The Missed Opportunities of Pokémon X and Y

[@GireumRed]

It's finally here! Thank you all for your patience. I also finally finished reviewing all 3DS Pokemon mainline games, so if you want to continue the journey here's the ORAS review: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gma2qXuhp5ymfKM or SM Review: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYS0mpmPq8log8k 0:00 Intro 3:34 Part 1: Reputations, Incomplete, Parallels, and Reasoning 7:01 Part 2: Incomplete 10:42 Part 3: The Characters 14:28 Part 4: The Story 18:21 Part 5: Too Easy 21:02 Interlude 22:45 Part 6: The Graphics of Pokemon 28:49 Part 7: 3 Times 151 30:16 Part 8: The World that Game Freak Was Proud of 35:05 Part 9: So French 37:27 Part 10: My Dress Up Pokemon Trainer 41:16 Part 11: Mega Evolved 43:45 Part 12: Music 46:15 Part 13: Minor Things 49:49 Part 14: Looker Post Game Rant 53:22 Part 15: What Would Pokemon Z Be Like? 55:49 Conclusion

[@PL4SMA_807]

Can you do a review on pokemon sword?

[@brunolike8631]

Hey, Gireum, there is people spaming messages of "text me on telegram" in some comments, just sayin

[@LightskinSaiyan]

How do you not like Legends Arceus

[@brunolike8631]

@@LightskinSaiyan he said his opinions in his LA video

[@LightskinSaiyan]

@@brunolike8631 Oh. Imma watch that next then. Legends Arceus is great though I probably won’t agree.

[@zer0name720]

If Pokemon Z ever gets made, Diantha should unironically be made the most difficult champion in the series to get revenge on all of those who ever called her a pushover. Now that'd be a hella cool redemption arc

[@Garde_Mystik]

I don't think it's possible unless they gave Diantha a team of Uber-level legendary box arts. Kalos just has too much variety for an even-leveled match to work.

[@tyrannozilla1]

good luck with gen 9's Pokemon Shit and Vomit

[@zjzr08]

@@Garde_Mystik How does having a large Regional Dex (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about) affect that, I mean, I felt Iris was hard in B2W2 challenge mode, and she had half Dragon types in a 300 Regional Dex.

[@ShubhamSingh-xc9dq]

@@zjzr08 i feel like they are talking about players who don't play game on set mode. For them having type diverse team and having the option to know which Pokemon is going to be sent out next is very powerful. That's why people who are saying that Pokemon games are easy should always play games on set mode. Switch mode makes the game way to easy.

[@Garde_Mystik]

@@zjzr08 having a large regional dex with overall great/busted Pokémon leaves you with far more opportunities to get stacked than in games prior to this. You end up easily being able to have teams that prep for every threat. In Iris's case for example, both of Gen 5's endgames have all of their hardest boss fights carry a critical fighting type weakness, but BW is the most desolate game in terms of options and B2W2 doesn't leave you as stacked as XY+

[@error_404.69]

One thing about trainer customization that Kalos did better than future games is that they actually let you save outfits

[@madisonyomans9004]

I agree with you I believe since Kalos is based off France, which is also known as the fashion capital of the world, so X and Y did the fashion so much better later games I just feels mediocre at best.

[@Arko777777]

I feel bad for starters of generation 6. They didn't receive their generational gimmick of mega evolution and on top of that, you had Kanto nostalgia pandering starters that could mega evolve basically steal their thunder. It's so unfair.

[@TuesdaysArt]

At least Greninja became a fan favorite, one of the most beloved starter evolutions in the franchise

[@cesarcastillo7129]

@@TuesdaysArt can't say the same for the other 2 so it makes it way More unfair

[@TuesdaysArt]

@@cesarcastillo7129 Delphox maybe. Whatever the Chespin evolution is, absolutely hideous. The only bad starter design I can think of.

[@rishabhanand4973]

@@TuesdaysArt which sucks because I’ve seen fan art of chesnaught that looks more true to its previous stages that actually looks really good. Same with delphox and greninja. Tbh while I didn’t hate them I wasn’t big on any of their designs

[@EmeralBookwise]

The entire point of Mega Evolution as a game mechanic was to refresh and invigorate older Pokémon. It would have been entirely antithetical to give the Kalos starters megas, and in fact is why excluding Diancie in OR/AS, no gen-6 Pokémon has a mega. Heck, even gen-5 likewise only got a single mega, because they were all similarly too new to need a refresh yet. It also wasn't really Kanto "pandering" yet, as outside of remakes, X/Y was pretty much the first game in the franchise to put any emphasis at all on nostalgia.

[@Nameless_mixes]

One of my absolutely favorite features of XY battles is that in some backgrounds, if you use a spread move and there’s a berry tree in the background, the berries will fall and you’ll collect them at the end! It was such a cool mechanic that I wish was implemented more often to make the sceneries feel alive 💕

[@barbershopbible]

And it would break rocks in caves!

[@zjzr08]

I agree, just wished that it was clearer said to us how to do it, plus more moves to interact with those, too.

[@Nameless_mixes]

@@zjzr08 THIS!!! I love exploring and finding out cool features. But I hate learning that people didn’t even know that small stuff like this existed. It should be more commonly known.

[@toolatetothestory]

I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS A FEATURE WHAT

[@Nameless_mixes]

@@toolatetothestory I don’t even think that NPCs mention it. You’re supposed to just accidentally figure it out for yourself 😫

[@recycledMilk]

i am 100000000% with you on the graphics department.. gen 6 was confident in its art direction and knew how to exectue its artstyle. i dont mind the chibi overworld bc the overworld was scaled in the same chibi-way and the world somehow lost a lot of its charme and life ever since "sizing" everythign up to be more realistic in later gens.

[@darkionx]

Pokemon went too real sized for the mainline games, the name is pokemon pocket monster for god sake. They need to go back to roots.

[@diamonshade7484]

​@@darkionxBDSP 🤢

[@Diabrorojo]

​@@diamonshade7484 that sh*t has nothing to do with the chibi art style of XY

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

​@@diamonshade7484It's funny people hate the BDSP chibis but like them in 2d

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

​@@darkionxDumb opinion

[@HMMadsen]

54:40 I think the anime gives us some idea of what that backstory would've been. If I remember correctly, Lysandre in the anime originally created Team Flare as some sort of health aid like organisation with the goal of helping people in need by giving them food and other supplies. However, as time went on, the people that Team Flare aided started to take that help for granted, became greedy, and demanded even more supplies. This then fucked up Lysandre's perception of the modern people, as he tried to be selfless and help those in need only for those people to then turn selfish and demand further aid with no gratitude whatsoever. Therefore he started to see that selfish attitude as an ugly side of modern humans which needed to be cleansed in order to return to its original beauty of selflessness

[@juanma250297]

Doesn’t make Lysandre any less of a psychopath, choosing to wipe out millions is never the answer

[@BuizelCream]

@@juanma250297 It is the point. It makes Lysandre have more dimensions, while as a villain.

[@flarestorm9417]

When you add that context in and look at Lysandre's character as an amalgamation of his different interpretations, he has what he needs to be a compelling antagonist. He does suffer from being way too obvious of a villain design-wise and dialogue-wise (though Pokémon's never really been that subtle when it comes to their "twist villains"), as well as living in the utopian-esque Pokémon world, but he has the tools needed to actually be a flawed and somewhat tragic villain, albeit not a super original one. However, the game just does not give him and Team Flare the time and writing needed to actually be good antagonists in any capacity. And just to elaborate on the "utopian Pokémon world" bit I mentioned, Pokémon has a problem where they don't want to show proper cases of social ills and evils beyond the incompetent evil teams. They mention things like poverty, overpopulation, abuse, etc., but the world is all colourful and lacking proper evidence of these themes in most cases. For example, if they showed cases of towns being rundown or having too many people due to mismanagement of resources Lysandre's motivations would be better founded, but they don't do that most of the time, and their "heroic villains" all suffer because of it.

