YMMV / Pokémon X and Y

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A-C

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The stick inside Braixen's tail. It's supposed to look like a witch's broomstick, but it still invites "stick up your ass" jokes. Doesn't help that it can pull it out and use it as a wand. Nor does the fact it's said it keeps the stick stuck there to remain calm.
  • Play a male character with a name starting with D and the proposed nicknames are things like D-meister and Big-D...
  • Play a female character with a C name, however, and you get nicknames like Li'l C, Lady C, and C-kins. With Friends Like These......
  • Pokémon have a preference on where they like to be petted. Some like being petted by the ears, other like it...elsewhere, including Cloyster's horn, Honedge's blade, Gardevoir's chest, or Machoke's crotch...It'll go over the younger players' heads, but it'll leave a good number of older players giggling.
  • Your male Gogoat can learn Milk Drink. It's not as Squicky once you find out male goats also lactate, but still. You're probably not thinking at first, that he's suckling milk...
  • In the Juice Shoppe in Lumiose City, there is a woman who mentions that Berry Juice will also energize people, and then mentions that it made her husband frolic like a teenager the night before. It could be taken the innocent, energy drink way, or a more risque way that only older players would get.
  • "I'm a real grown-up, you see, so I've picked up lots of Great Balls."
  • "It's finally time. Follow me to my chambers." Seriously, Lysandre?
  • In the Battle Maison, one of the opponents you have to face is a Gardener who says, "Graceful blossom! I'm going to snippety-snip you right at the stem!"
  • Everything about Mr. Bonding and his O-Powers, which he encourages you to use "as often as possible." The fact that he gives them to you in a hotel room by declaring "It's bonding time!" as the screen goes black doesn't help.
  • This gem of an exchange spoken by a couple in Lumiose City:
    "Y'know...My Emolga really wants to shock your Dedenne."
    "...What?"
  • An NPC in Hotel Ambrette says he "never drops the balls". Okay...
  • In a cafe in Lumiose, someone will ask if you prefer long or short. Choose "short" and he'll comment that you have "some taste". Choose "long" and he'll agree about needing a "decent length". Choose "What?!" and he'll clarify he's talking about focal length, like with cameras.
• Adorkable:
  • Trevor makes a big deal out of completing his Pokédex, and puts a lot of effort into trying to explain the simplest things.
  • Clemont's banter with his younger sister, Bonnie, suggests he tries really hard to get people to take him seriously, but it doesn't work too well.
• Alternate Self Shipping: Due to the ability to choose between three designs of Calem and Serena, people ship the canon design, Ambiguously Brown design, and blue eyed design.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Tierno scored third place on an X and Y character popularity poll in Japan. He gets hardly any attention from the Western fanbase. At least, not much positive attention.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: Lysandre/Sycamore is very popular, especially with the reveal that Lysandre was formerly Sycamore's student.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: The Player Search System (or PSS) loves to give annoying pop-ups when you aren't interacting with it, including gleefully reminding you that your battery is low...even when you've already plugged in. It also keeps reminding you about Wonder Trade, the GTS, etc. no matter how many times you use those features. As well as constantly hounding you to fill in your profile, even after you have already done so.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Similar to Iris, Diantha, the Champion, is seen by some as this due to falling to Poor, Predictable Rock, considering half the team are weak against Steel-type attacks (and though Steel is the least common attacking type, Aegislash is in this game, was quite a popular Pokémon and is very powerful), but four of them are weak against Ice. The difficulty of the Champion, of course, is dependent on how much you use the game breakers available to you. But, in general, the main flaw in the Champion's team is that most of the team is very slow and almost all have multiple common weaknesses, even if all the Pokémon hit hard. Team ace Mega Gardevoir however, is commonly agreed to be hard to beat.
  • Lysandre is literally at the climax of the main story, but he's a pushover, especially in X. The reason is that before the fight you receive the box legendary, in Y it's Yveltal, X has Xerneas. Two of his Pokémon are Dark and one is Fighting, making them fodder for Xerneas's ridiculously powerful Moonblast. The only survivor will be his Pyroar. Xerneas will need Geomancy to beat it, but even without Geomancy, it's a Fire/Normal type and you have five other Pokémon to face it with; it won't do much. Yveltal's signature Oblivion Wing can also deal heavy damage to most of his Pokémon while keeping itself alive. While it can't sweep Lysandre's team as easily as Xerneas can, it's still possible to win entirely on its own as long as you play smart.
  • The Elite Four are still quite tough the first time around, at least without the EXP Share. Fast-forward a bit to when you're inevitably planning on an epic rematch...and none of their teams have gotten stronger or added new Pokémon, not even the Champion. For many, it's seen as a huge disappointment. At least you get to see Malva show her Ax-Crazy nature through her new pre- and post- battle quotes.
• Arc Fatigue: The climax of the Team Flare plotline is found by most players to be an absolute slog to get through. You must backtrack to break into Team Flare's hidden base (which contains a maze of teleporters and spin tiles), then backtrack again to break into Team Flare's other base (completely linear this time around), catch Xerneas/Yveltal and defeat Team Flare's boss for good. Throughout this whole arc you fight said boss a total of three times. Many players believe this whole segment could have been either cut down to one location, or broken up into two separate missions alternated in-between other plotlines.
• Awesome Music: See here.
• Base-Breaking Character: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • If you're one of the people that obtained Diancie from an event, a butler and maid show up out of nowhere asking you to hand over your Diancie for research. You can say no, but they insist on it until their master comes in to stop them. You never see them again after that quick cutscene, and you don't get anything from that. Uhh...okay?
  • In one of the Lumiose City office buildings, a Hex Maniac appears from the elevator, moves around you without any animations, and then says "No, you're not the one." before moving further into the room and vanishing. No explanation for the event and it never occurs again. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire reference the event by including a Hex Maniac with the same quote (it's implied that this Hex Maniac is the ghost, as the games precede X and Y chronologically), but it still doesn't answer things.
  • The Scary House has no relevance to the plot at all, it's a place where you and all your friends gather (and you have to) to hear an old guy tell a scary story. Which isn't all-too scary. You gain nothing from this encounter at all and there's no reason for it to be here. Possibly it was meant to foreshadow some other event, but if so, they never got to it.
• Breather Boss:
  • Korrina can be quite powerful if you battle her the "right" way, but if you use Ghost-type Pokémon against her, well, let's just say it's very easy to curb-stomp her.
  • Ramos, mostly because you can get powerful fully-evolved Fire- and Flying-types by that point. He comes in between the conclusion of the Mega Evolution plot and the Team Flare kickoff, and he's considered to be pretty easy to take down even without the EXP Share.
  • Olympia; despite being the seventh Gym Leader, her "strongest" Pokémon is a Meowstic, which you'll be familiar with after your rival battles with Calem/Serena, one of which happens right before you enter the Gym. The only differences are that Olympia's Meowstic is female and knows Calm Mind, Olympia's signature TM move. The rest of her team is pretty unimpressive and won't put up much of a fight.
• Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Guess who Team Flare's leader is! Hint: It's the guy who goes on long tangents about beauty and global destruction, rants about human filth, has fiery red hair, dresses like someone associated with Team Flare, and owns a cafe that Team Flare hangs out at.
  • The champion isn't much obscure. Hint: It's the ultra-famous, highly admired NPC you bump into twice, who promises a battle next time you meet.
• Casual-Competitive Conflict:
  • This is a big part of why the games are divisive. Fans largely agree that the competitive side of things was handled much better here than it was in Generation 5, with the weather nerfs and the Fairy-type completely overwhelming Unova's powerhouses ^* Dragon, Dark, Fighting, Bug. However, with the feeling that it came at the expense of the main campaign and the various side features, which are largely seen as the highlights of the Unova games, fans were divded on which was the better installment, largely decided by how they played the games in the first place. This wound up repeating itself with the Alola games, which were praised by casual players for its story and characters and criticized by competitive players for doing next to nothing to address its state of affairs (fans of Unova and fans of Alola tend to get along for this reason).
  • With IV Breeding being more widely accessible now, this was inevitable. The ugliness has even spread from the Periphery Demographic of older gamers into Miiverse, the intended demographic of younger gamers. That's right, little kids are issuing death threats now because you use Double Team or because you won't let them use Double Team.
  • The conflict about Smogon rules (competitive rules made by fandom) started way before XY. The introduction of Mega Pokémon puts more fire on it since Smogon started to ban some of them saying they are too broken.
    • Since Mega Kangaskhan is a fan favorite, many trainers jumped at the chance to train her. The news that she was banned from Smogon due to the inflicting Total Party Kills with very few counters left a sour taste in many fans which play under Smogon rules. Most people already had a well-loved and well-trained one on their team, so when the news got out, it wasn't uncommon to take it as a personal attack against their friend and partner. Although this doesn't affect people who play rating or free battles in the game, since the Official rules allows the use of Mega Kangaskhan.
    • Mega Lucario being banned from unleashed a similar outcry, as there was a touching sequence where he joined your party as part of the storyline. There were many who didn't want to let go of their beloved punching puppies.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Several Pokémon were hit with this trope, and ended up being used on most teams in multiplayer. However, the most infamous cases (especially early on) were Greninja, Talonflame and Aegislash, who were given the derogatory Fan Nicknames of "Smogonfrog", "Smogonbird" and "Smogonsword" respectively (after unofficial competitive site Smogon) for how frequently they were used on competitive teams.^note Smogon would end up banning Greninja and Aegislash from standard play later on, and Talonflame got a massive Nerf in Gen VII.
• Contested Sequel: Pokémon X and Pokémon Y are notably polarizing entries, for drastically changing its priorities compared to how previous generations were designed. The games largely focused on streamlining the core Pokémon gameplay and providing for a more user-friendly and crowd-pleasing experience than previous games, but the story, characters and postgame are usually considered to be lacking. As such, there are many people who praise the games for the former, and many who criticize them for the latter, and one's opinion on X and Y largely depends on what they're looking for in a Pokémon game.
• Crack Pairing:
  • There's quite a bit of fan art pairing up Shauna with her Goodra.
  • Serena is often paired up with Greninja in fan art.
  • Sylveon and Hydreigon, thanks to one piece of official art. Many have Sylveon be the dominant one in the pairing as well.
  • Chesnaught/Greninja came out of nowhere and has copious amounts of fanart.
  • Platonic or not, there's notable following of AZ and Serena.
    • Hell, AZ and anyone can be quite the Crack Pairing.
• Creepy Awesome: Mega Banette is covered in zippers (resembling scars) and gets some pretty wicked-looking claws. Its longer head-tail and gown-like unzipped body definitely contribute to this.
