I have been under the impression that Creatures Inc. was simply a division/branch of Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, but upon further investigation, it seems that Creatures Inc. is in fact its own entiry. For the sake of this video (and my other 3D Pokémon video) you may assume that I am referring to the employees of Creatures Inc. when talking about 3D modeling until I am able to correct myself for Sun and Moon. Apologies for the misunderstanding.
Was going to comment on this. It was Creatures Inc, and not Gamefreak, that made the 3d models. Which explains why the models are impressive technically, but also a bit devoid of creativity. It seems that game freak was given the models as a base, with the intent or expectation was that gamrefreak would... utilize them creatively, rather than just copy and paste them in.
@@Magic_Icedon’t be a Nintendo apologist. The largest brand with the largest budget in the PLANET and in HISTORY. Failures of Pokémon and lack of it ever getting better is owned solely by Nintendo.
One of the most glaring examples about how glossed over Gen 6 is is to look at Zygarde. They were clearly going to build up to something with, and we got jack. Zygarde was throw into Gen 7 with little fanfare with just a "find all the cells" task. No big cutscene, nada.
Another reason I think gen 6 was snubbed, because they were setting all these details up for expansion and such, but ended up ditching it for gen 7 since the anniversary stuff was coming up, and deciding they needed (major) new release for it
Isnt X and Y kinda considered the best of the show? Ash is a legit masterful poke master and uses a lot of advanced tactics to win. Jesse and James, while still funny, are more engaged with the plot and actually turn out to actually help the good guys. The animation was starting to actually get really nice looking. I could be wrong on all of this @SmashBrosInitiative
@@CascadianRanger I haven't watched the anime is years but you miiiight be thinking of the Sun and Moon anime? At least that's the one I remember hearing a lot of good things about but they might both be good for different reasons.
@@koifish835 the Sun and Moon one went a more comedic route, though I heard was actually pretty funny and enjoyable. I know there's 1 run where the show actually took itself a LITTLE more seriously. Still pokemon, but letting the characters breath, grow a bit, have moments with a bit more impact
@@CascadianRanger Tl;dr He was most competent from the last part of Gen 3 anime all the way to now, excluding Gen 5 anime where he was absolute dog shit. Gen 1 and Gen 2 anime he was still a baby trainer on his trainer wheels As someone who's watched almost all the Pokemon anime series' save for the literal newest one, in terms of Ash competency it goes ... 1. X/Y , Diamond/Pearl , Sword/Shield , Sun/Moon , Frontier 2. Gold/Silver , Red/Blue , Orange Islands 3. Black/White Within these 3 categories he displayed relatively the same amount of trainer competency, give or take situation discrepancy (type matchups or emotional story beats for instance) within each level. I.e. Frontier Ash is about as competent as Sinnoh Ash, Sinnoh Ash just has more experience, and the same can be said for Kalos, Alola, and Galar Ash. He showed match up awareness, and played into the strengths of his specific mons (i.e. letting his turtwig ,which as a species is slow, utilize his speed in battles due to being unnaturally fast, or commanding his froppy to use his frubbles) he also imagined and mastered special techniques that were unique to him and his Pokemon, such as counter shield, energy absorption, lightning walking, ice aqua jet, iron tail climb, ect.
I think there’s one thing that keeps XY back. No Pokemon Z. Diamond and Pearl had issues too, but people look back at Platinum. XY had issues but a very solid core IMO but no third version to change things up and give a definitive version
I think Z would definitely be to the level of Emerald and Platinum with that they did with RS and DP’s perception. So disappointing that they canceled it.
GameFreak trying to deny making Z when USUM's code outright _proves_ that XY was going to get two follow-up games shows how much it sucks as a company. Reminder that this is the same company that: made B2W2 and USUM two versions for more profit; made a bunch of mediocre non-Pokemon games with the intention to outdo Pokemon in popularity; made LGPE for the sole purpose of riding on GO's fading popularity at the time; and gave SV as many DLCs as possible while failing to fix many of their issues. Those were apparently more important than giving XY the closure they were denied. GameFreak sucks period.
@@christianmckee2116 Don’t compare B2W2 and USUM. One is a sequel that lovingly builds on what came before adds a new story, develops already existing characters, expanded the region, added a ton of new features, and allowed players to carry over data for extra content similarly to games like Mass Effect. The other is a lazy way to milk a game out of dlc claiming it’s “a retelling of the story” when the story is exactly the same up to the point of the climax, in which it replaces the best character pay off in the entire series with a boss fight they didn’t set up. As well as putting in cut content for games like Pokemon Z, with poor integration, so their work doesn’t go to waste. B2W2 are amazing lovingly crafted sequels to BW. USUM are loose bullet points of ideas, that might of worked for DLC, cramped into SM and sold as a new game.
@@princestarfy4098 Lovingly? B2W2 outright retcons BW's postgame for its story to exist. Remember when Kyurem was caught by the BW protagonist? Remember when the Seven Sages were locked up by Looker? Remember when Cheren's character arc was concluded? B2W2 outright ignores all that to tell a different story. I can only give B2W2 credit for N's development (even then, it's just more of the same from what was already seen from BW). For every other character, their development is either surface-level, nonexistent, or straight-up regression. All the Gym Leaders are freaking idiots for doing jack about Team Plasma attempting to goddamn _freeze_ Unova despite going against Team Plasma raising a castle over the Unova League in BW. After BW broke the mold for Gym Leaders doing more in the story, B2W2 backtracks them to do the same thing that Gym Leaders in other games are criticized for. Ghetsis is an even bigger moron than before with his stupid plan to freeze Unova (he could've done this shit without Kyurem, meaning Kyurem's only role in these games is based on contrivance). Then there was the _very_ contrived way his plan comes together (how convenient N saw the big explosion at Giant Chasm when you consider that if N was anywhere else, Ghetsis's plan would've fallen apart; also how convenient that the player doesn't fight against Kyurem and instead stands in place like a idiot). And him losing his shit over that dumb plan when he reacted calmer to his long-term plan from BW failing makes no sense. Hugh's character development boils down to "I have to find sister's Purrloin" and that's where it ends. Cheren and Bianca don't develop any more than they already did by the end of BW. Cheren becoming a Gym Leader and Bianca becoming Professor Juniper's assistant does not equal character development. They're just things that happened. Colress is a fun meme, but as a character, his motivations make little to no sense. Zinzolin is one of the worst Pokemon villains in the franchise because of B2W2. He went from mildly threatening in BW to being an absolute joke in these games. The story is incredibly forced and railroaded for a relatively lackluster plot. There was a golden opportunity to fix how railroaded Unova was in the first games, but GameFreak didn't fix anything about that. Instead of going in a straight line, this time I'm forced to teleport to different places while still not being allowed to progress because the game doesn't want me to. Gyms 3-6 could've easily been made optional to fight in any order with how light on plot they are. Instead, I'm forced to fight them in the EXACT same order I already fought them in BW. The story is way too simple to justify the amount of forced long unskippable interruptions there are, which increased from BW. The Pokemon Center tutorial, the PWT tutorial, and the Pokestars Studios tutorial all could've been optional, but I'm forced to do them with no option to skip them. Also, the story does not take advantage of the fact that it's two versions. Nothing story-wise changes between Black 2 and White 2 outside of aesthetics and the Legendary chosen. For a third-version Legendary, Kyurem was really poorly handled. The Original Dragon plot goes nowhere despite that plot point existing in BW, and Kyurem itself is only a plot device at best. Can't forget to mention this too, but *screw* GameFreak for making Kyurem only available in the postgame. Platinum JUST fixed that problem I had with Rayquaza in Emerald by making Giratina available to catch in the main story. And unlike Rayquaza, there was no justified story reason for locking Kyurem to postgame here. Same with making Zekrom and Reshiram only available in postgame AND version-exclusive. After Emerald and Platinum made both of their initial Legendary duos available in one version, this was a huge step back. While I do appreciate Unova being expanded, the new locations only added more questions to Unova's questionable geography. Like, how the hell did Castelia get a new sewer system and public park in only 3 years? Why couldn't I access towns like Virbank City and Lentimas Town from the OG BW when I can go to them perfectly fine in these games? What is the point of Entralink still being there and why isn't anyone questioning this big gap in the middle of the region? These inclusions would make sense in an alternate universe (a.k.a. third version), but not sequels, especially ones that only take place 3 years after the OG games. It feels arbitrary. Most of the new features added are cool like Join Avenue, but other ones are hurt by the fact that GameFreak split these games into two. I'd appreciate the difficulty modes way more if GameFreak didn't implement them in the stupidest way I've seen of any game with difficulty options. Not only do I have to beat the game to even see them, not only are the difficulty modes version-exclusive, not only do I have to use the convoluted key system to access them in a different version, but they could get wiped out if I decide to restart a save file since Pokemon games have only save file. Shit like this makes it clear to me that GameFreak only split BW into two to make more profit, not because there's any story or in-game reason to justify it. Yeah, B2W2 allowed players to carry over data from BW, but that could've been done in a Gray version anyway. If USUM is a lazy retelling of SM's story, then I consider B2W2 a lazy sequel to BW's story. I consider USUM flawed for the same reasons I consider B2W2 flawed. They both make the OG story worse rather than better and the new story stuff they added is poorly executed. Both of them weren't justified for being split into two versions. Both of them were responsible for unnecessarily taking away resources for Pokemon Z to be made (along with GameFreak's failed Project Gear games, SM, and LGPE). I'm not saying all this because I hate B2W2. I'm saying all this because B2W2 shouldn't get a free pass for its shortcomings just because they're sequels (the Gen 2 games were also sequels and they didn't need to retcon or ruin anything from the Gen 1 games). There's no reason why Gray couldn't have been made instead while still being a sequel to BW. A lot of issues plagued B2W2 BECAUSE they're split into two. That's my main point.
Unfortunately Sun and Moon were chosen for the 20th anniversary year, and the Ultra games showed they needed some more time in development. Kalos was already known for Kanto pandering between the Kanto starters being made available to you fairly early on with Mega Evolutions (two for Charizard) and many of the Mega Evolutions being for Gen 1 Pokemon (Mewtwo like Charizard getting version exclusive forms).
Lysandre is an extremely subtle character. He's the bad guy in a region based on France, wants to kill everyone who isn't "beautiful", and made a device called the "Holocaster". I have no idea how they came up with such a stunningly original idea for a villain.
Klefki was the biggest underdog of gen 6's roster of pokemon. The fact it's so weird yet actually kinda good in competitive in part due to having such a great ability and typing endeared me to it very quickly, and seeing several people warm up to it was honestly heartwarming.
I've been very miserable this holiday season. I lost my girlfriend and grandmother in a week and I have been working so much. However, I've been rewatching your videos and this will help me get through my rough spot. Happy holidays KingK. Thank you
I'm sorry to hear thst happened to you. Stuff happening during the holidays can be tough, but it's important to remember what the holidays are meant to represent. I wish you the best.
Its so fascinating looking at the unused XY story, imaging going from a previous plot about an organization liberating pokemon from the people as well as having themes of following truths and ideals to a John Carpenters alien plot. Im a little upset this concept did not come to fruition in XY (maybe because this felt a little too abstract for pokemon) but at least the alien invasion concept was revisited in Sun and Moon
I feel like that in later gens Gamefreak has used the following games as opportunities to revisit game concept ideas they had to toss during development from the previous gen (they've done this since Gen 2 for Pokemon concepts but recycling plot beats and mechanics seems to be a newer phenomenon and it feels like it's only gotten more common). ORAS and Gen 7 carried over the alien invasion and extraterrestrial origins of Mega evolution concept that's rumored to have been cut from Gen 6 (apparently Deoxys was the origin of mega evolution, which is something they revisited in the Delta Episode). Lusamine is somewhat similar to Lysandre in that they're philanthropic figures that ultimately turn out to be the story's antagonist (at least in SM), but it's much, much, much more successful in execution. in Lets Go, those Walking Pokemon animations finally make their appearance after being developed for SM/USUM. Gen 8 focuses on history and its far reaching impacts like in XY. It introduced an alternative to mega evolution in Gigantimax, and reused totems as boss battles in PLA. It certainly expanded upon the ideas of regional forms. SWSH's sadly still-nonsensical story has similar beats to Lysandre's in Chairman Rose as broken pedestal authority figures leading a massive corporation that has massive influence and respect/privilege in the region. Hop is similar to Hau with a slightly different character trajectory, both struggling with living in the shadow of their relatives and their more successful rivals, and are the target of one-sided antagonism from another rival. Team Yell is very similar to Team Skull, though less successful, and mildly explores the plight of under-supported communities by central government and the dangers of rabid fans. Themes of climate change and energy crisis are revisited after making its first appearance in Alola, though in a very different fashion. Like Gen 7 it explores SF concepts, but radiation theming and tokusatsu concepts about the dangers of meddling with nature, lot of godzilla references. Gen 9 iterates a lot from Gen 6, 7 and 8 with a grand adventure theme based on science fiction (though more Jules Verne than Orson Welles this time) with a focus on the impact of history, using mild conspiracy/grand mystery themes and duplicitous Professors that resemble that the rumors outlined. Yet another story about a failed authority figure misleading the protagonist like Gen 7 and 8 (though I think it's just as successful as Lusamine and Volo). Another "evil" team that explores societal failures and disenfranchised youth like Team Skull, this time it's about bullying and the failure of authority figures in how they address it. Like SMUSUM the story ultimately turns into a personal one that happens to have world-saving consequences by accident; most strikingly, Arven's entire arc with the professor is a different take on Lillie's arc (with some elements from Hop and Hau and living in the shadow of a relative), dealing with familial abuse and neglect, culminating with the story's climax where those relationships are examined directly. SV ultimately revisits Lusamine's arc of a parental figure that ultimately fails as a parent due to obsession, and expands on it, with SV's central theme being about the various protagonists treasuring something and the rash actions they take in pursuit of or in order to protect that treasure. The DLC continues on this central theme with giving us a darker version of the Calem/Serena and Hau/Hop archetypes in Kieran, where a friendly rival ultimately turns sour after failures get the better of them, and their treasure is taken from them, as well as touching on abuse again with Ogerpon and potentially Carmine's relationship with Kieran (though not nearly as bad as with the Sada/Turo and Lusamine). Totem battles return again from Gen 7 and PLA; wandering boss mobs like alpha pokemon return as wild tera pokemon; Raid battles obviously return; Tera is obviously an interation . Regional forms are iterated upon in the form of Convergent Pokemon and Paradox forms (which are also an iteration of the Ultra Beast concept). Time travel is revisited from PLA, albeit in a very different fashion. The most recurring theme in the 3D gens is the idea that the central gimmick ultimately comes from outer space, and originates from a legendary Pokemon. Concepts of Time Travel and Alternate dimensions start appearing starting with ORAS (granted time travel has been a thing in Pokemon since Gen 2 and 4, but it's much more overt now). It's probably the recency bias but SV sorta feels like a culmination of a lot of those older ideas finally coming together after a decade of false starts and missed opportunities (only held back by its massive visual and performance issues). I expect they're going to continue to iterate further on some of these ideas, some of the stuff I listed is pretty general, but I sincerely hope GF will finally be creatively satisfied with those ideas that they seem to have wanted to revisit since Gen 6 and 7, but I hope they have closure with SV's relative success and apparent ambition.