[@bibitta]

I just remember that I really enjoyed that that one elite four member was a part of team flare. It gave me the impression that it was like a real organization of like intellectuals that just kinda went a bit crazy

[@EmeralBookwise]

@@flarestorm9417: The problem of Pokémon alluding to real world problems without ever showing them sorta all comes to a head two generations later when we have Chairman Rose all riled up over not even an immediately pending energy crisis, but rather the potential for one HUNDREDS of years in the future. Even in the games alone, Lysander's motivations are more sensible than that, albeit still pretty one-dimensional. I suppose Sun/Moon deserve a shout out for the inclusion of Po Town and showcasing Team Skull less as villains, but rather as societal outcasts living in squaller and who turn to crime just to survive.

[@Neopets4Life494]

I LOVED the clothing options in XY. There was just so much for the female trainer and i just loved mixing and matching stuff. But when S/M/US/UM and SWSH came out with their customizations i was so disaapointed at the lack of variety. Especially when it came to SWSH's gym costumes not being reflected on the trainer model in the leader battles. Gen 6 is my second favorite Gen (tied with gen 2. it's really close), with Gen 3 (Emerald) being my favorite.

[@trxxblx-wxs-hxrx]

As someone who typically plays the male on my first run, then female to make good and fleshed out teams,the XY fem protagonist has SO MUCH swag it’s unreal. There’s time I go back to play and I’m like “dayyum my character fine asf” esp when you see their clothing in battle 😭😂

[@EmeralBookwise]

X/Y really put the custom in customization. All the different combinations of outfit options are so much more unique and expressive. The options in subsequent games have felt more like they were overly restrictive to a singular theme. I mean, there weren't even any full-length pants in Sun/Moon because everything had to be tropical... and while that's maybe "immersive" for most of the game, it feels distinctly out of place for the final journey up a frozen mountain.

[@Silburific]

The clothes in XY were 99% of the reason I kept playing that game. I didn't care about the story or characters or pokemon- I cared about buying every article of clothing that looked nice. Every time I went to a new city, I would change my outfit to fit the vibe. Looking fly AF and rollerblading around Lumiose City was legit the most fun I had playing a 3D pokemon game.

[@jpruedag]

@@EmeralBookwise And then you get to Paldea and have the amazing opportunity of customizing... socks, shoes and gloves!

[@EmeralBookwise]

@@jpruedag: Yeah, S/V have by far the most restrictive character customization yet. Even if everything had to be School uniform related, I think they could have still offered up a few more base variations of that uniform than just 4.

[@NarvikC]

I personally really liked the 2D artwork for battles, I felt like it added a lot of character that the 3D models were really missing.

[@amesstarline5482]

It also feels like a natural progression from N's farewell and the Xtransciever, resembling a visual novel like Danganronpa or a dating sim. Hence the outlines, hence the lighting.

[@positivea9111]

Yeah but the problem about it in my opinion is that when they lose they don’t have a losing sprite, like they sad I’m sad but show them smiling it very distracting.

[@robertlupa8273]

@@positivea9111 Same issue with a few 3D models (like the Eevee Girl from SwSh), though I think it's much rarer because they actually _have_ a separeate losing animation. It's just that some losing quotes aren't as negative.

[@D-Havoc]

@@robertlupa8273 But if Sun and Moon is any indicator, they have more potential to do losing animations with 3D models.

[@D-Havoc]

A static image is quite hard to claim that it adds character if there's no difference between winning or losing animations. They at least did that in Sun and Moon. Not to mention you have interesting 3D models like Lusamine being fused to a Nihiligo.

[@jovilla2161]

Here’s a theory of mine. Ash-Greninja came into play while Z was being planned. Ash-Greninja would be canonized as a Greninja Mega Evolution and the other 2 Kalos starters would get megas as well. Here’s the kicker, you see how Greninja’s form matches Ash’s clothes? Well, Greninja (and the other starters as well) would match the color scheme of the clothes your main character is wearing. This makes sense since X&Y focused heavily on character customization. ‬

[@seineevee]

It would’ve been cool if the bond evolution also took the Player’s name, as in [Player]-[Starter]. The Pokemon Amie could’ve also played into it, with lower/higher hearts affecting whether there’s recoil damage? Though that might be tedious.

[@ironpulcinella3586]

Ash-greninja is not a true mage Evo.

[@jovilla2161]

@@ironpulcinella3586 i didnt say it was, my guy. I said the intention was probably there with that form before being scrapped. It’s a theory.

[@Alex_Barbosa]

@@ironpulcinella3586 it's basically the same with the same stat boost and form change, its just the ways if accessing it are different. But it was 100% designed to mirror mega evolution, in the same way primal Groudon and Kyogre were.

[@justincrackedatfortnite9691]

kinda iffy tbh if it was a form exclusive to only one outfit as compared to ash greninja wouldn’t that mean you’d have to play in only the ONE outfit?

[@obits3]

Here’s the thing about X & Y: Rotate your team. More than any other generation, the four generation 6 games wanted you to complete the national dex. ORAS even included a tracker to tell you if you’ve caught everything in an area. The exp share works great for this purpose. If you aren’t rotating, then turn off exp share.

[@GireumRed]

Really interesting take, never thought about that

[@zjzr08]

While true it does encourage rotating, it seems a bit forced on design, and unbalanced if that isn't your playstyle; not sure why not just go 50:10:10:10:10:10 ratio when using Exp Share? EDIT: Few weeks after I even have a BETTER idea...they could've assigned if a Pokemon in your party should have an Exp Share equipped or not (it's available for all of them at once), but it will always make sure that the battling Pokemon(s) in total would have twice the Exp someone that has the Exp Share toggled on would have. Pardon the math, but it will be Active Pokemon Exp = 2x ÷ (y + 2) ÷ z Exp Shared Pokemon Exp = x ÷ (y + 2) x is the total exp you get from a Pokemon, y is the number of Pokemon that's using Exp Share (still counted if active), z is the number of active Pokemon that has battled.

[@Aibadenshi]

Yeah but when nearly 90% just stick with starter and what they like this doesn't hold up too well.

[@cubedmelons876]

That's actually how my first playthrough was. By the end I had around half a box of Pokemon around the low 50s. The game definitely wasn't just "Spam A to win" at that point.

[@laststep56]

The problem with this is thats your only choice to have a balanced gameplay experience. Instead of giving you options they forced you to play either with overpowered mons or constantly switching.

[@amm2media472]

I am not going to lie, I absolutely love Pokemon X and Y, and dare I say it, it's my favorite Pokemon game of all time.

[@DRFESTERPUS69]

Mine is ORAS

[@MadManMicruhwayve]

Same x and y top tier

[@Nazareth69420]

Hg/ss is my #1 just because of the amount of things to do. Also 10/10

[@malikmcdowell7006]

X and y is my fav

[@danoneime9872]

Sameeee, it has its flaws but I love it. That’s why I’m even more mad about the missed opportunities of this Gen

[@grayblacklight560]

Straight up, when I play x and y for the first time I forgot about the lab assistants so fast that when I saw them in costume for the first time, where it's supposed to be really obvious who they are, I assumed that they were team rocket.

[@zach415]

Prepare for trouble And make it double

[@LloydVerner]

they were just protecting the world from devastation.

[@completetechheads]

X and Y will always have a special place in my heart, I was super into gen 4 but then missed out on gen 5. Got back into pokemon with a black and blue 2DS and copy of X version and it was just so awesome, using the PSS, GTS, hunting shiny pokemon in the different "friend safaris" and all the cool leaks like mega latios/latias, it just felt like a really fun time in the community that i've not had with Pokemon since, although ORAS was great obviously! Really hoping some 3DS rom hackers might one day be able to give us a complete Z version the way gamefreak likely would have done it. Then I'll finally be able to sleep at night lol

[@yeetskeet3]

The amount of times I’ve heard that first line😂

[@nullobjecttype]

Personally, ive always thought x and y had the most potential to be one of the greatest games. Even more so than SM/USUM or SwSh. It felt like at the time there was an entire half chunk of the game missing, especially stuff relsting to southern kalos.

