While I greatly appreciated the fact that the sixth generation Pokémon games did away with the need for grinding entirely, I feel like Game Freak and Nintendo may have gone just a bit too far, resulting in certain portions of the game being too easy. I played through the core game and opted out of most sky battles, as well as breezed through a few routes without so much as looking at half of the trainers that lined it. Black 2 and White 2 were very generous in the amount of experience points they allowed you to earn, but I still felt that the later gym battles and the Unova Elite Four provided a decent challenge (and that was, mind you, after I had already faced them once in White version). While I applaud the choice of typings and freedom to select your own order within the Kalos Elite Four, the battles were almost laughably easy. By the time I entered the bright and awesomely decorated halls, my team members were all at levels that fell in the range of high sixties and low seventies, which allowed me to stomp all over the high fifties that the Elite Four relied on. Even the champion battle proved to be more or less a cakewalk, and I barely used Yveltal for any portion of these five battles.
At any rate, here is the team I used to triumph over the Elite Four and Kalos’ champion – Greninja, Doublade, Gourgeist, Aurorus, Sylveon, and Yveltal. Gourgeist was a real sleeper hit of a Pokémon for me, and I feel like the ghost types from both generations five and six have been among the best the series has ever had. In fact, most of the new Pokémon introduced in X and Y work very well with all of those that preceded them because they are dual types, many of which we have not seen in these particular combinations or with these particular stats. There may not be nearly as many new Pokémon introduced in X and Y, but the newcomers do feel very much like an extension of the generation V Pokémon, which is a great thing, as far as I’m concerned.
One other aspect I found myself particularly critical of late in Pokémon Y was the lack of much challenge from my rival character. Technically, X and Y do carry on from Black and White a scenario of the protagonist having two rivals. But you only have a few battles with Shauna, leaving the other neighbor kid to be your main rival. I found it very strange that, even during the last of our battles, she was relying on five Pokémon instead of six. It’s like the game was handing me victory on a silver platter.
I’ve already done a little bit of exploring in the postgame, and have caught both Mewtwo and Zygarde. I had a split-second encounter with Moltres before it darted off, but considering that I previously caught one in Soul Silver and imported it into Black 2 along with Zapdos and Articuno, I’ll probably just carry those ones over into Y once the Pokémon Bank application is up and running. I’ve heard from others who have already completed X and Y that the postgame experience in the sixth generation titles is rather light when compared to other entries in the series, which is a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, I will do my best to seek out as much in the way of sidequests and bonus content as I can before posting my review (which will hopefully be up sometime next week).
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