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Is Pokemon getting too easy?

More convenient for sure with how breeding mechanics were tweaked and the larger gain in exp. But I think it's just that most of use have been in this game for a while and we've gotten more seasoned in a game that's supposed to be openly accessible. What we need is a difficulty setting that gives us better opponents with larger teams, better moves, higher levels and mega evolutions.
 
I really have no problem with exp share and similar stuff because it's optional.
There is some elements that turn tha game easier: one of them is the pacing. The older ones were slow because of the technology. It isnt a bad thing, cause in X/Y and ORAS we really feel inserted in the game, and not just looking "behind" the events.

Though one thing I really perceived, and others too: the number of Pokemons and quality of them is the lowest. Game Freak is afraid to put a better team to NPcs. Not every npc needs a smogon team, but most of them have always the same weak Pokemon over and over again and is tiresome. Elite four and later gyms needs at least five pokemons. If its not possible to do this, I agree that the best solution is the difficulty option at the beginning of the game like in BW, but not in the end.

What else? More exploratory features, cause the new games are very linear. Post game with a story like Delta episode. A more deep plot and characters, especially the rivals and villains. And battle places like world tournament and battle frontier, to appeal older players. All of this add in the experience and sense of difficulty.
 
Alright so I've recently played through HeartGold again (a few weeks back) and yesterday I started up my Emerald again. I found them surprisingly less difficult than before. The Elite 4 in HG was suddenly a cakewalk, even with only two-three Pokemon really contributing, Kanto also just went a lot smoother for me. I didn't notice any of the extreme difficulty spikes I felt years ago. Whitney was no problem, Clair was no problem at all and so on.

For Emerald I'm only just past the third gym but I can already notice it being easier than before. I beat the first two gyms with Pokemon that were slightly underleveled whereas I wasn't able to that so easily in the past. The third gym was always the biggest milestone as it was nearly impossible for me to beat except if I had Marshtomp. With Combusken or Grovyle I usually had to level them up to level 30 to even stand a chance and now I had no problems whatsoever with a level 25 Combusken and Breloom.

Just goes to show, the games don't become that much easier. We just get a lot better at them without significantly noticing.
 
Is Pokémon getting too easy? Lemme answer that question with this.

For those of you who don't wish to wade through hundreds of additional posts for me to get to my point, that is a topic on GameFAQs in which I describe the happenings of my latest Alpha Sapphire playthrough. In order to prove a point, I went through that game with a team of Sunkern, Feebas, Luvdisc, Happiny, Farfetch'd, and Nosepass. No evolutions- sold off the only Sun Stone I got, Feebas never so much as touched a Blue Pokéblock, never got an Oval Stone for Happiny, and I made damn sure Nosepass never leveled up in New Mauville. However, short of evolving my team, I used every other convenience the game threw my way- Pokémon-Amie, readily-available Lucky Eggs thanks to DexNav and wild Pelipper, the Exp. Share, reusable TMs, and so on and so forth. The game proved a bit more of a challenge than one usually sees in OR/AS, but not by much. I only had to use one Revive, during the Champion battle. Compare to the originals where a team including the likes of Blaziken saw me spamming Revives against Steven's Metagross, only allowing me to attack when it was recharging from Hyper Beam use... yeah. I think the answer's pretty clear as to whether Pokémon is getting easier.
But could a ten year old just starting out with the series pull that off? No. You're able to do that because you know what you're doing. Pokemon as a whole becomes exponentially easier once you know what to expect. It isn't that Pokemon has become easy, it's that Pokemon has become predictable. Combine that with all the improvements of past generations, and the game isn't as much of a challenge for players who know what they're doing.

Hell, I was playing Crystal the other day and Whitney took me only two two tries to beat her rather than the many hours and tries it used to take. Does that mean Crystal has suddenly become easy? No, it just means I know what to expect and can plan around it.
 
The games have become much too easy with the EXP share on, and much too frustrating with it off. I want my old EXP share back. If Game Freak wants to make the games more accessible to new and younger players, do it through difficulty levels, not giving you an easy button you can press at any time. If you give someone an easy button, they will press it, and then they'll complain the game is too easy. I feel like B2/W2 were the games to really get their difficulty levels right, they do require a small amount of grinding, a lot of interesting strategy, and you occasionally still get absolutely rekt in an unexpected way.