[@indecisivewolf5620]

I always say that it's never too late for Pokémon Z. They can still make it someday. Hell, even if in about 10 years when we get the inevitable gen 6 remakes, maybe they can do a Delta episode-esque thing in the endgame featuring Zygarde and include everything they had planned originally for X and Y. It would be the games finally coming full circle and getting the treatment they deserved. I truly believe that besides the gen 4 remakes, that a third version for gen 6 is the most wanted game among Pokémon fans. Hell, it would be a dream come true to get not only Z but a third version or sequel for Sword and Shield as well. I know it seems like insanity but I can keep dreaming.

[@kingpz9739]

Im pretty sure they aware they coulda done more with Kalos, and im pretty sure we finna get xy remakes or sequel someday

[@flowersinawasteland]

too much effort for game freak

[@nightelfuser]

Keep in mind, current GF will not give you the Z version that completes XY. I think we're better off not seeing any gen 6 remake.

[@yoinks2830]

if they get there shit together then maybe

[@c0mpu73rguy]

They won't. Cry.

[@jayplay8869]

The battling in gen 6 was the absolute best it ever got.

[@c0mpu73rguy]

... With the Gym Leaders not having more than 3 pokemon? Sure it was.

[@sanssmash9183]

That iconic melody at 3:21 is probably the last time I got ‘pokemon vibes’ from a Pokémon game/region, every gen after that has something missing that I can’t put my finger on.

[@MohammadAce]

Felt it down my bones

[@GumCow]

It's in pretty much every intro, except for gen 9 I think

[@JabariMore]

What this video made me realize was that Journey's surprisingly put a lot of attention to detail with Serena's new character design.

[@seineevee]

Yeah, they did

[@natalimoina]

surprisingly?

[@jgr7487]

I'm so nostalgic for that hype season! we had high hopes for the future of Pkmn, but, now, it's just "what will the new gimmick look like? and what will they take away? and how many corners will be cut?"

[@bitterzombie]

I think the rivals could have worked if they continued the different battle types they explored in previous games. Callum/Serena could be standard single battles, Trevor & Tierno could do double battles. Shauna could have done rotation or triple battles. If they split up the scripted battles it would be more interesting too, instead of hitting you with one after another. Instead of them being a group all the time, they should just start together and split up, only gathering together at the plot climax and at the end of the game. It would actually help the world feel more active and inhabited, like there are other kids on their journeys too. But the forced bffs thing is really just awkward. Real friends all have their own lives still and these characters were super flat

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

Not like Pokemon has ever done rivals well lol

[@PK_HH]

N​@@ChangedMyNameFinally69

[@zoeeatspaper]

I always interpreted it as different play styles. Serena/Callum being counterparts were meant to represent the player, taking on the gym quest and trying to beat the champion. Shauna doesn’t care about whats powerful, she’ll hustle use the cutest pokemon. Trevor’s trying to complete the dex asap, and Tierno doesn’t really represent one, but he’s definitely expressing his interest in dance through his pokemon. None of them ever really were best friends though, they were just all close from growing up in the same town.

[@zjzr08]

​@@ChangedMyNameFinally69It's hard to argue Blue and Silver weren't great rivals and that N was at least interesting (plus Bianca also has an interesting story development).

[@ChangedMyNameFinally69]

@@zjzr08 They're great for their personalities and somewhat difficult teams, but they don't really develop as people properly. I understand that was due to technical limitations at the time, but still. Blue stays a little shit the entire time, mostly because he never leaves the League, but even in the remakes where he does you don't see how your defeat of him changes him, and in the sequels he's still a bit of a dick. Sad they never seemed to focus on the undertone that Blue is probably jealous of the praise Oak gives Red (the opposite of Gary and Ash's dynamic), over his own flesh and blood. Silver has more going on, especially in the remakes where a little more is given to show his redemption and backstory. I just wish his defeat at Victory Road felt more impactful to show both your training style and Lance's words finally reached him (he should've met Karen too). N has too much dialogue that's just him going on about truth and ideals or talking about how cool he thinks dragons are, and then he changes his philosophy at the last minute THE MOMENT he sees anything that could contradict it, which is like the only Pokemon we've ever seen that actually wants to be caught. Let's not even get started on the wonky moral messages of Gen 5. All are still better than the wet blankets or pushover simps of the other generations though, I'll admit. But Gladion was kinda cool.

[@nanashivii9237]

It's clear that GameFreak have struggled with the concept of rivals and their place as a gameplay device since RSE. However, I feel like they struck gold with the idea of a friend group in XY, but failed to deliver on it. Thinking about it, each of the friends were meant to "mentor" and test you in each facet of the game individually. Calem/Serena filled the role of the traditional rival character meant to push your competitive battling ability, showcasing different tactics and making sure you met certain benchmarks. Trevor was meant to be the statistical one who could've competed with you in filling out the PokeDex, pushing you to explore each region of Kalos and catch as much as possible. He could've even taught you how to utilise the improved Gen 6 breeding and training mechanics to help you raise and optimize the strongest team possible. Tierno could've been your Contest companion if they had actually gotten around to implementing that in this game (arguably the most fitting region for it to make a comeback as a parallel system to battling). And finally Shauna could've been your best friend and travel buddy who accompanied you on little side quests and shopping (since fashion and customisation was a new addition in this generation) and helped you build bonds with your Pokemon with Amie. Like I said, the groundwork was there but they failed to realise all of this and they all fell flat except for Shauna, whose cutscene as you pointed out was probably the most memorable part of the game because it was a glimpse of what we could've had. As for the Gym Leaders, you're right on the money. They were seriously inconsequential apart from Korrina, who -- again -- was only memorable because of her significance to mega evolution and her giving you arguably the most OP Pokemon for free. It would've been really nice to have seen all the Gym Leaders out in the world and being able to interact with them or have a little story arc instead of the wack ass challenges we got with SV. For example, Ramos out in one of the many beautiful gardens of Kalos carefully manicuring a topiary bush into the shape of a Pokemon and you can help him out with a Pokemon of your own that knows Cut. Or helping Valerie find inspiration for her next pattern design or featuring in a fashion show. The truth is, Pokemon relies on other facets of the franchise to pick up the slack in this department. For instance, movies tend to concern mythicals that usually only get a static encounter in the games. And the anime really picked up with XY, which was the main avenue for character development and backstory, which the games were lacking. For whatever reason, they want the franchise to be viewed as a single product rather than each aspect standing up on its merits alone. I find that part the hardest to grapple with.

[@zjzr08]

That last part isn't surprising when to complete even a regional dex you need more than 1 game...even mainline features present in past games are also segregated now.

[@natalimoina]

The anime didn't have good character development and backstory, more like regression and inconsistencies. Even the games are more polished.

[@chrisgarbutt1893]

God I miss Gen 6 so much. It felt like the last time Gamefreak truly cared about the franchise until the insane logistics of handling the franchise with little development time and Pokemon Go mindset killed the innovation and passion of old Gamefreak. The beauty of Kalos is unmatched and it introduced my favorite Pokemon Delphox.

