiose City is huge, and it lacks a lot of obstacles for the player to bump into, meaning that they're free to skate to their heart's content. A place like Route 7, which is a big stretch of land in a line with no obstacles, is another good example. Parfum Palace's courtyard is pretty good too. Where they don't shine, though, is a place like Camphrier Town, which is small and decorated well but those decorations are hard to react to (ie: skate around on the move). Similarly, a place like Route 10 which is full of rocks, is also a pain for the skates because of the medley of rocks scattered about that impede progress and are easier to get around on foot. The last place I actually used the roller skates because I wanted to use them was in Lumiose City, and the last time I was there was over a week ago at least.
I don't find it terribly difficult to navigate so far, but then again I'm also restricted to only the southern half and the one avenue. I think it's interesting that there's other modes of travel, like the Gogoat Shuttle and the Taxi Cabs, but overall getting used to Lumiose on my first visit was fairly easy. As for the entire city, that will likely be a bit more overwhelming, but thankfully multiple people have made maps of the city along with map keys pointing out each location.
I guess we should also talk about the bottom screen features, like the PSS. How much have you used it and what do you think of it? I haven't tried everything with it, but it's still an incredible improvement on the online features from Gens IV and V. Much smoother and more accessible.
Personally, I have used the PSS hub a lot more than either Pokemon Aime or Super Training. You can spend lots of times on those two features and gain strength and bond with your Pokemon, and it is a nice distraction from the main game, but my personal goals are better suited to the features of the PSS. More specifically, O-Powers.
O-Powers are a brand new feature to the game that give you boosts in the game for 3 minutes with each use. In some ways, you can consider this cheap or cheaty, as O-Powers can do things such as boost your critical hit ratio or increase your Pokemon's Attack power. However, there are other O-Powers that are helpful in a way that is more passive and doesn't necessarily help break the game. For instance, there is an O-Power that heals your Pokemon over time, and an O-Power that makes it easier to catch Pokemon. My personal favorite that some people may find cheap is the Prize Money O-Power that increases money won from battles.
I could go on and on about how these powers work and the different kinds, but I think that's enough information jammed in people's brains for now.
I've spent some time doing Wonder Trades in the PSS (you choose a Pokemon to put in, and you'll get a random one out of the deal; I've gotten quite lucky!), but that's mainly about it. Since saving the game doesn't take nearly as long as the other games, and connecting is fairly quick for me, Wonder Trading is really quick and easy, and I've filled up a fair portion of the Pokedex already through it alone.
I've spent a lot of time in Pokemon-Amie and Super Training, though, and they're both also pretty welcome additions. Pokemon-Amie is a bit more complex than it looks actually. On the surface it's a very cutesy, fun little thing; your Pokemon can imitate your movements through the 3DS' camera (though rather unreliably, I've noticed), it'll react to some sounds, and you can pet it.
The main meat of it is the three stats: Affection, Fullness and Enjoyment. Affection is the most important, since high Affection nets you some impressive bonuses. What makes this important is the kind of benefits your Pokemon can get from having high affection. At one point, there's no visible difference, but upon getting two points the Pokemon will start getting extra Experience Points. At three points, it'll start looking at you during turns in battle (as well as having different quips, such as "Chespin is awaiting Trainer's command" or "Chespin is curious about Trainer's Bag..."), and you can rub the touch screen after the foe faints to give it a mid-battle pat. Later point can give you even better benefits, like being able to shake off status effects or enduring a knockout with a single hitpoint (to avoid disappointing you, no less).
Super Training, on the other hand, delves into the nitty-gritty numbers of mechanics, as it's a minigame to increase your Pokemon's EVs (invisible points for each stat that increases them with enough points invested). It comes both with a handy graph that maps out how the Pokemon's EVs are distributed, as well as how many EVs you've distributed total (once you've distributed all the EVs, it becomes Fully-Trained). The minigame itself involves shooting soccer balls at balloon versions of Pokemon, aiming for targets. Hit enough targets within a time limit and you win the minigame, netting you some EVs and a training bag that you can use to get extra benefits. It's fun, if a bit repetitive, and you can unlock harder versions that give bigger payouts.
The only thing I can comment on further for Pokemon Aime might be based on personal problems I have with the mini games. The berry mini-game within it is all and well by itself, but I have trouble with the other two, and if I am then I think little kids probably have a large amount of trouble as well. The Head It mini-game where you bounce balls off your Pokemon's head especially bothers me, as it involves timing movements based on the movement of items moving from the top screen to the bottom, which is extremely difficult for me, especially with the way my 3DS is typically situated.
The puzzle game also doesn't do you many favors, as the images you are working on, even in Easy mode, are moving, and the pieces that aren't are mostly similar to one another and don't give you many clues as to where they may go. Because the image is based on your current Party, it may be possible to make the images easier to understand. It's not to say that the puzzles are -hard- by any stretch, just that they are more difficult than one would expect at lower difficulty levels.
