Last night’s Pokémon roundtable discussion disclosed a lot of gameplay tidbits on the highly anticipated Pokémon X and Pokémon Y for the Nintendo 3DS.
Teased before E3, trainers now have the ability to ride their Pokémon. An earlier trailer showed the trainer riding the new grass-type Gogoat, but tonight we saw the vintage Rhyhorn gain that ability. Certain Pokémon will be better in different types of terrain (ex. Rhyhorn’s better at mountainous regions).
In addition to customizing your method of travel, you can slightly edit the trainer itself. Hair and clothing are now customizable and will be displayed on your player icon. While the game's movement is still snapped to a grid, your character can now go in eight directions.
The games will have a worldwide release and they’re expressing that with the ability to choose many languages: English, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, French and Italian.
Pokémon has always been a beacon of light when it comes to Nintendo games and online. While the company has always felt a step behind in comparison to most of the industry, the Pokémon games on the DS had incredible online functionality which was amazing when you look at what they are working on. Now with the very online Nintendo 3DS, Pokémon X/Y will definitely take advantage of its prowess. Enter the Player Search System, an enhanced version of Pokémon Black/White’s C-Gear. The CSS allows you to track passerbys (players that are playing nearby), acquaintances (passerbys that you interact with) and friends (acquaintances you want to keep track of). The PSS will also use sync with your friends list on your 3DS.
The roundtable discussed various amount of battles players will be encountering along their adventure. First up was Horde Battles, where trainers can battle a clique of up to five wild Pokémon. Also shown off were Sky Battles, which exclusively uses Pokémon that are capable of flight or levitation. The demonstration used a Noctowl going against a new fire/flying type: Talonflame. Two other Pokémon were also demoed when discussing different rulesets – the poison/water-type Skrelp (seen above) and the water-type Clauncher (seen below). Pokémon that are loved via the Pokémon-Amie will also have effect on battles.
Pokémon X/Y will also have visible EVs and IVs (formerly hidden stats), and backwards compatibility with DS titles is still being worked on, hinting that there might be some limitations or that it might not work they way many might like.
When the Q & A started, there were many different questions asked. When asked why the game used France as their inspiration, they like the beauty the country had and wanted to express it. Like every other mainstream Pokémon title, the game will only have one save file. There are no announcements to be made for DLC (but I sure hope that event Pokémon like Keldeo and Mew aren't on preset the cart and be SpotPass downloads). The fairy-types are there to balance dragons, which have a high amount of resistances. You can borrow Pokémon to ride to get through particular areas. Other methods of traverse are possible, like grinding rails.
It looks like the sixth generation of Pokémon has been treated with tons of love and will be a biggest step for the franchise in quite some time. Pokémon X/Y will release worldwide on October 12th only for the 3DS.