• Creepy Cute:
  • Espurr. It's both staring into your soul and adorable at the same time.
  • Valerie. Some find her appearance off-putting (Mostly her eyes. They have no visible pupil and almost no sclera), but her personality makes it veer straight into this.
  • Hex Maniacs. They were meant to be unsettling, but their cartoony swirly pupils, wide smile and lovable awkwardness endears them to fans.
• Critical Dissonance: The games got very strong reviews and are among the most highly-regarded modern Pokémon games by mainstream outlets and more nostalgic fans, but the core fanbase views them far more divisively. Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Pokémon X and Pokémon Y were able to Win Back the Crowd of nostalgic fans and received widespread acclaim, but garnered quite a bit of flak for becoming too formulaic compared to the previous "experimental" entries.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The player battling the owner of the Restauraunt Le Wow so intensely that the owner gets a heart attack and gets incapacitated for the rest of your meal. Made even funnier by the fact that he always gets better by your next visit, often resulting in you giving the restaurant owner a heart attack on a daily basis if you're trying to farm money.

D-F

• Demonic Spiders:
  • Horde battles are a good source of experience, but they can still be very annoying early-on. They can turn a horde of Pokémon that are normally in the Goddamned Bats category into this really quickly. For example, a horde of Wild Scraggy can spam Sand Attack (lowers your accuracy) and Leer (lowers your Defense), so when the group decides to attack, they can faint your Pokémon (unless of course, you're a higher level...but if you're trying to train a low-level Pokémon, then you're stuffed). It also makes capturing some Pokémon such as Zangoose or Seviper rather difficult, since they tend to turn on one another owing to Gameplay and Story Integration.
    • Also on Route 19, you have the potential to encounter hordes of Wild Gligar, which pack the powerful Flying-type move, Acrobatics, which has double power when the user isn't holding an item (which they probably won't) on top of the STAB bonus. Be hopeful that they all don't try to use it on you at once, otherwise expect you Pokémon to take serious damage, especially if they are weak to Flying.
  • On the single battle side of things, Emolga and Hawlucha stand out. The former is just like what it was in Black and White, but this time, it has Nuzzle (a damaging move which always paralyzes you), and the latter is fairly powerful and quite fast. Running into either leaves a very unlikely chance of getting out in one piece.
  • Wild Inkay have Swagger and Foul Play, which leaves you at the complete mercy of the RNG, and Reflect, so your attack boosts don't mean much.
  • There's a cave where you can find wild Wobbuffet, with its infamous Shadow Tag ability which prevents you from escaping or even changing Pokémon, and its usual movepool^note Counter and Mirror Coat both have a chance to hit hard, depending on the classification of your previous move, while Destiny Bond outright knocks out your Pokémon if Wobbuffet faints, which means that if you have no move to OHKO it (a Dark-, Bug- or Ghost-type move from a decent-leveled Pokémon) or no Ghost-type Pokémon/Pokémon with Run Away in your team, you're likely dead. Stocking up on Poké Balls and capturing them to get around their Destiny Bond can work but their capture rates make this frustrating too. And we thought Patrat's line was bad enough for Nuzlockers...
  • But some of the above are considered nothing compared to the underleveled Hydreigon that can sometimes dive-bomb you out of nowhere in the outside areas of Victory Road. It has overall great stats as well as Levitate to cancel out your Pokémon's Ground-type moves, and it has Work Up to boost its Attack and Special Attack, Scary Face to lower your Pokémon's speed, and Body Slam (which has a small chance of paralyzing your Pokémon) and STAB Dragon Rush to serve as powerful moves. Not to mention, its capture rate makes it rather frustrating to catch as well.
• Engaging Chevrons: The Mega Evolution sequence. While the player doing the pose only occurs once per log-in (except for a few major battles, like the Pokémon League Champion), having to go through the Mega Evolution animation on every battle can get grating, especially if doing the Battle Maison.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Even Better Sequel: From a technical standpoint. Critics gave the game more glowing reviews than both Black and White games^note (although X is presently tied with White on Game Rankings.com). On the gamers side, those who play the series for competitive battling consider X and Y to be the best games yet.
• Evil Is Cool: Yveltal, for being a Dark-type and embodying destruction. Also Lysandre, for very ravishing in appearance, fitting for being a boss of Team Flare, a team whose goal is to attempt to make the world more beautiful by comiting omnicide on humans and Pokémon alike.
• Fake Difficulty: The high level curve and lack of move tutors are what really make it "challenging;" but it's mostly because it requires you to grind more. In fact, a lot of the Gym Leaders have generic movepools and still use 3 Pokémon each, with most others using about 4.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Fennekin has been called Mozilla. Or Fennekin Skywalker.
  • Xerneas has been called X-Deer, Xcalibur, Shishigami, or X. Its shiny version has been called the Toothpaste Deer.
  • Likewise, Yveltal has been dubbed Y-Bird, Y-vern/Yvern (from wyvern), Sky Bacon/Bacon Bird (due to the patterns and red coloring on its underbelly), and Y. It's also been referred to as Red Lugia or Bacon Lugia, due to its resemblance to the Silver mascot. And then Yveltal's shiny palette was released, the black is replaced with white. So literally, Bacon Bird.
  • Chespinrito.
  • Chespin's first evolution Quilladin is often nicknamed Chespiñata, due to its round, bloated shape.
  • Froakie is being nicknamed Benjamin Froaklin for his resemblance to the Founding Father. Also, some who hope for a dark-psychic-fighting reverse circle call it Hypnotoad.
  • Kyubey is a popular nickname for the new Eeveelution, Sylveon.
  • DRAGON SLAYER for the Fairy-types.
  • Hexcalibur for Honedge.
  • "Mewthree" (harkening back to old Gen I rumors) for Mewtwo's Y Mega Evolution, before it was revealed as a forme rather than a new species. "Newtwo" is also common. Also, due to its similar appearance to Buu, it has been nicknamed Mewbuu and Mewjin Buu.
  • Ampharos' Mega Evolution has given it the names Amphabulous and Amphabio for its long, flowing hair.
  • "Princess Absol" for Mega Absol, as a few months earlier another popular horned quadrupedal character grew wings as a sign of maturity and was crowned a Princess for it.
  • Greninja is often nicknamed Jiraiya, often in reference to Naruto or Persona 4. Disco Ninja Frog is also an option due to the latter source material's famous Hiimdaisy parody. It's also frequently called "Smogonfrog", which is part of a nicknaming trend for Pokémon that are listed in OU on Smogon's tier system in Gen VI ("Smogonsword" for Aegislash, "Smogonbird" for Talonflame, etc.).
  • Klefki is often nicknamed Boo-Boo Keys.
  • "Gordon Ramsay" for Siebold, due to both being fierce-tempered blond chefs.
  • Some fans have begun nicknaming their Pangoro Jotaro.
  • Nightwing is a very popular one for Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame, because the line is based on robins and the first Robin (as in, "Batman and") later used "Nightwing" as his adult superhero alias.^note Unfortunately, Robin the Boy Wonder was created in 1940, and his real name is Dick, which will not pass the text censor in the game.
  • Talonflame's also been referred to as "Bravest Bird" (due to the move Brave Bird being the most commonly utilized to abuse its Gale Wings ability).
  • Aside from the aforementioned Smogonsword, an Aegislash with Physical and Special attacks on the save moveset is referred to as "The Crumbler", based off of a post by a Smogon forums moderator named alexwolf.
  • Calem and Serena are sometimes given the full names of "Calem Xavier" and "Serena Yvonne," combining their official names and their acknowledged fan names (as seen below). The latter extends to Serena's anime incarnation.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Despite Sycamore being called a ladies' man, seemingly having your mother crush on him, and Diantha constantly calling him 'dear' at the League, Lysandre/Sycamore has gained quite a following due to their history together.
  • On the het side of things there's Calem/Serena.
  • Calem/Shauna and Serena/Shauna is also very popular, with many players assuming that the tender moment they shared on the balcony at Parfum Palace would lead to hand-holding or a kiss.
  • Trevor/Shauna is very commonly used as a Beta Couple by Calem/Serena shippers.
  • Quite a few people ship Trevor/Serena.
  • Calem/Emma, especially on Pixiv.
  • Sycamore/Serena and Lysandre/Serena. Occasionally, both at once.
  • This region's Elite Four created the Ship Mates Siebold/Malva and Wikstrom/Drasna.
  • Lysandre and Malva for being part of Team Flare.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Lysandre◊ looks fine for much of the game...but the final battle comes, and he's inexplicably wearing what can only be described as as an edgy Doctor Octopus cosplay that even the game admits looks stupid. What's more, all those tentacles and the visor don't do anything to help him.
• Faux Symbolism: Xerneas is an anagram of Serena^note The Canon Name for the female Player Character with an X added. One would assume this is a Significant Anagram, especially if you're a fan of Kingdom Hearts, but this actually has zero meaning beyond being its name.
• First Installment Wins: In terms of the 'regional-gimmick' that these games started, Mega Evolution remains the most popular out of all of them, with Z-moves considered fairly one-note yet unpredictable, Dynamax being outright broken, unpredictable and coming at the cost of the previous mechanics, and Terastallization being less broken than its predecessor but still bordering that line, again, partially due to unpredictability. Being the first mechanic to be introduced also helps its case along with breathing life into generally mediocre/forgotten Pokémon such as Mawile and Beedrill. It also helps that it's (currently) the only mechanic to have made it into a second generation, with its mechanics being refined to criticism at that point.^note Mega Evolutions had their speed updated so that they would have the speed of their current form on the turn they Mega Evolved, instead of their regular forms, and many Megas considered too strong were nerfed - such as Mega Salamence's Aerilate becoming weaker and the second hit of Mega Kangaskhan's Parental Bond being halved.
• Franchise Original Sin: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.

G-J

• Game-Breaker:
  • The Exp. Share. It becomes a key item that gives your entire party EXP against foes that you beat. With this thing, you'll be turning the game into one big Curb-Stomp Battle faster than you can say "Screw you guys, I'm going home". You can turn it off if you choose to, however.
  • For catching Pokémon, a Smeargle with the moves False Swipe, Spore, Taunt, and Soak. False Swipe can bring a Pokémon down to 1 HP without making it faint. Spore puts it to sleep with a 100% chance. Taunt prevents it from using status or healing moves. Finally, Soak is used if its typing resists or is immune to the other 3 moves.
  • Any danger from wild Pokémon battles becomes non-existent if you lead with a Ghost-type, because their new buff not only prevents them from being trapped, it allows you to always run away successfully, regardless of Speed.
