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-   -   6th Gen Did you find OR/AS challenging? (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=358804)

Sopheria November 20th, 2015 10:06 PM

Did you find OR/AS challenging?
 
So, one thing that's often been noted by long time fans is that the 6th gen games are less challenging than games previous. This is for various reasons, among them being the Exp Share, the new exp gain calculation formula, an overall easier level curve, the presence of Mega Evolution, and others which we may not even be aware of.

All in all, how challenging did you find Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire? If you've played other Pokemon games, how do you feel the difficulty of these games compares to others?

Bounsweet November 21st, 2015 2:21 AM

Absolutely less challenging. I was able to beat my original run in less than a week and I used some Pokémon that aren't exactly powerhouses like Beautifly and Cosplay Pikachu, so...

Nah November 21st, 2015 6:12 AM

ORAS wasn't hard really. But Pokemon games are never really difficult for the most part. And half of the "difficulty" came from mechanical issues where many Pokemon had crappy movepools and/or type+stat mismatches. The better leveling curve was so nice though. R/S, like the Johto games, had this awful leveling curve (there was often no good way/place to grind either) and I'm glad that was no longer a major issue in ORAS.

Pendraflare November 21st, 2015 6:26 AM

Yeah, I can't say that the game really tested me at all. I had the right Pokémon for every major fight in my first game, and never used a single bag item in battle. The closest Gym Leader to being difficult was Norman, and only because one of his Slaking scored a critical hit on my Hariyama after I had used some Bulk Ups, and I had 4 HP left but still soloed him with that one. As for the league, Phoebe was a little annoying, and Steven I tried to use my entire team against, but that didn't quite work out as my Flygon missed against his Armaldo with Draco Meteor and then succumbed to his hit (I went in against him at 51/52). Not even doing a Wedlocke with no bag items in battle really amped things up, except maybe for Drake and the Delta Episode (the latter of which had the first important fight to cause a death, and the final battle with Zinnia was rather difficult too) - but again, I just had the right Pokémon for each situation.

I did do a Blue Mono-Color on Alpha Sapphire at the beginning of the year, and that admittedly had a few difficult fights - Norman and Winona, most notably. The former of which took well over 15 minutes to beat (although part of that was because I was typing out the log of the battle), and the latter was hard because I had little to use against Altaria once it had used Cotton Guard.

Hikamaru November 21st, 2015 6:30 AM

Compared to the original games, I somehow found OR/AS less hard as far as challenge is concerned, but that's because at the time I played the original versions I was still a first-timer to playing Pokemon games compared to now when I'm much smarter and aware of stuff so I ended up breezing through faster, mainly due to Hoenn already being familiar to me as well.

Like Pendra, I also knew what Pokemon to use to counter stuff, and not a single Gym gave me trouble compared to the original games. Improved mechanics are also in play here, so expect them to make the experience much easier as well.

DraconianWing November 21st, 2015 9:14 AM

The same as what everyone has said so far. Even with Exp. Share disabled I still managed to get through without any need for grinding or make any specific preparations for the Gym Leaders. I can relate to Hika in that I found the originals more difficult, and that it could be because I was new to Pokemon during that time too. It would have been really nice if the Gym Leaders had more Pokemon on their teams; for example, Norman is a pushover in this game due to only having three Pokemon that are below level 30, and the Tate/Liza duo can be defeated easily by spamming Surf.

Caite-chan November 21st, 2015 10:09 AM

It took me less than 24 hours total to beat the game and I felt like I whipped right through it.

esperance November 21st, 2015 1:29 PM

They were probably the easiest Pokémon games that I've played yet... The number of different moves Pokemon can learn these days combined with the Gym Leaders being somewhat easier than they were in the original games made building an effective team easy with any Pokemon that I managed to find, and I was able to defeat every trainer with no problems.

