Is Pokemon becoming too easy?

[Flow So Gorgeous]

With the advent of the new mechanics of the EXP. Share, yet another way to level up your Pokemon faster, people seem to blow through the main series games faster than ever. Is this good for the Pokemon games, or does Game Freak need to crank up the difficulty?

 

[Dr. Silver]

GameFreak needs to invest in some challenging gameplay that takes place outside of the Battle Facilities. XY had so little in the form of challenging opponents that the game was such a breeze. This is quite the disappointment considering that in previous games there were a few legitimate difficult encounters, including:

-Cyrus in Giratina's Reverse World. His team was powerful and did not mess around. If you lacked good counters to his Pokemon, he could prove to be rather difficult.

-And before then, Platinum again, the double battle between you and Barry vs. two of the Team Plasma high-ranking members (I forget their names) could end up being a difficult battle because Barry cannot use his Munchlax for crap.

-Colress on the Plasma Frigate can be rather painful if you ill-prepare. Double if you're playing the Nuzlocke challenge, where it becomes impossible to OHKO his Magneton and Magnezone.

-Red on Mt. Silver in HG/SS, provided you haven't cheated and just traded over a bunch of Legendary Pokemon or previous partners at level 100, can be a nightmare because of his high level. Made worse by the fact that level grinding in HG/SS is a chore.

I'm sure there are many others, but my point is XY seriously lacked these challenging boss fights. Hopefully if they make a "Z", they do their best to turn Team Flare into something of a legitimate threat.

 

[Yato]

I see it as being both good and bad, depending on the circumstances. With the Exp. Share + Amie allowing Pokemon to easily gain levels, people who are new to Pokemon will have an easier time dealing with Trainers. Additionally, there may be those who play Pokemon for the story and find battles annoying, so having easy leveling = overleveled Pokemon = (likely) easy battles. On the flip side, there are those who like being challenged. Without the use of the Exp. Share and Amie, XY are still fairly easy to get through, even with underleveled Pokemon. Personally, I think Game Freak's choice to include Challenge & Easy Modes in BW2 was great, as it gave people new to Pokemon a chance to get used to the series and those who wanted a challenge a fairly difficult playthrough. I think it would help the main series a lot to have a difficulty setting (perhaps Easy, Normal, Hard/Challenge, and Lunatic/Extreme) available from the start (rather than the approach BW2 took where you had to beat the game and then transfer the mode to another) and be able to change said setting at any time.

 

[Cerberus87]

I voted "no" because Pokémon has always been easy. That's partly because the opponents don't have Stat Exp./EVs, while you do, so even if you have a horrible EV spread you'll still be at an advantage against the AI. The only Pokémon game with a genuine and reasonable difficulty is Platinum, and also B2W2 if you count Challenge mode.

Considering the hardware it runs on, good AI is impractical for Pokémon. Even strategy games like Fire Emblem Awakening have relatively simple AI. AI takes computing power, and Nintendo's handhelds are notorious for being underpowered compared to current hardware. Any high end smartphone is more powerful than the 3DS, they only lack the buttons.

 

[Hiatus]

Pokémon has always been so-so for me; not so tough, and not very difficult. After generation six, though, it did start to get a little easier, but only reason why is because of the new Experience Share; with this, I'm always able to keep my team in-balance. If one of my Pokémon is being leveled-up, so would the others. This has reduced my need to put much effort into training, and personally, I'm quite fond of it. I could always disable Exp. Share to raise difficulty if I wish, but I... don't actually want that, haha.

 

[Dreg]

I think the difficulty curve changed once the new EXP Share mechanics were introduced into X and Y. I think in BW2 that it was too easy to gain money from, as you could buy 12 castelia cones for 1200 and you can sell them off to the chef on route 5 for 24000.

 

[Rosehip]

The Pokemon games aren't hard to begin with, so I don't think they've become "easier", just less of a hassle to play. Hassles as in the Exp Share making grinding less of a pain, it's more ease of access rather than ease of gameplay, if you catch my drift.

