An so it REALLY begins...

......Yes...

And...I'm LOVING IT!!!  To date, I'm 4 badges into it and my current team is Rao the Delphox (Lv 38), Excaliber the Doublade (Lv 38), Phosphora the Heliolisk (Lv 38), Aphrodite the Skrelp (Lv 29), Blaze the Charizard (Lv 38), and Oreikan the Lucario (Lv 35). I've also had other honorable allies on my journey, those being Sparky the Pikachu (who randomly decided to be holding a Light Ball when I caught him), Deathwatch the Shedinja, and an unnamed Fletchinder!

 

So, as I continue to wander the region with hopes as high as the stratosphere, I leave you with this question: What is YOUR X/Y team, and what are your top 3 favorite things about the game?

Now, if you'll excuse me...

(P.S.: If this pops up in your inbox multiple times, I'm sorry. Had to fix some stupid spelling mistakes. )

EDIT (10-22-13): And, as of this afternoon, I have officially beaten the main story of the game. And Sweet Arceus, was it one heck of a ride. The Team Flare climax and final battle was intense and surprisingly thought-provoking, and the E4 and Champion were all extremely fun battles...even if they were all slight pushovers. And AZ...just...just AZ...touching...simply touching, to say the least.

And, in the end, this...was my final team:

 Rao the Delphox (Lv 71)

Excalibur the Aegislash (Lv 71)

Phosphora the Heliolisk (Lv 71)

Aphrodite the Draglage (Lv 71)

Kamui the Avalugg (Lv 71)

Alucard the Noivern (Lv 71)

And my top 3 favorite parts of the game:

1. Trainer Customization. This just truly helped with the immersion. It didn't feel like you were playing as the trainer; you ARE the trainer, which makes the connections to your team, your friends, and the world around you much more personal. It may have taken them a couple decades, but GameFreak and Nintendo really made this something special.

2. The Music. Pure Genius. Anistar City, Team Flare Boss Music, Snowbelle City, the later route themes, and everything Victory Road and onward are just a few examples.

3. The New EXP. Share. This...made training...SO...MUCH...EASIER!!! Only ONCE did I ever have to experience grind, and that was just getting Alucard those last bits of EXP he needed to get caught up with the rest of the team. It made the journey so much more enjoyable, because you weren't bogged down by hundreds upon hundreds of wild Pokemon, just to hope to stand a chance against the next boss. And plus, you didn't have to feel guilty after killing all those poor Audinos...poor things...they only want to be your friends...and yet we kill them for EXP...

And, of course, for every pro, there's a con. (Hence why CONgress exists. ) So, here are my top 3 LEAST favorite parts of the game, in no particular order:

1. Lumiose City. Stupid boutique...plus, the horrible camera in that area caused me to get lost really easily. Thank Arceus for the roller skates...

2. HMs. Now, I don't have a problem with the HMs themselves, but the amount of times I had to re-teach Cut, Waterfall, and Rock Smash to my team, just to items and TM or even progress was just annoying. You don't know how many times I had to visit the blasted Move Deleter.

3. This may sound a bit petty, but...the Lack of Shard Move Tutors. Yes, finding shards got on my nerves a little bit, the moves you could learn from the Shard Move Tutors in Black/White 2 allowed me to give my team some really diverse movesets. In the last parts of Y, I was actually having serious trouble deciding final movesets for my team that would make good, solid, and diverse movesets. Maybe that's just me, but it really did bug me.

So, here's to Pokemon X and Y! GameFreak has certainly left us with one heck of a stellar gem, and we can only hope that it can only get better from here on out!