6th Gen What would you change about X&Y?

So, common criticism is that there are many aspects that don't make Pokemon X&Y as good as it can be (ie. bland/forgettable cast, relatively easy victory, etc.) But, let's say the power to change rests upon you - the viewer of this thread! What would be things about X&Y that you would change for the better, and how do you feel that those changes would make it a better series of games overall?

I'd make it more challenging - and I'd give some of the cast more unforgettable dialogue. Some of my favorite fan games are the ones that make difficulty changes to games like this - in the attempt to make the game more memorable and your team more original and memorable to yourself. I would be amiss in saying that the difficulty is the only issue I had with X and Y though; Pokemon Company took a huge risk in making X and Y more marketable to the kids - They specifically went in with a goal to make the games more marketable to kids. If they had included some format of difficulty choice like BW2, I'd have been fine with it. However, the rivals were specifically all forgettable, the main rival (Serena or Caleb) were specifically meant to be the other "good" trainer from your town, but every battle/encounter with them was forgettable. The evil team was more of a joke than usual... I could go on-and-on - I don't want to bash on Generation 6 too hard, the region was beautiful, and it had a good thing going for it in many ways; but overall I feel like Generation 6 was the true decline for the series in my eyes.

tl;dr - I'd make this generation as difficult as Generation 4 at least, with the optional choice to choose the difficulty like BW2 had, and i'd have made the rivals all more memorable in their own ways.

Sirius Black

The main thing for me would be to re-write the story so it can try to harness the potential it might have had. Mostly by expanding on the friend group+Lysandre, as those were the parts that need help the most and would do the most for XY's plot.

Difficulty options. "Turning off EXP share" isn't the same. A difficulty option on easy should be what was given in the main story. A normal option increasing the amount of Pokemon gym leaders use, and a hard difficulty introducing held items for trainers/gym leaders.

I would probably just rewrite the story and fix the awful dialogue that happens during the game. I've never been able to figure out why the story for mainline pokemon games are so lackluster. A difficulty option would be amazing too.

I'd change some of the story and dialouge for sure, but I'd most like to properly 'finish' the games. There's so much in XY that feel incomplete and mysterious that are left unsolved. Whether they were pushed to get this game on the 3DS ASAP or not, the games felt empty at some point. I actually really like X and Y, but that's my main problem with the games!

Yeah, I feel similar as Nah. The story was pretty cool... Except it was really badly performed. The evil team should have had a more serious touch. The companions/friends were wayyyy too many and needed better backstories. Compare the many forgetful friends in XY to Bianca's story in BW? Or Cheren's growth and eventual gym leadership in BW2? The intense involved feel you got in Platinum when you ran off to defend one lake while your two friends took care of the other two? They actually played a role and were important! XY was just... Oh there those annoying kids are again. Who cares.

Also aside from a couple of tracks, the music was quite forgettable. Sad.

what saved the Kalos games was that the actual art style and game mechanics was very enjoyable imo.

1. Make it that the freaking gym leaders are more than just roadblocks. They should have more development, personality, and interference with the plot.

2. This is probably a personal thing but more references to older generations other than the first.

3. Improve the plot as a whole. Although I do like that the game doesn't force the plot into you face, you can just ignore it if you don't like it.

4. Same with the many rivals. Why have so many if they are just gonna lag around? I love how in the end of the game some of them get rewarded even though they never contributed anything.

If anyone expected me to complain about the easiness, you are sorely mistaken. Literally all my problems here are solely related to the game's plot.

The one thing I'd change is the bike animation. Why is the hair just static when riding it??? Why do you turn at the speed of light?? I love how Sw/Sh makes there be an actual turning speed

The thing we all want. There difintive version. Solve the burning questions we want answered. Such as what is the eternal flower floeat

the fact that diantha was barely present at all in the story is definitely one thing i'd change. i'd like to have her somewhat involved with the events of the story... at the very least, having her team up with the player to take down team flare would've been nice. my biggest issue is that she's barely memorable aside from one or two scenes and then you find out she's the champion at the very end... it's very anticlimactic, unfortunately. :c

that'd be about it, i think. i'd change the story to some degree as well, since from my memory it wasn't the greatest even if the concept was really dark, but a lot of the details are too hazy for me to go into detail about what i'd change in particular.

edit: i'd change the rivals, too @_@ at max i think it should be two rivals, but four is a bit much, and the forced shauna shipping was odd, to say the least.

More mega evolutions of forgotten or unfortunately weak pokemon.

Mewtwo didnt need two mega evolutions. Tyranitar was both strong and popular beforehand.

