6th Gen X/Y or UltraSun/UltraMoon?

All of a sudden, I found myself owning a New 2DS XL. It was at a great price and I decided to make the jump.

Now, I haven't owned a Pokémon game in almost 15 years, so in general I'm fairly ignorant about all the new mechanics and changes. I started with Red back when it came out, then Silver, Crystal and FireRed. Years later I played HeartGold temporarily through a friend of mine back in '09 or '10, but never finished it properly. Didn't get into the other games because they didn't interest me. I found them, and the respective Pokémon, unappealing. And I had more important interests as well.

Now with a 2DS (haven't even opened it yet), I made a quick research and out of the four games that came out, I settled on the ones in the title. I never cared about Hoenn, so no OR/AS. And Sun/Moon got improved versions with US/UM.

I like the first 251 Pokémon, I don't really care about the rest. I might endure the new Pokémon but the ones I prefer to use are the ones from Kanto and Johto. As such, their availability is a very important factor to me.

I'm going to list the things I liked and didn't like to find out about each and I hope you guys can clarify on what I got wrong or what am I missing:

X/Y:

+ Plenty of Kanto/Johto Pokémon available from the start
+ Regular Pokémon adventure (Gyms + Elite Four)
+ Interesting setting
+ Trainer customization
- Mega evolutions (are they necessary/obligatory?)
- Horde encounters
- Not very challenging
- Friend Safari

US/UM:

+ Plenty of Kanto/Johto Pokémon available (but less than X/Y)
+ More legendaries
+ Improved graphics (the Pokémon models and animations look the same though)
+ More customization
+ More challenging
+ Classic characters can be challenged
+ More recent and still being supported
- A lot of handholding
- Annoying Pokédex
- No gyms
- Alolan versions (this looks like a big minus, not only I don't like any of them, but it prevents the regular versions of the Pokémon from being available, specially the evolutions)

Right now, I'm more inclined towards X/Y. Did I get anything wrong? Am I missing something important?

Thanks in advance.

Gen 7 doesn't really have significantly more customization options than XY does (or at least it never seemed that way to me), and as much as trials try to pretend to be something new/different, they're just gyms with a different coat of paint.

To answer this:

Mega evolutions (are they necessary/obligatory?)

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Not really. There's one battle where you're intended to use Mega Evolution, but iirc you don't have to use it to clear the battle, and either way, it's an easy enough one where you kinda can just blow through it quickly by mega evolving....and then never deal with it again as no future battle forces you to use nor is so hard than you need the power of Mega Evolution to make it through (and opponents that use it are also very rare).

If I had to give you a recommendation on which to pick right now based on what you've said, I'd probably say that you should go with XY since it seems what is the most important thing to you the availability of non-Alolan-form Kanto/Johto 'mons

Thanks for the help.

So I'm not missing that much by ignoring US/UM? Do you consider X/Y a polished experience, despite it being the first 3D game?

LusoTrainer said:

Thanks for the help.

So I'm not missing that much by ignoring US/UM? Do you consider X/Y a polished experience, despite it being the first 3D game?

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If you're not interested in the new mechanics or the new characters and story of US/UM or the new Pokemon in it, I guess you're not missing much by skipping it.

I wouldn't call XY polished though, but there's very few Pokemon games I'd really call any degree of polished, and especially not the debut pair of any generation.

Can I just say I agree with Nah. Seriously though, I love my X game. Gotta restart it though someday to re-enjoy Kalos. I have Ultra Moon too. They're both cool but I think I prefer X. Idk...sorry I can't give you a proper reason.

Thanks for the help, I just ordered Y.

X had a better cover, but Y has Cloyster, Heracross, Tyranitar and the fossils.

I personally prefer US/UM as i love alola and its special forms and the story is great too. Plus the customisation and no HM's is a huge thing for me. Hyper training too is a great way of getting those not so great legendaries and event pokemon to be as good as the best bred ones.

I liked X and Y but felt it wasn't as polished as OR/AS or S/M as it was the first 3DS foray into pokemon so they were more testing stuff out. The story is good in X and Y but not amazing, the group of friends aspect is probably the best (and rollerskates!). Honestly id even go as far as to say OR/AS were better than X/Y but then i have nothing against hoenn and enjoyed it as id not properly played that game before.

Super training is good if you're a breeder or just like building competitive pokemon and i miss that in US/UM but it has its own methods for that too just not as good in my opinion.

Oblox said:

I personally prefer US/UM as i love alola and its special forms and the story is great too.

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I guess if I get a good experience from X/Y I might get US/UM later on. But I really dislike these decisions by GF of changing the original Pokémon (either through regional forms or mega evolutions). They come off as forced and gimmicky. I'd prefer if they leave the originals as they are and spend their energy in creating new Pokémon. Some people refer to those decisions as "Kanto pandering", but as a Kanto fan, it's not pandering to me at all. I'd call it Kanto corruption. Marowak is one of my favorite Pokémon, yet if I picked US/UM I would get stuck with the perversion that is the Alola version...

If they want to pander to original fans, just make the original Pokémon available alongside new ones. It's what's getting me to pick X/Y. That way everyone gets more options and everyone is happy.

Just send over your original non alolan forms from prior games and job done or trade with someone to get the non alolan version. More options is always good however so id not be opposed of a way of getting original non regional variations too. Im sure this will be an issue with Galar too in sword and shield.

I think that US/UM are generally better than X/Y. The only real benefit of X/Y in my eyes is that there were more Pokemon available in those games compared to US/UM. But US/UM beats X/Y in every other metric including pacing, plot, and graphics.