Easy games or smarter players?

[Greninjaman]

Here's a thought concerning this: Perhaps the games only SEEM easier because a lot of players tend to mostly use Pokémon found early on (like the Starter)? After all, a Pokémon that is obtained early on (like the starter) will gain more EVs than something caught much later in the game and thus end up much stronger than that Pokémon. After all, if you keep the Starter around, it will likely gain a LOT of EVs throughout the game since it's the first one you get.

 

[FelipePR]

Here's a thought concerning this: Perhaps the games only SEEM easier because a lot of players tend to mostly use Pokémon found early on (like the Starter)? After all, a Pokémon that is obtained early on (like the starter) will gain more EVs than something caught much later in the game and thus end up much stronger than that Pokémon. After all, if you keep the Starter around, it will likely gain a LOT of EVs throughout the game since it's the first one you get.

EVs have existed, however, since the 3rd generation.

 

[Greninjaman]

EVs have existed, however, since the 3rd generation.

Right. Forgot about that. If I recall, though didn't the first two generations also have something like EVs?

 

[a230]

I personnaly think the games are becoming easier. I've started again White 2 a couple of days ago, and the grinding is crazy tough compared to what we have right now. The full party Exp sharing makes the game easier. I'm a veterant player,i've been playing since Pokémon Yellow in 1999 and going back to this game make me realize the games where more difficult before the 3DS era. It is the first time in years that I have lost a battle to a Gym leader. I did not have the right pokémon for the Leavanny, and it destroyed me. It did not happen to me to loose to a gym leader for as long as I remember. Since the 3DS era, my teams have always been overleveled.

 

[Pasio]

I voted the latter but nah it's true to an extent that newer games are easier. Only somewhat because the older games, especially the oldest ones, weren't much harder at all and if you have enough experience to know what to have in a team, you can make nearly any main series Pokémon game be as easy as XY (few possible exceptions may be like, Platinum, USUM, and Legends Arceus). I've accidentally made a Black 2 run easier than XY runs I've had. Trust me it's  very possible especially when Normal Mode B2W2 NPCs aren't any better during the main story than XY NPCs. More than anything it's because the later games have given us so many more viable Pokémon to use in a playthrough with many more ways to make them better, easier. The AIs and teams of newer gens aren't worse. I'd even say they're better than NPCs on average in the DS era. It was just that back then, getting fully evolved Pokémon, especially powerful ones with proper movesets, was a lot more difficult. From the experiences I've had with the 3DS games onwards it felt like NPCs needed to go above and beyond to be very difficult. To not just have an average Champion-level team, but teams of powerful legendaries and mythicals, EV and IV invested, at levels higher than ever before.

 

[FelipePR]

Right. Forgot about that. If I recall, though didn't the first two generations also have something like EVs?

You're right, they were called Stat Experience before, and had a much more complicated calculation formula.

But as I didn't play much of the games from the first two generations, as well as I don't understand the formula mentioned, I don't know how much this difference impacts the difficulty of the game.

 

[Daren]

But as I didn't play much of the games from the first two generations, as well as I don't understand the formula mentioned, I don't know how much this difference impacts the difficulty of the game.

In theory, Stat Experience might be more advantageous to the player than EVs because there is no overall cap (you could max every stat) and you got points in everything rather than each mon only giving points to a single stat or two. However, there was also no way fast way to increase stat exp compared to certain EV training methods in later games and there were many other differnces in gen 3 and onward that I'm unsure if stat exp to EVs necessarily had a noticeable impact on difficulty cmpared to other design changes.

 

[Daenerys]

The games are just getting easier. The way experience sharing works in Gen 6 and beyond makes leveling up almost too easy; I remember every Pokemon on my ingame team in Y being Lv 90 or above by the time I reached the E4, and it was basically the same in OR/AS and I didn't even do any special training in any of those games. S/M and Sh/Sw weren't much different.

The only exception I can think of is the Let's Go games where leveling up is honestly a damn chore because of the lack of wild Pokemon battles and re-battling trainers on routes not being a thing unlike in FR/LG. I was barely like 5 levels stronger than most Gym Leaders in those games and I still struggled in several important battles. It's ironic that games meant to entice new players ended up being some of the hardest games for me to beat.

Here's a thought concerning this: Perhaps the games only SEEM easier because a lot of players tend to mostly use Pokémon found early on (like the Starter)? After all, a Pokémon that is obtained early on (like the starter) will gain more EVs than something caught much later in the game and thus end up much stronger than that Pokémon. After all, if you keep the Starter around, it will likely gain a LOT of EVs throughout the game since it's the first one you get.

I don't think that's it. In UM and Shield my teams had no Starter Pokemon or early game Pokemon because I Boxed them and used other Pokemon from trades, yet those games were still extremely easy to beat and I can't remember struggling at any point in those games except against Ultra Necrozma one time.

 

[Greninjaman]

The games are just getting easier. The way experience sharing works in Gen 6 and beyond makes leveling up almost too easy; I remember every Pokemon on my ingame team in Y being Lv 90 or above by the time I reached the E4, and it was basically the same in OR/AS and I didn't even do any special training in any of those games. S/M and Sh/Sw weren't much different.

The only exception I can think of is the Let's Go games where leveling up is honestly a damn chore because of the lack of wild Pokemon battles and re-battling trainers on routes not being a thing unlike in FR/LG. I was barely like 5 levels stronger than most Gym Leaders in those games and I still struggled in several important battles. It's ironic that games meant to entice new players ended up being some of the hardest games for me to beat.

Did you leave the EXP. Share on in Pokémon Y and ORAS? That might have been part of the reason.

 

[nickdt]

Its a bit of a combination of both.

Because of older players getting smarter/more experienced with Pokemon games, the games for them automatically become easier.

However, the games aren't easy for first time players, especially if they have never dealt with Pokemon beforehand.

 

[Scruffyjay]

People always say "they weren't harder, you were a child" as if none of us have replayed a gen 1-5 game in the past ten years lmao...The argument falls apart instantly.

It's not even a mixture to me like others say. I replay the old games and see quite a dramatic difference.

Replaying Firered, I rarely ever beat Misty on the first try even with a Pikachu. Modern games I can almost always beat a challenge at roughly the same point on the first try.

Yes, the new games easier now. I don't really care though, they're still very good and fun! Only one I would change difficulty of is LGPE - love those games, but they really suffer from lack of challenge. (Yes I know they're an entry point/for younger kids. I still wish they were better battle-wise.)