Welcome to Kalos, a lovely picturesque region with a certain je ne sais quoi (eww I feel dirty all of a sudden) that no Poké-region has had before.
With its mix of stately homes, Gothic castles and iconic towers Kalos subtly reminds players of a more European landscape. (Providing you spell subtly like this “SUBTLY!!!”)
In this Poké-venture you can choose from two characters Calem and Serena,
now in any Pokémon game you can rename your characters but in X & Y is the first time you can actually customise what the look like, now this is nowhere near as extensive as in most games but for Pokémon this is a massive step in the right direction you truly do start to care about what the character wears or what hairstyle it has and why the hell isn’t there an option for spikey hair!
But I digress during your adventure you come across numerous new Pokémon, as well as a whole host of the originals. The biggest change to the Pokémon this outing is the addition of FAIRY types.
How this affects the core gameplay is as follows:
Warning the following section is for serious Poké-nerds
So this new type will seriously reduce the overwhelming force that is DRAGON type providing a 2X offensive multiplier and a 0X defensive edge meaning it can deal massive damage and suffer nothing in return. This will affect top end dragon teams massively making Dialga the only DRAGON type with the typing to take down a FAIRY safely due to its secondary STEEL typing providing a 2X damage boost and 1/2X defensive multiplier to protect it. Needless to say full DRAGON competitive teams are a thing of the past.
Hello again sorry about that, another addition are the almighty mega evolutions these give a massive temporary stat boost to selected Pokémon (for a full list see: http://www.serebii.net/xy/megaevolutions.shtml ) this gave me a massive buzz not just for the new games but to go back and retrain Pokémon that I had used in the past.
These new forms reach a whole new level of butt clenching excitement when seen in the new 3D art style. I’m a massive fan of good sprite work most of the time I prefer it to 3D models but the way Gamefreak have implemented the cell shading make you feel like you’re inside the cartoon. There are a couple of issues that the new art style has caused, the first being the frame rate during battles even with the 3D turned off the battles will lag for unknown reasons, it’s not massive but it’s enough to be noticeable which is bad in a game as highly polished as Pokémon.
The last issue with the visuals is the 2d art for trainer battles I don’t know why they’re not modelled and it really breaks the immersion and what worse is the artwork doesn’t even look anything like the anime or even that of the older games.
Anyway we’ll move on to the lovely soundtrack, this is easily the best music in any of the Pokémon games as soon as you turn the game on you’re smacked in the mouth by a mind-blowing orchestral rendition of the opening theme, and to be honest if I had smiled any wider in be invading Arkham Asylum right now. Every song in the game feels smooth and fitting, using European instruments like the Melodeon and Violin, and the relaxed string rendition of the Poké-centre theme stops me from even caring about the fact that I’m stuck in the eternal loop of nurse joy asking me if there’s anything else she can do!!! WHY I THAT STILL AN OPTION SHE DOES ONE JOB.
Overall
So has Pokémon gone stale after Gen 6?
Oh god no! it’s as fun as it ever was back when I first picked up my Squirtle in 1999, and as I get ready to face the Elite Four with my now trusty Mega Blastoise I’d say to anyone this is a must have game.
And to all my so called friend how tell me that at 21 it’s sad to play Pokémon I shall say
GOTTA CATCH ‘EM ALL!
Also ride-able Pokémon and roller skates WOOOOOOOOOO!!!