In regards to Super Training, when you are first starting to get the hang of things the EV training aspect actually takes longer than it would to grind EVs by battling a specific Pokemon repeatedly. This is because the mini-game involves shooting balls into a goal while dodging incoming balls from the enemy. While not difficult early on, it will take time to get used to the different ways each Pokemon can shoot their balls, and some stages as you get to the higher ones, while rewarding you with more EVs upon completion, can be rather difficult or time-intensive. It can depend on your learning curve and your pace, but as time progresses it becomes a quicker and more fun way to gain EVs, if not just a slight break from the repetitive grind.
I dunno, personally I really like the puzzle game a lot. Sometimes I get a little thrown off, but mainly I use the typical puzzle strategy of finding the corners and edges first, and then the rest tends to fall into place pretty easily.
I still haven't unlocked the higher levels of Super Training yet (meaning I've been playing the level 1 minigames for Attack, Defense, and Special Attack and Defense), so overall my experience with that hasn't been very minimal. It has helped the two Pokemon I've trained using it become quite powerful for how early in the game I am, though. I did the same thing when I played Black 2, EV training essentially all six of my permanent team members before I'd gotten to even the first gym (albeit through the traditional method), but the difference it made wasn't quite as jarring as it has been in X.
I've been trying some of the other features of the PSS, like the O-Powers, and while I haven't gotten any huge benefits out of them yet, the ones I've sent to other people have generally been lucky (a friend of mine got a Defense Boost power from both me and someone else, which helped him to just barely scrape out a win in a battle). There are others that were more helpful, like an O-Power that lowers store prices (and it may just be me but money is somewhat harder to come by this time around). Battle-related O-Powers seem more up to chance.
I don't think I have much else to say on the subject, so unless you have anything to add maybe we should talk about the visuals of the games--one of the most important aspects of this new version due to its conversion to 3D.
I think the visuals look pretty good, to be frank about it. It's clear that a lot of meticulous work was put into the look of everything, and since the theme of the games (and likely the generation as a whole) seems to be "beauty", I think it makes a lot of sense. All the Pokemon I've caught so far and played with in Pokemon-amie or Super Training and the like have had a variety of expressions, poses and animations, and in battle the graphics don't hinder the experience at all since the battle animations are slick and speedy. I do notice a bit of slowdown sometimes whenever the battles show a split-screen view of both your Pokemon and your opponent's, but that's quite uncommon and not anything slow enough to be anything more than a bump in the road.
One thing I'm both pleased by and bummed about is the change in trainer sprites. The rivals and important characters get 3D models (the player character, the friendly rivals, the professor, Team Flare, etc), but the more run-of-the-mill trainers are now represented by their official Sugimori artwork instead of sprites. I like it because the artwork itself is very nice to look at, but they do lack the same kind of... "edit-ability", I suppose, that sprites have. There's also a minor nitpick in that the artwork has no animation like all the trainers in BW1 and BW2 did. It's a small gripe, though.
Kalos itself is quite strikingly pretty, in a different way from the other regions to boot. It's hard to put my finger on what word I'd use, but a few years ago I actually visited Paris (Kalos' inspiration), and someone told me that it was more "old-fashioned" than something like New York City or elsewhere, and I think right now that's the best term I can use. The towns and cities like Aquacorde, Santalune and Camphrier aren't particularly technological or even "modern" on the outside; stone bricks, fountains, rustic houses. Lumiose, Kalos' equivalent to Unova's Castelia (the Paris to the NYC), is a mix of the two; it's quite technological in some aspects but also manages to capture an older type of charm. I think this is what Game Freak was going for in the region's design, and they did it well.
I have to agree with you about that. They made it obvious from the day that the game was announced that it was meant to be beautiful, and in many respects it is, in my own opinion of course. Some people believe it to look hideous in comparison to the older generations, but I simply don't see it. The part about being able to alter sprites is a minor gripe, as while I also had fun editing sprites in the past, you couldn't have expected them to stick to that forever, and it's something than only affects a specific set of people.
The new 3D models look strange when you see them out of the game to me, but in-game they fit in very well, owning up to what I believe most people's expectations when they heard it was going to be a 3D Pokemon game. They even added special animations to most Pokemon, and purposely made some such as Quagsire mostly unmoving to fit with their personalities as Pokemon. There's also two different animations for the Pokemon itself depending on the attack it is using, and I think it's a great touch. Other than that, Magikarp flopping on its side throughout the entire battle is something you have to see for yourself.
As far as the towns and that go, the differing designs for houses and even the ground of the town ranging from more artistic to rustic depending on which you're in makes for some great variation, making it harder to mistake one place for another. Outside of towns there are even a variety of tall grasses instead of either "tall grass" or "extremely long tall grass". Those two are still in the game, but now there are flower patches you can find Pokemon in, hayfields, and "dark patches" in some caves. I personally enjoy this touch a lot, though it can be annoying as some Pokemon don't show up in certain patches, so you have to learn where they each live.
However, it is important to note that while this game is in 3D and there are 3D sprites, 60% of the time 3D will be turned off, with the overworld not being rendered this way. I personally never use 3D on the 3DS, though, so it's really no problem for me.