[@IPlayGamesMate]

@Caped Baldy everyone has different opinions ;-;

[@eleonoradelpiano8635]

@Caped Baldy F tier opinion lol

[@artimist0315]

@Caped Baldy I don't love Delphox either but I think it is really over hated, despite looking more humanoid it still behaves and have the feature of a pokemon specie, what I hate about the new designs is that they often end up being human characters with a set personality, or even emotions, they stopped being blank slates on which you can project your own story and are now just characters. Your incineroar and cinderace will always be show off that like catch and football, your primarina a sweat mermaid with a haircut, your inteleon an overly smug looking spy. I like that the gen 6 starters are still beleivable as "wild" creatures that aren't defined by their species bit the story you have with them. That's why I don't hate delphox, it still looks like a Pokémon to me, it doesn't look overly cartoonish like gen 7 and 8 starters. What made me appreciate delphox more were the XY welcome to kalos and XY TCG cards, it shows more it's qualities as an actual Pokémon and less as a furry bait

[@NicoLetterio]

@Caped Baldy I agree with you. Overall, I think it would be better if they played it safe with the starters. I'm not asking for such designs to be removed because some people like them, but they should strive to make designs that everyone can enjoy for the most important Pokémon.

[@pickedceasar1216]

Nah gen 6 was definitely the region they stopped giving a fuck. Gen 5 was the last time they out effort in on all fronts instead of going for a rush job

[@LightskinSaiyan]

Thank you for reminding me how great XY’s music is. Best route music in the entire series IMO. I really want to see XY with all of its filled potential. Keep all of the good things and improve the bad things that’s all they need to do.

[@commonviewer2488]

This game made it so easy to connect with real people online. You could make open challenges, request trades, share O-Powers, all while never slowing down the main game.

[@blackbullet4254]

That's why PSS is the best communication system in Pokemon games, l loved how easy and fun it was to use and interact with online people

[@AdminAbuse]

@@blackbullet4254 "communist" lmfao

[@blackbullet4254]

@@AdminAbuse My keyboard was capping 💀

[@rockfan243]

Honestly it's kinda sad the starter of gen 6 never got megas ....I mean it's their region.

[@septua]

Can't wait to watch this. X and Y were my first games after taking a break the entire DS era from gaming. When that opening song hit me, I had never played a modern pk game.. It took me right back to my GB pocket and blue version... And thus became some of my faves just for rekindling my love for pokemon and introducing me to ds/3ds era

[@NorrisJonesYT]

Don’t worry, this game will be loved in 2 years.

[@lumeronswift]

Exact same here... really wish they'd spent more time on this gen and actually released Pokemon Z.

[@TomboyGamerGal]

47:40 I disagree. Delphox being part Psychic-Type (or Dark-Type) fits it better as it's supposed to be a mage/witch. If it was a part Fairy, then it should be based off a cleric. And I think Fairy-Types is a suited name since Fairies and Dragons do have a relation in fairy tales. Anyways-- great review. This game is aesthetically nice for a 3DS game since it's based off of France and people look at France as beautiful, but it needed a third version or better-- a sequel badly. Sad that it got shafted for Sun and Moon cause of the 3 year period and the fact that it was Pokemon's 20th birthday back in 2016. It's sad that this game was rushed that they didn't even have time to create a proper post-game.

[@zjzr08]

Yeah, I agree Delphox being part-Psychic makes sense for a mage, and also completes the secondary Fighting-Dark-Psychic circle, which I think is the thing they're going for (although interestingly makes them have 2 weaknesses and not having a counter, unlike what Sinnoh tried).

[@distinguisheddrei7036]

Kalos was amazing at the time because I don't think people were expecting Pokemon to work so well in 3d on handheld. It's been improved since, but seeing Pokemon battle in 3d for a mainline entry was fascinating in x/y

[@yukimav_stories]

It was really nice review. I have a new perspective for these gen 6 games. It was a pleasure to help you with the backgrounds.

[@D-Havoc]

Malva being a member of Team Flare is fine as a post game revelation. Finding out she's a member during the main story would call into question how she manage to maintain her position in the Elite Four and your Holo-cast Reporter. That's not to say they can't hint at Team Flare having someone on the inside providing them valuable intel, but not outright tell us it's her until after we battle her and Team Flare break up.

[@TempoKong]

Okay, actual French person here. Let me share quick and unorganized thoughts about Kalos: XY does a "decent" job as portraying France, but only the north of it. Kalos South is a meme in the community, but in France this is way more true. Many of France's most famous cities (Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Cannes, Nice, and the world's perfume capital Grasse, where I live) are absent. Also, some of the French names are really bad. Snowbelle City is translated to Auffrac-les-Congères, which is a really strange choice, it feels more like a parody. I think Kalos is based on the four seasons: you start in spring, then summer, then fall, then winter, and you loop to spring. It's a neat touch. Lumiose is obviously based on a very romantized version of Paris, in real life the place is really poluted (the mayor is litteraly cutting trees under the Eiffel Tower lmao). I don't think Kalos is a good France, but it is a good romantized version of France. I think what is the worst thing about the south missing is that you don't have the best thing about France's culture: lavender fields. The aquarium in Ambrette Town is based on the Aquarium La Rochelle.

[@TempoKong]

also I love how you mention girls can wear skirts and pant, but in real life women weren't allowed to wear pants in Paris until 2010

[@zjzr08]

@@TempoKong What in the world, even in 2010, hehe.

[@GireumRed]

Bruh

[@oceanman6973]

@@TempoKong where did you get that from 💀

[@TempoKong]

@@oceanman6973 it's a well known fact

[@thebedroombotanist6450]

They really missed the opportunity to have XYZ to be the first games on the 3DS, XZY plane, 3D. What a wasted opportunity

[@dylans.1741]

I've actually been trying my hand at writing a fan-made sequel to X and Y to address some of the faults of the games. It's a long way from completion, but I have a lot of ideas for where the story could go

[@halo129830]

Well I’ve worked on modifying the trainers and some encounters on routes using tools for Pokémon games. I just make the game harder I’m boring so if you could get a story fixed I’m sure one day someone will go and make a fan game.

[@dylans.1741]

@@halo129830 It's funny you say that, because I was originally writing my script like a video game, but I abandoned that idea due to not knowing how to code. But if someone were to make a fan game out of my script, that would be awesome

[@halo129830]

@@dylans.1741 I bet someone will pick up the baton and use it if it is good enough if you have the story posted somewhere just post the website and name and I’ll look at it.

[@dylans.1741]

@@halo129830 What I might do is create a personal website on which to release the material

[@lostanguishbladelord2461]

1) There was no Pokémon Z despite being teased about it in the anime - so all of Zygardes and Ash - Greninja shenanigans was relegated to Sun & Moon. 2) They didn't give out nearly enough Mega Evolutions: Venusaur (Dark/Poison), Blastoise (Water/Steel), Aggron (Steel/Dragon), Durant (Bug/Steel), Heatmor (Fire/Steel), Haxorus (Dragon + Fire/Ice/Electric/Steel), Beartic (Ice + Water or Fight or Steel), Beheeyem (Psychic/Steel), Scrafty (Dark/Fight), Toxicroak (Poison/Fight) Wailord (Water + Flying/Steel), Luxray (Electric/Dark), Huntail (Water/Dark), Gorebyss (Water/Psychic), Walrein (Ice/Water), "Girafarig", "Bisharp", "Basculin", Sudowoodo (Rock/Electric), Sunflora (Grass/Electric) 3) They introduced the fairy type - something that only the weak trainers who used early game catches with no real strategy, who were a very vocal minority wanted. Plus they made it the "pink type" and slapped it on to a bunch of mon that didn't quite needed. And they should have called it the mystic or joker type. 4) The rivals were really semi-lame friends; and they were weak and a waste of time. 5) There were no trainer/gym leader/ elite 4 enhanced re-battles 6) The Friend Safari while good, could have used some tweaking - one does not need to have 12 water zones. 7) Team Flare was too weak 8) There was too much unused space that could've been used for routes and new areas. 9) Not enough new Pokémon 10) The ice and psychic gym leaders should've been switched 11) There was not enough padding between the last 5 gym leaders 12) Only 2 gym leaders and the weakest champion ever use Mega Evolution 13) They made Sylveon by itself, like where's the Dragon, Poison, or Steel Eeveelution 14) Lack of post game 15) Mewtwo's hiding place was pathetic, there should have been a long arduous cave system with lots of Wild, High Leveled, Fully Evolved Pokémon 16) Lack of hard mode, overworld phenomena (like BW did to get things like Milotic, Kingdra, Metagross, Tyranitar, Steelix, Politoed, Slowking, Qwilfish etc) lack of fun side missions to get items 17) No new non Über legendary duo/trio/quartet/quintet 18) The Swords of Justice were not added and no new fifth member was made 19) No (outbreaks of) Pokemon that already weren't available in the base game. like how did your rival have a Clefairy. Like fairy friend safaris are hard to come by. 20) The fairy type is too OP, like Bug, Ice and Rock should resist it and Dark, Ghost, Bug should have also been super effective against it. 21) Gogoat, Heliolisk and Avalugg look like they should evolve again 22) Carbink doesn't evolve into Diancie or is at least an integral part into getting it in the base game 23) A good handful of pokemon of gen 7 feel like they should have been in gen 6 24) They should have given both the EXP share & EXP all 25) No postgame super dungeon/ forest/ ruin/ tower 26) They should've let Aromatisse and Slurpuff evolve at level 40, (how are you gonna promote a new type when you have to go through Hoopa's hoops to get most of them) and use their evolution item instead to boost stats of non-legendary fairy types (attack and special defense + defense and special attack)

