Pokémon X and Y

NOTE: This year is the 10th anniversay of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

Pokémon X and Y are two games in the series of Pokémon RPG games. They are part of Generation VI of Pokémon. The two games were released for the Nintendo 3DS. They are the Stand-alone sequel to Pokémon Black & White 2 and are overall the seventh main games in the Pokémon series.

Plot

The game begins with the player waking up in their bedroom in their hometown. After being encouraged by their mother to talk to their neighbor — Serena, if the player is male, or Calem, if the player is female — the player learns that Professor Sycamore has a request for five kids: the player, their rival, Shauna, Trevor, and Tierno. In Aquacorde Town, to fulfill this request, the player chooses a starter Pokémon: Fennekin, Froakie, or Chespin. Shauna will then choose the Pokémon that is weak to the player's starter and Serena/Calem will take the Pokémon that is strong against the player's starter, in traditional rival fashion. Trevor presents the player with a Pokédex. After getting a send-off from their mother in Vaniville Town, the player travels along Routes 2 and 3 and through Santalune Forest. Upon arrival in Santalune City, the player receives the Roller Skates in front of the Santalune Gym, where the player defeats the Gym Leader, Viola, and receives the Bug Badge. Viola's sister, Alexa, points the way to Route 4.

As the player reaches the gate to Lumiose City, they meet Sina and Dexio, who introduce the new Fairy type. When the player first reaches Lumiose City, they cannot do much because of a power outage. They go to Professor Sycamore's lab, and soon the rest of their friends arrive. Sycamore allows each of them, including the player, to pick a Kanto starter Pokémon. On the player's way out, they see Dexio with Lysandre talking about the potential the Professor's pupils have. Lysandre says he desires a beautiful world and leaves the building. The friends come to the player thereafter, with Tierno directing the player to Café Soleil and Camphrier Town. In Café Soleil, Lysandre is talking to Diantha, an established Kalos actress. He asks her if she wants to remain young and beautiful forever, but she dismisses the question and says that she looks forward to playing more roles as she gets older. After Lysandre leaves, she tells the player that she is a Trainer and looks forward to battling them in the future.

The player continues on through Route 5 to Camphrier Town, running into Korrina and her Lucario along the way. On Route 7, a sleeping Snorlax can be found blocking the way. After being directed to the Parfum Palace, the player and Shauna will help find the owner's lost Furfrou before being invited to watch the fireworks show and being given the Poké Flute. The player returns to Route 7 to wake the Snorlax and unblock the path to reach Connecting Cave. A boulder in the cave forces the player to take a side exit to the cliff part of Route 8, where they receive the Coastal Kalos Pokédex. The player then arrives in Ambrette Town. Shauna recommends visiting Glittering Cave, east of Route 9, to search for more Pokémon. The player rides a Rhyhorn on Route 9 before entering Glittering Cave. Inside Glittering Cave, the player and Calem/Serena encounter Team Flare for the first time and rescues a Scientist.

The player crosses the coastal part of Route 8 to Cyllage City, where defeating Gym Leader Grant earns the player the Cliff Badge. Continuing on, the player encounters more Team Flare Grunts on Route 10 and meets Korrina again while passing through Geosenge Town. She tells the player that Lucario can sense something in the player's aura. Past Route 11 and Reflection Cave, the player arrives in Shalour City and receives a message over the Holo Caster to visit Gurkinn, the Mega Evolution expert, in the Tower of Mastery. Gurkinn tells the player and their friends about Mega Evolution, which requires a Mega Stone, Mega Ring, and a special bond between the Trainer and Pokémon. Unfortunately, Gurkinn only has one Mega Ring to give. The friends decide the player should get it, and Korrina will tell them to come to her Gym and defeat her first. After she is defeated, she awards the Rumble Badge and, after a second battle at the top of the Tower of Mastery, gives the player the Mega Ring and a Lucario holding the Lucarionite. The player heads for Coumarine City by way of Route 12. There, the player challenges Ramos at the Coumarine Gym. After earning the Plant Badge, the player heads to Route 13 and receives the Mountain Kalos Pokédex from Sina and Dexio.

