Hardest mainline game

[Squirtkipfan01]

Yet another question i wanna gauge general opinions of; What do you think is the hardest mainline game? And im talking more about consistent difficulty not outliers. Also well aware that most games are fairly easy but if you had to pick one.

I think id say B/W2 personally. It has ALOT of battles in its main game and most are pretty challenging (doubly if your an idiot kid who doesn't get the point of audinos). I definitely remember having to redo many battles before and even with my current skill i do sometimes struggle here and there. And who knows how much more difficult it gets on hard(never tried it)

 

[Sweet Serenity]

The thing is, Pokémon has never really challenged me to the point where I thought, "Wow, this is hard!" Yet, the closest thing I can say that gave me a challenge is Pokémon Black 2/White 2, specifically in the Challenge Mode. The increased levels and opponents holding held items made the gameplay better than the others, at least to me. It is one of the many reasons that Generation V was my favorite. Another one that I can say was fairly "hard" compared to other Pokémon games was Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver. The only reason I say that was because the level spreads were weird. Sometimes, you would run into really weak Pokémon that were, for example, level 12 when your Pokémon were already level 30, but the next Gym Leader you faced shortly after had a team of Pokémon with levels higher than yours and an ace that seemingly hit much harder than average. The level spreads in that game could really throw you off. Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow were also really hard, as in hard to sit through, but I'm not sure if that counts.

 

[Palamon]

Going to have to go with Legends Arceus since it incorporated you, the player, into some of the fights. But...also, a lot of the older games without modern conveniences...just, for me, are much harder than the newer games. Then again, I'm someone who has never played a Pokemon game without like whiting out at least once, lol.

But, if I had to pick, like I said, Legends Arceus.

Also, a lot of the important trainer battles in BDSP were using competitive teams for some reason. Like, Aaron's Heracross had the ability Guts and had a held item that causes a status problem and it's not even in the postgame, it's in the normal game. BDSP were harder than the originals in some places because of that. Like, I don't think I've ever struggled that much in a Pokemon game in a really long time.

Yes, Pokemon is designed to be an easy game by nature because it's a kid's game, but I don't know, I did find a few challenging.

Earlier ones are only "difficult" though because the level curves and trainers you can fight to gain exp aren't very high. It wasn't until generation four we saw rematches with decently high levels. And then, one gen later they took all that way. Even so, I didn't find any games after gen V to be "difficult" apart from the Totems in S/M those stat changes and support Pokemon did (in my opinion) made those particular fights challenging, lol.

But, tl;dr: Legends Arceus and BD/SP because of those competitive teams.

 

[Devalue]

Goes with Ultra Sun/Moon. May be unfairly biased, though. Combined several restrictions (first Nuzlocke, level limit on Totems/Grand Trials, maybe an item limit, and blind to Ultra changes). Was not prepared for +2 Speed Alolan Marowak with a Thick Club and a Salazzle partner. Shed the Nuzlocke after losing everyone trying to save one against Guzma's surprise competitively-trained Masquerain. Encountered a rough time again being leveled for the Dragon trial (49), then meeting Ultra Necrozma (60) ...two battles later?

Features some tough fights, independent of above. Example: Ilima's first battle with level 10 Yungoos and Nemona's final level 66 starter.

• Yungoos (Lv. 10) (Nature: Adamant) (Moves: Tackle/Pursuit/Leer/(None)) IVs: 30/25/25/25/30/25 EVs: 0/0/252/0/252/0
• Meowscarada (Lv. 66) (Nature: Hardy) (Moves: Flower Trick/Thunder Punch/Shadow Claw/Play Rough) IVs: 25/25/25/25/25/25 EVs: 252/0/0/0/0/0

Lacks Meowscarada's better moves. Beats it in other respects, though. Plays out regularly, with Hau's level 16 starter similar in training to Nemona's above (although with max EVs in two stats).

Hm. Just looked at the Elite Four. Gave them all good EVs and IVs, but Serious natures. Had different natures prior to then. How strange.

Sandbagged a little on totems. Tanked offensive stats and maxed out defensive stats usually. Chose natures like Bold (+Defense / -Attack) on Lurantis (physical). Really wanted them to survive the Z-move and call a partner.

