Outside of the Pokemon models used for battles, X/Y looks absolutely terrible for a 3DS game.
Quite frankly, it looks more like a high-end DS game than an actual 3DS title; and that's not an exaggeration.
Pokemon X/Y: Nintendo 3DS 2013
Golden Sun Dark Dawn: Nintendo DS 2010
Pokemon X/Y: Nintendo 3DS 2013
Golden Sun Dark Dawn: Nintendo DS 2010
Thankfully, Sun/Moon was a big step up; but X/Y's visuals (outside of the 3D models in battles) were absolutely
woeful for a 3DS title! It should not be trading blows with a DS game! The fact that it couldn't even run in S3D, despite the absolutely pathetic visual fidelity was a total joke!
Even then, Sun/Moon weren't exactly what I would call high end for the 3DS. It was just about middle of the road (and still lacked S3D support); well,
well behind Nintendo and Capcom's efforts on the system.
That being said, the games are definitely
not low budget. They are indeed, big ambitious titles; just not in the visual department. There are precious few other RPGs out there on modern consoles with anywhere near the number of unique and handcrafted environments and certainly almost no others with anywhere near the environmental interactivity of the Pokemon series. Their visuals might be simple (and outright bad in the case of X/Y), but the games themselves certainly aren't!