The player cannot enter Lumiose City from Route 13 because of the power outage in the city, so they instead visit the route's Power Plant, where they encounter Team Flare again. After defeating Aliana, a scientist for Team Flare, the power to Lumiose City is restored. At Prism Tower, Clemont will invite the player to battle him. After his defeat, he will awards the Voltage Badge. The player then travels to Laverre City by way of Route 14. After the player earns the Fairy Badge from Gym Leader Valerie, they and Calem/Serena encounter Team Flare again at the Poké Ball Factory. Defeating Celosia and Bryony drives away the villainous team. When the player arrives at Dendemille Town via Routes 15 or 16, Professor Sycamore and his aides will discuss the legend of Xerneas or Yveltal. The player cannot head to Anistar City because the Mamoswine needed to navigate Route 17 is gone, so the player finds it at Frost Cavern, concerned about Team Flare's interference. The player must defeat Mable to make Team Flare retreat, save an Abomasnow, and calm the Mamoswine so the player can travel to Anistar City. There, the player earns the Psychic Badge from Olympia.

After the player leaves the Anistar Gym, Lysandre will reveal over the Holo Caster his plans to use the ultimate weapon. To stop him, the player travels to Lysandre Labs and defeat him and the four female scientists. The player discovers that Lysandre has imprisoned AZ. Lysandre tells the story of how AZ used the ultimate weapon to revive his Floette and then used it to end the war 3,000 years ago. He promises that if the player defeats Xerosic, he will turn off the ultimate weapon, but Xerosic turns the weapon on remotely and unleashes it in Geosenge Town. At the Team Flare Secret HQ there, Lysandre tells of his plans to eradicate all Pokémon and people who do not agree with his ideals. After the player defeats him and his admins and catches the Legendary Pokémon, Lysandre will try to use the remaining energy in the weapon for his selfish goals, but is instead only caught in the destruction it wreaks.

The player travels through Route 18, Couriway Town, and Route 19 to Snowbelle City, where the Gym Leader, Wulfric, is missing. To find him, the player navigates Route 20 to get to the Pokémon Village. Wulfric explains that the Pokémon there were once abused. Wulfric returns to the Snowbelle Gym and rewards the player with the Iceberg Badge for defeating him. With the final Badge in hand, the player heads through Route 21 to Victory Road and the Pokémon League, where they defeat Fire-type specialist Malva, Steel-type specialist Wikstrom, Dragon-type specialist Drasna, Water-type specialist Siebold, and Champion Diantha. After the player enters the Hall of Fame, Sycamore organizes a parade for the player. During the parade, AZ asks the player for a battle. Afterward, AZ says he finally knows what it means to be a Trainer again, and his Floette appears from the sky and is reunited with him.

Why It Makes You Wanna Catch 'Em' All in Kalos (Good Qualities)

1. The first games in the main series to be completely rendered in 3D. Pokémon in battle are now 3D character models rather than sprites.
2. On that topic, the graphics are fantastic.
   • Sitting on certain benches will trigger a special camera angle which shows off the new and improved graphics of the game, which is a nice touch.
3. The game introduces us to the Kalos region, which is based on France.
4. This is the first game in the core series to include trainer customization, as players can now have different clothing, hairstyles, and eye and skin colors.
5. The EXP Share item has been given a massive upgrade that allows all 6 of your Pokémon on your team to get EXP from every battle, with the Pokémon that did not battle only getting half of the EXP. This significantly reduces the amount of time you need to spend grinding levels as your entire team can get EXP at once.
   • The EXP Share can be turned on and off at any time so players who dislike it don't have to use it.
6. Great soundtrack with a more distinct style from previous generations.
7. Mega Evolutions were introduced which gave players a reason to use older and weak Pokémon in battles, as stats are significantly boosted when Pokémon Mega Evolve. A trainer can only Mega Evolve one Pokémon in a battle.
8. Tons of great new Pokémon, such as the starters, Fletchling, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Aegislash, Goodra, Goomy, Dedenne, etc.
9. A new type, Fairy, was introduced as well as some changes to the type weakness/resistances to some other types were made to balance out the type matchups, especially against Dragon types.
   • Some old Pokémon were changed to be Fairy type Pokémon, including Jigglypuff, Clefairy, Gardevoir, Snubbull, Mawile, etc
10. PSS is one of the most effective methods to manage online and local communication with other players.
11. A new trade feature known as Wonder Trade is introduced which allows players to randomly trade off Pokémon from their games to random people around the world.
12. Starting with these games, the odds of finding shiny Pokémon with all methods now have doubled.
13. You can now change the abilities of certain species of Pokémon with the ability capsule as long as that Pokémon has two standard abilities.
14. There's a new feature called "Super Training" which is made for EV Training, it also makes EV Training faster and easier.
15. X and Y mark the return of voice acting to the main series, in this case with Pikachu having its voice in the anime for its cry.
16. The Pokémon-Amie feature, where the player can pet, play with and feed their Pokémon is a pretty cute and cool feature. This also makes your Pokémon stronger, too, and helps evolve Pokémon that require friendship to evolve, like Crobat.
17. It has the biggest Pokédex in the series to date with the grand total of all 721 Pokémon in the dex at the time of it's release, which to this very day stands out as one of the biggest Pokédexes of all time and made Kalos feel more grander because of it.
18. The Gym Leaders, while not the most memorable, are still great and likable with them having a nice amount of Pokémon to their arsenal, and the battles in general being more challenging without the EXP Share on all the time, which can make the game a lot more harder for newer players but in a good way.
19. AZ, even though he doesn't get as much screen time, is a very memorable character as he's incredibly tall and has a very emotional backstory in which he ended the war when he used to be the king of Kalos, which makes him very easy to sympathize.
    • On top of that, he's famous for his "It's been 3,000 years..." line at the end of the game, which quickly became an internet meme.
20. Has an excellent anime adaption that is considered one of the best in the series and is still beloved to this day.