They didna great job with sableye and mawile, but focused too much on pokemon that dodnt need a power boost.

-Remove all the megas that went into Pokémon with 480+ BST, and give it to Pokémon that actually needed it to be rescued from the trash can. Or "scale" the Mega evolution stat boost so that the stronger the mon the smaller the stat increase. +100 on a starter, legendary, pseudo, or whatever that's already strong is too much, especially when paired with a broken Ability.

-Give leaders and E4 +1 Pokémon. Most of them also need smarter team compositions and better move sets (some of the gym leaders' Pokémon don't even have 4 moves).

The pacing is rough. Ideally, the 2nd gym and 3rd gyms would be earlier, though this would obviously require some significant redesigns. Alternatively, you could have more separating the later gyms, but again, significant redesigns.

Reduce the size of the Pokedex a bit. This sounds crazy, but it's so large that you never really get a good grasp on any location's Pokemon. Stuffing all the Pokemon into a region just means nobody pays attention to the new Pokemon.

Give the gym leaders mega evolution. It's the main gimmick of the game, yet it's barely shown to the player outside their own overpowered mega evolutions.

Ditch half the characters. XY just have too many characters. This is most obvious with the Team Flare scientists and the 4 "rivals". Also remove AZ unless you're gonna give him more focus.

Remove sky battles, because they're a terrible idea on every level.

Design gym leader teams that are actually appropriate for both the level of Pokemon the player has and the power of the Pokemon the player is provided.

Add more Pokemon. Imagine being a fan of Bug type Pokemon and literally the only new Bug type is Vivilion.

Figure out what you want Team Flare and Lysandre to actually be. The aesthetics scream "Secret spooky government operation" way more than the rich Nazi snobs they're supposed to be. And if Lysandre is supposed to be sympathetic, don't make him the lovechild of Thomas Malthus and Jeff Bezos.

Remove riding, or make all riding fast as the roller skates. Why would anyone watch "Rhyhorn Racing" when Rhyhorns apparently move like molasses?

Balance the level curve. If you want people to play with Exp Share, don't make the level curve so low that people will often be over leveled without ever touching exp share.

Make the routes and dungeons more interesting than the glorified hallways we got. Just because it's linear doesn't mean it has to be boring.

Redo like half the human character designs. So many of XY's character designs are just... Ugly. Siebold's a good example of a concept that didn't get enough refinement. Instead of looking elegant, he just looks so goofy. Olympia's another one that should look good, but the official art and her chibified in-game model don't convey the grandeur of her concept at all.

Improve the boss battle teams. This doesn't just mean making them harder, it also means emphasizing each battle's own identity. I couldn't tell you what Ramos's Pokemon even do if you asked me to. Without any defined strategy, boss battles lack personality.

I would give trainers more than one pokemon to battle against me with. Do something with team flare, beef up your rival/friend group, do something with the champion, get rid of the exp. share, replace sky battles, redo some dungeons, and give the elite four a full party

Make the game harder. For fuck's sake, Wulfric's Pokemon DON'T EVEN HAVE FOUR MOVES ON THEM. Neither does your rival. This was the start of Pokemon games being too easy. The Elite Four don't have five Pokemon on their team anymore, either, so I'd definitely fix that. I think the games need to be made more difficult, but not too difficult, just... less easy. The reason I hate the Kalos games as much as I do is because they feel so much more dumbed down than Black2/White2 directly before them.

I'd make our rivals more relevant, too. You give us so many of them and you can't even bother to flesh them out? That's a waste of everyone's time. I'd also change Team Flare's goal just a little. They are so damn generic, it's laughable.

I also agree with Bellsprout above me on doing something with Diantha. She's the most forgettable Champion, ever so I'd put her in the story more rather than just her being there once and then you never see her again until you fight her. every or almost every champion before this has been in the story at least a little. Lance helped you with Team Rocket, Steven met you in that tunnel and on various routes, Cynthia was in the story, and Alder was, too, so was Iris. Diantha? Nothing. At all. So, I'd add her into the story more, maybe have her help you a little. The "she's an actress" is literally the only thing about her I can even think about. She's so forgettable and not important, it's sad.

I'm fine with the permanent experience share, you can just turn it off if you really don't want all your Pokemon to get a share of exp, so I've never cared that it's a key item now. I've played the game without the experience share on in gen six before, after all.

