Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
I mean, like you said, they could easily make a stat higher than 255 nowadays with a new Pokemon, but simply have no need. I still find it neat though how that number just happens to be 255. They easily could've made it 200, 250, 150, 222, or all sorts of numbers. But having it be 255, even to this day, THAT'S what makes it feel like a throwback to the 8-bit era.
Calling something a "throwback" implies returning to the customs of an earlier time. The base stat cap can't return to the customs of an earlier time because it never abandoned those customs in the first place. It would be like a non-astronaut saying they returned to Earth even though they've never left Earth.
Two weeks ago, I wrote an essay for an advanced writing class. The assignment was to analyze a written genre of our choosing. We were to write about its structure, purpose, and history. I chose to write about Smogon analyses (these things), and what resulted was a 3446-word love letter to Pokemon and competitive battling (the assignment only called for between 750 and 1250 words). I hope you enjoy this written explanation of why this franchise brings me so much joy.
A Different Kind of University
Nicholas [surname redacted]
Genre Analysis
In 1996, a Japanese video game company called Game Freak released a pair of games for the Nintendo Game Boy titled Pokemon Red Version and Pokemon Green Version. These were the first entries in what would go on to become the second best-selling and highest-grossing video game franchise, being beaten out only by Mario, and when taking into account spinoff material such as a cartoon series and trading card game, Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise in the world.
Pokemon games build themselves atop a few pillars. The first pillar, as the cartoon’s theme song goes, is “to be the very best like no one ever was.” The main single-player story of each game revolves around the player traveling the region and becoming the champion of the Pokemon League by pitting their Pokemon against those of other trainers in legalized cockfights. But don’t worry. The Pokemon love to fight. This is completely ethical. Don’t question it. The second pillar, as the series tagline goes, is to “catch ‘em all.” In the player’s quest for glory, they are also tasked with collecting specimens of every Pokemon species, Noah’s Ark style, by capturing them in tiny spheres that turn them obedient. Pokemon just want to be with a worthy trainer who will help them become stronger. And those spheres are super comfy because techno-magic. It’s fiiiine. This ties back into the first pillar, as in their pursuit for more Pokemon, the player will naturally amass a wealth of options to overcome whatever obstacle the game may throw at them. The focus on collecting takes inspiration from main developer Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood hobby of insect collecting, a detail which will become relevant shortly.
The third and central pillar is player-to-player interaction. Like Newton and his apple, Tajiri had two major inspirations to create Pokemon. Upon taking note of the Game Boy’s ability to join two consoles with a Link Cable, Tajiri imagined an insect crawling along the wire from one game to another. Additionally, Tajiri was frustrated that he had not found any Mad Caps in his playthrough of Dragon Quest II, while his colleague Ken Sugimori had found two, with no way of lending the spare. These situations ripe for player cooperation tied in with the second pillar. Each main installment in the Pokemon franchise is split into two versions: Red and Green, Gold and Silver, Ruby and Sapphire, etc. Each game is mostly identical to its twin, with a few small tweaks. Certain plot details are slightly different, and, most crucially, a handful of Pokemon will only appear in one version. For example,
Electabuzz can only be found in Red Version, while
Magmar can only be found in Green Version. Not only does this make it impossible to complete your collection solo, but it also increases the possibility for leverage while trading. Whether it be through version exclusivity or just statistical rarity, scarcity is a powerful economic force.
So the first and second pillars play off each other, as do the second and third, but what about the first and third? Well, a player may find satisfaction in conquering the Pokemon League, but those who thrill for competition will soon find themselves wanting more. The in-game opponents have nothing but their code and their programming. Programming is no match for reason. The ideal opponent must have courage, cunning, and, above all, they must be able to reason. You may protest that no opponent can reason, but my dear fellow, there is one that can.
Overuse of altered quotes from Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game in an attempt for dramatic effect aside, it’s true that many players find human opponents much more enjoyable than computer-controlled ones. While Pokemon is ostensibly designed for young children, its battle system hides a staggering amount of strategic depth that goes nearly untouched in the single-player experience. As of the most recent pair of games, there are 890 different species of Pokemon, though only 486 of them are at their full potential (the games count different stages of life, like a
caterpillar,
chrysalis, and
butterfly, or a
cub and
bear, as distinct species, with one Pokemon “evolving” into the next, even though the process is more akin to metamorphosis or puberty). These numbers can even be increased a bit if you want to factor in Pokemon variations (the
Ninetales native to the Alola region are very different than the
Ninetales found everywhere else, for example). That said, variety without meaningful distinction isn’t variety, so each Pokemon has a unique combination of traits across four categories.
Each Pokemon has a set of six base stats, ranging from 1 to 255, that determine its proficiency in certain areas:
HP:
An abbreviation for “hit points,” this determines how much damage a Pokemon can take before it faints. Specifically faint. The Pokemon do not die in battle. Everything is fiiiine.
Attack:
This partly determines how much damage a Pokemon will deal with its physical attacks.
Defense:
This partly determines how much damage a Pokemon will take from incoming physical attacks.
Special Attack:
This partly determines how much damage a Pokemon will deal with its special attacks. There isn’t really anything special about “special attacks.” They’re just not physical.
Special Defense:
Take a wild guess.
Speed:
This determines the order of events in a given turn. More on this later.
Each Pokemon also has access to a portion of the 796 battle techniques creatively titled “moves,” of which there are three categories. Physical and special moves are attacks, with a base damage value that partly determines how much damage it will deal, as well as occasionally some additional effects (Hyper Beam is strong, but forces the user to skip the next turn, while Sludge Bomb may inflict a poison effect on its target that deals damage over time). Moves of the third category are called status moves, which don’t deal any damage. Instead, they trigger a wide variety of effects, like recovering HP, multiplying stats, or directly inflicting nasty effects like poison or sleep. Regardless of category, each move has an accuracy value that determines its likelihood of success, and a PP or “power point” value that dictates how many times it can be used in battle.
Next are the “abilities,” which are relatively straightforward. Each Pokemon has access to between one and three passive traits known as “abilities,” of which there are a possible 258. Like status moves, abilities can do all sorts of things, but unlike moves, abilities go about their way automatically, without direct player input. Examples of abilities include Sturdy, which ensures the user will not be knocked out in a single hit, and Hustle, which boosts the power of the user’s physical attacks, but decreases their accuracy.
Last but certainly not least, there’s type. Each Pokemon has one or two types, out of a possible 18. Each move is also associated with a type, and if a move’s type matches one of its user’s types (a Fire-type Pokemon using Heat Wave, for example) it will deal extra damage. To top it off, a Pokemon’s type may affect how much damage it receives from incoming attacks. For example, Electric-type moves are twice as strong against Water-type Pokemon, Bug-type moves are half as strong against Steel-type Pokemon, and Ground-type moves are completely ineffective against Flying-type Pokemon. The interactions between different types are often compared to Rock-Paper-Scissors, though instead of a simple triangle, Pokemon has a tangled web.
There’s a reason these interactions are never displayed like this.
Now that all of that background information is out of the way, how do you actually play Pokemon? First, you build your team. There are several restrictions to keep in mind. Out of the 890 possible Pokemon, you must select only six. For each of those six, out of however many moves that Pokemon can learn, you must select only four. And if any of your Pokemon have more than one possible ability, you must select only one. Additionally, you may give each Pokemon one of many items to hold, which will function similar to a second ability, as well as fine tune each of your Pokemon's stats through a series of convoluted systems that we don’t need to get into right now. What’s important is that you have to choose a tiny sample from a vast array of options. Opportunity costs are through the roof, so you’re forced to make tough choices to craft a team that has likely never been crafted before in that exact permutation. In other words, building a team of Pokemon is a complex puzzle that allows for a great degree of creative freedom and personal expression. We’re off to a fun start.
