Lumiose City (Japanese: ミアレシティMiare City) is a large city nestled in the north-central part of the Kalosregion. It is a prominent central hub of the region and is the most populous city in the Pokémon world.
Tourism is a major industry of the city due to its famous landmarks, such as the Prism Tower, which serves as the city's symbol, and the Lumiose Museum. A wide variety of shops, cafés, and restaurants are spread throughout the entire city and are popular with both tourists and locals alike.
The outer portion of the city is lined by tall office buildings and wide brick and cobblestone boulevards, while the avenues of the inner portion are lined by smaller Parisian-style buildings. The wide roadways throughout the city afford safe and easy passage for both automobile and Gogoat traffic. A large canal also runs diagonally through the city.
Lumiose City has five gates connecting it to outside routes. In the southeast is the Route 4 Gate, in the southwest the Route 5 Gate, in the northwest the Route 13 Gate, in the north the Route 14 Gate, and in the northeast the Route 16 Gate.
The City of Light (Japanese: 光の都The city of light.)
Layout
Map of Lumiose City
Many small shops and cafés line the many streets and avenues of Lumiose City. This is a brief guide to the city's layout and where all of its establishments are located.
The city is shaped like a spoked wheel. The outside "wheel" is split into North and South Boulevards, while the spokes are divided among several avenues and plazas. The boulevards and avenues are lined with the city's many establishments, while the plazas are primarily open gathering spaces, with an occasional establishment or two on the outskirts. The center hub is devoted to a wide, open area with Prism Tower at its center.
The boulevards are laid out as follows, moving along the street in a clockwise direction:
All of the avenues and plazas are connected by a continuous ring near the hub, but occasionally there will also be an alleyway connecting two of the spokes farther out from the hub. A group of randomly battleable Trainers also lurk around this inner part of the city.
The city's spokes are laid out in the order given below, moving through them in a clockwise direction starting from the first spoke connected to South Boulevard. The left and right sides referred to below presume the player is facing away from the hub.
Lumiose City has four restaurants located on South Boulevard (Restaurant Le Nah), Autumnal Avenue (Restaurant Le Yeah), Hibernal Avenue (Restaurant Le Wow), and near Rogue Plaza (Sushi High Roller). At each restaurant, the player can pay to be served a meal where the server will battle the player before each course. After finishing a meal, the player will receive a reward: a number of some valuable item, depending on which restaurant the player is in and how well they did.
Lysandre Café
A red café located near Magenta Plaza. It grants the player access to Lysandre Labs, one of Team Flare's hideouts in the Kalos region. Despite the small size, it serves as an important location in both the main plot line and the after story sideline plot with Xerosic.
Lumi Cab is a taxi service that lets the player travel between many stops around Lumiose City for a fee; destinations that are farther away cost more. If the player has enough style, the fare will be half price. If the player does not have enough money to pay for the ride, the driver will challenge them to a battle.
Gogoat Shuttle
Artwork of Calem riding the Gogoat Shuttle
Signposts located all around the Boulevards, where the player can ride a Gogoat that will take them to South Boulevard East or South Boulevard West if the player is riding at South Boulevard; or North Boulevard East or North Boulevard West if the player is riding at North Boulevard. The fare is flat at 200.
Style
Within Lumiose City, the player has a degree of style which can be raised by doing things around the city. If the player has a high style, prices may be lower, more items and services may be offered, and certain establishments may be accessible that were not before.
Increasing style
When the player first speaks to Alexa in the Lumiose Press building on Estival Avenue, they will gain 5 points of style.
A Madame will appear* and will add two new events for PR Videos
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Juice Shoppe
Purchasable juices expand* to two choices, <Color> Juices can be bought
25
Purchasable juices expand* to three choices, Rare Soda can be bought
90
Ultra Rare Soda can be bought
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In addition to the above benefits, some NPCs will change their dialogue as the player's style increases, and several new NPCs will appear in various places (mostly cafés) around the city as well. At 25 points of style, more people will appear in Café Pokémon-Amie (on Autumnal Avenue), Café Action! (on North Boulevard), Café Introversion (on South Boulevard), and Cafés Classe and Woof (on Vernal Avenue). At 50 points of style, more people will appear in Café Bataille (on North Boulevard), Shutterbug Café (on South Boulevard), and Boutique Couture (on Vernal Avenue). Finally, at 90 points of style, more people will appear in Café Gallant (on Estival Avenue) and, on North Boulevard, in the westernmost building, Café Triste, and Lumiose Station.
