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?

The save system really did surprise me. I remember for either Gen 2, or 3 ( I could be totally off), but I remember seeing, "saving a lot of data" and that took at least 10-13 seconds. Also in the bag options you see a your party on the screen with all your sub categories. Such as healing and TMs, which can now show if your party can use the TMs; streamlined and fast. I'm 8 hours in, I will probably see more nice touches, but that's all I can think of now. I do love the EXP all, but it makes everything very easy.

I'm also not a huge fan (so far) of the horde battles. Braixen was level 20 against 5 Scraggy whom all used a trolling combination of sand attack/and leer...

Unrelated: Does anyone here know if by any chance there is a hidden hard/challenge mode? Like B2/W2?

Edit: I just remembered one more. I'm not sure if this is the first time, but during battle, if you hold down L with the attack button (a), you can see the complete overview of your move. Including the power, special, or physical, PP, etc. Very handy for those who haven't played in awhile. Being able to see more of a scope in Forests, or other routes is also a nice little thing!

Just a thing, the online matcmaking isn't very good for the moment, as random matchs end up in mismatches (pokemon level 45 against pokemon level 8 by exemple).

I wish they can fix the problem to have random matchs a lot more competitive and faire.

But otherwise, the online interface seem great, and I am sure the connectivity will be maximal. You are really pushed by the game to try it online unlike B&W.

I was also positively surprised by the accessibility of the internet-options. I must say I keep it off though if I don't want to trade/battle, because the Wifi drains on the battery. I had to recharge the system multiple times today, as I kept playing. Fast saving is also cool.

This game is exceeding my already pretty darn high expectations.

I saved twice the first time because I thought that something went wrong lol.

Its onlybbeen 2 days! Not everybody is high up yet and besides there was a survey awhile back (i think wen HG/SS came out) and stated only around 12% of pokemon players play competitive! (yes im one of the 12%!!!!) But i think they should add an option for Competitive only, so i agree with you there

They could just give the option to level the pokemon at 50 for everybody line in local multiplayer. (there are a lot of options for local multiplayers rules, the by defaults rules being all pokemon to level 50).

True i think they have online and you can use any level but defaults it to lv ,50! How far are you? im going to be grabbing my 4th badge soon!

There was one thing I forgot -- Santalune Forest. I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't gotten there yet, but it hit me like a punch to the gut. It was a very strange choice by the developers, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but... well, I was certainly caught off-guard.