Feature: A Pokémon Retrospective: Generation 6 - 2013 To 2016

Gen 6 has been a slightly mixed bag for me. I loved the diversity in X and Y, despite not liking a large number of mega evolution designs, and felt the transition to 3D battle graphics was a great addition. As much as I like Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire though, it fell quite far behind the standard I came to expect from remakes set by Leaf Green and Soul Silver. I would easily say I've enjoyed this generation immensely so far, it's just not quite up there with 2, 3, and 4, which had good main games and spinoff games to compliment them, something I haven't seen much of in gen 6.

Let's talk about game changers fans that were in shocked and liked. Ash finally evolved a water Pokemon, a 3D pokemon game, and mega evolution. Now all we need is ash catching an electric type.

Generation VI is one of the most fun generations ever. A perfect blend of present and past - and a deliciously messed up villainous team leader - in the first games (and a beautiful region that comes across as a cross between Johto and France), and two remakes summed up as "Hoenn done right" that finally heal the wound opened by Generation III in the first place (having a Celebi and a Ho-Oh in Hoenn just feels so right). And yeah, while not much has come out of the spinoffs, let's not forget this generation marked the Smash Bros. series' handheld debut. Hopefully generation VII will give us even better adventures, and who knows? Maybe the next country to get a Pokémon counterpart will be Italy! Or, without my provincialism, even Britain, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Greece, the possibilities are endless!

Games were ok. Love that the anime finally got better after the past 2 gens for me. Love the characters they have going right now, even most of the fillers are fun to watch.

Pokemon Amie and PSS, 2 things that are very interesting in this generation (and maybe in the following ones); with Pokemon Amie, interact in a "closer" way to your Pokemon is something expected since starting the franchise (petting Meloetta is "ultra" cute, XD) and PSS, connect with almost all players in the world right now for battles and trades, really gives more dynamic of the game, both in the online and the adventure.

Dang it I thought they would've had something about if Pokemon z will come out or something on the lines of that haha

I liked how the developers focused on quality over quantity with the new Pokemon. This is probably my favorite batch of Pokemon besides the original, and that's saying a lot!

After gen 5 I had high expectations for gen 6. But in the end, I was left with mixed feelings. The begining of journey in Kalos was outstanding, well made and complex. But then, suddenly, after being 1/3 in the game, it all got linear and "unfinished", only the music kept up. I had feeling that there was a lot of cut out content and it was forced by the world wide release. Like there was the potential but then they didn't have enough time to finish it properly... That said, it was still more enjoyable than gen 4 and even gen 3. Even if the storyline was a total rubbish that I don't really get.
Remakes somehow managed to worsen my opinion about this generation. In my personal opinion they look worse than the originals, all those ugly textures... Definitely were enjoyable but it was hard to look at them and take seriously...
As for continuation, I think there is a possibility of a game that will be a mix between Hoenn and Kalos (as their storylines interact with each other in gen 6), the final "third" version. And most probably they will make sure we turn our eyes on NX. Just like they did with Pokemon Dream Radar and 3DS.

Great gen! And I say that Game Freak steeped there game up after the terrible gen 5, and I look forward to Z, and hopefully Gen 7.

@SakuraHaruka if they remove Amie (and Super Training, because EV training is so much slower and more dull) in Gen 7 I will be so annoyed

Wii U had that Pokemon Rumble game with the figurines.

X and Y form one of my favourite Pokémon pairs. While a little rough around the edges, the games still look great overall and finally provide that much needed big leap forward. Finally everything is rendered in 3D. This shines through especially during the battles, which feature absolutely gorgeous cell-shaded Pokémon. Watching them fight feels a lot like the cartoon and it's all rather spectacular. The France-inspired Kalos region is very well designed from an artistic perspective. Famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Reims Cathedral, Castle Chenonceaux, Versailles Palace and the Carnac Stones all have their equivalents in the game and are instantly recognizable. The Paris-inspired Lumiose City is almost a parody of an idealized vision of France, down to the locals, their customs and their mannerisms. Another big addition is Mega Evolution, which is almost like a super saiyan form for Pokémon. It feels much more of an addition than just adding evolutions of older Pokémon like in generation 2 or 4. This concept actually allows for an interesting battle mechanic making familiar Pokémon more versatile. The Mega Evolutions are like stronger versions of classics like Charizard or Lucario, but feel like new Pokémon all the same. Therefor I can kinda forgive the lack of new Pokémon. What is there is great, anyway. My favourites include the ninja frog Greninja, the flower-wielding pixie fairy Flabébé and the T-rex Pokémon Tyrantrum. The Fairy-type is a wonderful new layer in Pokémon's intricate gameplay that balances the Dragon-type like Dark and Steel did for Psychic-types in Gold and Silver. It's so great to have a new type that feels like in belongs in the game. Many older Pokémon like Clefairy and Ralts are this type as well now, which makes a lot of sense and adds new levels of versatility to them. The diversity in obtainable Pokémon is huge and allows for maximum freedom in team-building, even early on in the game.