SirBoglor November 21st, 2015 1:45 PM

I found these games to be one of the least challenging in the franchise in my opinion. Even Steven wasn't a big deal for me. Hopefully, the next games will prove to be more challenging, for both the early and end game experiences. I will say, however, that I found the Battle Maison to be very challenging and fun to compete in. Other than that, the games are a breeze.

Qibli November 21st, 2015 3:55 PM

The original was bit more harder, but ORAS make it bit easier than it's original cousins regardless the mechanical changes it still EASY well not very ease in XY way.

blotterbabyy November 21st, 2015 4:37 PM

I found both X/Y and ORAS to be significantly less challenging, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the games. I love the innovation that has come with the 6th gen games and the 3rd gen remakes. being a fan of since I was a child makes them satisfying and refreshing. the difficulty level is a bit disappointing, but nonetheless they are fantastic titles. Pokemon never disappoints!

Loriania November 21st, 2015 7:19 PM

Sapphire was my very first Pokemon game, and Alpha Sapphire seemed easier in comparison. Especially when Latios decided to join my party. I will admit I flew around recruiting a few legendaries before Victory Road.

whatzit66 November 21st, 2015 8:22 PM

Most of what everyone has said here pretty much covers it; the 6th generation is far easier than previous generations. I think for the most part this is because GameFreak has really cut down on all the tedium that provides artificial difficulty in the older generations. Have to spend time grinding all your dudes? Not anymore, EXP share has you covered. Pokemon lacking access to good moves? Now that moves and move spreads have been improved Pokemon are much more capable and adaptable. Not to mention reusable TM's are a thing.
I ended up avoiding trainers throughout my ORAS run and found the game to be of reasonably difficult. But it feels weird to try to avoid gaining EXP. Sort of counter intuitive.

Juliandroid98 November 22nd, 2015 3:51 AM

It was definitely more challenging than X/Y imo. But it was still pretty easy nonetheless.
I did do the no EXP share challenge though, so that ramped up the difficulty a fair bit.

jasonthedrag0n November 22nd, 2015 4:35 AM

With regards to the exp share, I don't find that made it easier, just less tedious, grinding away to level up and keep a balance is time consuming rather than difficult. That said, the over all game did seem much easier than I remember original Red, Yellow and Gold being.

LyokoGirl5000 November 22nd, 2015 7:01 PM

I feel like ORAS is less difficult than the originals, but only through gameplay mechanics. The EXP Share makes the game much easier. That said, I found the originals to be tedious when it came to grinding especially around the second, fifth, and seventh gyms and then downright boring around the Elite 4. I think the majority of the difficulty the original games had were related to level grinding, so the EXP Share makes me feel like I'm playing the game the way it was meant to be played.

Sun November 23rd, 2015 12:21 AM

I don't find ORAS challenging that is because my team were EV trained beforehand. But Norman still proved to be a great challenge, I can imagine my team getting cleaned if my kids weren't trained. ;)

magicalgirlj November 23rd, 2015 9:33 AM

It was pretty easy. Though Steven was a little challenging because two of his Pokemon had the sturdy ability.

esperance November 23rd, 2015 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun (Post 9007052)
I don't find ORAS challenging that is because my team were EV trained beforehand. But Norman still proved to be a great challenge, I can imagine my team getting cleaned if my kids weren't trained. ;)

That's a good point you bring up -- it might not be a huge threat competitively, but Norman's Slaking is pretty tough to a team of level 30 Pokemon, because not only is it insanely powerful but it has pretty good defenses too.

Sun November 23rd, 2015 5:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopeless Masquerade (Post 9007504)
That's a good point you bring up -- it might not be a huge threat competitively, but Norman's Slaking is pretty tough to a team of level 30 Pokemon, because not only is it insanely powerful but it has pretty good defenses too.

Let me add on: it's particularly terrible if your starter haven't reached their final evolutionary stage. Sceptile may suffer a lot too, compare to its other two starter peers. Due to the lack of Fighting-type move or the lack of bulk.