Now that you’ve assembled your team, it’s time to put it into action on the battlefield. Both you and your opponent get a preview of each other’s team (just which six Pokemon were chosen, nothing else is revealed) and select a single Pokemon to start the match with. On a given turn, you have five options: use one of the four moves of your active Pokemon, or swap your active Pokemon out for one of your other Pokemon. Once both you and your opponent have decided which option to take, the turn plays out. Both active Pokemon will attempt to use their chosen move, with the order of actions being determined by comparing their Speed stats: the faster Pokemon will act first, then the slower Pokemon. However, if either player decided to swap, that will happen before moves are used. If a Pokemon runs out of HP and faints, it can no longer be used in the battle. If all of a player’s Pokemon faint, they are declared the loser and the game ends.
From these rules of battle springs a play experience wholly unique to Pokemon. The best way I can think to compare it to other games is to call it a combination of chess and poker. Like in chess, each game piece has unique attributes, and can potentially be eliminated from play. However, like in poker, information is hidden, and the result of a given turn isn’t revealed until everyone has decided what to do. And like in both chess and poker, predicting your opponent’s strategy while concealing your own is paramount. It all comes together to form a beautiful system of challenging decision-making. You’re pretty sure that you can safely swap in your Water-type to deal with your opponent’s Fire-type, but how confident are you that the Fire-type isn’t packing Thunder Punch? Maybe you should swap to a Pokemon with low HP and let it get knocked out, so that you can then bring in your Water-type scot-free. Should you use Earthquake on your opponent’s Electric-type, or should you use Stone Edge to catch them swapping to their Flying-type? If your gameplan is to soften up your opponent’s team so that your main attacker can come in and plow through for the win, when is the right time to swap in that attacker and go for the sweep? With a risky prediction, or a left-field item or move choice that wasn’t accounted for, advantages can swing in an instant. It’s just… gah! It’s so amazing! Alright, enough gushing. I’m seven pages in and I haven’t even begun to talk about the main focus of this paper.
Because Pokemon is so ripe for competition, fan communities dedicated to competitive Pokemon naturally arose. Of those communities, none are as prevalent as Smogon University. Smogon’s goal is to design rulesets such that almost any Pokemon could be used to good effect in at least one ruleset, and such that in a battle between two players, the more skilled player would be victorious. To achieve the latter goal, many of Smogon’s rulesets disallow options that make battles overly dependent on luck. To achieve the former goal, Smogon devised a tiering system to rank every Pokemon.
Smogon’s tiering works as such: every Pokemon starts out in the highest tier, called OU (stands for “overused”). At the end of the month, if players haven’t been using a Pokemon enough, that Pokemon drops down to the second-highest tier, called UU (“underused”). Players now have a choice of two rulesets to play under: the OU ruleset, where any Pokemon is allowed; and the UU ruleset, where Pokemon ranked in the OU tier are banned. From here, the process continues. Pokemon who don’t see enough usage in UU drop to RU (“rarely used”), and downwards to NU (“never used”), PU (allegedly not an acronym), and finally ZU (also not an acronym), until players have six different rulesets to choose from. Think professional baseball leagues, or weight classes in boxing, except placement is based on popularity, which is a decent, if flawed, measure of viability. In addition to dropping unpopular Pokemon, some Pokemon may be banned from a tier if it is deemed too powerful. If one of these banned Pokemon does not see enough usage in a higher tier, it will languish in the purgatory of one of many BL (“borderline”) tiers. However, Pokemon banned from OU are spared this fate, and instead find themselves in the Ubers tier, also known as the only banlist tier that people care enough about to play.
With the choice of seven rulesets added onto the countless options mentioned earlier, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Thus, Smogon makes use of a specific genre referred to in the community simply as an “analysis.” While the word “analysis” can mean many different things depending on the context, in this particular instance, an analysis is a piece of writing that consolidates useful information regarding a particular Pokemon for easy reference. Because the whole point of analyses is to serve as references, they are formatted to facilitate this. The contents of an analysis are neat and discrete, and all analyses share the same layout, so readers always know where to find what they’re looking for.
At the top of an analysis, you’ll find the bare essentials: the Pokemon’s name, what it looks like, its types, its abilities, its stats, and its tier. These are the kinds of things someone would probably want to know at a glance, so they’re appropriately the first things shown on the page.
Scroll down a tiny bit and you’ll find the “overview” section. This section just consists of a paragraph that summarizes the Pokemon’s strength and weaknesses, as well as what options it has. While the density of information makes it ill suited for a passing glance, it’s perfect for a quick rundown of what a Pokemon does. Once again, this informs its placement in the analysis; while it isn’t the first thing you see, it takes minimal effort to get to.
The next set of sections pertain to the various combinations of options available to the Pokemon. As many Pokemon have more than one viable combination to work with, this set of sections, henceforth referred to as a chapter, will repeat itself until the viable combinations are exhausted. Each chapter begins with a title in big, bold font. Titles are usually short and descriptive, like “All-Out Attacker” or “Defensive,” though every now and then a combo will be notable enough to warrant a unique title. For example,
Snorlax is so well known for using the move Curse that any Snorlax combo that uses Curse will likely be titled some variation of “CurseLax,” while one infamous
Suicune combo is titled “CroCune” in reference to the player “Cromat,” who popularized the combo. After the title comes the combination itself. The details of the combo are listed within a large blue rectangle. The moves are listed on the left, while the item, ability, and stat fine tuning are listed on the right. There’s also a handy “export” button to allow users to easily copy and paste the combo into a battle simulator. As the title and combo are the first parts of every chapter, they are very visually distinct, so it’s easy to tell where one chapter ends and the next begins.
Following the combo are two short sections: one to explain the rationale behind the chosen moves, and another to explain the rationale behind the chosen item, ability, and tuning. They may be short and their purpose self-evident, but they are nonetheless important, as they ensure the reader that the combo was not thoughtlessly thrown together. Following the explanations is the “usage tips” section, which gives the reader tips on how to use the combo. This is critical information, as otherwise the reader might fail to play to a combo’s strengths, and then they’ll be stumped as to why they keep losing. The final section of the chapter is titled “team options.” This section will give recommendations for other Pokemon that have some sort of synergy with this combo. This synergy might be defensive, like with
Mudsdale:
Bulky Water-types such as Lanturn, Jellicent, and Poliwrath can help against Ice- and Water-types like Aurorus and Floatzel, with Lanturn also supporting Mudsdale with Heal Bell and providing momentum with Volt Switch. In return, Mudsdale can absorb Electric attacks for Jellicent and Poliwrath.
or it might be offensive, like with
Talonflame:
Kyurem-B is a good partner for Talonflame because it not only can hit Rotom-W with Earth Power but also can handle other Water-types thanks to Fusion Bolt and Ground-types thanks to Ice Beam. In return, Talonflame can revenge kill faster attackers such as Mega Lopunny and Mega Gallade, which threaten Kyurem-B.
Often times, it’s a mixture of both, as well as other more nuanced synergies. The team recommendations for a given Pokemon will often be very similar regardless of what combo you use, so it might be tempting to argue for placing a single “team options” section near the end of the analysis, but despite the repetition, I think placing one at the end of each chapter was the better choice. Certain combos have just enough variance in team recommendations that a single section would be muddied with specifications, and putting it at the end of the analysis would put unnecessary distance between related information. It’s much better to have all the important information contained in neat chapters.
Interestingly, the format of chapters hasn’t always been this way. Up until relatively recently, chapters didn’t always have distinct sections for explanations and tips. All the information would usually still be there, but there wouldn’t be bolded headings to organize the information within a chapter.
