Story and Pokemon are words that don't normally go together in people's minds. It's an inevitable result of the fact that story and Pokemon have never really gone together in the first place until recent years, aside from the rare exceptions in spin-off games, like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, or Colosseum and Gale of Darkness. Rather rarely for a series of RPGs, the storytelling in Pokemon wasn't the focus; it was always more about the Pokemon and giving the player a wealth of options on how to play their game. Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle? Should I try using a Pidgey or a Spearow, or both? Should I evolve my Pikachu, or keep it the way it is? Those are the kinds of things that people expect out of a Pokemon game.
More recently, with the fifth generation of games, that changed. Black and White Versions, the premier games of Gen V, had a notable change in that they actually implemented a progressing narrative in the game, giving at least some mild characterization to multiple people and even having a (rather successful, if I say so myself) character development arc for three or four of the major players in the game. What made this the most interesting wasn't so much the fact that there was story in Pokemon, or that it was well-done (and not “well-done for a Pokemon game”, just “a well-done story”), but that it touched on a lot of concepts about the Pokemon universe that had often been mentioned, discussed or questioned outside of the games, be it by fans or otherwise. This was one of the major reasons that BW were so highly praised and well-received by longtime fans.
It was for that reason that a large percentage of people were awaiting XY with bated breath. They wanted to see all the new Pokemon. They wanted to explore the new Kalos region. They wanted to play in Pokemon-Amie. But they also wanted to see how well the story of the game would turn out, after Black and White Versions implemented it so well. Ridicule the notion all you might want, but the fact of the matter is that BW's story left people wanting more. Now that people knew that the main entries in the series could tell an enjoyable and engaging story, XY was expected to do the same thing. Some people may have had their expectations a little too high (I certainly never expected XY to top BW; it would have been foolhardy to think so), but overall, people were expecting something.
And frankly, the fact that the general consensus is that people were expecting something much better than we got should immediately tell you where this is heading.
XY's narrative is simply not put together well. It fails to engage the player in any meaningful way, it fails to make the player care about the other characters, it fails at attempting to make commentary on the Pokemon universe, and it fails to have any sort of depth, breadth, or anything even remotely interesting. I love BW1, and I am willing to admit that while it was not a massively-deep story, it at least had depth. XY has none, and that's why it's such a disappointment. What may make this even sadder is that XY would have been better off having another typical excuse plot, like the older games did, instead of what it has now. XY feels like an attempt to have another BW story, except perhaps on a grander scale. I mentioned that this was a foolhardy expectation for fans to have – and it's just as foolhardy an expectation for the developers to have had.
The first issue with XY's story is that the story does nothing with its characters. This is a stark contrast to BW1 and even Platinum, where the rivals, the professor, and even the gym leaders were seen at times out and about and doing things. XY's main characters, the four rivals that, with you, make up the first main character Five-Mand-Band the main series has seen, have nothing happen. In fact, you could remove two or even three of them and the story wouldn't change in the slightest. This is a hallmark of poor storytelling and poor implementation of characters. In comparison, BW1 actually had its characters around for a reason, and removing one would cause issues within the story. You can't remove Alder because he is a part of Cheren and N's character development, you can't remove the gym leaders because they are often involved in the Plasma sections of the story (Lenora and the stolen Dragon Skull, Burgh and the missing Munna, Clay and Cold Storage, etc etc). You can't remove N because he shows up numerous times throughout the game and gets a lot of screentime, which is used to develop his personality and show how he changes through the narrative.
These sorts of things simply don't happen in XY. The four rivals have scarcely any personality and can readily be called flat and boring. The game's mysterious reoccurring traveler (AZ) only shows up halfway throughout the game and rarely shows up any other times, never getting the kind of time to stretch his characterization the way it needs to be – not could be, needs to be. Team Flare's motivations are pitifully pointless and the team's leader is not only blatantly obvious, but him not being found out immediately relies on the characters being dumb as bricks.
Let's take Tierno, for example. Back many months ago, when the four characters were announced on the Pokemon website, I made predictions for each of them about how they would develop through the game. Here's what I guessed for Tierno, alongside some additions made now that the game is out:
Of course, this is all just wild speculation on my part. What purpose does Tierno serve in the actual game? Nothing. You could remove him entirely from both the Mega Evolution plot and the Team Flare plot and there would be basically no difference. The same could go for Trevor, and possibly Shauna, but I won't go into their own arcs for the sake of moving on.
