4th Gen Platinum: The hardest (main series) game? Why (not)?

Platinum is one of the main series games that has been widely regarded as one of the harder ones in the series, with opponents like Gym Leaders with teams that are more fleshed out thanks to new expansions in the Sinnoh Pokédex, Cyrus having a much stronger team in the Distortion World (and an extra battle in Celestic Town), and the Team Galactic admins you have to fight earlier in the game. Then it comes to the Elite Four, who also get remade teams and Cynthia, who I don't think I even need to get started on.

But would it stand high on that scale for you? If not, which other games beat it out? Discuss.

Platinum is most certainly the hardest game in the series.
Team Galactic doesn't really pose much of a threat until much closer to the end of their story line (with the exception of the Valley Windworks section), Cyrus being particularly challenging depending on one's team in the Distortion World. That said, I found Platinum to be more challenging in the early game - getting easier towards the end. The Elite Four were, BW aside, probably the easiest group on record. Cynthia was certainly the saving grace for them, having a ridiculously powerful team (Milotic and Garchomp are the banes of my existence). The rule of the game getting easier towards the end also carries over to the gym leaders - with Volkner being nothing short of a pushover every time.

Regardless, Platinum was a difficult game - if only because the later sections lure you into a false sense of security before facing Cynthia , Cyrus and the like. Giratina's appearance was also the hardest set wild Pokémon battle to date, so far as I'm concerned.

I definitely have to agree Platinum is the hardest main-series game of all. Like what was mentioned just above, such as Team Plasma battles getting incredibly hard late-game, and the Cyrus battle in the Distortion World is also very tough, especially his Gyarados which has near-perfect coverage with its moves.

I also found the Elite Four very hard, but not as hard as Cynthia who has perfect IVs across her team, plus her Garchomp is a total menace if you take it too lightly. I pretty much I have to say Platinum has some of the hardest NPC battles in a main-series game to date.

Without a doubt. First off we've got the Gym Leaders who have strong Pokémon, just look at Gardenia as a 2nd Gym Leader with Roserade! Their teams are generally full of fully evolved (or powerful) pokemon, and then obviously there are the rematches post-game. Then you've got Cynthia who has a diverse mix of six strong Pokémon, including a pseudo-legendary. Put it this way, after attempting to Nuzlocke this game I couldn't even get further than Fantina.

I think it's definitely one of the more harder games of the main series. The Gym Leaders and Elite Four had seriously powerful teams for their respective moments in the game. I wish the future games were more similar to Platinum. From Gen IV on, all Pokemon games have become way too easy. :L

It's probably the hardest but it isn't too hard since you can overgrind with the Vs. Seeker on certain spots.

"Platinum is hard" is really a myth, though. Gym leaders can use complex strategies, like Candice with permahail and Snow Cloak Froslass, but the game can still be trivialized. Roark is beaten by all three starters, for example. That's not "hard". Gardenia's Sunny Day strat is her undoing if you're using Chimchar. Fantina dies to anything with Bite or Crunch. The last gym is Electric type, a type which doesn't have a ton of weaknesses but isn't particularly powerful either. Cyrus is improved over DP but I haven't found him that hard either. The Elite Fours are all easy except for Lucian, who is the last and supposed to be the hardest of them all anyway.

What really makes the Sinnoh games (not just Platinum) hard is Cynthia, but then it's one battle, and the very last one in the story... It's supposed to be hard. And Garchomp is very difficult to take down, but other games have comparable Pokémon, like BW with Hydreigon which is walled by nothing in the Unova Dex.

Prior to getting a hold of Platinum version, I've given Diamond a couple of runs, so as far as most of story go, I'd say I had already known how to get around things. In this regard, luckily, things weren't precisely tough. Only areas I did have tough time getting around would be new ones, such as Distortion World.

Game difficultly--I'll admit, in terms of this, Platinum did seem to have a little hard. In comparison to previous titles, this game in particular seemed to have had trainers here and there whose Pokémon were leveled sightly more high than normal, making it a bit of challenge. Not only this, but some of them seemed to have had good move-set, too, if I'm not mistaken.

