Would an XY remake have been better?

[PoryKid575]

I remember a ton of speculation about a potential return to Kalos / an XY remake before the SV DLCs were announced due to the cloudy area on the map that roughly corresponded to Spain's border with France IRL. And while Z-A is technically a return, it seems like it's going to be a very different experience, with only Lumiose being explorable instead of the whole region. Do you think a more traditional remake, with the player going through the same plot / areas would've been a better approach?
--
I'm really conflicted about this. On one hand, X/Y are super nostalgic for me and they're old enough now to where they'd benefit from a new coat of paint. But on the other hand, I like how GF is trying something new instead of just retreading the same ground. Also, BDSP makes me skeptical that a traditional remake would actually be better than the originals.

 

[Nah]

I'm fine with us getting Legends ZA instead of an XY remake. It's probably not exactly going to be the Pokemon Z we were expecting back then, but it's still about as close as we're ever going to get to that. They will inevitably do an XY remake anyway, it's not like PLZA is killing the chance of that happening, it's just going to happen later is all.

 

[RMVNZ]

XY felt like an unfinished game, so I think a game patching their loose ends would finally lend some closure to Gen 6. Hopefully ZA provides that closure.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Exactly what RMVNZ said. XY felt unfinished, the main story and lore elements felt rushed, and it feels pretty clear when we think about the fact that we never got Pokemon Z. it's even funnier when we are getting a game that should talk about Zygarde, yet Zygarde was cropped from the box art (poor thing T-T).
But yeah, I think that a faithful remake would be no good for XY if not for nostalgic fans, while a legends game set in Lumiose City is very cool. We get to see again the biggest city to date in a pokemon game, and we can be part of its development as well. So far, this game looks like it's trying to close a circle that started with the absence of Pokémon Z. So why wanting the same content of an older game, when we can have a new look and feel on an old and maybe untold story?

 

[WddB03]

They should. I love Kalos. It was the first game I bought when it was a new generation. First newest game I got. Mega evolution is awesome. The region is beautiful, the jump to 3d was awesome. But those games story/features that were cut or half out in make it feel incomplete. And Zygarde never got the spotlight in a main series game since. It even sounds like Z-A isn't gonna be focused on Zygarde as a focal point from what we've seen. And the tiny corner it got on the box art. Kalos deserves a completed main series game, with a completed south Kalos, and fleshed out story with team flare/Zygarde and the rivals/friends. Kalos deserves the complete game treatment and should get either a completed main series X and Y remake, or a Pokemon Z or a XZ/YZ type game.A game where mega evolution is actually seen across the region. (Wulfric/elite four). Maybe coach trainer type thing from Alola but for mega pokemon. Kalos deserves a completed game and Zygarde deserves to be a focal point in a main series Kalos game! Not just some sidequest in Alola. Kalos deserves a main series remake!

 

[Meteornite]

Zygrade was done bad, hopefully zygrade gets a mega evolution to finally make up for it. It DESERVES BEING THE NEXT OP POKEMON. Also zygrade appeared in alola, maybe necrozma will be in ZA ? let's not be pessimistic and hope pokemon ZA will be huge and expansive with dlc expanding to life death duo of XY

 

[OKARINxMAYUSHII]

On one hand I think it's positive they're coming up with something new instead of only relying on ideas from over a decade ago, but I feel like there's a lot that's missing compared XY. No PSS, no Friend Safari, no large castles to explore, no dungeons in the form of the Pokéball factory or Pokémon Village, no real Horde Battles, no Sky Battles, no roller skates, no Battle Cheteau, etc. Say what you will about these features, they still made XY feel more unique compared to games that came before in combination with the leap to 3D of course.

Looking at the gameplay and information we have so far about Z-A, not a lot interesting is shown in return. The graphics aren't impressive, the "new" Lumiose City doesn't look very different at all from the way it did in XY (compare this to for example Black City and White Forest or Opelucid City) and the Mega Evolution mechanic seems to be unchanged as well. To me, the only aspect of the game that any innovation has gone into is the more dynamic battle system and even this might be clunky in the final game with it giving off a bit of a clunky impression in the trailers. Then there's the gimmick of free for all challenges at night similar to battle royale type games that are obviously put in to make more use of the new battle system since you can simply catch Pokémon without engaging in battle. A tiered ranking system is also not a new idea, neither are the small objectives to earn more rewards.

If all Z-A has to offer is real time battles without any other features to add flavour to its identity, I'm honestly not interested. As others have mentioned, the original XY games have a massive potential to be built upon in so many ways and Z-A takes advantage of none of it from what info we got so far. The final product could make me eat my words and I hope it will because it would be discouraging to receive another underwhelming game after the awful performance issues of SV knowing that real innovation is possible as demonstrated by PLA (despite lacking in additional features). Compared to those two games or even the original XY, GF seems to be playing it much more safe with Z-A with only the real time battle system as the reason of its existence.