Other than the lack of story until late game and the other problems I listed, I overall find these new Pokemon X and Y games to be refreshing and fun, if not more fun to me than previous generations since I feel as though I can actually participate in online play (though truth be told, this also has to do with how the 3DS now works well with my internet). If you're planning to just play for the campaign, I think the people who hold nostalgia for the games will have a lot more fun than newcomers. Mostly due to the large amounts of nods to the older games.
If you're new to the Pokemon series, you will more than likely gain little from the story, probably even from its climax, since the villains are much more underwhelming than before, though their eventual goal becomes more sinister than most.
I also want to go out saying that due to the Friend Safari feature I and many people I know have been forced to connect with other players in a whole new way, and form positive bonds as a result of this. The game becomes much more social in some aspects when you are trying to add more friends and get to discuss this shared interest and trade Pokemon as well as stories.
I'd say those are about my overall thoughts as well, though I'm also rather torn because I love BW1 so much. BW1 didn't add a lot to the table in terms of gameplay mechanics, but breathed some much needed new life into the franchise in terms of its aesthetic, pacing and general presentation; Pokemon were animated in battle and the camera was dynamic, the slow speed of Gen IV was thankfully sped up, the story was solid and touched on aspects of the universe that typically saw no mention outside of fan work, it made a lot of small tweaks and touch-ups (like the Repel wore off, use another? thing), it had a smooth level curve and a smart EXP system to discourage grinding, etc etc. It also moved the series into a far more dynamic, 3D world than Gen IV ever did. The best metaphor I can make for it is that BW1 took apart the Lego set that was the series, rebuilt the Lego set in a smarter and more efficient way, and polished it up to make it look even better than it did before. It didn't add any new pieces to the set, but it didn't really need to.
XY, on the other hand, adds a lot of really neat gameplay features that help to make the game and its players feel connected and "alive", so to speak; the PSS is one of the best implementations of online in any Nintendo game I've ever seen, Pokemon-Amie is a wonderful addition that helps players to get emotionally attached with a Pokemon while offering in-game benefits, Super Training helps with EV training immensely and is fun. The move into total and true 3D is also a stunning touch and the focus on making the world of Kalos look as good as it does paid off well. However, it doesn't have nearly as good of a story as BW1 did, its level curve and EXP system work too well, and non-grid movement is flawed, all of which hampers the experience. XY is when a few new pieces were added to the Lego set that was Pokemon, but not all of those pieces helped to keep the set as streamlined as BW1 was.
Ultimately I don't know if I can choose either one as the "better" game. But if people are fans of Pokemon, or want to get into the series, XY is probably the way to go right now, if only because it's the most recent game and it's the one people will be playing most of the time now.
Of course there will always be those who wish to live in the past with the original 151, but let's live in the present with the advent of the first main story Pokemon game in 3D!
Image may be NSFW.
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I'm not sure whether to bother mentioning anything about the story, given it's already a fairly small part of Pokemon games (even BW1 and EoS, and I love those games/stories to pieces) and the fact that XY has a paper-thin story in the first place. I'm thinking I might do a blog post breaking the whole thing down once I finish the game, but, well, that won't be for a while.
Now that that's out of the way, how about we discuss the new Pokemon added themselves, along with the Fairy type? I like nearly every single one that I've seen, both in-game so far and through the leaks of the game before it was officially released, and that's a surprise as normally there's a few in each generation that I feel neutral about (though I don't truly hate or despite any of them). Unfortunately, while I like them, I can't help but feel like they're spread much too thinly through the region. Helioptile, for example, I was expecting to be Gen VI's equivalent to Gen IV's Shinx, which I caught quite a ways before getting to the first gym in those games. Instead, I was disappointed to find out that Helioptile shows up just before the second gym, at which point the player will likely have a fairly high-level team due to the gap of time between the first and second gyms.
Part of this comes from the fact that Kalos is an absolutely huge region, but part of it is also due to the inclusion of all sorts of older Pokemon as well. Gen VI introduces the least amount of Pokemon ever in a single generation, with only around 70 newcomers showing their face (not counting a rumored three more event Pokemon that may be downloadable content). To compensate for this, Kalos is chock-full of Pokemon spanning all of the five previous generations, and by splitting the Pokedex into three separate chunks (Central Kalos, Coastal Kalos and Mountain Kalos), it means that the amount of Pokemon that Kalos contains is buffed up quite considerably. However, this also ends up evoking similar feelings to Gen IV, which added a very small amount of completely new Pokemon (just 78) and compensated by having lots of older Pokemon show up, some with new evolutions or pre-evolutions (depending on how cynical you are about Gen IV, some may call this 'padding out the Pokedex').
The reason this is annoying to me, and likely to a lot of other people, is because part of the fun of playing a new generation of Pokemon for the first time is seeing the truly new additions. It's an extremely common choice for Pokemon veterans to forego using most older Pokemon in a new game and try to make a team of newcomers. Gen V pulled this off with aplomb, mainly because BW1 actively forced this caveat on players. With Gen VI, on the other hand, the new additions are sprinkled so widely across the region that it's actually easier to make a team of only older Pokemon than it is to have a team of only new ones.
