Probably the biggest gaming news
this October was the release of Pokémon X and Y, and this has brought some new
huge changes to the world of Pokémon. For competitive players these changes are
huge, old Pokémon have new abilities, weather teams have become severely
handicapped, and there are even some reports on Pokémon having their base stats
changed. Competitive players should read no further, because this article is
not aimed at you. You probably already own the game and even may have gone to
the midnight release so that you could play well into the wee hours of the
night to be one of the first to discover the new wonders of Kalos. Instead this
article is for those who, like me, are on the fence unsure of whether or not to
buy into this game which in your mind is likely to be the same as the last four
games, and you are kind of right. X and Y still have you travelling the region
collecting Pokémon and battling trainers as you move through gyms, defeat an
evil team of some nature (Team Flare in this case), and finally combat the
elite four, beyond this though the game is surprisingly different. First off
the game is harder, much harder, enemy trainers are now smart they base attacks
off of your type, switch out Pokémon as needed, and oh yeah normally have
Pokémon five to six levels higher than yours. “Five levels is nothing” was my
thought as I walked into the second gym and was promptly decimated in the first
battle, and that wasn’t the only time either, I would be destroyed left and
right by random trainers on the street. Gone are the days when you could breeze
through the game without using a single item, now you have to play smart,
switch out when required and use the stat effecting moves you never even used
before, just to come out barely on top. While a tougher game was enjoyably
unexpected it wasn’t enough crunch to get me excited, what did give enough
crunch though was the gimmicks. I know weird why would a gimmick be exciting, I
remember when I got Pearl with the pokewalker, that was cool I could strut
around with a pokeball on my belt like a real trainer, but it was a gimmick
that’s the excitement I’m talking about. In X and Y you can customize your
clothes, eat at cafes and stay in hotels, your Pokémon can Mega evolve, you can
access the friend safari (Spoilers if I say too much more, but trust me it’s
awesome just make sure to get some friends), and don’t even get me started on
the ability to walk in eight directions. Ok, so that last one was kind of the
joke, but the point is they have added fluff maybe not as much as say Skyrim
with its thousands of locations and side quests, but it’s there. Now, this is
the point of the review where I would be saying that if you’re on the fence you
should buy the game, but I hate that part of the review, I am not you and I
don’t know what goes on in your head. If you like the idea of a harder game,
and clothing customization then I think you have already decided and my words
of encouragement will make no difference. I will leave you with this then whether
you play or not remember that some of the most basic games can be the most fun,
and I hope to find you via street pass one day
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