Is It Too Easy?

[KetsuekiR]

Are the Pokemon games too easy?

My answer;

Spoiler:

I think so, sometimes. While trainers like Cynthia, Ghetsis, Cyrus and Steven proved to be awesome challenges (seriously, hard!), most of the game is a bit easy! X/Y was taking it to another level with trainers over-leveling your Pokemon and the Elite Four not posing a challenge whatsoever (not to mention Yvetal/Xerneas having super high catch rates). Compared to competitive play, the games are too easy but maybe it's a good thing?It separates casual and competitive p[lay and it's more relaxing if it's easy xD

 

[DraconianWing]

The 5th Gen games had a great balance in the difficulty of the story; hard enough to make you think while you battle, but not enough to make you want to throw your DS at the wall. There was also the Key system, enabling the player to adjust the difficulty to his/her liking. As a semi-competitive player, I like in-game teams that are set up to give the player a challenge.

X and Y on the other hand, seemed to focus more on the casual players. Even with the Exp. Share turned off, I've never encountered an Elite Four that can be swept with such ease. Additionally the Gym Leaders had less Pokemon on their teams. Another thing that I really disliked was, like you said, the high catch rate of Yveltal and Xerneas; even worse is the fact that the player was forced to catch them. A Pokemon game should be easy enough, but not this easy.

 

[Mega NOBODY]

I love X/Y because of the graphics and the player customization and also ev training was a lot easier, but yes the story line was bland and the CPU players sucked but to be honest I never had any problem beating the CPU players, they're a piece of cake in every franchise. However competitive battling became a lot easier and fighting human players is always more fun.

 

[Drayton]

Diamond & Pearl and Plat as well as Gen5 proven to be more intense because it was very competitive and overcome the most difficult battle also GenIII remake are proven more difficult than the original, soon you take down the elite four for the first time, they go mega on you which makes it twice difficulty not to mention wally can be nasty too.

Contrary to X and Y are more towards for casual players

• Gym leaders being so easy to beat (lacking of complex competitive strategy and easy to nuke'm out)
• Elite four & Diantha are cakewalk and can be nuked by the player also not very diversity as Gym leaders. While other trainers are more diverse than the kalos league
• Regardless you turn off/on exp share. You still get hefty EXP because the EXP is very broken
• Xerneas / Yveltal are easier to catch with just ultra balls (save your masterball for them dogs)

That's conclude XY being easiest and Gen3 remake, Gen5/4 are hard.

 

[Megan]

Try not to use overpowered (or even just really strong) stuff, megas, the EXP Share and grinding (which people seem to see as the only real strategy these days) and then try to beat X and Y. I can tell you from experience that the games can be really hard to beat, because what a lot of people not know: most trainers have Pokemon with really good movesets. I still remember Siebolds Dragon Dancing Gyarados sweeping my entire team multiple times, because I didn't have anything to deal with it. {XD}

 

[DarkSkys]

For me yes. After learning the type advantages the games became easy to me. Though if in wifi battles type advantage doesn't always matter.

 

[pkmin3033]

Of course Pokemon games are easy; they're marketed at all ages, and you can't really market a game at all ages without lowering the difficulty bar considerably. Pokemon is by nature an easy series, because any and every challenge can be overcome by level grinding. Truly difficult JRPGs are ones where levels don't matter and you have to take advantage of other mechanics to win and, whilst type matchup IS important in Pokemon, you can overcome even that if you grind enough. It's not designed to be difficult.

That said, it's quite a difficult thing to judge if things have gotten any easier: as you play games and get older, you get more experienced. As the core gameplay of Pokemon has changed very little over the years, of course you're going to find subsequent titles easier than the one that came before it, as you're more familiar with the mechanics. Back in the days of Red and Blue, I had absolutely no clue about type matchups, and it wasn't until Diamond and Pearl that I started having the patience to grind levels to beat Gym Leaders. Before that I'd use my favourites and damn the type matchups, and I'd run from one Gym to the next without training my team properly. You can imagine how that went. As you learn how the games work, of course you're going to find them easier...but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're easier for everyone, or easier overall. Take the knowledge you have of Pokemon now and give them to your younger self, and you'd probably find the older titles easier too, because you'd know what you're doing.

People say the current generation are easier than past titles, but I think it's more that the exploits to make them so are more readily available. Remember how hard you had to hunt for the EXP share in the original games, and how late you got it? Remember when Lucky Eggs didn't exist? You never used to get EXP for catching Pokemon either.

It's not so much easier as it is more accessible. Remember, you don't HAVE to use these things if you don't want to. Pokemon is designed to be easy, but there is plenty of room for you, the player, to make them more challenging if you want to. Self-imposed restrictions can always make games harder.

 

[Aslan]

I find the games easy for the most part but it's really up to the player if they want that step up in difficulty or not. The games are easy because people have the EXP share, their options set to 'shift' over 'set' and other small changes that make the game feel a lot easier than it could be.

