Pokémon Fans Still Have Time To Try the Most Underrated Generation Before Legends Z-A

Pokémon Legends: Z-A launches this month on Nintendo Switch 2 and after playing the game at the official preview event in Paris I’m very excited.

Before landing in Kalos though I had a big problem, I hadn’t played Pokémon X & Y. Now you don’t need to play them by any means but you absolutely should, because following my first playthrough I’m baffled we moved on from this generation so quickly.

I’d imagine the art style had a lot to do with this as it’s when Pokémon games fully-embraced 3D visuals. I much prefer the sprite-based artstyle but I honestly think X & Y did a good job of blending the two styles together through some clever camera work. I love how when you’re walking down certain paths the camera will pan to a different perspective, as it does wonders to make the game’s world feel large and lived-in.

Pokémon games are about our characters going on an adventure first-and-foremost and I think X & Y nails this idea through its presentation, even if some of the in-game models lose their sauce in 3D.

Mega Evolution is another great addition, and what initially made me want to play X & Y before Legends Z-A comes out. Unfortunately it feels a tad underwhelming. I haven’t used the mechanic nearly as much as I thought I would and I think this is where Legends Z-A will perform quite strongly. A lot of the Mega Evolutions in X & Y work for Pokémon that require trading to unlock their final form, like Gengar or Steelix for example, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you could just find these ‘mon in the Z-A’s wild areas, meaning you’ll have more options for your team. New Mega Evolutions are also being added so there’s even more variety.

The Pokémon Company

What X & Y does do brilliantly though is the open-world. This is an area I highlighted in my Z-A preview as something that could work to the game’s detriment. Z-A’s exploration will be limited to Lumiose City and after playing X & Y I just know I’ll be yearning to explore outside the city walls. The Tower of Mastery, Parfum Palace, Azure Bay, all of these locations would look great on Nintendo Switch 2, so it’s a shame we likely won’t be seeing them again.

My favourite part of Pokémon X & Y though is the roster. While Pokémon Black & White’s all-new ‘mon roster was a great change of pace I do love a Pokémon game that retains the old favourites as well as adds plenty of new additions. X & Y introduced us to 72 new creatures to add to our teams, with some of my personal favourites being Pumpkaboo, Noivern, Sylveon and Tyrantrum. I know this is subjective as everyone’s opinion on rosters tends to differ but I think X & Y struck a solid balance between the old and the new.

So with so much done right why is Pokémon X & Y so overlooked? It could have been a hardware thing as X & Y were the first Pokémon games to launch on Nintendo’s 3DS system, and there’s always that initial barrier to entry when new hardware is concerned.

The biggest problem though was the lack of a third game to join them together. Pokémon Z was rumoured to be planned but never came to fruition, making Pokémon X & Y one of the only Gens to not receive some sort of continuation, at least before Legends Z-A was announced.

You could easily treat Legends: Z-A as that long-awaited third game but keep in mind that it’s going to offer a very different experience since it's part of the Legends spin-off series.

With that in mind, if you want a traditional Pokémon game to play before the new game drops this month I’d highly recommend finding a copy of Pokémon X & Y. Again you don’t need to play it to understand the new one but I do think it’ll give players the most complete experience, and give a criminally underrated Pokémon generation the love it deserves.