Sopheria November 23rd, 2015 5:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopeless Masquerade (Post 9007504)
That's a good point you bring up -- it might not be a huge threat competitively, but Norman's Slaking is pretty tough to a team of level 30 Pokemon, because not only is it insanely powerful but it has pretty good defenses too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun (Post 9007052)
I don't find ORAS challenging that is because my team were EV trained beforehand. But Norman still proved to be a great challenge, I can imagine my team getting cleaned if my kids weren't trained. ;)

Oh god yes, this is so true. In my current Alpha Sapphire run, I went against him with none of my team leveled above 30. He managed to KO my entire team except for my Marshtomp (yes he was still a Marshtomp at the time), and it was by sheer luck Marshtomp was able to beat his final Slaking. Slaking is sooo OP, if it weren't for Truant he'd be nigh unstoppable.

Pendraflare November 23rd, 2015 5:50 PM

One thing I find about Norman is that his first Slaking loves to use Yawn, no matter how garbage your defenses are. After (watching) several plays of ORAS, i've gotten quite used to him starting off with that move. But as I may have said, some of my adventures have had him actually putting up a nice fight.

esperance November 23rd, 2015 5:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sun (Post 9007891)
Let me add on: it's particularly terrible if your starter haven't reached their final evolutionary stage. Sceptile may suffer a lot too, compare to its other two starter peers. Due to the lack of Fighting-type move or the lack of bulk.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sopheria (Post 9007932)
Oh god yes, this is so true. In my current Alpha Sapphire run, I went against him with none of my team leveled above 30. He managed to KO my entire team except for my Marshtomp (yes he was still a Marshtomp at the time), and it was by sheer luck Marshtomp was able to beat his final Slaking. Slaking is sooo OP, if it weren't for Truant he'd be nigh unstoppable.

My Sceptile just barely made it through that battle. Thank goodness it was so high leveled.

bobandbill November 24th, 2015 4:03 AM

Much easier than RSE which was imo fairly easy for the most part as it is! The Exp Share was to blame here - made things just a touch too easy...

I did have some struggles, as I used a team close to the opponents throughout the game. But that said, I was rotating between more than 6 Pokemon... the number was (maybe a couple less) thirty Pokemon. If your exp-sharing device is able to keep 30 Pokemon close to the opponent's team with the only 'grinding' being catching Pokes that appear interesting through DexNav and otherwise just exploring all the places and beating up trainers without much in the way of extra battles, then your exp-sharing device is too powerful.

Qibli November 24th, 2015 4:33 AM

If you don't get makuhita or any fighting type before Norman it would be difficult to stop it's slacking, but if you choose torchic it would be a breeze and luckily for me I just uberly owned with a downloaded pokemon

Nah November 24th, 2015 4:53 AM

It's too bad you can't get the Protect TM before Norman's gym; would make the battle a lot easier since you can abuse Truant with that.

What Rock types are available to the player before that point though, besides Geodude?

Qibli November 24th, 2015 5:03 AM

Maybe Nosepass? (just rocksmashing rocks that's all)

Hikamaru November 24th, 2015 5:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nah (Post 9008413)
What Rock types are available to the player before that point though, besides Geodude?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Yveltal (Post 9008417)
Maybe Nosepass? (just rocksmashing rocks that's all)

There's Aron and both the fossil Pokemon as well. Aron in particular can take Norman's STAB moves very well with its quad resistance and high Defense.

Qibli November 24th, 2015 5:21 AM

Quote:

There's Aron and both the fossil Pokemon as well. Aron in particular can take Norman's STAB moves very well with its quad resistance and high Defense.
Aron sure survive pretty well against slacking even been yawned multiple times.

Cassandra November 27th, 2015 9:01 PM

I didn't find ORAS to be difficult in any way. The streamlining process of the series have made the Pokemon games laughably easy in an attempt to make them more "accessible", despite having no challenge in any aspect whatsoever.