All I can say about the story without giving out spoilers is that to start there really isn't much. You do have a small story with your friends/neighbors, but you just met them and they don't give you a real reason to do anything except "you can be good!". They don't even explain why you are supposed to fill out your Pokedex, except that the professor wants you to. There's not scientific reason behind it, apparently. The main villains. Team Flare, also don't do much of anything until halfway into the game, and they don't seem serious at all until the very end. However, the finishing parts to the story are really strong, so it's worth seeing them.
As far as the Pokemon themselves go, I personally don't have a problem with only a small number of Pokemon being added. This is partially due to the fact that they created the new Mega Evolutions, which as I believe you mentioned earlier are temporary evolutions of previous generation Pokemon into a stronger form through a held item. This breathes a bit of life into the older Pokemon. Not to mention there were a number of Pokemon who were re-typed and new moves added, and as a result move pools were swapped around. This also isn't significant to most people, but a good number of Pokemon in this generation have had a stat buff, usually 10 points raised in a single base stat, like Pidgeot gaining another 10 Speed. As far as competitive battling goes, this can have a big impact, especially in the case of Speed, where Speed can a lot of times determine who wins.
On the subject of Fairy-type again, I personally love a lot of the new Fairy-types, though they did kind of go generic and make a ton of pink Pokemon, or re-typed pink Pokemon to be Fairy-type. Still, their existence means a lot to the game, especially where the type effectiveness chart lies. Steel and Poison not only resist Fairy-type but are also super effective against Fairy, which in the case of Poison which only had Grass it was super effective against, it's a big help. Fairies also are immune to Dragon-type attacks and super-effective against the powerful Dragon, Dark, and Fighting types. Oh, and Ghost doesn't resist Fairy, so you can guess what that means: Sableye and Spiritomb no longer have no weakness.
The effect of the game from the new type and stat changes, in addition to the inclusion of Mega Pokemon, alters the game in a big way, even if there's not as many new Pokemon.
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"Help--We can't see!"
Well I mean I ended up spoiling myself a mild amount on the story, so I know the general gist of what goes on in it; I just don't think it's very well-put-together. It lacks a lot of the details that made BW1's (and to a lesser extent Platinum's) story so enjoyable and engaging, and it's mostly a string of events put together without any thought as to how they tie together beyond the surface details, which is what I mean by paper-thin. It's hard for me to explain properly without taking over the entire review, which is why I'm probably going to cover it in a blog post instead. Most people don't play Pokemon for the story anyway, so it becomes a bit of a moot point either way.
I haven't gotten to the point yet where I can perform Mega Evolution myself (and since I'm limiting myself to a four-Pokemon team of newcomers, I won't be using Mega Evolutions myself anyway), but I have encountered a couple Mega-Evolved Pokemon in link battles with other people. Due to the fact that the ability to transfer Pokemon over from BW1 and 2 isn't available yet, I can't make a good judgment on how Mega Evolution will affect the competitive scene, but in-game I feel that it's a bit of a mixed bag. It's reminiscent of the added pre-evolutions and evolutions of older Pokemon that Gen IV included, except the Mega Evolutions are temporary and require the held Mega Stone in battle instead of being a straight-up new Pokemon. It's an interesting idea and I'm sure that we'll see plenty of teams using Mega Evolutions, but I can't help but feel like these are a feature that are going to last through Gen VI and then never show up again, which turns Mega Evolutions into more of a gimmick than a feature. Gimmicks are better left to things like Contests in Gen III and IV, or the Musical of V.
Of course, that's all just me speculating, so only time will tell how Mega Evolutions will be seen later on. Overall, though, I just have a gut feeling that they're going to fall by the wayside, just like how a lot of the evolutions and pre-evolutions of Gen IV fell by the wayside after Gen IV ended.
I do think that the changes and upheavals to the type matchup system are a good thing, though. I'm actually having a little trouble at times remembering that Fairy is a type now, which often throws wrenches into my would-be well-laid plans. It also brings up an interesting, if tangentially related, point about how Gen II added Steel and Dark, which were quite easy for most players at the time to adapt to. A lot of people I know are getting tripped up sometimes because they forget about the fair folk; perhaps it's true that it's harder to teach an old trainer new tricks after all. Fairy's addition also helps to patch up a few small things, like how Dark/Ghosts Sableye and Spiritomb have a weakness now.
I was mentioning this earlier today and yesterday in the thread itself, but something I'm not fond of is the way that the game attempts to discourage grinding. I'm a bit of a grindaholic and will often grind even when I absolutely don't need to do so in RPGs, but even I understand the tedium that level-grinding is to a lot of people. But as I was saying in the thread, I think XY tried too hard to make grinding easy or unnecessary for players. There's lots of changes that make leveling your Pokemon up much, much easier. EXP Share now shares points with everyone in the party instead of just one. Pokemon in general give out more EXP when defeated. Playing with Pokemon in Pokemon-Amie can eventually net them a permanent bonus to their EXP gain (Pokemon you caught get 1.5x instead of 1x; Pokemon you've been traded get 2x instead of 1.5x!). Catching Pokemon now gives your Pokemon EXP.