I enjoyed Gen 6 at the time. Playing it around the start of university, it was nice to get back into Pokemon after not really touching the games much during the later half of highschool (mostly skipped Gen 5 at the time). It's one of the few Pokemon games I actually properly finished but I have a gut feeling I'd be pretty bored going back to it now. The characters and writing are just kinda lifeless, there's no getting around that.
Gen 6 was great at the time when it was new specifically because of the online community around that game. Like being able to fill out Friend Safaris, Battling with friends as it was the first time Comp started more getting accessible, organising online to get Vivillion patterns. It was great. The fact that the PSS is still the best online feature we've had and how every generation they get worse and worse baffles me
Gen 5 came out when I was in high school as well and I skipped over it because life was changing in different ways. I came back to it as an adult and fell in love with the series all over again
Something Else that saddens me with X and Y is how incomplete it feels. It feels more like a super extended demo rather than a full experience. Many areas just feel empty or like something should be there but it isn't.
The weird ghost girl... the Eiffel Tower... that ruined castle on one of the routes... the one-room Pokeball factory... the mirror cave... the Stonehenge-type route... enough content to interest you but never following through.
Not sure if you missed it or didn't want to include it, but there is a small Looker "storyline" in the post game. It's in Lumiose City and involves a new lost girl character, who has a great theme by the way.
@@quinnviandsejThe Ultra Beast sidequest was so rushed that you can’t even see any of the damage this major threat is supposedly causing. That was an awful postgame quest.
I thought the storyline was great, it’s just with the lack of features that were obviously cut would have helped with the post game, like the battle tower and Ryhorn races. It puts it what postgame we got under the magnifying glass more.
I find it fitting that Kingk has a Klefki. I'd like to think of it as a representation of his connection to the Keyblade. No matter what world he finds himself in. That connection will surface one way or another.
This game always felt it was a few missteps away from being truly great. Those missteps however also feel large and vital ones. There’s a cozy atmosphere in the games and I get lost in its world when I play them. They feel like games perfect for the Halloween-Christmas seasons to me. Beyond that however, I am constantly bombarded with incessant reminders of the games’ short comings.
Pokemon X and Y are the games in the series where I can understand the criticisms thrown at it completely, but I can't help but love them anyways. I love the region, the soundtrack, the roster despite its small size is filled with mostly winners, mega evolution is really cool, there's an insane amount of customization both in team composition and trainer customization , it introduced my favorite type in the series, and they're the coziest games in the series for me. I wish this game had more time in the oven (or at the very least a definitive version like Emerald and Platinum that would've upped the difficulty) and I can't help but agree with most criticism thrown at it in this video, but I also can't look back at these games without a smile.
Same. I think X and Y are super flawed. Particularly when it comes to story content. But my god, these games hit me where it matters. Galar is so much more forgettable to me. I still remember nearly every corner of Kalos after not having played the game in years, while Galar is already blurry in my memories. While Unova is my favourite region, I am so happy Kalos is getting another shot in the legends format. Kalos has so much untapped potential.
Out of all the generations, it feels like X and Y is the generation that most deserved a sister game akin to Emerald or DLC. In a sense, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Sun and Moon were the games to fill in that void of Pokemon Z. ORAS gave us an expanded story on Mega Stones, more mega Pokemon, and even introduced the concept of a Pokemon multiverse, while SuMo gave us Zygarde's 100% form and even Ash Greninja. But all these games did was age X and Y even more.
X and Y are in a funny place for me for a very simple reason: they were my first Pokémon games. I suppose the biggest impact on me was that I didn't really see the small number of new 'mons as a bad thing because, well, they were all new - which made the large number of returning mons feel pretty great. The story didn't bother me much at the time although there was a lot of "trevor you can't just say 'oh you saw more pokemon than me' and walk off, how many did I beat you by? what's the par score here?" and "oh boy it's the big battle to decide who gets the mega bracelet, I finally get to fight my main rival!!! oh serena only has three pokemon". When Sun and Moon came out and had, you know, actual characters and a story, I was pretty much blown away. Weirdly I think Wulfric might be my favourite character in the game because at least he has the self-awareness to realise before his battle that you might steamroller him, and he's okay with that. Graphically I thought the games looked pretty nice - the pastel shades with black outlines kinda vibed with me, and made me think "this is how I would want a 3D advance wars to look" (sadly that wasn't the art style we'd end up getting with Reboot Camp, but oh well) and the region does have a lot of pretty stuff to look at (though yeah, there's so much stuff they could have done more with). At the time I was happy with the games, even though I saw others reacting poorly to them, but yeah, I probably wouldn't have as good a time with them now. Still like them more than Sword and Shield though (though I like SM, USUM and SV more).
This game had soooo much potential. I f game freak wasn't so content on rushing to meet a deadline this could have been a epic pokemon game to remember. As it stands now x and y leave me thinking what could have been...
@@tristanalain9239Aren’t those higher up people Game Freak executives? As a company Game Freak has control of their deadline and budget, they just choose not to do better.
@@oyeh8908 Game Freak is only in charge of the games themselves; the Pokémon franchise as a whole is controlled by The Pokémon Company. Game Freak does not control the release dates for the trading cards, the toys, the anime episodes, etc.; all of which would have to be delayed if the games get delayed.
A "To Be Continued" for the XY retrospective of all games? That's unexpected. I did notice a lack of discussion on Gen 6's breadth of quality of life updates and features like Pokémon-Amie, O-Powers, and the improvements to Pokémon breeding & training. It makes me think you'll discuss them in ORAS, Sun & Moon, or whatever the "To Be Continued" is leading into.
Same, to an extent. My first Pokémon game that I bought was Diamond, then I skipped gen 5, then I learned about X & Y and got back into the series. I then stopped when I chose not to get Sword or Shield.
@@JayceCH."How dare YOU spend YOUR money how YOU want" Listen bud, I also dislike XY and love gen 5, but shaming people for how they spend their money is silly
When it comes to Lysander, I always viewed it as him trying to softlock the world before it becomes more ugly. The middle ground between life and death. One could view it as him creating a new world or destroying it, but ultimately he just wants it to stop before it can naturally continue on. In that sense Zygard seemed to always been a better pick for him as it represents that middle ground between chaos and entropy (Xernas and Yvental) which is order. Instead of reaching out for one of the two extremes to stop the eventual end of beauty, the legendary Pokemon to keep balance between said extremes seems to be a much more fitting pick for his ideals. There is also the whole deal about the power plant in the dead middle of Kalos that has clearly cut content and could have probably illustrated a lot of his arguments better. Not like the game does a poor job to convey any of this despite of that anyways. Woe me, we never got that supposed Pokemon Z.
@@JayceCH. To say that it's relatable in any sense to begin with isn't the smartest thing in the first place. Lysander simply valued beauty more than the individual. He couldn't accept that things would one day cease to be beautiful.
The best thing about Gen 6 is the community. Everyone enjoyed playing with their friends. Some recently came back playing Pokemon by starting with Gen 5 first then was hyped about Gen 6. Around Gen 7 and beyond a lot left Pokemon again for various reasons (started working, graduated university, etc) Competitive play especially during OR/AS was at all time high. It really was the best days for modern Pokemon. There were veterans and casual players everywhere
Mega Evolution. I still miss it. Why do I still miss it? Because I like the Super Mode trope. And while I do like Dynamax and Terastal and Z Moves, there’s just something about seeing our Pokémon transform that gives me chills every time. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for Mega Evolution, I doubt we would have got Z Moves, Gigantamax or Terastal at all. As all of these mechanics, starting with Mega Evolutions, gave Pokémon more potential in terms of Rule of Cool battling and competitive play (even if I’m not a competitive player). If there is one Major problem I have with Mega Evolution (in X and Y specifically, the very game this mechanic released) is that the Kalos Starters were denied of them. And not just the Starters, most of Kalos (save for the Mythical Pokémon, Diancie) was denied of the very power this game introduced. One of the BIGGEST problems I had with Pokémon XY as a whole as not only the Kalos Pokémon couldn’t use Mega Evolution, but also due to them being in a small amount, the new Pokémon (outside of maybe the starters and a select few other Pokémon) couldn’t stand out to me. This problem was mostly mitigated with ORAS, where Sceptile and Swampert (in addition to Blaziken in the XY’s distribution event) all got their Mega Forms with their Mega Stones being obtainable in story. Around the time you get the Mega Ring. On top of that, a few Hoenn Pokémon (Gallade included) got Mega Evolution. Granted, some of the stones were still locked behind Post Game, but at least the Hoenn Pokémon that got Mega Forms got to take advantage of this Mechanic. Save for Ash Greninja which only got the unique form due to popularity, leaving Delphox and Chesnaught in the dust.
XY did set the stage for ORAS A lot of the “good” the XY had had been transformed and improved with ORAS I still liked XY but enjoyed myself a lot more with ORAS I remember.
"As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for Mega Evolution, I doubt we would have got Z Moves, Gigantamax, or Terastal at all." I Bloody Wish. I wholeheartedly despise this entire comment.
Mega evolution was one of the worst things to happen to competitive lmao, it was extremely limiting that every team had to effectively save one slot to one pokemon in a specific pool in order to have what amounted to just a free legendary, of which some were already very broken like mega kangaskhan and took the slot almost every time Unlike dynamaxing or tera or zmoves there wasn't really a choice of which Pokemon you'd mega in each fight (since you sacrificed an item slot for it) and no component of when to use the mechanic at all, it was always optimal to just mega evolve right away
Before I even watch this I just want to say. This is such an ironically fitting time for me to see this video release around the holidays. I have fond memories during a difficult and confusing time of my life of playing Pokémon X and staying up late at night in Annistar City listening to the tranquil wintery music. Regardless of your opinion, thanks for bringing back these fond memories.
My favorite memory of XY was being in high school and my classmates were arguing about which version was better. I remember one of them saying "yeah well I get Mega Aggron while you get Mega Tyranitar, and we both know which is better"
I mean, Mega Tyranitar is better just because Tyranitar is a better Pokemon. Mega Aggron is a much more interesting Mega because it transforms Aggron from a Head Smashing Maniac into an actual defensive Pokemon. Shame it doesn't have any reliable recovery though
To be fair, you're not supposed to rollerblade *everywhere*. You rollerblade for the longer stretches / wider turns / etc, and then when precise small movements are needed, use the D-pad to walk.
I feel sorry for Kalos. It feels like X and Y were created just to show Pokémon could work in 3D, and then that whole world was tossed aside in favor of moving onto the next thing. It’s especially glaring because the anime had an XYZ season showing off Zygarde and making Team Flare into an actual competent threat, and it feels like there was supposed to be a Pokémon Z to go along with it. Considering how much Emerald and Platinum improved the Hoenn and Sinnoh experience, I’m positive that a Pokémon Z would’ve at least made Kalos and its cast of characters more interesting. At least the music is wonderful as always, one of my favorite Pokémon soundtracks actually.
48:51 the „Fairies from Space“ idea is actually hinted at in Gen 1, when you hear a rumor that Cleffey and Cleffairy originally came from the Moon. So this concept may have been around almost as long as the series itself.
I like how Klefki is always the argument that Pokemon has run out of ideas. Klefki design is so cool and unique. They were out ideas in Gen 1 when they made Ekans a normal ass looking snake and just spelled it backwards. Then it evolves into Arbok, which follows the same exact rule. Pokémon only expanded on their designs.
It’s funny how my excitement for these videos is much greater than for any movie or television. They’re just so clean and well edited. I wonder what process you use to choose what to focus on as something inevitably gets thrown out before uploading?
While I do agree that "the small roster of Kalos' native pokémon forces you to use the more abundant older pokémon problem" can be a bit of a turn off for some players, I think that's also the reason that makes X&Y a great game for beginners! My friend who hadn't played a single pokémon game ever wanted to get into the series couple years back, and I recommended her X. I watched her whole playthrough and she had a great time, constantly changing team members because she saw something new one route later.
I would say it's either a strength or a weakness depending on who you are. For my sensibilities, it's a bit of a let down, but I do think it makes certain challenge runs much more interesting. So I would definitely agree.
I recently started playing Eternal X and honestly had a blast being able to build a bird team with cool new abilities I'd never used before. Sometimes you need to tweak the experience yourself to be able to enjoy the better parts of it. And there's nothing wrong with that
This, and I wish gamefreak allowed us to catch every Pokémon, I thought that was the name of the game lol. The community has done a great job with making the mainline games feel less restrictive and more enjoyable with QoL improvements and a challenge.