After all the chapters are finished, there are a few more sections left to close out the analysis. First is an “other options” section, which lists miscellaneous move and item options that might have some merit, but weren’t deemed important enough to incorporate into the chapters. Useful, though perhaps a bit extraneous. What’s not extraneous is the following section, “checks and counters.” While the rest of the analysis discussed ways the reader could utilize the given Pokemon, this section discusses how to prevent future opponents from utilizing the Pokemon against you. This section is invaluable for when you realize your team struggles against a certain Pokemon, and you want to make changes to your team to remedy that problem. Fittingly, despite being so far into the analysis, this section is also very easy to locate, due to being the last section made of regular blocks of text. Finally, the last part of an analysis is just a big list of every move the Pokemon can possibly learn. It’s information that is both very space-consuming and also not super important, hence why it’s tacked on at the end.
Because this genre was created to be a reference for information first and foremost, almost every analysis is written in a no-nonsense, matter-of-factly tone. However, there are a few moments where humor creeps its way in. A select few Pokemon are so bad and useless that they might as well be jokes, and their analyses reflect the community’s lack of respect for these weaklings. The overview for
Delibird says nothing in the way of strengths or weaknesses, instead choosing to rant about mall Santas. While the rest of the analysis contains the same information as usual, it’s all written with jeering sarcasm.
Luvdisc gets even less respect. Its analysis abandons any idea of using it for battle, and instead focuses entirely on its possible romantic applications. These nuggets of comedy shine through to the heart of Smogon. To many non-competitive Pokemon fans, competitive fans can appear cold and robotic, only caring about results. This just simply isn’t the case. The reason Smogon and these analyses exist is because competitive players are having fun. It’s fun to outwit an opponent. It’s fun to devise a clever strategy. And it’s fun to laugh at jokes.
“List of highest-grossing media franchises.” Wikipedia.
“List of highest-grossing video game franchises.” Wikipedia.
“List of moves.” Bulbapedia.
“List of Pokémon by evolution family.” Bulbapedia.
“List of Pokémon by National Pokédex number.” Bulbapedia.
“Pokémon Red and Green Versions.” Bulbapedia.
“Pokémon: The Story of Satoshi Tajiri.” Narrated by Breton Stripes with illustrations by Kotor. YouTube, uploaded by Video Game Story Time, 10/11/2016,
“Satoshi Tajiri: How Pokemon Was Made - Did You Know Gaming Ft. Furst.” Narrated by Furst, research/writing by PushDustin, additional writing and video editing by Forrest Lee. YouTube, uploaded by DidYouKnowGaming?, 11/16/2019,
I mentioned in the other thread how Calyrex is probably one of my favorite legendaries, design wise but after thinking about it and going down the gen 5 memory lane I think my true favorite iiiiis
Kyurem!
I think everything about this design & concept are perfect. Back when BW1 released the in-game reasoning was that oh Kyurem was a monster who came upon a meteor and terrorized the town but one look at this design immediately tells you its real story. It's clearly fashioned after Reshiram & Zekrom but it's decrepit, hunched over, its mouth seems to be frozen shut, the wings are not only just nubs they're frozen over, and its animation has it pathetically shifting abotu in place. BSt is 20 lower than its box legend counterparts. It has a tail meant to call back to Reshiram & Zekrom's torch & generator but it's tiny and does nothing; explicitly nothing because rather than generating any heat to balance out, it freezes over and it can't even control it which is presumably what lead to its mouth & wings being frozen.
Then you remember that Zekrom & Reshiram's backstory was they were originally one pokemon that split apart and bam: Kyurem is the pitiful left overs and the fact it appeared alongside the meteor was a coincidence (maybe it was "resting" there and woke up due to it?). And sure enough: yes! That's exactly what happened. I believe in BW2 Jupiter explicitly states the legends are about Kyurem but the origins were misattributed.
Everything about it is just as broken as something that came from that situation would be expected to and I love it for that.
Likewise I love its 2 forms. It's definitely more complete, but it's still...wrong. It's missing parts on both ends and making the remainder with ice. It has generators now but they're far more organic which is a little unsettling compared to the more "perfected" torch/generator of Ram & Rom.
And of course the whole fusion sequence is kind of upseting and its "wings" burst from the ice and are horrible malnourished gray tubes that turn into its shoulders
Also...Rayquaza, Giratina & Zygarde are third pillars, they're distinctly related to their counterparts (Giratina literally being a sibling of sorts) but they stnad on their own. Kyurem is defined as the cast off of its counterparts, it feels far more connected because of that and I like that a lot. Hell it literally can barely stand, honestly.
I like how each member of the Kanto Elite 4 has different music playing in their rooms in gens 1 and 3.
Lorelei- Gym
Bruno- Rocket Hideout (weird choice but okay)
Agatha- Pokemon Tower
Lance- Indigo Plateau
Considering that every Elite 4 member (across all generations) has their own personality, type specialty, and room decoration, it's odd that Kanto is the only region to also give them their own music. Sure, their music is just reused from elsewhere, and only one of the reused songs is a great fit (Agatha) but it's an amazing concept that I wish was expanded upon in later titles instead of dropped to the point where it isn't even present in Let's Go. Maybe it could do what Black 2 and White 2 did with their gyms and have each Elite 4 room's music be a variation on a single leitmotif. On a similar note, I wish B2W2 weren't the only games to give each gym its own music. Gyms have even greater tonal variation then Elite 4 rooms. Instead of a small decorated room that serves only as an arena, they're huge spaces with highly specialized puzzles and themes, and they often serve a secondary purpose in-universe like a swimming pool or a dojo. Why should a roller rink, a doll house, and a giant tree all have the same music?
While we're at it, unique fight music for these important trainers would also be nice, though perhaps not quite as much as unique setting music. While different gyms and elite 4 rooms (and the characters associated with them) are wildly varied, the battles themselves are all more or less identical in mechanics and context. Once you'd made it through the gym puzzle and finished chatting with the gym leader or Elite 4 member, you put characterization aside and get down to business. Outside of battle, this person might be a librarian, or a miner, or a photographer, and you're a kid on an adventure. But right now, they're another gym leader or Elite 4 member, and you're the challenger they're meant to test. Repeating the same battle music (or at least the same opening riff) helps give a sense that the time for puzzles and chit-chat is over, and now it's time to get serious. Additionally, by limiting the number of personalized battle tracks, you further highlight the few battles with unique music. Just as repeated tracks can help get a player into a familiar and confident "it's go time" mindset, if a track is unique or different, it temporarily throws the player off balance and gives them the sense of "this must be important, I better pay attention". From there the music can evoke whatever emotion you want, and it will be even more impactful than if the game were filled to the brim with unique tracks. It's akin to the Syndrome effect. The more unique tracks there are, the less important each track becomes.
The Gen 1 Elite 4 (and this time only in Gen 1) does this twice to great effect. Lorelei through Agatha use the standard trainer battle music, while Lance uses the gym leader battle music. Even if you don't recognize it as the gym leader music and think "gym leaders are more important than trainers, so Lance must be more important than the first three", it still achieves the desired effect of making Lance stand out from the three before him, thus throwing the player off balance and granting the battle a greater feeling of importance. This leads wonderfully into Kanto's amazing final twist: Lance isn't actually the final boss, and now you have to fight the Champion. The final battle against Blue is then highlighted by a brand new music track that the player has never up until now, lending a sense of importance even greater than Lance's music. Though considering this twist has been thoroughly ruined by "Elite 5" becoming the standard for generations to come, it's no wonder that Gen 1 is the only gen to pull this musical fake out.
tl;dr Music can be an incredibly powerful tool in creating atmosphere and characterization, and with how varied and colorful each gym leader, Elite 4 member, and their respective spaces are, it's a shame that they all get stuck with the same music.
Related to that, I like how the music is handled in SWSH's never ending end game to create its atmosphere.
