Pokemon X and Y: 5 Upgrades the Pokemon Games Need

Ever since Pokemon Red and Blue became an instant world-wide success back in 1996 – 97, Pokemon fans have pined for one thing: a fully realized 3D Pokemon game. Not many thought the Pokemon developer, Gamefreak, would ever deliver because of the company's preference towards portable platforms; however, with Pokemon X and Y, releasing this coming October, Gamefreak and Nintendo finally answered Pokefans' prayers, albeit on the Nintendo 3DS. It took them 17 years, but 3D Pokemon games are on the way.

Now that Gamefreak is giving Pokemon fans what they want, it's only natural (and a little greedy) to want more. 3D, while a much desired addition, is only scratching the surface of obvious changes Gamefreak could make to improve Pokemon all around. Of course, we've put together a list of necessary changes that make sense for Pokemon games and fans alike. 

Feel free to agree or disagree with our choices below, and please do suggest your own. Like a ghost-type Eevee. Wouldn't that be wicked? 

5. No More Random Encounters

Let's face it. Random encounters are an archaic mechanic, and it does look like they'll be back in X and Y. Walking through fantastical terrain only to be interrupted every 10 – 20 seconds breeds frustration. Most RPGs have done away with them, but Pokemon has stayed the random encounter course for six generations of games.

This has led Pokefans to abuse repels—a usable item—to stem the tide of random battles. I'll be the first to admit I'm a repelaholic. There's only so many Zubats one man can waste his life running away from, after all. Be that as it may, an overuse of repels steals some mystery and excitement from the Pokemon games because player frustration trumps a slight chance of a surprise rare or shiny Pokemon. 

By nixing random battles and adding visible Pokemon to fields, caves, and forests, Gamefreak would alleviate random encounter frustration and the repel issue by adding an extra layer of excitement to exploring new regions. In other words, tracking a wild Skarmory over a mountain would take Pokemon to a whole new level.

 

4. Rural Locales

Almost everywhere you go in a Pokemon game, there's one trainer or another who explored the area before you, just waiting for you to walk by and battle. This creates the illusion that the Pokemon world is largely explored, and therefore takes away from the mystery of uncovering the secrets of each Pokemon region. 

What's more, Unova, the latest Pokemon region, built its visual foundation on gigantic cities and bridges as Pokemon's American equivalent. X and Y appears to follow suit, being set in the France-based Kalos region. While it remains to be seen just how urban Kalos is, Gamefreak's X and Y trailers highlight its cities first and foremost. Furthermore, every Pokemon game sends players from city to city to gain badges. I don't know about you, but I feel the constant urban reliance is getting stale as the sixth generation nears. 

With the addition of more rural, trainer-less locations in future games, Pokemon would retain a greater sense of adventure. After all, each game tasks the player with completing their Pokedex, why not also task the player with exploring unexplored frontiers for Pokemon instead of trainer-filled caves and populated cities?

 

3. Effort Value Accessibility

Bulbapedia does a much better job than I could do explaining exactly what effort values (EVs) are: “Effort values. . .are attributes which give bonuses to a Pokemon's stats and improve differently depending which Pokemon they defeat.” For example, every time your Pokemon defeats a Bulbasaur, it gains a single point towards its EV special attack attribute. Furthermore, each Pokemon can obtain only 510 effort value points, and only 252 in any one stat. That's a lot of Bulbasaurs to beat up. 

To make matters worse, there is little way to tell where the EVs have gone until the Pokemon hits max level. Gamefreak introduced items to speed up the process, but raising Pokemon to be as efficient as possible boils down to fainting the same set of creatures over and over until the stats max out. Managing these EVs makes or breaks a competitive Pokemon. 

If that just made your head hurt, you're not alone. Effort values are far too complicated. More clearly displaying EVs, or allowing the player chose what stat to place each EV, would go a long way in making competitive Pokemon play much less of an unnecessary grind and much more accessible.

 

2. Difficulty

Ever heard of a Nuzlocke Challenge?. These challenges are popular in the Pokemon community because they add much needed difficulty through self-imposed rules. There are two mandatory rules in a Nuzlocke Challenge: You can only catch the first Pokemon you meet in each area, and if a Pokemon faints it must be released.

Nuzlocke Challenges became so popular because, let's face it, Pokemon games lack challenge. Gamefreak answered with two new difficulties in Black 2 and White 2, but the developer implemented these difficulties in an unintuitive manner. Upon taking down the Champion of the Pokemon League, Black 2 players receive a challenge key and White 2 players receive the easy key. Gamefreak created these keys with the idea of player sharing in mind, so each key can be traded between friends. However, if you restart the game, you lose the keys. This means if you don't have any friends—sorry—or if your friends don't play Pokemon, you can't use either difficulty at the start of a new adventure. 

Gamefreak needs to introduce much an easier and forever-alone friendly way to obtain a higher difficulty, period. Many Pokemon players aren't children anymore, and naturally crave a more engaging experience.

 

1. More Legitimately Rare Pokemon

As of this moment, 649 Pokemon roam five different regions and 17 years of gaming history. Out of all of the obtainable Pokemon, Feebas is arguably the rarest of the bunch. In Pokemon Emerald, Feebas only appears in six fishing spots in an area of roughly 200, and these six spots are randomized. That's right: the ugly little fish is harder to obtain than Kygore and Groudon, the legendary creators of the sea and land respectively, whom are both obtainable in every copy of Pokemon Emerald as part of the narrative. 

Gamefreak needs more rare Pokemon like Feebas. As it stands, most Pokemon are captured by scouring the land and seas. Every Pokemon player can capture nearly every Pokemon, including legendaries such as Mewtwo, without much trouble. But not every Pokemon player has the patience or even knows how to catch a Feebas.

Make us jump through some hoops for some of those rarer Pokemon, Gamefreak. Combee can only be captured by spreading honey on specific trees, for instance. More intuitive ways to find Pokemon would open up each region as a place of mystery, and add some much needed excitement and reward to catching 'em all.