So far I'm about 10 hours into Y version and I'm absolutely loving it, just like everyone else. I already knew about most of the new features before starting, but there are a few things I hadn't even considered that really caught me off guard.
By far the most pleasant surprise is how quick saving is. Every Pokemon game I've ever played has taken a length of time to save ranging from a little too long to waaaaaaay too long. In X and Y, saving is practically instantaneous. It's absolutely wonderful, especially as I'm in the habit of saving frequently.
The save button is also available directly from the bottom screen by default, along with other important menu options like Pokemon, Pokedex, Bag, etc. The interface is much faster and more organized than I've seen it before, a huge improvement over Black and White 2. The little touches are refreshing, like selecting a Pokemon in your party and being presented with a "Restore" option which takes you directly to healing items.
One of the biggest improvements to interface is with the internet options. Black and White 2 presented a weird web of internet options to you on the bottom screen. X and Y clean it all up and keep it simple. The focus now is on your friends list. You can see which of your friends are playing the game at all times, and you can be battling, trading, or interacting in a multitude of other ways with them after a single touch of their icon. I disabled my wireless function for a moment to see what playing the game offline was like, and I felt like half the game had been swept away. X and Y are truly built around online play and interaction. I guess I would say the barrier between the single-player and multiplayer parts of the Pokemon experience has been broken down, and now the two are seamlessly interwoven into one another. It's pretty impressive, by far the most extensive online capabilities I've ever seen in a Nintendo game, and I do not mean that as a slight.
Really terrific game, above my lofty expectations. What improvements have caught you off-guard while playing X or Y?
