The first time I've played Pokemon was when it launched with Pokemon Red and Blue. I purchased Blue at the same time my friend purchased Red, played through to the end, thought it was a decent game. Tried playing through a little of Gold or Silver when my same friend got it and decided then not to purchase the other. I later gave the series another chance with Diamond, purchased it but only got the seventh badge before I quit, and once again I'm giving it a chance with Pokemon X but this time seeing the game through to completion.
As yourself, either a boy or girl of your choosing, you start at home like every other game, and shortly after acquire one of three Pokemon. They change it up a little bit in this one, as you're adventuring with four different friends, sometimes they'll help you along the way or want to compete whether it's seeing who has the most monsters in a specific region or through battle. The main premise of the game even with the extra characters is the same as the rest of them, though. Collect all eight Pokemon badges and become the champion, while along the way also hindering in some teams goal, this time known as Team Flare, in taking over the world using Pokemon. While the story might be a similar plot as the rest of them, they've done really well in making you feel like you're part of the Pokemon world.
NPCs in recent RPGs are mostly useless, lacking any information that would really help you and most of their dialogue boxes are boring. Pokemon gives you reason to talk to each and every NPC you can find, as most of them will tell you about certain Pokemon skills and give you a TM afterwards, some of the NPCs even ask you to come back future days until they've given you all they offer. When you don't receive an item, the dialogue is short, but gets it point across as well as being informative about certain events in the world. The level design is straight forward, but it does allow for exploration within that small contained area in each route, and then each Pokemon gym is uniquely designed in a different style. One Pokemon gym might have you scaling a rock climbing wall in a weak Uncharted style, another having you roller skate around to catch and fight the opponents(or just stand still,) while another has you answering questions about Pokemon to avoid fighting trainers in that gym.
It's unfortunately the combat that is so poor. The idea behind the combat is good, but like the rest of the series, it's a little boring to actually trudge through. Each Pokemon has one or two types, both of which give the Pokemon different strengths and weaknesses compared to the other types. This was okay during the original game, but you only have six Pokemon available to you at any one time against a possible 18 types, and while playing through the game, you're not going to have the option of setting up a party that will be able to counter every single enemy at the very beginning. Even though ending with over 300, I just kept the same six Pokemon through the entire game. Even if most battles are done with the lead Pokemon alone, you're going to constantly be throwing out that same Pokemon, waiting several seconds for the battle to even start and then give your Pokemon commands that will go through slowly, even when you have animations turned off and the speed set to max. Does it matter though if your first Pokemon is strong against the opposing enemy though? Most of the time you'll kill them in a single hit. The single player really does the game no favors being one of the easiest RPGs in history, and many times you might get through an entire gym on a single Pokemon, even when that Pokemon does normal damage to everyone in that gym.
After completing the game I've done a little bit a battling. I've even went through putting together my own competitive team, researching the Pokemon I'd use, taking hours to breed them with perfect IVs in a majority of stats, getting them a nature that would fit how I wanted to use the Pokemon, and getting the skills I wanted them to have. I also named most of those six Pokemon, the first ones in the game I've actually named, only to give myself an advantage against people who may not know those Pokemon types off the top of their heads so they'll be unable to look them up and see what is best against them. But I've only done a very few matches, and honestly I'm done. The reason I thought would make the Pokemon experience so much better, the multiplayer, is more enjoyable than the main game, but not so much to where I'll repeatedly battle with the same Pokemon and I have no interest in making multiple Pokemon teams, and definitely no interest in spending hours breeding a new team. It's a huge time sink, yes, so the game has a lot to offer in that regard, but having a lot of content doesn't mean that time is going to be spent having fun.
Pokemon X and Y have some good qualities, but overall they're pretty boring RPGs, as is the remainder of the series.
Gameplay - 3
Design - 8
Presentation - 6
Balance - 2
Overall - 4.75
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