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire are great remakes, although I would have liked to see more of the stuff from Emerald. What I liked about the Gold/Silver remakes was that they included much of the little additions from Crystal as well. They didn't do the same with Emerald here. The most grotesque omission is the absence of the Battle Frontier. Other than that, the large number of Legendary Pokémon, Mirage Spots, new Mega Evolutions and a 3D Hoenn are wonderful. Much like the Zelda remakes, the eastetic of the original remains intact. This is Hoenn as vivid as ever. The Soar mechanic is very cool. Finally you can explore not just land and sea, but also the skies. It's a logical step forward that I hope they refine in future games. Speaking of which, I am curious if there will be a Z version featuring Zygarde. This is one of my favourite generations so far and I hope we will see one more game (pair).

As big as a fan of pokemon I am I found myself not playing x/y nearly as much as previous games, and i still have yet to play ORAS

Love, love, love 6th (I love it).
I've put more hours into X, Y and ORAS than any other gen.

@Calllack Super Training is slower than EV training.

I disagree with the article in that I would say the 5th gen pokemon get the most flack of them all.

Also, I haven't really been following the anime. Can someone fill me in on what's up with that Ash-like Greninja?

X and Y are my most played main series games by a longshot. PSS was a fantastic addition.

Excited for Generation 7 (I'm still under the belief that Pokemon Z isn't going to happen. Mark my words).

6th gen was fairly mixed for me. GameFreak seems to be appealing to the casual gamers at the moment, removing some of the challenging parts of the game that I like.

For instance, they removed all the restrictions of the safari zone in ORAS, making it pretty much the same as any other ordinary route. Plus the routes are getting easier. Route 1 in X and Y was just a straight line without any tall grass. Also, most of the legendaries in ORAS were found just by flying to specific points in the sky without having to go through a cave or search for them roaming the land.

The Battle Maison was fairly dull. I was hoping for a more fun but challenging battle facility in the post game such as the Battle Frontier.

Other than the difficulty and lack of Battle Frontier, I enjoyed the games. The new pokemon were mostly good and I really liked Team Flare.

6 Gen is my least favourite so far. It felt pretty dull. X and Y are pretty forgettable and ORAS didn't hook me as much as Ruby and Saphire did back in the days. Maybe Gen 7 can impress me again. Only time will tell

Gen 6 was my second least favorite but it doesn't compare to how horrible gen 5 was. Nothing really was that orginal to me in that gen except for like 3. I was very disappointed, but hey it is what it is. Kalos is only my least second favorite due to 1-4 being hard to top. I mean they were insanely dope. But I wasn't that unstatisfied with X and Y, I just feel like they could've done better. Mega evolutions were a neat edition but I feel they focused on it too much. Anyways I have high expectations for the next game due to mega evolutions being pretty perfected and our wide selection.

6th gen brought a lot of neat changes to the series, sure, but on the flip side the games are becoming incredibly simplified and XY feel just plain incomplete. We really need a grandiose third version or sequel packed with content to round out this generation. With XY having the lowest amount of replay value since RS and ORAS throwing out a lot of things from Emerald (chief among them being the Battle Frontier) and ultimately being one step forward and two steps back in content, there's definitely been some disappointments this gen in terms of content and replay value, and we could use a grand finale game to make up for it.

I'm very mixed about gen 6. The graphics were 'meh' with very bland backgrounds and textures. Seriously guys, there are much better looking games on the 3ds.

The writing was several tiers lower than gen 5, Team Flare just felt like they were going with the motions, you almost never meet the gym leaders outside of their own gyms, remember gen 4 or 5 where they were at least two-dimensional characters? Next we have the legendaries, which are even more forgettable and have less lore behind them than Lugia and Ho-oh.

Then the difficulty was insultingly easy, not to mention mega evolutions seemed cool on paper but they completely ruined the competitive side of Pokemon gen 2,3,4, and even 5 carefully set up.

