• 15 Dec, 2025 *

Welcome back, friends, to the very last installment of The Very Best, our imminently concluding quest to document how cool and talented everyone is in Pokemon X and Y. We beat the game last time; now it’s time for the postgame story, our final rival battle, and also some random guy! Let’s begin.

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Let’s Get Detecting

We actually are never really guided towards the postgame story here. Our mom tells us that the Professor wants to meet us at Lumiose Station, because he wants to give us a train pass to the postgame city; then he tells us to meet him at Anistar City so he can let us pick up Mega Stones at sunset; then I assume we’re expected to go looking for those. The Lumiose story pops up when you go back to the city, which . . . honestly I’m not sure there’s much of a reason to go back there. Kind of interesting!

The postgame city, Kiloude City, has several things, not least of which is our final fight with our rival, and the least of which is probably this one random Ace Trainer who has an entire team of Levitation-themed Pokemon. And from there we begin our postgame story, a short little narration about the remnants of Team Flare doing some mad science!

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Kiloude City: Ace Trainer Anton

Anton has a Weezing and a Bronzong at level 65 and an Eelektross at level 66. While a single Excadrill with Mold Breaker would annihilate this team, that’s a Hidden Ability and you probably don’t have one of those yet; on its own, all of his pals having Levitate just means you’re removing the common weakness of these three Pokemon. It’s a solid plan that would work a lot better with a stronger team. (Shoutouts to his Bronzong using Gravity to negate its own Levitate. Good work, Anton.) Skill Rating: 3/5

Anton talks at you at length about strategy involving Levitate, asking you questions about various methods of counterplay to the strategy (to which you are only given the option to give correct answers). A lot of NPCs hyperfixate on a specific strategy and assume it will make them unbeatable, but Anton goes to great lengths to show that he understands that there is counterplay here but then convinces himself that understanding the counterplay means he is prepared for it, but . . . that’s not how it works. I would appreciate it if he learned the lesson that you need to use more than just one strategy to win rather than "things never seem to go quite as smoothly as you expect," but hey, at least he’s learning. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Kiloude City: Pokemon Trainer Calem

Here he is at long last, for a real rating this time: Calem! He only comes out after we’ve done one battle in the Battle Maison, which I had to look up because I had forgotten this fact. Anyway, he has a level 66 Meowstic, a level 68 Clefable, a level 66 Eeveelution (based on yr starter), a level 68 Mega Absol, a level 67 Altaria, and a level 70 Greninja. This team is . . . fine? Mega Absol gives him a punch he was absolutely lacking before, but most of the rest of the party are solid but unremarkable. There is a reason we’re the ones who keep winning, I guess. Skill Rating: 4/5

Calem starts his career as a Trainer out as very confident (albeit in a fairly quiet fashion; he is clearly meant to be more mature than a lot of the rival characters throughout the series), and we slowly shatter that confidence by crushing him every time we encounter him. This is, at least, personally satisfying. Unfortunately, despite having a fair amount of screen time, Calem is fairly one-note; really the only interesting thing he does is his appalling centrism after we stop Team Flare from killing the planet where he says "you can’t really say any of us were right". I think I’d have given him a solidly middle of the road rating but that one deducts a point. Coolness Rating: 2/5

Lumiose City South Boulevard: Preschooler Natalie

Natalie has a Swinub and a Bonsly at level 53. We are back to beating up literal children after becoming the most powerful trainer1 in Kalos. This postgame story is a little difficult to approach because while the NPC trainers have fairly high-level Pokemon, it’s clear that’s only so our team can’t completely trivialize it; I don’t think Natalie here is meant to be on par with late game trainers. Which she isn’t. Skill Rating: 1/5

Natalie is willing to stand up and fight to protect her secret hideout from intruders; unfortunately, the intruder is us. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Lumiose City South Boulevard: Preschooler Lily

Lily has a level 55 Igglybuff. Like her sister, Natalie, this is inadequate to the task. I suspect Lily and Natalie might get better ratings (but probably not that much better) if they were early route trainers, which is clearly where their skill level is meant to lie, but my criteria are judging trainers based on the point of the game at which we encounter them. Skill Rating: 1/5