Similarly, the gym leaders of Kalos don't really do anything either. In BW1, all of the gym leaders had some sort of character and actually were aware of what was going on with Plasma and such. Lenora helped hunt Plasma in Pinwheel. Burgh helped Bianca get her Munna back. Elesa was part of Bianca's character development. Clay hunted Plasma in Cold Storage and chatted with Cheren a bit. So on and so forth. XY's gym leaders are scarcely seen doing anything other than gym leading, and stuff goes on that they shouldn't possibly be letting slide (and should know full well about). North of Laverre City there's a factory Flare took over that produces all of Kalos' Pokeballs. What does Laverre's gym leader do? Nothing. A great opportunity to expand on a character completely wasted.
AZ, this game's N equivalent (keep that descriptor in mind for later), also doesn't get enough time to develop. He shows up about halfway through the game and mutters a single line, then goes away. In the context of the game, it feels incredibly pointless and confusing; we're given no reason to be interested in or care about him. His establishing moment falls flat. His other moments aren't much better, and the eventual infodump he gives you when you find him in Team Flare's hideout is evident of his improper character use.
Since AZ is a pivotal character in the Flare plot, he should have showed up in the beginning, when you first met Team Flare in the Glittering Cave. In the actual game, AZ is basically just a wandering hobo looking for a Pokemon. If I was writing it, I'd play up AZ being the atoner much more. Make him be a wandering ranger-y sort to justify showing up the same places you do; he's trying to keep Kalos safe, and so he walks the earth to see if anything's going wrong in places. Have him drop hints about his character and history through the game, and once the Flare story is wrapped up, have him finally absolve himself of his guilt and then Floette returns to him. Or he can die and return to Floette. I dunno.
Team Flare would have to be re-written to work with this as well; in Ambrette Town, have Team Flare take the archaeologists in the cave hostage (for, I dunno, sucking the energy from the fossils), and one escapes and brings word to Ambrette. The player can then be roped into stopping Flare, AZ can show up because he was passing through at the time as well, and Team Flare can be made more villainous and have a clear element of danger to their motivations. This would also give an early clue to Pokemon and “energy”. Fossils can be revived into Pokemon, and have energy. So do Mega Stones, evolution stones, and other stones Flare's interested in.
This brings me to the second problem with XY's narrative: both of the plots are near-entirely separated, and the both truly begin and end at their own points. This means that instead of having two stories that are intertwined and have eight gyms worth of time to play out, one story has about three or four gyms to play out and the other has the rest of the game. This is the reason that XY's story feels rushed.
I'll explicitly compare XY's story to BW1's for this, as BW1 actually did intertwine its stories and didn't suffer for it.
The two stories of BW1 are the plot of Team Plasma and N, and the plot of the player, Cheren and Bianca going on a journey and learning about themselves in the process. With more bullet points, here is how the stories were mixed together.
Since I have only played up to just after the third gym in XY, I will not be going into the same detail for it. I will, however, summarize the events for each character up to that point.
At the beginning of the game, you meet Calem/Serena, your neighbor. You then meet the other three rivals (Tierno, Trevor and Shauna) and get a Pokedex. By the time you get to Santalune, the town with the first gym, you don't really know much about these characters. Tierno talks about dancing in his dialogue, and Trevor talks about completing the 'dex, but that's about it. The only meaningful bit of depth is when Calem/Serena apparently the child of two prominent Pokemon battlers. When you reach Lumiose, all five characters meet with Professor Sycamore and learn about Mega Evolution. He asks everyone to look into it for him, and that's about it. No real reaction from Tierno or Trevor, Shauna's just in it for the fun of it.
Before leaving the city, you also meet a strange character who was also a student of Sycamore. He's dressed in dark colors with red trim and has bright red hair, which clearly marks him as someone you should trust. You then meet up with Trevor and Tierno on Route 5, where you battle the latter. Tierno simply remarks that the player is strong without much fuss. Then Shauna wants to help Route 7 get un-Snorlax'd, and they both help catch a Furfrou in Parfum Palace for its owner. During the ensuing fireworks, she mentions she's never watched fireworks alone with another person before (which would be a nice bit of ship teasing if it weren't for the fact that the player still knows nothing about her yet). On Route 7, the player and Calem/Serena battle Trevor and Tierno, once again without any real fuss.
Calem/Serena then helps the player battle Team Flare in the Glittering Cave (at least, the last two grunts). Team Flare's first appearance is here, but there's not really any motivation dropped aside from “we do what we want to make a better world”, which is too vague. You also see Flare again on Route 10, and Calem/Serena pops up in Geosenge, but the latter encounter is literally pointless – the rival asks you if you saw Team Flare. If you say yes, as I did, they wonder what Flare is doing in town. They then, I kid you not, turn around and walk back the way they came.
