Elite Four Format

[blue]

So for the past two generations, the games have changed the format structure of the Elite Four. This means that you can now battle the Elite Four members in whichever order you desire, with them all having the same amount of Pokémon and levels. Are you happy with this? Do you prefer the old method in which you progress through the Pokémon League one by one with each member becoming tougher? Discuss!

 

[murkage]

Honestly, this newer way makes more sense. You fight the E4 and then face the Champion. One thing that kind of bothers me about the new way is for some reason the E4 just seems easier. Maybe its because you can decide who to face next and prepare for it. Especially in X and Y the E4 only have 4 pokemon each and the AI isnt much better then a normal trainer sooo i wish they could merge the new way with the difficulty of the old way.

 

[Murkrow]

its not just allowing you to fight them in whatever order you want, the amount of pokemon per E4 is steadily reducing with each gen...

 

[Goatie]

It all became a bit too easy, yeah..

I maxed out the friendship in pokémon amie with my team quite early and just boosted through the game easier then ever before.. My pokemon were around lvl 75 when I defeated the champion and this is without extra training or anything.

 

[Sacrament]

Let's not forget that the games are primarily targetted towards a younger audience, who generally wouldn't be able to strategize as well as most of us.

Difficulty level aside, though, I definitely prefer the new format. As the poster several posts above said, it makes more sense, especially since none of the E4 appears to be stronger than another.

 

[murkage]

Let's not forget that the games are primarily targetted towards a younger audience, who generally wouldn't be able to strategize as well as most of us.

Difficulty level aside, though, I definitely prefer the new format. As the poster several posts above said, it makes more sense, especially since none of the E4 appears to be stronger than another.

Well when we were kids playing Red and Blue, and Gary came at us with level 60's he showed no mercy.
I understand a lot of kids play this game, but dulling it down isn't helping them get any better and the large portion of its audience who is older is disappointed at the lack of challenge

 

[Pendraflare]

Yes, because in that sense they're actually "the four", instead of it being a ladder and what not. They're treated as equals which is how I feel they should.

 

[Imperator161]

Unlike what a couple of people have said, I liked the concept of the Elite Four members forming a ladder rather than a group of equals. With each trainer you beat, it felt like you moved up another step on that ladder, one step closer to becoming the champion. For example, in Red, I always got the impression that Lance was clearly at the top of the heap compared with the other Elite Four members (particularly thanks to his role as Champion in Gold). If he had been knocked down to the same level of the other Elite Four members just because your rival beat him, that wouldn't have made much sense to me. I guess the plots are designed to make the different members seem more equal now, so I suppose the shift makes sense, but I still liked moving from easier to more difficult opponents as I progressed through the Elite Four.

Also, assuming your Pokémon aren't terribly overleveled (which they're likely to be in the newest installment, but still), each encounter becomes more challenging than the last because the levels of your opponents increase (assuming your levels don't increase more quickly than their levels do). By contrast, if you level up throughout the Elite Four, and all of them have Pokémon at the same level, it should become easier for you to progress over time because you become relatively more powerful (not considering type advantage differences/assuming you have enough variety in your team to tackle any Elite Four member).

I would agree that the more pressing issue is the smaller size of the Elite Four rosters, though. They should really have at least five Pokémon (like the older games). Perhaps cutting down to four Pokémon is designed to make things easier for younger players, but most of us handled the larger rosters just fine when we were younger, so I don't see why kids today can't as well. (Wow, I'm starting to sound like one of those people who goes on and on about "when I was younger...")

 

[Flushed]

I agree that it makes sense to abolish the ladder system, but for me it makes more intuitive sense having each E4 member outrank the preceding member. For the case of the pseudo-legendary Dragon trainers, it made sense to have like Drake 4th, making him the strongest of the Elite 4. Obviously Dragon isn't necessarily the strongest out of the types, but the "Pokemon logic" seems to make sense in the ladder format.

 

[Indigo Plateau]

I greatly prefer the ladder system, and I really wish the E4 were more challenging. To make them a challenge this time, I had to turn of EXP Share (which is its whole separate problem) and fight them with a team 10 levels under them... and I still beat them, ultimately, losing only to the Champion (who I have yet to beat). Back when the E4 was a ladder, it felt like I was clawing my way up (and it also didn't feel that it was as easy) so it was a real accomplishment.

 

[Vyrael]

I don't mind fighting them in any order. It makes them feel, in my opinion, more like a group of four equals rather than four people who are ranked one on top of the other. However, I would like it if you picked the order before you went in (knowing their Type, of course) and were locked into it until you beat them and the Champion or were defeated. I'm not sure how much more difficult it would make it, but if it adds at least a little, that would help.