That all sounds good on paper, but when put into practice it becomes so overwhelming that it makes the game far, far too easy. Combined with the fact that Kalos has a very strong level curve that doesn't correspond to this ease of EXP gain, it turns the game into an utter cakewalk, even moreso than the previous Pokemon titles. Making a game easy and trying to discourage grinding is one thing (and it's something that BW1 and to a lesser extent 2 did very well), but making it so that I'm avoiding battling trainers or even encountering wild Pokemon because I'm too strong and don't want to get stronger is another thing entirely. I imagine that this issue grows less and less of one as the game progresses, but the fact that it even is an issue at all has raised many an eyebrow.
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Some old Pokemon now Fairy-type, and a new one.
There is still plenty of grinding involved in the game when it comes to the competitive scene. Horde Mode and Super Training have in some ways simplified EV training as it were, but there are still lots of items that you must battle to obtain in the Battle Maison after the game, as well as needing to breed Pokemon of the right nature, and while IVs even have become simpler to obtain, they are still a chore. I find it easier to grind in this game, but I would by no means call it easy outside of the main storyline. Trying to train an Aerodactyl to use just before the Elite Four was still tedious and a bit tiresome, but didn't bother me as much as in older games. Even the Battle Maison is more bearable to endure, as I actually try to attempt to gain the points this time as opposed to just giving up. It still took over 4 hours to obtain the 7 items I wanted, 2 of which were inexpensive as per the norm.
I would completely agree that for the most part it is simplified though, especially considering on the competitive scene you no longer are forced to level your Pokemon up to 100 to be able to play. Then again, there are currently no ways to cheat your way into level 100 Pokemon either, so people do actually have to legitimately train their Pokemon before playing one another.
Is there anything else you wanted to say on the subject of grinding?
Well I didn't mean that grinding everything in the game is easy. I haven't gotten to the Maison yet but I'm sure that battling for BP and useful competitive items is still as hard as it's ever been. I was mainly talking about just straight up EXP points and leveling up. I'm training a team of three Pokemon currently, and all three are nearing level 36. I've only just finished the second gym and the wild Pokemon are in their early level 20s, while the Pokemon that trainers have are in their mid level 20s. I had a much more grind-y - and, ironically, much more enjoyable and fulfilling - time trying to level up a Pikachu and Litleo before the first gym so they'd be around the same level as my Chespin. It's sort of like the level curve in Johto (both in GSC in Gen II and HGSS in Gen IV), where training one or two Pokemon was much more bearable than training a full team (which is what the game devs expect people to do).
I don't have much else to say about the grinding (or rather the lack of it), though. Summed up, XY looks and sounds good and has a lot of great new features that I'd love to see as permanent new additions (Pokemon-Amie, PSS and Super Training, trainer customization), but it comes at the expense of the story and the main gameplay itself, with the former being lackluster (which is worse than if the game simply had an excuse plot, like RBY or GSC) and the latter being easy enough that you can snap the difficulty in half as early as after the first gym. The new things that XY brings to the table are for the most part really, really good, but the flaws that XY also brings to the table are also very, very glaring.
I am interested in hearing what you took issue with, though, given that I'm mostly speaking with the experience of someone taking it slow and very gradually, while you've beaten the game already (I think) and have firsthand experience with most of the game by now.
Yes, I recently finished the game and have and began working on a team, or, multiple teams, to play online. However, there were some things that bothered me a great deal when going through the games, even when going back to certain places to do things.
Something very early in the games you will discover is that you can run straight away, which is cool, and while you are still snapped to a grid while running despite this is a 3D game, it's not a problem to me. On the other hand, before the first gym of the game you battle someone who, upon defeating, gives you a pair of roller skates you can use to ride around which actually don't snap you to the grid. This sounds cool, and in fact admittedly looks a bit cool, but it creates a nightmare situation when you find out that the rollerskates are rather unwieldy to control due to their speed and the way they don't automatically conform to moving you in straight lines. This also causes trouble when you try to talk to somebody or do something after having rode around on your skates, as since you are not attached to the grid but the characters are, it requires some positioning to accomplish at times, even if you just hop off your skates.
The worst part of it to me, though, is that the skates are automatically bound to your circle pad on the 3DS, and there is no way to turn it off in the key items menu like with the EXP Share, even though there are very little times when the skates are absolutely required to do something in the story, one of the gyms being the only example I can think of. I personally use the circle pad almost exclusively when I play because it is the easiest to position my thumb onto, with the directional pad for walking, in addition to having to hold B to run being awkward now. Thankfully, there is a way around this later on if you are unable to get used to the controls of the skates, though. If you equip the Dowsing Machine, your character won't go onto their skates when you use the Circle Pad, since the Dowsing Machine operates based on the grid. This means that you can walk and run using the Circle Pad instead of the D-Pad. As I said, with practice you do actually learn how to use the skates better, but it still causes problems for me every now and again, and especially did so for me at the start of my game.
