4th Gen Why were the trainers etc so low leveled?

[Infinitum]

I still remember when I defeated the E4 in HG/SS that one feeling always kicked in for me... Why were the gym leaders, trainers, E4 using Pokémons that were so low in level? With the highest Pokémon of the champion only being 50... If you compare it to Diamond, where Cynthia's Garchomp is 66 you can clearly see the difference.


Did anyone who played HG/SS have this feeling too? Or am I the only one who though that the Pokémons in the game were low leveled?

 

[Altius]

I had this feeling too, but think about it... Were you at a much higher level than 50? I was certainly not...

For some reason, Johto is incredibly under-levelled compared to other regions. However, I don't think it was that easy to level up either (save Mt. Silver).

 

[bobandbill]

Johto is a smaller region than others, probably because it's followed up by Kanto; and in the original games, they had to cut down Kanto to save space so that'd be why Johto was smaller too. As a result, that means less trainers, less exp, and lower levels all round.

People often point out that the levelling is off in HGSS, but like AltiusX I disagree with that, because while the E4 and the Champion only have maximum levels of ~ 50, your Pokemon aren't going to be past that so it's still a challenge.

Meanwhile, after all of Kanto, you can fight Red who from memory has Pokemon at the higher 70s/lower 80s. Unlike other games which don't have as many areas to explore post-E4, HGSS offers more.

 

[DragonTamer64]

Yes I had this problem once before so when I restarted the game I only used like 3 or 4 pokemon. Like my first time beating the entire game the only pokemon I had were a Quagsire level 82, & a Furret level 92. I trained like crazy to beat Red. I think I was like 17.