Ice November 29th, 2015 2:22 AM

I forced myself to have some trouble by training up the whole national dex while playing through the game. If a pokemon was fully evolved, I switched it out with one that needed training in my box, only switching back for gym leaders and the league. It still wasn't awfully difficult, and I think one could run through the game really quickly if you just build a six pokemon team and use that.

Cybutops November 29th, 2015 8:32 AM

Considering I found the original games to this remake challenging in some areas the same could not be said for the remake. I remember struggling for the most part in the elite 4 whereas in the remake I defeated the champion and elite 4 with a couple of dragon dances each from my Gyarados.

Maybe I am just better at Pokemon these days, but since Diamond/Pearl/Platinum the games feel increasingly easier.

LordGrizz November 30th, 2015 4:00 PM

I think Nah said it best. Pokemon games haven't been difficult since R/B honestly and thats because that game was plagued with all sorts of crap. Anything with glare/twave wrap was a threat, toxic minimize golbat (lookin at you koga) and don't even get me started on the old crit system. All in all though I don't think pokemon is meant to be all that challenging. I believe in this new age where battling other players is one wifi connection away to me the focus has been shifted to the end game and less on the battles before then. Whether or not that's ok is purely up to you. Just be thankful you can buy potions in the first town these days n.n.

Astinus November 30th, 2015 5:10 PM

I found OR to be ridiculously easy. Part of it was because I had run through Ruby a few times before, and since the layout of Hoenn didn't really change, it was easy to know where to go and when. Another reason was because I was only playing with a team of four Pokemon, so the experience gains in battle weren't that widely-spread, and I had pretty good coverage when it came to moves. That's why my Pokemon were so high-leveled compared to everyone else, including the Elite Four and Steven.

LadyVenus November 30th, 2015 5:24 PM

For me, it depends on how I play the game. I previously did a starter only run with Swampert and yes, it was very easy. I am not doing a "no exp. share" run and am finding it to be quite a bit more....annoying. Not necessarily difficult, but the trainers can be annoying. The game itself is definitely what I would consider to be on the easier side of Pokemon games.

Sopheria November 30th, 2015 6:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astinus (Post 9016536)
I found OR to be ridiculously easy. Part of it was because I had run through Ruby a few times before, and since the layout of Hoenn didn't really change, it was easy to know where to go and when. Another reason was because I was only playing with a team of four Pokemon, so the experience gains in battle weren't that widely-spread, and I had pretty good coverage when it came to moves. That's why my Pokemon were so high-leveled compared to everyone else, including the Elite Four and Steven.

Yea, that's definitely a factor. I'd imagine that, navigation-wise at least, it was probably a bit more difficult for people who hadn't played the originals, since the layout of Hoenn is a bit complex (at least in comparison to other regions).

Quote:

Originally Posted by LadyVenus (Post 9016554)
For me, it depends on how I play the game. I previously did a starter only run with Swampert and yes, it was very easy. I am not doing a "no exp. share" run and am finding it to be quite a bit more....annoying. Not necessarily difficult, but the trainers can be annoying. The game itself is definitely what I would consider to be on the easier side of Pokemon games.

I did the same thing. I leave the exp share in pretty much all my playthroughs, and put for me it still felt a bit on the easy side :/ One thing that can be said about it is that ORAS seems to have a lot of random trainer battles. It feels like there's more in this game than usual. Not sure if that's just me though :P

Kaiyu November 30th, 2015 11:45 PM

Pokémon AS wasn't very challenging for me. Even though it wasn't much of a challenge it was still fun to play. I had my EXP Share on so I guess maybe that's why I didn't find it very challenging. I'm going to play through it again but this time have it off and see what happens.