[@catherinedavies7810]

she's the only character that actually poses an argument against Lysandre's anti-beauty genocide, the little movies should have been expanded or polestar studios could have returned for it to make sense why Diantha is based off of Audrey Hepburn, etc.. I really like Diantha in theory and I don't actually have a problem with her being Audrey Hepburn inspired because even if she's not explicitly French she's at least in theme with other character being inspired by 20th century stuff. Lysandre, for instance, is loosely based off a collection of 20th century aesthetics all from different place. He has a mass weapon of destruction that's meant to be an analogue for an atomic bomb, he plans to wipe out anyone who doesn't meet what he considers beautiful (which is a very rudimentary form of fascism which is defined as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition". He plans to do this stuff after he ends the world, and his planned killing of Pokemon because they can be used as a form of opposition to him only further supports this), he operates in France and in the anime (If I'm correct) takes it over (like a certain mustache wearing German man), etc. The main problem with this is that nothing in the game that Team Flare does is explained for how it lines up with their goals so there's no lead-up (The Windmill place thing in DP being very similar to the power plant thing in XY for why its bad for the story) and that Team flare (as was pointed out) is very very very boring. But suffice it to say, this is why I don't really have an issue with Diantha not being from France, she still exists within the aesthetics of the mid 20th century. (Also Diantha, Lysandre and Sycamore make a much more interesting trio than Sonia, Raihan and Leon in Swsh because they're all actually interesting and I wish that we got more about how they all knew each other before the events of the story or even just more of Diantha. Also, apparently they made B2W2 at the same time so that could also explain why the games story is so shit.)

[@jcwasheregt]

I've replayed Pokemon X quite a few times cause I really enjoy it. I do wish it would have been delayed a bit for fall of 2013, still I do enjoy the mechanics and how accessible it was for introducing more people to competitive pokemon.

[@Oceane1803]

As a french person and a X and Y fan, this hurts to hear, but mostly because of how true it is. But I tend to see the unused potential, and it's not the characters that are bad, it's the writing. For exemple, Shauna. Yeah she's all bubbly and all, but during the Team Flare lab segment, she arrives and says something around the lines of "Wait for me, I'm not useless !" To me, this shows that despite her talking about simply wanting to make memories and stuff, deep down, she has self esteem issues and feels like a burden. And this would have been great if they slightly hinted at this throughout the story and interactions with her, only to show her go full no self esteem when the world is in danger. Also, make her solve the puzzle that locks the door to the Ultimate Weapon herself instead of using Clemont's invention. She keeps bragging on the fact that she's a puzzle expert so show us that. Solving that puzzle all on her own and basically helping save the world would make her self esteem better, and conclude her character arc. Trevor is pretty shy, and could have been a relatable character for introverts like me. The Pokemon world is al about battling. People always talk about Pokemon battles in the Pokemon World. So the fact that Trevor focuses on the Pokedex and doesn't really care about battles would make him a bit of an outcast. His story and development would make him learn that it's okay to be different. And it would work well with the idea of making him relatable. Tierno doesn't have much to himself except his passion for dance, and I think it would be unnecessary to make him go through character development. Instead, I think that he could congratulate us each time we beat a Gym with a dance with his team. Each time we beat a Gym, his team grows bigger and the dance gets more complex, until we beat the League where Sycamore asks him and his team to perform professionally during the big parade at the end. And finally, Kalem/Serena. They are all about their rivalry with us, and it's likely because of the pressure put on him as a trainer since their parents are famous and talented trainers, and they feel like they have to be the best in order to live up to their parents' legacy. I don't know how their character development would go, but basically, they would learn to chill and be less competitive all of the time. They wouldn't stop being battlers like Hop did, but they would learn to enjoy their time with their Pokemon more, and become better trainers as a result as well. Maybe they could have a different animation at the beginning of their final fight, showing their development like Wally did in RoSa. Now Lysander. He doesn't just want beauty. He clearly cares about Pokemon. But he thinks that humans limit their potential and hold them back. He thinks humans are a threat to Pokemon's well being (which isn't entirely false in some cases). He wants the best for the Pokemon he loves so much. He wants the Pokemon to live in a better world. But for that, he also has to sacrifice a lot of them in order to power the Ultimate Weapon and be the victim of the Ultimate Weapon firing. He's really torn between his different ideals. Of course he's wrong to want to destroy humanity and his ways are horrible to the point where even it makes him cry to do it, but he just wants a better world. If he wasn't so extreme, in another world, he could be a good person. Actually working to make the world a better place. Well actually, he tried that at first. But he quickly realized that his efforts were in vain against an ungrateful society. And Sycamore also says that maybe he was right. Not to want to destroy everything of course. But that by playing by society's rules, we won't be able to bring some necessary changes to the world we live in, and that we have to push it ourselves in order to make the world a better place. That it's our duty as humans to make our world a better place. I think. I don't remember what the exact moral was, but it was something around these lines and it was pretty cool. Pokemon X and Y also introduced the coolest, darkest, deepest, most mysterious and most interesting concept in the whole Pokemon franchise : Pokemon Life Force, and it only gets expanded in the future games if you know where to look. The implications of Pokemon Life Force are pretty dark. For example, in RoSa, Mr. Stone tells us that his company studied the Ultimate Weapon and used the same energy source for basically everything they create. That's Pokemon Life Force (even though they call it Infinity Energy), that can only be obtained by draining it from Pokemon directly. It's an extremely painful process that can lead to the Pokemon's death. It's also implied with the Pokemon attached to the stones of Route 10, as the stones are exactly where the Pokemon got drained of their Life Force 3 000 years ago and are therefore linked to the weapon. And that's why Team Flare prevents us from accessing Route 10, as one of the grunts even desesperately tries to ignore the horrible cries of pain from the Pokemon there. And since Devon make Poke Balls, I'm pretty sure the energy source for those is Pokemon Life Force. Which is awful. Poke Balls are massively produced worldwide. How many Pokemon are sacrificed daily for Poke Balls to be commercialized ? I'm also wondering about the Sylph since they're the ones who mechanized Poke Balls in the first place. Basically, it's not the characters and lore that are bad, it's the writing and what's done with them. Also whaat ?? I loved the Looker episode. I like Emma's character a lot and Essentia is such a cool concept. Honestly, I would 100% trade Detective Pikachu for a full game where you play as Emma and solve mysteries and crimes in Lumiose. I personally believe that a Scarlet and Violet DLC will give us access to Kalos since the regions are definitly connected and fix a lot of X and Y's missed potential. I can't wait for that to happen. Wow sorry that was long, but I guess that I, too, talk a lot when invested into a subject ^^'

[@thatsideofyoutbe]

Wow

[@Oceane1803]

Did you find this interesting ?

