After putting in over 100 hours into Pokemon Y, I noticed things in the game that seemed to be pulled right out of Kingdom Hearts. Call it a reach, if you will, but it's still interesting...
Pokemon Amie
Probably the most blatant inspiration is Pokemon Amie, which is a feature to enhance the stats and relationship of your Pokemon...by feeding them and playing games with them. Kingdom Hearts did this first with Dream Drop Distance.
The features are pretty much the same, and you end up with similar results. I would say Kingdom Hearts does a better job at consolidating the purpose of these features since Pokemon needs Super Training and Amie to do what Kingdom Hearts does with one mode.
---
New Pokemon
With the new Pokemon games, GameFreak introduced the least amount of new pokemon in the history of the series, coming in lower than Gen II's 100 new pokemon with just 69. Are they running out of ideas? Maybe. But what was most interesting was that out of the 69 new pokemon, a few of them were familiar species/creatures to Kingdom Hearts' own new creatures, the Dream Eaters.
Now, this isn't to say the new Pokemon are all rip offs (even though some are just repeating past pokemon themselves) because GameFreak did manage to pop up some original and unique designs this gen. It was just unfortunate that so few were released. However, There are more examples of new Pokemon looking like Dream Eaters, such as the new Panda pokemon or the thing with the big claw.
---
The Elite Four/Pokemon League
So the Elite Four, in all its underwhelming glory, takes place in a castle this gen. It is actually a very well designed final place for the game to "end," and definitely fits the european motif that the developers were going for with this region. However, as I approached and then entered the Elite Four castle, I couldn't help but feel like I was in the last world in Kingdom Hearts... Hollow Bastion.
It's kind of hard to see the castle in the last picture, but the first picture shows the small pound-like fountain that is also randomly found in Pokemon X/Y. Maybe, these fountains are just typical of Euro Castle architecture, but seeing it in Pokemon instantly gave me a flashback to the one in Hollow Bastion.
And then when you fight the Region Champion, Antheia, the battleground is the stained glass floor:
Which looks a lot like the in the Awakening Stations' stain glass floors/stairs in Kingdom Hearts:
---
Some Plot Points
Oh... and then there is Klefki:
A stroke of genius by Gamefreak? Or an homage to the Keyblade and Heartless from Kingdom Hearts?
Pokemon Amie
Probably the most blatant inspiration is Pokemon Amie, which is a feature to enhance the stats and relationship of your Pokemon...by feeding them and playing games with them. Kingdom Hearts did this first with Dream Drop Distance.
The features are pretty much the same, and you end up with similar results. I would say Kingdom Hearts does a better job at consolidating the purpose of these features since Pokemon needs Super Training and Amie to do what Kingdom Hearts does with one mode.
---
New Pokemon
With the new Pokemon games, GameFreak introduced the least amount of new pokemon in the history of the series, coming in lower than Gen II's 100 new pokemon with just 69. Are they running out of ideas? Maybe. But what was most interesting was that out of the 69 new pokemon, a few of them were familiar species/creatures to Kingdom Hearts' own new creatures, the Dream Eaters.
Now, this isn't to say the new Pokemon are all rip offs (even though some are just repeating past pokemon themselves) because GameFreak did manage to pop up some original and unique designs this gen. It was just unfortunate that so few were released. However, There are more examples of new Pokemon looking like Dream Eaters, such as the new Panda pokemon or the thing with the big claw.
---
The Elite Four/Pokemon League
So the Elite Four, in all its underwhelming glory, takes place in a castle this gen. It is actually a very well designed final place for the game to "end," and definitely fits the european motif that the developers were going for with this region. However, as I approached and then entered the Elite Four castle, I couldn't help but feel like I was in the last world in Kingdom Hearts... Hollow Bastion.
It's kind of hard to see the castle in the last picture, but the first picture shows the small pound-like fountain that is also randomly found in Pokemon X/Y. Maybe, these fountains are just typical of Euro Castle architecture, but seeing it in Pokemon instantly gave me a flashback to the one in Hollow Bastion.
And then when you fight the Region Champion, Antheia, the battleground is the stained glass floor:
Which looks a lot like the in the Awakening Stations' stain glass floors/stairs in Kingdom Hearts:
---
Some Plot Points
- Talk of a past Pokemon War that seems similar to the Keyblade War spoke in in Kingdom Hearts.
- A mysterious old man (AZ) whose research ended up going badly and wants to be used by a new villain for dark purposes, seems exactly like DiZ's plot from Kingdom Hearts.
- Bigger emphasis on friendship, with the introduction of four friends/rivals. Kingdom Hearts is known for drilling in the importance of friendship.
Oh... and then there is Klefki:
A stroke of genius by Gamefreak? Or an homage to the Keyblade and Heartless from Kingdom Hearts?