6th Gen How hard has the game been for you so far?

[Altius]

I've just completed the game. My levels were pretty identical to the champion's. It was okay I guess... Nowhere as easy as XY, but certainly not excessively difficult. Metagross did miss a giga impact so I guess I was REALLY lucky.

 

[Altairis]

The game hasn't been that hard, but honestly this playthrough I wasn't really looking for a challenge. I knew that if I expected the games to challenge me, I would be disappointed because regardless of how hard Gamefreak made it (because they didn't include a Hard Mode), it would still be pretty easy. I did try to challenge myself by turning off the EXP share at certain points, which resulted in some of my Pokemon such as Swablu and Feebas being severely underleveled, but the game was still relatively easy. I'm not really disappointed, since I did really enjoy the game.

 

[Jakeremix]

It's still by far one of the best Pokemon games on the 3ds.

Unless you're including the spinoffs, the only other 3DS game would be X/Y... xD

These games are definitely easier than I had hoped for. I don't know if it's because they made it easier than the originals or because I was just a kid when I originally played Sapphire, but I've easily swept every gym leader yet...

...except for Tate and Liza. Since X/Y, I've sorta followed the anime by bringing the same number of pokemon as the gym leader. So obviously, when I went up against them, not only was I surprisingly under leveled (they buffed them up by three levels!), but I only had two pokemon with me. They demolished me within a minute. I'm currently grinding (something I didn't imagine myself doing before the Pokemon League) to level 47, so wish me luck on my second go.

 

[DarkPoke001]

I am really enjoying Omega Ruby :) having it only come out on Friday in Europe, i have only played a little (realllly don't want to whizz through it too quick) not using Exp. Share on purpose (the purpose being to keep the game at a decent difficulty)

I must say, i am over 6 hours into the game, and i have just got to Rustboro city... (no badges yet or anything!) So i reckon this has to be a new record for me)

believe me, i have spent more than half of that play time using the DexNav...

 

[Nakala Pri]

Reasonably easy. :^D

Spoilers below!

Spoiler:

I mean, Norman was pretty darned hard and I was a bit surprised when I got further then Lavaridge at how everyone was the same level as I was. (When they were last level 22 or something)

But I'm still enjoying it. :P At least it isn't as easy as X/Y. xD

 

[Legobricks]

Not using Exp. Share, and I'm satisfied with the difficulty thus far, though I am using some relatively weak monsters in my team anyway. I've had a few faints, maybe even a lot by some accounts, and can't help but restrict myself to using items while progressing through a new route instead of running all the way back to the last Centre every time something happens. Any Pokemon game is technically very easy due to the Centres, but I'm playing like I feel it ought to be played and it's not trivial. In fact, with the Nav's search system I've been spending a lot of time on routes looking for monsters with cool moves or trying to take on the higher-levelled ones, and just generally getting engrossed somewhat in the whole 'Pokemon adventure' thing, and it has most often worn my team down.

 

[Spinosaurus]

Turn off Exp Share
Change battle style to "Set"

There. Now the game is actually much more interesting and reasonably challenging. "Switch" style that everyone uses breaks the game as much as EXP Share does, but since everyone uses it all the time they don't notice it.

I've never looked back after accustoming to "Set".

 

[Sheep]

I've been OHKOing or 2HKOing most things throughout the game, which is about what I expected. I never come into Pokemon games anticipating a challenge and have grown to accept the fact that it just.. isn't difficult for my playstyle. Maybe if I trained more Pokemon outside the usual party of 4-6 it would be a bit harder but alas, I do not.

Only time I even suffered remotely was against the Champion when he took out two (or three?) of my five Pokemon but even that wasn't anything to really panic about, heh. And my Exp. Share has been off the time entire time as well.

It doesn't bother me personally.

 

[│Medic│]

I haven't played X or Y, but ORAS haven't posed any real difficulties. I remember the original story line still, so I know pretty much where to go

Spoiler:

(even though many trainers accompany you to your next destination automatically now).

Some gym leaders were definitely super easy when you have a type advantageous Pokemon, like Brawly.

Exp. Share always off, battle style Set. My trainer can't read the future! lol

Still pretty easy though -- haven't whited out once yet.

s:

 

[HairyLoco]

I've decided to play the game using various restrictions, see below which:

Spoiler:

I'm:
-Only using Dark type Pokémon
-Not allowed to use held items (exception mega stones), stat boosters like Calcium or X Attack, or berries.
-Not allowed to use any potions during combat
-Not allowed to evolve my Pokémon before lvl 25, and their second evolution may not be before level 40
-Allowed to have an out-of-type HM Slave, but not allowed to use it in combat.
-Not allowed to use Day Care services.
-Not allowed to use Legendaries.
-Not allowed to use Exp. Share.
-Must catch all Pokémon with x1 catch rate Pokéballs (Premier Ball, Poké Ball, Heal Ball)

So, I'm now at the 8th gym, my team consists of:
Absol
Mightyena
Nuzleaf
Crawdaunt
Sharpedo
Skarmory (HM Slave)

I've just caught Groudon, it took me three hours (not even kidding) because it one shotted almost my entire team with Lava Plume, and I was only allowed to use Poké Balls (what I had on me at the time). It was hard, but my Crawdaunt and Sharpedo managed to outlive his Lava Plume and were able to damage him enough to trigger a Rest. During that time I was able to lower his HP enough to catch him (eventually). It took me at least a dozen resets, but I finally have him.