 

[Hiatus]

Honestly, I prefer the newer method—facing any Elite Four member you want at any given time. (: The Elite Four are supposed to be four of the toughest trainers of a specific region, specializing in a certain Pokémon type. Their strength are meant to be equivalent to each other. The old ladder system, though, kind of ruined the whole idea, and made us think that one is stronger than the other; I didn't like that. Also, this may be a bit off-topic, but at some point in the future, I'd really like to see them give us an electric, a normal, and a steel-type Elite Four. We've had Elite Four members based on almost every type, other than these three. Oh, and fairy, too. Kind of forgot about that, since it's new and all. d:

 

[Hikamaru]

I actually liked the new method for probably the same reasons as Ashley stated above me. It was a welcome change because the ladder system got quite boring for me and it would help me know which ones I'd like to take out first based on my team's strengths against them. I was glad this format was kept for X/Y and I do hope it continues for many generations to come.

 

[Elaitenstile]

I believe it's more conceptual and grasps the idea more well, but it may tend to hinder the difficulty for one who is replaying the game. I'm not concerned about that, because I avoid all spoilers before I play a game. Thus I wouldn't have known any E4 member's type before battling them. However, I'm nostalgically inclined to the older one, since I feel it was a more of a suspense barrier to me, more than a do-it-yourself thing. It has irritated me on numerous occasions (do I HAVE to battle Aaron?) but also had that effect of inspiration and feel which I so desire in a game. I feel in that aspect the old system is better. I also know that the newer one is much more fair and practical, so I'd say it's quite an improvement, whether I like it or not. It also removes that feeling of hierarchy between E4 members which was present and I noticed the lower levels of the Pokémon of the first E4 member.

In short, I prefer the older one but I'd say the newer one is better.

 

[damientheomen3]

In practice, I like the newer system more as I feel that it makes more sense. But, I also feel that it could absolutely be more challenging. I remember in my Challenge Mode playthrough of Black 2 (it was my first time playing through the game though) I lost to every gym leader at least once except for the last couple, but then I went through most of the Elite 4 without any of my pokemon even fainting. I don't really have an issue with the Elite 4 being less of a challenge than the early games, but I don't want it to be completely challengeless.

 

[pompayyy]

Although I like the newer Elite Four format, I wish they were a bit harder, and not type themed. I mean, they're supposed to be the four best (save the champion) trainers in the region, so why do they only use on type?

 

[PumpJack]

I like the new system, but the lack of challenge is definitely a bummer.

I don't see why we can't keep the format of being able to challenge them any order- but also keep the ladder deal by having some script/program where each successful Elite gets a boost in levels/changes their set-up.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

I'm indifferent about the format, so long as the Elite 4 aren't punishably difficult. What concerns me more is the fact that their roster is reduced to 4 since Gen V rather than 5. This is perhaps so GF doesn't make the same mistakes like the previous 4 gens by giving them Pokemon who aren't associated with their types (Ex: Flint's DP team) or 2-3 Pokemon from the same line (Ex: Phoebe's team). This problem would've been resolved if they made more new Pokemon of that type to increase diversity with other type specialists.

 

[bobandbill]

I found it a neat change, but I'm unsure as to if I actually prefer it. There's something about the lack of freedom before that actually added to the challenge, of the trainers being steadily stronger up to the Champion and all.

I'd rather see them have more than 4 Pokemon in their initial battle too, honestly. I feel that's just too short and 'cheapens' the experience.

 

[EB]

I much preferred the previous structure of the E4. While the television series and games are separate worlds, there are a lot of qualities and details that remained consistent between the two, such as the arbitrary leveling system, type matchups, and similar geological locations. With this in mind, the in-game E4 hardly resembles the TV show's version at all any longer. With the prior structure, at least it was conceivable to picture each of the E4 members as participating in a tournament format, but since when are you able to pick the order of your opponents in a bracket?

Just from the game's standpoint though, I feel the E4 was much more intimidating when the player was locked into a particular procession. Needing to battle more strategically in order to preserve certain fighters for later matches wasn't always easy. Sometimes you'd need to use a particular Pokémon for more than one trainer, which is what made it paramount that that particular party member survived.

Overall the E4 just isn't as intimidating anymore, which is a shame.

(I think I might be mixing up the terms "Elite Four" and "Pokémon League," but I'm not sure.)