Demographics
Pokémon X and Y
The population of Lumiose City is 416. Its population surpasses the populations of all other major cities in the series by a very high margin, being higher than both Wyndon and Nimbasa, second and third respectively, combined.
A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.
Ash and his friends along with Serena arrived again at Lumiose City in Grooming Furfrou!, where they went to a grooming salon owned by Sherman. In Clemont's Got a Secret!, the group went to the Lumiose Gym for Clemont to get the ownership of the Gym back from Clembot. Finally, in Mega-Mega Meowth Madness!, the group went back to Professor Sycamore's lab, where Clemont was given a Chespin, after which they left the city again.
Ash, Serena, and Bonnie reunited with Clemont in Confronting the Darkness! for Ash's Gym battle against Clemont. However, the match was interrupted by Officer Jenny who arrested Clembot for the crimes committed by Dark Clembot and Belmondo, who were eventually found outside Lumiose Museum. Lumiose University, an electronics store, a high-end boutique, and a 3 star hotel were also featured in this episode. In The Moment of Lumiose Truth!, Ash eventually had his Gym battle against Clemont and his Bunnelby, Heliolisk, and Luxray, and won with his Pikachu, Hawlucha, and Goodra. This victory earned Ash the Voltage Badge, his fifth Kalos League Badge overall. Following the Gym battle, the group took a visit to Professor Sycamore again in Garchomp's Mega Bond!, after which they left the city.
Full night view of Lumiose City from a cliff
As revealed in Seeing the Forest for the Trees!, Lumiose City would be the site of the Kalos League. The Lumiose Conference began in A League of His Own! and ended in Down to the Fiery Finish!, with Alain as the victor. As the closing ceremonies were underway, Team Flare, having secretly taken over the Prism Tower, took control of Z2 and forced it to transform into its 50% Forme. After doing so, it attacked the city with massive roots, causing serious damage to it, Prism Tower, and the stadium where the Lumiose Conference was taking place.
Lumiose City was put under siege by Team Flare, using the roots created by Zygarde, from A Towering Takeover! to Forming a More Perfect Union!. In Battling with a Clean Slate! and The First Day of the Rest of Your Life!, after the Team Flare crisis ended, Lumiose City began a process of rebuilding. In Till We Compete Again!, Ash and the gang returned to Lumiose City to bid farewell to Alain, Mairin, and Professor Sycamore before Ash and Serena left the Kalos region for Pallet Town and Hoenn, respectively. After both Ash and Serena departed through the Lumiose airport, Clemont and Bonnie returned to Prism Tower.
In XYS06, Cilan visited Lumiose City for a fishing tournament, where he met Clemont and Bonnie, asking the former to take him to Prism Tower. On the way, the trio also explored the Lumiose Subway system. After getting to see the tower, Cilan departed to go see the Tower of Mastery in Shalour City.
In The Beauty Eternal, many citizens in many areas of Lumiose City were going about their daily lives after the release of the Holo Caster. Café Soleil was also shown, with Lysandre discussing with Diantha about the concept of eternal beauty.
In The Investigation, Looker confronted and chased down Essentia through Lumiose City, before eventually cornering her in Lysandre Café and revealing her as Emma.
In The Redemption, a parade was held in Lumiose City to celebrate the new Kalos LeagueChampion, Calem. During the parade, AZ appeared and challenged Calem to battle. He lost, but was still relieved of having freed from the part of him that had built the ultimate weapon 3000 years earlier. Hearing this, his long-lost Floette returned to him, causing him to break into tears.
The city reappared in What Does Charmander Do When It Dozes, where X, Y, Tierno, Trevor, Shauna arrived in the city. Following Trevor's suggestion, the group decided to visit Professor Sycamore, delivering his lost Charmander back to him in the process. Seeing X's negative mood, Sycamore decided to cheer him up by challenging him to a battle. After the battle, Sycamore gave Charmander to X, and was also surprised to find out that X had come to accept the Chespin he had sent to him.
