By Luke Kirby
Unless you’ve been living in solitude for the past 18 years it’s fairly likely that you’re aware of a little franchise known as Pokémon. Pokémon Red & Blue came out on the Gameboy in 1996, but the franchise has come a long way since its handheld release, with the popular anime series, manga, home console games, toys, books and cards - which were the most addictive thing, and despite not knowing how to play the card game according to the rules, I still spent all my weekly pocket money on one or two smaller card packs.
Unless you’ve been living in solitude for the past 18 years it’s fairly likely that you’re aware of a little franchise known as Pokémon. Pokémon Red & Blue came out on the Gameboy in 1996, but the franchise has come a long way since its handheld release, with the popular anime series, manga, home console games, toys, books and cards - which were the most addictive thing, and despite not knowing how to play the card game according to the rules, I still spent all my weekly pocket money on one or two smaller card packs.
Jump to present day and we have Pokémon X & Y, the sixth generation and the first Pokémon game for the Nintendo 3DS, now including a grand total 718 of the creatures. When I first saw screenshots and the trailer my first thought was that they are finally making progress with the franchise. Having not played Pokémon Y I won’t be able to comment on any major differences; the only difference I’m aware of is the Pokémon exclusive to each version.
Prior to X & Y I felt the games had been stagnating to a degree, not enough had changed for me (something Call of Duty fans seemed to realise with Ghosts). I found myself struggling to play Pokémon White 1 & 2 only just beating the elite four and doing a little bit after to then never playing them again. Stagnating may be the wrong word, I would say it somewhat regressed after Pokémon Silver, my favourite game of the franchise, as after beating the elite four and champion in the Johto region you were then able to go back to Kanto and fight the gym leaders there, explore the region and it baffles me that this was dropped from the future games.
On to the game, Pokémon X starts with an introduction where players meet Professor Sycamore who gives a brief explanation of the world of Pokémon and then asks that all too familiar question of whether you’re a boy or a girl. Once you’ve answered this is where the game highlights one of the new features of trainer customization as you’re able to select your characters skin tone. Character customization allows players to change the hair style and colour at the salons situated in most cities. Boutiques offer various clothing and accessories which are based on the essence of the city, for example, in Snowbelle City one of the items on sale is a puffer jacket due to the cold weather of the city. There are also other customizations available for eye colour and facial hair, the latter only available for male characters… clearly Nintendo doesn’t like the idea of female characters sporting a lumberjack beard.
On to the game, Pokémon X starts with an introduction where players meet Professor Sycamore who gives a brief explanation of the world of Pokémon and then asks that all too familiar question of whether you’re a boy or a girl. Once you’ve answered this is where the game highlights one of the new features of trainer customization as you’re able to select your characters skin tone. Character customization allows players to change the hair style and colour at the salons situated in most cities. Boutiques offer various clothing and accessories which are based on the essence of the city, for example, in Snowbelle City one of the items on sale is a puffer jacket due to the cold weather of the city. There are also other customizations available for eye colour and facial hair, the latter only available for male characters… clearly Nintendo doesn’t like the idea of female characters sporting a lumberjack beard.
Character customisation isn’t the only new feature they’ve brought in. Two of the more known changes are the introduction of a new Pokémon type, as if there wasn’t enough already, the Fairy type or also known as the dragon slayer type. The other feature which has had a lot of attention is the concept of mega evolution; this doesn’t apply to every Pokémon in the game. Mega evolution allows for players to mega evolve one Pokémon per battle which affects base stats and can change the ability as well as the type of the Pokémon. This allows for you to essentially steamroll opponents in the game; however even when not using mega evolution it’s still not particularly difficult to beat other trainers.
There are also some other new features such as, and this is something I’ve been waiting for, the ability for your character to navigate in an 8 directional grid which means you can walk, run, rollerblade and cycle diagonally... I could weep in joy but I’ll restrain myself.
There is also the addition of the Player Search System allowing players to communicate trade and battle with friends or even complete strangers adding a nice competitive edge. Then you have Wonder Trade where players can trade Pokémon without knowing what he or she are going to receive, while it’s a nice idea I’m aware of people trading low level Pokémon using Wonder Trade so it seems it’s more cause for annoyance than being beneficial.