Lily, in contrast to Natalie, seems like a low-quality child, complaining about her "worffless little sister" after we beat her; when we accept her challenge she says "the bigger they are, the harder they fall! You’re gonna be sorry you ever saw me," which is giving strong "playground bully that thinks she’s a hero" vibes. Coolness Rating: 2/5

Lumiose City South Boulevard: Schoolgirl Callie

Callie has a Rapidash, a Leavanny, and a Kingler at level 53. This is a marked step up from the preschoolers, as you would probably expect–she would be a real tyrant on route 3–but is still so far below the curve for this point in the game that I’m not even sure a 2/5 rating is merited. Skill Rating: 2/5

Callie is giving us mixed messages: does she want us to "bring it, if [we] got the guts", or does she want us to "take off and leave [them] in peace"? She says we’re "not too shabby" when she greets us but then only reluctantly admits that we are "sorta strong." Get your message straight, Callie. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Lumiose City South Boulevard: Schoolboy Macon

Macon has a level 56 Spiritomb. For comparison, at the very end of this story, my pokemon ranged from level 56 to level 60; if we’re using my standard of "assuming trainers with only one Pokemon are challenging us to a 1v1 and not a 1v6", Macon could just about stand toe to toe with my lowest level Pokemon, though Spiritomb, fond as I am of it, isn’t a stellar candidate for winning a 1v1. It’s almost tempting to look at the postgame episode as having its own category of trainer, and treating this new, reduced level standard as normal, but it is important to remember that these trainers we’re encountering are not the elite high-level trainers we’ve been dealing with recently; they’re just randos. So in that spirit, Skill Rating: 2/5

Macon, along of all the children we’re fighting in this back alley, seems to recognize that he is likely to suffer the fate of his friends. No confident swagger here, just a child who is afraid of being defeated but is still willing to stand his ground. Coolness Rating: 4/5

Lumiose Station & Lysandre Labs: Lumiose Gang Member Sedna

Okay, so, we fight all the Lumiose Gang members twice and their teams are basically the same and I’m putting it all in this one post so they get one writeup. Sedna has a Mandibuzz at level 58 and then level 62; this is a great pick for a 1v1 Pokemon, solid stat spread and lots of options. Skill Rating: 3/5

The Lumiose Gang are a group of inexplicably Cockney punks hanging out in Pokemon Paris; they are all very devoted to our new pal Emma, and later on she gets them jobs working as security guards in the sinister lab where she’s the test subject for some mad science experiments. They are not very good at it, as it turns out! Sedna says she brings the charm to the gang. Sure. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Lumiose Station & Lysandre Labs: Lumiose Gang Member Eris

Eris has a Pangoro and a Bouffalant at level 56 and then at level 60. I like Pangoro here, but Bouffalant is one of those Pokemon that always feels like it should have way better stats than it does. Skill Rating: 2/5

There’s not much to say about Eris; she says she’s the lovely one in the gang, and it’s unfortunate that she seems to be the most competent security guard of the lot because she also has the worst team. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Lumiose Station & Lysandre Labs: Lumiose Gang Member Nix

Nix has a Druddigon and a Krookodile, initially both at level 56 and then at level 59 and 61. Solid team–Druddigon is less scary than it looks but Krookodile does the job well enough. Skill Rating: 3/5

Nix seems like the angriest of the lot; he also is the one who doesn’t express even a little bit of interest in challenging us, an unauthorized person, to a battle when he sees us exploring the facility. He challenges us because he’s bored and lets us say no; then once we win he insists that we snoop around in the room he’s guarding until we find anything interesting. All right, man. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Looker Bureau: Butler Chalmers

Chalmers has a level 62 Braviary. A classic of the early-route bird Pokemon genre, Braviary is . . . fine, I guess? Skill Rating: 3/5

Chalmers is your garden variety butler. He apparently used to be a Team Flare Admin, but he seems to have settled into the live of a butler very comfortably. Good for him, I guess? Coolness Rating: 3/5

Hotel Richissime: Pokemon Trainer Malva

Hey, it’s Malva! The Elite Four lady! She has a level 63 Pyroar here, but we need to look at her other encounters as well because, you know, multiple encounters. This time it’s expressly clear that she’s just doing a battle to blow off steam rather than trying to win. Malva sadly is, like her colleague Drasna, in possession of a solid team that isn’t quite able to distinguish itself. I like her team (though as I said earlier I think I’d swap out the Torkoal; I’m sure they wanted to differentiate her from the Team Flare grunts but tell me a Houndoom wouldn’t absolutely slap here) but there’s nothing here to really elevate it to the next level. Skill Rating: 4/5

