POKÉMON X AND Y ARE OVERLOOKED.

TONY T. - Managing Editor, 3rd Year, Economics and Data Science

"(in that they’re pretty flawed games)"

Complaining about new Pokémon games has become particularly popular within the last three years with the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield. A common criticism of the game revolves around how its ostensible ideas of progressing the franchise are seemingly uninteresting, with the main gameplay loop remaining stagnant. Others also believe that the franchise’s typically reductive overworld presentation, particularly with how cities and towns are portrayed with, at most, a few dozen actual houses, is limiting in the high definition three dimensional world of Sword and Shield. In spite of high sales, these fundamental criticisms have been utterly damning for the reputation of these games.

As a begrudging fan of the Pokémon games myself, I don’t think that there’s any error towards the issues most have towards Sword and Shield. I simply think it’s misplaced. There appears to be a sort of nostalgic haze that overcomes most Pokémon fans when considering older entries as newer ones release. Don’t get me wrong, I think the games have been progressively deteriorating in quality. Still, it’s interesting to me how games like Black and White have become retroactively beloved in spite of being utterly ridiculed around release date just as Sword and Shield have. However, my biggest contention is not with Black and White, as I view those games and their direct sequels to be solid and structurally consistent, if not eclectic, entries. The Pokémon games that, in my view, are both the source of the commonly cited issues in Sword and Shield and the recipient of by far the most undeserved retroactive whitewashing, are X and Y.

The primary issues Sword and Shield face boil down to a formula designed for sprite-based two dimension games being fitted onto a three dimensional game using polygonal models. As the franchise’s first foray into said style, Pokémon X and Y embodies most of these issues – most locations in its overworld feel bizarrely small due to being designed for a different presentation style. The obvious exception is the game’s large Lumiose City, which whilst interesting, set a worrying precedent of newer games generally only spending time on thoroughly developing one location extensively and leaving other cities and towns barren. Another issue that Pokémon X and Y introduced is the fact that the series’ battles seem lackluster when presented with polygonal models. The basis of Pokémon battles in the original games was based on how the designers strayed away from complexly designing unique interactions between every single Pokémon to every single move. Instead, the games have almost always had separate animations for Pokémon and the attacks. There’s a sort of suspension of disbelief that made earlier games’ battles still feel intense, likely because, again, the player inherently understands that what they are seeing is a representation of a battle, not a battle itself. As in, the fight against Rival Green in Pokémon Red and Green is very different from how it was adapted in the anime Pokémon Origins, but it’s understood that the game’s battle is supposed to represent what the anime adaptation ended up showing in greater detail. However, with more complex presentation, particularly with Pokémon X and Y’s polygonal models, that effect is diminished and the battles feel far less suspenseful and climactic.

All of the above are problems, but most Pokémon games have their individual issues – part of the intrigue/nuisance of enjoying the series is seeing how the developers take two steps forward and two steps back in every entry. What makes Pokémon X and Y the most egregious in my opinion, however, is that it has nothing unique to offer in of itself. Most games in the franchise have some unique selling point that make them stand apart. It’s why, say, the Nintendo DS games still have high resale value online; people still want to play older Pokémon entries because they’re all different in some way. Generation Two had multiple regions, while Three had a vast oceanic world with two villainous groups complementing said world. Generation Four had a plethora of secrets in a historied world, Five had literally the only competent story in the entire franchise, Seven had a world split into multiple islands with a unique culture, and even Eight had the Wild Area. In contrast, Generation Six’s Pokémon X and Y really don’t have anything unique to offer in of themselves outside of the shift to three dimensions, something which I’d argue Sun and Moon did far better with more realistic world and character proportions.

As much as people complain about Pokémon games nowadays (and there’s a lot to complain about), X and Y feel to me as the series on autopilot. Along with focusing too hard on aesthetic shifts, which later entries have taken heavy criticism for, X and Y really don’t have much to make it a unique entry. Later entries (particularly Sword and Shield) are likely more egregious in their faults, but Generation Six is the origin point of the franchise’s many problems in the modern day. I don’t think that X and Y are bad games, but they’re incredibly uninspired and are likely my least favorite entries in what they represent for an already extremely stagnant series.