  • During the first three months of the game, there was a free event Pokémon: a Torchic with a Mega Stone. As long as you could get online, you could get this Torchic at the very first Pokémon Center. He's a Disc-One Nuke due to the fact he's probably at a higher level than your other Pokémon, but thanks to his Exp Boost (since he's technically a trade Pokémon), Hidden Ability (Speed Boost), Mega Evolution, and just the fact that Blaziken is a great Pokémon, you get one of the best Pokémon in the game for free at the beginning.
  • Someone has made a program that allows anyone to view their opponent's stats, movesets, and even read their inputs online. The implications for Wi-Fi battles are horrifying, which is why soon after its existence was made known, online rating battles were disabled until a patch was released to prevent the program from working.
  • Several Megas wound up being this:
    • Mega Gengar gained a Special Attack boost that tied it with White Kyurem for fourth-highest in the game, along with a large Speed boost as well. The thing that really overdid it, however, was its acquisition of Shadow Tag, allowing it to snipe at least two Pokémon without fail by way of its flawless attack coverage and access to shenanigans like Destiny Bond and Perish Song.
    • Mega Kangaskhan's Parental Bond ability lets it attack twice in the same turn without reducing the chance for secondary effects on the second hit^note Some of the most notable examples: Power-Up Punch now doubles attack while attacking, Body Slam has a 51% chance of paralysis, and Seismic Toss does 200 HP fixed damage, making Mega Kangaskhan a walking death machine that obliterated whole teams by itself. In its heyday, it degenerated the singles metagame into one team: M-Khan, two checks, and two counter-checks, and filler - which you can still see in full effect in Battle Spot. You know it's bad when Masuda himself is considering nerfing her in response to fan complaints.
    • Blaziken was one of the few Pokémon who was granted a Mega, and like Kangaskhan, Mega Blaziken had enough speed and power to 6-0 teams by itself. Normal Blaziken, meanwhile, got no notable nerfs that would make it less broken; however, it gained access to Baton Pass and Speed Boost on the same set, making the task of checking it even more daunting as it can now escape with any boosts passed onto another sweeper.
  • Fairies are succeeding Gen I Psychics and Dragons as the most powerful type. They're strong against many types and difficult to counter if you don't have a Poison- or Steel-type Pokémon on your team. Even using those types has its drawbacks: most Poison-types, bar the likes of Mega Gengar, are too frail or overspecialized, and their attacks are mostly Special-oriented (most Fairy-types have high Special Defense). Steel-type moves aren't very common due to it being a previously defense-oriented type. Not to mention the low distribution of Poison and Steel moves in general, while Fairies generally have access to many coverage moves against Poison and Steel. It doesn't help that many Fairy-types also get powerful abilities that compound their stats and movepools, such as Prankster for Klefki, Pixilate for Sylveon and Huge Power for Mega Mawile.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The title itself recalls the Cartesian coordinates (which is named after French (the region which Kalos is based on) Mathematician René Descartes), as well as a variety of other mathematical uses. It could also reflect the Video Game 3D Leap, since this generation is the first one with a Z-axis.
  • Also, the deer Legendary Pokémon Xerneas is most probably based off of a chital, also known as an axis deer. While the bird Yveltal takes a few visual cues from condors, it's also draconian enough to be said to based off of a mythical Wyvern.
  • Yveltal also looks quite a bit like a Bearded Vulture◊.
  • Xerneas is terrestrial, or on the ground, the X-axis. Yveltal is in the air, the Y-axis. Their signature moves (Xerneas' Geomancy and Yveltal's Oblivion Wing) reinforce this motif.
    • Zygarde represents the Z-axis; being found underground, its location is also a pun on depth, another name for the 3rd dimension.
  • The mascot Legendary Trio for this generation seems to be based on the Norse myth of Yggdrasil. Xerneas is based on the four stags in the branches, Yveltal is based on Veðrfölnir the hawk at the top, and Zygarde is based on either Nidhogg or one of the other serpents under the tree.
    • Zygarde's ability Aura Break, weakens Yveltal's and Xerneas's Dark and Fairy moves respectively. What does Nidhogg do in Norse mythology? Feeds on the roots of Yggdrasil, which Xerneas and Yveltal are based around.
    • The trio also has roots in Hindu Mythology Trimurti (trinity), with Xerneas having a basis in Brahma, the creator; Zygarde being based on Vishnu, the preserver; and Yveltal being based on Siva, the destroyer. Both Norse and Hindu Mythology have the same Proto-Indo-European root.
  • The whole Fairy typing is actually based on The Fair Folk. Iron being a weakness of magical creatures isn't exactly common knowledge^note Even Smogon has been found guilty of Comically Missing the Point on this. Likewise, their strengths against the Dragon-type come from certain legends; for example, Lancelot was raised by fairies and is said to have been a dragonslayer.
  • Swirlix, a Fairy-type, is based on cotton candy, or as it's called in certain countries, fairy floss.
  • Spritzee's bird-like appearance, association with aromatics, and its face give it a heavy connection with plague doctors, who would wear bird-shaped masks filled with scented substances.
  • Why does Heliolisk get Surf? It's based on the basilisk lizard, which is famous for its ability to run on water.
  • On the botanical side, Yache berries were already amusing in that they were the Ice-resist berry, but here you find a Yache tree in the colder part of the region, up on a cliff. Cherimoya trees (the fruit Yache is based on) are known for growing in cold temperatures and at high altitudes compared to other fruits.
  • Female Litleo are quite common, but males are fairly rare. Unless you're lucky, you're going to be searching for at least half an hour for a male one. This is because, in the wild, female lions are much more active and widespread than males. A pride will have as much as six females, but only one or two males.
  • Coumarine City's name seems a bit weird at first; after all, it's a port town and "marine" is in the name, yet the Gym Leader there uses Grass-types. However, it's named for the chemical compound coumarin, a sweet-smelling substance found in many plants.
  • Skiddo is mentioned in the Pokédex to be one of the first Pokémon that befriended humans. Researching prehistory can tell you that one of the first agricultural animals to be domesticated was the goat.
  • The fact that female and male Gogoat can learn Milk Drink seems strange and kind of gross at first, but in real life male goats actually are able to lactate.
  • The Lumiose Gang, a collective of minor miscreants who attach themselves to bigger groups, are named after dwarf planets of our solar system.
  • Diancie is created when Carbink undergoes a strange mutation. Carbink is named after Carbon and Diancie is named after Diamond. Via extreme heat and pressure, carbon turns into diamonds.
  • Poodles were bred to swim and be strong enough to carry humans. Sure enough, Furfrou can learn Surf and thus you can ride one around in water. (That being said, they would carry drowning victims and bring them to shore, but Surf is close enough.)
  • Talonflame being a Fire-type Pokémon based on a falcon makes a lot more sense once you learn that falcons in Australia have learned to control fire.
  • If Infinity Energy sounds like nuclear power and the Ultimate Weapon a Fantastic Nuke, that was likely intentional: France has the third-largest nuclear weapon stockpile behind Russia and the United States, built by some of the smartest nuclear physicists in the world, and was among the last countries with nuclear weapons to sign a nuclear treaty (at least among countries that have signed any at all). In addition, modern-day France gets its electricity primarily via nuclear energy, not unlike how Infinity Energy is depicted.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • As far as human characters go, apart from Serena, Shauna and Sycamore, Lysandre seems to be getting the most attention from the Western fanbase for being a badass villain who manages to be both sympathetic and completely out of his mind, while in Japan he ranked fairly mediocre on their character popularity poll. His Mega Gyarados helps too.
  • Dear god, Mega Charizard X in America. This is probably the fanbase's best example yet of American Kirby Is Hardcore; not only was Charizard already outrageously popular there for being one of the "tough" mons, but Charizard X is a black-colored version of it with red eyes and lots of spikes and is also an actual Dragon-type...and became one of the game's most-hyped additions, if not the most-hyped addition, by far in the US.
  • Tyrantrum also seems to be more popular in America than in the rest of the world, with America loving the T. rex in general thanks to Jurassic Park, and most T. rex fossils being found in the US and Canada.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Horde Battles in the game can turn one Pokémon into a group of annoying spammers. Said Pokémon will frequently spam stat-lowering attacks. And yes, they spam Sand Attack on you, and you can encounter hordes of Zubat too.
  • Rock-type hordes often have Sturdy so you can't one-shot them despite the level difference. Encountering them without an area attack is a nightmare.
  • A rare horde of Smoochum in the Frost Cavern can cause major frustration. Why? They all know Sing. Lum Berries don't help, since any of them can use it again in the following turn, meaning that if you wanted to catch one without a Pokémon with Insomnia or Vital Spirit, you will need to go to a Pokémon Center right afterward.
  • Emolga makes its glorious return from Black and White (2), with a new move called Nuzzle which is essentially Thunder Wave meets a damaging move. The rodent will very likely paralyze a good deal of your party.
  • In some caves, there are Pokémon (Woobat and Noibat being some of them) that will unexpectedly drop at you, even when you use Repels. Their position is indicated by a shadow on the ground, but it's still annoying if you don't pay attention.
  • The digging wild Pokémon on Route 13. They're hard enough to avoid on their own, but with the easterly wind hampering any western progress you try to make (and, naturally, you'll need to go west to advance the plot), they become absolutely impossible to avoid unless you know a Guide Dang It! solution to avoid them. Even worse, most of them have Arena Trap, meaning you better have a Flying, Ghost or levitating Pokémon in the lead if you don't want to waste time fighting.
  • Bunnelby were everywhere in the Wonder Trade during the games' initial release, which many found annoying when they were looking for rarer or better Pokémon. This was due to Japanese Griefers flooding the Wonder Trade with Bunnelby, though this has abated somewhat (because after a while, they get nothing but Bunnelby in return).
    • For a while, the American fans tried to counter-prank them by spamming Zubat in the Wonder Trade.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Magnezone (and Magneton to a lesser extent) in the Super Training. Magnezone moves around in a strange circular pattern, making it hell to Lead the Target with your shots. Both of them fire homing balls that require you to move either horizontally or vertically to avoid them, and said projectiles take away a good amount of your score. That said, they're not too hard to avoid, but this makes it harder to concentrate on attacking them and consumes your precious time.
  • Wailord and Dragalge in Super Training, as well. Both of them have smaller balloons that take hits for the Balloon Bot and shoot hard-to-dodge attacks. Wailord has a ton of points needed to destroy it, while Dragalge is a hard-to-hit target that moves constantly.
