Do you like the newer Exp. Share?

[Sheep]

The Exp. Share used to be an item you equipped to one Pokémon as a held item and it would give them some experience even if they didn't participate in battles. Nowadays, it's a key item that can never be turned off, and gives your whole party experience rather than just one Pokémon.

What did you prefer?

 

[giradialkia]

They nailed it in ORAS. Given toward the start of the game to let you make use of it for the first gym, but could be toggled on/off if you wanted more of a challenge.

It's gotten a bit worse every gen since. Always-on means you'll unintentionally gain EVs and EXP for 'mon if they happen to be in your party. What's more, 'mon gain affection too, meaning the power of friendship will save you whether you want it or not.

It's just made the games unnecessarily easy when it could all be a subtle difficulty modifier.

 

[Devalue]

Yes. Preferred the Generation 6 and 7 version. Echoes giradialkia in wanting to turn it off sometimes to prevent overleveling. Forces you to box Pokemon to do that now. Feels like the old days at times, where you have four Pokemon and two other team spots you do not care about.

Would rather have the Generation 8 and 9 version than nothing at all. Winds up grinding more in older games.

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

Echoing the sentiment that the way it distributes Exp across all party members is better than the previous system, but it needs to be able to be turned on and off as the player wishes.

It used to be a major pain to move the old Exp Share (then a held item) from Pokemon to Pokemon, even worse when you had them hold another held item when you weren't having them hold the Exp Share.

But yeah, it shouldn't be forced on 24/7. How much memory did not giving it an on/off toggle really save in the game's code?

 

[Corveone]

Best version would be current Exp. Share but with an option to enable level caps. Without level caps... well, Gen 6/7 Exp. Share is the best so far.

 

[Descendng]

I agree with the people saying the Gen 6-7 Exp Share was done best. and while I don't necessarily mind how it works now, I'd definitely prefer if it was able to be toggled off rather than constantly being on, just because it makes it so easy to overlevel and breeze through the game without much thought.

as for Gen 5 and before, I didn't mind having to shift it around between party members all that much.

 

[PageEmp]

Yes, but only if there had been the option to turn it off.

 

[CoolKid575]

I like the Gen 6/7 version, as it allows you to essentially choose how difficult you want the game to be. Kids or people who just want a fun, easy game can turn it on and steamroll over everyone; while people who want a real challenge can keep it off. The Gen 8/9 version chooses for you, and I'd honestly rather have no EXP share then have it forced on all the time.

 

[Zeostar]

I didn't mind the Gen 6/7 version, but I also had been fine with the previous way of being meant to train up a singular weak pokemon. So I don't really don't like it being on all the time, especially with EXP gain for catching pokemon. It's almost a guarantee to drastically overlevel you for collecting.

 

[ReKoil]

I have had zero problems with the current ones and don't even miss being able to turn it on or off tbh.

 

[Setsuna]

I do think that being able to turn it off is something that shouldn't have been removed. Not because of the kind of item it is or for game balancing, but just because it's an accessibility option being removed from a game, and that doesn't sit right with me no matter what option it is.

I'm a firm believer of "Difficulty in Pokemon games doesn't exist" so simply being able to level up your team easier is just a quality of life thing for me. Using the Exp. Share I'll spend less time trying to keep my team at equal levels like nearly every other RPG I've played, so I'm happy that it's a feature.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I wouldn't mind it so much as an accessibility feature, but in my playthrough of Pokemon X way back when, it was a bit too easy, and it got boring towards the end (except for the Elite Four). I also had a Mightyena on my team, and I could not get it to where the rest of my team no matter what I did. Every time Mightyena went up a level, the rest of the party would too, so it was a losing game, and I ended up not using it. "Should I have been using a Mightyena on my team?" No, but kids are going to be playing these games with sub-optimal teams for various reasons.

The amount of "Group Think" required to tell people to just box their starter to keep it from overleveling is quite astonishing. Again, I'm fine with whoever needs the modern EXP Share having it, but it'd be nice to have it toggled off.

(Before I bring up this next point, no, I haven't played that many modern RPGs. I'm trying to catch up with action adventure games and old-school RPGs like Earthbound.) I don't really know about this "All RPGs already moved onto leveling up the whole party" thing because Pokemon is in such a weird spot. Most of the singleplayer is 1 vs 1 and a big game of rock-paper-scissors at that, and you can capture nearly every playable monster in the game. Are other modern RPGs comparable to this?

 

[Weasel D. Garp]

I personally don't have a problem with how it is currently- I've always been more into the stories, so I was glad when they started having it work for the full team rather than just one Pokémon and not be a held item and never turned it off. It saved time levelling each Pokémon individually so I could enjoy the story and game more. I do agree however that for people who are more into a challenge and/or don't want it affecting your other team members' stats it would be good to have the option to turn it off.

 

[Megan]

Interestingly, I never had any issues with overleveling in gen 9 despite the EXP-Share being on all the time. I would even go further and say the gen 6-7 one can be very tedious if you want to keep turning it on and off every now and then. I think trying to control the EXP flow in those games only ended up in me having to level grind, anyway. Because I should have turned it on more often. ^^"

So, yes I think the current one is alright.

 

[Diamond 97]

For me, exp share is just another grain of sand on the pile of things GF could have handled better.

With it, the game is too easy, and my Pokemon's levels end up unbalanced. When I play, I explore every area and fight every trainer, and that has caused me to be 20 levels above the Elite Four in Y and 10 levels above the Elite Four in Let's Go, Eevee. They're the final boss - you should not be outleveling them unless you go out of your way to grind.