This was Pokemon's first foray away from the elegant sprite work the series was known for and did a lot of cute things for the series that made it memorable to me. The 3D made the world pop and feel a lot more alive, and even simpler touches like trainer customization made it feel like you were your own original character. The addition of Mega-Evolutions made competitive battling dynamic and fun, and barring Gen 4 it's honestly my favorite era of Pokemon battling since it introduced a fun compelling gimmick, something that would later miss the mark in following generations of games.

I feel like a lot of complaints about XY can be levied against the rest of the series, IE Pokemon games were never particularly challenging and the stories were never particularly great, which is probably a hot take for some people. Not to say that isn't the case here and they aren't problems, but it's what I've come to expect from Pokemon games because ultimately they're marketable games made for everyone, so you're seldom going to get some big compelling narrative or teeth-cutting difficulty. That being said though, Team Flare was lame and the story's world-ending stakes aren't really that interesting either.

XY had that novelty of being a big 3D adventure on a handheld when that was still a novelty worth considering. And it didn't manage to mangle some of the core gameplay tenants and made the battling some of the most fun the series has seen.

That, and I got to wear cute outfits. That has to matter for something, right?