Not everything was bad though. Super Training made EV training much more tolerable. The soundtrack is very good, though it doesn't really feel like Pokemon. And Pokemon XY is the only arc of the anime I really could get into.

I like gen 6, but as someone who played every gen since 2 I was still left disappointed. I get that Game Freak is trying to appeal to younger audiences, after all, the Pokemon franchise is very slowly grossing less and less in the long run. I just hope that gen 7 will at least have gen 3 difficulty (and that's still pretty easy), comparable to gen 5 in plot, and a region that's as diverse as Sinnoh.

@KTT I would want that too but I doubt that will ever happen

Besides the lack of new Pokemon and post game content (X and Y) I really liked gen 6. Mega evolutions were a cool new edition and the games felt fresh to me. Omega ruby/alpha sapphire was great for someone like me who had never gotten to play ruby/sapphire. I'm hoping 6th generation gets finished off on the 3ds with Pokemon Z, then gen 7 on the nx with some new games and maybe even some remakes of Diamond and Pearl

I enjoyed Pokémon Y, but it felt a step back in some ways to as gen5. On the one hand, I really like the new pokémon designs. Meowstic is one of my particular favourites! However, the huge (and overwhelming) regional pokédex has an overreliance on old pokémon, particularly from gen 1, and as a result the game often felt like it was trading heavily on nostalgia rather than pushing forwards like Black and White did. That said, the addition of the fairy type is a big change and makes many older pokémon relevant again.

I particularly enjoyed super training and pokémon-amie, both of which were quite addictive and added extra depth to the game. The online features are exhaustive and excellent. Overall, the battle gameplay is polished and refined. Presentation is a real mixed bag. The battles and pokemon look wonderful though the overworld is a little disappointing, as is the lack of 3D outside of battle and some indoor areas.

By far the biggest criticism I have is the weak story, which is a real shame after Black and White placed a heavier emphasis on its story and themes. Kalos as a region also felt undercooked at times, as if the game was rushed to release.

I'm currently playing Alpha Sapphire and enjoying it.

Erm... there was also Pokémon Rumble U (as terrible as it was) on Wii U. I don't blame you for forgetting it though.

Ermm.. no. Pokémon Rumble U is 5th Gen.

Waiting to see what the next games bring. Not much can be done to change the online, can't add any new pokemon this gen so I'm thinking Z or whatever 3rd game will be much like BW2 with an interesting battle facility or something.

Definitely the worst generation for the main games, IMO. It saw the high standard Gen 5 set for it and chose to slide right under it.
The Pokemon were mostly bland, with a few exceptions. Espur is great, but a keyring? A sword? Haha, and people said Gen 5 had silly designs! What a laugh. Where are the people who said Trubbish was a lame design now? Going to defend a keyring? Hypocrites.. Anyway.

The story was lackluster and empty, especially compared to Gen 5, the characters were pretty one-dimensional as well, which was trust irreparably broken. Who didn't figure out who the head bad guy was during the very first encounter? And his reasons? Wow, okay. That's it? Though to be fair Ghetsis and Cyrus and all the others had pretty lame reasons too. The only thing I remotely liked was the idea of the Pokemon war, which I guess was an okay idea, too bad it felt more like an excuse than a premise.

The game content past the mansion/castle (I can't remember) was boring, hard to get into and threadbare. The whole region felt a little barren, to be honest, and there was little incentive to explore.

The anime is about the same as ever, I guess. I have no idea what an Ash-Greninja is. Greninja is such a dumb Pokemon just made to cater to the average new player anyway so it's whatever. Not to mention it's a Ninja Frog, what's not to hate there? Disgusting. It doesn't even have a funk-factor like Jiraiya.

I haven't bothered with the remakes at all, I know absolutely nothing about them, and I hope it stays that way. I'll gladly play my old Sapphire cart if I want Gen III, thank you but no thank you!

I will say a couple of positive things about this generation, however! Pokken Tournament looks like a lot of fun, and Pokemon Picross is quite enjoyable.

But that's all. Goodbye Gen 6, and good riddance.

Gen 6 was ok. Playing both originals and remakes at the same time make me appreciate both. Gen 5 is still my favorite with Gen 4 right behind it. Can't wait for the inevitable XZ and YZ.

You forgot to mention the Wii U Pokémon Rumble with the NFC figures, it was pretty fun.

