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Gamefreak's teambuilding

RK9

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So after having looked through the teams of the rivals throughout all generations (Characters you challenge multiple times and that are supposed to make you improve), am I really the only one who thinks GameFreak absolutely sucks at teambuilding for battles/characters that are supposed to be challenging/you meet multiple times.

Like, the only ones that actually weren't a complete steamroll were Blue, Silver, N and Barry to a degree. (As far as rivals go.) Cheren and Bianca's are okay, while Wally massively improved in ORAS. Don't get me started on Brendan/May, Shauna, Serena/Calem, Gladion, Hau and Trace though.

What's worse is that they just recycle many of the mons in sequals for completely new characters (Cheren using an Elemental Monkey and Unfezant and Hugh using one too. Depending on the starter, that would make 3. Considering that Black 2 and White 2 had much more Pokémon available to it than Black and White, it's a darn crime they didn't make use of that).

You reckon they actually suck at team building or just don't want it all to be too hard? Or would there be another reason behind the lacklustre team building for such characters?
 
I think they "just don't want it all to be too hard" (like, they just don't want the whole game to be too hard nowadays) and seem way more concerned about building teams around the "themes" of the characters than to generate difficulty for the player. But they still attempt to make something in that sense tho, like the rival's starters that usually have an advantage over our (and others cases, like Bianca and the elemental monkeys in BW, Gladion and Silvally in SM etc) as you said.
 
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I think it's a mix of not wanting the game to be too difficult combined with the pokemon needing to fit the theme/preferences of the trainers. In universe a lot of people probably prefer using pokemon they like and people who teambuild to use a specific gimmick or to just steamroll anyone who tries to battle them are likely a minority.

I will say though that late game trainers really need to have a full team at least. If I can have a full team in 2 or 3 routes after I start my journey the elite four and champion should have a full team. With gym leaders, the leader having more pokemon the further you go can make sense with the idea they change their team based on their opponent's badge count and therefore their skill level. Having gym leaders with barely any pokemon later in the game is a terrible idea (looking at you, Liza and Tate with 1 pokemon each).
 
I really think Game Freak doesn't really pay much mind to teambuilding during the main plot and saves that towards the post-game Battle Tower equivalent.

I don't mind this approach considering I don't even pay much mind to teambuilding during the main story events myself.
 
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Game Freak definitely pays attention to teambuilding during the game, at least for the main bosses, and the Elite Four is the perfect example of this. The first time you fight the E4, you might only see one or two coverage moves, but on the rematch, you'd better watch out for Chandelure's Energy Ball, or your Swampert's gonna be toast.

But when it comes to the post-game battle facilities, I start to think that their teambuilding isn't as good so much as uncompetitive. Most of my Battle Tree runs in Sun/Moon/USUM were ended by some BS like Thunder Wave + Double Team Mimikyu or Hypnosis Mega Gengar, or because I missed a 90% accuracy move >_>
 
^ The Elite Four I feel like are the only main game "bosses" to have remotely formidable teams; usually Gym Leaders, because they're limited by type, it's more or less easy to gain the upper hand.

That's my experience anyway. =o
That's more or less my experience with other JRPGs. Until you reach the endgame, the bosses are not that hard, but once you reach the endgame, they become merciless. One example is Suikoden Tierkreis: I didn't have any problem with bosses most of the game (partially thanks to an economy exploit that I used to keep my weapons and armor updated). But once I reached the final boss, well, that took me five tries to beat it.

Also happened to me in every FF ever. Specially IX with Necron making four attacks per turn.
 
Sorry, but I'd rather take what we're getting now when the alternative is every instance of a Pokémon species having the exact same four moves with very little variation. That's boring as hell. I for one would be disappointed to see Shauntal, Malva, and Phoebe using the exact same Chandelure set.
 
In-story teams aren't meant to be "good" or competitive in the metagame sense, they're supposed to fit the theme and personalities of various characters and, in the case of Gym Leaders, provide a reasonable challenge to a Trainer at a particular level of experience, in which role I think GameFreak does a good job of building their teams. It's a kid's game; the main story isn't designed to provide a challenge for a metagame competitive player, and those players are ultimately incidental to GameFreak's focus.
 
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