Smiffy01 December 1st, 2015 3:18 AM

I found AS quite fun, not a huge challenge per say compared to lets say earlier generations (Crystal, blue, red), I certainly found it easier to level my pokemon together, mainly due to the fact you get the Exp share within about the first 20 minutes of the game, which I think is silly, its makes it far too easy, but still despite that, I enjoy it still very much :)

The Evil Mewtwo December 5th, 2015 4:27 PM

No, thanks to the Exp.Share. I nailed Norman quite easy and I did not use Primal Kyogre to defeat the league. I use hidden abilites for adventuring.

qubit December 6th, 2015 10:08 AM

OR was easy. I only used exp share until Mauville. Had an overleveled Swampert, Gallade and Latios and a lvl 25 HM-Slave Linoone to finish the game. Lucky Linoone did nothing...

acatfrommars December 29th, 2015 11:38 PM

Not as easy as Pokemon X was imo but Alpha Sapphire still wasn't too hard. With the exp. sharing and the wide variety of Pokemon it was still pretty easy to level up Pokemon and the E4 for the Hoenn region aren't too hard either imo. HG/SS were a lot harder.

Nurse Kevin January 1st, 2016 6:35 PM

Actually, I found AS to be more challenging than the originals. As I progressed through the game, I had to make sure EXP. Share was off, and avoid a lot of trainers to remain fair-leveled. Boss battles like Archie and Zinnia were so easy that I had to use moves like False Swipe to make sure they use Full Restores, which they didn't, therefore making a battle last longer even more of a challenge. The first 5 gyms had been nerfed in levels so I had to soft-reset a number of times to remain either under-leveled or at their level. It's challenging all right.

llysender January 1st, 2016 7:34 PM

I only played AS so I can't say for OR.

Stroomish that you can catch at the start makes team aqua/kyorge a non issue.
That been said the only fights I found challenging(aka need to train/switch up pokemon/use items) were the admin at the admin at the slateport museum with the rough skin carvarna, wally before the E4(why is the E4 and Steaven so bad even though they have good pokemon), Wallace at sky tower and the fire gym leader.

Sopheria January 1st, 2016 9:42 PM

Another thing I thought about, with regards to the contests, they've made building Contest stats insanely easy in these games. Back in the originals there was a limited number of Pokeblocks you could feed your Pokemon, so you had to make sure each block was blended perfectly in order to perfect your contest stats, and that blending mini-game was pretty darned challenging. In this one it's as simple as "put some berries in a blender, and out pops a perfect Pokeblock".

Not related to battling or anything, and I know Contests are more of a side feature than anything, but it's just one of the many ways they've seriously toned down the challenge factor, for better or worse.

EternalSeekerX January 2nd, 2016 9:42 PM

I think ORAS could be challenging but not any harder than gen 3. Gen 6 improvements to exp share makes it easier imo, which isn't that bad. AI can still be brutal with luck and accuracy.

Skip Class January 2nd, 2016 10:08 PM

After you turn the EXP. share on, AS was no longer hard for me. I never played Gen 3 to begin with either so I can't exactly compare the difficulty like a lot of people have.

Aether★ January 3rd, 2016 12:27 AM

So far, it's pretty easy for me, even without EXP. share.

PageEmp January 21st, 2016 4:57 AM

I was definitely less easy than XY. But I wouldn't say it's challenging at all.

Otamajakushi January 21st, 2016 9:15 AM

I thought it was fair. I didn't have any difficulties, and I didn't think it was overly easy.

Desert Stream~ January 21st, 2016 4:13 PM

I use the exp. share and that makes it pretty easy. they need to increase the levels of oppnents, or else, its too easy. I can see that they want to make it easy for new players, but they probably use the exp. share anyway.

Lugia16 January 21st, 2016 7:54 PM

Its not as easy as x and y .

Gigadweeb January 22nd, 2016 10:56 PM

Piss easy, which absolutely disappoints me, considering I love R/S/E for their relatively challenging nature (at least, for a Pokémon game). Only thing in the game that's PvE and is challenging is the Maison, which is artificial difficulty at its finest (read: worst).

The Evil Mewtwo January 23rd, 2016 1:34 PM

No, it's not really hard, it's quite easy.


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