6th Gen How hard has the game been for you so far?

[Altius]

Just reached Mauville. I must say the games were harder than I expected. It's definitely more difficult than XY, and I would say quite comparable to the originals.

I had EXP share on and fought all trainers, but the level difference isn't huge at all. The maximum level gap was only about 3, which is just normal for me. The level gap decreased quite a lot after the second gym.

Quite sad to see how easy the Granite Cave is, and the lack of Mr. Briney's boat animation throughout. Brawly is a LOT easier than in the originals. I took him down with no fuss, but I lost twice in the originals. May in Route 110 was a pain in the butt.

 

[bobandbill]

Quite sad to see how easy the Granite Cave is, and the lack of Mr. Briney's boat animation throughout. Brawly is a LOT easier than in the originals. I took him down with no fuss, but I lost twice in the originals. May in Route 110 was a pain in the butt.

Yeah, it's a pity. Mind you, there's still some places to explore in Granite Cave, but you need to head back there with the Mach Bike (Briney sticks around to give you a lift at least shortly after getting the bike). I was glad so that I could get Aron and Sableye on my team.

At the moment my team is around or a bit above the levels of opponents, but when I switch back to other Pokemon they've thus far dipped back below opponent levels. E.g. hit 19/20s with some Pokemon while training up my Aron/Sableye via EXP Share in the routes around Mauville against the trainers there, then went back to my level 17/18 Marshtomp for the Gym.

 

[Pendraflare]

So I beat the game today, and just finished the Delta Episode. Of the Elite Four, they weren't that tough, but Phoebe was rather annoying. I almost beat the Champion, Steven, without losing anyone or even using any healing items, despite my entire team being Level 52 upon reaching him, but I didn't because my Flygon missed with Draco Meteor against his Armaldo, and X-Scissor was a 2HKO. I burned his Mega Metagross with my Mega Swampert's Scald, and he missed with Giga Impact, so I guess that was an equal payoff.

With the final battle against Zinnia in the Delta episode, I did use Mega Rayquaza against her Goodra, and Magnezone slammed her Tyrantrum with Flash Cannon, but the rest of her team were all narrowly short of OHKOs but I still beat her without too much issue.

 

[Altius]

Yeah, it's a pity. Mind you, there's still some places to explore in Granite Cave, but you need to head back there with the Mach Bike (Briney sticks around to give you a lift at least shortly after getting the bike). I was glad so that I could get Aron and Sableye on my team.

At the moment my team is around or a bit above the levels of opponents, but when I switch back to other Pokemon they've thus far dipped back below opponent levels. E.g. hit 19/20s with some Pokemon while training up my Aron/Sableye via EXP Share in the routes around Mauville against the trainers there, then went back to my level 17/18 Marshtomp for the Gym.

Yeah I know. I was just disappointed they got rid of that flash section to get to Steven. It kinda lost that... "Excitement"

 

[BeachBoy]

I not only turned EXP Share off, but disabled switching (set mode?). Furthermore, I didn't allow myself to use items at all. The game itself wasn't very difficult (experience with RSE I think played a bigger role than any significant changes over the years), but the E4 put me to the test without being able to revive. I barely squeaked out of there, under-leveled but happy.

 

[Bounsweet]

ORAS has been way too easy... I've ended up turning Exp Share off because my Pokémon are all levels 55-57 and I only just finished Mt. Pyre, where Team Aqua was at like... mid-30s LOL... I've had to box a couple of my Pokémon because they were just leveling up too fast, so now half of my team is my actual team and the other half are random catches I'm trying to evolve for Dex data.

They could have easily bumped up everyone's levels, made the Exp Share work like it did prior to Gen VI, and left out all the hand-holding with Brendan/May and Wally traveling with you, easily...

But maybe it's just because I've been so addicted to DexNav that my grinding has tripled LOL.

 

[RedJ]

All I'm getting from these posts is to not abuse the EXP Share or else you'll end up ridiculously over powered. Fairly simple to turn it off and turn it back on only when you want to do some grinding and turn if off before it gets out of hand.

