The Missed Opportunities of Pokémon X and Y

It's finally here! Thank you all for your patience. I also finally finished reviewing all 3DS Pokemon mainline games, so if you want to continue the journey here's the ORAS review: https://youtu.be/L5SxHkr7sFA or SM Review: https://youtu.be/sSQifYvd5Mg 0:00 Intro 3:34 Part 1: Reputations, Incomplete, Parallels, and Reasoning 7:01 Part 2: Incomplete 10:42 Part 3: The Characters 14:28 Part 4: The Story 18:21 Part 5: Too Easy 21:02 Interlude 22:45 Part 6: The Graphics of Pokemon 28:49 Part 7: 3 Times 151 30:16 Part 8: The World that Game Freak Was Proud of 35:05 Part 9: So French 37:27 Part 10: My Dress Up Pokemon Trainer 41:16 Part 11: Mega Evolved 43:45 Part 12: Music 46:15 Part 13: Minor Things 49:49 Part 14: Looker Post Game Rant 53:22 Part 15: What Would Pokemon Z Be Like? 55:49 Conclusion

One thing about trainer customization that Kalos did better than future games is that they actually let you save outfits

If Pokemon Z ever gets made, Diantha should unironically be made the most difficult champion in the series to get revenge on all of those who ever called her a pushover. Now that'd be a hella cool redemption arc

I feel bad for starters of generation 6. They didn't receive their generational gimmick of mega evolution and on top of that, you had Kanto nostalgia pandering starters that could mega evolve basically steal their thunder. It's so unfair.

One of my absolutely favorite features of XY battles is that in some backgrounds, if you use a spread move and there’s a berry tree in the background, the berries will fall and you’ll collect them at the end! It was such a cool mechanic that I wish was implemented more often to make the sceneries feel alive 💕

54:40 I think the anime gives us some idea of what that backstory would've been. If I remember correctly, Lysandre in the anime originally created Team Flare as some sort of health aid like organisation with the goal of helping people in need by giving them food and other supplies. However, as time went on, the people that Team Flare aided started to take that help for granted, became greedy, and demanded even more supplies. This then fucked up Lysandre's perception of the modern people, as he tried to be selfless and help those in need only for those people to then turn selfish and demand further aid with no gratitude whatsoever. Therefore he started to see that selfish attitude as an ugly side of modern humans which needed to be cleansed in order to return to its original beauty of selflessness

i am 100000000% with you on the graphics department.. gen 6 was confident in its art direction and knew how to exectue its artstyle. i dont mind the chibi overworld bc the overworld was scaled in the same chibi-way and the world somehow lost a lot of its charme and life ever since "sizing" everythign up to be more realistic in later gens.

I LOVED the clothing options in XY. There was just so much for the female trainer and i just loved mixing and matching stuff. But when S/M/US/UM and SWSH came out with their customizations i was so disaapointed at the lack of variety. Especially when it came to SWSH's gym costumes not being reflected on the trainer model in the leader battles. Gen 6 is my second favorite Gen (tied with gen 2. it's really close), with Gen 3 (Emerald) being my favorite.

I personally really liked the 2D artwork for battles, I felt like it added a lot of character that the 3D models were really missing.

Here’s the thing about X & Y: Rotate your team. More than any other generation, the four generation 6 games wanted you to complete the national dex. ORAS even included a tracker to tell you if you’ve caught everything in an area. The exp share works great for this purpose. If you aren’t rotating, then turn off exp share.

Here’s a theory of mine. Ash-Greninja came into play while Z was being planned. Ash-Greninja would be canonized as a Greninja Mega Evolution and the other 2 Kalos starters would get megas as well. Here’s the kicker, you see how Greninja’s form matches Ash’s clothes? Well, Greninja (and the other starters as well) would match the color scheme of the clothes your main character is wearing. This makes sense since X&Y focused heavily on character customization. ‬

I am not going to lie, I absolutely love Pokemon X and Y, and dare I say it, it's my favorite Pokemon game of all time.