The next time all five characters show up all together again is in Shalour City, where everyone learns about the Mega Ring, Mega Stones and Mega Evolution. Since there is only one Mega Ring and getting the materials to make them is hard, Tierno, Trevor and Shauna immediately realize their pointlessness and back out, and the player battles Calem/Serena for the Ring. You win. Then you battle at the gym, then battle at the top of the Tower of Mastery with the Mega Ring. Then you're free to go. Thus ends the Mega Evolution subplot. Three gyms in. Once you beat the fourth gym, that's when Team Flare starts kicking into high gear.
Did you pick up on the major issue that causes this whole problem? Mega Evolution, of course. The mechanic was new and highly advertised for XY, and thus it makes sense that the game would let you use Mega Evolution early on. But this creates a conflict with the narrative: the story about Mega Evolution revolves around it being a new and mysterious discovery, but because the game wants to let players use it early on (because it's one of the big gimmicks of the game), it has to cram the entire story about it into the timespan of about three gyms. Because of that rushed pacing, the entire concept of Mega Evolution doesn't really live up to its mystique and hype. Getting to use Mega Evolution should have felt like a goal that the player fought, trained and traveled long and hard for, and actually getting to use it for the first time should have felt far more exhilarating and “epic” than it did in the game.
Part of the issue with that also falls on the fact that the game is incredibly easy (for a Pokemon game, even making the comment that it's easy should ring some alarm bells). But that's beside the point. The point is that the stories of XY aren't integrated with each other, and because of that neither story has room to stretch its legs properly. I don't feel engaged, I hardly care. In BW1, I liked and cared about the characters and the story going on, because the game consistently had the characters show up and gave them screentime to develop their personality.
The third and final issue that XY's story has is something that I mentioned back at the beginning of all this: the fact is is that XY was basically “BW1... but grander”. Or “BW1... but bigger”. Whatever floats your boat. This design philosophy is masked somewhat by the fact that both stories aren't integrated, but if they were, you'd ultimately end up with the same kind of outline.
Let me put it in perspective for you. Pokemon Red and Blue really didn't have much of a story. Neither did Gold and Silver, or Ruby and Sapphire or so on and so forth. But because they didn't really have a focus on story, the intrusion of story scenes was rare and generally innocuous. I feel like I'd liken it to the first Final Fantasy. You don't have any kind of cutscene when you first reach the Crescent Lake, just like you don't really have any cutscene when you first reach Azalea Town. You're only told where to go next when you talk to a bunch of sages and hear about Mount Gulg, just like you're only directed to the Slowpoke Well after talking to Kurt in town. This kind of flow is an advantage the main series of Pokemon games have had since the beginning. A lack of story isn't an issue because there's so few points where control is taken away from the player without their knowledge. Those were saved for things like encounters with the rival, which were supposed to be jarring and shake you up.
XY doesn't have that kind of advantage because it tries to have a story. BW1 succeeded at this because it actually had an enjoyable story, so the interruptions of the story weren't unwelcome. XY's interruptions... really aren't. It fails to have an enjoyable story, so having the game drop everything and have some more story happen feels like a chore to sit through. This is one of the necessary risks of having a story in your game in general, of course, but it is no more evident than here. If a game has a good story, it is better than a game with a bad story, and if a game doesn't really have a story, it is also better than a game with a bad story. BW1 made me welcome when the story poked its head in because the story was engaging; XY makes me button-mash. People are more endeared to Frank and Sly than the main characters, and Frank and Sly are literally just NPC trainers outside a cave.
Ultimately, XY's narrative can be best described as “how BW1's story could have turned out, in a bad way”. The games both try to do the same things, but where BW1 succeeds, XY fails on nearly every level. It doesn't give the characters enough time to develop personalities and relegates a lot of important details to a large infodump (or even worse, an easily-missed optional area). It rushes both stories and doesn't think to weave the two together, leading to both plots wasting much of their potential and feeling rather unsatisfying. And because the story constantly pops up in the game despite the fact that it doesn't have its act together, the game's flow is broken up quite a lot.
The reason that this frustrates me so much is because XY actually adds lots and lots of new additions, features and improvements that I applaud and heartily hope become permanent changes. Super Training is a great new way to keep tabs on EV training, Pokemon-Amie is a wonderful way to bond with your Pokemon and get gameplay benefits in the process, the PSS is one of the best implementations of online in a Nintendo game I've ever seen. The move to 3D was pulled off with aplomb and the game looks and sounds great. But some of XY's additions aren't quite as polished, and alongside its story being a flop, it means that I can't help but see XY as a very flawed game. BW1 wasn't flawed in any way except for the fact that it didn't add any new major additions like XY did.