You fight Hop like 7 times up to the finale and Marnie twice (....), and then when you've all made it to the Pokemon League you get brand new versions of their songs that take advantage of you being in a stadium setting. Marnie's new theme is now accompanied by cheers from the audience and Hop goes all out with claps, cheering and so forth (I also enjoy how melancholic the song is).
Then for the Elite 4Gym Leader 3 Champion Cup you get the new Elite Track that also takes advantage of the game's setting. Elite 4 songs are standard fair by this point, but it's still a good escalation especially since these are all character's we've already seen.
Then Leon's theme is the most triumphant tune you could have in a stadium, the crowd goes nuts with the song.
All of these also have more audience interjection that happens separate from the song, I believe, more than the other stadiums.
You've fought in stadiums all game and Rose Stadium goes out of its way to make sure every battle in it is even more of an event. The rivals getting new songs in particular is a great surprise. The closest we've come is if they happen to be a champion (Blue, Hau in USUM...kind of N?). I guess you could include Wally but that hardly counts when he only has one battle prior and it was the standard battle theme and also he's barely a rival. Silver, Brendan/May, Barry, Bianca/Cheren, Hugh, Shauna/Serenea/Clem, Hau (SM) all keep the same theme otherwise. Also the Hop 2 & Marnie 2 only play in the stadium, when you fight them elsewhere it still plays their first variants; it makes sense but it's a nice way of keeping it a little special.
Except for Bede for some reason? He's the only character who doesn't get a new song which is really really weird considering he is now a gym leader and crashing the party and the end result is everyone loving Bede's grit. Did you guys just forget to make a new song for Bede or what happened here, lord knows his character arc deserves a capstone theme song more than Marnie's does. Imagine if it was a mashup remix of the Leader theme with Bede's theme or something.
I can't start this post with anything but how Pokémon as a franchise just delivers when it comes to music. I can think up several memorable songs from any game I've played in this franchise. Which brings me to SnS not having a Bike theme. Excellent decision.
Another thing is the level design in a lot of places in this franchise. Ice Path actually using up Strength puzzles in conjunction with the slide puzzles was brilliant, but I have to give a shoutout to Reflection Cave.
As we know, the cave is full of mirror-like stones and trainers actually lock eyes with you through them. This by itself is really cool and unique, but today I was doing it again (I'm running both X and Y simultaneously) and I got to a dead end with an item. Then I noticed that the reflection was darker at one point. It was the entrance to a cave where the Gyro Ball TM was.
For as much as I hate the fixed camera, that was a beautiful use of it. They actually went the extra mile and used that limitation as a puzzle.
In fact, that cave has a lot of neat stuff like little shortcuts besides the giant boulder one. I like that. For as small as it was, it was really expansive and layered. This is something I really missed in USUM, especially in Ten Carat Hill.
The little references they throw are really neat too. First trainer in that cave was clearly getting too enamored to his reflection. A bit narcissistic, don't you think?
I guess to continue this music train, I want to express my adoration of this series' battle intros. Gen 1 established a strong tradition with its four battle themes: a flurry of rapid arpeggios followed by a few phrases of a simple repeating melody (mostly just periodic stabs) before finally transitioning into the melody proper.
While this template would see variation in future games, and some songs have bucked the trend while still having killer intros (shoutout to Alola for using the main theme as its intro), most battle themes have stuck to this general formula, because holy shit this formula is good.
The arpeggios are timed to last about as long as the screen transition from overworld to battle, heightening the feeling of being suddenly thrust into combat. Likewise, the simple repeating melody is timed to last about as long as it takes for the opponent to slide on screen and for you to send out your first Pokemon, giving the player a bit of breathing room to size up the competition. After that, the battle truly begins, as does the melody.
Here's a playlist of I think every Pokemon battle theme from across the main series. Pick a song at random and listen to just the intro. There's a good chance it follows this formula, and there's an even higher chance that it slaps. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNVA15CuezfM-AZLt6IM9Xwk3VGySwn8R
(Sorry I couldn't embed the playlist into the post like I did with the individual Gen 1 songs)
Bonus thing that I discovered when going through that playlist: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune have unique battle themes in HGSS, and they're all variations of the theme they shared in Crystal.
Raikou's version is high-energy, is prominently backed by a high-speed electric guitar, and plays some light techno-sounding synths before looping. Fitting for a speedy Electric Pokemon.
Entei's version is a lower and slower, and its electric guitar backing is more drawn out, evoking the feeling of classic "lava" music in video games, particularly reminding me of Bowser's main themes in Super Mario 64 and Paper Mario.
Suicune is mostly backed by synths emulating what sounds like bass guitars and marimbas, sounding more calm than the previous themes, and it's peppered with a few extra arpeggios (or if there aren't actually any extra, they're at least more noticeable), bringing to mind waves or rising bubbles.
This is a great illustration of what I was saying earlier about what could be done to differentiate gym leaders and Elite 4 members. Little variations like these can go a long way, and the subtlety of the differences actually helps mitigate the Syndrome effect.
Challenging myself to write something nice about Sword and Shield, because, well, I think they are overall very bad Pokémon games. But that's not to say they are all bad:
The artists have clearly done their work well. Most locations, be it towns, routes or dungeons (lol, Galar has no dungeons) have a well-crafted and cozy feel to them, a nice atmosphere with clever use of light, objects, screen filters and effects. Be it the grimy streets of Spikemuth, the fairy-tale-esque town of Ballonlea, the glittering depths of the Galar Mines, the Peruvian highland/desert feel of Stow-on-Side (mismatched like heck compared to the British setting, but it works well on its own), or the cozy countryside of Wedgehurst. Likewise, the Pokémon designs are spot on for the most part. It's evident that somebody spent a lot of time making things look good.
That all being said, I suspect the amount of resources allocated to the concept design have compromised the rest of the game's development somewhat. Because while the locations I mentioned above look good in a snapshot, they are very small and lacking in content. It's as if concept art had the first priority of time and resources, while the implementation crew had to work overtime to scrape together the bare minimum to create a game out of it. This can also be seen to a great degree in USUM, where the Ultra Space locations look awesome in concept art but have the gameplay depth of a rain puddle on the sidewalk. It also seems like the Wild Area was a bit of a rush job, which matches well with reports that suggest it was a late addition to the game - it's a pretty drab and bland place, which suggests it wasn't backed up by great concept art to the same degree that other locations in the game are. Maybe even the need for a Wild Area, the all-hands-on-deck approach to make it, was what caused the other locations of the game to be so small and shallow?
I suspect that Game Freak's workflow is still very much influenced by the sprite era, where the concept artists could work directly with sprites that could be imported into the game at the click of a button. An area designer could layout an area with a very simple tool, then import the tileset somebody else created, and everything would be ready to go just like that. However, in 3D, there's a lot more work required to translate something from the drawing board to the game, and this doesn't work well with the extremely short development cycle of Pokémon games. The "make it work" phase was previously a rather automatic affair, now one needs a ton of 3D modeling and terrain generation and border drawing and bugfixes and whatnot, which requires development time that has to be taken from somewhere, and it seems like they are unwilling to eat into the creative phase.
Because, well, Pokémon is a very creative franchise. It might be Pokémon's strongest suit, reinforced by a great gameplay loop. A lot of creativity clearly went into the 3DS and Switch Pokémon games, they just didn't have the time/manpower/competence to implement the visions properly. Although the quality of the games has deteriorated greatly since the Gen V days, the things that make Pokémon great as a concept still appear to be well maintained. With better management on the development side, with more time to create each new game, future entries in the series could probably be as great as those we remember from our childhoods. It just takes some understanding on the executive side.