 

[Setsuna]

It is definitely too early to be asking this question. Legends Z-A isn't even out yet currently (though I'll be interested in correcting myself once it is) but I don't think it's fair to compare a game we can't have experienced first-hand to something we can. We can't really say if an XY remake is better or worse if we can't compare something like the original XY to this game, so I think the actual reasoning for your answer falls down more to something like how you feel about Legends Arceus and the idea of the Legends games continuing, how you feel about the original XY (the idea that it's unfinished, or opinions about its story) or assumptions you draw from Z-A from whatever we've gotten from trailers and how you choose to interpret that information.

XY are missing things, that's for sure, though how Z-A affects that, whether they patch them up and add more or leave it in the dark forever, remains to be seen. I'll probably come back with a better answer once we see the game for ourselves, but wanted to offer my current opinion right now even still.

 

[Aurum Blaze]

At first I would have said yes, an XY remake would be better than Legends ZA only because I don't like the direction ZA is going. Only being able to explore Lumiose City is super lame, they should've made it like Legends Arceus where you explore the ancient past, and the story of the Pokemon war with the nuke thing. That's would've been cool. Instead we get safari zones inside the city that is not likely to differentiate.

But then I thought again, and realize that there is no guarantee that the XY Remakes would actually be "better". Like what if it's just the BDSP situation all over again, where it's just a lazy cashgrab with no improvements? All of us dream of a Pokemon Z where all the issues of the original game are fixed, but there is little reason to believe that Gamefreak would follow through with that. Remember, the last time Gamefreak actually fixed a whole game was back in 2008 with Pokemon Platinum, where it fixed pretty much 90% of Pokemon DP issues. Since then, they either introduced new issues with remakes (ORAS, still a good game but there is an argument that Emerald is still the definitive version), regressed and handed it over to a random studio (BDSP), or have done nothing at all (USUM).

So maybe it's actually for the better that Gamefreak continues the Legends series instead of touching their old games.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Better? Yes. My interest level in Z-A is almost zero and I have a bunch of hours invested into Y.

But "better" is a relative term. Would I be tempted to play an X/Y remake today? Not really. I have two primary reasons why I'd approach the remakes with low expectations:

1. Bad track record of previous remakes. FR/LG were awesome. Every remake since has been mid or worse. They've failed to recapture the magic of the originals, and either make too many changes that make them worse, and/or don't make necessary QoL changes. Given disappointments like ORAS, BDSP, and HGSS, and the terrible technical state and general dumbing-down of recent releases, I don't have a lot of faith that future remakes will be anything more than mediocre and a fear that they could be terrible.
2. X/Y had a horrendous supporting cast and I'd rather not revisit them. The professor immediately gave off creepy vibes. One of the "rivals" was an insufferable, annoying brat, the other three had less personality than cardboard, and all of them showed up too often to waste time and refused to leave you alone (tell me again WHY we had to go watch some lighting ceremony in Lumiose or WHY we had to listen to some old man blather on in that one house on one of the routes? Can they just let me do my own thing?) Team Flare was underwhelming (and that one cutscene where their boss sheds a tear during his big reveal renders the guy a complete joke if his stupid facial hair didn't do that already), and AZ feels tacked on (I'm sure the story writers had bigger plans for him and his role, but those never got fleshed out.) Diantha wasn't the worst Champion, but she was the one who most blended into the background. Y got much better once the story was done and I didn't have to deal with these characters anymore.

A Pokemon Z (or X-2/Y-2) could have addressed some of these issues and fleshed out both Zygarde and AZ's role, but that ship sailed long ago.

The problem is, Z-A in its current state isn't the answer either. Limiting the action/story to a single city is probably going to fall flat. Grand Theft Auto can pack a full game worth of content into a single city, but Game Freak is NOT Rockstar. It's likely going to boil down to a brief, unfulfilling storyline with game time padded out by "catching them all" and battling rando NPCs but without the exploration aspect of other Pokemon games (and no, "exploring" a "Wild Zone" in the Aldi parking lot or municipal sewage treatment plant doesn't count.) I personally don't want my Pokemon battles to be real-time; my reflexes aren't what they used to be. Plus the protagonists are cookie-cutter bland and don't reinforce Kalos as the "fashion" region. There's the aforementioned fears that it could be a massive glitch-fest like S/V. Hard pass for me.

Then again, I've been moving on from this franchise because of repeated disappointments. A Pokemon game that's far better than either Z-A or any potential remake is going to be needed to convince me back into the fold.

Bottom line: A remake would be a slightly better choice, but quite frankly, neither option sounds appealing. Honestly, I'd much rather get a spinoff Style Savvy-like dress-up game featuring Serena. Dressing her up does account for roughly half my playtime in Pokemon Y, after all.