Pokemon X/Y – To Be the Best, The Very Best?

Co-written by Eric Charles

Pokemon has been around since the late 90s and while it might not be the massive media explosion it was in the states during it’s first few generations, it’s proven itself to be far longer lasting than the ‘fad’ most people assumed it was going to be. Pokemon is going strong and getting better, leading up to last week’s release of Pokemon X/Y.

When a game has been around for so long, a lot of pressure is on the developer to outdo themselves with each subsequent release, and so far Pokemon X/Y shows that a good developer that understands its fans can really knock it out of the park. Getting better in every generation of games released, X/Y is arguably be the best Pokemon game released yet.

Mechanically, Pokemon games haven’t changed much over the years. Gotta catch ‘em all, gotta fight ‘em all, gotta get all the gym badges, play through a questionably written plot, beat the Elite Four, beat the Pokemon Champion, become Pokemon Champion. Battles haven’t changed much – you still have a team of six Pokemon, each with four moves. Pokemon and their moves have types like Fire, Fighting or Ghost (or Fairy, a new type as of X/Y) and they interact with different effects such as Water dealing two times the damage to Fire (it’s super effective!). A very simple system but it’s difficult to balance given the variety of moves and the ever-expanding number of Pokemon to catch and trade. X/Y, as always, is a smartly balanced game, keeping challenge and fun well leveled and rewarding players that pay attention to typing.

However, getting into the nitty gritty of the mechanics, some things have changed and they’ve changed a lot.

Playing Pokemon competitively has been a game long dominated by grinding and boring effort – you had to breed Pokemon constantly to get the best IVs, Natures, and then EV train them to be the best. Individual Values are a randomized reflection on each stat and Natures (each Pokemon has a nature such as Jolly or Docile) can add 10% to a desired stat. Effort Value training could add even more to stats but involved monotonously fighting the same Pokemon over and over to get the right stat leveled.

X/Y changed all of that, brilliantly. EV training is now a minigame – you can still do it the old (boring) way if you like, but now you can also just play a game where you shoot balls at a balloon or tap the screen to have your Pokemon punch a bag. The result is that often times you’ll be done EV training in an hour and instead of being bored grinding, you’ve actually had some interactive fun.

Pokemon XY also includes a great new version of the Safari Zone, which used to be an area where you could grind through to find Pokemon not in other areas in the game, where the Pokemon were often changing and very frustrating. The Friend Safari, though, offers a patch of grass for each friend code that you have on your 3DS. That patch of grass yields 2 Pokemon of a certain type (3 if they’ve beaten the game), and THESE Pokemon oft have Hidden Abilities and always have two randomly chosen perfect IVs. This means that it’s now easier, more than ever before, to actually raise a Pokemon with flawless IVs and Natures – no hacking required, just a bit of effort. It’s like pirating movies versus watching Netflix – make it easy to buy, and it’s a lot less tempting to pirate. It’s an amazing change, and I may never genetically modify (read: hack) a Pokemon again.

There’s a lot of brand new features in Pokemon X/Y that make the game a joy to play, too. Characters can be customized beyond just ‘are you a boy or a girl?’. Outfits, hats, hair, even eye color can be changed, making your Pokemon trainer just that – yours. For a game all about the emotional connection between trainers and Pokemon, this really gets you just that more involved.

The social aspect of the game has really come leaps and bounds as well – trainers can give each other O-Powers, little buffs that level up from use, encouraging you to help yourself by helping your friends (and total strangers, thanks to the excellent Friends/Acquaintances/Passersby system using SpotPass, StreetPass and a wireless connection). There’s also surprisingly addicting Wonder Trades, where you can blindly throw one of your Pokemon into the ether and get something back in return…most of the time, sure, it’s a Bidoof, but sometimes it’ll be a Japanese Bidoof. Tied in with all of these is the PokeMile system – trade with enough people and you’ll pack on PokeMiles, especially if they’re from far away. You can use these to buy various items online, like Heart Scales, used for the Move Relearner (and formerly really difficult to obtain en masse).

There’s a ton more going on in Pokemon X/Y – the Magical Girl-style transformation called Mega Evolution, roller skates, trainer PR videos, riding Pokemon, the simple ability to PET YOUR POKEMON WITH THE STYLUS…Pokemon X/Y is just jam packed with stuff to do, stuff to play with and stuff to customize.

There’s something in Pokemon X/Y for everybody who has loved Pokemon throughout the years or might just want to know what the hype is about. It’s a great game for the veteran trainer and a perfect introduction for the newbie. Check it out and get ready to get obsessed with catching them all, all over again.