Kind of adding on to nice thing about SwSh, I want to talk about Raid Battles and the Wild Area. I like how they allowed Raid Battles to share version exclusive dens, so you are not completely on forums for Pokedex Completion. I managed to secure Darmanitan, Braviary, and Hakomo-o through these raids. Similar note, I like how they allowed several trade evolutions like Dusknoir and Machamp to be obtainable without the need of trading, especially since you need Switch online to trade online.
Considering the state of the wild area in the DLC, which is entirely wild area, I am more willing to believe Gamefreak just had Problems during development wrt Wild Area. I fully believe Wild Area was soemthing they wanted to do from the onset, it was just roaming pokemon on normal areas that was implemented later on. But it's also a total disaster they were clearly no prepared for and, I would bet, are still not prepared for; I think the reason the DLC is so Wild Area focused is so they can get more experience working with it and trying to work out the kinks (POORLY).
Which is never a good sign!
Granted I also have the inverse of your thoughts: I think instead of a creative swing that went too far that the devlopers couldnt put more things in, they had trouble putting a lot of things in these areas so they had the art team make them look gorgeous and expansive.
On the topic of music, I agree with mostly everything that DrPumpkinz said, but there's one more thing that I really feel needs to be mentioned here. The dynamic music of Gen 5.
Let's take a look at all the glory that the Unova games gave us in terms of music with differences and variations:
- A different wild battle theme for shaking spot encounters and wild double battles
- The Gym Leader music changes when they are at their last Pokémon
- The music changes completely when your Pokémon gets at low HP (while it gets annoying after a while, it was a really cool concept)
- Resihram/Zekrom/Kyurem has the same theme but with small variations, similar to the legendary beasts in HG/SS
- The Champion theme. Two different Champions, two different themes. Alder shares his with Ingo, Emmet and Benga, but Iris gets her own theme which is awesome.
- Opelucid City has different music depending on the game version, with one theme for Black/Black 2 and another for White/White 2
- Several dungeons like Chargestone Cave and the Dreamyard change the music into a slower version when you go down to the lower levels of the dungeon
- Some areas like Accumula Town and Village Bridge allows you to add extra instruments by speaking to NPCs (and remove them by speaking to the NPCs again)
- Other areas like Nacrene and Opelucid adds extra instruments if you walk close to the NPCs playing them
- Some areas have a sort of "build-up" music which starts at almost nothing but eventually builds up to a full track, those are the badge check gates in B/W, and during a streak at the Battle Subway
- Several areas change the music slightly depending on the season (the most notable being Undella Town during summers which is very different from the theme that plays during the other seasons. There's also a Summer Remix of Lacunosa Town that's not in the games but appears on the official soundtrack)
- In B2/W2, every Gym has its own variation of the Gym theme and I think all the different versions suit all the Gyms perfectly
- B2/W2 also changed/remixed some of the music from B/W
- And maybe more that I have forgotten...
Shoutout to DrumstickGaming who made a post about this before, he goes into more detail than me so go ahead and read his post here.
I think these dynamic mechanics is another reason why I think Gen 5 has the best soundtrack and music in the series, though I guess the base soundtrack would probably be enough on its own since it has so much epic music.
In terms of music variations, I also want to give a special mention to the Johto and Alola games since some of the music in them changes depending on whether it is day or night. US/UM also did the same thing as B2/W2 since they changed/remixed some of the music from S/M (and IMO, most if not all of it was for the better).
I want to talk about something else too. Have I mentioned that I really like US/UM? Because I do. I felt that I really needed to say something positive about them since there has been a lot of negative posts regarding them in other threads lately. It almost feels like this would be better off in the unpopular opinions thread because these recent negative posts about US/UM have made me unsure about how popular liking them actually is (it definitely feels like liking them is the more unpopular opinion at this point). But since this will be almost 100% positive, I'll post it here instead. I like US/UM, and I will say it as many times as I need to. I consider them better than S/M because of the improvements they made, which are in several areas I consider important in Pokémon games. Yes, they could have done even more and better improvements (like what Platinum did to D/P), but what they did was enough for me. They were either better than S/M or equally good/bad in all aspects I consider important in the games (there is basically one exception, which is the Rotom Dex and its endless babbling).
I have said previously that I don't care much for the story in Pokémon games anymore (which is actually because of S/M and their story, ironic as it is), and I guess I should expand on that a bit. One other reason I don't care for the story is that during my hardcore Pokémon days (which I now consider to be mostly over), I spent 80-90% of my playtime in the post-game, where the story is over. While some games have some kind of post-game story, those usually don't take that long to complete and aren't exactly lasting content so I don't consider them all that important either. So that's another reason I don't consider story to be important in Pokémon games. But on the topic of post-game, that's another thing I really like about US/UM. Their great post-game. It was really fantastic and a very enjoyable experience, consisting of everything I liked from S/M plus a lot more which was extremely fun. I think it is the third best post-game in the series on the whole, beaten only by B2/W2 and Platinum.
In the end, I really liked US/UM. The ~700 hours I spent on them were a lot of fun. If I ever decide to go back to the Alola games in the future to do something more in them (like train a new team), the games I return to will be US/UM and not S/M. US/UM are also the the last games I went all out with my hardcore Pokémon playing and they were a really great sendoff for that. I'll always remember them fondly for all of the fun and enjoyable things I did in them which I'll probably never do again in Sword or any future Pokémon games. So yeah, I really liked US/UM. They are my fifth favorite games in the series on the whole, beaten only by B/W, B2/W2, X/Y and OR/AS.
I also said at some point in some thread rather recently that I'm going to make a post about everything I liked about X/Y, and that will be done eventually, but it isn't really ready yet. If there's anyone who's waiting for that post (I guess not lol), then please have a bit more patience.
speaking of music, I have noticed a lot of 'gen 5 music be hitting different' memes on youtube since the release of Sword and Shield. The driftveil city theme is especially popular. It seems the gen 5 nostalgia is finally kicking in.
I really like how the Pokemon community finally realises how good B/W actually were.
speaking of music, I have noticed a lot of 'gen 5 music be hitting different' memes on youtube since the release of Sword and Shield. The driftveil city theme is especially popular. It seems the gen 5 nostalgia is finally kicking in.
I really like how the Pokemon community finally realises how good B/W actually were.
speaking of music, I have noticed a lot of 'gen 5 music be hitting different' memes on youtube since the release of Sword and Shield. The driftveil city theme is especially popular. It seems the gen 5 nostalgia is finally kicking in.
I really like how the Pokemon community finally realises how good B/W actually were.
Haha yeah, those are really gnarly awesome, aren't they? Can't wait for the "gen 7 music be hitting different" memes and nostalgia, those should come soon, any day now...
Haha yeah, those are really gnarly awesome, aren't they? Can't wait for the "gen 7 music be hitting different" memes and nostalgia, those should come soon, any day now...
Gen 7's music is probably my second favorite to Gen 5's
The totem boss theme is fantastic
That part at 58 seconds? Beautiful. Or after that slow descent we go into the 1:17 build and its hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah
Top 5 Gen 7 tracks in no particular order:
-Vs Totem
-Vs Aether Grunt
-Vs Guzma
-Vast Poni Canyon
-Vs Tapu
it's a very competitive list, though. Like the full musical journey of the Kahuna theme, Hau's themes, the triumphant champion theme, mantine surfing, Lusamine's theme...
Or the true underdog of the gen 7 soundtrack, one that isn't even on the soundtrack
Unless it's an existiting song I'm unaware of they just made this for the "Legendary" trailer. Making songs for these trailers isn't too uncommon (I mean they literally made a full vocal theme for SWSH) but damn I really love this and have always been bummed it wasnt actually in the game in some fashion. Or a bonus track on the OST.
Top 5 Gen 7 tracks in no particular order:
-Vs Totem
-Vs Aether Grunt
-Vs Guzma
-Vast Poni Canyon
-Vs Tapu
it's a very competitive list, though. Like the full musical journey of the Kahuna theme, Hau's themes, the triumphant champion theme, mantine surfing, Lusamine's theme...