They could have easily bumped up everyone's levels, made the Exp Share work like it did prior to Gen VI, and left out all the hand-holding with Brendan/May and Wally traveling with you, easily...

I dunno, I was thankful for the option to travel back with May (I don't think they gave you the option with Wally) those times instead of having to march aaaaall the way back to Mauville/Petalburg. Walking back doesn't do much to increase difficulty- it just takes up time. Plus, it was just that- an option, unless they pull the old "Oh you don't really mean that come on let's go" card that RPGs tend to do if you say no.

 

[bobandbill]

Yeah I know. I was just disappointed they got rid of that flash section to get to Steven. It kinda lost that... "Excitement"

Oh, I certainly agree.

It was more of a challenge and an adventure in RSE, that section. You even had more freedom; if you didn't want to take on the Gym first you could try to make your way through the cave in the Dark. Meanwhile, beating the Gym first was a reward - you could use Flash to make it more bearable, but either way you still had to go through a cave to get to your goal. Meanwhile in ORAS, a short 20-second walk tops is all you need to get to Steven.

Forcing the order not only removes the choice, but imo makes it more boring. We all hate Flash caves, but sometimes the annoying bits are what makes it more fun in the end.

All I'm getting from these posts is to not abuse the EXP Share or else you'll end up ridiculously over powered. Fairly simple to turn it off and turn it back on only when you want to do some grinding and turn if off before it gets out of hand.

Certainly true (or keep it on but have 18-20 Pokemon 3.5 Gym Badges in, like me.) :V

I dunno, I was thankful for the option to travel back with May (I don't think they gave you the option with Wally) those times instead of having to march aaaaall the way back to Mauville/Petalburg. Walking back doesn't do much to increase difficulty- it just takes up time. Plus, it was just that- an option, unless they pull the old "Oh you don't really mean that come on let's go" card that RPGs tend to do if you say no.

I heard about this, and I do hope that it's optional, but I didn't hear it being optional. Because again, sure it's annoying to walk back, but that's the adventure of it! It's the experience of backtracking, seeing what changed, checking those berries, bumping into a Pokemon you missed, Surfing on Route 115 and finding more trainers, and so forth. That's what I want to do, so if it isn't a choice then it'll be annoying for me.

 

[James169]

I get ORAS tomorrow at a midnight release, but ive been playing emerald to refresh the region. On emerald my fairly misfit team is currently on victory road and are as follows:

Altairia lvl 38
Electrode lvl 40
Lairon lvl 36
Vibrava lvl 41
Gardevoir lvl 41
Swampert lvl 40

On OR i will be using treeko but i might form this team on AS and see how that goes, and then i can get a more accurate idea of relative difficulty. I will be playing both versions without exp share

 

[SkyRyder]

I think the level curve is great. Better than X/Y IMO. (The AI still sucks, but whatever) I think it's mostly because not many Hoenn Pokemon yield a ton of EXP.

I've had the EXP Share off the whole time. The beginning of the game was fairly easy, as it's always been. It spiked up quite a bit for me as I was going through the Slateport/Mauville gauntlet since my team was still being developed. Since I have my battle set to "Set" mode, I often found myself switching out more, making more of my Pokemon gain the full EXP (due to the new mechanic, which is a great feature to take advantage of sometimes. I just want my Pokemon to earn their experience) After that, the game felt fairly normal. I obtained my 4th and 5th badge, and explored everywhere I can, denying my rivals convenient travel offers, and rather just take a look at all the nice, nostalgic scenery.

I'm currently in Fortree, and my team of six is level 34-36. Half my team was found with the DexNav, which is such a cool feature to use. (Rock Head Aron + Head Smash might sound OP, but hey, I'm having fun using it! And at least it's at my opponent's level)

 

[L0RD G3NGAR]

After how disappointed people were by XY's (lack of) difficulty, there have been several people hoping that these games would be harder, like many saw the original Ruby and Sapphire.

