Pokémon X -A Fan's Review

     I have been a Pokémon fan for well over a decade. I have played the original blue version, and yellow. I have owned Gold. I have Sapphire and Emerald, and I classify the Hoenn Region as my favorite of all the regions (despite the massive amount of water, tentacool, and Wingulls...). Of the games, generation four, Diamond and Platinum are my least favorite; they're not bad, I just don't enjoy them very much. Heartgold was good, but seemed to pale in comparison to it's elder version, despite the awesome addition of having your lead Pokémon following you around. Generation 5 had the best story out of all of them, and having only new Pokémon in the region was a very good idea, though it overstayed its welcome with it's sequels Black 2 and White 2.
     Generation 6's Pokémon X and Pokémon Y blow all of them out of the water.

There are so many good things to come with Pokémon X and Y... let's start with the quality of life changes.

1. Exp Share
     The Exp Share used to be a held item, where the pokémon holding it would receive 50% of the battle's experience points. Now, it is a key items that gives every pokémon in your party 50% of the experience, while the one sent out receives 100%. This has made leveling SO much easier, to the point where you will usually over-level without doing anything special (and go way over by doing some special things.)
     The over-leveling is a bit of a tuning problem, but the quality of life adjustment it brings helps a lot. I suspect the function will remain the same in future games, but may come a bit later into the game, to keep people from blowing through it so easily.
     There is another downside to the Exp Share going to everyone in the party, and it is a slightly hidden function. It has to do with EVs, or Effort Values. EVs are points you earn for defeating a pokémon and earning experience from it. they go into the various stats, and help to scale those up faster. By giving everyone experience, they all also get EVs, which may not be beneficial for some pokémon (For example, attack is a useless stat for an Alakazam). But, that is fixed with another quality of life change...

2. Super Training
     Super training is a mini-game where you can level-up a pokemon's EVs. A pain in theory, really quick and easy in practice. It took me an hour to get my Gardevoir's EVs to be max Special attack and Defense, and that's with using a reset bag before doing so.
     That's another thing. Have a pokemon that has terrible EVs? Stay on the Super Training screen for a while, and you'll eventually receive various training bags, including one that with set all your pokémon's EVs to zero, allowing you to start over and get them perfect.
    The bags and events even come with set, even numerical values, allowing you precisely measure where you place them (Provided you keep track. there are some graphs measuring progress, but no numbers after the addition is done).
    The mini-game itself is okay. It is basically a 3D soccer game (and by 3D I mean it in both ways, in that there are goals placed on an XYZ plane) where you have to dodge your enemy's soccer balls, while trying to score in your enemy's goal. Simple, but requires some skill... and in the case of the speed challenges, luck.
     If you really, REALLY care about the EVs, you can do them as soon as you get your first pokémon. If you have all the challenges unlocked, it doesn't take that long.

3. Pokémon Amie
     Super training is for EVs, and Pokemon Amie is for friendship. And Friendship is Critical hits and dodging. Pokémon Amie is basically nintendogs with your favorite pokémon. It is both more awesome, and more adorable.
     There are three minigames in this mini-game: a berry matching game, a tempo-based yarn juggling game, and a puzzle... ...game.  Completing them and earning more than three starts unlocks the next rank, from easy to hard and unlimited, and gives you poképuffs, food items to give your pokémon to increase its friendship, and fullness.
     Unlike past games, a pokémon that is completely friendly with you has other gameplay effects than just the attack "Return." Now, being best friends with your pokémon adds some flavour text to battles, and has effects like landing critical hits and dodging. There are supposedly other effects associated with fullness and enjoyment, but they are unknown at this time.

4. Trainer Customization
     We have been waiting for this for YEARS. Finally we can make our characters unique, and dress them in more interesting clothes. This better be a feature in all future games, with more expansion upon it.

5. Mega Evolution
     Number one: awesome beyond belief. Number 2: adds more complex strategy in times of held items, rather than it being dominated by a handful of items like the leftovers. Number three: Mega. Gardevoir. I am completely sold.

6. More battle variations
    Included in the game are two new battle types: horde, and Sky Battles. Hordes consist of 5 pokémon, all attacking one of yours. They can be quite deadly, unless you have a move that affects a larger area...
     Sky battles are what it says on the tin; battles only flying type pokemon, and those with levitate, can participate in. They're optional, but fun. And also a likely way to lose money, since you are likely to only be carrying one flying type at a time, and when they go down, you lose.


There are several other quality of life improvements, but I am not fully equipped to talk about them, since I have not fully explored them.

Now, lets move on to other new features, like new pokemon and the evil team...

     One can tell a lot of time went into making all the gameplay improvements, because X and Y have probably the weakest story out of all the games. It's the same deal as the other games; you have a rival (that you don't get to name), there is an evil team blocking paths, and a bunch of gym badges to collect. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I guess. But, it is not the standards that make it weak, it is how they are played. Team Flare (the bad guys) are rarely seen. You tend to forget they are even around most of the time... They only become interesting when their plans come to fruition, then they become the most insane team in all of the games.
     Your rival and circle of friends are a bit dull... They're nice enough, but they are like cardboard when it comes to their personalities. Considering there are 4 of them, it would've been better to have cut that number in half; basically making the group the same size as Generation 5. Would've helped with their personalities...
     The new pokémon are sort of "meh" too. There aren't a lot of them; the majority of the pokédex is pokémon from previous generations, with maybe 50-66 new pokémon. The new ones are okay; nothing particularly interesting... They fit within the world and theme, so they're okay, just nothing about them says "THAT IS GOING ON MY LIST OF MY FAVORITE POKÉMON."
      That is, except for the Mega Evolutions. Those are AMAZING. They are only on older pokémon which tend to be fan favorites, like Blaziken, Lucario, and Mewtwo, which completely justifies the large amount of older generation pokémon. And Mega Gardevoir, I am happy just with that. (In case you haven't guessed, Gardevoir is my favorite pokémon.)


     If you are a fan of the Pokémon series, definitely pick this game up. If you don't have a 3DS, the 2DS is cheaper and can still play the game, just minus the 3D.
Gameplay score: 9/10. Some tuning on the leveling would've helped the pacing.
Story score: 6/10. The story is fine, but with no surprises.
Mega Gardevoir Score: 11/10.

Final Verdict: 8/10. All the gameplay elements make this probably the best Pokemon game in along time, but the story is too stale for me to be shouting praises of it form the roof tops.
Except for Mega Gardevoir.

MEGA GARDEVOIR!!!!!

That is all.