  • Later on in the Super Secret Training there's Stunfisk and Vivillon. Stunfisk's weak points pop up for an extremely short amount of time, and it shoots gigantic shots. Vivillon is the same, but it also constantly moves and its weak points are only vulnerable for a second at most.
• Growing the Beard: X and Y mark the point when the Pokémon series began to integrate itself fully with its older Periphery Demographic, as it catered directly to their tastes through its Pokédex (the selection is enormous and spans all the previous generations, complete with the iconic Kanto starters and legendaries), a storyline that goes into darker territory than usual, and vastly improved and more transparent breeding/training mechanics. Even if previous games have tried doing this to an extent, this is the first time where the developers and fans have been largely in sync.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The concept of a terrorist group secretly working undercover in a region based on France becomes very unsettling after the Paris attacks in late 2015 (and, to a lesser extent, the Charlie Hebdo shooting earlier that year). Even worse is the fact that Team Flare disguises their base as a cafe; cafes were one of the many areas attacked in the bombings.
  • AZ murdering an unholy amount of Pokémon & Humans in response to his beloved Floette's death, even after having revived them is already depressing enough, but to make matters worse? The in-game protagonist of a creepypasta predating this game known as Pokémon Strangled Red, involved an instance of the protagonist murdering his own brother due to an Accidental Murder that occured in a trade accident... prompting very chilling comparisions with the two considering they're both cases for a platonic version of Love Makes You Evil.
• He's Just Hiding: Some like to think this of Lysandre in Y, who appears to commit suicide by bringing his lair down upon himself. Dialogue from Sycamore saying that "you saved Lysandre" supports this, but it may just be dialogue made with X in mind that the developers neglected to remove.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Check the main page.
• Ho Yay:
  • A little bit of Les Yay between the female protagonist and the proprietress of the hair salon. If you get enough haircuts from her, she will greet you with the following:
  Hello.........Oh! ...S-sorry...Oh...Silly me...<player name>, you look so great...I was mesmerized by you...Ahem...Let me collect myself first...

  • Strangely, though, if you get Diancie, she mentions a husband.
  • Again, when playing as the female protagonist, the moment between her and Shauna at the Parfum Palace comes off as this.
  • Brains & Brawn NPCs Frank◊ and Sly.◊ The Brains and Brawn pairing even have their own tag on Pixiv.
  • In Café le Nah, two men are eating together and tell you there is nothing wrong with that.
  • The waiter at Cafe Gallante tells you that he'd like to work with a handsome manager.
  • If you beat her in the Battle Chateau, Valerie says she "might just be captivated by you." Even if you're playing as Serena. In fact, many of her lines (to the female player) count:
  Oh, if it isn't my young Trainer...We seem to keep meeting like this, don't we? Then I suppose you have earned yourself the right to a battle, as a reward for your efforts.
  I hope you will accept this gift from me...Please consider it as a personal gift from me, not simply the winnings of a battle.
• I Knew It!:
  • A double whammy with Sylveon. Many expected a new Eevee evolution this generation due to both previous even-numbered generations introducing them as well, too. They were proven right with the introduction of Sylveon, and when the debates started on what type it would be, many guessed that it would be a brand new type. They were right again.
  • Fletchling knowing Flame Charge hinted many to the fact that it would become a Fire-type when it evolved. Its evolution, Talonflame, is indeed a Fire-type.
  • Fans have speculated about a Ghost/Steel Animated Armor Pokemon for quite some time. Honedge is pretty close. Aegislash, its final form, is a unique take on a ghost knight- the knight is his own sword.
  • Many also guessed Pancham would evolve into Fighting/Dark and lo-and-behold, they were right.
  • Many fans speculated that Mawile would gain Fairy-type, and they were right. Bonus points for being the first Fairy that can really be described as The Fair Folk (as in "A fairy that's evil and/or mischievous, not one that's bright, pretty, and kind-hearted"), which was a popular theory for the type.
  • The most commonly guessed weaknesses for Fairy were Poison and Steel, often going off a highly-accurate leak that claimed this. Both were revealed to be the Fairy-type's only weaknesses.
  • After the initial batch of Mega Evolutions was revealed, the Kanto starters were among the most common picks when guessing who would get one next. Sure enough, this was proven right.
  • Some believed Mewtwo would get another Mega Evolution or forme, while others suggested Garchomp would get one too. Both cases were right. Though the Mewtwo example was based on an image on an official site having the filename m2y.
  • Trevenant was speculated to be be a Ghost/Grass type... then again, given its appearance, this was an educated guess.
  • When Diantha was first revealed, many fans speculated that she was actually the Kalos Region Champion.
  • In the original reveal trailer people noticed a girl following Calem in the forest. There was debate whether it was an important NPC (probably a rival) or a character with a pre-made course, like a biker in previous titles, because they weren't exactly behind Calem and their design was deemed too generic. Come a few months later and that's one of your rivals, Shauna.
  • When promotional artwork of Sylveon was shown fighting Hydreigon, several estimated the possibility that Hydreigon would have a quadruple Fairy-type weakness. A few months later, the charts come out and confirm this due to Fairy being super-effective on both Dragon- and Dark-types.^note Sylveon is one of the few things that essentially hard-counters Hydreigon, even those with Flash Cannon depending on the build.
  • Some fan prediction artworks of Mega Medicham featured four arms. The real one has manifested four additional ribbonlike arms with its psychic powers, in addition to the two it doesn't use.
  • Many fans speculated Diancie to be related to Carbink due to its Rock/Fairy typing and similar looks. When Diancie was officially revealed, it turned out to be a "sudden transformation" of Carbink.
  • Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire had been commonly predicted for remakes in the vein of FireRed/Leafgreen and HeartGold/SoulSilver ever since Gen V, and the many nods to Hoenn in X and Y were used by many fans as evidence for Gen VI remakes. At the start of May 2014, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were officially revealed as the next Pokémon games, slated for a November release.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • One of the most commonly requested features in the past was character customization. They finally delivered with X and Y, allowing skin color, hair color, eye color and outfit changes.
  • People have been wondering and debating over why Charizard is not part Dragon-type, possibly since Generation II. Finally, their prayers have been answered with the reveal of Mega Charizard X, a Fire-Dragon type.
  • The same could be said about Ampharos, which was not a Dragon type despite its Japanese name being Denryuu ("thunder dragon") and knowing Outrage since Gen 4. Come Gen 6, we get Mega Ampharos, an Electric/Dragon type.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: In complete contrast to past games in the series, a major complaint against this generation is that the new streamlined mechanics have made the game too easy:
  • Game breakers such as the EXP Share made available to you close to the start, it's very easy to be overleveled by the time you reach the second gym.
  • There's also the fact you can buy Full Restore with 5 badges (or about as much as you needed for Hyper Potion in G4, which dropped to 3 in G5 and 2 G6). It used to need 8 badges.
  • Even without the EXP share, this is still quite an easy game. Not only are you handed several strong Pokémon for nothing (e.g. a Kanto starter, Lapras, Lucario etc.), the gym leaders are much easier to defeat than in previous generations. Like Gen 5, they only have up to 3 Pokémon, even by the 8th gym, and the Elite Four only have 4 Pokémon each. In the entire main story, the only boss that has a full team of 6 Pokémon is the Champion. Not even your rival gets 6 Pokémon before the Elite Four.
  • Players hoping to challenge the Pokémon League a second time were very irritated to find that the Elite 4/Champion have Pokémon that are still at the same level they were the first time. To add insult to injury they use exactly the same team they did the first time. This makes the Kalos Elite 4 the first Elite 4 to still have only 4 Pokémon by the rematch.
• It's the Same, So It Sucks:
  • Despite given the options to customize the player characters' clothes some players call out Game Freak on this due to Calem's default clothes are too similar to Hilbert's while the female protagonists are always varied. It doesn't help that male characters lack variety in their customization options compared to their female counterparts.
  • Hidden Power not gaining the possibility of being the new Fairy-type got a few complaints from players, some of who think the coverage option would have been much appreciated by certain Pokémon.
  • While the game's contributions to the franchise such as Mega Evolution, more accessible competitive battling, 3D models, and ways to interact with Pokémon are very well-regarded, the main game is frequently considered paint-by-numbers even for a Pokémon game, with very little allowing it to stand on its own; Team Flare is largely regarded as too similar to Team Galactic but much less memorable, most other NPCs and the storyline are often seen as full of wasted potential, and the Gyms are regarded as easy and forgettable, to the point that some fans consider Gen VI to be the point when the traditional formula of the series became stale. This was likely the reason behind Gen VII replacing the Gym formula and adding a more complex story akin to BW, though that caused some problems on its own.
• Jerkass Woobie: AZ might have caused destruction from his ultimate weapon, but his best friend Floette died in war^note This is made even worse when you realize that he's immortal. (though of course she came back to life with the aforementioned weapon), and Floette left AZ, horrified at her master's choices. Thankfully, Floette does return to him.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some of the individual Mega Evolutions have been a selling point for the games, most notably with the Dragon-type Mega Charizard X.
  • Some fans find the Looker post-game quest to be more entertaining than the main plot, with more coherent storytelling and better characters.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • As usual, the protagonists are starting to get this treatment, though Serena seems to get it more than Calem, especially with her role in the anime.
  • Siebold of the Elite Four is starting to be this as well. He's already been shipped with his fellow Elite Four members, Diantha, Sycamore, the protagonists, Grant, Valerie, Olympia, Viola, Dexio, Winona, Wallace, Steven, Marlon, Colress, Grimsley, Lawrence III, and even Aromatisse.
  • Augustine Sycamore as well.

M-P

• Memetic Badass
  • Pokémon of the Fairy-type are getting this reputation... at least against Dragon-type Pokémon, often getting the title (Pokémon) - The Dragon Slayer! In line with this, the fanbase seems to enjoy depicting otherwise "cute" and fairly unassuming Pokémon beating up intimiating Dragon-types, or said Dragon-types expressing fear towards these Pokémon.
  • Professor Sycamore gets this for three reasons, even though some are related to the demo version of XY: he is able to battle you, can hand out level 100 legendary Pokémon possessing Mega Stones with an air of nonchalance, and dares to use a Dragonite even in the advent of fairies.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Delphox gets this reputation among the fandom mostly because of its design, a situational Hidden Ability, and its movepool being more shallow compared to the other Kalos starters.
  • With the announcement of Pokémon Sun and Moon when many fans were holding out for the expected Pokémon Z, Zygarde has become a Memetic Loser due to the fact that it won't be the version mascot of its own game. Here are a few examples. This treatment is somewhat mitigated by the reveal that its 10% and Complete Forms are available in Sun and Moon.
