difficulty discussion

so, i feel like this is the kind of thing that i see a lot of people can agree on: pokemon games needing to have difficulty settings. in fact, i'd say people wanted something like this ever since the introduction of Easy and Challenge Mode in B2W2. so it was a bummer to quite a lot of people that we never got to see adjustable difficulty again.

what would be your ideal version of easy mode and hard mode? if you were implementing this in future pokemon games, how would you go about doing it? do you even feel like pokemon needs to be made more difficult to begin with, or do you feel it's fine as it is?

I'm probably one of few who thinks its fine as is with the exp share. But i suppose a challenge mode (that can be accessed from the first playthrough) wouldn't hurt? But i hate grinding so upping difficulty to where id have to or something is a flat out no to me. Im a casual player who plays to use any pokemon on my team and enjoy the story or just the journey. I dont need it to be hard to enjoy it like many others do. Even if its easy i still have fun.

But this is the view of a pretty casual player ahah so.

I am okay with the EXP.share, just like Ash is! But i think the B2W2 modes can be implemented again, with the challenge mode featuring Gym leaders having Pokemon with higher levels, diverse movesets and optimised EVs. There can be more trainers on routes, which can get annoying but helpful for grinding. The Legendaries can be of a higher level, too! Also, their catch rate can be decreased.
In short, if Pokemon maker existed, this would be my design.

I don't honestly think Pokemon needs a difficulty adjustment - fans are quite capable of setting up their own difficulty modes with challenge runs and the like. If you want to make Pokemon harder, do it yourself, because the devs won't do it properly for you, I can guarantee that.

The problem is that most people equate difficulty to how time consuming something is, which is a painfully false impression. Once you've levelled up you will still curbstomp your opponent. If you can grind your way out of a block, then the block isn't really there - it's just designed to make you play for longer and make you think it's harder than it actually is. If it's not that, then enemies just hit harder, you hit for less damage, and HP is ridiculously bloated. That's not increased difficulty either - that just means you have to grind longer or take longer chipping away at a ridiculously large health pool whilst the enemy pounds you with the same moves. The only thing challenged is your patience.

But if it were me designing a hard mode that was actually challenging, I'd do a few things:

1. Make the AI significantly more intelligent. Challenge Mode in B2W2 was a good start by giving opponent Pokemon held items and increasing their levels, but I don't think the level increase is necessary with my second point. What would be better would be if the AI fought like a human opponent. Randomise attack patterns. Make Pokemon movesets balanced and threatening. Make use of status effects. Switch out when in trouble. Do all the things you might expect a living person to do, not just a braindead AI.
2. Cap levels. The problem with Pokemon is that you can grind your way through anything. Put a stop to that - have it so that you CAN'T level past a set point until you get that Gym Badge...and have a Gym Leader's Pokemon at that level, so you're evenly matched. You can still have a type advantage, but that's just playing the game strategically, and if an enemy has moves that make up for type weaknesses, it's a fair game. You have to think about what you're going to do. Exploit all your advantages, rather than just grind until you can one-shot everything.
3. Restrict item usage and number of Pokemon you can use. Make it two-on-two, or three-on-three, or whatever, with a limited inventory. Make it fair.
4. Provide options. A few hacks have Nuzlocke settings, and some of the best RPGs will let you adjust gameplay settings for your own experience. Draconian Mode in DQXI lets you handicap yourself quite severely. Bravely Default let you set your own encounter rate, which was amazing. No matter how hard you make a game, someone else will find it easy. So let the player decide how difficult they want to make the game - just give them the tools to do so. For Pokemon, you could lock levels, have them permanently confused, loafing around every other turn, neutralise abilities and hold items...the list goes on and on.

As for Easy mode...well, the games are already pretty easy, but some things I could think to add would include OHKO mode, Invincibility, EXP multipliers, guaranteed catching regardless of Pokemon HP, and so on. The Final Fantasy remasters/ports on current generation consoles have some absolutely fantastic mods; a system like that which you could turn off and on as you please could make the game even easier, and give you the chance to experience something more challenging if you got bored with that.

Pokemon games are pretty on the easy side. I think difficulty wise I wouldn't mind a better implementation of the BW2 system, but at the same time I think it should also be aware of how to balance it out so you don't restrict player freedom.