Another big issue for me were the forced camera angles in the game. Most of the time, this isn't an issue, and the moving camera allows for you a lot of times to see some rather neat looking backgrounds or features, but there are some times when it is downright frustrating for me. The biggest example I can think of is when attempting to backtrack through a route, cave, or especially in the dreaded Lumiose City. Your character spins around toward the camera, but the camera does not, and you can't see as well, or sometimes at all, objects as you are coming toward them. In Lumioise City, which by itself is a nightmare to navigate already, there are tons of objects like trees blocking signs as you move through the avenues, and backtracking you can't see half of what you normally could.
There's a ton more I could complain about the city in addition to the fact that it is pretty much solely responsible for a recent game patch due to corrupted saves in its streets, but I'll keep it to myself.
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No, it's actually not.
Ahh... yes, I'd forgotten about the skates. I rarely if ever use them myself, and in general the complaints I have about them are the same as yours. I do think, however, that part of the issue is the fact that one of the skating tricks with using them is a "sprint" function where if you push the circle pad quickly in one direction, you will start speed-skating in that direction at a high speed. You'll ease off into the standard speed after a second or two, but considering that most people will press the pad all the way forward when using it because that's how control sticks have functioned since Super Mario 64, it can throw a lot of people off. I honestly find hopping on the bike and controlling it with the circle pad much more enjoyable since it's a fixed speed.
I don't dislike Lumiose quite as much as you do, but I think it's because that's where the roller skates really shine. Skating around Lumiose makes it far easier to navigate simply because the camera controls exactly how you'd expect it to that way. When you're not on the skates? It controls a bit like a dungeon-crawler game, where turning around will spin the camera around to face that direction, then you press forward to move forward. Getting around Lumiose on foot is unwieldy and it's a surprising slip-up considering that skating does it the right way (and, notably, the way that most 3D games have been using cameras since Super Mario 64, again).
It's for that reason that I think the roller skates were design for the very open areas in mind, without regard for how well they'd work in more crowded or narrow passages or trails. Lumiose City is huge, and it lacks a lot of obstacles for the player to bump into, meaning that they're free to skate to their heart's content. A place like Route 7, which is a big stretch of land in a line with no obstacles, is another good example. Parfum Palace's courtyard is pretty good too. Where they don't shine, though, is a place like Camphrier Town, which is small and decorated well but those decorations are hard to react to (ie: skate around on the move). Similarly, a place like Route 10 which is full of rocks, is also a pain for the skates because of the medley of rocks scattered about that impede progress and are easier to get around on foot. The last place I actually used the roller skates because I wanted to use them was in Lumiose City, and the last time I was there was over a week ago at least.
I don't find it terribly difficult to navigate so far, but then again I'm also restricted to only the southern half and the one avenue. I think it's interesting that there's other modes of travel, like the Gogoat Shuttle and the Taxi Cabs, but overall getting used to Lumiose on my first visit was fairly easy. As for the entire city, that will likely be a bit more overwhelming, but thankfully multiple people have made maps of the city along with map keys pointing out each location.
I guess we should also talk about the bottom screen features, like the PSS. How much have you used it and what do you think of it? I haven't tried everything with it, but it's still an incredible improvement on the online features from Gens IV and V. Much smoother and more accessible.
Personally, I have used the PSS hub a lot more than either Pokemon Aime or Super Training. You can spend lots of times on those two features and gain strength and bond with your Pokemon, and it is a nice distraction from the main game, but my personal goals are better suited to the features of the PSS. More specifically, O-Powers.
O-Powers are a brand new feature to the game that give you boosts in the game for 3 minutes with each use. In some ways, you can consider this cheap or cheaty, as O-Powers can do things such as boost your critical hit ratio or increase your Pokemon's Attack power. However, there are other O-Powers that are helpful in a way that is more passive and doesn't necessarily help break the game. For instance, there is an O-Power that heals your Pokemon over time, and an O-Power that makes it easier to catch Pokemon. My personal favorite that some people may find cheap is the Prize Money O-Power that increases money won from battles.
I could go on and on about how these powers work and the different kinds, but I think that's enough information jammed in people's brains for now.
I've spent some time doing Wonder Trades in the PSS (you choose a Pokemon to put in, and you'll get a random one out of the deal; I've gotten quite lucky!), but that's mainly about it. Since saving the game doesn't take nearly as long as the other games, and connecting is fairly quick for me, Wonder Trading is really quick and easy, and I've filled up a fair portion of the Pokedex already through it alone.
I've spent a lot of time in Pokemon-Amie and Super Training, though, and they're both also pretty welcome additions. Pokemon-Amie is a bit more complex than it looks actually. On the surface it's a very cutesy, fun little thing; your Pokemon can imitate your movements through the 3DS' camera (though rather unreliably, I've noticed), it'll react to some sounds, and you can pet it.