  • Team Flare, thanks to their overly comical attitudes and aesthetic, which don't exactly fit in with their plans to basically commit mass omnicide. Lysandre in particular receives a lot of this treatment, thanks to receiving very little development and having an uncharacteristically easy Final Boss battle.
  • With the introduction of Fairy-types, Hydreigon got a lot of jokes made about it having a quadruple weakness to them despite its terrifying appearance.
    still not confirmed still not confirmed still not confirmed still not confirmed still not confirmed◊
• Memetic Molester:
  • Mr. Bonding is being called out as one of these amongst the fanbase for his generally suspicious behavior. To elaborate, he is always found either alone in a hotel room (if the town/city has a hotel) or in the Pokémon Center facing the wall (doing God knows what), and when spoken to, he exclaims, "It's bonding time!" as the screen goes black and the player is rewarded with "O-Power."
  • Pokémon Breeder Foster on Route 12. The name aside, his introduction has him talking about burying his face in his Pokémon's fur and breathing in its musk...and one of his Pokémon is a Tauros...
  • Mr. Mime's newly added Fairy-type did wonders for its already well-established reputation as one of these.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Fairy-type being a Memetic Badass has created a meme where a harmless looking Fairy-type utterly terrifies a Dragon-type. Some even exaggerate them to no weakness status before their weaknesses are revealed.
  • The Fairy-type also has created countless memes relating to The Fairly OddParents!, especially with Mr. Crocker's "FAIRY GODPARENTS!!", even when the type was just a rumor.
  • "HOENN CONFIRMED!" in response to any tiny hint that there will be a Gen III remake has led to people using Insane Troll Logic and making the declaration.
    • 7 months later, Hoenn did get confirmed.
  • Mega Ampharos's fabulous hair has inspired a few fan arts◊. Due to being one of the earliest Megas to be introduced alongside the Mega Evolutions of Lucario, Blaziken, Absol and Mawile several fan arts joked that ribbons and hair extensions ^* Design features they have in common are a design requirement for a Mega-evolved Pokémon. It doesn't help that several notable and powerful Mega Evolutions from Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire (Mega Diancie, Mega Lopunny and Mega Rayquaza) gained those design traits as well.
  • Espurr's apparent Thousand-Yard Stare has resulted in a lot of fan art, image macros, and jokes.
  • "Diggersby Tho", a forced meme as a result of the player Shofu repeating the phrase in this video.
  • It's become common to associate Tyrunt and Amaura with the movie The Land Before Time considering they're both dinosaurs (with the former heavily resembling Littlefoot). Tyrunt's evolved form Tyrantrum, meanwhile, has spawned a huge number of Jurassic Park comparisons and macros.
  • And similarly, Pyroar and the Luxray line being used in The Lion King memes.
  • "Snorlax has finally woken up!" - A running joke that if you put Snorlax's sprites side-by-side in order of the releases, he gradually goes from lying down to finally standing up.
  • MUCHA HAWLUCHA!
  • What does the Delphox say!?
  • "It's been 3000 years..." ^note  A line said by AZ when he is reunited with his Floette has been exploited by replacing his Floette floating above his hands with a variety of different things, usually related to something delayed or something the fandom has waited for a long time finally got release.
  • The player being stopped by a construction worker with "I'm sorry, there's a blackout. You can't go any farther until it's fixed." ...promptly followed by a Tourist walking past the two.
  • "Please understand..." ^note Used to mock Game Freak for the delay of Pokémon Bank.
  • Sounds like a lot of HOOPA!
  • "This world is imperfect. If only I could wipe away the impurities, and make it as beautiful as me." - Thanks to ProZD's Lysanderoth parody, it's common for fans to quote the clip in response to the other characters ignoring Lysandre being Obviously Evil.
• Mis-blamed: Battle Chatelaine Evelyn was mistaken as a cheating bitch from having an Entei with Sacred Fire, Ho-oh's Signature Move. It took three months since X and Y's release for Pokémon Bank to follow just to get Entei in Pokémon X and Y (by transferring) to confirm that it can learn the move through the move relearner.
• Moe:
  • The (other) rival, Shauna, is a happy go-lucky Genki Girl who smiles just as much as a Chespin and is The Heart.
  • A lot of Pokémon are like this in Pokémon-Amie.
  • If one can get past her "cheating bitch" tendencies, Battle Chatelaine Evelyn is a massive Shrinking Violet and her VS artwork has her showing a very adorable expression. The cuteness isn't hampered in spite of her ability to kick your ass hard in the Maison though.
• Moral Event Horizon: Lysandre and Team Flare's master plan with the ultimate weapon, which is powered by the souls of Pokémon and can potentially wipe out most life on Earth.
• Narm:
  • Several of the lines during Super Training come off as this, especially "This is it! The muscles that will make the future bright!"
  • When the ultimate weapon comes out of its hiding place in Geosenge, it knocks all the houses around it over. It doesn't destroy them, no—they just fall over on their sides like disturbed cardboard boxes.
  • Some might have this reaction to Lysandre crying. That he's crying and the reason why is pretty sad. The actual image of it and the fact that it comes right out of nowhere, followed by a quick zoom-in transition to the rival's face on the other hand...
• Nightmare Retardant: On paper, the Hex Maniac is supposed to be unsettling. With the exception of a One-Scene Wonder in Lumiose City, in practice she comes across as trying too hard, either ending up goofy, providing meta-humor, or both; any Nightmare Fuel both in-game and in fanart tends to come from the Ghost-type Pokémon she associates with rather than the trainer herself. When set next to a Fairy Tale Girl, the difference between retardant and station attendant becomes starkly obvious.
• Obvious Judas: It's not unheard of for players to guess correctly that Lysandre is going to be the main villain upon seeing him for the first time. This one ProZD skit accurately mirrors the usual reaction to the character.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Players were very excited about this being the first game in the series where you can change your character's outfit. There was one part in HeartGold and SoulSilver where you change into a Team Rocket outfit. While it was only for a short time, it's still a second outfit.
  • This isn't the first time you're able to legitimately get two starter Pokémon in-game without trading. Pokémon Yellow lets you obtain Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle at certain points and you start out with a Pikachu. Not to mention in Emerald, if you complete the entire Hoenn dex, you are given a choice between one of the Johto starters. Ditto for HeartGold and SoulSilver, where you can get choice between one of the Kanto and one of the Hoenn starters after beating Red.
  • Pikachu also had a vocal cry in Yellow, although there it was heavily bitcrushed as a result of being on the Game Boy.
  • Being able to pet your Pokémon and call them by their name (via Pokémon-Amie) were features in Pokémon Channel and Hey You, Pikachu!, respectively.
  • This isn't the first Pokémon RPG to make full use of 3D models and have a story line. Pokémon Colosseum and its sequel Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness both did this.
  • Battle Revolution was the first game to have Trainer customization.
  • Most people don't realize that the majority of the models and animations for the pre-VI Pokémon are reused from Pokédex 3D Pro, a Pokédex app showing off the I-V Pokémon with 3D models and animations.
  • X and Y aren't the first games to change the types of existing Pokémon and moves. With the introduction of the Steel type in Pokémon Gold and Silver, Magnemite and Magneton were changed from pure Electric-type to Electric/Steel. Bite, Gust, Karate Chop, and Sand-Attack were Normal-type in Gen I before Gold and Silver changed them to their current types.
  • Even the idea of an mid-battle Super Mode didn't originate here. The Pokémon TCG employed special "Level X" cards for the Diamond-Pearl-Platinum Era, though it treated them as "leveled up" cards rather than proper evolutions like in the games.
  • Terrains debuted in X and Y, but didn't see much use until Sun and Moon when Terrain-summoning abilities were introduced. Psychic Terrain also didn't debut until the following generation.
• One True Pairing:
  • You've pretty much got one choice on shippings: Calem/Serena. Anything else is probably crack (except maybe Protag/Shauna due to that one Ship Tease moment), especially Tierno/Serena.
  • Lysandre/Sycamore. Already incredibly popular, you can bet that if you talk to a shipper in the fandom, they'll say that they ship this.
• One True Threesome: Since they're the only characters to share genuine Ship Tease moments among themselves, Calem/Serena/Shauna is generally accepted as the game's OT3.
• Padding: There's an unusually long time between the first and second gyms due to the player needing to complete the two deadend paths that lead to the Parfum Palace and Glittering Cave landmarks. This results in the player being required to traverse 6 routes and 3 major cities before finally reaching the next gym city. It's made even more annoying if you don't like Mega Evolutions and all your friends can mostly say "MEGA EVOLUTION" every time you meet them. On the other hand, the gap between the first and second gyms usually allows one to formulate their team in that timespan. Given the massive number of Pokémon available, there are plenty of options.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Team Flare has been able to listen in on everybody's Holo Caster calls, getting all sorts of information. Let that sink in.
  • The Lumiose save glitch. It doesn't always happen, and doesn't affect all copies of the games...but there's no way to know for sure if it affects your copy unless you actually save outside. However, the patch Nintendo made can help alleviate this.
• Pandering to the Base: Charizard and Mewtwo getting 2 Mega Evolutions when other Pokémon get one or don't get one.
  • Charizard was a Low-Tier Letdown before and deserved a buff, and giving it a Mega Evolution was a good way to do so. Its Megas are SO good, in fact, Charizard shot up to the top of Smogon's OU tier and its Mega Evolutions are 2 of the most dangerous Pokémon in the game.^note Note, however, that this is after the banning of several other Mega Evolutions that were proven broken - Blaziken's, Gengar's, Kangaskhan's and Lucario's. Depending on who you ask, it's either Game Freak caving in to fan demand and making Charizard into a potential Game-Breaker, a necessary buff that might have worked a little TOO well, or a completely balanced (if a bit over-hyped) addition that makes Charizard relevant again. Mega Charizard X also panders in two other ways; it finally made Charizard part-Dragon, and it resembles normal Charizard's popular Shiny form somewhat, just with the red replaced with blue.
  • Mewtwo is already Purposely Overpowered and banned from official (and unofficial) tournaments, so giving it 2 Mega Evolutions feels unnecessary. The main purpose for this may have been to appease Mewtwo fans by giving its Mega Evolutions higher base stat totals than Arceus and higher offensive stats than Attack Forme Deoxys. Competitively, the general consensus is that Y is better than Life Orb Mewtwo, but generally isn't enough of a step up to justify giving up a Mega slot, while X is interesting and potentially very useful in the right hands, but its limited (in terms of its stat spread) movepool and generally useless Ability makes it a gimmick Mega that, like Y, is generally viewed as simply not being worth the slot.
