I’ve long maintained that X and Y are my least favorite Pokémon games. This is different than thinking they’re the worst Pokémon games, which I don’t believe they are, at least not anymore. Unlike Sun and Moon which seemed terrified to ever let you experience the game without a new cutscene or tutorial every 5 steps, X and Y still more or less maintain an illusion of player-driven adventure. The ever-satisfying core gameplay loop that made these games such a sensation (exploring towns and routes, catching Pokémon, engaging in battles) still feels largely intact, especially when compared to projects like Sword and Shield or Legends: Arceus which ventured to break that formula apart without replacing it with anything interesting. X and Y still undeniably feel like Pokémon: not a glorified cutscene compilation, not a shitty MMO, not a half-baked BOTW clone, just Pokémon. As jaded as this series makes me, that’s always a feeling I’m willing to chase.
And while yes the games certainly feel a bit undercooked, it’s not from a lack of love and care. Additions like the fairy type, super training, and the PSS all strike me as the handiwork of a studio that on some level still gave a shit. For fuck’s sake, they 3D modeled all 700+ Pokémon and let you pet every last one of them! In retrospect, a lot of the stranger design decisions here seem to be motivated less by apathy or incompetence and more by a desire to show off what “the first 3D Pokémon game” was capable of. Areas like Route 1 or Glittering Cave are functionally glorified hallways, but they show off an over-the-shoulder angle the DS could never do. Rideable Pokémon are a momentum-breaking slog, but they provide a golden opportunity for the camera to whip around as you bask in the glory of the beautifully-rendered Rhyhorn model. Santalune Forest has the same exact layout as Virdian Forest, likely to inspire some feeling of “wow, look how far we’ve come since the Gameboy”, potentially explaining the rest of the Gen 1 nostalgia on some level as well. Lumiose City may be hell to navigate, but if you’re focused on just how much bigger it is than the metropolises of old, you may not even notice. Hell, even the baffling Parfum Palace side-mission makes a lot more sense when you consider all the fancy new textures it flaunts along the way. Playing X and Y, you get the sense GameFreak was really proud of what they managed to accomplish graphically, and wanted to show it off at every turn. The theme of the game IS “beauty” after all.
But, over ten years after the fact, (God I feel old…) a graphical showcase for the Nintendo 3Ds isn’t especially enticing. And I mean, the console wasn’t exactly a visual powerhouse back in the day, either. There is an appealing artstyle in here—I generally like the Pokémon models for what they are, and I think retaining a chibi aesthetic in the overworld was a smart move—but the muted colors and blandness of the locales really hurt it. Sure these environments aren’t nearly as barren as what we’d see in the games to come, but they’re certainly not as lively as anything we got on the DS or even the GBA. And it’s not like we haven’t seen areas built for spectacle before—Black 2 and White 2 were full of ‘em, but they never let it compromise their level design in the same way X and Y does. I mentioned Lumiose City’s size earlier, but what I didn’t recall is just how much less there is to actually do there than in the much smaller Castelia of old. A lot of Kalos is like that—impressive for the time, but lacking in real substance. Just about the only place where I think this show-off mentality really does hold up is in the gyms. Each one of them has a unique puzzle that could only make sense in a 3D space. They’re fun, they’re creative, they have great art direction, it’s honestly my favorite aspect of the whole game. It’s a shame the rest of the region can’t compare.
And with that new hardware sheen having long worn off, it brings into greater focus just how much of X and Y feel unfinished. Areas like the Power Plant or the Haunted House that once struck me as odd, pointless excursions feel a lot more telling as an adult who knows what “cut content” is. The gap between the first and second badges is one of the longest in the series, a pacing choice I’d actually quite like if the remaining 6 badges didn’t arrive in such a mad dash one after the other. I don’t play these games for the story or the postgame, but both are noticeably more barebones than usual. I mean come on man, why does every Team Flare member, from leader to grunt, get a fully-rendered 3D model for their battle intro, while the elite four, gym leaders and champion are stuck with PNGs? Does that seem like an intentional choice, or as a shift in priorities to better accommodate a looming deadline?
The difficulty curve is the area that feels the most neglected in my eyes. The EXP Share—a quality of life feature I actually really appreciate—seems to have been implemented without regard for an already-existing level curve. Kalos has evidently outlawed carrying a full team of 6, as the only trainer you’ll be facing with as many is the champion. Plenty of trainers carry strong Pokémon with interesting movesets, but when you’re gifted so many free Pokémon along the way, finding a method to cheese them is really a matter of “when”, not “if”. I was playing X under a particularly restrictive set of nuzlocke rules, and even still I found the majority of gameplay save for the absolute finale to be pretty close to mindless. I don’t think a harder game is necessarily a better one of course—but the seeming disinterest in creating opportunities for a player to strategize in your JRPG feels like a pretty major oversight to me.