The main meat of it is the three stats: Affection, Fullness and Enjoyment. Affection is the most important, since high Affection nets you some impressive bonuses. What makes this important is the kind of benefits your Pokemon can get from having high affection. At one point, there's no visible difference, but upon getting two points the Pokemon will start getting extra Experience Points. At three points, it'll start looking at you during turns in battle (as well as having different quips, such as "Chespin is awaiting Trainer's command" or "Chespin is curious about Trainer's Bag..."), and you can rub the touch screen after the foe faints to give it a mid-battle pat. Later point can give you even better benefits, like being able to shake off status effects or enduring a knockout with a single hitpoint (to avoid disappointing you, no less).
Super Training, on the other hand, delves into the nitty-gritty numbers of mechanics, as it's a minigame to increase your Pokemon's EVs (invisible points for each stat that increases them with enough points invested). It comes both with a handy graph that maps out how the Pokemon's EVs are distributed, as well as how many EVs you've distributed total (once you've distributed all the EVs, it becomes Fully-Trained). The minigame itself involves shooting soccer balls at balloon versions of Pokemon, aiming for targets. Hit enough targets within a time limit and you win the minigame, netting you some EVs and a training bag that you can use to get extra benefits. It's fun, if a bit repetitive, and you can unlock harder versions that give bigger payouts.
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Pikachu is Pokemon Aime. "Pika-pika!" (Now Pikachu's actual cry in-game)
The only thing I can comment on further for Pokemon Aime might be based on personal problems I have with the mini games. The berry mini-game within it is all and well by itself, but I have trouble with the other two, and if I am then I think little kids probably have a large amount of trouble as well. The Head It mini-game where you bounce balls off your Pokemon's head especially bothers me, as it involves timing movements based on the movement of items moving from the top screen to the bottom, which is extremely difficult for me, especially with the way my 3DS is typically situated.
The puzzle game also doesn't do you many favors, as the images you are working on, even in Easy mode, are moving, and the pieces that aren't are mostly similar to one another and don't give you many clues as to where they may go. Because the image is based on your current Party, it may be possible to make the images easier to understand. It's not to say that the puzzles are -hard- by any stretch, just that they are more difficult than one would expect at lower difficulty levels.
In regards to Super Training, when you are first starting to get the hang of things the EV training aspect actually takes longer than it would to grind EVs by battling a specific Pokemon repeatedly. This is because the mini-game involves shooting balls into a goal while dodging incoming balls from the enemy. While not difficult early on, it will take time to get used to the different ways each Pokemon can shoot their balls, and some stages as you get to the higher ones, while rewarding you with more EVs upon completion, can be rather difficult or time-intensive. It can depend on your learning curve and your pace, but as time progresses it becomes a quicker and more fun way to gain EVs, if not just a slight break from the repetitive grind.
I dunno, personally I really like the puzzle game a lot. Sometimes I get a little thrown off, but mainly I use the typical puzzle strategy of finding the corners and edges first, and then the rest tends to fall into place pretty easily.
I still haven't unlocked the higher levels of Super Training yet (meaning I've been playing the level 1 minigames for Attack, Defense, and Special Attack and Defense), so overall my experience with that hasn't been very minimal. It has helped the two Pokemon I've trained using it become quite powerful for how early in the game I am, though. I did the same thing when I played Black 2, EV training essentially all six of my permanent team members before I'd gotten to even the first gym (albeit through the traditional method), but the difference it made wasn't quite as jarring as it has been in X.
I've been trying some of the other features of the PSS, like the O-Powers, and while I haven't gotten any huge benefits out of them yet, the ones I've sent to other people have generally been lucky (a friend of mine got a Defense Boost power from both me and someone else, which helped him to just barely scrape out a win in a battle). There are others that were more helpful, like an O-Power that lowers store prices (and it may just be me but money is somewhat harder to come by this time around). Battle-related O-Powers seem more up to chance.
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The New Starter Pokemon.
I don't think I have much else to say on the subject, so unless you have anything to add maybe we should talk about the visuals of the games--one of the most important aspects of this new version due to its conversion to 3D.
I think the visuals look pretty good, to be frank about it. It's clear that a lot of meticulous work was put into the look of everything, and since the theme of the games (and likely the generation as a whole) seems to be "beauty", I think it makes a lot of sense. All the Pokemon I've caught so far and played with in Pokemon-amie or Super Training and the like have had a variety of expressions, poses and animations, and in battle the graphics don't hinder the experience at all since the battle animations are slick and speedy. I do notice a bit of slowdown sometimes whenever the battles show a split-screen view of both your Pokemon and your opponent's, but that's quite uncommon and not anything slow enough to be anything more than a bump in the road.
One thing I'm both pleased by and bummed about is the change in trainer sprites. The rivals and important characters get 3D models (the player character, the friendly rivals, the professor, Team Flare, etc), but the more run-of-the-mill trainers are now represented by their official Sugimori artwork instead of sprites. I like it because the artwork itself is very nice to look at, but they do lack the same kind of... "edit-ability", I suppose, that sprites have. There's also a minor nitpick in that the artwork has no animation like all the trainers in BW1 and BW2 did. It's a small gripe, though.
