As some of you reading may or may not be aware, the seventh generation Pokemon games are going to be released worldwide this November. The games in question are known as Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, and the various news updates about these games have reenergized my enthusiasm for writing my series of Pokemon fanfics. With a newest generation of the mainstream Pokemon games approaching their release, and with all the research I've been doing this past week for writing one of my Pokemon fanfics, I've decided to do a little post reflecting on the sixth generation of the Pokemon franchise. I should probably point out as a disclaimer that I've never played any of the games from Generation 6 due to various reasons, so I'm probably one of the last people to analyze them like this. Be that as it may, I think I know enough about these games through my fan fiction research to at least give an informed opinion.
As a whole, Generation 6 will probably be best remembered for two things. The first is the introduction of the Fairy type, which brought balance to the world of Pokemon battles and reinvented a few classic Pokemon. It's actually pretty cool that one could use a Clefairy to take down a really powerful Pokemon like Hyrdeigon. Well… you'd probably still need something stronger than a Clefairy to take on a Hydreigon, but I think my point is well made. The other thing that Generation 6 will best be remembered for is the introduction of the Mega Evolution concept. I'm sure that the introduction of Mega Evolution has had some mixed reactions from fans all over the world, but I for one was quite thrilled when the concept was introduced. Mega Evolution has made old favorite Pokemon of mine like Charizard and Beedrill more usable in competitive environments, and it's made awesome Pokemon like Blaziken, Lucario, Metagross, Rayquaza and Mewtwo even more awesome. I suppose one could argue that Mega Evolution is a sign that the creators of the Pokemon games are starting to run out of ideas for new Pokemon and have resorted to reinventing old classics, but that's a point of view I don't share.
Despite the introductions of the Fairy type and Mega Evolutions, Generation 6 falls pretty short of being one of the best generations of the Pokemon games. My reason for thinking this is because of one simple fact: The two mainstream games of that generation, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, were pretty much shafted. They don't seem like terrible games from all that I've read about them. They're set in a region of the Pokemon World that has some interesting locations, and the stories of both games have a pretty good main villain (though Team Flare itself seems to have terrible fashion sense). But here's where these two new games kind of fall flat.
- Not counting any of the Mega Evolutions, only a total of 72 new Pokemon were introduced in this generation.
- Of those 72 Pokemon, only six of those are Legendary/Mythical Pokemon.
- Of the six Legendary/Mythical Pokemon, three of them can only be obtained through a special event.
Beside the low number of new Pokemon introduced by the games, it seems like X and Y were almost totally eclipsed by the remakes of the original Generation 3 games, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. For one thing, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire introduced a bunch of new Mega Evolutions that could not be used in X and Y. It would've been one thing if you just needed to trade the new Mega Evolutions over to X and Y, but to have those new Mega Evolutions be totally incompatible with X and Y pretty much just screws those games over. Plus Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire seemed to come with way more features and contained way more Pokemon. In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, it's possible to gain all of the Starter Pokemon from every region except for Kanto and Kalos, and those two games have almost every Legendary/Mythical Pokemon from every previous generation. It's even possible to capture Deoxys in those games! In X and Y you at least had Mewtwo and Kanto's three Legendary Birds to capture in addition to Xerneas, Yveltal and Zygarde, but that was it.
The final insult to Pokemon X and Y though are probably the introduction of Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. I don't know about anyone else, but I was expecting the release of Pokemon Z. I was expecting a new version of the Pokemon X and Y games that had every one of the Mega Evolutions and a story that revealed Zygarde's connection to Xerneas and Yveltal, because we know there has to be one! That's how things have worked since Generation 3. In that generation, we had Pokemon Emerald to reveal Rayquaza's hidden relationship to Kyogre and Groudon. In Generation 4, we had Platinum to reveal Giratina's connection to Dialga and Palkia. Finally in Generation 5, we had Black 2 and White 2 to show us that Kyurem was actually part of the dragon that Reshiram and Zekrom once were.
I had assumed that the case would be the same for Generation 6 and that we would be getting Pokemon Z. But it's like somebody working at Nintendo or Game Freak said, "Screw tradition! We're going ahead with Sun and Moon because X and Y sucked!" I am glad at least that Zygarde's new forms are going to be showing up in these new games, but will its connection to Xerneas and Yveltal carry over to those games as well? I think that about covers it for this post. Until next time, let's hope that the creators of the Pokemon franchise do a better job with Sun and Moon than they did with X and Y.
