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How did you find the difficulty of Pokémon Sun & Moon compared to previous titles?

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gucci
    • 21,054
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    Title pretty much sums up what I'm asking here, but did you find these games to be easier or harder than previous games? The reason I ask this is because I've seen a few mixed responses from different places and I thought it would be interesting to get an idea of what people thought of this.

    Using gen VI as an example, those games were heavily criticised for being too easy, so did Sun & Moon step it up and meet your standards in terms of difficulty?
     
    Yes, very much so. More difficult than X/Y (and the abominations that were OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire). Probably on par with Gen 5, if not a little lower in difficulty.
     
    The difficulty is the same as previous titles. If you're getting mixed responses from different places, then it once again shows that it depends on how long you've been with the series. If this is your first time, then it's gonna be hard for you, but if you've been a fan for a long time, then they should be a cake walk for you.
     
    Overall id say about the same as gen 5 onwards, Gen 4 for me was the last time I had a challenge but then that was when i returned to the series so didnt have a clue about natures etc.

    The only times I had any difficulties was Totem SoS battles as occasionally theyd go through a few of my pokemon before I took them ok as 2 vs 1 is a pain. The first Elite 4 run through was close in a few places but overall easy enough considering the level of my pokemon and the fact they were a pretty random team mostly id not used to fight with.

    Exp share keeps your levels about where they needed to be the whole way so you never had a truly underlevelled battle and no grinding required. Id still like to see completion unlock a higher difficulty mode to encourage 2nd playthrough as with bank you dont have to lose any pokemon when its out.
     
    Long time rpg gamer, but first Pokemon series...and I, personally, found it kinda easy. That is, as long as you understood weaknesses of each type and exploited them.
    I'd definitely say a themed team, or team of personal favorites would definitely have a harder time than one setup for gameplay.
     
    I was happy that the difficulty in SM was harder than that of XY and ORAS, weirdly, it felt kinda good to lose a few battles here and there. I also had to grind a couple of times which is my first time doing so in a new Pokemon game since Gen 5, and meant that the difficulty had fortunately been increased :)
     
    I found it to be overall a bit harder than most games in the franchise. Also, the exp. share being turned off made things extremely difficult, rather than not being needed to progress.

    The battles that were amped up the most in difficulty were the rival battles, and the champion battle.

    Hau was definitely no pushover. That raichu destroyed me if I wasn't careful. The battles with him almost reminded me of my bouts with Blue and Silver back in the day.

    As for the champion battle, boy was I pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Rather than making it difficult by severely over-leveling, Game Freak finally decided to implement proper EV investment as well as good IVs and a fairly smart AI. It really felt like I earned my champion title this time around.
     
    It could be difficult at certain times with Hau or the Aether foundation battles or trials. However I didn't find the champion battle all that difficult, funnily enough the first time. However when i went back the second time I found it more difficult, probably since i hadn't leveled my pokemon up a bit since then. overall, though it was about a..medium difficulty?
     
    I thought it was ok. had problems with the fighting elite 4 coz 5 of my team were weak to either fighting or dark moves and plus they were all so tanky especially bewear. i had too many ghost types on my team :(
     
    I never finished the Gen V games because I hated them, I also didn't finish ORAS since I got bored (I've replayed Gen III so many times, I guess it just wasn't happening) - so I can't really compare to those games.

    But anyway. I found Sun absolutely piss easy. My team obliterated through everyone the entire way through. I found the challenge increased an insignificant amount at Poni Island, but it wasn't really noticeable.

    My team was pretty average, and I swapped pokemon pretty late in the game, but even having under-leveled pokemon for much of the game it didn't seem to make any noticeable difference. The pokemon caught up quickly, and 80% of the time I was a good 10+ levels above my opponents.

    To put this into perspective, I'm playing Platinum on my mobile right now and I'm really working hard for my badges in some of those battles.

    So perhaps the game has increased slightly in comparison to Gen V/VI, but Gen I-IV are miles ahead in terms of difficultly. Personally I think a balance between the former and the latter would be great.
     
    I thought X and Omega Ruby were stupid easy, so I thought this was a good step up. It still wasn't that hard at all, but I didn't feel like I was trampling over every trainer like I did with Gen VI either. I also had trouble beating Kukui at the end and needed to battle him a couple of times, so that's a refreshing challenge too.
     
    I was lamenting the fact you got the EXP Share early in the game.

    Then I realized it became much more important as its new function since X&Y. I actually did use it midway through my playthough, and even when I was at the League my team were in their early 50s.

    This is a welcome change from the piss poor difficulty ORAS had. The Dev Team Thinks of Everything appearently applied here, as they listened to that complaint and made sure that it wouldn't be that much of a cakewalk. The bigger battles uses some nifty AI with strategy here and there, Lusamine's 2nd battle was definitely one of the hardest battles I've faced. Hell, it was like going up against Cynthia circa 4th gen. The post game battles are no slouch either.

    So yeah, pleasant surprise. Still miss the difficulty modes of B2W2 though, but at least Game Freak thought about adjusting the game to make it a bit challenging in the maingame.
     
    colours said:
    I ranted about difficulty in another post, but exactly how difficult SM is depends mostly on your team structure.
    Click to expand...

    I ageee with this statement sooooo much. I'd breezed through SM but not as smoothly as I do in other games. SM for sure is wayyyy harder than XY & ORAS, it's up there with DPP but not quite as difficult imo.

    Also, the difficulty of game depends on how you play Pokémon, your "style" when you play. I tend to grind and catch very little, but very varied Pokémon throughout the game which helped me in the long run.
     
    Sun wasn't too challenging for me. I got surprised by the Flying Elite Four member but other than that I didn't have any issues. Some parts were very easy though like the Electric totem. Other than Barry Hau was the easiest rival in the series for me.

    Whilst not the easiest games in the series (For me the Sinnoh games were very easy) they weren't the trickiest either (For me Heart Gold was the hardest game). The Totem battles were a nice change of pace too.
     
    I soft reset twice because of Totem Mimikyu and Prof. Kukui.

    I've never actually lost a battle in the main story until then.

    That's how hard the games were.
     
    Harder than xy and oras but easier than bw+bw2 and dppt. I will say the first time around I just made a team of what I wanted. They were balanced in terms of coverage but since I didn't check stats so I would minimize any spoilage I was lacking in defense.

    The ghost trial was my first setback. I think I had to do it two or three times. Besides that poni island was annoying because my bad defenders kept fainting. To get through the league and the prof I had to spam full restores. The league battles were much smarter than any in the past.

    The first time around I didn't turn on the Exp. share until the end of ula'ula island which I think made the game significantly harder. As the second time around I kept it on the entire time (along with putting together a more well rounded team) and had a pretty easy time.
     
    I thought the game was pretty easy. I did struggle a little with the Elite Four, but considering I breezed through everything else..
     
    I found it very easy like most of the people here... Pokemon kept getting healed everywhere. Also I miss the old surprise rival appearence when we had just one Pokemon left and it was paralyzed or something. This new generations are making it too easy. I hope they realize that and change it in the 3rd version.
     
    I did find Sun & Moon more difficult than X & Y at least. In some ways the difficulty seemed a bit uneven though.

    Probably about on par with 5th gen in terms of difficulty. I think my Pokemon fainted more often though, which might have been because I was underleveled. (since I turned exp share off) I think my team were only in the high 40s when I entered the Pokemon League. (and it's not like I didn't challenge every trainer I saw, I took every opportunity to battle)

    Kahili was the only real stumbling point I can recall because my team was a bit vulnerable to Flying. That Toucannon was a pain.
     
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