Another thing that might have contributed to above is me being lazy when it came to training. If I had put more effort, I'm sure things would have generally been more easy.

Platinum is not really hard overall but cynthia? shes a strong one her garchomp ohko 2 of my pokemon but still it's not really hard anyway

I don't know if it's the hardest necessarily. But I think it is worth mentioning the points in the game where the levels of trainers seemingly jump quite a bit. Like for Crasher Wake: there is a noticeable level jump for his battle. And then again with the Team Galactic battles at Mt. Coronet. If you don't have a high level team, Cyrus could be super difficult. Of course, Cynthia's always going to be a challenge, but with the right team she isn't too bad.

There are certainly tough points, that's for sure. But to call it the hardest game? Probably not. I'm more inclined to think that Yellow is the hardest, but that's just me.

I would have to agree that saddling you with a Pikachu at the very beginning of the game is a difficult aspect. Further still is that your rival's starter can randomly evolve into either Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon. There is no way of fully preparing for Blue's team in Yellow without outsourced help (which most of us didn't have in the late 90's). I haven't went through Platinum completely so I'll haven to give it a go soon.

So far, on my first time playing Platinum, and yes I'm quite late on this since I didn't know that no$GBA would actually work on my laptop, I never felt so much adrenalin at playing a pokemon game. Since I've had quite a comfortable time playing Gen 3, I didn't expect that Platinum would actually test me.

What i do have to say about Platinum so far:
- NPC Trainers are quiet smart. If they spam a move that works, THEY WILL SPAM that move until you actually counter it.
- Level expectations: Some trainers, especially those Ace trainers with a single pokemon, are excruciating when encountered. There are times that some of those Ace trainers have pokemon that have a huge level relative to the time you face them.
- Also Galactic grunts and commanders have pretty good lineups compared to previous generation villainous grunts (I'm talking bout you team magma/aqua). They are well prepared for whatever you throw at them.
- Cyrus is actually quite a beast at the time you encounter him.
- Fog is BS.. I'm currently having a game where my Infernape's Flame Wheels MISS ALL THE TIME on Deep Fog. i remember fighting an Ace Trainer on Deep Fog and I almost got wiped, and i was forced to reset since my EV training was completely messed up.

Though I guess what still makes life in Platinum still convenient is that there's still those moments you feel those large jumps of EXP, which comes in handy for the gym leaders with appropriately high level mons at the time you encounter them. After all, this isn't Gen V with its (in my opinion) bullcrap EXP system.

I guess i can say that this is now my favorite past-gen Game in the core-series (after Emerald and Yellow). My body's ready to fight Cynthia soon.. (or get bodied)

your rival's starter can randomly evolve into either Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon

Click to expand...

Although Rival's Eevee evolves depending on the conditions you have beaten him in the Lab and the Optional battle, unless you're referring to a way that most people didn't know that, aka GUIDE DANG IT, then i would somewhat agree.. though if you do lose both the lab battle and skipped the optional early battle with him. Yellow Rival's team becomes easier with his Vaporeon as the evolved starter, which your starter pikachu can manhandle with ease.

For me, Its hard to compare the difficulty of a Gen I game and a Gen 4 game based on the totality of convenience features available to the player (which in my opinion is relative to frustration and gameplay comfort since obviously Gen 1 had little things to benefit players compared to Gen 4. (Gen 1, you literally had a VERY SMALL bag to keep your consumables, TMs, stones, X items, while Gen 4, you had a bag that could hold Walmart's entire stock)

The thing is that Gen 1 used "unfair" things to make life miserable for players in the early levels.. Early game hell is where Yellow was at. When it comes to Plat, the game wants you to be comfy with all of the convenience measures (Decent starters that are very strong when evolved (Talking to you Chimchar), Huge ass inventory, VS Seeker to farm cash and exp by endlessly ransacking trainers) but the challenge really comes from the trainers who are unexpectedly decent battlers (Even the cosplaying little girl knows how to abuse her Sweet Kiss + Tailwhip Pichu's moveset) as well as how a player is prepared to face certain challenges that are unexpected (like those suddenly appearing Ace Trainers with huge pokemon at their disposal)