Pokemon Y Review

[Azaxx]

This may just be a once off thing for me, since it's not exactly my type of thing to do reviews, but since I recently beat the game Pokemon Y and have had many other discussions with members on the forums, I thought I'd put a review on the game on 9 different criteria. Note this is all my experience with the franchise, so this may differ to anyone else who plays it, but should be similar with some who read.
Note for spoilers, if you haven't played the game yet, and/or haven't completed up to the post-Champion stage, stop reading. This may contains spoilers that can be game changing.



Story 5/5
One of the best stories out forward on the table, even if it isn't the best because Pokemon Diamond/Pearl took that spot, it certainly beats it in so many other areas. The TeamFlare business took a long time to pick up, I even thought it wouldn't be in the game since so much was focused on the Mega Evolutions, but it made its entry and stamped well.
The morals and emotions created from this game were very different from the older games, something very new.
Being able to create a thick emotion into each character is something I've only seen N from Pokemon White/2 and Black/2 accomplish at a moderate level, but this was taken to a whole new level. Each main character having their own moments expressing their feelings and thoughts to the player was something I wasn't expecting from a Pokemon game, but hope it returns in the future games if there may be any.
The specific tasks that were on demand were an interesting addition and the ways of learning the game were done quite well. The scripted points of the game, such as meeting a Pidgey at the beginning immediately reminded me of Red/Blue/Yellow which was great since GameFreak went back that far.
The Team Flare business and the story behind it all was very intriguing and fascinating to know the backstory behind everything and more. Even the end of the game showed more to me which shows the writers did a fantastic job.

Region design 4/5
This region was unusual when I first observed it, I thought it was going to be a dramatic fail, how wrong I turned out to be. It was very original in design and works extremely well with the terrain features added. Every little detail was put in that someone would notice it and smile, even if it made no difference to the level.
The Hometown is always one that must be done with absolute perfection, that gives the best first impression to the gamer, I was rather disappointed with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl's town, on the other hand Pokemon Heart/Gold and Soul/Silver were fantastic in how they introduced the player into a new location, and Y/X didn't fail. It was a simple and quick way of introducing the player into the world, and the town design was flawless. Seemed a little cramped, but after dancing around like one does when bored I found it much more enjoyable.
The towns were carefully crafted to perfection, and the massive creation of Lumiose City was absolutely stunning, instantly became one of my favourite major locations of any Pokemon game. The variety in locations proved to be well done also, from a standard zubat cave to a spooky swamp, or from a windy desert to a hidden forest, it all seemed to fit in well and nothing seemed out of place on the map.

New Pokemon/Evolutions 4/5
The 70 new Pokemon were well done, they weren't fantastic, but it wasn't anything like Pokemon White/Black's monstrosities. These had a lot of thought put into them, especially the Mega Evolutions, some seemed silly which is why it's 4/5, but regardless, it was a solid performance.
Over the games, especially White/Black, good Pokemon designs have been hard to design, originality being a problem. With this, it was great, with the less amount of Pokemon to create, lack of originality wasn't a problem. Even with the standard caterpillar to butterfly or tiny bird to big bird, it was done well. Some were pretty dull like a few Fairy type creatures, but seeing as it is a new type, I forgave that. Some were pretty awesome too, like the Chestnaught, the final form of the grass starter, Chespin.
The lack of new Legendaries I thought was a good idea, with only 3 new ones in the game, it was much easier to create a decent few that were vastly different from previous games. A Fairy deer, a giant Dark bird and a Ground alien beast all seemed to fit in well with the story. With the addition of the bird trio from Gen I and Mewtwo with his MegaEvolutions, it was good that they didn't go over the top like in Gen IV and V.

Initiatives 5/5
This game defined initiative for the Pokemon franchise, Mega Evolutions for a start is such a massive part of this game and they work so well, having to pick the one Pokemon who gets the power boost each match can be tough even. The Roller Skates also were such a clever design, I prefer them over running shoes AND the bike. Finally a major game changer was the character customisation, it was good that you couldn't radically change your character, but small hair details or eye changes with the ability to change your clothes was such a great idea.
Mega Evolution was a brilliant inclusion, even though it is limited for a selected bunch of Pokemon in a variety of types, it's still quite useful. I found it most effective with Lucario and Aura Sphere seeing as I annihilated every Pokemon I used it against in the Elite 4/Champion. Though some designs look ridiculous like Mewtwo, others look amazing like Charizard.
The Roller Skates were a lovely little inclusion, the attention to detail was amazing also. Being able to slightly touch the circle pad and make a slow movement that changes animation from the full speed and normal speed was an awesome feature.

