6th Gen Diversity

[Dragon]

One of the reasons why I enjoyed Pokemon X and Pokemon Y was because the pokemon you can find in the region was quite diverse: like, not only you find 6th gen or another separate gen pokemon, but, you can find and capture a wide variety of rare and diverse pokemon from pretty much all the previous Gens of pokemon!

Like with one thing (as seen above) you can find Tauros and Milktanks in hordes, which you couldn't really get these often ever since the Gen 2 & the HG/SS games. There was also a desert area where you'd be able to catch pokemon like Dugtrio, Gible, Trapinch, etc! So, what I tend to do was that I had half of my team available for pure 6th Gen pokemon, while the rest I just used a couple of favourites like Roserade, Flygon, and so on!

Question here is, what did you think of this diversity of pokemon? Did like like the fact that you were able to use some of the older gen pokemon for your party, or did you not care as much, and did prefer to use the 6th gen pokemon that you haven't used before? Feel free to share any thoughts from this too~

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Pokémon XY has the best diversity of Pokémon, hands down. It also helps giving us the best roster lineups for Kalos' gym leaders and Elite Four members. The only problem is, depending if the majority of Pokémon you like are here, is trying to make a full team of your favorites.

 

[Nah]

While I liked that Black/White forced you to use only the new Pokemon for the first time since Gen I, it's not something I want them to do too much or so soon after Black/White.

So I liked that Kalos gave us not only a mix of old and new Pokemon, but gave us a lot to choose from as well. I normally don't like using Pokemon I've previously used in new playthroughs, and that's not much of a problem in X/Y because there's ~450 Pokemon that can be found in Kalos before the post-game.

And it was slightly disappointing that the only Pokemon added to the Hoenn Dex pre-E4 in ORAS were the evolutions of Pokemon that were in the Dex in R/S but got evolutions in later gens.

 

[Fun Size]

I have a love/hate relationship about diverse X and Y were compared to the other games. On one hand it was fun to see some of the more low-key Pokemon from other gens such as Bidoof in the wild. Plus it really made catching all the Pokemon a heck of a lot easier. On the other hand at times I felt like Game Freak forgot that X and Y featured a new region with NEW Pokemon like in Route 14 (the route with the Spooky House) where all they had there were: Weepingbell, Haunter, Quagsire, Skorupi, Carnivine, Karrablast, Shelmet, Stunfisk, Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Whiscash, Ekans, Bellsprout, and Goomy. ONE POKEMON OUT OF ALL THOSE WAS ACTUALLY FROM KALOS. So I feel like they should have featured more Kalos Pokemon and less Pokemon from other regions during the game and more Pokemon from other regions post-game.

 

[NeuronRage]

I for one disliked it a lot. Why? It is in the Kalos region, which according to PokeEarth on Serebii it is separate from other regions. Therefore this region should not feature Pokemon from previous games.

The only reason I can find to support this is that these are the final games in the Pokemon video game saga and it's a culmination of everything that has occurred in the past. However other than that there is little evidence that these Pokemon should be there, if it is based on France and not connected to any of the other regions in the world of Pokemon. But even then how would they get there? All these Pokemon from these different regions have somehow come together in a central country. I mean, this could have been a product of what was central in BW2, how all the Pokemon got loose and spread across Unova (I was annoyed that there were Pokemon from other regions in that game as well since it is supposed to be far from all the others). Maybe there is a time lapse and Kalos somehow acquired a similar machine, or there was a spread of ideas, but NOTHING IS MENTIONED about that, so it's really up for speculation as to why the hell there are all of these Pokemon from all these regions that came to a central region. Maybe there will be more on that in the sequel/prequel, and I hope there is. It's really annoying. These regions are seemingly supposed to be based on real-life places in the world, so that means Kalos, in France, should not be connected to the other 5 regions, and there should be completely different species' of Pokemon. Unless it is a culmination game, which it might be, because X and Y are two of the final letters of the alphabet (and then they will finish it out with Z- probably)

The other reason would be just to plop them in randomly just to make them available in DS games. That's annoying, however, and completely screws up the picture of the Pokemon world.

 

[Pendraflare]

I really, really liked the Pokédex in this game and it's one of my favorite things about it. It makes playing through the game with different teams much more enjoyable, and even if there aren't as many Kalos Pokémon as there are from previous generations it does provide several choices altogether, so you're bound to find some of your favorites in it.

 

[Nah]

I for one disliked it a lot. Why? It is in the Kalos region, which according to PokeEarth on Serebii it is separate from other regions. Therefore this region should not feature Pokemon from previous games.

Yeah but Game Freak's been sayin' that for years now. All the regions except Kanto and Johto are supposed to be "really far away" from all the other regions, which is a little silly since there's only so much space on a planet. And all the regions have had Pokemon from past generations in them.

The only reason I can find to support this is that these are the final games in the Pokemon video game saga and it's a culmination of everything that has occurred in the past. However other than that there is little evidence that these Pokemon should be there, if it is based on France and not connected to any of the other regions in the world of Pokemon. But even then how would they get there? All these Pokemon from these different regions have somehow come together in a central country. I mean, this could have been a product of what was central in BW2, how all the Pokemon got loose and spread across Unova (I was annoyed that there were Pokemon from other regions in that game as well since it is supposed to be far from all the others). Maybe there is a time lapse and Kalos somehow acquired a similar machine, or there was a spread of ideas, but NOTHING IS MENTIONED about that, so it's really up for speculation as to why the hell there are all of these Pokemon from all these regions that came to a central region. Maybe there will be more on that in the sequel/prequel, and I hope there is. It's really annoying. These regions are seemingly supposed to be based on real-life places in the world, so that means Kalos, in France, should not be connected to the other 5 regions, and there should be completely different species' of Pokemon. Unless it is a culmination game, which it might be, because X and Y are two of the final letters of the alphabet (and then they will finish it out with Z- probably)

Game Freak's gonna keep making the games, so Kalos doesn't neccessarily represent the furthest point in the timeline in the series.