Pokémon Amie lets players develop stronger bonds with their Pokémon by petting, playing and feeding them. Playing with Pokémon increases their affection towards their trainer giving some advantages when in battle such as; avoiding attacks and increasing the likelihood of critical attacks.
There are also some other new features such as, and this is something I’ve been waiting for, the ability for your character to navigate in an 8 directional grid which means you can walk, run, rollerblade and cycle diagonally... I could weep in joy but I’ll restrain myself.
There is also the addition of the Player Search System allowing players to communicate trade and battle with friends or even complete strangers adding a nice competitive edge. Then you have Wonder Trade where players can trade Pokémon without knowing what he or she are going to receive, while it’s a nice idea I’m aware of people trading low level Pokémon using Wonder Trade so it seems it’s more cause for annoyance than being beneficial.
Pokémon Amie lets players develop stronger bonds with their Pokémon by petting, playing and feeding them. Playing with Pokémon increases their affection towards their trainer giving some advantages when in battle such as; avoiding attacks and increasing the likelihood of critical attacks.
Finally we have Super Training which is a new way to quickly and easily raise a Pokémon’s EV (effort values). This is achieved through playing a mini game which is pretty much football, not soccer don’t you dare say soccer, using the touch screen to aim and shoot at goals while also dodging incoming footballs and blocking them. This then earns a boost in a specified stat. While I like that they’ve made it easier to boost EV I doubt I doubt many will use it to create the most powerful team; unless you want to attend Pokémon tournaments or focus on online play.
The most noticeable change is the graphical improvement on, well on pretty much every aspect of the game. The character style is now akin to anime characters, people with varying taste may or may not like it but personally I love it. The towns, cities, routes all look lovely. Everything is vibrant and gorgeous allowing for a more immersive experience helping to draw you into this adventure. Little things like going over a bridge and the camera angle changing allowing you to see more of the river and reflections of trees. Or how when navigating through a forest your character rollerblades through patches of light that have managed to sneak their way into the shaded forest. Things like this emphasise just how much thought has been put into showing off the capabilities of the 3DS hardware.
The most noticeable change is the graphical improvement on, well on pretty much every aspect of the game. The character style is now akin to anime characters, people with varying taste may or may not like it but personally I love it. The towns, cities, routes all look lovely. Everything is vibrant and gorgeous allowing for a more immersive experience helping to draw you into this adventure. Little things like going over a bridge and the camera angle changing allowing you to see more of the river and reflections of trees. Or how when navigating through a forest your character rollerblades through patches of light that have managed to sneak their way into the shaded forest. Things like this emphasise just how much thought has been put into showing off the capabilities of the 3DS hardware.
Pokémon battles have also been given an aesthetic overhaul making the Pokémon themselves look lovely and providing nicer backdrops in the Pokémon battle and even the moves have more stimulating graphics attached to them. Two new types of battle have been introduced to the game. The first being Sky battles which, is self-explanatory, only lets Pokémon who are flying types or those with the levitate ability participate. The second being Horde encounters meaning players can battle up to 5 wild Pokémon.
All these new features, for me, have offered a fun and exciting adventure in a world that I’ve loved since I was a kid and I don’t see it ever dying. It’s safe to say I’ve clocked up a decent amount of gameplay hours and even after beating the Elite Four and Champion I’m still enjoying it.
My only gripe with the game is that it was too easy. I never found myself having to go out of my way to train my Pokémon as I just steamrolled over every trainer and gym leader, only the Elite Four and Champion provided some sort of challenge but even then it wasn’t difficult. Gym leaders and the Elite Four never have a full party of Pokémon to battle, so up against players six strong squads you tend to fly through the battles. So if you’ve been a long-time fan of the series you may feel somewhat hard done by as it’s too easy. However this may be an attempt from Nintendo to usher in a new generation of younger Pokémon fans. I can assure you it was no coincidence that Pokémon X & Y were released the same day as the 2DS, which Nintendo expressly said is aimed for children under the age of 7.
So to sum up I’ve really enjoyed this game, I know fans of the series will enjoy it as well as a younger audience. What really excites me about Pokémon X & Y is that graphically they’ve set a precedent and a high standard so I’m looking forward to how Pokémon in the future will look and play… I’m still dreaming of a day when a proper Pokémon adventure is made for a home console which is more than possible with the Wii U.
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