MadCap's Game Reviews - "Pokémon X and Y"

People who are regular readers of my blog are definitely not unaware of my love of the Pokémon franchise.  It was a fundamental part of my childhood alongside the Mario games and were one of the first games I ever played.  And now, sixteen years since the days where I’d put in a copy of Pokémon Red to forget the troubles my seven year old brain had to endure (ever so taxing, I’m sure) and escape to the fantastic and distant world of ten year old children going out to prove their manhood (or womanhood) by enslaving a bunch of animals in tiny plastic balls.

In all seriousness, though, the Pokémon games had brought me into a world unlike any other I had yet seen or have seen since in video games. Sure, I don’t rate them as highly as I do some others I’ve played, but Pokémon has and always will hold a special place in my heart.  Never was this made clearer to me than in the latest additions to be rolled out from Nintendo and Game Freak – Pokémon X and Y.  An interesting change from colors and minerals, but it is pretty much everything that one would expect from a Pokémon game and even more!

Really, there is so much ground to cover about the changes that have been made in everything from the designs to the music and beyond.  Not the battle system, which remains effectively the same - of course (Rotation and Triple battles join Single and Double battles, but the former two are not as common as the latter two) - though the changes in aesthetics (something which I don’t normally praise) have all been for the better and have helped bring the series fully into the modern era. It’s time to face some hard, cold facts, children – the original Pokémon games were revolutionary and brought about the phenomenon that we all know and love to varying degrees, but looking back on it it’s almost painful to look at now. 

It’s kind of like looking back in the high school yearbook at the girl you had a crush on and going “I thought she was hot?”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I love the old games.  A lot.  But you have to admit as far as looks went, they didn’t look all that impressive when they were new.  X and Y don’t have that problem.  The sprites look great and the environments really do as well.  After having played Black & White beforehand, it is interesting to see where the changes have come in the last four years.  If this weren’t at its core still a Pokémon game, I’d almost think I was playing something entirely different.

Some of the non-combat aspects of the game have changed as well.  X and Y, more than any other game that I’ve played before it, has a higher emphasis on the monetary system in the game.  Unlike the original Red and Blue – where Kanto had little in the way of entertainment beyond the Celadon Game Corner and – X and Y are filled with shops of various kinds beyond the simple Poké Mart or Department Store.  Clothing shops in particular can be found in almost every settlement and have a rotating selection of – what else? – Clothing! For the first time, your character doesn’t have to look like you just rummaged around blind in the closet of some athletic person.  Now you can look like you rummaged around blind in my closet…minus the fedoras, obviously.

Restaurants are also a thing in Lumiose City – basically the Celadon City of X and Y – though they come with timed battle events for each course.  This does help add to the immersion a bit, much like the economy taking more prominence beyond just buying items for battles and so on.

Okay, now down to the nitty-gritty.  There is a major change in Pokémon types that seems to have everyone’s panties in a bunch: the addition of the Fairy type.  This introduction has apparently unleashed a massive flustercuck within the fanbase.  Now, my job is to remain entirely unbiased and give a fair and complete review…so I’m going to ignore that first part and claim that we didn’t really need an extra type, we had Ice types to balance out Dragons, and I don’t really care either way because my Umbreon knows Iron Tail and will smack your Clefable in the face until it dies.  Ha! Take that, Serena, you smug-

…uh, yeah, so…let’s get into the plot.

Like every Pokémon game, you leave your hometown with a starter and a dream to be the best like no one ever was.  Like every Pokémon game, you travel around the world to battle at Pokémon Gyms in order to battle Gym Leaders and win Badges.  Like every Pokémon game, eventually you climb the steps to the Pokémon League and beat the Elite Four into a finely ground dust. And, of course, like every Pokémon game, you battle a criminal organization along the way.  That last one in particular has almost always added a different tone and variety to each game.  Team Rocket wanted to make profit off of Pokémon at all costs, Team Plasma wanted to be a gigantic PETA parody, so what might the current team – the rather not-so-dumbly named when you think about it – Team Flare want?