I really hope that when we return to Kalos we get to see a story that’s more akin to what Kalos is like in the anime. THAT would be one of the best games in the franchise 😭
I think you played X based on how you describe Lysandre, but in Y I felt he was (for Pokemon) a great villain. I also think there's a fair amount of quality of life features and other stuff that weren't touched on much. I'll get back to Lysandre later, but firstly, while you criticize the lack of NEW Pokemon options, the game has an insane amount of variety if you include older Pokemon you can get across the game: There's WAY more Pokemon per route and less reused across them, so there's a ton of teambuilding options. It's also hard to overstate how much the PSS, Trainer customization, and Super training add to quality of life functions. Looping back to Lysandre, at least in Y, I think he's the best villain the series had other then N and Ghestis up till the point when XY came out. He's a former philanthropist who is tired of seeing his gifts to society and the needy wasted, and instead now wants to solve scarcity and ensure nobody needs to be hungry or impoverished by reducing the population. In contrast to Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, and Cryus, who are comically one dimensional and the actual writing is such an afterthought to everything else, Lysandre is far more nuanced, and thanks to him being active across the plot and amicable to the professor and the player and regularly wanting to talk to both of you, we get way more of a look into his head instead of just a few stray lines before and after your few battles with him: He TRULY wants to better the world and we see him question his own decisions, and is even willing to give up once the player's resolve shakes his belief (if not for Xerosec ruining everything). In X, he is less compelling, as I understand it: There, his motives for purging the world has less to do with solving scarcity, and is more about clearing out the lower class riff-raff and anything that's unslightly and to make things beautiful, which you mention. Also, while the stuff with AZ is absolutely underexplored, the actual backstory sequence with Floette is pretty emotional. I don't disagree that both Lysandre's handling and how little the AZ stuff is explored is... not great, but when you compare it to Gen 1, 2, 3, and even 4, there's WAY more of an effort to flesh out the main villain and tackle real world issues like war, scarcity, etc, wheras in those prior games, the evil team felt there purely as generic enemies and bad guys as obstacles with no real character. You compare Lysandre to Cyrus here unfavorably, but as somebody who literally ASD and can probably relate to Cyrus's desire for a logical and rational world free from the bounds of impossible to quantify things like emotion and spirit more then most people, I still feel like he's ultimately a very generic "destroy the world" maniac with no depth or character unless you really contrive between the lines; To me, he and even moreso the villains before Cryus don't even approach Lysandre's writing, though again, that's less a credit to Lysandre and more a criticism of how little the franchise took it's writing before gen 5. In general, while I agree with most of your criticisms (Lysandre aside) and while there's other stuff I could praise like the music, the comfy atmosphere, other quality of life jumps XY brings to the table, the bottom line is I really feel like had XY gotten a Z version, to flesh out or to downplay your annoying rivals, to up the difficulty, to flesh out the AZ plot, and to give us a battle frontier, I think it EASILY could have been the best game in the series. The pokemon variety, the region itself, the writing (again, IMO, relative to what the series had done till this point aside from Gen 5) and the quality of life upgrades XY got were already really good, a similar upgrade that DP got to PT would have done wonders. Also, as somebody who plays Pokken competitively, Mega Mewtwo X has grown on me. It's proportions work a LOT better in Pokken and it benefits a ton from more fleshed out animations. I also like Mega Tyranitar: Not *more* then the base form, but it's over the top in a way a lot of classic Kaiju are from Toho films, Ultraman, etc. ut overall,
Also the finale of lysandre's story in Y feels better than X's where he tries to use last of Yveltal's energy they could absorb to destroy the weapon to bring you down with him, rather than.....forcing immortality upon you using what they got of Xerneas', and they still destroying it?
Ditto on the pokemon selection. I dont like how reviewers tunnelvision on the new pokemon. As a longtime fan, i look at the OVERALL selection, not just the new ones. Especially now that we are so limited, making XY all the more impressive in this regard.
Eh...no his motive and goal is the same in both games, just using a different giant battery power source. But yeah I agree otherwise....Lysandre wasn't that bad although eh...Cyrus had some depth and character but just...yeah XY could have been better....I really do care about these games but yeah.
You took the words right out of my mouth! XY are flawed yes but also (imo) deeply underrated. Like at their core these are well crafted, very fun and replayable RPGs worth a lot more credit than people give them
The video was good talk about the fundamentals of x and y, but felt lacking terms of discussing the smaller stuff like the Looker Bureau quest or the introduction of poke amie, super training, and PSS system even with the network being down now.
@@mr.redacted767 The game does have a lot flaws as it showed how little time game freak had to make a more fleshed out game, with everything taking a hit from the story to battle animation. But stuff like super training, and PSS system only shows its value when you can connect online fight and trade with other people. Though leaving out poke amie and looker bureau post game quest line was weird.
I found the story towards the end to be pretty good, at least. Still sad that we’re yet to get something on the level of B2W2. The credits music for that game get me emotional to this day, probably because it’s somewhat melancholic, and playing after the peak of the series.
B2W2's story doesn't even come close to the original BW games though. Plus I'd argue that Sun and Moon have the best story in any mainline pokemon game
I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and say that Scarlet and Violet's story is actually the best we've gotten in years (in my opinion). It's just that the game runs awfully and visually looks bad, which is likely due to time crunch, so that overshadows a lot of the wonderfully developed characters we got and story elements that weren't just "legendary pokemon is causing havoc, let's stop it"
From my understanding, X and Y act as some kind of soft reboot for the franchise. For a lot of people (including myself) it was their first pokemon game in years, boosted with the popularity of Pokémon Go. Hence why I think this game focus both on gen 1 fanservice and an easier game (combined with the troubled development due to going from 2D to 3D for the first time for a mainline game)
"THIS WORLD IS IMPERFECT!" It's kind of ironic that Fairy was such a balance patch of an addition back in Gen VI, because not only did it not really work in Gen VI itself (hello, Mega Rayquaza!), but fast-forward to current generations and things like Xerneas, the Tapu, and Zacian have been more of a pain in the rear than Dragon spam ever was. Fairy came in right at the point where power creep _exploded_ in Pokemon and benefitted hugely from it. Probably doesn't help that its two weaknesses, Steel and Poison, aren't great attacking types. Steel's only got a handful of moves that are actually good, and Poison has never not been bad. I share the frustration with the lack of Kalos Pokemon. I've run this game multiple times and usually I only end up using my starter and Yveltal from the region itself, with everything else being from past generations. Most of those old favourites are Mega-capable, softening the punch a bit, as they still _have_ new designs, but it's still weird. Especially because they made the baffling decision to lock most of the Mega stones behind the postgame. As far as the Megas go, I like them. I've made use of the Megas for Abomasnow, Blastoise, Manectric, Lucario, Absol, Aggron, Tyranitar, Gardevoir, Ampharos, Mewtwo (Y), Blaziken, and Charizard (Y), out of the ones introduced in this game, and in most cases I prefer the original form, I like the Megas enough as temporary upgrades. That's kinda how I view non-permanent Super Modes in things- I don't _want_ to like them more than the base form, but as an optional extra? Plenty satisfactory. I do very much miss the mechanic, and I think the regional gimmicks from Gen VII-IX are much less fun and much more of a headache in terms of game balance. I don't think any Pokemon needed two Mega forms, and in both cases, I prefer the Y version to the X one. Mewtwo doesn't really get much out of a secondary Fighting type, and most Mewtwo are going to be running Special moves, so the sudden hard switch to Physical doesn't really benefit it much, especially when most of its best moves are Special, including Psystrike. Charizard is much the same. The Y form feels like an advancement of Charizard's normal design, the buff to its Sp.Atk is great, and it becoming a sun-summoner with Drought is amazing. The X one feels like it's trying too hard, like it was designed by a focus group. Becoming a Physical Dragon-type in the generation designed to punish physically-offensive Dragons for existing is a _choice,_ and it can't benefit from losing the Stealth Rock weakness because it still has to come in as a Fire/Flying type. Then it gives up its immunity to the most ubiquitous move in the game, Earthquake, and yeah, no, Y superior. Overall, I kinda like Gen VI. It's a long way from perfect, but I enjoy playing it much more than I like playing Gen VII. I'll take consistently too easy over the incoherent difficulty spikes and valleys of Alola.
I'll sit here and say X/Y is judged too harshly. The games are great and get WAY too much hate. "My kalos team building options were limited" HUH? Kalos has one of the better selections in the entire franchise what?
I think he means that there are very few new Pokémon to choose from, since he tries to only use Pokémon from the new generation for each playthrough. He did also say that the team options for Pokémon that he liked, specifically, were limited. I also think XY are judged a little harshly, as they are victims of a deadline, and were not a product of laziness or legitimately poor design choices like recent generations. I also have a lot of nostalgia for Gen 6, so I’m sure that makes it easier for me to ignore flaws than it is for other people.
I still have fond memories of X. It was the first Pokemon game I'd played in years after DNFing Black and White so it sort of felt like a homecoming. I actually still replay it occasionally. Though I can still see why other people don't like it, and even admit that without that nostalgia I probably wouldn't like it as much as I do
This is I think the most challenging Holiday season I've had in a while. My girlfriend is gone visiting her dying gma and I'm home alone. Playing video games hasn't helped too much but listening to you talk about games definitely has. Thank you for making a lonely time feel less lonely, King K.
@@Qeboflu I feel you man, my girl comes home tomorrow. I hope you get to see your family soon. And for what it's worth, I hope you had a Merry Christmas
The one thing I miss from XY aside from mega evolution is the Super Training. It made nailing the exact right EVs not only easy but also fun. Way better than just shoving vitamins down their throats or trying to battle specific Pokemon ad nauseum
Even though gen 1 was my first set of Pokémon games, somehow I feel strong nostalgia for X & Y, lol. I can acknowledge some of their shortcomings, but I still like these games a lot.
With how much XY tried to celebrate gen 1, I wonder why (tried to because in my case it failed miserably, I'm also a player that started with gen 1). Gen 7 did a much better job at that IMO.
My only critique: Nicknaming your team was not a hard rule in the original rulset. Ruby nicknamed hos team because he felt it would make it easier to give character to the pokemon for his comic strip he made alongside the run. This is a really common mistake, but one that bears pointing out because the Nuzlocke community alternates very quickly between acceptance and gatekeeping, even over stuff that does not matter, like nicknames.
Damn I loved XY. I felt like the team combinations were much more diverse than any other game. Aegislash is the fucking sickest Pokémon and so fun to use.
Honestly a lot of the mega evolution criticism felt waaaay too nitpicky. I honestly think the vast majority of designs were great. It's also BY FAR the best "gen trope" they've come up with, even if it was unbalanced. I think introducing something that all pokemon could use (like terastalization) to balance things out while introducing a larger catalog of megas. It's such a shame they threw it away...
The Post Game in X and Y is VERY VERY missable. There is a Detective Looker side plot that takes place in the games Major city. I forget exactly how to activate it, but I distinctly remember collecting golden tickets, a unique NPC with an interesting sub plot, and a return of the white masked dude in Team Flare. It’s pretty good, but very grindy at times.
ok yeah sorry I completely disagree on your take on the mega designs I personally think they are awesome and that it would be great to have some new ones to make less appreciated mons stand out. Also I have to say I think everyone misunderstands the modern exp share's purpose. I think it is designed to encourage catching as many pokemon as possible and actually use them. I mean in the older games it was a massive pain to just swap your party out for a different one but in the modern games due to the exp share it is super easy to just swap to a different team if you feel like you are not getting properly challenged or if you just wanna try a cool strat you thought up. I actually tried replaying OR/AS with this mindset and it was an absolute blast. I had 3 different teams that were actually NOT overlevelled at all, and the game did end up more difficult that way.
9:53 doubt your gonna read this but they didn't focus on this. It was an overcorrection from black and white. Because people where mad and hated black and white (wasn't until recently that this game got love) for adding to many new Pokemon and not enough old ones after fans complained they where reusing old ones to much , so game freak overcorrected an overcorrection by not adding lots of new and giving lots of old. It just goes to show Pokemon fans will have there cake eat it to and still be upset
After playing the Indigo Disk DLC I can safely say that Pokémon is not only back to its former difficulty glory, but that it's above any previous game and it's actively TRYING to kick your ass. It's a bit of a shame that it's reserved for these post-game DLCs, but it's a step in the right direction, hopefully they keep it up
Kalos is easily one of my favorite regions because it's so varied and beautiful. Also i love how Gen 6 Added Fairy type, because the moves are so gorgeous
To answer the final question: no, the pokemon games dont need to evolve. GameFreak does. GameFreak still acts like a small company from the 90s. They dont treat their games seriously. They have needed more employees/programmers for over a decade but refuse to expand. They have needed to listen to fans criticisms for over a decade but refused to listen. GameFreak is unwilling to change their philosophy in regard to how games should be made, and this will cost them.
The XY postgame is pretty small, but it seems like you totally missed the Looker storyline! There's a whole mini story where you become his assistant along with a homeless girl named Emma. It's not much, but I've only played it once and I still remember that part, so it's must have been at least a little interesting.
Not trying to come off too strong here when I say this, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when comments come in and say that I "missed" something. I do, in fact, know about the Looker storyline. I simply had nothing to say about it. I do not endeavor to cover absolutely everything in a game like some kind of checklist. It would add nothing to the video. Again, this is not meant to come off strong or anything. Just want to clear the record, since I am getting a lot of comments about it.
I always love unwinding watching your retrospectives. So nostalgic and cathartic to hear you share the same feelings I hold about these games. Like revisiting these games without having to commit to a full play through again
I can’t be the only one who noticed all his Pokémon in the nuzlocke were one piece names. knowing KingK is a one piece fan only makes me love him even more
I agree X and Y was utterly forgettable. I have played Heartgold and Soulsilver to death, and replayed the generation 5 games multiple times (I even bought both versions of both Black and White and their sequels), but I never had any desire to replay generation 6. Lumiose City was a mistake.