[@anouar4664]

Not that it mattered you were french lmao

[@Oceane1803]

@Anouar It matters to me because Kalos is the region based on the country I live in. For example, people who live in Great Britain have their entire country made into a Pokemon region, with cool lore and legends surrounding it. But we in France can't explore the entirety of the south of our region and we lack an entire part of the lore of the region with nothing much about Zygarde, Hoopa, Volcanion and Diancie. It's annoying to not be able to explore around half of the region, and obviously out of all the places it could happen into, it had to be into the Pokemon version of the country I live in and only this one. All the others are fully explorable. Hopefully the Scarlet and Violet DLC will fix this.

[@jhkuno88]

Lol this might be the longest post ive ever seen on KZbin ever

[@artimist0315]

Actually it was confirmed that Flygon was getting a mega evolution for the ORAS character Aarune, but they couldn't came up with a satisfying design so they didn't make it. On one hand it is a bit frustrating but it shows that at this time coming up with a satisfying design was necessary for it to be released and I think you can see that with the new gen 6 designs. I don't really think Game freak would do the same now considering how unfinished some of the new designs are. I think that this artistic block was the proof that they really cared about what get released.

[@zjzr08]

While I understand it's a likely reason, frankly the Megas aren't as crazy of a design difference from the regular forms, that I don't think it would've been that hard to design new Megas IMO.

[@artimist0315]

@@zjzr08 Well for me it proves they were REALLY paying attention at what gets released as an official design with high standards. Yes it is "easy" to design a mega evolution, but to make it satisfying for the fan of the Pokémon , cool and coherent with the marketing and make it an interesting concept that brings something to mega evolution is the challenge. That's what differentiates fan art/passion project and commercial art, they have to keep in mind their brand image and public when designing something and that's really constraining. The fact that they preferred doing nothing rather than releasing an unsatisfactory design is a proof that they cared. They could have released a spiky flygon with random details and call it a mega and I agree this is extremely easy to do for any professional artist but that's the fact that this is so easy to do that them not going the easy way is really telling of their dedication.

[@porqpine53]

My favorite weird bit of writing was when you wake up after the grand parade at the end and your mom is like “I saw you on the TV! Professor really put a lot of effort into bringing people together for that”…..why tf weren’t YOU there MOM???

[@kanorga6088]

dude you literally dont miss on pokemon opinions, seems like you are the only person i see to have the same way of thinking when it comes to these games. thank you for the content

[@Nameless_mixes]

I feel like XY were pretty expected to be a little barebones. Yeah, there were decisions that I didn’t like such as the experience gain throughout the main story wasn’t designed with the EXP Share in mind. But I still feel like a lot of heart went into those games. The lack of a Pokemon Z was when I was worried. And then having the Ultra games feeling like they were really just repackages of Sun/Moon was where I really saw the series starting to experience a downfall. Coupled with Pokemon Go coming out a few months before Sun/Moon proper (and being such a major financial success), it was pretty solidified that the main games weren’t as needed for making Pokemon its profits. Its main purpose had fully become to sell Nintendo’s consoles at that point.

[@0saker]

Because his motives were about beauty and preserving it, they should have made him want to use the machine to make humans immortal but at the cost of Pokémon. Then throughout the plot line AZ appears but his identity is unknown and people all over the region talk about the impact of the Pokémon war and revile him for killing so many Pokémon with the weapon. Finally, in the final battle against Lysandre it is revealed that the man who used the machine was AZ and he comes back to help stop Lysandre from using the machine out of guilt. Also in the scenes where you meet him he could be infiltrating Flare to find out their plans on using his tech to reconstruct the weapon. Then after helping to defeat Flare the Floette comes back to him, symbolising his redemption.

[@piranhalettuce]

Kalos deserves so much more man...

[@TaeSunWoo]

Pokémon X is the game I started playing this summer that got me back into Pokémon so I’m grateful for it

[@MadManMicruhwayve]

Have fun, I made lots of good memories with this game

[@Taeb.p5212]

Actualy I want to differ on Diantha being Audrey Hepburn based I do think she is partialy based but I must say her outfit makes me think of the moovie Monster in Paris and its most iconic scene when they sing La Seine This song is very iconic and important in french history

[@jmunneyyxero2417]

Who’s Coming back to this video because of legends ZA?

[@TheYveltalKid]

So, as someone who's favorite game is Y, I went into this video (not fully, because of the title, but mostly) expecting you to just squat and drop a mean log on XY like so many others have. I'm really grateful that you didn't do that, though, having a very healthy balance of both positive and negative aspects of the game that didn't just boil down to "pss lol," which I really appreciate. :)

[@woodyblox7724]

Actually, I personally have a problem with the team exp share. I feel like if my entire team levels I dont get as attached to the single Pokemon anymore. Before, you would specifically train one Pokemon to have it get stronger, learn more moves etc. But of course, its nice to not have to grind as much...

[@positivea9111]

Yeah I agreed on you about learning each Pokémon strategy, but for so many people there not a big fan of grinding, I don’t blame them they have other things to do like working on school work, Playing sports and paying taxes.

[@zjzr08]

@@positivea9111 RPGs aren't meant to be finished in a week though, especially classic Pokemon.

[@positivea9111]

@@zjzr08 Exactly, that’s why I don’t like rushing a lot in games I want to take my time not be a speed runner and never touch the game. But later on that I have to accept that most people like rushing in game even though I don’t like it. I just wish the game could punish you for rushing too much in games.

[@rishabhanand4973]

Also it’s useful for training up entry hazard setters and other types of Pokémon that are good in a team battle but not so great individually. No exp share basically forces you to use only sweepers or to at least treat all your Pokémon like sweepers in terms of movesets

[@j-rex229]

@@positivea9111"I wish everyone who plays video games differently than I do gets punished" What a clown you are

[@weisstofall2615]

I REALLY love the 400+ pokemond Dex. You can feasibly do monotype runs of every time, starting as soon as before gym 2. You can do runs switching your team after every important fight, and get good, different pokemon every time. Every route has variety and new. It's so good

[@_ingenium9015]

Pokemon X and Y was the first Pokémon game I ever got and oh my gosh I loved it. I remembered booting it up and having no idea what I was in store for- I remember seeing this cute little fox and thinking- “oh I love it I want that one” and I remember the amazing journey I went on. This game truly deserves less hate- sure the story may have had some issues but boy did little me love it. I remember learning type matchups- learning about breeding, stone evolutions, how to use items, how to catch Pokémon- little me was so enthralled by this game. If there was a game I could erase my memory of playing JUST so I could have a fresh experience it would be this one. I remember beating the big baddie and feeling accomplished, I remember fighting diantha- we each had one Pokémon left, both on red health, and the final discharge my level 100 Emolga used to win. I remember finding a shiny dedenne before even knowing what shinies were. I remember absolutely loving my starter, Fennel the Delphox, (this game is a HUGE reason why Delphox is my #1 favorite Pokémon, followed by Greninja and Breloom). I remember getting the gift magearna and naming it Werther (which I have consistently carried down thru each game, same with fennel) I have no idea where my original cartridge is now- probably gone forever- but I would be so thrilled to find it and look thru it- the only team members I remember are a Florges, Hawlucha, Emolga, Delphox, and a Gardevoir- and to this day I love those guys. Sorry this comment was so long but this game has a special place in my heart and honestly I hope that one day I’m scrolling through KZbin and come across a trailer for a remake of X and Y. I would probably screech lol. No matter how bad the story was or how bad the characters were I remember little me absolutly loving and caring for them. And that love has stayed to me now. No matter what this will always be my favorite game. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day 🤗🧡

[@noah_ignis]

had to come back to this video after the Pokémon Legends Z-A announcement

[@staticshock4239]

God I wish this game got a remake. X and Y are the ones that need it the most because it had potential to be great.