I loved X and Y! I've spent more hours playing these games than any Pokémon games in the past. Some of my favorite things about Gen 6 was some of the new and interesting Pokemon designs. I loved the look of the Elite Four too. Also the legendary Pokemon were pretty awesome. Although Pokemon X and Y were great (as with any new Pokémon game) they were still some of my least favorite games in the series imo. The overall game felt very easy, and the characters were very 1-dimensional. The story seemed kinda silly compared to the epic story of Zekrom and Reshiram in Gen 5.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire took everything I loved about X and Y and PERFECTED it. The graphics in ORAS were top-notch and the story was amazing. I'm really happy about the way ORAS turned out. I'm really hoping that if Game Freak decides to make a Pokémon Z, that they take the look of X and Y and give it a brand new coat of paint, some more detailed graphics, more detailed buildings and battle scenes, just like ORAS had. That would be amazing. I liked X and Y a lot, I just wish they would update the graphics for Z.

@ZimmerRemmiz
Already mentioned this, Rumble U is 5th Gen.

Really enjoyed X & Y but thought it was a bit to easy. would like to see different difficulties or a harder game in Pokemon Z

@JoeMerrick Did you really you think I wouldn't catch on that you already used that(or at least a very similar) tagline for a previous article in this series? Hah! Gotta catch em' all as it were.

@Phil_Kavadias Um, Xenoblade Chronicles has a real time battling system. Using such a thing in Pokémon would completely ruin the core battling system that's been in place since the beginning. There's nothing wrong with turn-based battling in some RPGs, anyway. Nobody's advocating for Fire Emblem to switch to real time battles, are they?

I love the new 3D engine we have this generation. It's nice to finally have that huge leap in graphics. It would've been better had the 3D effect been applied everywhere, but there just wasn't enough power for it, so what could they do? I do wish the colors on the new Pokémon models didn't look so washed out, though. I actually prefer the Gen 5 models. The customizable avatar was also a great new addition that I wish had been carried over to OR/AS.

The core mechanics really only need fine-tuning at point of the series, and the Mega Evolutions and the new Fairy type were the way to do it. They both provide some welcome new balance into the metagame.

While we didn't get a whole bunch of new Pokémon (although the Mega Evolutions helped make up for it), the ones we did get were top notch. Nearly every design the time around is a winner along with some excellent type diversity.

While the games are more connected than ever, including an excellent new option with Wonder Trade, I do think they're adding too many side features into the games now. Things like the O-Powers, Pokémon Amie, and Super Training are rather boring little diversions compared to everything else there is to do, yet if you don't use them regularly, you suffer a notable disadvantage when it comes to the serious battling options and facilities in the games. There's also the worry that the stat boosts they provide are rather overpowered.

@Zibene999 Um, yeah, the key ring and swords are great designs. Silly doesn't necessarily mean bad. I love it when they make awesome looking designs based on inanimate objects.

@sillygostly @ZimmerRemmiz Pokémon Rumble U was released in April 2013, before Gen 6 began so is in the previous article

@Marakuto explain please? I always found super training faster. then again I never actually tried EV training, so... I cant talk heh

@Serebii : D'oh. I stand corrected.

Gen 6 didn't live up to the hype. The new graphics were nice but when they wore off the game felt shallow. I keep hoping they are going to deviate from the cookie cutter formula they got, even just a little, but nope.

I'm not talking about game-changing risky moves here dealing with the core mechanics of the game, I'm talking about mixing up traditional elements to make the game feel fresh instead of a new take on the same idea now 6 times over. The franchise is a monster battling RPG, they have spent years hammering and refining the mechanics, so why follow the same story pattern? Kid from a small town with professor, collect all the gym badges, use HMs to get to new areas, fight the evil villain, fight the elite 4. Let's see them come up with a new story templet.

What about a Pokemon game where there are 2 sides and each game the story follows that individual side, like FE:fates. What about a Pokemon game where you have a choice where you want the story to go. How about a Pokemon game where your character has more interesting motivations than becoming the Champion while defeating a villain. Maybe have enemies and boss battles against non-pokemon, while still following the same battle system. For example, a boss fight being against that giant Meowth Mech from the anime.

On a side note, based on the original main franchise games of a generation, Gen 6 has sold the worst.