For most hard modes in RPGs you get the standard money is halved/increased depending on the difficulty, AI is much more smarter than usual, better items, and so forth. I think Pokemon could do the same thing again with the challenge mode presented.

As always, hard mode has things that can circumvent be circumvented or cheesed anywho. If there is a will there is a way. I don't believe in adding level caps for the main story as I believe the challenge should come from how you act in battle altogether. You can basically grind out bosses in many RPGs, but the key is the incentive to do. The reason why many people grind in Pokemon to begin with is due to their party arrangement. If you're just using Pokemon you like , but not good stat wise, you either have to use a play-it-safe strategy, go in and hope for the best, or grind it out. Most people I know choose the latter option because we know that poor Ledian isn't going to survive a Take Down. But if you care to use it, you just got to find a way around it. The question usually becomes "can I survive this" rather than "can I circumvent it"? And I can't even blame people such as myself for it because even moves like Toxic need some work around with your movepool that's selected. And it doesn't help that the move relearner is usually located late in the game.

I do believe that if the game HAD more incentive to think through your battles it would be much more satisfying difficult wise. Ultra Necrozma is an absolute beast to defeat, but at the same time you can't just one shot, you actually have to figure a way with it. And I like that. Even in Ultra Sun/Moon I think the overall improvements in movesets for the Totem Pokemon worked well. I know many people had trouble with Lurantis, Mimikyu and Togedemaru, but only because you couldn't just necessarily Z-move it. Even the teacher battle in the first half of the trainer school for that game was rough. You didn't have any type advantages to use and it acted more akin to an older rival battle. Challenges like the Battle Frontier at the very least gave you the incentive to get BP for good items you couldn't necessarily get anywhere else easily. And I think the main problem lies there. Why use buff moves when in previous gens you can one-shot trainers easily with very little exceptions? And even then you aren't really rewarded except for a longer battle for the same output.

As mentioned above I think a smarter AI, is the better way to go. As well as making out EVs, full IVs and so forth. That and I think higher difficulty should focus on giving that incentive to the player to even change just spamming their STAB move.

Pokémon games are extremely easy for me as a long-time player, even as someone who is generally awful at video games and always chooses easy mode. I'd love difficulty settings. Pokémon's probably the only series where I would always opt for a hard mode if it were available. Wish I were able to play hard mode in BW2 but the only way to unlock that was to beat the games first or have the code sent to my own copy. Aaaand I didn't have anyone to give me a code irl, not a proper WiFi signal at the time. so rip that haha /:

Really, just upping NPC trainer's AI would be a good start for me, and totally doable in the grand scheme of things. It's just a minor change, but making the battles just a touch more strategic as you progress would be good for new and veteran players alike. Doesn't even need a hard/easy toggle either.

you know, i've always been of the opinion that nuzlockes are there for a reason should one really feel the need to challenge themselves, but i feel like the more that i see people want something like a challenge mode returning, the more i feel like i want it to return, too. SM/USUM really gave me a heck of a challenge, so i want to experience that feeling, again.

tbh, increasing AI intelligence/levels would be enough for me, i think, alongside with some more competitive-ish movesets to make things a bit interesting. i don't think that would be asking for too much.

Countless other games out there offer difficulty settings, so it's a real shame that aside from the well intended, but poorly executed easy/challenge modes from B2/W2 (why would anyone want easy mode after beating the game on normal?), Pokemon's never gone this route.

As I'm super casual in my playthroughs of Pokemon games now I'd still probably stick to normal, but 5-10 years ago I would've killed for a harder difficulty in games like Emerald and HeartGold, even if it just meant slightly improved AI, and Pokemon at a couple levels higher than normal.

The easy/challenge mode in BW2 is a great feature to have the way to make the game bit harder or less harder or so, its not presented in future game and living in area like me where there is no one with a single DS is pretty bleak.

The game becoming much easier than it looks because the game feels like rock-paper-scissor kinda way to one-shot everything with weakness, AI most of them are 95% predictable on their and introduction to EXP share that isnt giveable to a pokemon which just making so easy I feel without them too its easy as well even tougher battle people may find it easier to overcome them as long they play right of course.

IDGAF about the difficulty in these games. I'm more or less gonna Nuzrun them all, so yeah.