Let's not forget: Nimbasa City music, Castelia and Nimbasa BW2 gym themes, the final form of N's battle theme, all of the Rainbow Rocket themes, and the Aether Paradise and Malie City music.
Though note that a LOT of music you're going to have to look up Youtube as GF just loves taking down videos with their music in it. I mention this cause I wanted to link to a post I made there of several of Pokemon's more somber themes but almost all of them were broken (I've since edited it so the links lead to working versions atm).
Or the true underdog of the gen 7 soundtrack, one that isn't even on the soundtrack
Unless it's an existiting song I'm unaware of they just made this for the "Legendary" trailer. Making songs for these trailers isn't too uncommon (I mean they literally made a full vocal theme for SWSH) but damn I really love this and have always been bummed it wasnt actually in the game in some fashion. Or a bonus track on the OST.
As promised earlier, here's a post with everything I liked about X/Y.
I have said before that I really like X/Y. But I have never really gone into detail about exactly what it is that I like about them. And I wanted to do that, so here's a post dedicated to that. At first, I thought about posting this in the unpopular opinions thread since liking X/Y generally seems to be unpopular these days, but since this is mostly positive, I decided to post it here instead. I also think X/Y are really underrated games that need more love, so I'll give them some of it.
I guess that's a short introduction. Now, what did I like about X/Y?
The following:
- EPIC training spots. With the Battle Chateau, the Restaurants, other strong trainers that could be rebattled daily or at regular intervals, Exp. O-Powers, a free Lucky Egg and the new Exp. Share, training Pokémon to level 100 (or any other level) was never hard, it was always easy and highly enjoyable. And that is something I value very highly in a Pokémon game so that is one of the biggest reasons I like X/Y so much.
- The Kalos Pokémon. While the total number of new Pokémon was smaller than any previous generation (or any following generation, at least at this point), the overall designs and concepts of them were still awesome as always. My top favorites are Sylveon, Greninja, Clawitzer, Pangoro, Klefki, Meowstic and Xerneas, but there are several others I like as well.
- The largest regional Dex to date. 5 other game pairs have been released after X/Y but there has yet to be a game with a larger regional Dex.
- Adding into the above, X/Y has really great Pokémon variation in pretty much every single area in the games, there was always a bunch of new Pokémon to find on every Route and dungeon. I thought this made things very exciting, I always look for new Pokémon in every new area when I play through a new games and I thought X/Y handled this well since it felt like they rewarded you the most for looking for new Pokémon.
- A National Dex. This has become very notable since this is no longer a feature that exists in recent mainline Pokémon games. X/Y are tied with OR/AS for having the largest National Dex in the series, they are the second last games currently released to feature the National Dex, and probably also the second last main series Pokémon games ever to feature the National Dex at all.
- The graphics in the games. While the graphics aren't as great as in the main series games that have been released after them for the 3DS and the Switch, I still think they are great. I also thought they were especially impressive for their time, I remember that I thought the step up from the DS to the 3DS were quite big in terms of graphics for Pokémon games.
- Pokémon-Amie. Playing with your Pokémon and getting to know them, this was a lot of fun. Not only that, it is also done right. I love everything about it.
- The PSS, the best and most convenient multiplayer gadget in the series.
- Super Training, an alternative way of EV-training which was well done and quite fun too.
- Hordes, Sky Battles and Inverse battles, fun and creative new battle styles.
- Mega evolution! An awesome mechanic if you ask me, one of my favorites in the series. I really miss it in Gen 8.
- Fairy-types! I'm all for introducing new things like this once in a while. And Fairy ended up becoming my favorite type, so that's a double plus right there.
- The Roller Skates. Another alternative and fun way of travelling quickly.
- The Looker missions. A really great and enjoyable little post-game story.
- The Battle Maison. One of the best Battle Facilities in the series, also one of the only two where you can have Triple and Rotation battles (the other being the PWT). While not quite as hard as the Subway or the Tree, it was not a walk in the park either, I found it very enjoyable to play through and complete.
- Kalos as a region. Tied with Hoenn as my third favorite region in the series. It has most of the things I consider important in a Pokémon region, I like it a lot.
- Character designs. I really like how the characters in this game look, not only just the important ones such as the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, but general NPCs as well. I think they are all very well designed.
- Character customization! I'll admit that I don't really like the default designs for the playable characters in X/Y, so being able to change their appearance and make them look awesome was really great. I'm really happy that this feature has been kept in most future games too.
- The Friend Safari. Could have been better executed, but still way better than any regular Safari Zone from previous generations.
- The PGL. While it wasn't as great as the PGL in Gen 5 because there was no Dream World, it was way better than the PGL in Gen 7. I liked how they kept the Medal System and made it tied to the PGL instead of completely dropping it, that was what I mostly used the PGL for in Gen 6.
- The music. While not my favorite soundtrack in the series, it was still really great on the whole. There were several good tracks. My favorites are Laverre Town, Pokémon League, Kalos legends battle theme, Professor Sycamore's theme, Successor Korrina battle theme, Shalour City, Lumiose City, Geosenge Town, and Frost Cavern.
- Lastly, something that is probably going to be very personal, but for me, X/Y were the only main series games for the 3DS that managed to feel new. While they didn't capture the whole feeling of newness as perfectly as B/W did, they did at least manage to feel different compared not only to B/W, but to all other previous first pairs in the series. They also felt different compared to B2/W2 which were released right before them. In comparison, none of the other main series games for the 3DS managed to feel new to me. OR/AS were remakes of games I had previously played, S/M felt too much like a "second X/Y" to me (and not in a good way), while US/UM are alternate versions of S/M. So I thought only X/Y succeeded with that.
For the next part of this, I also wanted to take a look at some common complaints about X/Y and how I feel about them, so I have done that below.
- Lackluster content and post-game. I agree, and this is honestly my biggest issue with X/Y. The two things I consider to be the most important in Pokémon are gameplay and content. X/Y have epic gameplay but are rather lacking in content. But at least the things they had to offer were very fun to and mostly well executed, so I'm willing to look past it. And I managed to spend a lot of time in X/Y so, the lack of content wasn't really that much of an issue in terms of playtime. I think X/Y are my most played 3DS games, it is either them or US/UM.
- Bad story/characters/lore. I agree with this too, but I don't mind since story and characters isn't that important for me in Pokémon games. While the story wasn't all that great on the whole, I still liked some parts of it (and I loved the post-game Looker missions). And if I want a good version of this story, I can just read the X/Y chapter of Pokémon Adventures. Problem solved.
- Fan pandering to Kanto/Gen 1. I have explained my thoughts in this in more detail here, so TL;DR: It wasn't that bad for me, the fandom made it seem like a bigger problem than it actually was, and I thought it was much worse in Gen 7.
- The games are too easy/offer no challenge. That's may be true. But I don't mind, difficulty is another thing which isn't that important for me in Pokémon games. I am a casual player to 100% when it comes to the main game for Pokémon games, I play through it for fun and not for any form of challenge. So I don't mind X/Y having an easy main game. But I don't remember finding them easier than any previous games, and at least they have a balanced difficulty/level curve when you play with Exp. Share off, unlike Gen 7.
- Low amount of new Pokémon. I was annoyed by this at first since it happened right after Gen 5 which gave us the largest amount of new Pokémon in the series, but I have come to accept it eventually. And even if the number is smaller, the new Pokémon themselves are still awesome as always.
- Linear region. I don't mind, most Pokémon regions are linear, and when they aren't, they don't take full advantage of the non-linearity which makes it completely pointless. And I actually like linear regions when it comes to Pokémon so this is a plus for me.