I think of X and Y as "Pokemons greatest hits" that appeals to older players reentering the franchise. This is good or bad depending on your perspective. As someone who left after gen 2, I enjoyed the game. I get why fans who stayed didn't like it, however
TLDR: PKMN species are fundamentally there to be reused and placed in future locations in future games, and XY did this a lot better than many other sets of new PKMN! While XY didn't bring too many PKMN with it, it did a very good job of creating PKMN that have niches in a design space. What I mean is that, at this point, there were enough PKMN to literally create ecosystems (something that was fleshed out much more in SM, with some PKMN showing up for the sole purpose of preying on the wild PKMN calling for help). Bunnelby and Diggersby are the first rabbit PKMN that actually reflect real rabbits. Domestic rabbits are in the genus Oryctolagus, literally "dig rabbit." While Buneary, Plusle, Minun, and Azumarill all have typical pet rabbit colors (brown, white, and dark and white spotted), they really just take the long ears that rabbits are known for, and nothing else. Bunnelby and Diggersby are the perfect PKMN to show up as common encounters in meadows, and rural areas. Common to the point of nuisance to some, and complementing other PKMN to appear in their "ecosystems" like Flabebe by making the rare PKMN feel rare by comparison. A nice meadow? Put Bunnelby most of the time, Flabebe some of the time, and rarely Miltank, or even Staraptor or Furret to prey on the Bunnelby. The designs basically write themselves for future use, and it's very well done in XY's batch! As much as I love BW, where and how are PKMN like Sawk and Throh going to appear without looking ungodly out of place, especially in 3D? Noibat and Carbink also serve as fun new additions to rare cave PKMN. After years of nothing but Geodude, Zubat, and Machoke, we were finally getting things like Woobat, Noibat, and Carbink: PKMN that made caves feel more like a place actually worth exploring as a location where unique PKMN can be found! Phantump is another design that has more than proved itself since PKMN came into open-world 3D. A dark forest? Put Phantump. Plop that bad boy right in there. Forming pretend ecosystems gives a lot of species and types reason to exist in more than one area in the game!
Gen 6 was my return to pokemon like a lot of people's. It was also my first foray into competitive battling, it was the first time I learned the card game, it was the first time I watched and followed the anime series all the way through. Hell, I still keep the pokemon xy anime on in the background to fall asleep to. Also pokemon go came out a couple years after it's release. Not to mention this was the generation where Se Jun Park won pokemon worlds with a Pachirisu. Just like gen 4, it's not the best pokemon gen objectively but it is one of my favorites. It was a huge part of my childhood and being involved in the culture surrounding pokemon back then was unmatched.
It's funny, because I briefly fell out of the franchise during Gen5, B2/W2 being the first mainline games I ever skipped. I thought I might have been done with Pokémon after that, but then X/Y brought me right back in. Maybe that's why I look back on them more fondly than most others seem to. I've since fallen out of the franchise to a greater degree, having skipped US/UM and all of the Switch games save only for the breath of fresh air that was Legends Arceus... yet I recently revisited X/Y and enjoyed them just as much as ever.
Like a lot of people I grew up on Pokemon, but as I got older I started to dismiss it as something childish, my last game in the series was Pearl. This is the game that got me back into the series, I absolutely loved it. Good video!
Of all the Pokémon mainline games that have ever been released, I remember X/Y fondly. Probably my third favorite set of games after Black/White 2 and Platinum. Kalos wasn't amazing, but calling it trash seems too harsh, especially since Legends Z-A comes out in 2025.
I definitely understand criticisms of x and y and acknowledge my bias since i have a lot of nostalgia and love for them anyways I spent aaaages buying every single article of clothing and prioritized maxing out the style meter after I heard of it, then i spent hours making the absolute perfect outfit and it was so much fun. X and Y remain to this day my favorite games in the franchise fashion and customization wise. I didnt vibe much with Alola clothing or Galars and Scarlet/Violet are such a huge step back so it really has felt like we got a great thing that has slowly degraded to me Im also biased since Gardevoir and Mawile are way up my favorites list and both got megas and fairy type so they were super fun to use I remember just having a bunch of fun and enjoying myself while skating around and vibing, I even got into competitive level breeding and training learning all the ev and iv systems and stuff just to prolong my fun
With legends Z-A having a 2 year development time, i hope they can make it to what they were originally planning on doing and make zygarde the focal point of the story
46:00 ehhh Lysandre was a bad villain, but Rose was far worse. They at least tried to explained Lysandre’a motivations, they show evil in his world and him experiencing it. Galar has 1,000 years of energy, there is no immediate threat, and he’s completely willing to cause a potential world ending event to solve a problem what won’t even be a problem for 10 centuries. He casts aside Bede without a second though so it’s obviously not about providing for the next generation. Lysandre hates the world and the people in it, so that logically brings him to the wanting to destroy everything. Rose loves his people so he’s will to risk their lives to help their great great great great great great great grandchildren, that doesn’t make sense.
WRONG. And people keep misinterpreting Rose's motivations. He is a corpo big wig. He has absolutely out there ideas. He WANTS "renown" and the way he stumbled upon Eternatus popped the idea of solving **infinite energy for humanity.** How the fuck do you not understand this when IRL, people are panicking about the AI singulairty, talks about the heat death of the universe, the eventual resource depletion of our planet, etc. How are Pokemon fans too stupid to realize this?? "Lysandre hates the world and the people in it, so that logically brings him to the wanting to destroy everything." No you bandwagoning fanboy. No that does not make sense at all. Theres no logic there.
I really like Kalos but I do not like X and Y much. Had a lot of fun with them, and they are probably the earlier games I spent the most time playing. But the most fun I have had in X and Y have been fan-made edits. Wilting Y and whatever the X version is called makes the game actually pretty challenging.
I’m very excited for this video because x and y are what I consider the peak of competitive battling for Pokémon with amazing roster of Pokémon and really well redefined battle and breeding mechanics to make everything easier to understand. I love these games so much and can’t wait to see what you think. Edit: oh no, the video has started and you seem negative 😖 welp here we go 😂❤️ Also the saddest part to me isn’t issues with the game you had or some of the amazing new Pokémon (avalug Hawlucha and gogoat I love) but the fact you dismissed the elite 4 theme so much like the moment that theme hits hard it’s such a banger
I am happy about the nuzlocke section of this! All my runs of X and Y were nuzlockes, and I played them together with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, when we were first dating. Later on, I completed my first hardcore nuzlocke on it, naming all my pokemon after diseases, haha. I have so many fond memories of playing this game that I can't bring myself to hate it, even though it has flaws. In fact, it's one of my most beloved pokemon games, still, and for me it HAS those challenging sections because I never just played through it normally. The furfrou double battle is actually really tough, then there's a hawlucha trainer in the mirror cave that can really get you, too... Lysandre is always a potential run ender, too!
These were simpler times. Back when the worst complaint I had about Pokemon was that the story was a little boring and the main villain is barely around until you have to fight him three times in the span of twenty minutes. Out of all the gimmicks the series has had, Mega Evolution is the one I want back the most. Mawile especially suffers without it.
X and Y is the beginning of an annoying trend that would follow the series from this day forward: Appealing to the fanbase’s most vocal demands with little regard for how it would impact larger game design. Gen VI: “Make the Pokémon 3D!” - leads to huge impacts on the game’s development time. Gen VII: “Get rid of HMs” - greatly simplifies the game’s resource management to the point where complex dungeons are basically pointless. Gen VIII: “Add overworld encounters” - They are so poorly optimized that random encounters would be better. Gen IX: “Make the games open world” - The game is a glitchy mess and the world design becomes increasingly generic because it can’t account for how people are going to approach it.
Y is one of my favorites probably just because it's the first pokemon game i played after putting the franchise down after crystyal. I found it really charming and having skipped 3 generations inhad a lot more new pokemon to try and to fight. I get the complaints about it now and i recognize that i was in a sort of unique position but I'll always love y because of it. At the very least it rekindled my love of the games.
This video perfectly captures the total apathy I feel for XY. Don't love it, don't hate it. Wish it could have been so much more. I remember watching the first trailer when it came out and getting so excited. Played it once, never fully replayed, lost interest in the series. Would come back every few years to see what changed and repeat the pattern.
Thanks for opening up some new perspectives about X and Y that I never thought about man. Despite all the flaws and behind the scenes mess you pointed out, these games will always have a special place in my heart. That's because not only did they, together with Sun and Moon, bring me back to Pokémon after a time in my life in which I unjustly thought it was "childish", but also because of the region itself. Kalos had this relaxed and beautiful, yet adventurous atmosphere that really made me fond of it. It also helps that I live in a neighboring country of France, and seeing some of the places and landscapes I visited (notably the Mont Saint Michel, Bretagne, the Alsace and Paris) come to life in a Pokémon game was an amazing experience to say the least. That's why I played Y two times, and why I still revisit the game quite often (trying to complete the regional dex right now)!
I hsve always been and will die a Klefiki defender. I played a lot of showdown with my friends around this time and my Klefki got me so many wins I did not deserve. Fairy steel with prankster, decent bulk, recovery, and every move it could want. Klefki will be there in the rubble of hmanity, jingling away.
Klefki's a good lad. Honestly even though I've never really used any of them myself, I'm happy with all the inanimate object pokemon. At least they're creative.
I have not picked up my 3DS in years (bad battery that can't hold a charge) but X and Y feel like better games than the newer games. I loved the battle mansion and even worked my way to the highest rank. And as for Mewtwo X I will say that the design is like 'What if we add a little machoke DNA to Mew's.' As for challenges I did the Gym leader challenge. You have 1 type to choose or be decided randomly. Dual type are allowed as long as long as the chosen type is there. You are allowed 1 healing item in battle. If i get my 3ds running again I might do a gym leader challenge on X.
I probably enjoyed XY more since wasn't really looking for a challenge. I typically don't with pokemon games, though I understand other people do I'm in the camp of exploring a new region and collecting new pokemon. So I enjoyed it,
I have been under the impression that Creatures Inc. was simply a division/branch of Game Freak/The Pokémon Company, but upon further investigation, it seems that Creatures Inc. is in fact its own entiry. For the sake of this video (and my other 3D Pokémon video) you may assume that I am referring to the employees of Creatures Inc. when talking about 3D modeling until I am able to correct myself for Sun and Moon. Apologies for the misunderstanding.
Was going to comment on this. It was Creatures Inc, and not Gamefreak, that made the 3d models. Which explains why the models are impressive technically, but also a bit devoid of creativity. It seems that game freak was given the models as a base, with the intent or expectation was that gamrefreak would... utilize them creatively, rather than just copy and paste them in.
@@theologamer yeah but it’s hard to do that when you have to do 700+ of them and make a whole jrpg ontop of that
@@Magic_Icedon’t be a Nintendo apologist. The largest brand with the largest budget in the PLANET and in HISTORY. Failures of Pokémon and lack of it ever getting better is owned solely by Nintendo.
@@ma.2099 so, you are of the opinion that pokemon should be stripped from gamefreak?
@@ma.2099 You know Nintendo only owns 1/3 of Pokémon right? And I’m talking about the developers working on the game. Did you even watch the video?
One of the most glaring examples about how glossed over Gen 6 is is to look at Zygarde. They were clearly going to build up to something with, and we got jack. Zygarde was throw into Gen 7 with little fanfare with just a "find all the cells" task. No big cutscene, nada.
Another reason I think gen 6 was snubbed, because they were setting all these details up for expansion and such, but ended up ditching it for gen 7 since the anniversary stuff was coming up, and deciding they needed (major) new release for it
Isnt X and Y kinda considered the best of the show? Ash is a legit masterful poke master and uses a lot of advanced tactics to win. Jesse and James, while still funny, are more engaged with the plot and actually turn out to actually help the good guys. The animation was starting to actually get really nice looking. I could be wrong on all of this @SmashBrosInitiative
@@CascadianRanger I haven't watched the anime is years but you miiiight be thinking of the Sun and Moon anime? At least that's the one I remember hearing a lot of good things about but they might both be good for different reasons.
@@koifish835 the Sun and Moon one went a more comedic route, though I heard was actually pretty funny and enjoyable. I know there's 1 run where the show actually took itself a LITTLE more seriously. Still pokemon, but letting the characters breath, grow a bit, have moments with a bit more impact
@@CascadianRanger
Tl;dr He was most competent from the last part of Gen 3 anime all the way to now, excluding Gen 5 anime where he was absolute dog shit. Gen 1 and Gen 2 anime he was still a baby trainer on his trainer wheels
As someone who's watched almost all the Pokemon anime series' save for the literal newest one, in terms of Ash competency it goes ...
1. X/Y , Diamond/Pearl , Sword/Shield , Sun/Moon , Frontier
2. Gold/Silver , Red/Blue , Orange Islands
3. Black/White
Within these 3 categories he displayed relatively the same amount of trainer competency, give or take situation discrepancy (type matchups or emotional story beats for instance) within each level. I.e. Frontier Ash is about as competent as Sinnoh Ash, Sinnoh Ash just has more experience, and the same can be said for Kalos, Alola, and Galar Ash. He showed match up awareness, and played into the strengths of his specific mons (i.e. letting his turtwig ,which as a species is slow, utilize his speed in battles due to being unnaturally fast, or commanding his froppy to use his frubbles) he also imagined and mastered special techniques that were unique to him and his Pokemon, such as counter shield, energy absorption, lightning walking, ice aqua jet, iron tail climb, ect.
I think there’s one thing that keeps XY back. No Pokemon Z. Diamond and Pearl had issues too, but people look back at Platinum. XY had issues but a very solid core IMO but no third version to change things up and give a definitive version
I think Z would definitely be to the level of Emerald and Platinum with that they did with RS and DP’s perception. So disappointing that they canceled it.