I think it simply comes down to veteran status, as I call it. A vast majority of the people who play the games are people who have played more than 1 previous game, and as every game has the same base mechanic (capture monsters, train, battle, etc), they have no problem.

 

[jAvAcOlA]

They need to make a difficulty setting a staple in games. The easiness is a joke.

 

[Pepperton]

Pokemon isn't supposed to be a difficult game, it's mainly for children, and they have to take into account that every new installment of the series they release may be someone's first Pokemon game, and making it extremely challenging will only discourage them. Sure, it can get a little boring at times, but I find it's better when you focus on gathering enjoyment in other aspects of the main story line, like building your ideal team, collecting rare Pokemon, things like that. Then, if you're still not really entertained and become bored, you can start up a Nuzlocke challenge, which are always burdensome adventures, but a lot of fun.

 

[Mackened]

Black & White 1 and 2 had an acceptable level of difficulty, I liked it. X & Y were ridiculously easy.

 

[Universe]

Bottom line, we need a 'hard mode/easy mode' option. Pronto.

Because yes I realize we have children playing these games and that it wouldn't be fair to up the ante all of a sudden for those of us who are older. It is definitely a good thing in that sense that our games have been really easy, as it helps keep the attention of the intended audience. But for instance, I blew threw X in under 3 days, playing for only a few hours at a time. I wasn't even trying and the game just kinda swept right by me. I really would appreciate it if they gave a little nod of the head to the more experienced players of Pokemon and made another mode to play on instead of keeping everything easy. I think a lot of people would.

 

[Pendraflare]

As a lot of people here have said, Pokémon is supposed to be a children's franchise and has always been easy, but the games do tend to throw Pokémon that can really mess with you on occasion.

As i've said before, I don't think XY are that easy without the Exp. Share, because of the gigantic variety that trainers can throw at you and how I always tend to feel under-leveled on occasion. Sometimes after the last Gym i'd be around 50-52.

For that matter, there are many people who call BW the easiest games in the series, but I will never say that. Gym Leaders like Lenora, Elesa, and Clay can be known to be notoriously difficult considering how few options there are. The Elite Four I don't think are that easy either for that reason. N uses a legendary for goodness sakes, and a fast Rock/Flying-type, and don't even get me started on Ghetsis x_x Although to be fair, most of my BW plays have had something to ready me for that Hydreigon (whether it be a Fighting-type, Dragon Dance Haxorus or such).

Some people say that BW2's Challenge Mode was a waste even without the arbitrary requirements, but for what it is, I like it. It can leave you under-leveled against the trainers later in the game, which, after watching Drayano's Poison Monotype and seeing how lower leveled he was than the Gym Leaders, i've tended to let that happen in most of my challenges recently (BW2 or otherwise), except Nuzlockes and Wedlockes. It does make things more interesting.

 

[Seth Rollins]

Yes, X and Y is just too easy for me. I don't really care if it is a children's game, Nintendo then should do a Easy/Normal/Hard mode so that people can finally enjoy themselves and I really can't see why they can't do that.

 

[icomeanon6]

This may be because by this point I've played a significant amount of Pokemon, but I found that with Y the only way I could get some challenge out of the main game was to impose challenges upon myself (in my case, deliberately having a large team of Pokemon and changing the party frequently, ensuring that at least half of the team at a time are under-leveled).

It may just be that Game Freak decided the old Pokemon games were too difficult for their target audience (who are generally younger than most of the people on this forum). Heck, when I played Emerald for the first time in high school (I was late to the Gen III party. :P Don't judge me.) I thought the Elite IV was stupid hard, can't imagine not doing even worse and getting upset if I had been seven. I still voted "yes" though because having a hard mode available from the start doesn't sound unreasonable to me, considering how much Pokemon tries to cater to its older fans who remember the originals. Maybe that's too much to ask the guys in charge of getting the game balance right, I dunno.

 

[Jacrad]

That depends on what you mean.
From my perspective, yes, Pokemon has gotten too easy. And it's not because of the Exp share.