- No real minigame. Minigames can be fun but they are not necessary as a game can be good without them, something that X/Y and other games have proved.
Note that those are just some short thoughts on every subject, I can go into more detail on any of these subjects if anyone wants me to do that.
In the end, I really like X/Y. They have really great and fun gameplay all around, the things they do right are for the most part the things I value the highest in Pokémon games. Most of the flaws they have are minor issues that I'm willing to look past just because of the things they do right. X/Y are my favorite main series Pokémon games released for the 3DS, I like them better than OR/AS, US/UM and S/M, which are behind them in that order. X/Y are also my third favorite games in the series on the whole, beaten only by B/W and B2/W2. I should also say that ever since the end of Gen 5, I have wanted to see a new Pokémon game that becomes my new favorite and what I personally consider the best in the series, essentially becoming the "New Gen 5". With the recent state of the series, I have more or less accepted that such a game will never happen, but as far as the concept and thoughts of such a game goes, I think X/Y actually got the closest to being that game. To me, they got the closest to being a "true successor" to B/W and B2/W2, so to say. I felt that they kept several ideas that made the Gen 5 games great, and no other following main series games have gotten so close to doing that for me.
I think that was everything I wanted to say here, but if I have forgotten anything regarding X/Y that anyone wants my opinion on, feel free to tell me and I'll say my opinion on said subject.
- EPIC training spots. With the Battle Chateau, the Restaurants, other strong trainers that could be rebattled daily or at regular intervals, Exp. O-Powers, a free Lucky Egg and the new Exp. Share, training Pokémon to level 100 (or any other level) was never hard, it was always easy and highly enjoyable. And that is something I value very highly in a Pokémon game so that is one of the biggest reasons I like X/Y so much.
I didn't really use the Restaurants cause you gotta pay to enter and they have the "do the battle in this many turns" gimmick in order to get the best prize (I get the idea is you're killing time in order for the chef to make his meals... though I also have no problem waiting. I rather later games eatery gimmicks where you have a set amount of turns and you have to just beat as many trainers as possible). However I did go back to the Battle Chateau pretty much daily not only to grind for experience and money but also the Berry Garden was on that route.
Tangentially, while I think they could have done more with the teams in the Battle Chateau I do like at least the idea behind it. Call it shallow, but I liked climbing up the ranks and earning the next title even if it doesn't really amount to much. Maybe if they did a similar idea again they could have it so there's a shop connected to the facility and as you increase your rank better items are made available to purchase (maybe at a reduced price too).
How did GF get the PSS so right and then the next two gens mess it up?
PSS was so simple. It loads a list of players who also were playing at the same time (with their PSS on) and if you wanted to interact with one you just tapped on their icon to either greet, battle, trade, or share O-Power with. No need to interrupted gameplay to go to a virtual world where you need to physically walk up to them or completely rip out the ease of player-to-player so you can hold it hostage behind a third party app paywall.
Horde Battles: Eh, I could take them or leave them. Cool idea... if you have a move that can hit them all at once. Yeah, yeah, I know their main purpose was EV training... in a game where they already made EV training easy. ORAS got me excited for a sec when they introduced Trainer Horde Battles. YES, that is exactly something a villain team would do! And think of the possibilities. You could have an admins backed up by a bunch of grunts, you could actually have moments where Aqua and Magma may call a truce because they consider you a bigger threat at the moment, maybe have a whole team battle with the leader & two admins & two grunts... oh, they only resulted in two moments where it was just a whole team of grunts using just Poohyena and then later Mightyena which are easily defeated... GF, why did you bother?
Sky Battles: Yes, Sky Battles were interesting... until you did all of them. Because there was no way to rematch them and there was no facility in the game which focused on Sky Battles. And unlike Horde Battles they could have probably made this into an online multiplayer option... but they didn't.
Inverse Battles: THIS IS SUCH AN AWESOME IDEA WHY DID YOU REMOVE IT! Heck, you could tell at first they didn't think much of it as Inver was just this random trainer inside a house on a route who once a day would use a team from the Battle Tower in an Inverse Battle. However I guess they realized this actual had some potential so in ORAS did give Inver his own facility to have Inverse Battles more than once a day in. Not only that, they allowed you to use Inverse Battles inside your Super Secret Base (though still not online multiplayer)!
The Roller Skates were fun especially with you able to do tricks, though I feel they did kind of nerf the bike in order to make the roller skates better in at least how fast you could go on them. Honestly I'm surprised they even included a bike, probably could have left it out and no one would have complained, especially if you gave a way to cruise control on the roller skates. Also I feel they could have maybe done more with the tricks, notably the rail grinding one which could have been used to access some more secret areas.
Something else I don't feel they've topped since either. Closest was probably Sun & Moon's Ultra Beast hunt.
ORAS's Delta Episode had that epic ending but I just didn't like Zinnia.
USUM's Episode RR I felt leaned too heavily on nostalgia of just battling the villain team leaders but didn't really capture what made that nostalgic feeling in the first place.
SwSh's Twin Kings felt slapped together much like many other things in SwSh.
Meanwhile the Looker Missions actually made me care about the characters, especially Emma. And while SM tried to do the same with Anabel, SM got rid of that tension by just having Anabel go on a wild goose chase, Emma was directly involved with the climax and in danger. I also think the Looker Missions gave more depth to Looker than the Ultra Beast Hunt. Being informed Looker lost his Croagunk partner & giving him essentially an adoptive daughter in Emma which at the end he needed to leave behind just hits harder then being informed about this mission Looker once had where the International Police used one of their Faller agents as bait and got them killed (or whatever happens to you when eaten by a Guzzlord).
For the next part of this, I also wanted to take a look at some common complaints about X/Y and how I feel about them, so I have done that below.
- Lackluster content and post-game. I agree, and this is honestly my biggest issue with X/Y. The two things I consider to be the most important in Pokémon are gameplay and content. X/Y have epic gameplay but are rather lacking in content. But at least the things they had to offer were very fun to and mostly well executed, so I'm willing to look past it. And I managed to spend a lot of time in X/Y so, the lack of content wasn't really that much of an issue in terms of playtime. I think X/Y are my most played 3DS games, it is either them or US/UM.
- Bad story/characters/lore. I agree with this too, but I don't mind since story and characters isn't that important for me in Pokémon games. While the story wasn't all that great on the whole, I still liked some parts of it (and I loved the post-game Looker missions). And if I want a good version of this story, I can just read the X/Y chapter of Pokémon Adventures. Problem solved.
Lackluster Content/Post Game: XY was definitely banking on having a Z version to not only expand upon the base frameworks they've setup but also the various mysteries they've planted around the region. They were cursed with initial paired games content withheldment but unfortunately Gen 6/Kalos never got that additional version booster to make it more memorable.
Bad Story/Character/Lore: Not bad, just dull or nothing there for a majority of the characters. Of all the characters I only feel like Shauna, Looker, Emma, and Xerosic was given any real depth, and the latter three only in the Looker Missions. If there's anything "bad" I would say it has to do with that tone whiplash they had with Team Flare being this wacky group who wants to commit planetwide genocide. Lysandre is a mess himself where he keeps on flip-flopping and would just like him to commit to what he is: an extremist who believes the only way to save the world is by culling the world no matter the cost OR a nihilist who is looking for that one person to prove him wrong so he doesn't feel like he needs to cull the world. If anything so we could just get passed all the "well if you do this I'll stop what I'm doing PSYCHE".
As promised earlier, here's a post with everything I liked about X/Y.
I have said before that I really like X/Y. But I have never really gone into detail about exactly what it is that I like about them. And I wanted to do that, so here's a post dedicated to that. At first, I thought about posting this in the unpopular opinions thread since liking X/Y generally seems to be unpopular these days, but since this is mostly positive, I decided to post it here instead. I also think X/Y are really underrated games that need more love, so I'll give them some of it.