Never played the aforementioned Black 2/White 2 or Legends: Arceus. Cannot comment on those. Only really felt BDSP's solid training + items on one Barry fight. Crushed the Elite Four, despite how well put-together they were (likely due to leveling to Lucian's Bronzong and prior knowledge).

 

[CoolKid575]

I'd say Diamond and Pearl are the hardest from what I've played. There are a lot of really tough battles (like the first Galactic Admin, Cynthia and several of the gym leaders) while the game lacks a lot of QOL features that would make grinding faster such as Super Training or level dependent EXP yields. The weak regional dex also doesn't give you much to work with if you aren't going with the standard issue Infernape, Staraptor, Luxray, Garchomp, Lucario and Floatzel team.

 

[Rock_Salazar]

Personally speaking I would have to say Fire Red and Leaf Green. The main reason is because you are dealing with the gen 1 experience along with the power creep of gen 3 and all the limited/lack of QoL changes. All move tutors can only teach their special moves once, TMs are one-use, several pokemon in gen 3 lack good movepools, no access to later gen evolutions until post game, and the annoying level curve of gen 1 is back. Sure you have access to the vs. seeker, but good luck wanting to grind in cycling road or south of Fuchsia for hours to get your team to catch up. Really doesn't help that your rival's team is designed to be the most diverse until Cynthia entered the picture. On top of that all the good mons from gen 1 take time raising up. Also it feels like for a good portion of the game you have to deal with lots of poison and paralysis because the most common abilities you will run into are poison touch and static. I also feel like most of the gen 1 mons feel underpowered, but at the same time all trainers have access to those mons as well. Game is still possible to beat (I did a recent run of Fire Red JP in Travel Journals), but I never look forward to beating the game. Elite Four is HARD and you have to prepare for it. Feels like I design my teams on how effectively they can beat the elite four more than any other match up in the game.

 

[Outlander]

The only game that was really hard for me was trying to beat Sabrina's Gym in Pokémon Yellow as a kid.

 

[ReKoil]

The older games were harder to navigate simply because I was much younger and they didn't quite hold your hand... and internet access was pretty limited for me.
USUM's Totems can be threatening, as well as Ultra Necrozma.

Nothing else comes to mind.
Imo the thing with Pokemon is that pretty much everything can be made easier by just grinding your mons up high and spamming heal items... and I don't really restrict myself on playthroughs =P

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I have seen very different answers. I'd say that the hardest one I have played recently was Ultramoon.

 

[Sheep]

The boss that obliterated me the quickest was Ultra Necrozma in USUM, but I found DPPt harder overall due to struggles with certain gym leaders in the beginning plus Cynthia, who was a tough champion. So it probably gets the hardest badge for me personally.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'd personally go with the original Red, Blue, and Yellow. Pokemon's difficulty is really about team composition; if you have weak Pokemon or weak movesets, you'll struggle with pretty much every game, and you'll have a pretty easy time if you pick a strong team and teach them good moves. However, vanilla RBY have a tiny roster of only 79 fully-evolved Pokemon*, which doesn't exactly give you a lot of options. What's more, with single-use TMs, no breeding, no Move Relearner, no Move Deleter, and no in-game documentation on what moves actually do before you teach them, it's very easy to completely screw up your movesets for good if you don't know what you're doing.

*Not counting Mew or Mewtwo because the former's an event Pokemon and the latter's postgame-exclusive.

 

[CoolKid575]

I'd personally go with the original Red, Blue, and Yellow. Pokemon's difficulty is really about team composition; if you have weak Pokemon or weak movesets, you'll struggle with pretty much every game, and you'll have a pretty easy time if you pick a strong team and teach them good moves. However, vanilla RBY have a tiny roster of only 79 fully-evolved Pokemon*, which doesn't exactly give you a lot of options. What's more, with single-use TMs, no breeding, no Move Relearner, no Move Deleter, and no in-game documentation on what moves actually do before you teach them, it's very easy to completely screw up your movesets for good if you don't know what you're doing.

*Not counting Mew or Mewtwo because the former's an event Pokemon and the latter's postgame-exclusive.

Idk, you have valid points but things like Badge Boosts and the absolutely garbage AI allows you to win battles that would be impossible in any later game; and if we're considering glitches you can literally beat the game in under a minute. If anything, I'd say it's more broken and outdated then "hard" per se.