BW1 did nothing massively new in terms of its gameplay, but had a huge aesthetic overhaul, was polished in all of its aspects, and had an interesting story that touched on parts of the Pokemon world that typically weren't discussed in the games. XY tries new things, some of which are successes and some of which are failures, and its story is so lackluster that it actually hurts the game. Because a lot of XY's additions are really well done to me, I can no longer confidently say that BW1 is the one game I would recommend every Pokemon fan to play, despite the fact that XY also has failings. Quite frankly, that's a little disheartening.
More recently, with the fifth generation of games, that changed. Black and White Versions, the premier games of Gen V, had a notable change in that they actually implemented a progressing narrative in the game, giving at least some mild characterization to multiple people and even having a (rather successful, if I say so myself) character development arc for three or four of the major players in the game. What made this the most interesting wasn't so much the fact that there was story in Pokemon, or that it was well-done (and not “well-done for a Pokemon game”, just “a well-done story”), but that it touched on a lot of concepts about the Pokemon universe that had often been mentioned, discussed or questioned outside of the games, be it by fans or otherwise. This was one of the major reasons that BW were so highly praised and well-received by longtime fans.
It was for that reason that a large percentage of people were awaiting XY with bated breath. They wanted to see all the new Pokemon. They wanted to explore the new Kalos region. They wanted to play in Pokemon-Amie. But they also wanted to see how well the story of the game would turn out, after Black and White Versions implemented it so well. Ridicule the notion all you might want, but the fact of the matter is that BW's story left people wanting more. Now that people knew that the main entries in the series could tell an enjoyable and engaging story, XY was expected to do the same thing. Some people may have had their expectations a little too high (I certainly never expected XY to top BW; it would have been foolhardy to think so), but overall, people were expecting something.
And frankly, the fact that the general consensus is that people were expecting something much better than we got should immediately tell you where this is heading.
XY's narrative is simply not put together well. It fails to engage the player in any meaningful way, it fails to make the player care about the other characters, it fails at attempting to make commentary on the Pokemon universe, and it fails to have any sort of depth, breadth, or anything even remotely interesting. I love BW1, and I am willing to admit that while it was not a massively-deep story, it at least had depth. XY has none, and that's why it's such a disappointment. What may make this even sadder is that XY would have been better off having another typical excuse plot, like the older games did, instead of what it has now. XY feels like an attempt to have another BW story, except perhaps on a grander scale. I mentioned that this was a foolhardy expectation for fans to have – and it's just as foolhardy an expectation for the developers to have had.
The first issue with XY's story is that the story does nothing with its characters. This is a stark contrast to BW1 and even Platinum, where the rivals, the professor, and even the gym leaders were seen at times out and about and doing things. XY's main characters, the four rivals that, with you, make up the first main character Five-Mand-Band the main series has seen, have nothing happen. In fact, you could remove two or even three of them and the story wouldn't change in the slightest. This is a hallmark of poor storytelling and poor implementation of characters. In comparison, BW1 actually had its characters around for a reason, and removing one would cause issues within the story. You can't remove Alder because he is a part of Cheren and N's character development, you can't remove the gym leaders because they are often involved in the Plasma sections of the story (Lenora and the stolen Dragon Skull, Burgh and the missing Munna, Clay and Cold Storage, etc etc). You can't remove N because he shows up numerous times throughout the game and gets a lot of screentime, which is used to develop his personality and show how he changes through the narrative.
These sorts of things simply don't happen in XY. The four rivals have scarcely any personality and can readily be called flat and boring. The game's mysterious reoccurring traveler (AZ) only shows up halfway throughout the game and rarely shows up any other times, never getting the kind of time to stretch his characterization the way it needs to be – not could be, needs to be. Team Flare's motivations are pitifully pointless and the team's leader is not only blatantly obvious, but him not being found out immediately relies on the characters being dumb as bricks.
Let's take Tierno, for example. Back many months ago, when the four characters were announced on the Pokemon website, I made predictions for each of them about how they would develop through the game. Here's what I guessed for Tierno, alongside some additions made now that the game is out:
- Tierno wants to make a team of Pokemon dancers. In-game, this is only mentioned in dialogue and never shown in any meaningful way, breaking the 'show-don't-tell' rule. Tierno does dance often in his appearances, but this is pointless and does nothing to make him endearing. In fact, I honestly think it's kind of annoying.
- Here's the first change: when you first meet Tierno in Aquacorde, he is practicing dancing with his Pokemon (and possibly failing at it, your choice). Not only does this make his motivation clear through action instead of dialogue, but is also a very endearing concept for a scene that could tie into other characters' establishing moments.
