Today's review number is brought to you by: Germany. Thank you, Germany.
Moving on.
The (supposedly) triumphant return! Alrighty. Let's jump right into it.
Today's review iiiiiiiiiiiiiis:
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| Cause colors and stones aren't good enough anymore. |
Pokemon X and Y! (but mostly X, cause that's what I got!)
The next chapter in the seemingly endless saga of children leaving their homes to catch super-evolving monsters to pit against each other in a worldwide battle for dominance, these sequels look to do what the prior games in the series did, but better!
For those select few determined to live under a mountain of soundproof rocks and/or born yesterday, Pokemon is a long beloved turn based RPG franchise published and owned by video game giant Nintendo, developed by Game Freak, and created by Satoshi Tajiri. It is the second most successful video game franchise in the world, and X and Y collectively are the sixth generation sequels of the main series.
Anyway, this is supposed to be the next step in evolution for Pokemon as a whole.
But is it?
Let's ask the review!
First Impressions
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| Expansive! |
The first thing this Pokemon game hit me with was an option to change the language of the game. This is an idea I generally feel more games should have, as too many games simply don't make it out of their native countries *cough*Japan*cough* and selfish as it sounds, if I'm going through the trouble of importing the game, then dammit, I want to be able to read it!
Granted, I didn't import this, it was an american copy... But still!
Anywho.
As Pokemon games have progressed over the years, their introductory sequences have gotten more and more intricate. X and Y seem to take a sort of side road to this trend, choosing to go straight to the start screen rather than presenting an introductory scene first. However, the game takes advantage of the two screens of the 3DS to present a small showreel of sorts on the bottom screen, showcasing some of the new features of the game.
Now personally, I was a fan of the little intro sequences, so to see it delegated to a sort of accompaniment for the start screen is a tad saddening, but it's not too much to get beaten up over. The showreel isn't all that great anyway, only giving a sort of half baked look at how the new features work.
However, once you pass the start screen, the game makes it apparent how much larger in scope they are attempting to take the handheld franchise. The game begins much like every other, with the game's resident professor introducing you to the world of Pokemon, an allowing you to define your character. But the sequence itself is wonderfully rendered, the shift from sprites to 3D models working rather well off the bat. After being treated to a walk through a museum of sorts that helps show a bit of Pokemon history, you are shown to a mirror, where for the first time in handheld Pokemon history, you can change the look of your character.
Once you've chosen a gender, a look, and a name, you head into the world, where you're treated to a nice little sequence following the view of a bird pokemon flying around your room before crashing into you and waking you up so you can start your adventure.
As a whole, it is a solidly more animated experience than I am used to with Pokemon, and is very welcome, certainly making me look forward to what else is in store.
8.5/10: While sparse in terms of hyping up the game pre-start screen, the actual introduction of the game is well animated accompanied by fitting music, and does a good job of getting you set for the adventure at hand.
Overall Presentation
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| Vast! |
If there is one thing that X and Y do well, it's presentation. The game, particularly for a 3DS game is very pretty, with a huge landscape, vibrantly animated characters, good use of camera angles, and very attractive menus.
The game's main aim seems to be to invite you into a world where adventure is the name of the game, which, as most Pokemon games do, it does a very well. The game feels large and alive, with various characters to interact with and grow with, and while character development is pretty much non-existent, the simplicity of the game makes that mostly a non-issue.
Everything in the game moves with a sense of life, Gamefreak spared no little detail it seems, especially when it came to animating the titular critters, be they battling, or simply jumping for joy when you play with them.
The land of Kalos is supposed to be very inspired by France, which shows very particularly in the first half of the towns of the game, something that lends itself to some pretty architecture.
The music, while fairly common fare for Pokemon games, is catchy and happy, and does a solid job of getting itself stuck in your head when you aren't paying attention.
My favorite part of the game's presentation however, would have to be it's presentation of the Pokemon League itself. Each Gym simply gets more and more intriguing and cool as you go along, and when things finally culminate in the Elite Four and the Champion, things reach a nearly epic level of cool. Not quite epic, but it certainly has it's foot in the door. In general, the league has a very good sense of ramping up and building to the final battle, one I enjoyed.
