Sunday, December 29, 2013

Raiden's Pokemon X/Y Review

Same game, different region. That sums up Pokemon X/Y. Overall a good game, but I wouldn't rate it any higher than third best gen in the series.

I think I would like X/Y a lot more if I hadn't played all of the other games first. After 6 generations and one sequel, the formula and basic gameplay is becoming a little stale to me. At the basic level, Pokemon remains an RPG with a party selection that no other series comes close to. Chrono Cross boasted over 40 playable characters, and that was huge. Pokemon has 718, if serebii is correct, so it's not even close.

They did try to switch up the basic formula with Mega Evolution, but that really didn't change much. It would make your Pokemon stronger and in some cases change the type, but other than that it wasn't anything big.

The bigger change came with the new addition of the Fairy type, which made Dragons a lot less overpowered. I'm a little confused as to why Fairy is weak to Poison and Steel (the only reason I've been able to come up with is that those types aren't strong against much), but that's not the thing that really bothers me about new types being added. They made such a big deal about how Fairy is the new big thing, but there are pokemon from previous generations that now have the Fairy type added. Why weren't those pokemon the fairy type? Is there something about the Kalos region that turns them into Fairy type? Why did it take them this long to discover a new type? I know I shouldn't expect continuity in a game targeted at younger children, but that still bothers me.

One thing that X/Y does extremely well is the Pokemon selection you get on your first playthrough before unlocking the national dex. You have the option of capturing at least twice the pokemon that you did in previous generations (including Eevee's, and gen 1 starters!) Some of the new pokemon are ridiculous though (I'm looking at you Klefki. Really? A set of keys?)

I would pay good money if Nintendo and Game Freak would give us a game where you can travel to all 6 regions, but that's something I'll probably never see (unless it's in MMO form, and that'd just suck).

Score: 7.2/10
Raiden's Top 100 Ranking: Not ranked.

Upcoming reviews: Phoenix Wright 5: Dual Destinies, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom

If there are any games on my top 100 you'd like to see a more detailed review on, or any games you know I've played that you'd like me to review, let me know! Unfortunately, I don't have time to pick up new games that aren't already on my short list, at least for the next year or two.

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