- Throughout the game, I thought Tierno would show up and sometimes be practicing dancing with his team. At some point, he would manage to land a gig somewhere where he and his dancing Pokemon would dance publicly. It would flop or get a generally lukewarm reception, prompting Tierno to become very blue and unhappy. In the actually game, unfortunately, he serves little purpose throughout. He doesn't even add much to the Mega Evolution story.
- After the dancing performance flop, have the rest of the group comfort him and try to cheer him up. Perhaps have AZ show up and say that he watched the dance and thought it was nice. He says that Tierno has a lot of passion for his goal, and tells him not to let his Pokemon down (cluing the player in on AZ having let his Pokemon down at some point). Tierno then recovers a little and resolves not to give up on his dream because of one pitfall.
- During the endgame, have Tierno and his team of dancing Pokemon serve in at least some meaningful way. Perhaps have him and his team dancing somewhere to improve the morale of the people once that one event happens in that one town (you know the one). Not only is this a touching way to use his goal as a means to an end, it would also serve to earn him respect from the people of Kalos. Postgame, maybe he could be putting on dance routines, having become rather popular thanks to his cheerful and upbeat choreography.
Of course, this is all just wild speculation on my part. What purpose does Tierno serve in the actual game? Nothing. You could remove him entirely from both the Mega Evolution plot and the Team Flare plot and there would be basically no difference. The same could go for Trevor, and possibly Shauna, but I won't go into their own arcs for the sake of moving on.
Similarly, the gym leaders of Kalos don't really do anything either. In BW1, all of the gym leaders had some sort of character and actually were aware of what was going on with Plasma and such. Lenora helped hunt Plasma in Pinwheel. Burgh helped Bianca get her Munna back. Elesa was part of Bianca's character development. Clay hunted Plasma in Cold Storage and chatted with Cheren a bit. So on and so forth. XY's gym leaders are scarcely seen doing anything other than gym leading, and stuff goes on that they shouldn't possibly be letting slide (and should know full well about). North of Laverre City there's a factory Flare took over that produces all of Kalos' Pokeballs. What does Laverre's gym leader do? Nothing. A great opportunity to expand on a character completely wasted.
AZ, this game's N equivalent (keep that descriptor in mind for later), also doesn't get enough time to develop. He shows up about halfway through the game and mutters a single line, then goes away. In the context of the game, it feels incredibly pointless and confusing; we're given no reason to be interested in or care about him. His establishing moment falls flat. His other moments aren't much better, and the eventual infodump he gives you when you find him in Team Flare's hideout is evident of his improper character use.
Since AZ is a pivotal character in the Flare plot, he should have showed up in the beginning, when you first met Team Flare in the Glittering Cave. In the actual game, AZ is basically just a wandering hobo looking for a Pokemon. If I was writing it, I'd play up AZ being the atoner much more. Make him be a wandering ranger-y sort to justify showing up the same places you do; he's trying to keep Kalos safe, and so he walks the earth to see if anything's going wrong in places. Have him drop hints about his character and history through the game, and once the Flare story is wrapped up, have him finally absolve himself of his guilt and then Floette returns to him. Or he can die and return to Floette. I dunno.
Team Flare would have to be re-written to work with this as well; in Ambrette Town, have Team Flare take the archaeologists in the cave hostage (for, I dunno, sucking the energy from the fossils), and one escapes and brings word to Ambrette. The player can then be roped into stopping Flare, AZ can show up because he was passing through at the time as well, and Team Flare can be made more villainous and have a clear element of danger to their motivations. This would also give an early clue to Pokemon and “energy”. Fossils can be revived into Pokemon, and have energy. So do Mega Stones, evolution stones, and other stones Flare's interested in.
This brings me to the second problem with XY's narrative: both of the plots are near-entirely separated, and the both truly begin and end at their own points. This means that instead of having two stories that are intertwined and have eight gyms worth of time to play out, one story has about three or four gyms to play out and the other has the rest of the game. This is the reason that XY's story feels rushed.
I'll explicitly compare XY's story to BW1's for this, as BW1 actually did intertwine its stories and didn't suffer for it.
The two stories of BW1 are the plot of Team Plasma and N, and the plot of the player, Cheren and Bianca going on a journey and learning about themselves in the process. With more bullet points, here is how the stories were mixed together.
- At the beginning of the game, you, Cheren and Bianca are given starter Pokemon and a Pokedex. You travel to the edge of Accumula Town, where Bianca decides to stay behind and look for more Pokemon. You and Cheren then watch Team Plasma put on a speech, and the player and Cheren meet N, who has some similarities to Plasma's motivations and battles you.