I've also never thought that the regions are as isolated as Game Freak makes them sound to be. The war in Kalos 3000 years ago effected the entire world by turning stones into Mega Stones. Unova and Kalos once went to war. People from Johto and Sinnoh built ruins reflecting both regions in the northernmost edge of Johto. A non-Kanto native became a Team Rocket member. So if humans regularly travel between and live in different regions, why not Pokemon?

The other reason would be just to plop them in randomly just to make them available in DS games. That's annoying, however, and completely screws up the picture of the Pokemon world.

But this is probably the real reason why. Gotta catch 'em all.

 

[NeuronRage]

Yeah but Game Freak's been sayin' that for years now. All the regions except Kanto and Johto are supposed to be "really far away" from all the other regions, which is a little silly since there's only so much space on a planet. And all the regions have had Pokemon from past generations in them.

Now what about Hoenn and Sinnoh? Those are based on other Japanese countries. I think when Game Freak was referring to only Unova and Kalos, which are based on completely different places outside of Japan.

So if humans regularly travel between and live in different regions, why not Pokemon?

This is a good point, however I don't know if migration would occur that quickly because the timeline of games is within a few years of each other I think. However it is valid. People could have traveled and possibly released some of their Pokemon into the wild and Pokemon could have proliferated in that way. You make some good arguments here.

 

[Hiatus]

In real world, some animals are exclusive to certain areas at times, but many are still… everywhere, if we know what I mean.

The way they seemed to have taken things in X and Y regarding this did make sense to me, due to what I've stated above; this adds more realism, in a way, and makes it more easy for us to relate. On top of this, Kalos Pokémon are generally new, and this had made them slightly less difficult for us to accept by allow more time, since we don't see them as often and whatnot.

Personally, I dislike when they attempt forcing newly-introduced onto me all at once (as it's a bit… confusing, I suppose), and I'm positive there are many others out there who feel the same. Am glad they're putting more effort into turning away from this method.

 

[DyingWillFlareon]

I didn't really mind. I have a tendancy to nab my favorite mons in the game to make a team, so if the first route has too many of my favorites then....... Whoops full team before Gym 1. BW was really fun for me because I could easily point out I like Braviary more than the other Unova birds, so I'd pick that one. Wuth other regions, I have to choose from Crobat, Pidgeot, Staraptor, Swellow, Pellipper, Noctowl, etc. But half my team were Kanto mons in Y. My team was full by Amberett Town, whicb iirc isnmt that far into the game. But honestly speaking, I can't say I hated the diversity. I love the Pidgey line, and getting to use it outside of Kanto/Johto was nice.

 

[Hikamaru]

I enjoyed the variety of Pokemon in this game, and there's not much shortage of any particular type either so you get loads of options for pretty much every type. In fact I even recall often struggling to choose who to keep on the team, so I rotated regularly.

Most of my initial team was 6th Gen Pokemon but now I have been throwing older stuff in, because it's always nice to try something new out, plus I wanted to try so many of the Megas too. Even if Kalos introduced the least Pokemon of any region, it does make up for it by having the huge variety of older generation Pokemon available even before the postgame.

 

[faf]

It's a double edged sword to me.
I also like being forced into using only new Pokemon but when they had to throw Scrafty (as well as my other favourites) in it then it kind of defeats the purpose. Not too mention I just didn't enjoy using Pangoro and I simply couldn't box Scrafty (didn't help that I threw it in my rotation) so rather than my team being purely Kalos it was 5 Kalos Mons and a Scrafty. I may do that again sometime in the future (pure Kalos). I also found it lazy to make only 69 Pokemon and then throwing in about ~400 old mons.

That said, the amount of added old Pokemon did help the Pokedex, many got the Fairy type, Megas and the DW abilities are more accessible but I still wished we got more new Pokemon and those Pokes could be added post-game. That's just me though~

 

[CoffeeDrink]

I think it was handled quite well. There's only so many Pokémon you can create (716 of them) before you finally have to pack as many as you can into the game as possible. After the 7th and 8th generations pop up, there will be an inevitability to fill the entire region with Pokémon you've seen before, along with new Pokémon. I was actually a bit upset they didn't include Koffing in the games, but that's me and it's since been rectified. I hope they do this in the future, as it feels more like an ecosystem than it ever did before.

 

[atomtanned]

I loved the diversity of Pokémon in the region. It was fun to have older species with new twists (like the Kanto starters & their mega stones) but there were enough new Pokémon that you can play through with only new ones - that's what I always do my first playthrough. It's definitely nice having such a wide range, though - imo, it makes the replay value higher as well.

 

[TheUnit684]

Of course, I absolutely love when a Pokemon game includes a huge variety of Pokemon from all the Generations. So much more interesting, and a larger variety of Pokemon to choose from in each playthrough. That's part of the reason why I prefer Black/White 2 over Black/White. X and Y probably had the most diversity out of any other game so far, and geez, I just salivate over all the possibilities. The thing I love most about it is the variety of Dragon types available early in the game! You can get Axew and Bagon before the second gym! By the time you get to the desert, you could potentially have a party full of dragons!

I love dragon type. Do more of this, Game Freak!