You've always been able to kind of fumble your way around most of the game if you needed to do so. I don't pay close attention to the mechanics of the game and have always been able to get through it pretty easily. All the Exp share does is allow you to augment the grinding process. You can turn it off if you feel it's doing too much for you to maintain the difficulty curve you need.

My issue is the puzzles. Pokemon games really don't have puzzles that are all that challenging. It is a game meant to be accessible to kids so having Sudoku level difficulty is probably overkill. But Generation Six's puzzles were horrendous, almost non-existent.
Viola's Gym, a maze that guides you to the exit.
Grant's Gym, 'walking up.'
Korrina's Gym, fight everyone. Which you can easily just fumble your way through.
Ramos' Gym, walking that is occasionally interrupted.
Clemont's Gym, Who's That Pokemon!, and I think one trivia question? There's not really thought required for it.
Valerie's Gym. A Warp Maze. Which could be good, if you had some way of knowing which warp will lead where. But you mostly just have to go through it blindly. Sabrina's Gym is equally guilty of this too.
Olympia's Gym. Because of the set up it takes it can be solved with a little thought. This one worked.
Wulfric's Gym. While there is a puzzle, it makes it painfully obvious what the right choices are. If his gym hadn't been linear this puzzle might have worked. Where you have to plan out the correct path rather than just waiting until you can cross.

I expect the first Gym to either be extremely easy or completely devoid when it comes to puzzles. But there needs to be more than this. If there were a trick house that had made up for it there wouldn't be a problem.

Pokemon also has some very good puzzles surrounding the strength blocks. But I didn't get to see much of it this time around.

 

[Aptitude9]

I understand that the games are mainly directed at kids, and made to be accessible, but X and Y were ridiculously easy. Gym leaders, elite 4 and other bosses lacked challenge. Most of them only had around 3 or 4 pokemon, which should extend to 6, like it did in the other games. The only reason they ever had the potential of knocking you out was because they were decently levelled. Even the champion's ace pokemon could get OHKOed, and don't even get me started on AZ....

Although I think the reason they've done this for X and Y is because they were experimenting with how people would react to 3D pokemon. Hopefully the newer games will get more fleshed out in the future, because the last two champions were a joke compared to the others. Cynthia, Steven, Alder and even N posed a large threat with their teams being well made. Especially their ace pokemon (Garchomp, Metagross, Volcarona and Reshiram/Zekrom). Iris, despite having Haxorus and Hydreigon had Druddigon, which is easily the worst dragon type. Diantha had a fairly unimpressively made team, that was very easily taken out.

Also gen 6 had little to no post game. Gen 5 had an optional battle Cynthia, Emerald had a fight with the new-and-improved Steven Stone, and Gen 2 had the high levelled Red.

But really we should just have a hard mode built in for players that want it. You could always try a nuzlocke for a challenge.

 

[Grand Wizard Ryan]

They need to make a difficulty setting a staple in games. The easiness is a joke.

This. Whilst the Pokémon games are, as mentioned before, for everybody, I think they should take that into account when designing them. Black 2 had the hard mode, but even that wasn't too bad. There needs to be at least easy/medium/hard difficulty settings. Hell, maybe an extreme difficulty where the Pokémon are all 10-15 levels above the baseline. That'd be cool.

 

[Shiro]

I really do like the idea of different difficulty modes for Pokemon. Fire Emblem Awakening did this very well, even though, imo, Pokemon was never as hard as Fire Emblem pre-Awakening. but it had different difficulties that were similar to previous games as well as easier difficulties. And there was a casual mode where unlike classic mode where if your unit's HP dropped to 0, they'd be dead forever, there was no permadeath.

So yeah I think Awakening is a really good example personally of a game that's beginner friendly and good for casual players but also allowed a challenge to those that wanted it.

 

[SnowpointQuincy]

Pokemon is super easy, then you go to Battle tower and it is nearly impossible to get a 50 win streak.

Where were these tough trainers during the Main?

 

[Juxapose]

Pokemon has ALWAYS been too easy. You can't make it easier. It's less annoying. But not easier. Just because in gen 1, I would have to grind hundreds of hours to get a level 100 Pokemon, doesn't mean it was hard. Just time consuming.