Well, first of all the story. it's not really clear at some point and things just happen too fast. also, it's not deep enough. Secondly, i would change the speed of the game. WHat I mean is that those games have a strange speed. u re soon thrown in the 1st gym and then till the 3rd gym the game seems to get slower. After that tho, everything gets really easy and super fast till the pokemon league. i do remember it didn't take me much time to finish the game. i replayed the game recently and it was the same feeling

Well first off, i would give every Gym leader past the point of recieving a Mega ring a Mega Evolution, it was extremely dissapointing none of them past that point used one(like seriously, Mega evolution was the important new battle feature in that Generation, and the Gym leaders did not make use of it)

Second, make the story better. X and Y's story was kind of dissapointing and not that great.

Third, i would change the Champion Battle. Diantha was way too easy my first time i played. There were Champion battles in previous generations that were harder and gave me trouble even for my first time playing that generation. I also feel like unlike some other Champions, she was not really part of the story. I really think she should have been apart of the story more.

Other than that the rest of the game was fine.

In retrospect, since we never got a third version I'd make the post game more appealing and thought out. I'd put a questline that shines some light on Zygarde. It was a real shame to have it just be a random legendary sitting in a cave. That definitely didn't do it justice.

Speaking of random legendaries: Mewtwo and the legendary birds were also quite a bust in that regard. Mewtwo just sits in a very small cave that has basically nothing to it, otherwise. Just make it a dungeon that the player can explore.
And while making the birds run away automatically a set amount of time is better than having to chase them down continuously, it still felt like a very tedious way, regardless. Again: why not build a story around the birds? Given that they seem to have their home in different regions and keep switching between these places: why not give them a nest that they return every so often? Add a little lore as to why they have different homes and tell us what makes Kalos one of those places? So basically: more dungeons, more exploration, more stuff to do outside of online stuff.

Lastly: the Battle Maison is awful. The town it is situated in is also very boring. And worst of all: the Friend Safari is so very uninspired. They just put a quadratic field with grass and 2-3 catchable Pokemon. Not what I would call a "Safari". Flesh the place out, make some places accessible no matter how many friends someone has and then adding to that: additional places for every friend a player adds. Add some more Pokemon to the safari, but also introduce some more ways to get around, maybe make those dependent on what types the added friends had. A friend with a Water type safari adds Water type Pokemon, but also adds some more bodies of water that you could traverse and reach some more places that have some random items or something.

Add difficulty modes. Easy mode would be as easy as X and Y are now. In Normal mode, trainers would get better movesets and bosses would get more Pokemon. In Challenge mode, trainers would get even better movesets, their Pokemon would hold items, and you'd get less EXP.

Give Gym Leaders after Korrina more Pokemon, give the Elite Four an extra Pokemon, and give Lysandre a full team.

Do something about the rivals. Instead of them always coming at you together, let them travel separately, flesh out their characters more, give them more Pokemon to train, and allow you to challenge them once a day in the postgame.

Make battle models for all trainers, not just the player and Team Flare.

Change the EV viewing screen to show your Pokemon's EV's in numbers.

Add a way to change your Pokemon's IV's.

Bring in Pokestar Studios, and let Diantha do stuff there.

Make new clothes cheaper.

Move the new Exp Share to much later in the game, like after the 8th Gym. Either that, or just keep the Exp Share as it was.

Allow you to ride your own Pokemon.

Keep the old Pokemon cries as they were.

Give evolutions to weak Pokemon, like Farfetch'd, Dunsparce, Qwilfish, Delibird, Plusle, Minun, Volbeat, Illumise, Luvdisc, Chatot, Basculin, and male Combee. Hell, I'd bring in Basculegion and the Farfetch'd evo from the Space World beta.

Speaking of beta Pokemon, maybe add more of them into this generation.

Make Carbink evolve into Diancie, make Diancie learn Power Gem, and make Diamond Storm a special move.

Add the Venonat line, the Misdreavus line, the Phanpy line, the Shroomish line, the Glameow line, and the Joltik line to the Kalos dex.

Remove the Patrat line, the Trubbish line, the Snubbull line, the Woobat line, the Goldeen line, the Foongus line, the Nosepass line, the Wynaut line, Stunfisk, Cryogonal, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Annoying Stupid Flying Squirrel from the Kalos dex. If I have to make them available, restrict them to the postgame.

Get rid of Mega Garchomp, Mega Tyranitar, Mega Scizor, and Mega Charizard Y. Instead, make Mega Charizard X the only Mega Charizard, and give Mega Evolutions to Pokemon like Butterfree, Raichu, Mightyena, and Flygon.

Rework the Battle Maison so that the AI doesn't cheat. Also, add more battle facilities and make a Battle Frontier.

And finally, make Pokemon Z, with a postgame story about Zygarde and one about AZ and his Floette.