• Periphery Demographic: Most of the games' sales in Japan during the first week came from college students. Such is the power of the Periphery Demographic.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: At least compared to Black & White, the stories of these games are seen very flat and disappointing to many. However, the game introduces so many mechanics, that gameplay wise, it is one of the most deep Pokémon games yet. And despite the story being less deep, what developed characters we got^note chiefly Emma and further development on Looker were very engaging.
• Popularity Polynomial: Much like Pokémon Black and White, Pokémon X and Pokémon Y were very popular when first released, fell out of favor with the core fanbase after a while, and then became more well-liked again when the following generation came out, to the point that a number of fans consider XY to be "the last great Pokémon games". There's quite a bit of heated debate on how well XY have aged compared to BW and their sequels, mostly due to the innovations they brought and sheer amounts of love and respect for the franchise's legacy^note as opposed to the Unova games' arguable dismissal of such vs. having flaws that would be repeated and amplified in later games and not having a third version or sequel to vindicate them. Initially, after the games' "honeymoon period" ended, fans were extremely critical of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y for elements such as its lack of postgame or challenge, poor balance, technical issues, and weak story. However, after Generations VII and moreso VIII proved to be even more controversial, fans began looking back on X and Y and appreciating the many advents it had made at the time, such as (a certain amount of) exploration, the older protagonists, the beautiful region, Mega Evolutions, the massive regional Pokédex, Pokémon-Amie, the many quality-of-life changes introduced with these games, and especially the Player Search System. While the games still get some flak (especially by fans of the "early modern" era of Generations III through V), they gained more defenders over time who laud the game as a competent first step for Pokémon's foray into the land of 3D, and for how much it pushed the formula forwards despite the many steps it took backwards. The games, in their eyes, are merely the progenitor of the problems later entries would have. One of the main issues fans had with the games was that they didn't get a proper follow-up and conclusion to address their flaws, and they finally got their wish with the announcement of Pokémon Legends Z-A in 2024.

R-W

• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • While many people considered Froakie to be a bit odd- and funny-looking, its evolution Frogadier has been much better-received due to its cooler and sleeker design and ninja motif, similar to Oshawott and Dewott last generation, then Greninja was revealed and became the Breakout Character of the generation very quickly with its creative and cool-looking design expanding on Frogadier's ninja motif. It also has Protean, one of the best abilities in the game
  • Poison-types. Initially associated with thugs and cannon fodders for the elite folk(Psychics) since Gen I, not to mention them being super effective against nothing but Grass types which have other more common weaknesses, they have also been rescued due to being super-effective against the dominant and very powerful Fairy types, thus giving it another type-based strength alongside being Super effective against Grass. Furthermore, Poison types are the only ones able to get 100% accuracy on Toxic (not even Fly or Dig can avoid it).
  • Quilladin received a lot of criticism after being revealed, but its long-anticipated evolution, Chesnaught, has been much better received due to looking legitimately threatening and for being a Grass/Fighting Type.
  • Binacle was derided for looking ugly and having a nonstandard facial design. Then its evolution Barbaracle was revealed, and a number of deriders ended up eating their words.
  • Doublade was derided for its allegedly uninspired design. It still gets some love for being a pair of crossed swords that looks a lot like a valiant coat of arms. However, Aegislash, its final form, has been much better received due to its more original design(s), unique ability, cool signature move, and impressive stats. However, it also gets criticized for dropping the cool Dual Wielding sword motif Doublade was going for.
  • Competitively, Charizard has been disliked for how near useless it was in the competitive scene. Now, with access to Mega Evolutions that can augment its stats and either get it the Fire/Dragon type^note reducing its crippling Stealth Rock weakness and neutralising many of Fire and Dragon's weakness or the fabled Drought ability (the strongest non-legendary Pokémon to have it), and an easy way to remove Stealth Rock (Defog), it might be able to shine.
  • Thanks to Mega Evolution, more Pokémon that were disliked because they were either near useless in battle such as Mawile^note its type changes to Steel/Fairy and it has added defenses, as well as its Huge Power ability giving it the highest unboosted Attack stat in the game, as well as Sucker Punch for priority to cover its low speed, or Pokémon that were considered inferior to other Pokémon of their type, such as Pinsir^note Its increased stats, mainly in Attack, as well as its Aerilate ability turning all Normal type moves into Flying type, as well as giving a 30% power boost on top of STAB, giving it a strong priority move in the form of Quick Attack, as well as a strong Flying type Return and Kangaskhan, are now considered some of the most threatening Pokémon in the game, and in Kangaskhan's case, become a total Game-Breaker that its Mega Evolution was banned from the OverUsed tier on Smogon.
  • Flareon now has Flare Blitz, saving it from having the poor case of Useless Useful Spell it had for a while.
  • Baby Pokémon were considered by many to be pointless from a gameplay perspective, as most of them don't offer anything new for their evolved forms. These games made them more useful by ensuring they always have at least 3 perfect IVs when they're encountered in the wild. This gives them a very helpful role in breeding for perfect IVs once they're evolved.
  • Shiny Garchomp was heavily derided for being practically identical to regular Garchomp. Its Mega Evolution gives it a pink color scheme, causing it to look very different from regular Mega Garchomp.
  • Same goes for Shiny Gengar. While it's a few shades darker than normal Gengar, its Mega Evolution is a white, black-eyed abomination.
  • The change to critical hits has caused an entire strategy to be rescued from the scrappy heap. In previous generations, relying on critical hits was seen as a luck-based gimmick. While critical hits only deal 1.5x more damage now, the formula was changed so that if an attack has its critical hit rate increased by three, it will always be a critical hit. This allows a Pokémon with a Scope Lens and Focus Energy to always land critical hits. As critical hits ignore decreases to the user's attack stats, this allows Pokémon to use attacks that lowers the user's attack stats like Overheat and Draco Meteor with no downsides.
  • Fennekin found itself in an inversion of this, falling from Ensemble Dark Horse status upon Delphox's reveal, but after a while people grew to view Delphox on a neutral level. The line still hasn't re-ascended to its former glory, though.
  • Just about every Pokémon that was retconned to become a Fairy became much more useful due to the type's resistances and hard to exploit weaknesses. Special mention goes to Clefable.
  • Mega Mewtwo Y was initially criticized for its chibi-esque look and bizarre design when it was first revealed, and many saw it as an inappropriate Super Mode for the more muscular and humanoid Mewtwo. That it was used by the very unpopular second Mewtwo in Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened only further soiled its reputation. Once X and Y came out, however, people appreciated the Mega Evolution for reclaiming Mewtwo's old title of "Most Powerful Pokémon", its high Special Attack (the highest of any Pokémon), and even its appearance is liked by some for its closer resemblance to Mew. Fans pointing out its resemblance to Frieza's true form also helped perceptions of it. Of course, the fact that Mewtwo got another Mega Evolution more reminiscent of what people were expecting may have helped.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • A fair amount of people seem to be upset that the games censor nicknames that contain swear words in other languages, eliminating many common names that might be used. Some blacklisted words evade the ban under certain factors like having specific letters placed at either end, yet others don't. In general, the whole censoring system appears to be extremely defective.
  • You can only search out for the hidden Mega Stones from 8 to 9 PM after defeating the Elite 4. Not only you have an hour a day to hunt them, but anyone with a night-time work schedule or has to do other things then are basically going to have an inconvenience to deal with. This is also hated by players who wanted to use a Mega Evolution on a normal game run that isn't one of the Kanto starters, Lucario, Ampharos, Aerodactyl, Abomasnow, or Gengar^note and if you don't have someone to trade with, Mega Gengar is off-limits too. And let's not get into some version-exclusive Mega Stones, as the Pokémon that can use them can only be found in the opposite version (the Houndour line is X-exclusive but Houndoomite can only be found in Y for example). They can be transferred via trading, but the problem is there's only one of each Mega Stone per save file.
  • If it's raining on a route, you're not allowed to use Sweet Scent or Honey to trigger Horde Battles. If you want to find a specific Horde-only Pokémon or just stat train, too bad. You'll have to come back when it's not raining, which is completely random with no known time limit.
  • Speaking of rain, its absence can also invoke this trope if you're trying to evolve a Sliggoo into a Goodra. You need the Sliggoo to hit level 50 or higher while in the rain, but there's a nasty catch: only rain from the overworld will cut it. Rain summoned by Rain Dance or Drizzle won't trigger the evolution. There's no way to catch a Goodra directly in Generation 6, so get ready to pull your hair out hunting for rain if you want to get that Pokédex entry.
  • Roaming Pokémon are back though thankfully after a certain amount of encounters you get to battle the legendary normally.
  • The wind in Route 13 makes it very difficult to move west and outright prevents you from getting across certain grind rails leading to items. The only way around this is to just wait.
  • Pokémon Bank being an online service. Many fans question why the service couldn't just be stored in the 3DS system's SD card. The fact that it only took a day for the service to be taken down in Japan and delayed everywhere else due to high traffic has only made this more frustrating.
  • Poké Transporter. The Pokémon you want to transfer from your Generation 5 games must be placed in the first box in whatever Gen 5 game you have. After that, you must go to the Poké Transporter and send those Pokémon to a special box in the Bank, from where you can send them to whatever boxes (Bank or in X/Y) you want. THEN, if you have more you'd like to transfer, you have to boot up your Gen 5 game, move all of the Pokémon you want to transfer over to the first box, and repeat ad nauseam. It's much better than the Pal Park and the Poké Transfer, but it still gets very tedious, especially if you don't have the digital version of X/Y, and especially if you have a lot of Pokémon to transfer.
  • The prizes you get from the attractions on Pokémon Global Link are completely random and unaffected by your score. Even if you do really well on something like Balloon Popping you're still likely to get a Berry instead of the otherwise one-of-a-kind evolution items, which can be very frustrating.
  • Game Sync causes a lot of frustration for players because half the time, the server is too busy and refuses to connect.
  • The GTS is easily broken, and you'll find thousands of people asking to trade unremarkable Com Mons for legendaries and some that aren't even available in the game, like Meloetta, Genesect, and Manaphy. However, putting up your own Pokémon for trade will usually get better results as long as they're strong, Shiny, or legendary. This is so bad that removing the "seeking special Pokémon" filter will usually come up with far fewer results, and you'll almost never find a Shiny.
  • For some, the lack of a "Shiny" filter on the GTS, as a trade asking for a Shiny in the message can easily be completed by sending a normal Pokémon. Since it's not something you can search for, it's practically pointless to ask for one and expect the desired result.
  • Every 10 hits in Head It will have the Pokémon that made the hit do a victory dance, which can mess you up and cost you your combo if the next ball of yarn to fall is aimed at it.