GameFreak trying to deny making Z when USUM's code outright _proves_ that XY was going to get two follow-up games shows how much it sucks as a company.
Reminder that this is the same company that: made B2W2 and USUM two versions for more profit; made a bunch of mediocre non-Pokemon games with the intention to outdo Pokemon in popularity; made LGPE for the sole purpose of riding on GO's fading popularity at the time; and gave SV as many DLCs as possible while failing to fix many of their issues. Those were apparently more important than giving XY the closure they were denied. GameFreak sucks period.
@@christianmckee2116
Don’t compare B2W2 and USUM. One is a sequel that lovingly builds on what came before adds a new story, develops already existing characters, expanded the region, added a ton of new features, and allowed players to carry over data for extra content similarly to games like Mass Effect.
The other is a lazy way to milk a game out of dlc claiming it’s “a retelling of the story” when the story is exactly the same up to the point of the climax, in which it replaces the best character pay off in the entire series with a boss fight they didn’t set up. As well as putting in cut content for games like Pokemon Z, with poor integration, so their work doesn’t go to waste.
B2W2 are amazing lovingly crafted sequels to BW. USUM are loose bullet points of ideas, that might of worked for DLC, cramped into SM and sold as a new game.
@@princestarfy4098 Lovingly? B2W2 outright retcons BW's postgame for its story to exist. Remember when Kyurem was caught by the BW protagonist? Remember when the Seven Sages were locked up by Looker? Remember when Cheren's character arc was concluded? B2W2 outright ignores all that to tell a different story.
I can only give B2W2 credit for N's development (even then, it's just more of the same from what was already seen from BW). For every other character, their development is either surface-level, nonexistent, or straight-up regression. All the Gym Leaders are freaking idiots for doing jack about Team Plasma attempting to goddamn _freeze_ Unova despite going against Team Plasma raising a castle over the Unova League in BW. After BW broke the mold for Gym Leaders doing more in the story, B2W2 backtracks them to do the same thing that Gym Leaders in other games are criticized for. Ghetsis is an even bigger moron than before with his stupid plan to freeze Unova (he could've done this shit without Kyurem, meaning Kyurem's only role in these games is based on contrivance). Then there was the _very_ contrived way his plan comes together (how convenient N saw the big explosion at Giant Chasm when you consider that if N was anywhere else, Ghetsis's plan would've fallen apart; also how convenient that the player doesn't fight against Kyurem and instead stands in place like a idiot). And him losing his shit over that dumb plan when he reacted calmer to his long-term plan from BW failing makes no sense. Hugh's character development boils down to "I have to find sister's Purrloin" and that's where it ends. Cheren and Bianca don't develop any more than they already did by the end of BW. Cheren becoming a Gym Leader and Bianca becoming Professor Juniper's assistant does not equal character development. They're just things that happened. Colress is a fun meme, but as a character, his motivations make little to no sense. Zinzolin is one of the worst Pokemon villains in the franchise because of B2W2. He went from mildly threatening in BW to being an absolute joke in these games.
The story is incredibly forced and railroaded for a relatively lackluster plot. There was a golden opportunity to fix how railroaded Unova was in the first games, but GameFreak didn't fix anything about that. Instead of going in a straight line, this time I'm forced to teleport to different places while still not being allowed to progress because the game doesn't want me to. Gyms 3-6 could've easily been made optional to fight in any order with how light on plot they are. Instead, I'm forced to fight them in the EXACT same order I already fought them in BW. The story is way too simple to justify the amount of forced long unskippable interruptions there are, which increased from BW. The Pokemon Center tutorial, the PWT tutorial, and the Pokestars Studios tutorial all could've been optional, but I'm forced to do them with no option to skip them. Also, the story does not take advantage of the fact that it's two versions. Nothing story-wise changes between Black 2 and White 2 outside of aesthetics and the Legendary chosen. For a third-version Legendary, Kyurem was really poorly handled. The Original Dragon plot goes nowhere despite that plot point existing in BW, and Kyurem itself is only a plot device at best. Can't forget to mention this too, but *screw* GameFreak for making Kyurem only available in the postgame. Platinum JUST fixed that problem I had with Rayquaza in Emerald by making Giratina available to catch in the main story. And unlike Rayquaza, there was no justified story reason for locking Kyurem to postgame here. Same with making Zekrom and Reshiram only available in postgame AND version-exclusive. After Emerald and Platinum made both of their initial Legendary duos available in one version, this was a huge step back.
While I do appreciate Unova being expanded, the new locations only added more questions to Unova's questionable geography. Like, how the hell did Castelia get a new sewer system and public park in only 3 years? Why couldn't I access towns like Virbank City and Lentimas Town from the OG BW when I can go to them perfectly fine in these games? What is the point of Entralink still being there and why isn't anyone questioning this big gap in the middle of the region? These inclusions would make sense in an alternate universe (a.k.a. third version), but not sequels, especially ones that only take place 3 years after the OG games. It feels arbitrary.
Most of the new features added are cool like Join Avenue, but other ones are hurt by the fact that GameFreak split these games into two. I'd appreciate the difficulty modes way more if GameFreak didn't implement them in the stupidest way I've seen of any game with difficulty options. Not only do I have to beat the game to even see them, not only are the difficulty modes version-exclusive, not only do I have to use the convoluted key system to access them in a different version, but they could get wiped out if I decide to restart a save file since Pokemon games have only save file. Shit like this makes it clear to me that GameFreak only split BW into two to make more profit, not because there's any story or in-game reason to justify it.
Yeah, B2W2 allowed players to carry over data from BW, but that could've been done in a Gray version anyway.
If USUM is a lazy retelling of SM's story, then I consider B2W2 a lazy sequel to BW's story. I consider USUM flawed for the same reasons I consider B2W2 flawed. They both make the OG story worse rather than better and the new story stuff they added is poorly executed. Both of them weren't justified for being split into two versions. Both of them were responsible for unnecessarily taking away resources for Pokemon Z to be made (along with GameFreak's failed Project Gear games, SM, and LGPE).
I'm not saying all this because I hate B2W2. I'm saying all this because B2W2 shouldn't get a free pass for its shortcomings just because they're sequels (the Gen 2 games were also sequels and they didn't need to retcon or ruin anything from the Gen 1 games). There's no reason why Gray couldn't have been made instead while still being a sequel to BW. A lot of issues plagued B2W2 BECAUSE they're split into two. That's my main point.
Unfortunately Sun and Moon were chosen for the 20th anniversary year, and the Ultra games showed they needed some more time in development. Kalos was already known for Kanto pandering between the Kanto starters being made available to you fairly early on with Mega Evolutions (two for Charizard) and many of the Mega Evolutions being for Gen 1 Pokemon (Mewtwo like Charizard getting version exclusive forms).
" Two sets of starters"? Try three, if you played on launch. Blaziken just murders
The Blaziken that they have from the torchic event was BUSTED! He leveled up so fast and hit HARD!
Running through the game with a Fire/Fighting, Fire/Psychic, and Fire/Flying type was real fun.
And honestly, the elementary monkeys, available before the first gym, act as honorary third starters. Everyone will have a fire/water/grass core.
Lysandre is an extremely subtle character. He's the bad guy in a region based on France, wants to kill everyone who isn't "beautiful", and made a device called the "Holocaster". I have no idea how they came up with such a stunningly original idea for a villain.
LMAO
BRUH
Holocast me, daddy 🥵
Real af
I’m just miffed all the people complaining about the story miss this
Klefki was the biggest underdog of gen 6's roster of pokemon. The fact it's so weird yet actually kinda good in competitive in part due to having such a great ability and typing endeared me to it very quickly, and seeing several people warm up to it was honestly heartwarming.
Good thing they were smart enough to never give that type to a good pokemon... right?
Klefki was the reason Parafusion was banned. Thankfully, as that was super annoying coming from a fairy/steel prankster mon.
@@DeDeDank Lol. And ofc Zacian was nerfed.
I've been very miserable this holiday season. I lost my girlfriend and grandmother in a week and I have been working so much. However, I've been rewatching your videos and this will help me get through my rough spot. Happy holidays KingK. Thank you
Sorry for your losses. Only can begin to imagine how unbearable that must have been.
i lost my grandma too. 너무 많은 사랑 homie🙏🏻♥️
Hope stuff goes better for you man, stay strong!
Condolences
I'm sorry to hear thst happened to you. Stuff happening during the holidays can be tough, but it's important to remember what the holidays are meant to represent. I wish you the best.
Its so fascinating looking at the unused XY story, imaging going from a previous plot about an organization liberating pokemon from the people as well as having themes of following truths and ideals to a John Carpenters alien plot. Im a little upset this concept did not come to fruition in XY (maybe because this felt a little too abstract for pokemon) but at least the alien invasion concept was revisited in Sun and Moon
I feel like that in later gens Gamefreak has used the following games as opportunities to revisit game concept ideas they had to toss during development from the previous gen (they've done this since Gen 2 for Pokemon concepts but recycling plot beats and mechanics seems to be a newer phenomenon and it feels like it's only gotten more common).
ORAS and Gen 7 carried over the alien invasion and extraterrestrial origins of Mega evolution concept that's rumored to have been cut from Gen 6 (apparently Deoxys was the origin of mega evolution, which is something they revisited in the Delta Episode). Lusamine is somewhat similar to Lysandre in that they're philanthropic figures that ultimately turn out to be the story's antagonist (at least in SM), but it's much, much, much more successful in execution.
in Lets Go, those Walking Pokemon animations finally make their appearance after being developed for SM/USUM.
Gen 8 focuses on history and its far reaching impacts like in XY. It introduced an alternative to mega evolution in Gigantimax, and reused totems as boss battles in PLA. It certainly expanded upon the ideas of regional forms. SWSH's sadly still-nonsensical story has similar beats to Lysandre's in Chairman Rose as broken pedestal authority figures leading a massive corporation that has massive influence and respect/privilege in the region. Hop is similar to Hau with a slightly different character trajectory, both struggling with living in the shadow of their relatives and their more successful rivals, and are the target of one-sided antagonism from another rival. Team Yell is very similar to Team Skull, though less successful, and mildly explores the plight of under-supported communities by central government and the dangers of rabid fans. Themes of climate change and energy crisis are revisited after making its first appearance in Alola, though in a very different fashion. Like Gen 7 it explores SF concepts, but radiation theming and tokusatsu concepts about the dangers of meddling with nature, lot of godzilla references.
Gen 9 iterates a lot from Gen 6, 7 and 8 with a grand adventure theme based on science fiction (though more Jules Verne than Orson Welles this time) with a focus on the impact of history, using mild conspiracy/grand mystery themes and duplicitous Professors that resemble that the rumors outlined. Yet another story about a failed authority figure misleading the protagonist like Gen 7 and 8 (though I think it's just as successful as Lusamine and Volo). Another "evil" team that explores societal failures and disenfranchised youth like Team Skull, this time it's about bullying and the failure of authority figures in how they address it. Like SMUSUM the story ultimately turns into a personal one that happens to have world-saving consequences by accident; most strikingly, Arven's entire arc with the professor is a different take on Lillie's arc (with some elements from Hop and Hau and living in the shadow of a relative), dealing with familial abuse and neglect, culminating with the story's climax where those relationships are examined directly. SV ultimately revisits Lusamine's arc of a parental figure that ultimately fails as a parent due to obsession, and expands on it, with SV's central theme being about the various protagonists treasuring something and the rash actions they take in pursuit of or in order to protect that treasure. The DLC continues on this central theme with giving us a darker version of the Calem/Serena and Hau/Hop archetypes in Kieran, where a friendly rival ultimately turns sour after failures get the better of them, and their treasure is taken from them, as well as touching on abuse again with Ogerpon and potentially Carmine's relationship with Kieran (though not nearly as bad as with the Sada/Turo and Lusamine). Totem battles return again from Gen 7 and PLA; wandering boss mobs like alpha pokemon return as wild tera pokemon; Raid battles obviously return; Tera is obviously an interation . Regional forms are iterated upon in the form of Convergent Pokemon and Paradox forms (which are also an iteration of the Ultra Beast concept). Time travel is revisited from PLA, albeit in a very different fashion.
The most recurring theme in the 3D gens is the idea that the central gimmick ultimately comes from outer space, and originates from a legendary Pokemon. Concepts of Time Travel and Alternate dimensions start appearing starting with ORAS (granted time travel has been a thing in Pokemon since Gen 2 and 4, but it's much more overt now).
It's probably the recency bias but SV sorta feels like a culmination of a lot of those older ideas finally coming together after a decade of false starts and missed opportunities (only held back by its massive visual and performance issues). I expect they're going to continue to iterate further on some of these ideas, some of the stuff I listed is pretty general, but I sincerely hope GF will finally be creatively satisfied with those ideas that they seem to have wanted to revisit since Gen 6 and 7, but I hope they have closure with SV's relative success and apparent ambition.
I enjoyed Gen 6 at the time. Playing it around the start of university, it was nice to get back into Pokemon after not really touching the games much during the later half of highschool (mostly skipped Gen 5 at the time). It's one of the few Pokemon games I actually properly finished but I have a gut feeling I'd be pretty bored going back to it now. The characters and writing are just kinda lifeless, there's no getting around that.
You know it’s a good video, when DesignDoc is there
Gen 6 was great at the time when it was new specifically because of the online community around that game. Like being able to fill out Friend Safaris, Battling with friends as it was the first time Comp started more getting accessible, organising online to get Vivillion patterns. It was great.
The fact that the PSS is still the best online feature we've had and how every generation they get worse and worse baffles me
I mean....I dunno, Lysandre wasn't that badly written, and AZ was interesting too.