- You then travel to Striaton, and Bianca battles you at the edge of the city. She doesn't mind losing and compliments you for being pretty strong for a newbie. Cheren can be found and battled in the trainer's school so he can learn more about being a trainer. After beating the first gym, you and Bianca encounter Team Plasma being assholes to a Munna at the Dreamyard (casting doubt on the speech in Accumula).
- You then encounter Bianca with a child on Route 3; she tells you and Cheren (who have just battled, Cheren wondering why he can't beat you even though you both have one badge) that Team Plasma stole the child's Pokemon and fled to the Wellspring Cave. You defeat them, learn that they're stealing Pokemon to liberate them, and return the Pokemon to the child. You then travel the rest of the way to Nacrene.
- In Nacrene, you encounter N again outside the gym, and he battles you. He tells you that he wants to encounter one of the legendary dragons of Unova so he can help Pokemon. After getting the second badge, Team Plasma invades the museum and steals a Dragon Skull. You give chase, defeat the grunt and get the skull back, but one of the seven Plasma sages helps the grunts escape.
- In Castelia, you meet Iris and Bianca, who has had her Munna stolen by Plasma grunts. You, Bianca, and Burgh go to a building to get the Munna back. Ghetsis is there, and discusses how they are going to revive an ancient Unova legend to succeed at liberating Pokemon from humans. Bianca goes to train with Iris to get stronger (so she can't get her Pokemon stolen again), and you eventually battle her outside of the gate north. You still defeat her, and she wonders why she still got defeated even though she trained so hard. On Route 4, you also battle Cheren again, still confused about why he can't win.
- Nimbasa is the location of the fourth of the eight gyms, and fittingly it's where all three characters come to the middle point of their development. You meet Bianca at the Musical Theater. When you leave the theater, you find Bianca being accosted by her father, who wants to strong-arm her into coming home because he doesn't think she's strong enough to journey. Elesa, the gym leader, cuts in and points out how childish Bianca's father is being. He relents upon hearing the solid counter-argument. Then you meet N at the ferris wheel, where you both ride it. He tells you that he is actually the king of Plasma, the one Ghetsis and the sages and grunts are all rooting for, and battles you to let other grunts of Plasma make a getaway. He asks you if you understand what his goal is, and vows to become the Champion and be unbeatable, and make trainers release their Pokemon so they can be free. Still, he remarks that the player's Pokemon seem... happy...?
- Outside of Nimbasa, you meet and battle Cheren again, and also meet Alder, the current Champion. He asks Cheren what he's journeying for, and asks what he'll do once he becomes the Champion. When it becomes evident that Cheren doesn't have a clue, he asks the player and Cheren to battle against a couple kids. The battle is very easy, but Alder cleverly notes that winning wasn't the point. The point was that the kids' Pokemon seemed to be having fun. He tells Cheren to think about what his goal means to him.
- In Driftveil City, the player and Cheren meet with Clay, the fifth gym leader, and go with him to root out the Plasma grunts causing trouble in the Cold Storage. You are successful, but Ghetsis pops by to bail the sage and grunts out of getting arrested. Clay notes that it sounds like Ghetsis is lying, but lets him explain anyway. He then gives up and lets Plasma scurry off. Cheren is unimpressed, given Clay's a strong gym leader, but Clay just asks for a gym battle to cheer up. Bianca also battles the player at the edge of the city, and upon losing again is a little discouraged and wonders about if she can get stronger, and what she can do.
- In Chargestone Cave, you meet Bianca and Professor Juniper again, who are studying the electromagnetic stones in the cave, as well as the Klink. You meet N here once again, who explains that the player has been chosen. He says that he told Ghetsis about you, Cheren and Bianca, and he used the Shadow Triad (ninjas) to learn about you. Cheren is pursuing the ideal of strength and getting stronger, Bianca is facing the truth that not everyone can get stronger, and the player is simply a neutral presence. N then departs briefly, and you battle a few Plasma grunts so that Ghetsis can find out more about you.
- After these battles, N explains that his dream is to separate Pokemon and people, so that Pokemon can live without human interference and become perfect. He asks if the player has their own dream (commenting favorably if they say they do) and battles you. N loses and finds himself confused, childishly acting like the battle didn't matter in terms of his pursuit of ideals or truth. Juniper and Bianca appear again, and N talks with the professor, expressing disgust at the fact that she “puts Pokemon into categories using arbitrary rules” as a way to understand them. When she replies that everyone should decide for themselves how to relate to Pokemon, N says that he refuses to even consider the idea, stating that he can't stand the thought of a world where people think however they want and treat Pokemon however they want, even if those thoughts and actions result in Pokemon suffering.
