At a special Pokemon press conference at E3 2013, the Pokemon Company revealed a bunch of new details regarding this fall’s Pokemon X & Y for the 3DS.
If keeping your critters locked up in a ball wasn’t enough for you, now you can ride certain larger Pokemon. A clip shown featured the player’s trainer mounting a Rhyhorn and galloping through the wilds of Kalos. Those who want to look dapper atop their Pokemon are in luck — you can now customize your character’s hairstyle and clothing.
Pokemon X & Y features something called the Player Search System which they are hoping will act as the core of game’s community functions. X & Y allow you to tracks friends, acquaintances, and passersby. Playing near another gamer will make the two of you passersby, and the relationship can then be upgraded to acquaintances by interacting with each other. You can then choose to add a person as a true friend, which solidifies your relationship with them.
The Pokemon Company also spoke a bit about Horde Encounters. In the interest of adding some challenge to game’s random encounters in the wild, it’s now possible to find yourself in a situation where you have to face multiple Pokemon at once. Think of it as a standard RPG: For every one attack your Pokemon gets, each member of the enemy party gets to retaliate. Another new type of encounter includes Sky Battles, which limit the participants of the skirmish to specific aerial types. In accordance with this skyward theme, a new flying Pokemon named Talonflame was confirmed for X & Y.
