Pokémon Sun & Moon: 10 Things It Must Lose From X & Y
It's easy to forget the first 3DS entry had a bit of an imperfect start...
It may have taken the best part of two years following the release of the hardware, but in late 2013, the Pokémon franchise finally made it's hotly anticipated debut on the Nintendo 3DS with X & Y. Much was expected of what was said to be a fairly revolutionary entry for the series, and for the most part the game delivered terrifically well.
However, Pokémon X & Y were not perfect games. Sure they may have been pretty close to capturing the essence of the beloved formula and transposing it into a more angled perspective, but there were also a great many new features or additions that didn't quite hit the desired mark.
While a lot of the advice that Sun & Moon can take from their predecessors will simply be to ask for more of the same, there are also plenty of things that need to be left behind.
To that end, some of X & Y's more unfamiliar elements probably won't be welcomed back by the series' fans if they persist...
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10. Don't Force So Many 'Exclusive Event' Pokémon On Us
"Catching 'em all" has always been a bit of a daunting task. In its own right, the idea of catching the hundreds of beasts would be tremendously difficult even if they were all available within the realms of a region. Sadly the task has always been further complicated by the addition of version-exclusives and special evolutions, but one method for obtaining rarer Pokémon needs to be dropped above all others.
Pokémon X & Y included a massive number of event-only Pokémon, with different retailers able to offer different exclusives depending on the time or area. This is great if you live close to a video game store, but considerably less so if your town or city is one of those suffering from high street closures and a lack of immediately available entertainment outlets.
Instead of relying so heavily on retail events, the combination Mystery Gift and trades across the Player Search System are a much better way of moderating the availability of certain Pokémon. Nintendo have tried hard to boost the popularity of their players' online connections, and with X & Y these really took off in a great way. It's time that they fully replaced the retailer exclusives and event Pokémon.