5. Cast of Characters - Pokemon has been a pretty formulaic game. 10-year-old kid gets given their own personal monster to go battle 8 gym leaders and eventually conquer the Elite Four (Five, Six, whatever). Along the way, your douchey rival who picked the pokemon yours was weakest to, tries to mess you up.
X and Y start you off as part of a team of 5 individuals selected by Professor Sycamore to fill up the Pokedex and uncover the mystery behind Mega Evolution (new game mechanic - think digivolution). Your unique pals offer a slightly different story than the one we're all used to by now and add an interesting dynamic to the game.
4. Character Customization - For the first time, you can actually customize your character to an astounding degree. Beyond the selection of male and female, you're also given the option of skin tone/hair color, and can eventually even purchase new clothes and outfits. I think everyone's always wanted to model their pokemon trainer after themselves, and X and Y finally let you do it.
3. OG Starter - An hour into the game, you finally get to meet the Professor and after a brief duel with his Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, you actually get to take one with you. Now you've basically got two options: 1) grab the pokemon that covers your glaring weakness (eg. if you picked the grass-type starter, grabbing Squirtle would cover that giant fire-weakness you seem to have). 2) Alternatively, you could just grab which ever original starter you loved from the first generation and roll with that. I grabbed Charmander, making him the 2nd fire-type on my team and was not disappointed in the slightest.
2. Running Shoes FROM THE GET GO - I really don't need to say more than this. You start the game with your running shoes on. No more bullshit walking around waiting for the right storyline moment when some jackass finally tells you how to run. You also acquire roller skates early on, which gives you a nice middle-ground between running and bicycling.
1. Experience Adjustments (Catching and Sharing) - Another thing the pokemon series has been guilty of besides holding out on those running shoes is a rather tedious form of experience giving. No longer is this an issue. Again, in the early stages of X/Y, you're given the Exp Share item which can be turned on an off. While on, it passes out half of the fight's experience to the rest of your team, helping them all grow at a rather consistent rate. Almost as important as this change, when you capture a pokemon, you no longer lose the experience you would have otherwise gained from defeating it. Instead, the game counts a catch the same as a KO, and awards your team experience all the same. A significant change from all the grinding we used to have to do back in my day.
Now, granted I've been absent from the Poke-scene for about a generation (Black and White just weren't my thing), so a couple of these reasons might not be the most recent implements. Regardless, these are 5 key reasons that Pokemon Y has become my new addiction, and why you should join me.
-Nik "Latency" Trumble