Kalos itself is quite strikingly pretty, in a different way from the other regions to boot. It's hard to put my finger on what word I'd use, but a few years ago I actually visited Paris (Kalos' inspiration), and someone told me that it was more "old-fashioned" than something like New York City or elsewhere, and I think right now that's the best term I can use. The towns and cities like Aquacorde, Santalune and Camphrier aren't particularly technological or even "modern" on the outside; stone bricks, fountains, rustic houses. Lumiose, Kalos' equivalent to Unova's Castelia (the Paris to the NYC), is a mix of the two; it's quite technological in some aspects but also manages to capture an older type of charm. I think this is what Game Freak was going for in the region's design, and they did it well.
I have to agree with you about that. They made it obvious from the day that the game was announced that it was meant to be beautiful, and in many respects it is, in my own opinion of course. Some people believe it to look hideous in comparison to the older generations, but I simply don't see it. The part about being able to alter sprites is a minor gripe, as while I also had fun editing sprites in the past, you couldn't have expected them to stick to that forever, and it's something than only affects a specific set of people.
The new 3D models look strange when you see them out of the game to me, but in-game they fit in very well, owning up to what I believe most people's expectations when they heard it was going to be a 3D Pokemon game. They even added special animations to most Pokemon, and purposely made some such as Quagsire mostly unmoving to fit with their personalities as Pokemon. There's also two different animations for the Pokemon itself depending on the attack it is using, and I think it's a great touch. Other than that, Magikarp flopping on its side throughout the entire battle is something you have to see for yourself.
As far as the towns and that go, the differing designs for houses and even the ground of the town ranging from more artistic to rustic depending on which you're in makes for some great variation, making it harder to mistake one place for another. Outside of towns there are even a variety of tall grasses instead of either "tall grass" or "extremely long tall grass". Those two are still in the game, but now there are flower patches you can find Pokemon in, hayfields, and "dark patches" in some caves. I personally enjoy this touch a lot, though it can be annoying as some Pokemon don't show up in certain patches, so you have to learn where they each live.
However, it is important to note that while this game is in 3D and there are 3D sprites, 60% of the time 3D will be turned off, with the overworld not being rendered this way. I personally never use 3D on the 3DS, though, so it's really no problem for me.
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The Deliberation
Other than the lack of story until late game and the other problems I listed, I overall find these new Pokemon X and Y games to be refreshing and fun, if not more fun to me than previous generations since I feel as though I can actually participate in online play (though truth be told, this also has to do with how the 3DS now works well with my internet). If you're planning to just play for the campaign, I think the people who hold nostalgia for the games will have a lot more fun than newcomers. Mostly due to the large amounts of nods to the older games.
If you're new to the Pokemon series, you will more than likely gain little from the story, probably even from its climax, since the villains are much more underwhelming than before, though their eventual goal becomes more sinister than most.
I also want to go out saying that due to the Friend Safari feature I and many people I know have been forced to connect with other players in a whole new way, and form positive bonds as a result of this. The game becomes much more social in some aspects when you are trying to add more friends and get to discuss this shared interest and trade Pokemon as well as stories.
I'd say those are about my overall thoughts as well, though I'm also rather torn because I love BW1 so much. BW1 didn't add a lot to the table in terms of gameplay mechanics, but breathed some much needed new life into the franchise in terms of its aesthetic, pacing and general presentation; Pokemon were animated in battle and the camera was dynamic, the slow speed of Gen IV was thankfully sped up, the story was solid and touched on aspects of the universe that typically saw no mention outside of fan work, it made a lot of small tweaks and touch-ups (like the Repel wore off, use another? thing), it had a smooth level curve and a smart EXP system to discourage grinding, etc etc. It also moved the series into a far more dynamic, 3D world than Gen IV ever did. The best metaphor I can make for it is that BW1 took apart the Lego set that was the series, rebuilt the Lego set in a smarter and more efficient way, and polished it up to make it look even better than it did before. It didn't add any new pieces to the set, but it didn't really need to.
XY, on the other hand, adds a lot of really neat gameplay features that help to make the game and its players feel connected and "alive", so to speak; the PSS is one of the best implementations of online in any Nintendo game I've ever seen, Pokemon-Amie is a wonderful addition that helps players to get emotionally attached with a Pokemon while offering in-game benefits, Super Training helps with EV training immensely and is fun. The move into total and true 3D is also a stunning touch and the focus on making the world of Kalos look as good as it does paid off well. However, it doesn't have nearly as good of a story as BW1 did, its level curve and EXP system work too well, and non-grid movement is flawed, all of which hampers the experience. XY is when a few new pieces were added to the Lego set that was Pokemon, but not all of those pieces helped to keep the set as streamlined as BW1 was.
Ultimately I don't know if I can choose either one as the "better" game. But if people are fans of Pokemon, or want to get into the series, XY is probably the way to go right now, if only because it's the most recent game and it's the one people will be playing most of the time now.
