I mentioned not that long ago that I had never played a Pokémon game in my life.
Well, I’ve rectified that now, having invested about a half hour into Pokémon Y. I promised that once I broke my Poké-virginity I would tell you, beloved readers, about my first impressions. So here I am, fulfilling that promise.
First off, I’m beginning to understand the enormous amount of affection people have for this series. The world is impossible to not love, filled with charm and adorable little animals. It’s also a 13-year-old boy’s dream come true, providing gratuitous amounts of wish-fulfillment.
Yes, you get to hang out in an awesome world, and you get to be awesome. No matter how many times it’s been done before, there’s something undeniably appealing about that concept.
30 minutes of gameplay was enough to get me through what I assume is most of the tutorial (I’m told Pokémon X & Y have a shorter tutorial than the average Pokémon game). I got to choose a nickname for myself (just call me J-Train) and got paired with my starter Pokémon. I chose Fenniken, because it’s freaking adorable and it’s a fire type. I haven’t played far enough to figure out if that’s a bad move or not, but I love that little guy so far.
One of the things that left the biggest impression on me, though, is the music. I wasn’t expecting it to be so sweeping or epic, and it puts me in the perfect mood for spending dozens of hours exploring a fantasy world and collecting Pokémon. Seriously, the score for this game gets me absolutely pumped.
The bottom line: 30 minutes of gameplay was enough to win me over. I think I’m hooked.