9.5/10: The game is exactly what it is supposed to be as far as presentation, an upbeat adventure through a new land, an image brought to life with vibrant lands and people, and generally happy music.
Accessibility
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| The amount of Pokemon is too damn high. And this ain't even all of em! |
Pokemon stands tall as one of the most comfortably accessible games of all time. The game is very happy to guide you through the easy steps to playing like a Pokemon master. The world is simple, and the depth of story is not so massive that you need prior entries to jump in. The hardest thing as far as I can tell is trying to keep track of the admitted overabundance of creatures to catch in order to catch 'em all.
Once you've gotten comfortable enough with the game, it's fairly easy to jump into the multiplayer world as well, ranging from competitive battling to trading with friends.
9.0/10: An immensely welcoming experience, Pokemon does not ask much of you to get into it aside from remembering your critters' names. And you can give them nicknames if you want, so even that's not too hard. There are a rather immense amount of critters though.
Graphics
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| Grand! |
Pokemon X/Y have taken the 2D landmarks of Pokemon, and dragged them rather comfortably into the 3D world. The transition has been excellent, to say the least. The land of Kalos is a large, beautiful world, containing more depth than has ever been possible in a Pokemon game, and an ambitious sight on a handheld game.
The game doesn't skimp on the vibrant colors, which create a bright and adventure filled feel that is always pleasant, and very appealing to the inner child. Graphical glitching is non-existent, and the game runs smoothly at nearly all times, only truly slowing down when the 3D is active during battle.
The game makes plenty of use of new camera angles, and various effects to truly make the world come to life, and this doesn't just hold true when exploring. In battle, the new camera views are plenty, creating a dynamic battle feel that is much appreciated in a turn based outing such as this.
Battle effects aren't often skimped on either, be they the subtle but well implemented weather effects, the wind blowing through the sky during the new "Sky Battles, or the extremely widely varied attacks and expressions of the Pokemon themselves, ranging from simple and direct, to dynamic and action packed.
9.0/10: A beautiful vibrant sight, with very little to complain about, if anything at all, aside from slowdown during battle while 3D is active.
Sound
Sound quality is very solid in X/Y, with catchy music and a series of well fitting sound effects.
Town music and the battle effects are of particular note, as they really help fill out the world each in their own way.
As a whole though, the soundtrack comes off as a bit generic from time to time, and if you've played one Pokemon game you'll understand, battle effects aside, the little beeps and boops, while charming, don't do much by way of standing out. This is a bit unfair however, as I am admittedly holding it up to other Pokemon games...
On it's own merit, the soundtrack does get stuck in your head fairly easily.
7.5/10: A great piece of work, but nothing overtly stand-out within it, X/Y's sound seems to take an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sort of approach to things.
Controls/Gameplay
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| Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can... |
A solid part of the appeal of the Pokemon games, at least for me, comes from the simple, but fun gameplay. Players walk around the massive world with a starter friend, running into the innumerable powerful creatures roaming the land, battling them, and catching them for the eventual end goal of catching 'em all, and raising the best to put a beating on the main antagonists, and then usually the Pokemon League.
It being a turn based sort of RPG, battles are handled via random encounter, whereupon which a player will choose to either fight, run, or use an item. Pokemon are limited to 4 total attacks, and then the player uses said attacks to either wear the opponent down and capture them using one of various Poke Ball items, or defeat them to gain experience to get stronger.
X/Y follow the good ole formula, with some nice upgrades. In older games, it was something of a pain to heal up your Pokemon out of battle as using an item involved going into the menu, selecting the item, which took you to another menu which had your list of Pokemon, then selecting one and healing it, which would take you back to the first menu, starting the process over. In this edition, thins are far more streamlined, with your Pokemon's status and such being shown next to the item list when using an item, so no more multiple screen back and forth type experience.
In battle, one can now hold down the L shoulder button when picking an attack to see a solid description of what it does, aiding in strategy with moves one is unfamiliar with, as opposed to having to go into a menu mid battle to check status, then moves, then so on and so forth.