At this point i'm only two badges in, and I have had the Exp. Share off the whole time, but i'm still having my levels rather high. On the route after Slateport (Route 110), i've been finding myself having to go back to the Pokémon Center a lot, which has been tough to deal with. But I beat Brawly without taking a single point of damage, granted I had a Flying-type and a Ralts but still.

How about you? How has the game been to you so far? Better than XY (as in harder)? Worse than XY? How is it? Discuss.

Thats because they lowered the level of the first few gym leaders teams. As I'm sure you have realized by now it gets harder
I found Drake a bit challenging tbh but other than that, they still weren't that hard. But then again R/S/E weren't that hard either.

 

[Captain Gizmo]

The difficulty is higher than Pokemon XY, yes. But not that hard. I found Gen IV to be quite harder, tbh.

Only hard thing is to get my Pokemon's level up to par with the rest of my team, because the EXP Share just boosted their levels way high, lol..

For example, my Swablu is level 27 while my Swampert and Metang is like 36-37 T^T

 

[DRCM]

The actual story/trainers have been REALLY easy. The only thing I've found hard is the training. There's not many good training spots. Not HGSS hard, but it's still hard.

 

[TRGrunt]

It's actually been quite easy for me so far. This is the first time, so far, that I havn't lost a battle yet, and I just started on Victory Road last night.

 

[Rainflower]

Agreeing with most of everyone here; yes, I find the game to be easier than X&Y and found even R/S/E and Gen IV games to be harder than ORAS itself.

Due to Exp Share, my Pokemon are somehow overleveled at this point (iirc my Blaziken was around level 45 when we beat Winona three days ago). Well, I have yet to complete the game (still around Magma's HQ at this point) so let's see how I will manage to take care the rest of the game soon (till at least Delta Episode)

 

[QueenNatSumi]

Exp share makes you way too over leveled. I turned it off even then I leved up nicely kept my team the same levels as the gym leaders easy time. That way I had fun enjoying the battles. Yeah it might seem easier, but It's still by far one of the best Pokemon games on the 3ds.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I have to say Ruby is a lot harder than XY even with XP share. Pokemon in the wild are low level. And the trainer are a bit stronger. My pokemon, with XP share are just at the level of the gym I am at. I would have a ton of trouble if I hadn't use XP Share this time. I haven't been sent back to the pokemon center yet, but the gym leaders have done a number on my team. Flannery knocking out half my team with her Torkoal.


I don't see how EXP Share over levels pokemon. Mine never are over leveled. My pokemon are currently 33 to 36 and heading to 6th gym. My Latios is at Lv 30 or 31. And I have defeated every trainer that you can battle.

 

[Rainflower]

I have to say Ruby is a lot harder than XY even with XP share. Pokemon in the wild are low level. And the trainer are a bit stronger. My pokemon, with XP share are just at the level of the gym I am at. I would have a ton of trouble if I hadn't use XP Share this time. I haven't been sent back to the pokemon center yet, but the gym leaders have done a number on my team. Flannery knocking out half my team with her Torkoal.


I don't see how EXP Share over levels pokemon. Mine never are over leveled. My pokemon are currently 33 to 36 and heading to 6th gym. My Latios is at Lv 30 or 31.

Ah, for me, it actually helped quite a lot (because I'm sometimes too lazy to send an underleveled, newly captured party member) to do some level grinding. Moreover, bonding in Pokemon Amie (which I do for fun and level grinding) boosts up experiences gained significantly so it's quite reasonable, I think?

And not to mention now you can get to rematch trainers in the AreaNav Trainer feature, which I use for some level grinding and money too. xD

 

[QueenNatSumi]

Area nav is like just so cool, I love how you can fly to any routes or cities. It makes things easier when getting around.

 

[Dedenne1]

I find it far too easy i dont have to grind or anything the original were much harder i wish the would add a setting to make it more difficult or atleast if they ever make an emerald remake make that much much much harder.