If you need an example of a truly lifeless game play swsh
Gen 5 came out when I was in high school as well and I skipped over it because life was changing in different ways. I came back to it as an adult and fell in love with the series all over again
Something Else that saddens me with X and Y is how incomplete it feels.
It feels more like a super extended demo rather than a full experience.
Many areas just feel empty or like something should be there but it isn't.
That's where i satisfied my copium in the PSS, and it wasnt super great, but it worked for me as the highlight of such a tech demo
The weird ghost girl... the Eiffel Tower... that ruined castle on one of the routes... the one-room Pokeball factory... the mirror cave... the Stonehenge-type route... enough content to interest you but never following through.
@@RM-um9xx And the biggest one, the locked door near the power plant.
@@geistgrace6452volcanion has been trapped in there for generations…
And I still remember people still having hopes for Pokemon Z and it never happened.
Not sure if you missed it or didn't want to include it, but there is a small Looker "storyline" in the post game. It's in Lumiose City and involves a new lost girl character, who has a great theme by the way.
Does that mean XY started the trend of every mainline pokemon game having a mediocre postgame storyline that can be beaten in a hour?
@@piranhalettuceIdk if I'd say mediocre, I thought Episode Delta and the Anabel/Ultra Beast stuff was neat at least
@@quinnviandsejThe Ultra Beast sidequest was so rushed that you can’t even see any of the damage this major threat is supposedly causing. That was an awful postgame quest.
@@piranhalettuce Nah that shit was good. Delta Episode is great and also like...Rainbow Rocket is goated.
I thought the storyline was great, it’s just with the lack of features that were obviously cut would have helped with the post game, like the battle tower and Ryhorn races. It puts it what postgame we got under the magnifying glass more.
I find it fitting that Kingk has a Klefki. I'd like to think of it as a representation of his connection to the Keyblade. No matter what world he finds himself in. That connection will surface one way or another.
This is a really sweet comment. Thank you for sharing. :)
he even named it x-blade (chi-blade)
This game always felt it was a few missteps away from being truly great. Those missteps however also feel large and vital ones. There’s a cozy atmosphere in the games and I get lost in its world when I play them. They feel like games perfect for the Halloween-Christmas seasons to me. Beyond that however, I am constantly bombarded with incessant reminders of the games’ short comings.
KingK roasted the games so bad Gamefreak had to develop Pokemon Z just to apologize.
The power
Pokemon X and Y are the games in the series where I can understand the criticisms thrown at it completely, but I can't help but love them anyways. I love the region, the soundtrack, the roster despite its small size is filled with mostly winners, mega evolution is really cool, there's an insane amount of customization both in team composition and trainer customization , it introduced my favorite type in the series, and they're the coziest games in the series for me. I wish this game had more time in the oven (or at the very least a definitive version like Emerald and Platinum that would've upped the difficulty) and I can't help but agree with most criticism thrown at it in this video, but I also can't look back at these games without a smile.
people overdo it with the criticism imo, they aren't that bad and a looot of people love them. 🤷
I love kalos, I'm so glad my county didn't get the galar/paldea treatment
wise words from a pringle!
Same. I think X and Y are super flawed. Particularly when it comes to story content. But my god, these games hit me where it matters. Galar is so much more forgettable to me. I still remember nearly every corner of Kalos after not having played the game in years, while Galar is already blurry in my memories. While Unova is my favourite region, I am so happy Kalos is getting another shot in the legends format. Kalos has so much untapped potential.
Out of all the generations, it feels like X and Y is the generation that most deserved a sister game akin to Emerald or DLC. In a sense, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and Sun and Moon were the games to fill in that void of Pokemon Z. ORAS gave us an expanded story on Mega Stones, more mega Pokemon, and even introduced the concept of a Pokemon multiverse, while SuMo gave us Zygarde's 100% form and even Ash Greninja. But all these games did was age X and Y even more.
for sure there's so much they could do with it taking place in the past, very excited hope they'll take their time and give it love
This game was a gift for Pokémon collecting, it made every Pokémon accessible and breeding was way more streamlined especially for iv and ev maxing
GSS was a godsend. Wonder trades & Friend Safari made the first few weeks after launch so exciting.
i know this isn't what you meant but "every pokemon accessible" is funny when there's seven legendaries and you can catch four per file
X and Y are in a funny place for me for a very simple reason: they were my first Pokémon games. I suppose the biggest impact on me was that I didn't really see the small number of new 'mons as a bad thing because, well, they were all new - which made the large number of returning mons feel pretty great. The story didn't bother me much at the time although there was a lot of "trevor you can't just say 'oh you saw more pokemon than me' and walk off, how many did I beat you by? what's the par score here?" and "oh boy it's the big battle to decide who gets the mega bracelet, I finally get to fight my main rival!!! oh serena only has three pokemon". When Sun and Moon came out and had, you know, actual characters and a story, I was pretty much blown away. Weirdly I think Wulfric might be my favourite character in the game because at least he has the self-awareness to realise before his battle that you might steamroller him, and he's okay with that.
Graphically I thought the games looked pretty nice - the pastel shades with black outlines kinda vibed with me, and made me think "this is how I would want a 3D advance wars to look" (sadly that wasn't the art style we'd end up getting with Reboot Camp, but oh well) and the region does have a lot of pretty stuff to look at (though yeah, there's so much stuff they could have done more with).
At the time I was happy with the games, even though I saw others reacting poorly to them, but yeah, I probably wouldn't have as good a time with them now. Still like them more than Sword and Shield though (though I like SM, USUM and SV more).
This game had soooo much potential. I f game freak wasn't so content on rushing to meet a deadline this could have been a epic pokemon game to remember. As it stands now x and y leave me thinking what could have been...
Eh. Could've been worse than Sword & Shield.
GF sadly doesn't really have a choice about rushing to that deadline.
Higher up more powerful people control that shit
My dude it's not contentment that drives corporate decisions lmao
@@tristanalain9239Aren’t those higher up people Game Freak executives? As a company Game Freak has control of their deadline and budget, they just choose not to do better.
@@oyeh8908 Game Freak is only in charge of the games themselves; the Pokémon franchise as a whole is controlled by The Pokémon Company. Game Freak does not control the release dates for the trading cards, the toys, the anime episodes, etc.; all of which would have to be delayed if the games get delayed.
A "To Be Continued" for the XY retrospective of all games? That's unexpected.
I did notice a lack of discussion on Gen 6's breadth of quality of life updates and features like Pokémon-Amie, O-Powers, and the improvements to Pokémon breeding & training. It makes me think you'll discuss them in ORAS, Sun & Moon, or whatever the "To Be Continued" is leading into.
Sun and Moon will hopefully receive better treatment than being called a "walking cutscene simulator"
@@shanerpressley S/M should deserve even less because its a cringey shit game
"Wait a minute. I just had an epiphany!"
And then Chairman Rose turned out to be a massive idiot.
X and Y got me back into the franchise after losing interest in the 2010s. Really felt like a magical time
I was opposite. I got out of the franchise and disinterested haha until Gen 8 came along
Same, to an extent. My first Pokémon game that I bought was Diamond, then I skipped gen 5, then I learned about X & Y and got back into the series. I then stopped when I chose not to get Sword or Shield.
Same, I didn’t like B/W at all and skipped B/W2. X/Y got me back in for good and is my favorite gen along with ORAS, the best remakes
@@Celicagame13 Congrats. People like you made the games like they are today.
@@JayceCH."How dare YOU spend YOUR money how YOU want"
Listen bud, I also dislike XY and love gen 5, but shaming people for how they spend their money is silly
When it comes to Lysander, I always viewed it as him trying to softlock the world before it becomes more ugly. The middle ground between life and death. One could view it as him creating a new world or destroying it, but ultimately he just wants it to stop before it can naturally continue on. In that sense Zygard seemed to always been a better pick for him as it represents that middle ground between chaos and entropy (Xernas and Yvental) which is order. Instead of reaching out for one of the two extremes to stop the eventual end of beauty, the legendary Pokemon to keep balance between said extremes seems to be a much more fitting pick for his ideals. There is also the whole deal about the power plant in the dead middle of Kalos that has clearly cut content and could have probably illustrated a lot of his arguments better. Not like the game does a poor job to convey any of this despite of that anyways.
Woe me, we never got that supposed Pokemon Z.
It didnt make sense and Lusamine literally did that idea better.
@@JayceCH. To say that it's relatable in any sense to begin with isn't the smartest thing in the first place. Lysander simply valued beauty more than the individual. He couldn't accept that things would one day cease to be beautiful.
Zygarde isn't balance, it's just a protector. It protects the earth's ecosystem when it's threatened. It had nothing to do with XY's legendaries.
@@c0mpu73rguy Z-A will save my agenda
If nothing else, Lysandre got reborn as a Zamazenta in 2 generations so it’s not all bad.
The best thing about Gen 6 is the community. Everyone enjoyed playing with their friends. Some recently came back playing Pokemon by starting with Gen 5 first then was hyped about Gen 6. Around Gen 7 and beyond a lot left Pokemon again for various reasons (started working, graduated university, etc)
Competitive play especially during OR/AS was at all time high. It really was the best days for modern Pokemon. There were veterans and casual players everywhere
Mega Evolution. I still miss it. Why do I still miss it? Because I like the Super Mode trope. And while I do like Dynamax and Terastal and Z Moves, there’s just something about seeing our Pokémon transform that gives me chills every time.
As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for Mega Evolution, I doubt we would have got Z Moves, Gigantamax or Terastal at all. As all of these mechanics, starting with Mega Evolutions, gave Pokémon more potential in terms of Rule of Cool battling and competitive play (even if I’m not a competitive player).
If there is one Major problem I have with Mega Evolution (in X and Y specifically, the very game this mechanic released) is that the Kalos Starters were denied of them. And not just the Starters, most of Kalos (save for the Mythical Pokémon, Diancie) was denied of the very power this game introduced.
One of the BIGGEST problems I had with Pokémon XY as a whole as not only the Kalos Pokémon couldn’t use Mega Evolution, but also due to them being in a small amount, the new Pokémon (outside of maybe the starters and a select few other Pokémon) couldn’t stand out to me.
This problem was mostly mitigated with ORAS, where Sceptile and Swampert (in addition to Blaziken in the XY’s distribution event) all got their Mega Forms with their Mega Stones being obtainable in story. Around the time you get the Mega Ring.
On top of that, a few Hoenn Pokémon (Gallade included) got Mega Evolution. Granted, some of the stones were still locked behind Post Game, but at least the Hoenn Pokémon that got Mega Forms got to take advantage of this Mechanic. Save for Ash Greninja which only got the unique form due to popularity, leaving Delphox and Chesnaught in the dust.
XY did set the stage for ORAS
A lot of the “good” the XY had had been transformed and improved with ORAS
I still liked XY but enjoyed myself a lot more with ORAS
I remember.
This.
"As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for Mega Evolution, I doubt we would have got Z Moves, Gigantamax, or Terastal at all."
I Bloody Wish.
I wholeheartedly despise this entire comment.
Mega evolution was one of the worst things to happen to competitive lmao, it was extremely limiting that every team had to effectively save one slot to one pokemon in a specific pool in order to have what amounted to just a free legendary, of which some were already very broken like mega kangaskhan and took the slot almost every time
Unlike dynamaxing or tera or zmoves there wasn't really a choice of which Pokemon you'd mega in each fight (since you sacrificed an item slot for it) and no component of when to use the mechanic at all, it was always optimal to just mega evolve right away
@@Yamartim sorry about that for you, because I could care less about competitive Pokémon.
King K's timing couldn't have been better. We need a video on Legends Z-A one day.
Before I even watch this I just want to say. This is such an ironically fitting time for me to see this video release around the holidays. I have fond memories during a difficult and confusing time of my life of playing Pokémon X and staying up late at night in Annistar City listening to the tranquil wintery music. Regardless of your opinion, thanks for bringing back these fond memories.
My favorite memory of XY was being in high school and my classmates were arguing about which version was better. I remember one of them saying "yeah well I get Mega Aggron while you get Mega Tyranitar, and we both know which is better"
I mean, Mega Tyranitar is better just because Tyranitar is a better Pokemon. Mega Aggron is a much more interesting Mega because it transforms Aggron from a Head Smashing Maniac into an actual defensive Pokemon. Shame it doesn't have any reliable recovery though
KingK never fails to bring us these great retrospectives
Give it some time and he'll fall off in giving insightful retrospectives once he goes deeper into the 3D titles.
@@UncannyEXP the games are lazy how many times can he reiterate that before it sounds repetitive
To be fair, you're not supposed to rollerblade *everywhere*. You rollerblade for the longer stretches / wider turns / etc, and then when precise small movements are needed, use the D-pad to walk.
I feel sorry for Kalos. It feels like X and Y were created just to show Pokémon could work in 3D, and then that whole world was tossed aside in favor of moving onto the next thing. It’s especially glaring because the anime had an XYZ season showing off Zygarde and making Team Flare into an actual competent threat, and it feels like there was supposed to be a Pokémon Z to go along with it. Considering how much Emerald and Platinum improved the Hoenn and Sinnoh experience, I’m positive that a Pokémon Z would’ve at least made Kalos and its cast of characters more interesting. At least the music is wonderful as always, one of my favorite Pokémon soundtracks actually.
The music? The rave / electropop garbage this game had as a sountrack? You actually like this shit? Seriously?
48:51 the „Fairies from Space“ idea is actually hinted at in Gen 1, when you hear a rumor that Cleffey and Cleffairy originally came from the Moon. So this concept may have been around almost as long as the series itself.
The timing of this was actually wonderful
I like how Klefki is always the argument that Pokemon has run out of ideas. Klefki design is so cool and unique. They were out ideas in Gen 1 when they made Ekans a normal ass looking snake and just spelled it backwards. Then it evolves into Arbok, which follows the same exact rule. Pokémon only expanded on their designs.
It's a freaking keychain! Seriously! Don't call that imaginative!
I always liked the sleek look of Mega Charizard Y.
It’s funny how my excitement for these videos is much greater than for any movie or television. They’re just so clean and well edited. I wonder what process you use to choose what to focus on as something inevitably gets thrown out before uploading?
While I do agree that "the small roster of Kalos' native pokémon forces you to use the more abundant older pokémon problem" can be a bit of a turn off for some players, I think that's also the reason that makes X&Y a great game for beginners! My friend who hadn't played a single pokémon game ever wanted to get into the series couple years back, and I recommended her X. I watched her whole playthrough and she had a great time, constantly changing team members because she saw something new one route later.
I would say it's either a strength or a weakness depending on who you are. For my sensibilities, it's a bit of a let down, but I do think it makes certain challenge runs much more interesting. So I would definitely agree.
I recently started playing Eternal X and honestly had a blast being able to build a bird team with cool new abilities I'd never used before. Sometimes you need to tweak the experience yourself to be able to enjoy the better parts of it. And there's nothing wrong with that
This, and I wish gamefreak allowed us to catch every Pokémon, I thought that was the name of the game lol. The community has done a great job with making the mainline games feel less restrictive and more enjoyable with QoL improvements and a challenge.
I really hope that when we return to Kalos we get to see a story that’s more akin to what Kalos is like in the anime. THAT would be one of the best games in the franchise 😭
It would have been a bad copy of Black/White, since the Kalos season of the anime stole a oot of the plot from there.
I think you played X based on how you describe Lysandre, but in Y I felt he was (for Pokemon) a great villain. I also think there's a fair amount of quality of life features and other stuff that weren't touched on much. I'll get back to Lysandre later, but firstly, while you criticize the lack of NEW Pokemon options, the game has an insane amount of variety if you include older Pokemon you can get across the game: There's WAY more Pokemon per route and less reused across them, so there's a ton of teambuilding options. It's also hard to overstate how much the PSS, Trainer customization, and Super training add to quality of life functions. Looping back to Lysandre, at least in Y, I think he's the best villain the series had other then N and Ghestis up till the point when XY came out.
He's a former philanthropist who is tired of seeing his gifts to society and the needy wasted, and instead now wants to solve scarcity and ensure nobody needs to be hungry or impoverished by reducing the population. In contrast to Giovanni, Archie, Maxie, and Cryus, who are comically one dimensional and the actual writing is such an afterthought to everything else, Lysandre is far more nuanced, and thanks to him being active across the plot and amicable to the professor and the player and regularly wanting to talk to both of you, we get way more of a look into his head instead of just a few stray lines before and after your few battles with him: He TRULY wants to better the world and we see him question his own decisions, and is even willing to give up once the player's resolve shakes his belief (if not for Xerosec ruining everything).
In X, he is less compelling, as I understand it: There, his motives for purging the world has less to do with solving scarcity, and is more about clearing out the lower class riff-raff and anything that's unslightly and to make things beautiful, which you mention. Also, while the stuff with AZ is absolutely underexplored, the actual backstory sequence with Floette is pretty emotional.
I don't disagree that both Lysandre's handling and how little the AZ stuff is explored is... not great, but when you compare it to Gen 1, 2, 3, and even 4, there's WAY more of an effort to flesh out the main villain and tackle real world issues like war, scarcity, etc, wheras in those prior games, the evil team felt there purely as generic enemies and bad guys as obstacles with no real character. You compare Lysandre to Cyrus here unfavorably, but as somebody who literally ASD and can probably relate to Cyrus's desire for a logical and rational world free from the bounds of impossible to quantify things like emotion and spirit more then most people, I still feel like he's ultimately a very generic "destroy the world" maniac with no depth or character unless you really contrive between the lines; To me, he and even moreso the villains before Cryus don't even approach Lysandre's writing, though again, that's less a credit to Lysandre and more a criticism of how little the franchise took it's writing before gen 5.
In general, while I agree with most of your criticisms (Lysandre aside) and while there's other stuff I could praise like the music, the comfy atmosphere, other quality of life jumps XY brings to the table, the bottom line is I really feel like had XY gotten a Z version, to flesh out or to downplay your annoying rivals, to up the difficulty, to flesh out the AZ plot, and to give us a battle frontier, I think it EASILY could have been the best game in the series. The pokemon variety, the region itself, the writing (again, IMO, relative to what the series had done till this point aside from Gen 5) and the quality of life upgrades XY got were already really good, a similar upgrade that DP got to PT would have done wonders.
Also, as somebody who plays Pokken competitively, Mega Mewtwo X has grown on me. It's proportions work a LOT better in Pokken and it benefits a ton from more fleshed out animations. I also like Mega Tyranitar: Not *more* then the base form, but it's over the top in a way a lot of classic Kaiju are from Toho films, Ultraman, etc.
ut overall,
Also the finale of lysandre's story in Y feels better than X's where he tries to use last of Yveltal's energy they could absorb to destroy the weapon to bring you down with him, rather than.....forcing immortality upon you using what they got of Xerneas', and they still destroying it?
Ditto on the pokemon selection. I dont like how reviewers tunnelvision on the new pokemon. As a longtime fan, i look at the OVERALL selection, not just the new ones. Especially now that we are so limited, making XY all the more impressive in this regard.
Eh...no his motive and goal is the same in both games, just using a different giant battery power source.
But yeah I agree otherwise....Lysandre wasn't that bad although eh...Cyrus had some depth and character but just...yeah XY could have been better....I really do care about these games but yeah.
@@bluegem8582 I mean....in either one he is still killing most of the population, I don't see the issue really.
You took the words right out of my mouth! XY are flawed yes but also (imo) deeply underrated. Like at their core these are well crafted, very fun and replayable RPGs worth a lot more credit than people give them
The video was good talk about the fundamentals of x and y, but felt lacking terms of discussing the smaller stuff like the Looker Bureau quest or the introduction of poke amie, super training, and PSS system even with the network being down now.
Because those would be positive aspects, and frankly this guy seems like he looks for every excuse to be as pessimistic as possible lol
@@mr.redacted767 The game does have a lot flaws as it showed how little time game freak had to make a more fleshed out game, with everything taking a hit from the story to battle animation. But stuff like super training, and PSS system only shows its value when you can connect online fight and trade with other people.
Though leaving out poke amie and looker bureau post game quest line was weird.
I found the story towards the end to be pretty good, at least. Still sad that we’re yet to get something on the level of B2W2. The credits music for that game get me emotional to this day, probably because it’s somewhat melancholic, and playing after the peak of the series.
B2W2's story doesn't even come close to the original BW games though. Plus I'd argue that Sun and Moon have the best story in any mainline pokemon game
I'm going to throw my hat in the ring and say that Scarlet and Violet's story is actually the best we've gotten in years (in my opinion). It's just that the game runs awfully and visually looks bad, which is likely due to time crunch, so that overshadows a lot of the wonderfully developed characters we got and story elements that weren't just "legendary pokemon is causing havoc, let's stop it"
Imma say a actual hot take...I would say USUM actually has one of the best stories and is actually better then Sun and Moon.
@@Jdudec367 Except for Lusamine that got her whole arc cut in USUM for no reason.
@@c0mpu73rguy Actually her arc wasn`t cut, if anything it was expanded upon with her developing more as a character.
From my understanding, X and Y act as some kind of soft reboot for the franchise.
For a lot of people (including myself) it was their first pokemon game in years, boosted with the popularity of Pokémon Go.
Hence why I think this game focus both on gen 1 fanservice and an easier game (combined with the troubled development due to going from 2D to 3D for the first time for a mainline game)
"THIS WORLD IS IMPERFECT!"
It's kind of ironic that Fairy was such a balance patch of an addition back in Gen VI, because not only did it not really work in Gen VI itself (hello, Mega Rayquaza!), but fast-forward to current generations and things like Xerneas, the Tapu, and Zacian have been more of a pain in the rear than Dragon spam ever was. Fairy came in right at the point where power creep _exploded_ in Pokemon and benefitted hugely from it. Probably doesn't help that its two weaknesses, Steel and Poison, aren't great attacking types. Steel's only got a handful of moves that are actually good, and Poison has never not been bad.
I share the frustration with the lack of Kalos Pokemon. I've run this game multiple times and usually I only end up using my starter and Yveltal from the region itself, with everything else being from past generations. Most of those old favourites are Mega-capable, softening the punch a bit, as they still _have_ new designs, but it's still weird. Especially because they made the baffling decision to lock most of the Mega stones behind the postgame.
As far as the Megas go, I like them. I've made use of the Megas for Abomasnow, Blastoise, Manectric, Lucario, Absol, Aggron, Tyranitar, Gardevoir, Ampharos, Mewtwo (Y), Blaziken, and Charizard (Y), out of the ones introduced in this game, and in most cases I prefer the original form, I like the Megas enough as temporary upgrades. That's kinda how I view non-permanent Super Modes in things- I don't _want_ to like them more than the base form, but as an optional extra? Plenty satisfactory. I do very much miss the mechanic, and I think the regional gimmicks from Gen VII-IX are much less fun and much more of a headache in terms of game balance.
I don't think any Pokemon needed two Mega forms, and in both cases, I prefer the Y version to the X one. Mewtwo doesn't really get much out of a secondary Fighting type, and most Mewtwo are going to be running Special moves, so the sudden hard switch to Physical doesn't really benefit it much, especially when most of its best moves are Special, including Psystrike. Charizard is much the same. The Y form feels like an advancement of Charizard's normal design, the buff to its Sp.Atk is great, and it becoming a sun-summoner with Drought is amazing. The X one feels like it's trying too hard, like it was designed by a focus group. Becoming a Physical Dragon-type in the generation designed to punish physically-offensive Dragons for existing is a _choice,_ and it can't benefit from losing the Stealth Rock weakness because it still has to come in as a Fire/Flying type. Then it gives up its immunity to the most ubiquitous move in the game, Earthquake, and yeah, no, Y superior.
Overall, I kinda like Gen VI. It's a long way from perfect, but I enjoy playing it much more than I like playing Gen VII. I'll take consistently too easy over the incoherent difficulty spikes and valleys of Alola.
I remember being so hyped for being able to SIT DOWN in a pokemon game for once
I'll sit here and say X/Y is judged too harshly. The games are great and get WAY too much hate.
"My kalos team building options were limited" HUH? Kalos has one of the better selections in the entire franchise what?
I think he means that there are very few new Pokémon to choose from, since he tries to only use Pokémon from the new generation for each playthrough. He did also say that the team options for Pokémon that he liked, specifically, were limited.
I also think XY are judged a little harshly, as they are victims of a deadline, and were not a product of laziness or legitimately poor design choices like recent generations. I also have a lot of nostalgia for Gen 6, so I’m sure that makes it easier for me to ignore flaws than it is for other people.
I think its the first bad generation
48:45 Diantha was supposed to be an alien? That would’ve made her so much cooler
I still have fond memories of X. It was the first Pokemon game I'd played in years after DNFing Black and White so it sort of felt like a homecoming. I actually still replay it occasionally. Though I can still see why other people don't like it, and even admit that without that nostalgia I probably wouldn't like it as much as I do
This is I think the most challenging Holiday season I've had in a while. My girlfriend is gone visiting her dying gma and I'm home alone. Playing video games hasn't helped too much but listening to you talk about games definitely has. Thank you for making a lonely time feel less lonely, King K.
I feel you big dog, im working everyday this week and cant visit my girlfriend on top of missing my first ever Christmas with my family.
@@Qeboflu I feel you man, my girl comes home tomorrow. I hope you get to see your family soon. And for what it's worth, I hope you had a Merry Christmas
After all the leaks we truly were removed from a much deeper game than what we got. Pain man
The one thing I miss from XY aside from mega evolution is the Super Training. It made nailing the exact right EVs not only easy but also fun. Way better than just shoving vitamins down their throats or trying to battle specific Pokemon ad nauseum
Was so bummed they took it out during Gen 7.
Imagine making a list of Kalos Pokémon to use and leaving out Aegislash
This is, no joke, one of the 15 X and Y retrospectives I’m aware of and there might be even more out there
There's always a special feeling I get when I see a KingK video pop up ☺
Even though gen 1 was my first set of Pokémon games, somehow I feel strong nostalgia for X & Y, lol. I can acknowledge some of their shortcomings, but I still like these games a lot.
With how much XY tried to celebrate gen 1, I wonder why (tried to because in my case it failed miserably, I'm also a player that started with gen 1). Gen 7 did a much better job at that IMO.
My only critique:
Nicknaming your team was not a hard rule in the original rulset. Ruby nicknamed hos team because he felt it would make it easier to give character to the pokemon for his comic strip he made alongside the run. This is a really common mistake, but one that bears pointing out because the Nuzlocke community alternates very quickly between acceptance and gatekeeping, even over stuff that does not matter, like nicknames.
Damn I loved XY. I felt like the team combinations were much more diverse than any other game. Aegislash is the fucking sickest Pokémon and so fun to use.
Honestly a lot of the mega evolution criticism felt waaaay too nitpicky. I honestly think the vast majority of designs were great. It's also BY FAR the best "gen trope" they've come up with, even if it was unbalanced. I think introducing something that all pokemon could use (like terastalization) to balance things out while introducing a larger catalog of megas. It's such a shame they threw it away...
The Post Game in X and Y is VERY VERY missable. There is a Detective Looker side plot that takes place in the games Major city.
I forget exactly how to activate it, but I distinctly remember collecting golden tickets, a unique NPC with an interesting sub plot, and a return of the white masked dude in Team Flare.
It’s pretty good, but very grindy at times.
ok yeah sorry I completely disagree on your take on the mega designs I personally think they are awesome and that it would be great to have some new ones to make less appreciated mons stand out.
Also I have to say I think everyone misunderstands the modern exp share's purpose. I think it is designed to encourage catching as many pokemon as possible and actually use them. I mean in the older games it was a massive pain to just swap your party out for a different one but in the modern games due to the exp share it is super easy to just swap to a different team if you feel like you are not getting properly challenged or if you just wanna try a cool strat you thought up. I actually tried replaying OR/AS with this mindset and it was an absolute blast. I had 3 different teams that were actually NOT overlevelled at all, and the game did end up more difficult that way.
9:53 doubt your gonna read this but they didn't focus on this. It was an overcorrection from black and white. Because people where mad and hated black and white (wasn't until recently that this game got love) for adding to many new Pokemon and not enough old ones after fans complained they where reusing old ones to much , so game freak overcorrected an overcorrection by not adding lots of new and giving lots of old. It just goes to show Pokemon fans will have there cake eat it to and still be upset
After playing the Indigo Disk DLC I can safely say that Pokémon is not only back to its former difficulty glory, but that it's above any previous game and it's actively TRYING to kick your ass. It's a bit of a shame that it's reserved for these post-game DLCs, but it's a step in the right direction, hopefully they keep it up
Who is here after the announcement of Legend Z-A?
I’m so glad these games are being brought back with Legends ZA
Kalos is easily one of my favorite regions because it's so varied and beautiful. Also i love how Gen 6 Added Fairy type, because the moves are so gorgeous
So if Yveltal turns into a cocoon, what does it emerge as?
Is Yveltal born into a Xerneas?
While this wasn’t the best gen it did get me playing again after years of not really being into the franchise, then I caught up on gens 4 and 5
13:21
Gyrados: "Would you still love me if I were a worm?"
KingK: "no"
To answer the final question: no, the pokemon games dont need to evolve. GameFreak does. GameFreak still acts like a small company from the 90s. They dont treat their games seriously. They have needed more employees/programmers for over a decade but refuse to expand. They have needed to listen to fans criticisms for over a decade but refused to listen. GameFreak is unwilling to change their philosophy in regard to how games should be made, and this will cost them.
Every time I compare Dame Freak to the likes of From Software, there's something really wrong in the complete employee count disparity.
The XY postgame is pretty small, but it seems like you totally missed the Looker storyline! There's a whole mini story where you become his assistant along with a homeless girl named Emma. It's not much, but I've only played it once and I still remember that part, so it's must have been at least a little interesting.
Not trying to come off too strong here when I say this, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when comments come in and say that I "missed" something. I do, in fact, know about the Looker storyline. I simply had nothing to say about it. I do not endeavor to cover absolutely everything in a game like some kind of checklist. It would add nothing to the video. Again, this is not meant to come off strong or anything. Just want to clear the record, since I am getting a lot of comments about it.
Pokemon needs to go back to sprite based graphics. So many indie games prove this style isn't dead.
I always love unwinding watching your retrospectives. So nostalgic and cathartic to hear you share the same feelings I hold about these games. Like revisiting these games without having to commit to a full play through again
I can’t be the only one who noticed all his Pokémon in the nuzlocke were one piece names. knowing KingK is a one piece fan only makes me love him even more
I agree X and Y was utterly forgettable. I have played Heartgold and Soulsilver to death, and replayed the generation 5 games multiple times (I even bought both versions of both Black and White and their sequels), but I never had any desire to replay generation 6. Lumiose City was a mistake.
I think of X and Y as "Pokemons greatest hits" that appeals to older players reentering the franchise. This is good or bad depending on your perspective. As someone who left after gen 2, I enjoyed the game. I get why fans who stayed didn't like it, however
TLDR: PKMN species are fundamentally there to be reused and placed in future locations in future games, and XY did this a lot better than many other sets of new PKMN!
While XY didn't bring too many PKMN with it, it did a very good job of creating PKMN that have niches in a design space. What I mean is that, at this point, there were enough PKMN to literally create ecosystems (something that was fleshed out much more in SM, with some PKMN showing up for the sole purpose of preying on the wild PKMN calling for help).
Bunnelby and Diggersby are the first rabbit PKMN that actually reflect real rabbits. Domestic rabbits are in the genus Oryctolagus, literally "dig rabbit." While Buneary, Plusle, Minun, and Azumarill all have typical pet rabbit colors (brown, white, and dark and white spotted), they really just take the long ears that rabbits are known for, and nothing else. Bunnelby and Diggersby are the perfect PKMN to show up as common encounters in meadows, and rural areas. Common to the point of nuisance to some, and complementing other PKMN to appear in their "ecosystems" like Flabebe by making the rare PKMN feel rare by comparison. A nice meadow? Put Bunnelby most of the time, Flabebe some of the time, and rarely Miltank, or even Staraptor or Furret to prey on the Bunnelby. The designs basically write themselves for future use, and it's very well done in XY's batch! As much as I love BW, where and how are PKMN like Sawk and Throh going to appear without looking ungodly out of place, especially in 3D?
Noibat and Carbink also serve as fun new additions to rare cave PKMN. After years of nothing but Geodude, Zubat, and Machoke, we were finally getting things like Woobat, Noibat, and Carbink: PKMN that made caves feel more like a place actually worth exploring as a location where unique PKMN can be found! Phantump is another design that has more than proved itself since PKMN came into open-world 3D. A dark forest? Put Phantump. Plop that bad boy right in there. Forming pretend ecosystems gives a lot of species and types reason to exist in more than one area in the game!
Gen 6 was my return to pokemon like a lot of people's. It was also my first foray into competitive battling, it was the first time I learned the card game, it was the first time I watched and followed the anime series all the way through. Hell, I still keep the pokemon xy anime on in the background to fall asleep to. Also pokemon go came out a couple years after it's release. Not to mention this was the generation where Se Jun Park won pokemon worlds with a Pachirisu. Just like gen 4, it's not the best pokemon gen objectively but it is one of my favorites. It was a huge part of my childhood and being involved in the culture surrounding pokemon back then was unmatched.
It's funny, because I briefly fell out of the franchise during Gen5, B2/W2 being the first mainline games I ever skipped. I thought I might have been done with Pokémon after that, but then X/Y brought me right back in. Maybe that's why I look back on them more fondly than most others seem to.
I've since fallen out of the franchise to a greater degree, having skipped US/UM and all of the Switch games save only for the breath of fresh air that was Legends Arceus... yet I recently revisited X/Y and enjoyed them just as much as ever.
Like a lot of people I grew up on Pokemon, but as I got older I started to dismiss it as something childish, my last game in the series was Pearl. This is the game that got me back into the series, I absolutely loved it. Good video!
Of all the Pokémon mainline games that have ever been released, I remember X/Y fondly. Probably my third favorite set of games after Black/White 2 and Platinum. Kalos wasn't amazing, but calling it trash seems too harsh, especially since Legends Z-A comes out in 2025.
"Chespin in particular is a beautiful ball of sunshine and I will not tolerate slander of my baby boy." Yes, 100%
I definitely understand criticisms of x and y and acknowledge my bias since i have a lot of nostalgia and love for them anyways
I spent aaaages buying every single article of clothing and prioritized maxing out the style meter after I heard of it, then i spent hours making the absolute perfect outfit and it was so much fun. X and Y remain to this day my favorite games in the franchise fashion and customization wise. I didnt vibe much with Alola clothing or Galars and Scarlet/Violet are such a huge step back so it really has felt like we got a great thing that has slowly degraded to me
Im also biased since Gardevoir and Mawile are way up my favorites list and both got megas and fairy type so they were super fun to use
I remember just having a bunch of fun and enjoying myself while skating around and vibing, I even got into competitive level breeding and training learning all the ev and iv systems and stuff just to prolong my fun
With legends Z-A having a 2 year development time, i hope they can make it to what they were originally planning on doing and make zygarde the focal point of the story
46:00 ehhh Lysandre was a bad villain, but Rose was far worse. They at least tried to explained Lysandre’a motivations, they show evil in his world and him experiencing it. Galar has 1,000 years of energy, there is no immediate threat, and he’s completely willing to cause a potential world ending event to solve a problem what won’t even be a problem for 10 centuries. He casts aside Bede without a second though so it’s obviously not about providing for the next generation. Lysandre hates the world and the people in it, so that logically brings him to the wanting to destroy everything. Rose loves his people so he’s will to risk their lives to help their great great great great great great great grandchildren, that doesn’t make sense.
WRONG. And people keep misinterpreting Rose's motivations. He is a corpo big wig. He has absolutely out there ideas. He WANTS "renown" and the way he stumbled upon Eternatus popped the idea of solving **infinite energy for humanity.**
How the fuck do you not understand this when IRL, people are panicking about the AI singulairty, talks about the heat death of the universe, the eventual resource depletion of our planet, etc. How are Pokemon fans too stupid to realize this??
"Lysandre hates the world and the people in it, so that logically brings him to the wanting to destroy everything." No you bandwagoning fanboy. No that does not make sense at all. Theres no logic there.
I really like Kalos but I do not like X and Y much. Had a lot of fun with them, and they are probably the earlier games I spent the most time playing. But the most fun I have had in X and Y have been fan-made edits. Wilting Y and whatever the X version is called makes the game actually pretty challenging.
I’m very excited for this video because x and y are what I consider the peak of competitive battling for Pokémon with amazing roster of Pokémon and really well redefined battle and breeding mechanics to make everything easier to understand. I love these games so much and can’t wait to see what you think.
Edit: oh no, the video has started and you seem negative 😖 welp here we go 😂❤️
Also the saddest part to me isn’t issues with the game you had or some of the amazing new Pokémon (avalug Hawlucha and gogoat I love) but the fact you dismissed the elite 4 theme so much like the moment that theme hits hard it’s such a banger
x and y brought me back into the pokemon series after being gone since the 2nd gen
I am happy about the nuzlocke section of this!
All my runs of X and Y were nuzlockes, and I played them together with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, when we were first dating. Later on, I completed my first hardcore nuzlocke on it, naming all my pokemon after diseases, haha. I have so many fond memories of playing this game that I can't bring myself to hate it, even though it has flaws. In fact, it's one of my most beloved pokemon games, still, and for me it HAS those challenging sections because I never just played through it normally. The furfrou double battle is actually really tough, then there's a hawlucha trainer in the mirror cave that can really get you, too... Lysandre is always a potential run ender, too!
These were simpler times. Back when the worst complaint I had about Pokemon was that the story was a little boring and the main villain is barely around until you have to fight him three times in the span of twenty minutes. Out of all the gimmicks the series has had, Mega Evolution is the one I want back the most. Mawile especially suffers without it.
X and Y is the beginning of an annoying trend that would follow the series from this day forward: Appealing to the fanbase’s most vocal demands with little regard for how it would impact larger game design.
Gen VI: “Make the Pokémon 3D!” - leads to huge impacts on the game’s development time.
Gen VII: “Get rid of HMs” - greatly simplifies the game’s resource management to the point where complex dungeons are basically pointless.
Gen VIII: “Add overworld encounters” - They are so poorly optimized that random encounters would be better.
Gen IX: “Make the games open world” - The game is a glitchy mess and the world design becomes increasingly generic because it can’t account for how people are going to approach it.
Thank you for giving the Geosenge Town and Anistar City themes the recognition they deserve
Y is one of my favorites probably just because it's the first pokemon game i played after putting the franchise down after crystyal. I found it really charming and having skipped 3 generations inhad a lot more new pokemon to try and to fight. I get the complaints about it now and i recognize that i was in a sort of unique position but I'll always love y because of it. At the very least it rekindled my love of the games.
This video perfectly captures the total apathy I feel for XY. Don't love it, don't hate it. Wish it could have been so much more. I remember watching the first trailer when it came out and getting so excited. Played it once, never fully replayed, lost interest in the series. Would come back every few years to see what changed and repeat the pattern.
Thanks for opening up some new perspectives about X and Y that I never thought about man. Despite all the flaws and behind the scenes mess you pointed out, these games will always have a special place in my heart. That's because not only did they, together with Sun and Moon, bring me back to Pokémon after a time in my life in which I unjustly thought it was "childish", but also because of the region itself. Kalos had this relaxed and beautiful, yet adventurous atmosphere that really made me fond of it. It also helps that I live in a neighboring country of France, and seeing some of the places and landscapes I visited (notably the Mont Saint Michel, Bretagne, the Alsace and Paris) come to life in a Pokémon game was an amazing experience to say the least. That's why I played Y two times, and why I still revisit the game quite often (trying to complete the regional dex right now)!
I miss the mega forms. I hope the 10th gen adds all the different gimmicks at once
after not playing a pokemon game since gen two, it was awesome coming back to this gen later in life
I hsve always been and will die a Klefiki defender. I played a lot of showdown with my friends around this time and my Klefki got me so many wins I did not deserve. Fairy steel with prankster, decent bulk, recovery, and every move it could want. Klefki will be there in the rubble of hmanity, jingling away.
Avid Klefki and Trubbish defender here. Theyre both cute.
Klefki is my all time fav pokemon. Used it against my friends at the time with thunder wave, swagger, substitute and foul play and they hated it.
Klefki's a good lad. Honestly even though I've never really used any of them myself, I'm happy with all the inanimate object pokemon. At least they're creative.
I have not picked up my 3DS in years (bad battery that can't hold a charge) but X and Y feel like better games than the newer games. I loved the battle mansion and even worked my way to the highest rank. And as for Mewtwo X I will say that the design is like 'What if we add a little machoke DNA to Mew's.'
As for challenges I did the Gym leader challenge. You have 1 type to choose or be decided randomly. Dual type are allowed as long as long as the chosen type is there. You are allowed 1 healing item in battle.
If i get my 3ds running again I might do a gym leader challenge on X.
i totally disagree on the mega evolution designs. they all look great. idk how you can say "blastoise but with more canon" is a bad thing
I probably enjoyed XY more since wasn't really looking for a challenge. I typically don't with pokemon games, though I understand other people do
I'm in the camp of exploring a new region and collecting new pokemon.
So I enjoyed it,