Since I have only played up to just after the third gym in XY, I will not be going into the same detail for it. I will, however, summarize the events for each character up to that point.
At the beginning of the game, you meet Calem/Serena, your neighbor. You then meet the other three rivals (Tierno, Trevor and Shauna) and get a Pokedex. By the time you get to Santalune, the town with the first gym, you don't really know much about these characters. Tierno talks about dancing in his dialogue, and Trevor talks about completing the 'dex, but that's about it. The only meaningful bit of depth is when Calem/Serena apparently the child of two prominent Pokemon battlers. When you reach Lumiose, all five characters meet with Professor Sycamore and learn about Mega Evolution. He asks everyone to look into it for him, and that's about it. No real reaction from Tierno or Trevor, Shauna's just in it for the fun of it.
Before leaving the city, you also meet a strange character who was also a student of Sycamore. He's dressed in dark colors with red trim and has bright red hair, which clearly marks him as someone you should trust. You then meet up with Trevor and Tierno on Route 5, where you battle the latter. Tierno simply remarks that the player is strong without much fuss. Then Shauna wants to help Route 7 get un-Snorlax'd, and they both help catch a Furfrou in Parfum Palace for its owner. During the ensuing fireworks, she mentions she's never watched fireworks alone with another person before (which would be a nice bit of ship teasing if it weren't for the fact that the player still knows nothing about her yet). On Route 7, the player and Calem/Serena battle Trevor and Tierno, once again without any real fuss.
Calem/Serena then helps the player battle Team Flare in the Glittering Cave (at least, the last two grunts). Team Flare's first appearance is here, but there's not really any motivation dropped aside from “we do what we want to make a better world”, which is too vague. You also see Flare again on Route 10, and Calem/Serena pops up in Geosenge, but the latter encounter is literally pointless – the rival asks you if you saw Team Flare. If you say yes, as I did, they wonder what Flare is doing in town. They then, I kid you not, turn around and walk back the way they came.
The next time all five characters show up all together again is in Shalour City, where everyone learns about the Mega Ring, Mega Stones and Mega Evolution. Since there is only one Mega Ring and getting the materials to make them is hard, Tierno, Trevor and Shauna immediately realize their pointlessness and back out, and the player battles Calem/Serena for the Ring. You win. Then you battle at the gym, then battle at the top of the Tower of Mastery with the Mega Ring. Then you're free to go. Thus ends the Mega Evolution subplot. Three gyms in. Once you beat the fourth gym, that's when Team Flare starts kicking into high gear.
Did you pick up on the major issue that causes this whole problem? Mega Evolution, of course. The mechanic was new and highly advertised for XY, and thus it makes sense that the game would let you use Mega Evolution early on. But this creates a conflict with the narrative: the story about Mega Evolution revolves around it being a new and mysterious discovery, but because the game wants to let players use it early on (because it's one of the big gimmicks of the game), it has to cram the entire story about it into the timespan of about three gyms. Because of that rushed pacing, the entire concept of Mega Evolution doesn't really live up to its mystique and hype. Getting to use Mega Evolution should have felt like a goal that the player fought, trained and traveled long and hard for, and actually getting to use it for the first time should have felt far more exhilarating and “epic” than it did in the game.
Part of the issue with that also falls on the fact that the game is incredibly easy (for a Pokemon game, even making the comment that it's easy should ring some alarm bells). But that's beside the point. The point is that the stories of XY aren't integrated with each other, and because of that neither story has room to stretch its legs properly. I don't feel engaged, I hardly care. In BW1, I liked and cared about the characters and the story going on, because the game consistently had the characters show up and gave them screentime to develop their personality.
The third and final issue that XY's story has is something that I mentioned back at the beginning of all this: the fact is is that XY was basically “BW1... but grander”. Or “BW1... but bigger”. Whatever floats your boat. This design philosophy is masked somewhat by the fact that both stories aren't integrated, but if they were, you'd ultimately end up with the same kind of outline.
- In both games, you are the player. You have friends who act as rivals.
- BW1 has Cheren and Bianca.
- XY has Calem/Serena, Tierno, Trevor and Shauna.
- You're going on a journey with some kind of goal.
- In BW1 the journey is so the three of you can learn about yourselves, to grow and mature and find out what you three want to do in life.
- In XY the goal is to learn about Kalos and find out about Mega Evolution (at least for a little bit).
- There's a criminal syndicate running around the region and causing trouble for some reason.
- In BW1 Team Plasma is all about liberating Pokemon, and they steal Pokemon from people to do so.
- In XY, Team Flare is about “making a beautiful world”, and they're trying to steal energy (though that's never made very clear until the Power Plant, or maybe outside Geosenge).