So, back to the question: Is it hard?
I'd say, yes, not having held items, combat potions and the sorts, it makes the game harder. Not to mention during the levels just before evolution (25 / 40) my Pokémon are relatively weak. My Nuzleaf, who's lvl 39, faints almost instantly as soon as an opposing Pokémon so much as glares in his general direction.

Right now I do have a full team, but before the 6th gym, I ran with just two Mightyenas and two Nuzleafs due to lack of Dark Types. It was a lot harder back then, because now I have more moves for various situations.

Is it hard? Yes, using my restrictions it gets pretty challenging at times. I've never wiped this often since Pokémon Yellow (back when I didn't even understand English).

 

[Pepperton]

So far it's been rather challenging, but that's only because every time I've faced a gym leader, I haven't had one Pokemon with a super-effective move against the gym's type. However, I, quite hilariously, beat Wattson on my first try with Grovyle and Aron, which, as you may infer, didn't have very good moves for dealing with Magnemites. xD;

 

[blue]

Moderately difficult, not too threatening but then again not too easy. I've kept the Exp. Share off and prevented over levelling as much as possible, I've found myself to be pretty much level with all of the Gym Leaders so far. I've found Flannery and Norman somewhat of a challenge, but the games are generally tougher than X/Y are IMO.

 

[Sopheria]

Satisfyingly challenging, for sure. They've definitely turned up the difficulty since X/Y (and I think they changed the exp. yield formula to what it was before Gen 5, but I could be wrong).

 

[Pendraflare]

Even though i've still only played Omega Ruby once so far, I do await to see how it will go when I inevitably start to do challenges on it, most of which will more than likely be without the Exp. Share and on Set mode (except Wedlockes) like I have with XY. Those have thrown me some doozies of trainers, but here I felt like some of them weren't as powerful as some i've fought in XY.

 

[pkmin3033]

The only hard part of the game for me so far - asides catching Latios, which is making me dread the post-game Legendaries - has been getting my Latias up to speed with the rest of my team. She was ten levels behind everyone else when I got her, and it's taking forever to get her caught up, especially since half my team get boosted EXP. I should really turn the EXP share off, but that won't make the game hard, just time-consuming.

 

[ShivaDF]

The only hard part of the game for me so far - asides catching Latios, which is making me dread the post-game Legendaries - has been getting my Latias up to speed with the rest of my team. She was ten levels behind everyone else when I got her, and it's taking forever to get her caught up, especially since half my team get boosted EXP. I should really turn the EXP share off, but that won't make the game hard, just time-consuming.

Did you try using a Lucky Egg? They can be taken from Pelipper around Mossdeep city or from wild Happiny.

I always set the challenge to "set" in every game, so I'm kinda used to it. I think ORAS is harder than XY, as many people have said in this thread, but I don't think it's a particularly hard game in the series or anything. Honestly, I like this difficulty. I don't really see th eneed for Pokemon to be much harder than this.

 

[pkmin3033]

Did you try using a Lucky Egg? They can be taken from Pelipper around Mossdeep city or from wild Happiny.

Haven't seen a wild Happiny yet, and I'm not at Mossdeep City yet either...although that is my next stop, so I'll probably get one then. Or try to. xD

I wasn't expecting this game to be challenging really, and I'm not disappointed by it. If anything, I'm actually quite glad I level up so quickly - it means I can take my time and enjoy the game, and don't have to spend hours grinding, which I don't really have the time for at the moment.

 

[Candy]

Meh, I've already added the rules to this playthrough. Exp. Share off, Battle Mode Set, and no Poke-Amie whatsoever 'til the first Hall of Fame entry. Also, no using the Beldum. That's cheating in a lot of ways. :v

Still in Rustboro so far, my current party just reached lv 10 (training 3 more other than my starter), so it's still pretty decent progress. Now, I hope that without me using the Poke-Amie this time, there's a challenge.

I'll enjoy blacking out a lot lol

Guess what? The only one closest to blacking me out is Steven at the Pokemon League, and that is only because of his Mega-Metagross. Set and No Exp Share the whole time. DexNav only a few times after catching Electrike, and also being underleveled most of the time (even against Wally).

I am disappoint.

 

[KillerTyphlosion]

Well I never turned on the exp share until the delta episode and I was playing with set mode since the beginning. My pokemon's levels were always around the same as the the gym leaders till the 3rd gym after that my pokémon levels were a few levels higher than the gym leaders. I was dissapointed in the levels of wally's pokémon. I mean his highest level pokémon was lvl 48 while the first elite 4 lowest was lvl 50 and you fight them right after it. In the originals my highest lvl pokémon was like lvl 50 when I reached the elite 4 and now my lowest was lvl 52.

 

[Odyssey]

They're definitely harder than XY, but only a little.

I've never been too bothered by this, however. I never understood why people dislike the difficulty of Pokémon, as the series has always been easy. Then again I take issue with people complaining about easy games in general. Games are made for everyone, not yourself.