Malva is an angry crimeswoman but she seems to be pretty good at directing that anger in productive fashion, which I appreciate. She gives us the information we need to stop Dr. Xerosic from doing his mad science–I guess she draws the line at . . . whatever the hell he’s doing. I like Malva. Coolness Rating: 4/5

Lysandre Labs: Scientist Sonia

Sonia has an Elgyem and a Klinklang at level 60. There’s no excuse for not evolving that Elgyem by now, but the Klinklang is solid, at least. Skill Rating: 2/5

This lab seems to be kind of badly run in general. Sonia just assumes we must be one of the new security guards after we beat her. Hard to fault her, though; if Xerosic is willing to hire the Lumiose Gang it’s reasonable to assume that any old rando you see wandering around in this secret facility is probably one of the new hires. Coolness Rating: 3/5

Lysandre Labs: Scientist Ernst

Ernst has a level 61 Weezing and a level 59 Heliolisk. Nothing to complain about here; Heliolisk is a little frail, but it’s fast and hits hard, and that’s sometimes enough. Skill Rating: 3/5

Ernst also thinks we’re a new hire; he also says we’re a feeble-minded hooligan, which is rude, and suggests that the reason he doesn’t understand why Xerosic would hire so many feeble-minded hooligans is that he, Ernst, doesn’t understand Xerosic’s genius. Coolness Rating: 2/5

Lysandre Labs: Scientist Justus

Justus has a level 62 Muk. Muk is slower than I’d like, but everything else about it is pretty solid. Skill Rating: 3/5

Justus may be the only person in the labs who finds us actually suspicious, but he doesn’t seem to be willing to do anything about that. Wandering around telling people they’re suspect isn’t going to help you, Justus, I’m sorry. And you’re right, I am an intruder and I am here to put a stop to your research (and thus probably your paycheck). My bad. Coolness Rating: 2/5

Looker Bureau: Pokemon Trainer Essentia

Essentia, also known as Emma, has a level 73 Crobat and a level 75 Malamar. The Malamar has Superpower, which works nicely with its Contrary Ability, and the Crobat has Poison Fang, which can leave you badly poisoned. I like it! She did technically inherit these Pokemon, but she’s been training, so I’ll give it to her. Skill Rating: 4/5

We actually fight Emma like six times but it’s during the time when the Expansion Suit she’s wearing is being remote controlled so she’s not actually in conscious control, and is using other people’s Pokemon, so we don’t count those. Emma is a street kid that our detective friend Looker has taken in; she becomes the test subject of Dr. Xerosic because she feels like she’s freeloading and decides to take some sketchy part-time work to contribute to rent and etc.

I like Emma. She’s got that mix of being sharp and naive that makes for a great way to get into some narrative trouble. Coolness Rating: 4/5

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This concluding episode is a fun little story but it has no interest in being a challenge. I do appreciate, genuinely, that Pokemon is so often willing to just handwave what’s going on at you. Xerosic is working on a super suit that gives you powers; it also can just remote-control the person wearing the suit (in a way which seems distinct from mind control?), which makes one wonder why we need the person; and if we need the person, why do we need the remote control? Why is he testing it by doing miscellaneous crimes? What does the suit do? Why is it so bad that Malva wants to make sure he can’t keep doing it? Who cares! It’s bad science and we have to stop it. Not every story needs to spend a long time focusing on worldbuilding when there’s bad guys to fight and friends in danger.

But that does bring us to the end of Pokemon X and Y. I had started this project once before and bailed out fairly early on because, who knows, distraction, whatever; it had been an intrusive thought ever since. The gen 6 games are very charming; ORAS are probably the better games overall but I loved Kalos with its huge regional Pokedex and its unmatched fashion game.

Thank you for joining me on this endeavor, friends; up next we will be returning to Case by Case to check out of the Devil. Not sure what the format will look like but expect to see that starting up again soon. I will see you then.

The existence of facilities like the Battle Maison always make this seem like a dubious proposition. You can win some of the early battles in the Maison but your standard team will get annihilated after a while. I always find this dissonance fascinating for its unintended narrative implications.↩

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