The most difficulty I've ever had in the series was in my rematch of the Elite Four in Platinum but a lot of factors made the fight a lot harder than it should have been. I was still new to the series and about 8 or 9 when I rematched the Elite Four so I only had about three good pokemon that could really face the challenge; Empoleon, Rapidash and Luxray. They were also rather underleveled so needless to say, I didn't have a good time when I reached Flint. I think I lost at that point and I still have yet to return for a rematch but maybe one day!

If people wanted to make the game harder in difficulty, there's a lot they could do. They could carry less pokemon with them, restrict their use of items, turn off the EXP share, turn it to set instead of shift or not grind. I think the sole reason I get by through pokemon games without much trouble is grinding so maybe I'll stop that for one playthrough and see the difference sometime!

I feel like in a few ways, Pokemon's like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books when it comes to difficulty. It could just be me but the decisions and choices you make when it comes to how you raise your pokemon or use them in battle can change the game from easy to hard and vice versa.

 

[Laguna]

You see, they had something going for it with B2/W2's Challenge Mode and Easy Mode but then they decided to trash it like most of the things that made B2/W2 so good.

I personally don't use the Exp. Share often so I was underleveled by the end of X and I got my ass handed to me by Diantha's Gardevoir but that's more because half my team was weak to Fairy so that was a thing.

 

[Evening]

Generation 4 and 5 were the only exceptions in my opinion.

 

[MechaGladiator]

Gen 3 and 4 were the hardest for me. As for Gen 5 and 6, those were both pieces of cake and took almost no time at all for me to beat. OR/AS was a bit challenging so, it's not included in the difficulty levels of Gen 6. In X/Y I could pretty much sweep the Gym leaders without really using a different Pokémon and I didn't use the EXP share or Super Training very often. I just switched Pokémon more so out of habit from previous games more so than a need to do so. The Elite Four in both games and their respective champions were no fun to fight since I found them both too easy. N and Ghetsis were the only real challenges I found in Gen 5 outside the PWT. I think the games should be a bit harder, since once a player regardless of skill level gets the ball rolling, everything else gets to become a bit boring.

 

[punkysaur]

There should be like 3 levels of play i.e. Beginner,Intermediate and "Omfg this is so hard" level.
That might even make reruns of the games more interesting

 

[Otamajakushi]

I think they're right on point, actually. Maybe what they should do is have multiple levels of AI. What they can do is expect the user to fail a certain amount of times. If they fail less, the AI gets a little smarter. If they fail more, the AI gets a little easier. This can be judged on a scale.

That way they are challenged appropriately throughout the entire game. Changes to the AI won't be very dramatic, but it would either offer a slight challenge, or a slight advantage to the user. Pokemon levels or movesets wouldn't change, but the AI might not use that second full restore, or the Pokemon might have an Oran berry, or none, instead of a Sitrus berry. Things like that that aren't giving the player a free win, but are giving them a little extra push.

 

[itsSacred]

I've been trying out Nuzlockes, I realized how bad I am at Pokemon.

 

[Laguna]

I've been trying out Nuzlockes, I realized how bad I am at Pokemon.

I've only ever done one Nuzlocke ever, that was fun until Roxanne. I tend to do other challenges like monotypes and stuff.

 

[itsSacred]

I've only ever done one Nuzlocke ever, that was fun until Roxanne. I tend to do other challenges like monotypes and stuff.

I think I'm going to try out a Monotype challenge I just need to figure what game and what type I want to use.
It seems like a fun challenge!

 

[Aquacorde]

Anything before Gen V is easy if you grind, Gen V is hard no matter what, Gen VI is wayyyy easy. Well, VI is easily switched between easy and difficult. I think if you're aware enough and want a challenge, it's easy to make it a challenge for yourself. So whenever I see someone complain that Pokémon's too easy it's likeeee... c'mon. You're smart enough to make it a challenge for yourself. Have fun with it~

 

[Hikamaru]

Most people may complain newer games have been getting too easy, but at the same time we get to be able to do self-imposed challenges so it helps offset everything while still allowing you to enjoy the game.

 

[Alfieri]

Have the games gotten easier or are we getting older?

Sometimes I ask myself if the games get easier after every release or if we're just more experienced after playing the series for so many years that the games feel easier. Like I remember I had a hard time when I first went through Platinum's Elite Four as a 14-15 year old. I couldn't even beat Lucian half the time and struggled to beat Cynthia, but now I breeze right through them.

 

[Pendraflare]

...Actually, I remember some people called BW too easy when they were new, and that B2W2 were even easier on Normal Mode. As someone who's played through both games (the latter on Challenge Mode) plenty of times, I can say for a fact that they start off relatively tricky, and let up some during the middle of the game, but they get a lot harder near the end, especially with the final battles like N and Ghetsis in the original, and Iris' buffed up team in the sequels. Although since I haven't played B2W2 Normal Mode since early 2013, I wouldn't be able to judge that.