Masuda explains reasons behind Pokémon X & Y’s Exp. Share tweaks

The arrival of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y heralded a significant change to the Exp. Share item, a valuable levelling aid for any aspiring Trainer.

Now sharing earned experience across the entire party, Game Feak director Junichi Masuda has reflected on the reasons for such change – indicating that they wanted to increase the number of Pokémon that players spent their time raising, which is certainly something that I enjoyed myself.

“There are so many Pokémon living in the Kalos region, you can encounter a different Pokémon just about every time you go into the tall grass,” Masuda explained to Game Informer.

“We wanted players to try raising lots of Pokémon, which is why we changed how the Exp. Share item worked. Of course, we also made it so players could turn off the Exp. Share and still enjoy the game if they wanted to.”