The Sky's the Limit! Generation VI Speculation!

On January 8th, at 6 AM Eastern Standard Time, Nintendo's President Satoru Iwata hosted the ten-minute-long "Nintendo Direct." Fans had been speculating like mad in the days leading up to this announcement; some assumed Iwata planned on showcasing new 3DS remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, while a rare few thought he was going to announce a new Eevee evolution, due to an odd advertisement and the recent Eevee Wi-Fi tournament. But the majority saw that this announcement was bigger than all those other things, and after Iwata finished talking about Pokémon's past, he showed everyone its future.

Click here to see the trailer if you haven't already!

Pokémon X & Y! The sixth generation of Pokémon is looking us dead in the eye; during Iwata's Nintendo Direct, he announced when exactly we'd be able to play these amazing looking games: October 2013. Now while you non-Japanese readers groan and moan about how we'll have to wait arduous months after that to get our localized games, think again! For Pokémon's sixth generation, Nintendo plans on releasing them worldwide! This is a huge deal to all those Pokémon fans who cannot read Japanese, as now we can delve into these new unknown games without any leaks spoiling the surprise. We will be little kids again, traversing the tall grass and looking in awe at Pokémon we could have only dreamed of; well, little kids with a wealth of knowledge of EVs and game mechanics.

These games will also be the very first Pokémon games built with the 3DS in mind, and they plan on taking full advantage of it. So now instead of staring longingly at your plain ol' 2D Tyranitar, wondering about how much tougher it'd look in real life, you'll be standing next to your fierce 3D comrade ready to stomp the competition. Many fans have begun to wonder, with the introduction of 3D, if your character's movement will be altered. In all Pokémon games before, your Trainer's avatar moved around the world in a grid-based pattern, turning his whole body to change direction. Now in a 3D world, your character could potentially move around in a whole new way, like in games such as Animal Crossing. Now, if you ask me, I believe the grid-based movement will return. If you look closely at the trailer, the trainer never moves in a non-perfect straight line. If this game had more free movement, we'd see the Trainer move in a different manner.

During the trailer we were shown the very first Gen. VI Pokémon, the starters! Chespin the Grass-type starter, Fennekin the Fire-type starter, and Froakie the Water-type starter. These are the Pokémon you can plan to begin your quest with in Pokémon X & Y when they're released. One of the most hotly debated topics when it comes to Pokémon X & Y at the moment is what exactly these starter Pokémon will become. Your starter Pokémon is your lifelong companion, and their final typing and stats will play a big role in any Trainer's mission to become a Pokémon Master. Currently, the most popular speculation about the starters final types is this: Chespin will evolve into Grass/Dark, Fennekin will evolve into Fire/Psychic, and Froakie will evolve into Water/Fighting. Now, the reasoning behind this speculation is this: in the trailer, we get to see each starter using two different attacks. There first attack matches with their starting type, Water Gun or SolarBeam for example. But their second attack is strikingly different; Chespin attacks a Golurk with a sort of slashing movement, accompanied by a shadowy background. Fennekin attacks a Kirlia with a purple wave of energy, and Froakie uses a close range barrage of attacks on an enemy Patrat. Fans have speculated that each starter is using an attack that characterizes its final secondary type. Chespin is using Night Slash, Fennekin uses Psywave or Psychic, and Froakie uses Close Combat. Their evidence doesn't stop there; they say that the enemy each starter is fighting further proves their point, as each starter fights a Pokémon weak to their typing. This logic fits, except for one fatal flaw: Fennekin using its Psychic move against Kirlia, who as we all know isn't weak to Psychic. Now, while this one flaw really pokes a hole in the theory, I still believe these typings are the most likely candidates considering what little we know at the moment.

The other new Pokémon we got to see in the trailer are Pokémon X & Y's cover legendaries: Xerneas and Yveltal. You can expect these Pokémon to be of Uber quality, with Base Stat Totals of 680. But what we don't know is their typings! As opposed to the starters, we don't even have an inkling of Xerneas's or Yveltal's types. I believe Xerneas may be part Grass-type considering the lush forest we find it in during the trailer. Though, it should be said we've never had a Grass-type legendary who isn't primarily colored green. It could also be part Steel-type based on its "sword"-like limbs. Due to Yveltal's winged image and it flying around in the trailer, many think it safe to assume it will be part Flying-type, but we've seen contrary evidence in Pokémon like Flygon. It could also potentially be a Dark-type, considering its rather "evil" look, or a Fire-type based on its red coloring.

The final point of interest in the trailer is the new region where Pokémon X & Y will take place. It's widely believed that the region will be based on France. Why is that you ask? If you look closely during the trailer, you'll see the hero moving away from a distinctly Eiffel Tower-looking structure. Also, the Pikachu who introduces the trailer is located on the Eiffel Tower, and sends its electricity from France out towards the rest of the world! What kind of things can we look forward to seeing? Maybe some kind of Louvre or other kind of art museum, and there's sure to be French-inspired architecture.

One last thing people have been harping on is the potential of finally having character customization. There is one moment in the trailer where the Trainer isn't wearing the goggles shown in the rest of the trailer. Plus, the Trainer is shown looking into a mirror near the beginning of the trailer, which is used in many other games to initiate character customization.

So what are you looking forward to the most? The new Pokémon? New Gyms? An all new region to explore? I've got to say that the worldwide release is what I'm most excited for; I'm a sucker for spoilers and find it much too hard to avoid all the information that comes when the games are released in Japan. With this worldwide release, I'll finally get to really explore a new Pokémon game, not knowing what I'm getting into. If you'd like to join in on the discussion of Pokémon X & Y, click here to be taken to our very own discussion thread; otherwise I'll see you all in the new dimension of Pokémon!

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