I guess that's a short introduction. Now, what did I like about X/Y?
The following:
- EPIC training spots. With the Battle Chateau, the Restaurants, other strong trainers that could be rebattled daily or at regular intervals, Exp. O-Powers, a free Lucky Egg and the new Exp. Share, training Pokémon to level 100 (or any other level) was never hard, it was always easy and highly enjoyable. And that is something I value very highly in a Pokémon game so that is one of the biggest reasons I like X/Y so much.
- The Kalos Pokémon. While the total number of new Pokémon was smaller than any previous generation (or any following generation, at least at this point), the overall designs and concepts of them were still awesome as always. My top favorites are Sylveon, Greninja, Clawitzer, Pangoro, Klefki, Meowstic and Xerneas, but there are several others I like as well.
- The largest regional Dex to date. 5 other game pairs have been released after X/Y but there has yet to be a game with a larger regional Dex.
- Adding into the above, X/Y has really great Pokémon variation in pretty much every single area in the games, there was always a bunch of new Pokémon to find on every Route and dungeon. I thought this made things very exciting, I always look for new Pokémon in every new area when I play through a new games and I thought X/Y handled this well since it felt like they rewarded you the most for looking for new Pokémon.
- A National Dex. This has become very notable since this is no longer a feature that exists in recent mainline Pokémon games. X/Y are tied with OR/AS for having the largest National Dex in the series, they are the second last games currently released to feature the National Dex, and probably also the second last main series Pokémon games ever to feature the National Dex at all.
- The graphics in the games. While the graphics aren't as great as in the main series games that have been released after them for the 3DS and the Switch, I still think they are great. I also thought they were especially impressive for their time, I remember that I thought the step up from the DS to the 3DS were quite big in terms of graphics for Pokémon games.
- Pokémon-Amie. Playing with your Pokémon and getting to know them, this was a lot of fun. Not only that, it is also done right. I love everything about it.
- The PSS, the best and most convenient multiplayer gadget in the series.
- Super Training, an alternative way of EV-training which was well done and quite fun too.
- Hordes, Sky Battles and Inverse battles, fun and creative new battle styles.
- Mega evolution! An awesome mechanic if you ask me, one of my favorites in the series. I really miss it in Gen 8.
- Fairy-types! I'm all for introducing new things like this once in a while. And Fairy ended up becoming my favorite type, so that's a double plus right there.
- The Roller Skates. Another alternative and fun way of travelling quickly.
- The Looker missions. A really great and enjoyable little post-game story.
- The Battle Maison. One of the best Battle Facilities in the series, also one of the only two where you can have Triple and Rotation battles (the other being the PWT). While not quite as hard as the Subway or the Tree, it was not a walk in the park either, I found it very enjoyable to play through and complete.
- Kalos as a region. Tied with Hoenn as my third favorite region in the series. It has most of the things I consider important in a Pokémon region, I like it a lot.
- Character designs. I really like how the characters in this game look, not only just the important ones such as the Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, but general NPCs as well. I think they are all very well designed.
- Character customization! I'll admit that I don't really like the default designs for the playable characters in X/Y, so being able to change their appearance and make them look awesome was really great. I'm really happy that this feature has been kept in most future games too.
- The Friend Safari. Could have been better executed, but still way better than any regular Safari Zone from previous generations.
- The PGL. While it wasn't as great as the PGL in Gen 5 because there was no Dream World, it was way better than the PGL in Gen 7. I liked how they kept the Medal System and made it tied to the PGL instead of completely dropping it, that was what I mostly used the PGL for in Gen 6.
- The music. While not my favorite soundtrack in the series, it was still really great on the whole. There were several good tracks. My favorites are Laverre Town, Pokémon League, Kalos legends battle theme, Professor Sycamore's theme, Successor Korrina battle theme, Shalour City, Lumiose City, Geosenge Town, and Frost Cavern.
- Lastly, something that is probably going to be very personal, but for me, X/Y were the only main series games for the 3DS that managed to feel new. While they didn't capture the whole feeling of newness as perfectly as B/W did, they did at least manage to feel different compared not only to B/W, but to all other previous first pairs in the series. They also felt different compared to B2/W2 which were released right before them. In comparison, none of the other main series games for the 3DS managed to feel new to me. OR/AS were remakes of games I had previously played, S/M felt too much like a "second X/Y" to me (and not in a good way), while US/UM are alternate versions of S/M. So I thought only X/Y succeeded with that.
For the next part of this, I also wanted to take a look at some common complaints about X/Y and how I feel about them, so I have done that below.
- Lackluster content and post-game. I agree, and this is honestly my biggest issue with X/Y. The two things I consider to be the most important in Pokémon are gameplay and content. X/Y have epic gameplay but are rather lacking in content. But at least the things they had to offer were very fun to and mostly well executed, so I'm willing to look past it. And I managed to spend a lot of time in X/Y so, the lack of content wasn't really that much of an issue in terms of playtime. I think X/Y are my most played 3DS games, it is either them or US/UM.
- Bad story/characters/lore. I agree with this too, but I don't mind since story and characters isn't that important for me in Pokémon games. While the story wasn't all that great on the whole, I still liked some parts of it (and I loved the post-game Looker missions). And if I want a good version of this story, I can just read the X/Y chapter of Pokémon Adventures. Problem solved.
- Fan pandering to Kanto/Gen 1. I have explained my thoughts in this in more detail here, so TL;DR: It wasn't that bad for me, the fandom made it seem like a bigger problem than it actually was, and I thought it was much worse in Gen 7.
- The games are too easy/offer no challenge. That's may be true. But I don't mind, difficulty is another thing which isn't that important for me in Pokémon games. I am a casual player to 100% when it comes to the main game for Pokémon games, I play through it for fun and not for any form of challenge. So I don't mind X/Y having an easy main game. But I don't remember finding them easier than any previous games, and at least they have a balanced difficulty/level curve when you play with Exp. Share off, unlike Gen 7.
- Low amount of new Pokémon. I was annoyed by this at first since it happened right after Gen 5 which gave us the largest amount of new Pokémon in the series, but I have come to accept it eventually. And even if the number is smaller, the new Pokémon themselves are still awesome as always.
- Linear region. I don't mind, most Pokémon regions are linear, and when they aren't, they don't take full advantage of the non-linearity which makes it completely pointless. And I actually like linear regions when it comes to Pokémon so this is a plus for me.
- No real minigame. Minigames can be fun but they are not necessary as a game can be good without them, something that X/Y and other games have proved.
Note that those are just some short thoughts on every subject, I can go into more detail on any of these subjects if anyone wants me to do that.
In the end, I really like X/Y. They have really great and fun gameplay all around, the things they do right are for the most part the things I value the highest in Pokémon games. Most of the flaws they have are minor issues that I'm willing to look past just because of the things they do right. X/Y are my favorite main series Pokémon games released for the 3DS, I like them better than OR/AS, US/UM and S/M, which are behind them in that order. X/Y are also my third favorite games in the series on the whole, beaten only by B/W and B2/W2. I should also say that ever since the end of Gen 5, I have wanted to see a new Pokémon game that becomes my new favorite and what I personally consider the best in the series, essentially becoming the "New Gen 5". With the recent state of the series, I have more or less accepted that such a game will never happen, but as far as the concept and thoughts of such a game goes, I think X/Y actually got the closest to being that game. To me, they got the closest to being a "true successor" to B/W and B2/W2, so to say. I felt that they kept several ideas that made the Gen 5 games great, and no other following main series games have gotten so close to doing that for me.
I think that was everything I wanted to say here, but if I have forgotten anything regarding X/Y that anyone wants my opinion on, feel free to tell me and I'll say my opinion on said subject.