Meanwhile, Trevor had his broken Holo Caster fixed by Lysandre, although he felt himself extremely nervous around the man's presence, having recognized his figure from one of the pictures taken during Vaniville Town's destruction. Lysandre later sent his Pokémon to surround the children, but they were saved by the arrival of Diantha.
The group later visited the Prism Tower in order to ask Professor Sycamore about something they forgot before, not aware that the interview Professor Sycamore had gone to have at the tower was already over. Once there, the group found Alexa being attacked by the Lumiose Press editor-in-chief, who, having allied with Team Flare, was trying to silence Alexa to keep her from spilling out the truth about the destruction of Vaniville Town. X battled and defeated the editor-in-chief, allowing the group to escape the city. An Electrike from the tower had become interested in X, and subsequently started following them as they left Lumiose City.
The group returned to Lumiose City in PS593. Much to their shock, the people of Lumiose City seemed to be completely unaware of the recent events and treated them like scum. Despite this, they stopped AZ's seeming attempt to use the ultimate weapon again, leading to the weapon's key getting destroyed. AZ then revealed that he was merely testing them to see if they'd choose the same path as Team Flare. Having felt a change in AZ's heart, his long-lost Floette then returned to him. Professor Sycamore suggested a parade for the group to celebrate them saving the Kalos region, but they declined the offer. Three months later, Shauna, Tierno, and Trevor had all moved to Lumiose City, with Shauna becoming a Furfrou stylist, Tierno teaching the Lumiose Gang how to dance, and Trevor taking over Sina and Dexio's role as Sycamore's assistant, while the duo headed to the Alola region to study the sightings of Zygarde made there.
In PS595, Essentia seemed to resurface in Lumiose City while Trevor had an encounter with the Artificial PokémonMagearna. It helped him stop Essentia, who turned out to be just a robot created by Xerosic.
If the player enters Lumiose City and gets on their bicycle, the music does not change.
At the Magenta Plaza Pokémon Center, a young man mentions Team Plasma "making news a while back in the Unova region," while a young woman mentions Professor Oak's grandson having visited Kalos to study abroad. She also tells how he used to say "Bonjour" while meeting and "Smell ya later!" while leaving. The first quote refers to the way how Blue greets the player while visiting S.S. Anne in the original Generation Igames and their remakes, while the latter one was used whenever he left the player's presence.
The architecture style of Lumiose City is very similar to its real counterpart. Paris itself consists mostly of buildings dating back up to several centuries and the outskirts (also called the Parisian suburbs) were recently urbanized, dating back to the 1960s.
Similarly to Paris, Lumiose City has roads connecting to all parts of Kalos. The only difference is that Paris' connections to all parts of France are used by railroads.
The layout of the city is also extremely similar to the area of Paris surrounding the Arc de Triomphe.
On the second floor of the Fighting Dojo's building, a Hex Maniac will appear, say "No, you're not the one," and float away. The purpose of this in-game event, if there is one, is not known yet.
In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the player can talk to a Hex Maniac on the first floor of Mt. Pyre's interior who says the exact same words. The relation between these two events is unknown.
In Jaune Plaza, there are two girls who are mimicking the sounds of Pokémon. In the Japanese version, one girl is mimicking the sound of Heatran while the other is complimenting her. However, this is mistranslated in the English version to imply that a Lava Dome Pokémon appears in Jaune Plaza.
Glitches
Lumiose City save glitch
Map of Lumiose City by Nintendo indicating areas unsafe to load saves in
At the time of release of Pokémon X and Y, many players reported being unable to move after loading a save within Lumiose City. According to Nintendo.com, if the player saves the game in certain areas of Lumiose City, then ends the game, the controls will not respond when the saved game is reloaded. They provided a map indicating known areas where the glitch can occur, which includes the entire outer boulevards. On October 25, 2013, Nintendo released a patch for this glitch via the Nintendo eShop.
Fire Blast camera clipping glitch
When a Pokémon with a large hitbox (such as Rayquaza) uses Fire Blast in a battle in one of the back alleys of Lumiose City, when the camera pans backwards, it will clip through the building to the right side of the Pokémon, causing it to completely disappear momentarily.
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