Pokémon has been around for a long time, about 20 years in fact. Many players who haven’t played a game since the Red/Blue/Yellow days are coming back, and more still that have followed the series from the beginning up until now. The series hasn’t changed all that much since its humbler days, only evolving slowly over time, and spawning spin-offs. But the main series has been on a strictly linear path, and this title decided to shakes things up a bit. Although it does lack some features, suggesting it might have strayed off a little bit from the ladder it was stuck on.

This entry of Pokémon X marks the seventh generation of main games, and the game is set in the Kalos Region, which is modeled after France. The same basic structure from previous games is in place. Expect to go on a journey to catch, befriend, and train Pokémon to become strong enough to challenge The Elite Four and Champion to become a master…all the while stopping an evil organization’s ambitions. But unlike the rather solitary journeys of the past, you will be doing this with your avatars four other friends. You won’t be with them always, but in a way it’s kind of nice that the kids are there to help support the story let alone make the idea of a kid going out into the world to travel more realistic rather than them being alone all the time. I say this despite the other rather unrealistic things that occur in the game, let alone the series. But it’s a nice touch all the same. You can also select your avatar’s appearance in the beginning, and are able to change hair style and color, eye color later. You can even buy clothes to have a nice change of pace from the default clothing. They do start off expensive though, so save those Pokedollars!

The gameplay is relatively unchanged from previous generations, adding more features or refining them, and at least 69 new Pokémon to catch. While the number of Pokémon is low, when the series has amassed over 650 monsters, maybe 150 or so every game is getting ridiculous, at least without the game being a clean slate. Also since the game is now completely in 3d, holding all the data for all of those character models take up a lot of memory. The game also introduces a new Pokémon type called Fairy, which thankfully brings some more balance to the game and making older Pokémon more useful. After your first Gym conquest, you will get the new Exp. Share item, which instead of letting only one inactive Pokémon get half the experience; it’s now shared with every Pokémon that hasn’t passed out from battle. This makes grinding nearly a thing of the past. Add to the fact that you can boost experience with the Lucky Egg and any Pokémon that fights in a battle doesn’t have their experience reduced, and you have quite the smooth time playing the game. It’s so good you would likely never want to turn it off. The save times have also been improved, and now mobility on the world map has been improved. The movement might still be grid based, but the game lets you move your character in a full 360 degrees of motion. At least when on roller skates or using the bike, as the game technically only has the eight cardinal directions for walking. The movement in the Lumiose City map while in full 3d also shares this problem, made worse by not letting you manipulate the camera. It’s also kind of odd that the game lacks an auto-run feature, which was present in Pokémon Platinum. The catch rate of Pokémon also seems to be reduced. And a feature carried over from Black and White and its sequel that increases the ‘critical capture’ rate for catching Pokémon with every successful capture returns. The online features have also been expanded to allow for greater play between people of any distance, with lag being relatively absent. If you don’t want to play online or even do the main story, you can do Super Training mini-games to increase your Pokémon’s base stats, or play Pokémon Amie, which is a Nintendogs like app that grants other bonuses. Of course, you could just play it to cuddle with your Poke’s though. Unfortunately a better overall experience doesn’t mean that the game lack some shortfalls, however.

While the music and sounds effects of the Pokémon have been raised to a higher level a quality, the compositions themselves while good for the most part, have some weak bits. Namely it’s the battle themes that feel relatively weak from not only last year’s Black and White 2, but the previous entries. In the last game, battles would have energetic battle tracks that would not only pump you up, but they also were dynamic. The track would change depending on how well or poorly you were doing in battle against the Gym Leader. The Gyms themselves also had variations of the Gym music play based on its gimmick. The lack of Go Ichinose might have hurt quality of the music in general though. Another thing that is odd are the fact that the Achievement system from Black and White 2 is now disconnected from the main game, needing you to ‘Game Sync’ and then go on the internet and sign into the Pokémon Global Link website to check which medals you have earned. Set up this way, the game never alerts you when you have earned any medals. The whole thing is backwards. Also to Game Sync, the game needs to be saved, and the save process is slowed down significantly when connected to the Internet. The 3D mode also makes the games framerate drop significant ally during battle. The 3d is also underutilized, being only used for battles and cut-scenes. The one other thing that’s not so great is the way the new Dowsing Rod that lets you find hidden items works differently, and not so much in a good way. Now instead of an app, it’s now an actual item. But unlike it’s real life and useless counterpart, it work but it’s somewhat imprecise.

While it sounds like the game is bad, these not so great things are for the most part tiny blemishes on what would have been an excellent game, and it’s still a very solid experience that I would recommend to fans of the series, for either veterans or lapsed fans. Pokémon X is a definite buy.

Gameplay

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Sound

Overall

For a different perspective read Michael LeParc’s Pokemon X review here!

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