[@simply_maple]

I can't tell you enough how your videos are like a treat! Always delightful seeing your video essays

[@emma_nutella58]

It sucks because Kalos is based off my home and there was so many missed opportunities to explore each lore and culture of each cities, some were great but others just felt empty they looked nice but that’s all they had going to them, also kinda wish they explored the Kalos war and Z as a character more they were so interesting

[@characterwork.3]

I hope that if X & Y ever get remakes, they come with a pronunciation guide because goodness. Floette is pronounced like baguette 😂

[@waz207]

Funny enough X and Y is probably my favorite series…though not due to gameplay or story. It’s the first series my son was able to play the opposite game to me…so being able to help him out and watch his enjoyment of a series I’ve loved since I was a teenager was such an amazing feeling.

[@danielmalinen6337]

Thanks to the recent leak, it is now known that Southern Kalos was canceled one year prior the release of X and Y, and XZ and YZ (or X2 and Y2) were canceled in 2015. And when you count the Kalos power plant, it has three big missed potentials. Also, Zeraora was originally meant to appear in X and Y and is based on Ratatoskr, a mythical Nordic squirrel that carries messages between worlds.

[@ajflink]

I feel like X and Y were supposed to have a darker/ more serious story than we got. I would not be surprised if Lysandre's obsession with beauty was instead supposed to be happiness and have the adamant ambition of Cyrus to see it to completion. In the final game has his obsession making the world beautiful is completely contradicted him wanting to use a Pokémon as a superweapon to nuke Kalos. It would make more sense if his obsession was with peace or happiness instead. This would give Lysandre a nihilistic /pessimistic view of the world concluding that the only way widespread happiness and peace can be obtained is by destroying everything and starting over. In final game, the message learned from Lysandre and Team Flare is simply: "Being greedy is bad." The duo legendaries literally represent rebirth/birth and death. Wealth does not tie into this unless you make A LOT of assumptions. Hoenn's legendaries and story revolve around the environment itself. Shinnoh's legendaries and story revolve around the constants of existence that fall apart without them. Unova's legendaries and story revolve around Truth vs Ideals. Kalos' legendaries deal with life and death, while the story focuses on the obsession with wealth and goods.

[@georges0389]

French guy here. In France we don't do tipping. Like, at all. It's not a thing. Bosses pay their workers a minimum wage that's enough to enable them to live comfortably, they don't make them beg for more money that they're unwilling to pay themselves from the client. I never understood how the tipping system is allowed in the first place, honestly wtf. Oh well, other than that the game is accurate enough about french culture. Always love to see another video from you man, great one once again ! Have a good one

[@N12015]

Yeah, that thing of tipping would have been great on Unova. They're the ones with a heavy tipping culture.

[@D.Cooley05]

X&Y was my first game and as a small child, the ease of the game definitely helped me fall in love with the series. Going back now, I understand what everyone is saying.

[@sakress]

I love Bravely Default to death, but the moment he said “I think most people don’t realize that most 3DS games don’t look that great, especially some JRPGs by third party companies” I instantly knew he would mention it.

[@TheBeegStupid]

Man I already loved this game based on my memories but holy shit this has reminded me about how great these games were and makes me want Z or a remake even more. (Already my most wanted Pokémon game). Anyways great video really enjoyed:)

[@ChibiM11]

It is February 27th 2024. And Pokemon Legends Z-A has been announced. We return to Kalos.

[@lasercraft32]

This was my first Pokemon game so needless to say it holds a very special place in my heart. The story really resonated with me, and I absolutely LOVE the Mega Evolution gimmick! It drives me insane that they not only removed it, but also tainted its legacy by adding those stupid Pokedex entries in Sun & Moon to retcon it, making it so mega evolved Pokemon are _apparently_ in pain and its basically torture... that's not how it worked in XY, where it was a bond between trainer and Pokemon that allowed the symbiotic transformation, and I hate it so much how they butchered it. :(

[@Ashtrid-i5f]

I hate how this game turned out, when I first played, it felt so ahead of its time, the first time going into lumious city I will never forget. Now it could be because I was a kid and seeing 3d models made my brain go "omg gud game best game in world gud graphic" like the cinematic of seeing team flare in glittering cave, and just the way you actually felt in the cave you werent just watching your character move around in a box from a birds eye view was just truly amazing at the time

[@rarecoldfire2775]

Sad to see that something irrelevant change your mind 😢

[@alysshart7522]

This won’t be a big deal for everyone, but THANK YOU for acknowledging that X&Y have the best character customization in the franchise. The Alola games have a lot of options, but too many of them are generic shorts and tank tops. The Sinnoh remakes have those abysmal pre-built outfit options. The options in Galar were respectable, but a lot of the colors were weird. The options in Hisui looked good, but too many of them were recolors. And, holy heck, the lack of clothing options in Paldea is mind-boggling. Being able to dress my character in distinct outfits every day makes the experience much more immersive, and the Sinnoh remakes and the Paldea games really suffer from lacking this feature.

[@joeymayson8279]

Gen 6 was the first time that I bought at at launch, they will always have a special place in my heart

[@Cool-fr8dv]

weird thing about Gen 6 as a whole is that only one gen 6 pokemon can mega evolve and its Diance

[@OnACloud]

15:15 It's actually funny how so many people were unable to understand the plot of a Pokémon game. The game clearly states that Lysandre is some sort of radical ecologist who thinks it's better to kill humans for the planet and the pokemon...

[@DistantKingdom]

brave bird has never been as good since lol, even in scarlet and violet. gen 6 brave bird goes so hard

[@mizutsunebubbledragon3382]

I mean, Dawn was already pretty sussy before X&Y with the outfit she had in gen4. That skirt was waaaay too short lmao.

[@lesserknown5138]

My only issue with mega evolution was that certain mons just didn't need it and felt like a waste. If more thought was put into what mons could benefit from megas and maybe even give the starters megas, maybe it would have been more appreciated.

[@zjzr08]

@@roachybill I will argue to say the new Pokemon didn't need Megas because they are new while Megas at least put some spotlight again to old Pokemon lines (albeit a lot was given to already popular ones).

[@staticshock4239]

Honestly I wish Mega Evolution had been given to every 3rd evolution. I still prefer it over the gimmicks that came after.

[@jaretco6423]

Agreed. I; myself, don't care about Mega Evolution. But if they wanted to do something like that, they could've given it to some that desperately needs it to become good. Look at Mawile & Sableye. There are certain more Pokemons that could've needed it. Like Flygon or Luxray for example. But why did they have to give it to the ones that were already good enough? Like Salamance or Garchomp?

[@user-jx3hx]

​@@zjzr08not to bash but that argument makes very little sense when you consider how the newer gen starters get their game gimmicks while the gen 6 starters were left out in the cold

[@zjzr08]

@@user-jx3hx I mean I understand there's not exactly a right answer for this one (see how ORAS introduced new Megas for the Hoenn starters for example) but I'm just saying I understand why they did it.

[@O.D25]

As a guy who's first "real" pokemon game was pokemon Y, I still remember waiting for the announcement of Pokemon Z version, only to be left disappointed. Also by the way, even while playing the game back in the year 2013, I had no idea what Dexio and Sena deal was.

[@themurderouswildgoose]

44:50 That is incorrect. Older games would just loop a really short .wav sample so quickly and/or fluidly where you couldn’t tell.