- There's a mysterious reoccurring character with some kind of connection to the villainous team.
- In BW1, N is actually the king and leader of Team Plasma, wanting to revive the legendary dragon so he can liberate all the Pokemon in Unova. He can actually talk and understand Pokemon and Ghetsis basically sheltered and raised him for his own ends.
- In XY, AZ is actually the ancient king of Kalos from 3000 years ago, who built the ultimate weapon that Flare is going to use for their plans. Also AZ had a brother and Lysandre is the descendent of that brother. AZ is immortal and so is his Floette he brought back to life, but Floette left because they were both guilty that a ton of Pokemon died to bring her back.
- The villainous team's plans ultimately become dangerous on a regional scale, and the player and friends have to stop them.
- In BW1, N defeats Alder and his castle rises up around the Pokemon League. You are roadblocked by the seven sages, but Bianca calls in the gym leaders to help out. You reawaken your dragon and defeat N, putting a stop to his plans. Ghetsis reveals he was pulling the strings, goes unhinged and then you defeat him too. Then Alder and Cheren take him into custody.
- In XY, Lysandre sends a broadcast to everyone in Kalos through the Holo Caster saying “everyone that isn't in Team Flare is going to die” when he uses the ultimate weapon. You go to stop him and ultimately the weapon in question unearths itself in Geosenge Town. You go there and catch the legendary Pokemon being used to power the weapon, then defeat Lysandre, who fires the weapon but only manages to get himself killed instead. Dumbass.
Let me put it in perspective for you. Pokemon Red and Blue really didn't have much of a story. Neither did Gold and Silver, or Ruby and Sapphire or so on and so forth. But because they didn't really have a focus on story, the intrusion of story scenes was rare and generally innocuous. I feel like I'd liken it to the first Final Fantasy. You don't have any kind of cutscene when you first reach the Crescent Lake, just like you don't really have any cutscene when you first reach Azalea Town. You're only told where to go next when you talk to a bunch of sages and hear about Mount Gulg, just like you're only directed to the Slowpoke Well after talking to Kurt in town. This kind of flow is an advantage the main series of Pokemon games have had since the beginning. A lack of story isn't an issue because there's so few points where control is taken away from the player without their knowledge. Those were saved for things like encounters with the rival, which were supposed to be jarring and shake you up.
XY doesn't have that kind of advantage because it tries to have a story. BW1 succeeded at this because it actually had an enjoyable story, so the interruptions of the story weren't unwelcome. XY's interruptions... really aren't. It fails to have an enjoyable story, so having the game drop everything and have some more story happen feels like a chore to sit through. This is one of the necessary risks of having a story in your game in general, of course, but it is no more evident than here. If a game has a good story, it is better than a game with a bad story, and if a game doesn't really have a story, it is also better than a game with a bad story. BW1 made me welcome when the story poked its head in because the story was engaging; XY makes me button-mash. People are more endeared to Frank and Sly than the main characters, and Frank and Sly are literally just NPC trainers outside a cave.
Ultimately, XY's narrative can be best described as “how BW1's story could have turned out, in a bad way”. The games both try to do the same things, but where BW1 succeeds, XY fails on nearly every level. It doesn't give the characters enough time to develop personalities and relegates a lot of important details to a large infodump (or even worse, an easily-missed optional area). It rushes both stories and doesn't think to weave the two together, leading to both plots wasting much of their potential and feeling rather unsatisfying. And because the story constantly pops up in the game despite the fact that it doesn't have its act together, the game's flow is broken up quite a lot.
The reason that this frustrates me so much is because XY actually adds lots and lots of new additions, features and improvements that I applaud and heartily hope become permanent changes. Super Training is a great new way to keep tabs on EV training, Pokemon-Amie is a wonderful way to bond with your Pokemon and get gameplay benefits in the process, the PSS is one of the best implementations of online in a Nintendo game I've ever seen. The move to 3D was pulled off with aplomb and the game looks and sounds great. But some of XY's additions aren't quite as polished, and alongside its story being a flop, it means that I can't help but see XY as a very flawed game. BW1 wasn't flawed in any way except for the fact that it didn't add any new major additions like XY did.
BW1 did nothing massively new in terms of its gameplay, but had a huge aesthetic overhaul, was polished in all of its aspects, and had an interesting story that touched on parts of the Pokemon world that typically weren't discussed in the games. XY tries new things, some of which are successes and some of which are failures, and its story is so lackluster that it actually hurts the game. Because a lot of XY's additions are really well done to me, I can no longer confidently say that BW1 is the one game I would recommend every Pokemon fan to play, despite the fact that XY also has failings. Quite frankly, that's a little disheartening.