Music/Sounds 5/5
Just about perfect, that's all that needs to be said. The music has so much emotion in this, the excitement of a rival battle to the challenge of Team Flare, the happiness from Serena/Calem's theme to the terror of the champions theme were all great, nothing was bad. The Pokemon cries were so much better, even Pikachu I loved with his traditional anime cry, too bad this couldn't be carried over to every Pokemon. But one is still more than none which every other game had.
The difference sort of styles that the music had was incredible. From a fun rival theme to a hard Team Flare boss theme always proves to be energising. The Legendary music for Yveltal (Pokemon Y mascot) wasn't that memorable, however was fitting for the moment. The end game music also had a fitting aspect for the 3000yo King who just reunited with his long lost loved Pokemon. My favourite theme I found was the Serena/Calem's theme, which played a couple of times in the game, been listening to it when I've been writing this actually.
The Pokemon battle cries and fainting cries were very impressive I thought, more realism was focused in this game, well as much realism as one can make for a fantasy world. The quality of the voices is swell, and utilised the engine of the 3DS quite well.

Graphical layout 5/5
Absolutely stunning, the beautiful battle animations were perfect and even the small details like blinking made this game so special. GameFreak clearly put everything they had into this game, and their artists do need more credit, it was fantastic what they achieved here.
The battle animations with full 3D models of each Pokemon suits this game like I didn't believe, the rapid movements of each character Pokemon and Human alike makes it a much better experience than previous games, small details in everything is a comment theme of this game, down to the tiniest movement.
The attacks are very vibrant in both colours and animation, making for very interesting games. Along with that, the environment also has obviously had massive treatment to it, each location having small things to it added to make it unique from previous generation game locations such as a bug forest which makes an appearance each game.

Characters 5/5
Perfect, the characters were nothing less. The 4 companions you have with the one main rival were created so well, the two guys weren't exactly non forgettable, but offered humour from their remarks. While the two girls (or one girl and boy if you chose female character) were quite detailed and expressed well, the emotion shown from them was clear as daylight. Az was an unusual character expressed well at the end and Team Flare's boss was a great character, even the professor was good.
Starting with the 4 young teens who start with you in the group of 5. Trevor and Tierno weren't that interesting I found, I kinda hated Trevor a bit, until the end, as for Tierno, I had no idea what he was smoking.
Selena and Shauna were my two favourite characters out of the whole game, they made the group of 5 kids a diverse ones. One being a strong willed rival who was very determined and the other being scared way too easily but offered an emotional characteristic which was a pleasant change.
Az, the mysterious giant who turned out to be an ancient king at the end, and ancestor to the Team Flare's leader was a heartless sod when going through the game, I thought that they could've made this character a lot better, boy did they prove me wrong. Although he had little screen time, he was proven to have changed his way of a cruel king to someone who deeply cared for others.
I was also surprised at the amount of action Professor Sycamore had in the game, though it barely changed him as a character, it was good seeing such an important non-playable character share time in the game with you.

Post game 4/5
The post game was rather good, new areas unlocked, a few decent legendary Pokemon and a whole new little city. Though it may not seem much, it never really is. However, as always with the NationalDex being unlocked, the task of catching them all really starts again.
I can't get much into detail with this, as I've just been slightly introduced into this part of the game, and with the possibility of DLC being added later in the game, ie. extra legendary pokemon, it's unclear what I'm yet to uncover. However from what I've found, it's a decent expansion on the game, which I greatly enjoy.

User interface 4/5
Almost everything was well done, the one major let down for this new user face was the bag system, it was too clogged up and messy and takes a long time to find something as simple as a repel. Apart from that, menus are easily accessible and it doesn't take long to do tasks you wish to do.

Conclusion
Finishing, this game exceeded my expectations by a long shot, in didn't think this would do better than Gen V, but it smashed that. And rivals my favourite generation being Gen IV, it just depends what secrets I uncover in the months to follow that I play this game.
I strongly recommend this to any gamer with a 2/3DS, preferably the 3DS as it makes the best of what this game offers. Pokemon fan or just wanting a fun time, this game definitely offers a lot.


Final total score of the game.
41/45 - A+