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So City win the Capital One Cup...

SHINY ABSOL!! Serious Nature, 31 IV's in ATK, DEF. Not bad for a wild poke. I love it. First shiny I freaked out about.

Plus now you get an awesome Shiny Mega Absol

I'm going to Southampton vs Liverpool tomorrow

And also Luke Shaw got called up to the England squad which makes me super proud :3 Plus Rodriguez, Lallana and Lambert so yeah

Personally, I'd switch Momma K out for Kaito, but that's only because I prefer Sandshrew over Diglett. It also seems better to have just one ground type

-The fact it's so obvious about the fact it's based in France. Yes I know we had Kanto before, but it felt like its own separate place. Sinnoh, Hoenn and Johto are based on areas in Japan but it always just felt established as being 'the pokemon world'. I always get the feeling with both Unova (less so in S2) and Kalos there was a really strong attempt to outright mimic America and France - The Kalos Pokedex even has a French flag on it. I hope in future we get a more 'generic' region. Something that isn't limited by the geography of real-world locations.

-The lack of new Pokemon. I felt this was disappointing. I know everyone chimes in with 'Too many would be difficult to memorize' and yeah, that is a problem. But I like that, I like the fact that even now most people forget Pokemon like Lumineon even exists. I think the idea that there are so many Pokemon that it's difficult to really remember all of them is a great thing, it really makes me feel like Pokemon are really part of this huge world like animals are instead of just being characters in a franchise.

-Lack of Postgame. The Looker missions are good but it's not really enough. I'm sure there will be more to come, so I'm not complaining just yet but I still think some extra stuff would be nice. I think they relied on Bank too much to carry the legendaries. Coupled with the low number of Pokemon, it didn't really feel like catching Pokemon was much of a feature in X/Y - just something to build a team from. I think this is also where a small linear region gets to be a problem, you have to literally fill routes up with Pokemon to the point where it seems unrealistic that there would be say, 10 Pokemon in one small route.

-Story was kinda weak. Masuda recently admitted in an interview that Team Flare were supposed to be Goofy and it shows, I couldn't really get behind the AZ/Lysandre plot and it felt weak and like a bad copy of Team Rocket.

-Nostalgia pandering. Honestly, this isn't a bad thing in of itself - I liked the GB Sounds item on HG/SS but I felt that there was a little too much in X/Y, Snorlax blocking the route would have been cool if it had been a staple in every Pokemon game but instead felt more like a 'hey remember this?' homage. Sycamore giving you a choice of the Kanto starters...hmm, it was good in some ways but I felt like it didn't show much confidence in the new Pokemon. Santalune Forest for example seemed like a copy of Viridian Forest and an attempt to remain as familiar as possible. I don't think Nostalgia pandering in itself is bad, I just think there are less obvious ways to do it without losing the believability of the Pokemon World.

-The font. This sounds like a really stupid complaint, but I still haven't warmed to it. It feels like a Nintendo Default 'family friendly' font for Wii configuration or something which is even worse when you have to read...

-Nintendo Memes. Yeah, over 9000, my body is ready...they might be funny every now and again, but I don't feel like Pokemon is the right series to do this in. Pokemon's selling point IMO has always been that it's a complete world that doesn't try to live off it's fame as a videogame, it tries to make itself believable. When you've got trainers saying things like 'CAN HAZ BATTLE?' I just sigh in my head because it breaks the suspension of belief.

-Mega evolution choices. Mega evos in themselves aren't bad, I think it's a neat idea but the choices of mega evolutions are ridiculous. Did Scizor, Blaziken or Garchomp REALLY need a mega evolution? They were already ridiculously strong. I feel like the game should have gone into more detail on mega evolution and used that as the criteria for deciding who gets one. Imagine if the only Pokemon to get mega evolutions were the manmade ones, they could treat the stones like some kind of technology. Some of them don't really make sense either. I mean, Mega Magnetric...what exactly happened here? Why does it look the way it does?

Anyway, I probably sound like I hate the games but I really enjoy them. I believe a lot of the nostalgia pandering is a safeguard to change. Pokemon as a franchise has taken 2 huge risks with X/Y - 3D and a new type. I think a lot of the nostalgia pandering comes from not trying to alienate the fans.

Obviously they've made a huge leap to 3D and I think that they were focusing more on getting the mechanics and graphics of the game right so that they had a platform to build on for next game. Hopefully they'll be able to work on the story in the next games and improve the bits of the game that need improving.

Post some of your niggles with X and Y! I'll start

I think the Gym Leaders, E4 and Champion were rather easy, they should've added a 'Hard Mode/Challenge Mode' like they did in BW/BW2.

Definitely a better start this time! Twitch will be a huge help against Brock too!

Just downloaded Poke Transporter and got my Shiny Mamoswine off of White version, yay!

I absolutely LOVE Meowstic, and I have a pair of them called Duke and Duchess, I literally cannot get enough of these little felines <3
Fennekin is really cute, but I don't like it's evolutions, if Fennekin had retained it's 'cutesy' appearance, I probably would have used it in my team.
Greninja is AWESOME, I love it's design, and it's tongue/scarf. Vital part of my team on X
Talonflame is good too, I like the idea behind it and I actually prefer using it over Charizard because I prefer the design
I like how Vivillon has different wing patterns, it makes it stand out from the other lacklustre Bug/Flying types that are the norm early game. Every time I get a Scatterbug over WT I train it up just so I can see the wing pattern
Pyroar is amazing, I have a pair of them on X called Simba and Nala <3 And Litleo is so CUTE!
I like Furfrou because you can trim their fur (!) and Fur Coat is a great ability, plus they are actually decent in battle early game 
Aurorus, simply because of it's design. Stunning.
And also, Xerneas' design is AMAZING!<3

The only Pokemon I HAVE A BURNING HATRED for is Diggersby because of that disgusting cry he has every time he comes out to battle. It's like he's vomiting all over your Pokemon, and it's hideous. Just no.

The whole boxing the starter thing sounds really difficult... You might be stuck with a Rattata for a while  Good luck! 

Remember when you first played Pokemon and only raised your starter? I think that's exactly why they modified the Exp. Share - so that younger players could train the Pokemon they liked most but still have others gaining levels too.

But anyway, I absolutely LOVE these games. There seems to be so much to do! It's just really, really good.

^conkeldurr is still good in ou, not using him would be a waste

of course unless hes got shafted with bad ivs >_<

I'm not much of a competitive battler, but I got the guy in Kiloude City to check his IV's and he said:

-'This Pokemon's potential is decent all round'.
-'Greatest potential lies in HP'.
-'This Pokemon has some fantastic stats'.

I have no idea what this means in terms of IV's though   

After beating the game I went back to Victory Road to train a Smeargle I caught so that it had four sketch moves, and the third encounter was a Shiny Gurdurr! Caught it in a Quick Ball on my first try and named him Fists. Probably not going to use him because I don't really like Gurdurr, but a Shiny is a Shiny nontheless! YAY

MM'ing for a Shiny Froakie... No luck so far! Also got Japanese Camerupt, Japanese Vivillon, Japanese Dedenne, Japanese Ralts and a Korean Linoone ready to be MM'ed when/if I get my Shiny Froakie!