And speaking of difficulty, I guess I have to talk about Mega Evolution. I’ve already stated in my ORAS review that I’m not a fan, but I haven’t articulated why. For one, they’re barely utilized in their debut game: 25 out of 30 mega stones are locked behind the postgame, with only two trainers in the campaign actually using them in battle. I’d be more mad they hardly see use in casual play, if it wasn’t so obvious why: they completely break the game. What could have been a way to revitalize some old Pokémon and address power creep along the way only exacerbated it. Megas completely overpower a normal playthrough, which makes the fact that so many of them were given to already-strong Pokémon even more frustrating. I think just about the only Mega that isn’t insanely broken, was given to a Pokémon that actually needed one, and doesn’t completely ruin their design (because oh yeah most Megas look really, really dumb) is Mega Beedrill. And he’s not even available until ORAS.
You also can’t discuss Mega Evolution without addressing the domino effect it’s had on the series. Z-Moves, Dynamax, Gigantamax, Battle Styles— Mega Evolution and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the Pokémon franchise. These are not interesting new additions, they’re glorified win buttons that never get the space to be fleshed out since they’re gone by the next installment. I haven’t even played Scarlet and Violet because the idea of learning an entirely new gimmick I know won’t last just seemed so exhausting. Remember when a new Pokémon game brought sizable structural changes: held items, abilities, the physical/special split, reusable TMs, real, substantial mechanical shake-ups that changed the way the game is played? I wish Gamefreak did.
That’s, in so many words, my issue with X and Y. It’s the last Pokémon game that got the fundamentals, but it’s really JUST fundamentals. Kalos is a flavorless region, the battles are a total afterthought, and it’s adherence to spectacle rings hollow a decade plus after release. The games that came after may be worse, but they’re worse in more interesting ways. And in the absence of genuine innovation, I can’t help but focus on all the things X and Y introduced to the series I wish would go away: stupid generational gimmicks, a suffocating yearly release schedule, and a precedent for cut corners selling games. It’s hard not to look at Black 2 and White 2, games bursting at the seams with content and polish and smart, fully-developed design that nonetheless underperformed, and compare them to X and Y, the unfinished, nostalgic tech demos that sold like hotcakes. I can’t be surprised at the direction Gamefreak chose to move in, but man if I’m not disappointed.
And while yes the games certainly feel a bit undercooked, it’s not from a lack of love and care. Additions like the fairy type, super training, and the PSS all strike me as the handiwork of a studio that on some level still gave a shit. For fuck’s sake, they 3D modeled all 700+ Pokémon and let you pet every last one of them! In retrospect, a lot of the stranger design decisions here seem to be motivated less by apathy or incompetence and more by a desire to show off what “the first 3D Pokémon game” was capable of. Areas like Route 1 or Glittering Cave are functionally glorified hallways, but they show off an over-the-shoulder angle the DS could never do. Rideable Pokémon are a momentum-breaking slog, but they provide a golden opportunity for the camera to whip around as you bask in the glory of the beautifully-rendered Rhyhorn model. Santalune Forest has the same exact layout as Virdian Forest, likely to inspire some feeling of “wow, look how far we’ve come since the Gameboy”, potentially explaining the rest of the Gen 1 nostalgia on some level as well. Lumiose City may be hell to navigate, but if you’re focused on just how much bigger it is than the metropolises of old, you may not even notice. Hell, even the baffling Parfum Palace side-mission makes a lot more sense when you consider all the fancy new textures it flaunts along the way. Playing X and Y, you get the sense GameFreak was really proud of what they managed to accomplish graphically, and wanted to show it off at every turn. The theme of the game IS “beauty” after all.
But, over ten years after the fact, (God I feel old…) a graphical showcase for the Nintendo 3Ds isn’t especially enticing. And I mean, the console wasn’t exactly a visual powerhouse back in the day, either. There is an appealing artstyle in here—I generally like the Pokémon models for what they are, and I think retaining a chibi aesthetic in the overworld was a smart move—but the muted colors and blandness of the locales really hurt it. Sure these environments aren’t nearly as barren as what we’d see in the games to come, but they’re certainly not as lively as anything we got on the DS or even the GBA. And it’s not like we haven’t seen areas built for spectacle before—Black 2 and White 2 were full of ‘em, but they never let it compromise their level design in the same way X and Y does. I mentioned Lumiose City’s size earlier, but what I didn’t recall is just how much less there is to actually do there than in the much smaller Castelia of old. A lot of Kalos is like that—impressive for the time, but lacking in real substance. Just about the only place where I think this show-off mentality really does hold up is in the gyms. Each one of them has a unique puzzle that could only make sense in a 3D space. They’re fun, they’re creative, they have great art direction, it’s honestly my favorite aspect of the whole game. It’s a shame the rest of the region can’t compare.