I want a main pokemon game that uses pokkén tournament as an battle engine with some rpg elements. Pokemon learn attacks by leveling but instead of forgetting moves u can customize them for each battle, up intill four. Also starting as another remake of red and blue(i really like the kanto trainers and TR) but with more story details fleshed out through sidequest or something. And instead of pairing two versions of one region, the should pair two regions and for every version a different region (like "pokemon kanto version and hoenn version" and for the generation after "johto and Sinnoh versions).
I still 'respect' the current turn based battle system but im kinda done with it, no matter how many new pokemon or regions they introduce. Id rather have old story with more details and new battle system, then new story new pokemon but same battle style. Pokemon not only needs but also deserves this change.

@Sanangelo89 That would fundamentally change everything about Pokémon. It'd like be asking main series Mario games to turn into an RPG or Zelda to turn into a shooter

The 6th gen is a deception for me so far, the main games are now, far to easy, and almost break the point to play. After fill the dex on XY (which is fun to do) there's nothing to do on OmegaRuby AlphaSaphire, experience a story that we all seen before? Capture the Pokémon that you already own? Defeat trainers that don't even try to beat you? The first and the second games have the right difficult, but after that is just a downhill. A harder main entry would make a new game far more interesting, even with almost nothing new.

@DekuOnion I would love another Pokemon game that uses the same battle mechanics, but ditch or heavily change the Pokemon League mechanics. It's what I really like about Colosseum or XD.

I thought X and Y were the worst in the series, no game has made me cringe that much since. It reminded me that I needed to grow up and get into better things, my standards have just gotten too high for Pokemon.

@BulbasaurusRex
Trubbish and Vanilluxe were also awesome looking designs that turned out to be pretty cool Pokemon.
I agree with you. I was pointing out the fact that there were people who trashed (lol puns) Trubbish and others and then went on to say Gen 6 had far superior designs, which is simply not true. They were designed by the same company, they're all designed equally.
You don't like Vanilluxe? Fine, I don't like the keyring. We disagree. Is one design fundamentally better than the other? No. Not at all.

I realize I sounded very critical, but I only speak out about the series I truly love, which are few and far between, so when I say all that stuff it's really coming from my love for the Pokemon franchise. Let me be clear, I'd still play Gen 6 games over many other modern games any day.

I'm just nitpicking details between different entries as a fan, that's all.

I wish there was more of a clue to pokemon Z or Gen7...
I am sick of rumors now...

@Zibene999 Vanilluxe is great, but Trubbish (and Garbodor) are just plain ugly.

Anyway, it sounded like you had a beef against designs based on inanimate objects in general and that they're ruining things for the animal and plant based designs. I'm just disagreeing, as I consider them to be a great design subset and something they've been doing dating all the way back to Gen 1 with our Voltorb, Magnemite, Porygon, etc.

@BulbasaurusRex
You're wrong about Trubbish and Garbodor, but whatever. I and many other people find them quite cute.

Well, let me clear that other thing up for you. No, I didn't mean that at all.
I don't care what a Pokemon is based off of, but if it's ugly and silly (such as the keyring) I just can't like it /personally/. I'm not saying it's a bad Pokemon just because I don't like it, like the rather rude 'fans' do with Trubbish etc.

Again, people who called Trubbish ugly 'because it's based on trash' and then say the keyring Pokemon is fine 'because it's new and cool like Voltorb' or whatever the reason they give at the time is, are hypocrites. That's all I meant to say. You can say you find one Pokemon ugly and another not ugly, though, that's fine. We all have different opinions on aesthetics.

Just don't hate on a Pokemon /because/ it's made of plastic bags and then say a Pokemon who is a keyring is a perfectly reasonable design. That makes no objective sense. And I'm sorry to say, there are a lot of people who do that. They're much worse to the Pokemon community than 'generation one-ers' are.

I personally found almost all of the Gen VI's Pokemon bland and/or ugly. I don't hate the design scheme, however, as it's the same as it's always been. I'll feel free to say I think this Pokemon looks more awesome than this Pokemon, but I wouldn't say the design philosophy itself was terrible. That'd just be the rantings of "a foolish fool foolishly dreaming a foolish fool's dream."

And that's all I have to say.

@Zibene999 I wasn't saying that. I just think the trash bag Pokémon look ugly, while Klefki (and most other Gen 6 Pokémon) looks pretty cool, not simply because of the objects on which they're based.

@BulbasaurusRex
I wasn't saying you were one of those people.
I think Klefki looks kinda dumb and I've always thought Trubbish looks cute. But I can see your point of view, and respect the differences in taste.

My point was directed at a totally different part of the fanbase, so never mind.~