[@lilchu7336]

I used the photography mode in X and Y for my photography online class for school and I passed lol

[@DokkanSDBHCelebrationEnjoyer]

HE TOLD THE FUTURE

[@gamewisdomgaming]

I nice seeing Gireum enjoy a Pokémon game for once

[@ravenous6894]

Honestly x and y are so underrated and they had potential. X and Y where in a similair situation as diamond and pearl and needed a 3rd version. Other reasons also include the projected where they attempted to start a new franchise which flopped horribly which contributed to the reason for x and y being how they are. For the labs i assume those where for the unobtainable mythicals that just got handed out like nothing( volcanion, hoopa and diance). If they decided to focus more on pokemon and actually spent there time more effectively i would say that x and y would have been shaped into some of the best games in the franchise behind gen 5 and 4(platinum only).

[@Zoroark98]

I clicked on this video thinking that I was about to hear all the complaints I have about these games, contributing to the dislike I had for them. While you did point out the issues I have with them, you also made me realize that there’s so many things I gave for granted when you pointed out the positives of XY. I guess they just never really aged well for me, but for their time, they were a milestone for the series. GameFreak really went all out in their first transition to 3D, given their resources. Gen 6 still remains the least memorable for me, but I can at least now appreciate the good things it did, so thank you for putting this video together!

[@unripetheberrby6283]

57:25* Yeah! I don't think so either; even though the consensus is s "XY is incomplete", when I think of it it's not "incomplete" because it is obviously an unfinished, clunky product(like some things-), but seen as incomplete because many felt that in the end, there was more story that we weren't allowed to see. We wanted, or needed more of it, and we felt a bit bad about not seeing it. The other thing we can do, and have done, is have faith for 'more and better'... hopefully it turns out well, whatever it may be...

[@rod6722]

0:10 So much GOATness in a single image.

[@roydmmkw1692]

These are still one of my favorite games 😍. My favorite are HeartGold/SoulSilver, Platinum, Emerald and X&Y.

[@lasercraft32]

I know people get mad about them reusing models... but there are A LOT OF FREAKING POKEMON. That's a model for 900+ Pokemon, plus multiple animations for 900+ Pokemon, plus shiny textures for 900+ Pokemon. There's a reason they stopped doing the national dex, there are a LOT of different Pokemon to work with!

[@zjzr08]

People actually were FINE about recycling assets, hence why people were angry about the cut, because they're STILL recycling.

[@ste9281]

Our time in Kalos was drastically cut short. I really wanted them to release a DLC for Sword and Shield where they introduce a train that connects Galar to Kalos, kinda like the real life Channel Tunnel.

[@xylynthian753]

Kid Icarus uprising was the only 3DS game that properly utilized the 3D feature

[@Spiritsteel8]

I love this game, I do hope they come back to this generation and make improvements and add more things to it.

[@High5gh0st]

what a grace it is to have these vids pop up on my recommended now that the game has been announced

[@lumeronswift]

I liked the implementation of the friends - I had no idea about the interview with the director, but the game actually felt alive for once. With more development time, it could have been great.

[@SuperBatSpider]

Shauna has a cool idea, being a trainer that doesn’t know what she wants to do. Just going on an adventure, hoping to find things she likes. But her arc never finishes. She never finds out what kind of trainer she wants to become.

[@nsjsjndjdj7694]

Probably Pokemon performer like in Anime. Pokemon Z could have Contests, where we are trying to defeat Aria and become kalos queen.

[@SuperBatSpider]

@@nsjsjndjdj7694 That would be cool

[@birdofclay9581]

Another feature I´d like to highlight is the whole berry cultivation mechanic. It is very well implemented but doesn´t feature prominently in the games: There are a lot of ways to get individual berries. A select few NPCs will give you one, there are also some trees, under which a certain type of berry can be found from time to time. Although, most berries can only be obtained by using certain moves in battles, when there is a tree in the background. A mechanic that is never mentioned in game, I think. Now it´s time to grow some more. For this you enter Route 7 and follow a small path towards the south just outside of Camphrier Town. It leads to this region´s berry fields. They are never mentioned by anyone and don´t have a brown/orange marker, are just briefly mentioned in the text for the route on the map. The care for berries is surprisingly multi-facetted. As usual, they have to be watered, but also weeded and freed from bug Pokemon. Mulches can be applied as well to gain different effects. They can be created by throwing different combinations of berries into composters on the sides of the fields. The farmer and his daughter will tell you all about it. If you plant certain types of berries next to each other, new berries can appear. Some berries can only be acquired using this method. They actually made sure that people can discover this mechanic by themselves by having this work with some common berries that actually make sense to grow some of. After the first special berry has appeared a researcher will show up, tell you about the mechanic and keep track of the "mutations" you discovered and how you did it.

[@raykces25]

I think XY its a case where now we are gonna apreciate it more, after all the things GF is removing from games, it does makes XY feel better and made it more love than recent games. I hate that it didnt have a 3rd version it needed and that its super easy, but megas , customization, the online, were fantastic things. One thing i hated from a long time its how GF killed XY so fast. Oras is great but the fact that had new megas and XY wasnt updated along with that, killed XY a year after its release, since it was better to play online with oras and most people stopped playing online in XY. Xy deserved better. Great video, now i want to replay it, i hope youre happy.

[@septua]

Holy shit! those tourists where sycamore's assistants? I'd have no idea what you were even talking about if i hadn't restarted both x and ultra moon recently

[@vincenttorrijos9680]

Pokemon Z was a game we needed but never got. The Zygarde cell concept was tailor made for a big plot and the fact it was pushed to side content in Sun and Moon kills me, and the show's use of Team Flare as the agents of a legitimate company could have been used to much greater effect than Flare was in-game. I think a lot is going for these games to be honest, not only was it the first 3D pokemon, but they went and modeled EVERY Pokémon for it out the gate. People harp on mega evolution because of its exclusivity to certain pokemon, but it (and its use in ORAS) are a high that GF has been chasing ever since. The starters have pretty unique typings, even if they did miss out on getting Megas in place of the original starters or maximum nostalgia pandering.

[@JakeTheJay]

Megas were something you had to sacrifice something for and could prepare for. It was more balanced than any other gimmick introduced because you can guess what pokemons are gonna use the mega, know they have no held item because of the mega stone, and thus, you could prepare for it. Dynamax's biggest flaw is that it had no real cost to it and every pokemon could do it. Oddly enough, megas felt more special because the pool of pokemon that could do it was limited. If they really felt bad about pokemon not getting a new form, they could just give them a regional variant or mega evolution to spruce them up or give them a boost.

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

One of my favourite parts is that all the rich kids in the Battle Maison are snooty and obnoxious. One of their lines is "Just watch, you prole! The time will come when I rule the world!"

[@dragonmaster3030]

The Pokemon game I've put the most time into, second being alpha sapphire. Also first Pokemon game. Still remember the soundtrack of gen 6 games, better than gen 7 ost and gen 8

[@script_0529]

I think this was one of the pokemon games I got most invested in when I was younger. I did play some of the others before and loved them, Kalos became one of my favorites with how you could express yourself with dressing up your characters. The game looked amazing and all the cities and towns felt more alive at the time I played. If I looked back and replayed it, maybe I would feel differently, but this was coming from the perspective of when I was playing for the first time when I was younger. I think the XY anime series contributed to me loving the game even more. Wish we would have gotten pokemon Z and still hope that one day we might. Also was never a fan of the new gimmicks that followed mega evolution. While yes, it would have meant more work to design and make new mega evolutions for each following game, none of the other new features I actually liked, something about them just didn't feel the same.

[@HisShadow]

Pokemon X was the only modern Pokemon game where I completed the Pokedex. The online environment was so nice and well implemented.

[@bandicootsauce4569]

I've always liked X & Y, and yes, that IS mostly because it introduced Mega Evolution to the franchise, but I also found the Kalos region to be quite charming, even if there's not all that much to see and do there. Here's hoping that Legends: Z-A doesn't f*ck up the region TOO badly...