  • This is the generation that introduces the idea that any change to the 3DS clock will reset the timer for time-based events(i.e., Berry growth will be reset and you'll have to wait until the next day to do anything that can only be done once per day), not just changing it to be the next day (which could be worked around by just setting the clock to 23:59 on the same day and just waiting a bit). Can be frustrating when all you want is to change your clock for DST or just because you noticed it was a few minutes off.
  • The Face Game in Pokémon-amie is insanely easy to trigger by accident, but also insanely hard to actually play. So if you accidentally activate it while distracted, odds are your Pokémon is going to lose a bit of excitement just because the camera can't register that you're trying to do what the game says.
  • Sky Battles, a battle style introduced and then immediately dropped after this generation. Aside from the fact that you can be screwed over based on if the moves or Pokémon you brought could even be used or not, the real gripe most have with the battle style is the awkward and jarring flying animations most Flying Pokémon got specifically thanks to it, which continued to be used in future games despite the mechanic being dropped.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Aside from the traditional Nuzlocke run, some options in this generation:
  • Turning off the Exp. Share. It's a borderline Game-Breaker when on, but when switched off, X and Y's difficulty is actually on par with previous entries.
  • A Minimalist Run using only the new Pokémon introduced in this generation. Your limit of choice in Pokémon then goes from a whopping 450 to a measily 69-70, many of which have Jack of All Stats. Good luck.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop:
  • It's surprisingly common to go through the game at your own pace and still end up with your 10-20 levels above the enemies in the area. Though bear in mind this only applies to regular gameplay; online battles are still as competitive as ever. It almost seems like the main game is really meant to prepare you for online.
  • Same for the Battle Maison challenges, which operate by the same rules as online battles.
  • Barring a few Breeders and the requisite six Magikarp trainer, there isn't a single trainer with more than 3 (and very rarely 4) Pokémon before the endgame. Even then, only the Champion has six Pokémon. As a result, the game isn't particularly difficult even without over-leveling.
  • The Trainer Card. The DS era games had five objectives for you to accomplish to getting it to the highest colored rank, all of which came with completing the game and the National Dex, along with some that involved the side quests and a few other time consuming ones. Here, however, you only have three objectives before you get it to Gold rank, which is the highest: complete the game, defeat one (not all) of the Battle Chatelaines in the Battle Maison in the Super mode at 50 battles, and see all the Pokémon in the Kalos Dex and get the Oval Charm. XY's Trainer Card is by far the easiest to max out.

• Soundtrack Dissonance: Some people feel that KISEKI, the end credits song, is a bit too pretentious for the game; while it fits with the emotional depth of AZ and his Floette's subplot, it also feels a bit odd considering how light on plot the games are compared to Pokémon Black and White. Some argue that "N's Farewell", a very similar track from that game, is more poignant due to the player bonding and interacting with N throughout the game despite its use in a dialogue scene rather than the end credits.
• Special Effect Failure: In Coumarine City, you can see the lower half of the city from the cliffs at the upper half...but the view does not include any of the actual buildings. They just aren't there.
  • When the Ultimate Weapon emerges in Geosenge Town, the only buildings shown are the log cabins that formed the circle, likely because all but one of them are tipped over by the force of the weapon. The Pokémon Center, the hotel and the other cabin just aren't there.
  • Playing with Mawile in Pokémon Amie causes its horn/jaws to dip past the background in impossible ways that make it look like Mawile levitating.
• Squick: Greninja uses its tongue as a scarf. In Pokémon-Amie, it likes it when you pet its tongue!
• Surprise Difficulty: Turning the EXP Share off makes the game a lot more challenging due to the high level curve and variety of Mons the NPCs use; it's actually one of the hardest main series games this way!
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: In spite of the Broken Base, Gen VI has generally avoided the usual complaining that swoops down on the most recent generation since Gen III, largely because of the Video Game 3D Leap everybody has been begging for and the massive Regional Pokédex and several Mega Evolutions Pandering to the Base.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Route 2" sounds a lot like the Thomas & Friends song, "Toby".
• That One Achievement: A lady in the Café Le Woof will give you two Pearl Strings if you maintain your Furfrou's style for 15 days straight, and this is harder than it sounds. Catching the Furfrou and getting it styled (it only costs 500 credits) is easy, but a Furfrou loses its style if you don't renew it within four days or if you return it to storage, meaning you must keep it in your party constantly that entire time, and make sure you renew the style every four days or so. If it loses the style, you have to start over. Still, you can make the best of this; Furfrou has some use, being able to learn Surf and Rock Smash, letting it fill those positions for a while; and it can be lethal in a battle if it uses Retaliate at the right time.
• That One Boss: You can get through X and Y very easily without much trouble at all and only have problems with at least three tough-as-nails bosses, which happen to be one Gym Leader and two Elite Four members.
  • Grant is only the second Gym Leader, and he uses Rock-types, so like Brock and the other Rock-type Gym Leaders, he'd be easy right? Wrong. DEAD wrong. His Amaura is a very bulky little Pokémon that has the Refrigerate ability, which turns Normal moves into Ice ones, meaning he now gets STAB off of the already powerful Take Down, and it will paralyze your Pokémon with Thunder Wave. Then, there's his Tyrunt, which has a Dragon subtyping that will remove a few of Rock's common weaknesses. It's also very powerful in general, as it has STAB Rock Tomb to do decent damage and slow you down, and Bite (Made even more powerful due to Strong Jaw) and Stomp, which will proceed to flinch you to hell if your speed drops below Tyrunt's. Needless to say, Grant almost more than makes up for the amount of very easy Gym Leaders by himself.
  • Wikstrom of the Elite Four is also pretty nasty. He starts out with Klefki, which likes to annoy you with Spikes and Torment, the former of which damages any Pokémon switching in that is neither a Flying-type nor one with Levitate, and the latter which prevents you from being able to use the same move twice in a row. And to make it more frustrating, both moves are given priority thanks to Prankster. His Probopass is no slouch either, as it packs lots of pretty decent moves, including Discharge for Water-types, and is impossible to drop in one hit thanks to Sturdy. He has Scizor which packs the dreaded STAB Bullet Punch, which is powered up even further by Technician (a combination that is utilized by lots of competitive players). Then there's his team ace, Aegislash, which has Stance Change, allowing it to switch between Shield Form and Blade Form. Its Shield Form makes great use of a combination of King's Shield and its amazing defenses, and its Blade Form compliments its use of its great physical moves with its fantastic attack stats.
  • Fellow Elite Four member Siebold is often considered by many to be the hardest opponent in the game, and for good reason. His Water-type team is full of incredibly good Pokémon, with his Gyarados being a stand-out example, as it can become a speedy sweeper thanks to Dragon Dance, and it has Earthquake to take care of any pesky Electric-types attempting to exploit its Achilles' Heel, Ice Fang for super effective damage against Grass-types, and a Flying subtyping to eliminate its primary Water typing's common weakness to said Grass-types. It also has Intimidate, which lowers your own Pokémon's attack stat the moment it is sent out. And even with that one out of the way, his other teammates don't let up. His Clawitzer has a lot of moves that are boosted by its Mega Launcher ability, his Starmie is an incredibly fast special sweeper packing Dazzling Gleam for Dark-types and Light Screen to reduce damage to his team by your special attackers, and his own strongest Pokémon, Barbaracle, is an all-around good physical attacker which even has X-Scissor for the unsuspecting Grass-types.
• That One Level:
  • Reflection Cave isn't that complicated, but fairly lengthy, and the trainers inside are easily among the hardest a player will have faced up to this point. Many of them have high level Pokémon with very good type coverage, such as Hawlucha. Even the wild Pokémon can be a pain - if you run into a Wobbuffet, you will not be able to run from the battle thanks to Shadow Tag, and you can easily lose a Pokémon if it uses Destiny Bond/Mirror Coat/Counter at the wrong time. A woman halfway through the cave will heal your Pokémon if you talk to her, which makes it much easier, but many players do not know this since it hasn't been in the majority of dungeons in previous generations.
  • Route 13 isn't necessarily difficult, but it is rather annoying. On the plus side, there are no random encounters. However, they're replaced by digging Pokémon that move in erratic fashions. Combine that with an easterly wind that slows you down to a crawl (regardless if you walk, run, or use the Roller Skates or Bicycle), and those diggers can be very difficult to avoid unless you keep still for a bit. And since some of the Pokémon on the route have Arena Trap, you can't flee from their battle unless you have a Flying, Ghost. or Levitating Pokémon. And for navigation...well, it's not bad if you're just traveling between Coumarine City and Lumiose City. But have fun finding the Kalos Power Plant, and may Arceus help you if you're brave (or foolish) enough to go hunting for items. And that's not all — it's the only place in the entire game where you can evolve Magneton and Nosepass, so if you want Magnezone and/or Probopass on your team or just want to complete your Pokédex, you'll have to return. At least one player has wondered why the Kalos government hasn't just carpet-bombed the entire route.
  • Route 20, or the Winding Woods which stems from Snowbelle City, can be a little confusing for some people. Think you're all good to go with your map in front of you and everything? Wrong! Even if you come in one way, you can go back out through it and in a few instances the area you come back out in won't be the same, which can get a little frustrating.
  • Lumiose City in general, due to constant Event-Obscuring Camera issues, being difficult to navigate even with a map, making you pay money to take the cab if you don't want to deal with the confusing layout, and, in the initial release, being the cause of a Game-Breaking Bug.
• That One Puzzle: The Unlimited difficulty of Pokémon-Amie's Berry Picker and Head It minigames are fairly manageable and players can extract pretty high scores from them. Tile Puzzle, on the other hand, is already difficult enough in all difficulties because of the moving pictures concept that confuses the player, but now you have to complete the puzzles from easy to hard, with a shared time limit.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Getting perfect matches in Restaurant Le Yeah and Le Wow. They require you to complete a row of double or triple battles in a set amount of turns with none of your Pokémon fainting. Keeping your Pokémon from fainting is easy enough, but good luck finishing them in the required time when the A.I. starts spamming Protect. Though Taunt makes it easier.
  • Head It and Tile Puzzle on Unlimited in Poké-Amie. The former has the potential to really screw you over with some really unclear hitboxes, especially with smaller Pokémon in the freaking air, and Pokémon doing their victory pose in the middle of a run. The latter demands near perfection and a really long amount of time playing to get any good puffs at all.