Bad Qualities

1. The games have been criticized for being too easy. Neither of the Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, nor Champion Diantha are challenging enough, even for Game Freak standards.
   • Making matters worse, the Elite Four and Champion Diantha's Pokémon don't go higher in level even after the player becomes the champion, but they do if the player enters the Battle Chateau for the Black Writ of Challenge.
   • This also is not helped by the Gym leader's Pokémon (except Olympia's) only having 3 attacks.
   • Though this could be excusable as this is the first implementation of Mega Evolutions and the EXP Share.
2. PokéBank, the method of transferring Pokémon from Generation V games (as well as Virtual Console Generation I and II games) to Generation VI, VII and Pokémon HOME, has an annual $5 fee. The service isn't available in some regions either.
   • To make matters worse, after your subscription ends, you permanently lose all the Pokémon you had stored on Pokémon Bank after a year. If you don't want to subscribe again, you can still withdraw your Pokémon within that time frame.
   • Thankfully the service will be free to all users on March 27, 2023 at the same time the eShop service is discontinued on the 3DS (as long as the user downloaded both Pokébank and Poké Transporter app before being unable to do so).
3. Noticeable frame rate issues, most notably during Double Battles. The rest of 3DS main Pokémon series games would suffer the same problem (which is likely why Generation VII removed Triple and Rotation battles).
   • This can somewhat be fixed by turning of the 3D feature.
4. There was a game breaking glitch at launch where the game would not fully load when the player saves in certain parts of Lumiose City. The glitch was fixed in newer versions of the game.
5. Even without the game breaking glitch, Lumiose City is hard and confusing to navigate. This is due to the city's large size, the awkwardly placed loading zones, poorly defined entrances and exits, and strange camera angles.
   • Thankfully, there are taxis across the city which can take you anywhere you want.
6. Some Pokémon that were already overpowered were given Mega Evolutions, which was not only unnecessary because the whole point of Mega Evolution was to support weaker Pokémon, but it also makes those overpowered Pokémon even more broken than before (for example Rayquaza and Mewtwo).
7. The Vs. Recorder can no longer search for videos via a list. The only mode of searching for videos is typing in an exact code, making the device near useless.
8. While the new Fairy type was created to balance out overpowered types like Dragon and Fighting, Fairy itself ironically is rather overpowered.
9. Although the concept of having a circle of friends as rivals was interesting, most of them are very one dimensional, forgettable, and annoying (Tierno in particular caught heat from Western fans). To make matters worse, besides for Calem/Serena, you only fight the Rivals one or two times in the entire game.
10. AZ, despite being the best character in the game, doesn't get very much screen time, you only get to fight him once and after that, he's gone forever and didn't even appear anywhere in post-game.
11. Although the EXP Share significantly reduces the need to grind for levels, the game isn't properly balanced around it so keeping it activated for long periods of time can cause the player's team to become over-leveled.
    • Future generations fortunately would balance the EXP Share better due to re-implementing the improved experience system from Generation V (these games, along with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire use the old system from Generations I to IV).
12. It started the infamous "Kanto Pandering" trend, which is basically nostalgia pandering towards Gen I. For example, Santalune Forest has the exact same layout as Viridian Forest.
    • Also, most of the Wild Pokémon encountered in the area are from Gen 1.
13. The game suffers from horrible pacing issues, taking 2-3 hours between the first and second gym and barely any time at all with the rest of them. But at least it's not as bad as what Pokémon Scarlet and Violet had.
14. The game doesn't have a lot of content implemented, as most of the new features are rather one sided and there isn't a lot to do after the game is fully complete, as you only get to compete at a Battle Maison, catch legendary Pokémon which there aren't many to catch and a side quest that is extremely short and not very good, which make this one of the worst games in the series when it comes to content.

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