Well it had been almost a decade since I had played through a Pokemon, and after watching a friend play, I felt it was time to get back on the horse. He sold me his copy of X for $20 ( he wanted to catch them all), and I bought a 2DS a few hours later. It's time to recount my bleary eyed two days of fun, anger, and my history with the beast known as Pokemon.
When I was a kid, like everyone else in the world, I fell in love with Pokemon. A kid with his friends going around catching and battling strange creatures ? Fuck yes living the dream! When I found out there was a game, I begged my parents for Pokemon Red, and a Gameboy Color. Naturally, I got them, and the fun began. Up til this point, I had only really played platformers and fighting games, so an RPG was a stark contrast. The sense of adventure, the scale, the world to explore, it was mesmerizing. I fell out of love with Pokemon before the second Gen hit, though I did eventually play through silver years later. I played Ruby as well, and beat it during the same revival, but it wasn't particularly good. I hated the new Pokemon, and it felt like every other Pokemon. The 3D graphics in Pokemon X, along with seeing my friend choose between the original started sold me on the game: I fucking needed it, and no one would stop me from getting it.
My friend borrowed my 2Ds the first night I had it to get both of us a complete set of Gen 1 starters, and of course Gen 6. The next day he dropped it off, and my addiction began. I beat this game like a broken crack whore in just under two deal- from zero to the Champion of the Elite Four. I loved every second of it like I haven't loved in a long time. I was angry when I wasn't playing. I had to study for midterms, write a paper, and naturally attend school. I barely slept, and still managed to hit the gym both days. I played while running on the treadmill, I am so fucking hardcore. There was a day in class while waiting for the midterm to be passed out, I saw a girl playing Pokemon, and was angry I had left mine at home to force myself to study more. Those ten minutes were painful, but I burned through a test(getting a B no less).
Check those beautiful graphics! It was a long time coming for the series to upgrade the graphics this must. Look at how cool Wartortle looks! Squirtle was the Pokemon I chose during my original playthrough of Red. So it was nostalgic to see him again after all these years. He was my main for about 15 minutes . . . til I got my boy, and pre-evolution of my favorite Pokemon Charmander. He was a bitch compared to my other Pokemon, who all had been traded and gained bonus experience, and he kept dying, but I preserved til he became my toughest, and evolved into the greatest Pokemon: Charizard.
The game introduces many things to the formula- the first of which is experience share that gives every non active Pokemon 50% of what the main battler received. Yep, babby's first Pokemon.You receive Roller skates in the first town, which are fucking awesome. They are controlled by the joystick, and help you breeze through the game pretty quickly. The next is something called wonder trading. You trade a Pokemon for an unknown Pokemon. Admittedly you mostly get Shitmon like Pikachu, some bunnies, or ants, or those fucking monkeys with the bushes on their heads. But once in awhile you get a gem like this:
I received a level 58 Graveler which evolved in Golem as it was traded. It's a great way to fill up your Pokedex, and the sense of surprise when you finally get something good is a great feeling. Next you have three rival, instead of one. They are all pretty horrible, and even near the end the only have like three Pokemon to throw down against you with.Finally the biggest and most controversial change is the addition of Meg level Pokemon. You get the ability to do so halfway into the game. It's a temporary power up to help curb stomp the person you're fighting. Only a few of the other trainers(read two) have this ability. I admit I hated them at first, but Megacharizard grew on me after seeing him in the Pokemon : Origins OVA.
Still the game is like the rest of Pokemon- you go to the Gyms to earn badges, fight an evil team of villains with some evil plot ( Team Flare does want genocide, so I suppose that's an upgrade.) The first few gyms are hours apart, with the last five chained together in quick succession. There are HMs in the game, but someone basically comes up and gives it to you right before you need it- no searching needed. I personally only ever had to use Surf. The rest are for you Dora the explorers.
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| Dun dun DUN! |
Those two days of this game with stay with me for quite sometime. If you want to know how to burn through the game quick, here's what I did:
-Turn off battle animation
-Use Fast text speed
- battle everything, you get experience even if you catch a Pokemon now, just do some damage first
-fight every trainer, you get experience and money. There's no reason not to!
-avoid battling online, its laggy and everyone is better than you.
-have a balanced team ( no all fires or whatever)
-fuck sidequests
Id clocked in at 19 hours doing all this with this team of Pokemon:
They were all in the upper 70s by the end of the game, same team since I got Lucario. The legandaries in the game are ugly to me, so I don't use them. Fuck Deer boy and Dragon Slug, I did swap Delphox for Mewtwo though. An all classics team save for Lucario. All in all I give Pokemon X a 9/10. Yes I am biased.
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| Flawless Victoly! |
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