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

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18
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  • I am on the cusp of completing it, but unless the Champion is a monster, it's the easiest Pokemon game I've ever played.

    Even with the dumb Exp(forall)Share turned off, I haven't really struggled with anything. Never been wiped out or even close. :/

    Anyway, I'm just speeding through it so I can do actual IV+EV breeding/trading and shiny hunting.​
     

    Khoshi

    [b]とてもかわいい![/b]
    2,647
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    11
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  • I'll use my first, blind playthrough to judge.

    I had a fair amount of trouble with some of the Totem Pokemon, such as Salazzle and Mimikyu, which caused me to soft reset a bunch and to even train my Pokemon to be able to match them. The Elite Four wasn't a slouch, either - you can say that I got Aceroll-a'd. The final battle in the story was also pretty painful for me.

    Still though, nothing made me really grit my teeth in frustration. The games were definitely easier than the Gen 6 games, but they weren't painstakingly difficult (cough gen 5)

    edit: I forgot to even mention the AI...yeah, the important characters ACTUALLY WITHDRAW Pokemon and they're capable of predicting your switches/attacks, which is a really nice touch. Definitely added a nice amount of challenge, in my opinion, at least.
     
    22
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    7
    Years
  • They were a bit hard. Totem mimikyu and Totem Lurantis have been very tough to fight! I actually was about to lose to totem mimikyu with my team half dead(and that annoying gengar putting my remaining team to sleep!!)
     

    Pyrax

    Midnight Guest
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    SM was definitely more difficult than Gen VI imo, though that's not saying much considering how low the bar was. There were moments (Totem Mimikyu, for example) where I genuinely struggled, and not once during the entire storyline was I overlevelled or sweeping trainers.
    Most of the boss battles were a step in the right direction too. Lusamine's party actually had 5 Pok?mon with full movesets. Seriously, compare her final battle with Lysandre's pathetic excuse of of a team. It's not much, but the difference is obvious.
     
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    Kawaii Shoujo Duskull

    The Cutest Duskull
    276
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    10
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    • Seen Sep 10, 2023
    I had a bit of a rough start to the game, and it stayed like that until part way through Akala. From there I just started kinda tearing through things. Stuff finally started leveling out around Poni though--not too challenging, but I wasn't just wrecking things left and right either.
    So I guess I'd say more difficult than Gen VI, somewhere around Gen IV or V(when I wasn't tearing through things anyway).
     

    Dragon

    lover of milotics
    11,151
    Posts
    10
    Years
  • Definitely was more challenging than Pokemon X/Y/ORAS, perhaps even more challenging than Pokemon B2W2's Challenge mode because of the totem pokemon? But I'd say it's a healthy challenge. The totem pokemon were the most challenging to battle against in my opinion; they kind of remind me of Final Fantasy bosses, which was cool!

    Still, I think the challenge can still be easily overcome as long as you know what you're doing in terms of pokemon match-ups, and keeping your pokemon member's strong to tackle any challenge.
     

    Elysieum

    Requiescat en pace.
    258
    Posts
    10
    Years
  • Sun and Moon are refreshingly difficult. I don't remember the last time I legitimately lost a battle in-game completely, let alone a handful of times. It is irritating and ego-deflating – for the better.
     

    w1f1pa55w0rd

    Ho-oh-oh
    350
    Posts
    7
    Years
  • i honestly am not a very serious player, but i still am serious enough to fill out the dex and level my pkmn to lvl 100. this game hasnt been very easy. i have to say, iread a review, and it said that there was almost no challenge. so i started playing with an opinion that the game was easy. but now i feel the difficulty has improved since the 6th gen, and i honestly found the fifth gen pretty simple, because my entire team is filled with lvl. hundreds.
     

    FloofyIncineroar

    The fluffiest giant kitty.
    114
    Posts
    7
    Years
  • The game has a nice balance of difficulty in my opinion. It's not painfully hard but not painfully easy either. I definitely had met some difficult bosses (such as Totem Wishiwashi, both Lusamine battles, final Gladion battle, and of course the E4 and final story battle), but it never got frustrating. It definitely fixes the difficulty issue in Gen VI.
     
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