To kill everyone in the whole world.

That’s a bit of an overstatement.  In reality, Team Flare has the goal of making a “beautiful and better world”.  Their leader, Lysandre, is actually one of the more interesting antagonists of the series thus far.  Some might even call his goal very admirable – wanting to create a pure and clean world for everyone to enjoy – but it’s his method that really muddies it up.  He wants nothing to change, for beauty never to fade, and thus decides to dig up an ancient weapon that uses the power of a legendary deer or dragon Pokémon to wipe out everything.  Really, why doesn’t everybody just want to jump onboard with this plan?  It seems so sane.

But really, Lysandre is also arguably one of the more tragic antagonists as well.  In the endgame, you can encounter an NPC that mentions being a friend of Lysandre who was convinced of his noble intentions, just that Lysandre was unable to reconcile what he felt in his heart with what he perceived as humanity’s selfishness and stupidity and his own inability to see any other way to help bring it to an end.  Unlike other somewhat misguided antagonists, such as Giovanni and N, Lysandre does not receive some enlightenment from his interactions with the protagonist and isn’t left much to consider anything…because he dies.

Yeah, the games been out since October of 2013, so it doesn’t really count as a spoiler.  I suppose it’s possible that he survived, but if not this is the most literal case of “Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies” that I've ever seen.

Still don't get the reason for this outfit. Just throwing it out there...

Beyond the plot and beyond even the main game itself are the many online features of the game.  And, yes, for the first time I am actually going over the online features of a game.  Don’t expect it to become a recurring thing.  The Player Search System allows for players to connect over the internet for battling and trades.  Long gone are the olden days of two friends with their Game Boys putting to use the Link Cable (really, did any other game use that?) for battles and trades.  Now, all you need is an internet connection and the friend code from your friend’s 3DS and you can trade, battle, and so on.

Of course, you also have the Passerby feature, which brings up a random list of people with which you can do the same thing.  Just battling or trading with someone else puts them on your “Acquaintances” list and they can be picked once again for battles or trades.

And, because I know I’m going to be asked about it, the Wonder Trade has been heavily summed up in my Twitter feed, back in December.  But if you’re still wondering my opinion:

Not that it’s bad, but it’s flooded with nonsense 'Mons that no one actually wants because people are jerks to other people and actually want something other than people making more angry memes about the GTS.

And for those wanting comment on the GTS, you’re adorable.

Other features include the much touted Pokémon-Amie, which brings trainers closer to their pocket monsters than ever before.  You can pet them, feed them, and play mini-games with them.  And, with some of them, this can help with evolutions and the like.  Besides helping the immersion a bit, it also feeds back into the base gameplay, which is a big plus for me.

Mega Evolutions come into play for certain 'Mons, and they're pretty awesome.  There are some that didn't receive them that I think really should have, but who knows? Maybe Nintendo and Game Freak will deign to give those up in "Z" or in DLC.  We'll just have to wait and see.

In summation, however, Pokémon has gone on since 1998 and has barely changed at all.  It found its strong points early on and knew just what to change up and when as the need to do so became apparent, and X and Y continue that tradition.  The game has plenty of nostalgia trips for the older players as well, such as myself; hearing an old, familiar battle tune from days gone by when faced by Mewtwo in the Unknown Cave or against an Articuno that surprised me when I came upon it rummaging through the tall grass leveling.

While Black and White felt to me like a very alien world in comparison to the old games – brand new region and route numbering, and brand new Pokémon – this game feels like coming home again.  Yeah, the world is new and there’s even a few new Pokémon in the Kalos region, and yet it feels so familiar...and yet it feels so much more developed than you remembered it being.  It’s a game for kids, yes, but it’s clearly grown beyond the simple pixels on a screen that my generation grew up with.  It's come very far from its comparatively simple beginnings. 

And y’know what? That’s pretty good.

Pokémon X and Y is now available on Nintendo 3DS from Nintendo and Game Freak.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin