6th Gen Likes and Dislikes

It's been almost a year since the release of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, and by now, I'm sure a majority of us have given them at least one shot.

From our play-through of these two games, how much did we find ourselves actually enjoying? Of all new things we have seen, what would we say is our most favorite, and why? What do we dislike, and if we were to change this particular aspect in any way or form, how would we go about it? How do we expect this change to be working better than their current method?

As for myself, I've enjoyed them a lot. They've had plenty of features and mechanics added, with one of my most favorite things being character-customization; I've always wanted to do this, and finally being able to play around with such a thing was more or less a dream come true. I also like mega-evolution system; I believe this gives certain Pokémon more high of chance to shine, such those that are not commonly used in competitive scene.

One thing I disliked about X and Y, however, would likely have to be story-line. In my eyes, it was rather short and rushed, which kind of makes the plot feel un-engaging. Had they taken it more slow by adding more detailed events and whatnot, I believe things would have been more good. Ah well; from looks of it, I suppose Pokémon isn't ending any time soon, so thankfully, there's always next time!

I liked the fact you can ride on Pokémon for some parts of the game, the new version of the exp share and the roller skates. I didn't like tje storyline that much, I think itself and Team Flare's name could haave been improved.

I actually liked most of X and Y.
Just in case there's anyone who hasn't completed X/Y, there's spoilers ahead.
The only real issue I had was with the storyline. I didn't mind it being on the short side but I felt like there was no point to anything in it, really. If they filled out the game a little more and focused on either Team Flare or AZ then I think they'd make a much better impression.
I still don't know why Team Flare wanted to destroy everything. Because stuff isn't pretty, I guess? Lysandre himself could have been super interesting, but instead he just seemed kinda pointless. He and the rest of Team Flare just seemed to be there because the Pokemon formula demands it. Which is fine because it works, I just kinda wish they did more or made more of an impact.
I also don't really see the point of AZ other than to go "I made a terrible mistake. Never mind everything's ok now." Again he could have been interesting but because the game was trying to develop him and Team Flare in a storyline this short it doesn't really work and they both end up quite forgettable.
Also I could punch Professor Sycamore for how oblivious he is. That scene where Lysandre basically says flat-out "yeah the world's rubbish and I want to destroy it all" right in front of everyone and Sycamore still thinks this dude is trustworthy.
And although I don't *hate* them I'm still undecided on whether or not I like the addition of Mega Evolutions.

I say all that and it would seem like I really dislike X and Y but I honestly don't. It had me debating whether or not 3rd or 6th gen was my favourite, I just think it could have done a whole lot more with its story and characters. And, again, I'm not sure what I make of Mega Evolution yet.
It's easily the prettiest generation, to the point where I can barely stand to play the others because I just can't deal without the 3D sprites and true 3D overworld anymore.
The ability to make custom characters was a hugely welcomed addition to me (though I do wish there were more options), and although the new pool of Pokemon was small (66 new Pokemon, I think?) they were pretty much all of decent quality.
Although it seemed to strike up a lot of controversy to begin with, I do actually like the addition of Fairy type, if for no other reason than it gives Poison types a more competitive edge, which I honestly think they've needed for quite a long time. But I'm not a competitive battler so I don't know what that scene is like, really. Just as an outsider looking in I felt like it could do with more Poison types. (Also the Fairy gym leader had a cute-but-creepy design which is arguably one of my favourites out of any Pokemon game so that kinda helps but I totally didn't just say that)

TL:DR version: Sorry I prattled on. But for how much it disappointed me in terms of story and character I honestly do think that overall it's one of the strongest entries in terms of the new stuff it brought to the table. I thought it was a very risky but worthwhile gamble on Nintendo's part to change and introduce so many things in one game.

I love Pokémon X and Y in general, but I agree that the story felt oddly short. Is it just me, or does the story seem to start halfway through the game? What I mean is, there's hints of it early on but only latter do you get all the dramatics. It's the opposite of Black and White where from the get-go there's this big Pokémon liberation speech just a few metres from the starting town. I loved backstory on the Kalos war, and I was genuinely sickened when it was revealed that all those big stones in and around Geosenge town were a Pokémon graveyard for the many killed in the Kalos war, and the "ultimate weapon" was hidden there because it used the energy of the dead. That whole thing was brilliant. Lysandre, despite the proper story happening so late, was interesting in a demented kind of way. I liked that the story also revealed that the Pokémon world suffers from stuff like limited resources, selfish humans, ect.

I loved the Kalos region, its towns and mythology. Insignificant by comparison, I don't like how all the exterior Gyms had the same generic design after the Generation 5 games gave every Gym exterior unique and appropriate designs. It also took away the individual variations of the Gym theme that Generation 5 introduced. Big downgrade.

Customisation! Super Training! Pokémon-Amie! May they continue into the future games. For Super Training, it's great that you can build on the your Pokémon's weaker traits or just enhance their better traits. Pokémon-Amie goes hand-in-hand with the many times the games talk about the relationship between humans and Pokémon. On the downside, I think Mega Evolution should have only been accessible if you'd built a strong relationship with the Pokémon you want to Mega Evolve. The two features were actually very fun, basically being app-like mini games that help you progress.

Ashley it's been more than a year

There were a few things that I didn't like about X/Y. The story was a huge letdown and missed opportunity, especially after the storyline in Gen V. They had an interesting basic premise for things, but failed to expand on any of the major points or characters like AZ or Lysandre or the story behind Mega Evolution (though ORAS does give us just a tiny bit more on that) or even Sycamore. Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, and Calem/Serena to some extent were poorly implemented into the story as well. Really all the characters had some potential to be somewhat interesting, but Game Freak totally wasted that potential by never developing ANY of the characters or expanding on the story.

I also did not like the utter lack of post-game content, outside of the Looker missions, that X/Y had. YES, I know about breeding and competitive battles and all that and I spend plenty of time doing those things, but I like to be able to have more to do than just that in my post-game. Where's the PWT? Where's the additional areas to explore? Where's PokeStar Studios/Contests/Musicals (they REALLY should've had PokeStar Studios in X/Y when the Champion is also a world-famous actress).

Then there was the lack of the move tutors that Black2/White2 had (which thankfully ORAS brought back), and the fact that getting evolutionary stones is a total *****.


That said, X/Y did a number of things right. Things like:
-TRAINER CUSTOMIZATION
-finally getting to fully 3D graphics
-all the changes made to breeding makes breeding competitive Pokemon not painful
-the Battle Chateau and Restaurant Le Wow, while not Black2/White2's Black Tower/White Treehollow, were good places to level up
-Super Training finally introduces players to EVs in-game, even though the game doesn't give an explanation on how exactly EVs works, nor does it tell you exactly how many EVs in each your Pokemon has
-PSS is probably the best general online interface the games have had to date
-the Looker missions in the post-game, while unfortunately short, were wonderful imo
-the new Exp.Share and horde battles are a ****ing godsend when it comes to EV training

And then there is the case of Mega Evolution. Personally I like the concept of Mega Evolution and don't have a problem with it in general, but I think that Game Freak really did not think hard enough about balance when doing Megas. I know that giving megas to popular pokes helps the more casual player get into mega evolution, but Mewtwo, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Gengar, and the Latis really should not have gotten megas. A good example of a popular Pokemon that also needed a Mega Evolution was Charizard. But then of course there were the few that went from being useless or outclassed to being a little too good: Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Salamence, respectively.

And then there is the monster know as Mega Rayquaza. Really Game Freak? It doesn't need a mega stone to Mega Evolve? Really?!

Also, Mega Evolution is not a Digimon rip-off. If you say that you clearly haven't played enough JRPGs or watched/read enough shonen anime/manga.

The characters and story were the biggest disappointments in X/Y, and keep them from being my favorite games.

The "rivals" are horrible characters, and it feels like the game is trying to cram them down our throats (which I don't appreciate.) They show up at your doorstep like Jehovah's Witnesses. You can barely make it from one town to the next without them popping up, and much of the time it's not even for anything useful (i.e., battle; ad that event on Route 14 in particular is a pointless time-waster.)

Shauna is an immature spoiled brat and the worst kind of annoying, Calem has one of those nonsensical names that trainers in Orre have (maybe his daddy is Cooltrainer Gorps or Cipher Peon Egrog) and has a bad habit of sticking his nose where it doesn't belong (i.e., Team Flare battles.) Really, I don't want nor need to partner with you, dood. Tierno is a horrible dancer with another nonsensical Orre name, and his face looks like it was disfigured by a Mack truck. Trevor is just... there, but of the terrible foursome he's the most tolerable.

Team Flare's plans were odd, and AZ comes off as a rambling crazy drunk dude who came up with his whole tale of ancient war while hallucinating.

The cast of Gym Leaders and Elite Four members are perhaps the most bland bunch since Hoenn's crew, and it doesn't help that they receive very little development.

My other major gripe with X/Y: "PIKA PIKA!" A more annoying sound does not exist.

Another gripe: The games continue with the 5th gen tradition of most trainers having ridiculously few Pokemon on their team (hardly anyone besides Diantha and the obligatory 6 Magikarp Fisherman has a full team of six).

Minor gripe: Meowth/Persian are where?

Which is a shame because of all that X/Y brought to the table that I enjoyed.

Character customizations: By far my favorite aspect of the game, and I was able to easily overlook many of the flaws for this feature alone.

PSS makes it easier than ever to trade/battle.

Super Training can be tedious, but helpful in EV training. In fact, if you take the time, you can have your in-game team properly EV trained before entering them into a single battle.

EXP Share: Lots of people speak out against it, but I like the feeling of going into a gym with my Pokemon 25 levels higher than the leader and completely destroying everyone inside. It's a guilty pleasure :P

Battle Chateau: I love the idea of earning loads of experience and money under the pretense of a luxury battling facility for the elite, where you can rise through the ranks of nobility, power, and respect.

I enjoyed the detective/crime-fighting nature of the Looker sidequest. Better than Team Flare's bizarre genocide plot, tbh.

The 3-D graphics are lovely.

tl;dr: The characters and story are underwhelming; most everything else is good.

Likes:

- Mega Evolutions
- Type Diversity
- Lysandre
- Super Training
- Wonder Trade
- Ability Capsule
- The Charms you receive after completing both of your dexes

Dislikes:

- A few type specialists/key-important trainers are either using Pokémon who are already used as a previous type specialist's ace Pokémon or a non-Kalos Pokémon as their ace Pokémon
- Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor didn't do anything much to advance the plot
- Customizable outfits allowing certain players to dress up their underaged female trainer, who is approximately 16 based on the size comparison between her and the orphan girl, with skimpy outfits (at least there's no swimsuit clothing)
- Fan complaints about not wanting legendaries being important to the plot after previous gens caused Xerneas/Yveltal's presence near the end of the story pointless, thus furthering my grudge towards the fanbase in general

Likes


Xerneas
Yveltal
Mega Charizard X
Assault Vest
Having 2 starters without having to beat the steroid enhanced Elite 4 first.


Dislikes


Lumiose City
The useless "friends".
No VS Seeker.
The music.
The overall small and relatively tasteless environments along with a depressingly boxed in post game. If it's supposed to be an improvement from previous post games, it falls rather short on the mark there even if it is a step in the right direction albeit a hard to notice step.

Although this isn't anything major, I believe it would have been more nice if they had taken a different path with Experience Share.

Personally, I loved their new system of this particular feature, as it had made training much, much more easy. However, there are fans out there that did not precisely like it, and their only options were to either disable completely or keep it turned on and manage.

If they were to make slight changes to that and perhaps also allow us to turn Experience Share off on select members of the party rather than all, I feel it would have been more satisfying in general.

I loved all the mechanics introduced in X and Y besides Mega Evolution, but tend to dislike almost everything else. Horde battles are awesome, and Pokemon Amie is by far the best mechanic in the entire world EVER. You can see your precious Pokemon up close! And feed them cupcakes! And pet them! You can do everything short of giving them a hug. Trainer customization is awesome too, though there's just plain not enough outfits or hairstyles. And there's Super Training, which is very convenient, and stuff like Battle Chateau and berry mutations that are very useful.

But with the mechanics aside, X and Y are just disappointing. They tried to go the RPG route, even styling the starting Pokemon around the warrior, mage, and thief classes respectively, and giving your character their own party, but everything either wasn't in depth enough to be like an RPG or was way too crammed together. Your party of five, while an interesting addition that I've been waiting to see for a while, don't really do much. Yay, they battle you and offer commentary. You're still doing all the work, and there's no real involvement between everyone like a triple battle. Team Flare is just a bunch of genocidal maniacs trying to kill the world... why exactly? Lysandre hates people... why exactly? Everyone, including the Champion, Professor Sycamore and the Elite Four is threatened with genocide and choose to do nothing... why exactly? I think they tried to throw Pokemon and Final Fantasy into a blender, but instead of mixing the two very nicely you get a curdled version of both that isn't meshed well together and leaves out the best parts of both. AZ is by far the most interesting character, and should have been the main fixture of the story, but only shows up to give you a huge dump of story that should have been hinted at much earlier, and only shows up in a grand total of 3 scenes.

Kalos itself also suffers some of the problems the main storyline does. It's a huge region, but everything is way too close together, and each town besides Geosenge is just... there. There are a boatload of places to go, and each one is interesting, like the Anistar Sundial, Parfum Palace and Reflection Cave, but they badly need more detail. Why are they there? What happened there? But the biggest problem is that everything is linear and there's not enough distance between landmarks and towns. Vaniville and Aquacorde are literally 10 feet away, and the routes between the other towns aren't much better. Even caves, which normally have loads of places hidden in them get the shaft; remember Connecting Cave, the one supposedly full of Zubat? You're likely to go past it so fast you won't run into one. The routes in the previous games were long, winding, had a lot of diversity, and more importantly weren't just straight lines, and the routes in Kalos are more like streets than proper routes. Even routes that are supposedly more rural are way too short, and it makes the place just seem artificial and lifeless. If they ever remake the place, I would love for the routes to be more wild and have more secrets. As it is, the region is as underdeveloped as the story is.

Let's see...

+ Over 400 Pokémon to choose from and make a team out of
+ Character customization
+ Breeding and getting good IV'd stuff is much easier
+ Introduced a nice new look to the franchise
+ Very good use of touch screen mechanics
+ Over the top plot with a dark genocide theme
+ Team Flare's grunts were funny

- Gym Leaders and Elite Four's teams were rather lazily created
- Most of the rivals felt like they were just there

Those are just a few points I can bring up at the very moment.

The games felt very lacking to me. The plot was very short and just seemed like it was lazily done. Not their best. Plus, There was basically no post-game stuff to do. Sure, there were the looker missions to do. But those were short and didn't last long. They could've done the post-game so much better than what they had actually done. Plus the games were super easy. Not because I've had experience, but because the levels of the trainers are low and they barely had any pokemon.

That being said, I really liked how for the first time they got rid of the sprites. That was by far the best thing imo. I really hated sprites after having them in the games for 5 generations. The trainer customization was really fun too. I spent a lot of time on that xD I also liked how ev training and iv breeding got a lot easier. Made it so I could actually start doing these things and not totally get lost.

So yeah, the game had some bad things but it's pretty decent :p

Here's my good and bad points about the game.

Likes:
+ Over 400 Pokemon in the regional Dex, allowing variety with teambuilding
+ Character customization
+ New breeding mechanics allow for easier ways to breed for good IVs
+ Team Flare's genocide plot
+ New 3D graphics
+ Mega Evolution greatly improving some underrated Pokemon
+ Starters all being very good throughout the game

Dislikes:
- Little to no development for most major characters
- Gym Leaders and Elite Four having small teams
- Not many postgame activities
- Looker mission was too short

That's all I can think right now, but the pros outweigh the cons here.

hmm, i enjoyed the 3d intro very much, and i absolutely loved the starting town and the small route to aquacorde. it seemed so simple and yet so detailed imo. character customization too aahh (too bad i picked male...). the overall graphics were nice, and it was great to be able to move with the d-pad :D the roller skates and safari zone are honorable mentions.

well i disliked the difficulty of the game, it was p easy tbh (but not at oras level lel), i also didnt like team flare that much. the gruntds and admins didnt seem to really know what their goal is imo, it was more like 'money money money'. i also didnt like the lack of activity to do post-game. i know i could restart but i had the blazikenite so i didnt want to restart ;( i also have a few legendaries and competitive mons in my pc as well, and pokebank doesnt work in my region so owell :x

A lot of X I did enjoy... the objects in the battle which you can hit, the idea of chain fishing, as well as the new Berry Garden.

What I did not like about it was the Pokeradar's mechanics. I really struggled to get something out of it, and when I did it had felt like it took ages. Rules are too strict for it now.

Boring clothes for the male character, that's my only dislike. I like everything else that's necessary.

Likes
1) The gyms and areas had really neat designs. The graphics of this game and what they did with that was really neat
2) Some of the music was good. The soundtrack could have been improved, however, for the battles with various opponents. Battle music was extremely cheesy for the most part.
3) A lot of the characters were witty and humorous. I liked that. Especially at the beginning when Shauna was like "Hey, if I keep throwing balls at Pokemon they'll become my friends" or something. There was a lot of humor in the game. Maybe it was just me.

Team Flare is all right. The Grunts were way too easy. Lysandre was a decent challenge. I did sympathize with his character a bit, so that was all right about the game.

Dislikes
1) Mega-Evolution. Though it did add to the story, I felt like it gave the player a crutch, an unnecessary advantage. It should not have been given to the player until at least they had completed their 8th badge.
2) The game, overall, was too easy. I found myself completing it in a little bit over a day. Other games were more challenging and I dislike how the game deviated from that.
3) Why can we not re-challenge the Elite Four with increased teams post-game? I would have liked to see post-game maybe you would have to complete a side-quest or the story would have continued on post-game and after you completed that part of the story you could challenge the elite four another time, and this time their levels would be increased by 15 levels and there would be 5 or 6 pokemon in each team.

Okay I played OR first then X....so I may compare them.

+ I liked the customised character options, I would have liked more of a variety at the start as I had to start with a blonde haired character and later change my hair colour as my skin colour was light like the blonde haired character.

+ More Pokemon, I liked the feeling there was more pokemon to catch in this game than in OR (I don't know if there really was but it felt that way!).

- Loved being given a few pokemon!

[Disliked]

- Lumiose City, I found it hard to navigate, the view you have when you walk is very difficult and often requires changing.

- Friend Safari, I have no friends added on my DS apart from my husband so I can catch all of 3 pokemon! I've added people but they must add you back.....why?

- Gym Leaders, the final gym leader I beat using just 1 pokemon....it wasn't so much higher than his pokemons LV but yet I didn't get any damage from him at all. I felt it was too easy....