What main series Pokémon game do you think is the easiest?

[Sheep]

Everyone's experiences tend to be different, but with a regular playthrough, which main series game do you feel is the easiest? Try to judge equally too, as if you played them all right now - your 6 year old self may have found Gold super hard, but maybe for your adult self it'd be one of the easiest.

 

[Pokedream.su]

XY felt rather easy to me because of the jank level curve.

 

[Sheep]

I think GSC were easiest for me, levels-wise. Gym leaders were mostly all easy and the E4 were typically not bad at all. Only chore was the grind lol, and then Kanto afterwards was even easier than the main game.

XY are also very easy typically and I didn't struggle at all playing them. The E4 were probably the easiest/most forgettable.

 

[Figure]

X/Y were super cake but I think HG/SS are incredibly easy as well. That being said, I don't think any Pokemon game (Rom hacks excluded) is even slightly difficult without self imposed rules. Even Plat is a piece of cake becasue you can catch a Gible super easy and EV train it to one shot the game. 😴

 

[Megan]

The first generation is the easiest. As long as you keep your team diverse and make use of the plenthora of TMs, HMs and places to explore you'll never run into any issue. My last playthrough went by without the need of grinding and I beat the game quite easily. I didn't even need to explore the entire map and beat all the trainers but it was till enough to easily get through.

 

[pkmin3033]

They're all equally easy. At its core, Pokemon hasn't changed at all since the first generation: know the type chart, level sufficiently, and you win. They've piled on mechanics to make it look more complicated and to provide some variety, but this only really affects the competitive battle side of things where it actually matters. For the single-player, main game experience, as long as you know the type chart and are a high enough level, you'll win easily, and it's been like that since Gen I. Even the more infamous curveballs the games throw at you just require a little more grinding than what is normal. The grind definitely varies between the games - being practically non-existent in Gen VI, and Gen VIII if you use EXP candies - but time consuming =/= difficult. It certainly *feels* easier if you spend 30 minutes levelling vs. 3 hours levelling, but as you're achieving exactly the same thing regardless of time spent, it's not any easier or harder.

 

[Pendraflare]

Exactly. While the later generations may have opponents that appear stronger on the surface, the newer games give you so many more items and other benefits to use against them. For example, while the original Sun/Moon has Totems not as strong as Ultra's, Ultra has more Pokemon and the Move Tutors, and you can even use Mantine Surf to grind for certain items, to better prepare for them, and the big climax fight of the original is one where each foe gets a small boost while that of Ultra is a megalomaniac that requires you to get very specific with your strategy.

 

[Lysander]

ORAS were the easiest games for me. I've never really struggled to beat these games before, even when I haven't been using the Exp Share. Gen 6 games in general are probably the easiest Pokémon games to date.

 

[PageEmp]

The original SM, EASILY. But actually, it's more of a tie between XY and SM, but SM's easiness seems to resonate with me more.

I can only think of two hard parts: a level spike near the end of the game and the final rival battle. ONLY those two I found hard in the original SM, everytging was insanely easy.

 

[colours]

i'd say (insert any gen 6 game here) was probably the easiest, for me. i don't really feel like any of the battles in either XY or ORAS were really that challenging, nor that memorable for that matter (sadly, it kinda felt like most battles kinda blurred together in my eyes).

 

[Sydian]

xy are the easiest imo. could toss in oras too. i like the new exp share introduced in gen 6, but i think it wasn't implemented well. i think they got it right in gen 8, it's more balanced there imo, but not so much to xy which can lead to quick overlevelling. they're fun games regardless, but unless you're limiting yourself in some kind of capacity, they're a breeze.

edit: i do agree with dawn, too. generally if you know the type chart and what you're about to face, you'll be fine. there can be some wrenches thrown in, but usually grinding out more levels can solve that issue. and because of the implementation of the new exp share in gen 6 and onward, i think players tend to view them as easier (like i just mentioned) because you're having to grind less bc the whole team is getting experience altogether. which means you're spending less time to prepare for a gym or boss battle which, to us, results in thinking 'oh this is easier bc i didn't have to do that much here'. i know some people still turn the thing off and say they're easy though, but i think another thing about that is that a lot of the people that say this are older fans...and we have a good grasp of the game mechanics by now so we can squeak by with this. the gyms i thought were hard as a kid in rse are not hard as an adult, for example.

 

[Zeostar]

ORAS.

I played with EXP share off and on set, it was still a breeze until Steven who put up more of a fight.

 

[Meister_anon~Master_o f_None]

of the ones i've played I'd say sun & moon, that said I don't consider let's go part of the main line.

but I could be remembering wrong, I'm not sure if it was easy or boring, I didn't even bother challenging the elite four, I quit after I got solgaleo.

It was fun at first, and there were definitely good points, but it just became a slog around the latter half.

 

[Janp]

I think all of them are easy mindless A button masher, unless you try to make them into something better yourself.

But XY and HGSS are in my opinion one of the easiest. XY has broken level curve because of Exp. Share and one of the worst movesets in major battles - Korrina is probably the biggiest offender here. Her Hawlucha has worse moveset than random trainer's Hawlucha in Reflection Cave, literally right before you get to Shalour City. While more recent games have even worse movesets, they at least somewhat fixed the level curve.

HGSS also have a problem with levels and it's just silly that you barely got past level 40 by the final Gym. It's probably even more annoying in HGSS, since you don't really have a good way to level up your Pokémon anywhere in the whole region.

 

[Lordecoxinha]

XY. This game is laughable.

 

[Loriania]

XY are pretty easy.

 

[Sheep]

I figured a lot would say XY and definitely agree with them being very easy (posted saying so before too), but it was pretty crazy how difficult they were for me when I did a fully unevolved run. Think I started having massive struggles by the second gym with my team of Espurr, Pancham, and Fennekin, which is really early lol. Furfrou was a thing of nightmares in that run. :x

 

[SawkTheWarrior]

LGPE was baby food. No challenge.

 

[Phoox]

I bought Y but only played through about 20/25% of the game before i got bored. I recently finished Sword though, that wasn't even slightly hard. In the older games i remember arriving at a new town and thinking, okay cool i better level up a few levels before the gym. I did the same in Sword and ended up pretty much oneshotting the gym trainers and leader. I feel they could have bumped each gym up by 5-10 levels for it to have been more of a challenge. I also expected the Leon fight to be a lot harder than it was, it was mildly harder than what i'd fought before but i still took him down with only 2 pokemon fainting. So yeah. Pokemon Sword for me is the easiest, but i also didn't play any of the games to the end after Emerald until i picked up Sword.

 

[pokemon fan person]

probably LGPE. the only reason why it was hard for me is because i didn't know type matchups.