Straight up, when I play x and y for the first time I forgot about the lab assistants so fast that when I saw them in costume for the first time, where it's supposed to be really obvious who they are, I assumed that they were team rocket.

I always say that it's never too late for Pokémon Z. They can still make it someday. Hell, even if in about 10 years when we get the inevitable gen 6 remakes, maybe they can do a Delta episode-esque thing in the endgame featuring Zygarde and include everything they had planned originally for X and Y. It would be the games finally coming full circle and getting the treatment they deserved. I truly believe that besides the gen 4 remakes, that a third version for gen 6 is the most wanted game among Pokémon fans. Hell, it would be a dream come true to get not only Z but a third version or sequel for Sword and Shield as well. I know it seems like insanity but I can keep dreaming.

That iconic melody at 3:21 is probably the last time I got ‘pokemon vibes’ from a Pokémon game/region, every gen after that has something missing that I can’t put my finger on.

The battling in gen 6 was the absolute best it ever got.

What this video made me realize was that Journey's surprisingly put a lot of attention to detail with Serena's new character design.

X and Y will always have a special place in my heart, I was super into gen 4 but then missed out on gen 5. Got back into pokemon with a black and blue 2DS and copy of X version and it was just so awesome, using the PSS, GTS, hunting shiny pokemon in the different "friend safaris" and all the cool leaks like mega latios/latias, it just felt like a really fun time in the community that i've not had with Pokemon since, although ORAS was great obviously! Really hoping some 3DS rom hackers might one day be able to give us a complete Z version the way gamefreak likely would have done it. Then I'll finally be able to sleep at night lol

Personally, ive always thought x and y had the most potential to be one of the greatest games. Even more so than SM/USUM or SwSh. It felt like at the time there was an entire half chunk of the game missing, especially stuff relsting to southern kalos.

It's clear that GameFreak have struggled with the concept of rivals and their place as a gameplay device since RSE. However, I feel like they struck gold with the idea of a friend group in XY, but failed to deliver on it. Thinking about it, each of the friends were meant to "mentor" and test you in each facet of the game individually. Calem/Serena filled the role of the traditional rival character meant to push your competitive battling ability, showcasing different tactics and making sure you met certain benchmarks. Trevor was meant to be the statistical one who could've competed with you in filling out the PokeDex, pushing you to explore each region of Kalos and catch as much as possible. He could've even taught you how to utilise the improved Gen 6 breeding and training mechanics to help you raise and optimize the strongest team possible. Tierno could've been your Contest companion if they had actually gotten around to implementing that in this game (arguably the most fitting region for it to make a comeback as a parallel system to battling). And finally Shauna could've been your best friend and travel buddy who accompanied you on little side quests and shopping (since fashion and customisation was a new addition in this generation) and helped you build bonds with your Pokemon with Amie. Like I said, the groundwork was there but they failed to realise all of this and they all fell flat except for Shauna, whose cutscene as you pointed out was probably the most memorable part of the game because it was a glimpse of what we could've had. As for the Gym Leaders, you're right on the money. They were seriously inconsequential apart from Korrina, who -- again -- was only memorable because of her significance to mega evolution and her giving you arguably the most OP Pokemon for free. It would've been really nice to have seen all the Gym Leaders out in the world and being able to interact with them or have a little story arc instead of the wack ass challenges we got with SV. For example, Ramos out in one of the many beautiful gardens of Kalos carefully manicuring a topiary bush into the shape of a Pokemon and you can help him out with a Pokemon of your own that knows Cut. Or helping Valerie find inspiration for her next pattern design or featuring in a fashion show. The truth is, Pokemon relies on other facets of the franchise to pick up the slack in this department. For instance, movies tend to concern mythicals that usually only get a static encounter in the games. And the anime really picked up with XY, which was the main avenue for character development and backstory, which the games were lacking. For whatever reason, they want the franchise to be viewed as a single product rather than each aspect standing up on its merits alone. I find that part the hardest to grapple with.