And with that new hardware sheen having long worn off, it brings into greater focus just how much of X and Y feel unfinished. Areas like the Power Plant or the Haunted House that once struck me as odd, pointless excursions feel a lot more telling as an adult who knows what “cut content” is. The gap between the first and second badges is one of the longest in the series, a pacing choice I’d actually quite like if the remaining 6 badges didn’t arrive in such a mad dash one after the other. I don’t play these games for the story or the postgame, but both are noticeably more barebones than usual. I mean come on man, why does every Team Flare member, from leader to grunt, get a fully-rendered 3D model for their battle intro, while the elite four, gym leaders and champion are stuck with PNGs? Does that seem like an intentional choice, or as a shift in priorities to better accommodate a looming deadline?
The difficulty curve is the area that feels the most neglected in my eyes. The EXP Share—a quality of life feature I actually really appreciate—seems to have been implemented without regard for an already-existing level curve. Kalos has evidently outlawed carrying a full team of 6, as the only trainer you’ll be facing with as many is the champion. Plenty of trainers carry strong Pokémon with interesting movesets, but when you’re gifted so many free Pokémon along the way, finding a method to cheese them is really a matter of “when”, not “if”. I was playing X under a particularly restrictive set of nuzlocke rules, and even still I found the majority of gameplay save for the absolute finale to be pretty close to mindless. I don’t think a harder game is necessarily a better one of course—but the seeming disinterest in creating opportunities for a player to strategize in your JRPG feels like a pretty major oversight to me.
And speaking of difficulty, I guess I have to talk about Mega Evolution. I’ve already stated in my ORAS review that I’m not a fan, but I haven’t articulated why. For one, they’re barely utilized in their debut game: 25 out of 30 mega stones are locked behind the postgame, with only two trainers in the campaign actually using them in battle. I’d be more mad they hardly see use in casual play, if it wasn’t so obvious why: they completely break the game. What could have been a way to revitalize some old Pokémon and address power creep along the way only exacerbated it. Megas completely overpower a normal playthrough, which makes the fact that so many of them were given to already-strong Pokémon even more frustrating. I think just about the only Mega that isn’t insanely broken, was given to a Pokémon that actually needed one, and doesn’t completely ruin their design (because oh yeah most Megas look really, really dumb) is Mega Beedrill. And he’s not even available until ORAS.
You also can’t discuss Mega Evolution without addressing the domino effect it’s had on the series. Z-Moves, Dynamax, Gigantamax, Battle Styles— Mega Evolution and it’s consequences have been a disaster for the Pokémon franchise. These are not interesting new additions, they’re glorified win buttons that never get the space to be fleshed out since they’re gone by the next installment. I haven’t even played Scarlet and Violet because the idea of learning an entirely new gimmick I know won’t last just seemed so exhausting. Remember when a new Pokémon game brought sizable structural changes: held items, abilities, the physical/special split, reusable TMs, real, substantial mechanical shake-ups that changed the way the game is played? I wish Gamefreak did.
That’s, in so many words, my issue with X and Y. It’s the last Pokémon game that got the fundamentals, but it’s really JUST fundamentals. Kalos is a flavorless region, the battles are a total afterthought, and it’s adherence to spectacle rings hollow a decade plus after release. The games that came after may be worse, but they’re worse in more interesting ways. And in the absence of genuine innovation, I can’t help but focus on all the things X and Y introduced to the series I wish would go away: stupid generational gimmicks, a suffocating yearly release schedule, and a precedent for cut corners selling games. It’s hard not to look at Black 2 and White 2, games bursting at the seams with content and polish and smart, fully-developed design that nonetheless underperformed, and compare them to X and Y, the unfinished, nostalgic tech demos that sold like hotcakes. I can’t be surprised at the direction Gamefreak chose to move in, but man if I’m not disappointed.
2 Comments
Honestly, I agree with this entirely. X and Y could've been interesting, but it's just kind of bland. No sauce was used.
SchlockyBalboa
1 month ago