Just give us some difficulty level options, the old EXP share and some more progression, please.
 
Pokemon isn't getting easier, players are getting older and smarter. Obviously, since we've been playing Pokemon for years, we're getting better and better every time. You found Pokemon hard as a kid because you were brand new to it and you were only a kid.

I prefer the new exp. share to the old one. It makes leveling up Pokemon to evolve them easier, and that helps complete the Pokedex faster. Some Pokemon you can only obtain via evolution and some of those Pokemon don't evolve until really high levels (looking at you, Deino line...).

That being said though, I do think it's a good idea for GameFreak to add difficulty settings. Oh, but not like B2/W2, that was stupid. And those settings didn't even come back in X/Y.
 
Gen 2 was easy, and I even beat that damned miltank on a nuzlocke without faints or items. I'd say that if you ignore the exp all then the games get harder (but then again, I am a nuzlocker who doesn't use items and always has it on set), but I think it's "We get good at the games and develop complex strategies, rather then Kid us go 'My pokemon has the best moves! Mega punch, dynamic punch, hi jump kick, and horn drill!'", but it's a matter of perspective, yes.
 
Well it s never be particularly hard to be honest... I remember once finishing Red in under 12h with waaay under leveled pokémon (35-45).

Today I would agree that it is getting easier: more items available, rivals heal you after a battle (see ORAS) whereas before you had to do all that on your own. But it s not making it easier, it s more like it s saving you the time to go all the way back to the previous pokémon centre and have to come back afterwards, and items, well other than potions nobody uses any of them (except held items obviously).

All in all, Id say it s been going from easy to perhaps slightly easier, but the game in itself has gotten more complex (new types, abilities, natures, movesets, etc etc) since Gen I, so you could argue that it is compensating a little thus allowing us to focus on the important aspects of building up your team.

Besides capturing/trading for all of them is getting harder and longer (dont see any hidden meaning there.. ;) ) with every Gen, so thats definitely extending the game's life


Gen 2 was easy, and I even beat that damned miltank on a nuzlocke without faints or items. I'd say that if you ignore the exp all then the games get harder (but then again, I am a nuzlocker who doesn't use items and always has it on set), but I think it's "We get good at the games and develop complex strategies, rather then Kid us go 'My pokemon has the best moves! Mega punch, dynamic punch, hi jump kick, and horn drill!'", but it's a matter of perspective, yes.


....how..... ? O_O this thing was my bane when I was 12...
 
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Well it s never be particularly hard to be honest... I remember once finishing Red in under 12h with waaay under leveled pokémon (35-45).

Today I would agree that it is getting easier: more items available, rivals heal you after a battle (see ORAS) whereas before you had to do all that on your own. But it s not making it easier, it s more like it s saving you the time to go all the way back to the previous pokémon centre and have to come back afterwards, and items, well other than potions nobody uses any of them (except held items obviously).

All in all, Id say it s been going from easy to perhaps slightly easier, but the game in itself has gotten more complex (new types, abilities, natures, movesets, etc etc) since Gen I, so you could argue that it is compensating a little thus allowing us to focus on the important aspects of building up your team.

Besides capturing/trading for all of them is getting harder and longer (dont see any hidden meaning there.. ;) ) with every Gen, so thats definitely extending the game's life


Gen 2 was easy, and I even beat that damned miltank on a nuzlocke without faints or items. I'd say that if you ignore the exp all then the games get harder (but then again, I am a nuzlocker who doesn't use items and always has it on set), but I think it's "We get good at the games and develop complex strategies, rather then Kid us go 'My pokemon has the best moves! Mega punch, dynamic punch, hi jump kick, and horn drill!'", but it's a matter of perspective, yes.


....how..... ? O_O this thing was my bane when I was 12...

You guys never credit Chickorita, the thing has barrier (carries over to other pokemon) and synthesis (heal). Double team and mud slap also was a factor and stalling the clefairy before so whitney wastes all of her potions. It sounds impossible, but skills are a major factor.
 
You guys never credit Chickorita, the thing has barrier (carries over to other pokemon) and synthesis (heal). Double team and mud slap also was a factor and stalling the clefairy before so whitney wastes all of her potions. It sounds impossible, but skills are a major factor.

