Pokemon XY Demo in Seoul, Korea

October 7, 2016September 1, 2013 by Justin

안녕하세요! Annyeonghaseyo!

I had the great pleasure to experience the demo of Pokémon XY here in Seoul, Korea. Nintendo was showcasing it at the COEX mall located in the Gangnam area. I arrived on one of the final days of the showcase, which initially lasted about a month. I arrived that afternoon expecting huge lines and a packed crowd, but to my surprise I only saw a handful of people checking it out. I didn’t even have to wait in line, I got to jump right in and play. Most of the people there had their 3DS’ out to get their promotion Pokémon (I think it was Eevee, Liepard and Gabite. I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to the Pokémon they were giving out. I was there only for the new game!).

I was quite surprised by the lack of crowds.

So instead of writing a big long paragraph about my thoughts regarding the demo, I have decided to section it out for ease of use. While most of us have seen demo videos and feedback, this is just my personal opinion of the time that I was able to play.

Layout/Controls

Being the first 3D Pokémon game, I was a little nervous at the fact that Game Freak was treading in some unknown territory with the series. However, I was quite impressed with the overall layout and fluidity of the game, particularly with the 3D layout. The controls felt natural and, while the walking was a little slippery, it responded well to my commands (for a demo, at least). I wasn’t allowed access to any particular menus other than the battle and Pokémon Ami menu. I did think that the menu for Pokémon Ami was a bit confusing and unresponsive to my commands, but I think that was due to A.) me playing a demo and B.) not all of the features were allowed to be accessed. Riding on Gogoat felt pretty normal to me as well (a definitely step up from the recent bicycle controls).

Graphics/Sound

GameFreak made a great 3D game. Visually it was extremely appealing and it was great to see all of these fantastic Pokémon really come to life. After playing this, I don’t think that they could ever go back to a 2D installment to the series. What I really did enjoy were the battle animations. They weren’t horrendously slow like in the BW entries, but they weren’t lightning fast, either. The pace was steady and it kept me from being bored of the same battle animations. I can’t say how long that would last as I only got to play for maybe 10 minutes, but so far I wasn’t irritated by the long, repetitive battle scenes.

The sound was typical of any Pokémon game. I just hope that one day it will be fully (or partially) voice acted. /swoon

Gameplay

Aside from the updated 3D models, it’s what you would expect from a Pokémon game. The battles are quite straight forward as they normally are. I didn’t get to experience sky or swarm battles, which I’m sure would mix things up from the usual Pokémon style of fighting that we all know and love. The mega evolution bit of the game was easy to use and added an extra spin to the fight. I wish that I had been able to see the stat changes of my Mega Mewtwo to see how it’s affected. However, a Thunderbolt put a level 100 Dragonite at half health. I don’t know if super effective/resistances were working during this demo, but I thought it was still quite a bit of damage! There wasn’t much gameplay aside from walking around, fighting and catching Pokémon, so I didn’t get to do too much. If you’ve played Pokémon before, you won’t be unfamiliar with the style.

Here are some of the pictures I took! I didn’t get to take many because some of the representatives told me I had to put my camera away, but I did manage to sneak a few more (although their quality is questionable). They were also displaying some of the new 3DS models (including the new Animal Crossing one). It makes me want to get a promotional 3DS XL!

Overall, I was quite impressed with the demo and was glad I was able to participate! However, my only gripe is that the demo was far too short. It would have been nice to test out some other Pokémon and participate in one or two more trainer battles. Also, I think that adding sky and/or swarm battles would have made if much more interesting.

And, last but not least, a video of the demonstration!