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| D'aww. |
Other new features include Sky Battling, where one can only battle using Pokemon capable of flight, the PSS (Player Search System) which makes it easier than ever to find your friends wirelessly and battle, trade, or whatever suits your fancy, Super Training, where one can participate in mini games, to add extra points to Pokemon's statistics, and the Pokemon-amie mini game, where players can take a breather to simply sit and play with their Pokemon, generally garnering affection and such, and building a bond. This bond shows in game, as Pokemon gain more experience, survive attacks that would normally defeat them, dodge and land critical hits more often the more your Pokemon loves you.
In addition, there's also perhaps the most infamous update, the Mega evolutions. Pokemon holding a certain type of stone are capable of undergoing a temporary evolution that makes them a super-powered version of themselves, with various effects, sometimes changing typing, the stats or abilities of the Pokemon and most radically, their appearance, going quite over the top. Designs range from terrible to awesome, and as a whole, they have the potential to turn battles on their head with the drop of a dime.
Personally, I like them.
One also now has the ability to nearly completely customize their trainer by visiting boutiques around the game, changing clothes, hair color, putting on contacts for eye color, and generally making the avatar of your choice. Something of great excitement for me.
There is also the competitive battle aspect, where players get online, and battle players around the world with the best they have to offer, which has it's own huge levels of depth.
In all, the gameplay comes together in an excellent fashion.
Plus... You can finally move diagonally. The world as we know it is changing. It's a brand new frontier.
10/10: Pokemon gameplay at it's best, X/Y take the Pokemon formula, which was already excellent, and add enough changes and innovations to make it refreshingly different, and yet oh-so-comfortably the same. And you get skates! And diagonal motherfucking movement!
Difficulty
Difficulty? In a Pokemon game? Pfft.
At the very least, the game is one that doesn't require any real difficulty, as simplicity tends to be the name of the game, so no difficulty kind of works for it. Kind of.
1.0/10: LOL, difficulty. Right. Okay. Sure.
Replayability
Pokemon is a very social game, and restarting reaps no benefits to battling or anything in the endgame, so restarting the game to beat it again serves almost no purpose other than to re-enjoy the game. It is a game I would beat maybe one more time though just to try the adventure with a different team.
1.0/10: Any replayability the game has comes from self imposed challenges, or nostalgic enjoyment and the like. No actual reason to restart.
Story
...
Yep.
...
No, but in all seriousness, Pokemon X/Y follow the adventures of you, the trainer, as he/she journeys around Kalos to become the best of the best amongst Pokemon trainers. Journeying alongside you are four hometown friends who help through your journey, one of whom is your primary rival.
Along the way, you run into Team Flare, a group of fashion focused terrorists who seek to create a world for the super elite, using the powers of the Pokemon of Life and/or the Pokemon of Destruction: Xerneas and Yveltal.
Of course, it becomes your duty to stop them, and afterwords, finish your journey to become champion.
Along the way, lessons are learned about friendship and the environment.
Standard Pokemon fare, to be honest.
5.5/10: Rolling face first back into "if it ain't broke, don't fix it territory", Pokemon X doesn't do much to distinguish itself from other games in the series save for a slightly better sense of exposition.
Fun Factor
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| Kersplooey. |
And wouldn't you know it, it's that time again. The whole point of even playing a game, fun, in numerical measurements accompanied by text.
And, very unsurprisingly, Pokemon does not even come close to failure in that regard, appealing to all kinds ages and types of people, an enjoyable romp through utopian fantasy where all of life's problems can be handled by trusting in your monster buddy and battling it out so that everything works out in the end.
Exploring the world is a treat, and the social aspect is excellent as always, with the battling and trading being the major draws for the game after all is said and done.
10/10: Pokemon X/Y stands extremely strong as a fun time from beginning to end and then some.
And so, to the score!
THE VERDICT
POKEMON X and Y SCORE A
71.0
A GREAT DAMN GAME!
While it's not the best in it's class...
C'mon. It's Pokemon. It was bound to be really good, at the very least.
With that out of the way, got one more that I'm gonna try and push out this week. Here's hoping that works out.
Also, considering changing my score system somewhat, making a change to perhaps the difficulty section or something.
Something to think about anyways.
Yep.