Yeah, a whole lot of good that does when your Chikorita is male and is too busy ogling that cow to take any orders. And I'm pretty sure that AI opponents have unlimited potions... right? Was there ever a mechanic for depleting items for the AI?
 
I guess 2002-me just couldnt figure out strategic thinking, at the time I had to buff up whatever pokémon I had in order to man-handle that rolling pink devil
 
You guys never credit Chickorita, the thing has barrier (carries over to other pokemon) and synthesis (heal). Double team and mud slap also was a factor and stalling the clefairy before so whitney wastes all of her potions. It sounds impossible, but skills are a major factor.

Yeah, a whole lot of good that does when your Chikorita is male and is too busy ogling that cow to take any orders. And I'm pretty sure that AI opponents have unlimited potions... right? Was there ever a mechanic for depleting items for the AI?

I don't remember if it was gen II (if so then I wasted my time) but gen 3 and up they had finite items. And I typically assemble a female team for a viable Miltank counter. EDIT: I remember that you could get a female machop (not certain, however) and a female geodude, that makes the challenge easier.
 
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X was super easy with the EXP share off, and Alpha Sapphire did seem slightly easier than Gen 3, even with EXP share off, Steven used to be tough but went down really easily
 
To some extent, yes. Granted, people do get older and are able to understand the mechanics easier, but there have been mechanical changes in how the games are made that makes them easier even in comparison to older ones. The regions are now linear, so there's little in the way of getting lost or having extra dungeons to explore, team rosters are much smaller overall and thus it's easier to beat those trainers, and there are more options that are given out that are easier to abuse (Mega Lucario, Lati@s, Exp. Share, etc.). Even ignoring the older mindset, I do think these games have been easier overall because certain elements that were changed have toned down the difficulty.
 
To some extent, yes. Granted, people do get older and are able to understand the mechanics easier, but there have been mechanical changes in how the games are made that makes them easier even in comparison to older ones. The regions are now linear, so there's little in the way of getting lost or having extra dungeons to explore, team rosters are much smaller overall and thus it's easier to beat those trainers, and there are more options that are given out that are easier to abuse (Mega Lucario, Lati@s, Exp. Share, etc.). Even ignoring the older mindset, I do think these games have been easier overall because certain elements that were changed have toned down the difficulty.

^THIS

I keep seeing people being all like "it's easier because you're older", and though that's a bit true, the games have become easier. Just compare R/S/E with ORAS, early trainers and gym leader have lowered levels, you get the Exp.All before you even start the first gym, the Pokéradar helps you catch Pokémon which have higher levels and good moves, you get a free legendary inlcuding mega stone half way the game etc. And don't even get me started on X/Y where the most Pokémon a gym leader has is three and you get like 5 'free' Pokémon including 2 megas.

I went back to play HGSS a while ago and it was seriously harder than the newer games, cause suddenly I had to actually train and I wasn't used to that anymore. Never even saw half of every Pokémon available in X/Y cause I never had to touch the grass.

Alright, training Pokémon is a pain in the ass and it's good that they tried to make that a bit easier, like they did in B/W with Audino. But going from a lot of training to zero training is a bit much imo. And giving gym leaders three Pokémon max is just plain ridiculous.
 
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Well I would presume that if you wanted a harder challenge maybe doing a nuzlocke without EXP share is the way to go. Speaking of EXP share, it just makes the game a joke, even without it, it's pretty damn easy
 
Experience share now lets you share experience with every Pokemon in your team. I feel like that's making training slightly easier. Before I always had to rotate the experience share around and gaining experience was a slow process overall. The Lucky Egg and Audino combination helped a lot in Generation V, though.

Also, catching legendary Pokemon is really easy now. By that I mean Pokemon ORAS just gives you almost every legendary Pokemon in the Pokemon universe thanks to the Eon Flute. Well, I guess that saves my time and energy and pain.
 
I definitely noticed the change in difficulty from Gen II to Gen IV when I was playing HeartGold. Seems like all the items you had to find in person in Crystal were just given away to you in HeartGold. Platinum and White also seemed to have this trend. I wonder if the Nuzlocke trend also has something to do with it...
 
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