  • Fighting all the Sky Battles, which can only be fought with certain Flying-type Pokémon and Pokémon with Levitate (to be specific, their in-battle model must have them flying in the air and not standing on the ground, so Haunter can fight in Sky Battles but not Gengar). One of the Sky Trainers has an Aerodactyl that will obliterate nearly any Pokémon you are allowed to use with Stone Edge. Not even Yveltal can stand up to it without leveling up quite a bit. The aforementioned Haunter is probably your best bet. That is, unless you somehow acquire an Aerodactyl of your very own, and can Mega Evolve it for good measure.
  • Collecting all Vivillons, most of the time, you have to trade a legendary for one in GTS, but that's not counting shinies which are almost impossible to obtain due to people asking for Pokémon that can't be traded over the GTS.
  • Evolving Sneasel and Gligar can be a bit annoying due to the fact that the Razor Claw and Razor Fang items don't drop anywhere in the normal game. The only way to obtain them is all the way in the endgame by winning enough Battle Points at the Battle Maison in order to purchase the Razor Claw and Razor Fang items.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A lot of Pokémon cries from previous generations were "remastered" for these titles, which some people consider to be butchered versions of the originals.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • XY was the first time there was a proper Five-Man Band ensemble and could have had a lot of potentially interesting characterization developments. Unfortunately, the development for Tierno, Trevor, and Shauna stopped after the Team Flare plot ended (there is one more scene with them after you defeat Team Flare that one can assume is closure in a 'I will keep trying for my dream' way). To make it worse, the only character that you can have a rematch in the post game is your main rival.
    • Not only that, but they are scarcely challenged throughout the game, being only fought early on and once towards the end of the game.
    • Minor example, but despite the main rival supposedly recieving a Kanto native starter when you do, they never use it in their team, despite not filling their team until the post game.
    • On a related note, Shauna also supposedly picks a Kanto starter, while the main rival receives whichever fossil you didn't pick...yet neither of these appear in their teams, either. Especially egregious in Shauna's case, as she only has three Pokémon the last time you fight her.
  • Lysandre and Sycamore's friendship is barely expanded on beyond Sycamore's blindness/ignorance (or possibly denial) to Lysandre's evil intentions. For that matter, Sycamore's general character is more "handsome professor heartthrob" while Lysandre comes off as "bleeding-heart Cyrus".
  • On a similar note, we don't get anything from Sycamore after the Flare plot considering Lysandre went from his best pupil to an insane villain and all we get is that he felt some regret at not preventing it. We get no backstory additions or material to play on this feeling or any postgame involving it.
  • AZ is basically the immortal ex-king of Kalos who shows up in the middle of the parade and you don't see a trace of him ever again. Not one shred of backstory or sideplot to help find out more information on the ancient war or if his immortality was truly permanent, temporary, or that making amends with his Floette allowed him to die. Even the fact that he is implied to be the first one to fully unite Kalos thanks to his advanced technology is only mentioned in documents from Lysandre Labs. Hell, it is also only mentioned in those documents the very reason the war started is because Kalos prospered from its technology and thus became a target because of its wealth. And even then the war doesn't get much focus outside of the Ultimate Weapon.
  • The Gym Leaders. Despite many of them having very unique and memorable designs, the only one to have any sort of important role outside of her gym was Korrina. Most of the other Gym Leaders don't even appear outside of their respective gyms, and exist solely to battle you and give you their badge. This is seen as a huge step back from the last two generations, both of which largely made it a point to develop the Gym Leaders and get them more involved with the main plot.
  • Alexa. She has a notable character design, and she's stated to be the gym leader Viola's sister. Yet, after giving you the EXP Share after beating the first gym, she never appears in the story again. You can find her in Lumiose City afterwards, but all she does is help explain the different areas of the city. Being a journalist, she could have easily been put into the plot to investigate Team Flare's actions. Her appearance in the anime also made people think she would have a larger contribution to the plot.
  • Grace, the player character's mother, is cited as "the famous Rhyhorn racer" several times. Despite that, she never elaborates on it herself and beyond getting your character noticed by Professor Sycamore in the first place, it has no impact on your journey.
  • Diantha, the famous actress. Besides one scene towards the beginning of the game when you meet her with Lysandre, she has no real impact on the plot despite the fact that she's the champion.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Pokémon Village. A village made up entirely of abused and abandoned Pokémon has a ton of potential for story, but in game, besides being the location of Mewtwo, it only exists for a rather pointless quest to go and get Wulfric to come back to the gym, which in itself only serves the purpose of letting the player know that the village exists. This could have been especially poignant if you consider that this kind of village looks like the place N would stay in after the events of Black and White. However, that last bit is somewhat justified as X and Y have been stated to take place at the same time as Black 2 and White 2, where N reappears at the climax to save the player from Ghetsis, and later stays in his castle for the majority of the postgame.
  • Lysandre goes and makes a general broadcast to everyone who has a Holo Caster, basically saying sorry, but he's got to have everyone not part of Team Flare killed. How common Holo Casters are isn't stated, but the game implies they're not at all rare; they're used like phones and to see news updates. Yet it seems like only the rivals' team, Sycamore's team and Olympia even noticed.
  • Due to Sycamore and Lysandre being friends and Malva reminded a lot of fans of the evil Gym Leaders and the Elite Four in Pokémon Adventures, many people think that Sycamore and Diantha being secretly in Team Flare would have been a very interesting thing to include.
  • It's odd that Mega Evolution wasn't showcased by way of giving the fully-evolved Kalos starters their own Mega forms. Even more so since the fully-evolved Hoenn starters received Megas in ORAS, and especially considering that the next two generations would give their respective starters something exclusive related to their gimmicks (the Alola starters getting exclusive Z-Crystals and the Galar starters getting their own G-Max forms).
• Trans Audience Interpretation: One Beauty named Nova that can be found in the Battle Maison says that she was once a Black Belt half a year ago and that she's transformed into a Beauty. The thing is, Black Belts can only be male. Thus, a majority of trans fans interpret Nova as being MtF post-transition. (In the Japanese version, this goes further, with her saying the transformation from a Karate King was through the power of medical science)
• Ugly Cute:
  • Mega Mewtwo Y, which also qualifies as Creepy Cute. For some reason, it's smaller than standard Mewtwo, with a large head and big eyes similar to Mew, but^note other than one infamous appearance is the same old, highly vicious and dangerous genetic freak fans know and love. Its head is very weird, but some fans find it rather adorable and endearing for being weird.
  • Skrelp is a poisonous seahorse, making it simultaneously weird and adorable.
  • Chespin's evolved form Quilladin. It looks even dorkier and more bizarre than Chespin. Some people think it's cute in a dorky kind of a way.
  • Goomy is possibly one of the most bizarre cases of Our Dragons Are Different by virtue of being a Blob Monster, but it looks so huggable!
  • Greninja is a fully-evolved ninja frog that's deadly in battle, but there's just something adorkable about its tongue-scarf and its slightly silly, cartoonish design. Helped even more by its cartoonish voice in the fourth Super Smash Bros. game, particularly compared to the other fully-evolved playable Pokémon.
  • Hell, ANY Pokémon that doesn't fall under Ridiculously Cute Critter can qualify for this trope in Pokémon-Amie! Even Yveltal!◊
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • The game introduces a new kind of battle called Inverse Battles that inverts the series' Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, making it so that Fire is strong against Water instead of resisted, Ghost can now hit Normal, etc. While this is a very interesting new take that drastically changes how almost every Pokémon functions and breathes new life into otherwise horrible ones, it can only be used against one optional NPC and there is almost no Player Versus Player support for it.
  • Mega Evolution was a big selling point for Gen 6 as a whole, and about half of the game's plot is spent obsessing over it. Despite this, there's a decent chance you won't end up using a Mega Evolving Pokémon on your final team. Only two Mega Stones are given to you outright (your Kanto starter and Lucario), and there are a grand total of four stones^* plus one if you count the event-only Blazikenite, plus two if you count the other Kanto starter stones you can buy that you can get in the main game. The other seventeen or so can be gotten in the post-game, which is infamously short by Pokémon standards. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire fixes this; in addition to adding more Mega Evolutions, you're able to get over twenty of them during the course of the main game (though you're only able to use Mega Evolution for about half of it).
  • On the other side of the Mega Evolution coin, you don't fight against that many Mega Evolutions either. Only four bosses in the whole game use a Mega Evolution, and one of them is post-game while another is essentially a Cutscene Boss, leaving only two in the entire main story that truly matter, those being Lysandre's final showdown and the Champion fight. Many players wish that at least the late game Gym Leaders and perhaps the Elite Four had used the mechanic as well.
  • You can ride Pokémon in X and Y, for the first time outside of Surf. The problem? There's only three to ride on. All are limited to one area each, and two of them are slow and cumbersome to control, so it really feels like a throwaway gimmick. The Gen 7 games would properly implement this with the Pokémon Ride system.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • The new male player character◊ got a fair bit of this when he was officially revealed.
  • Many people thought that Trevor was a girl before official information confirmed him as male. His Justin Bieber-style haircut did not help matters.
• The Woobie: The main rival of Calem/Serena. They're one of the friendliest rivals in the series and also the child of a family of powerful trainers who's seen as something of an expert in the group early in the game who clearly holds their reputation to themselves...which makes it hard not to feel for them when despite this, you always end up one step ahead of them and they simply can't figure out why. They're not like the wacky or arrogant rivals in many previous games, yet unlike the likes of Hugh, they clearly still have a serious desire to surpass you; the end result is a serious trainer trying hard to raise their team, but who still Can't Catch Up and ends up frustrated at themselves as a result while still being your friend and a good sport about their losses. And why can't they can't beat you? It's because you're the player character, and they're not, which is made even harsher by the fact that they would've been the successful player character if you'd picked the opposite gender. You always have to step all over their hopes and dreams to move forward, and it starts to get a bit sad to see them come up short every time.The postgame does reveal that they've managed to get a Mega Ring of their own in the end, though how they got it is never clearly explained. Hammering this home is their animation for when they lose. Where most trainers with full 3D models get something cartoonish, silly, or resigned, Calem and Serena look downright frustrated by their loss. It's summed up well by this person: You are the Rival's Gary Oak.
• Woolseyism: The names of Xerneas and Yveltal's signature moves were changed from "Geo Control" and "Death Wing" to the more poetic and powerful-sounding "Geomancy" and "Oblivion Wing".
  • Team Flare's leader was renamed to Lysandre, giving his name an extra layer of meaning. Both Lysandre and Furadari, his Japanese name, are derived from "fleur-de-lis," a symbol of France, but Lysandre can also be interpreted as a combination of "lys-," meaning "destroy," and "andros," meaning "man," which would make his name mean "destroyer of man" and reflect his omnicidal ambitions perfectly.

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