Would you like to see higher difficulty options?

I will prefer higher difficulty option. Because I play Pokemon games for battles and winning, rather than anything else. Having that option is much more better than self-imposed nuzlocke and challenge runs, and will give some challenge of it's own !!

I want to see following things to make the gameplay tough :


1. All trainers having 6 Pokemon.
2. Gym Leaders having one wild card Pokemon.
3. Very less reward money, because lots of money makes easy for people to stock Pokeballs, potions, revives, etc.
4. Hard puzzles in Gyms.
5. Smarter AI which performs according to what we think and can potentially trouble us.
 
Yes. May or may not want to play on that higher difficulty, depending on how it is done. Wants the option, though.

On specifics for harder difficulty:
  • More Pokemon per trainer. Should be five Pokemon at the fourth gym. Figures six Pokemon by gym number six.
  • More switches from the AI. Maybe once or twice a match on the harder trainers, on average?
  • Using the gimmick effectively. Do not Terastallize into a Normal type while in front of a Fighting type. Maybe use it earlier than your last Pokemon too.
  • Held items. Even just Sitrus and Lum Berries.
  • No Revives (in battle). Never would have let that fly in the anime.
  • Let the AI use items if the player can too. Removed trainer items in recent generations. (Kind of understood with Dynamax. Burns one of your Dynamax turns.)
  • More non-attacking moves. Filled out current Pokemon with mainly attacking moves. Improved their coverage, sure, which is useful for a mono-type gym. Usually considers gym Pokemon scary for one of two reasons: strong, early evolutions OR a buffing move. Give some Pokemon Quiver Dance or Dragon Dance. Maybe put some Prankster Thunder Wave in there or something to stop a sweep.
  • Give them more Effort Values. Does not need to be "252 in Attack and Speed". Would be fine with an even spread. Likely mirrors what the trainer has. Should be maxed out on Effort Values somewhere in the second half.
  • A better balance of physical and special Pokemon. Has not compiled data on this or anything. Swears on physical Pokemon being more common, at least on the major trainers.

Notably, not more levels.
 
Yeah, I actually think it's pretty absurd that this isn't a thing yet. Difficulty options are commonplace now and Pokemon lags behind again.

There's no harm in it at all. Even if someone doesn't care about difficulty, they can still select whatever they want.

I'm not asking for hair ripping challenge, but having held items on important trainers or improved move-sets would allow a little more thought after having played the games for many years. Emerald actually got pretty close to this.
 
Well, we kind of have some difficulty settings, they're just not presented explicitly.

Imo what they should do, even if they don't want to program different Pokémon and movesets for all trainers, is simply make all trainers harder by default, then present two different difficulty settings:

-​
Normal​
Hard​
Free switch on opposing Pokémon KO​
Allowed​
Not allowed​
Player can use items during battles​
Unrestricted​
No. Held items only.​
Overlevelling​
Allowed​
No. Stricter level/obedience caps.​
Affection bonusses affect battles​
Yes​
No​
AI can use held items​
No​
Yes for bosses and above average trainers​
AI has access to hidden Abilities​
No​
Yes for bosses and above average trainers​
Relevant AI trainers EV gain​
Minimal. Main bosses only.​
Gradual gain up to max EVs by late game​
 
The topic of difficulty settings always makes me think of Easy and Challenge Mode from B2W2 and how I'm sure more people would be talking about it if it was available right from the start of the game instead of after finishing it. For lots of games I'm going to say that customizable, flexible difficulty options are always good. Maybe someone just wants to make one specific thing easier (such as Switch/Set) but doesn't want to commit to an entire Hard mode. Makes me think of the difficulty options in Persona 4 Golden or Bravely Default, how you could change things like the amount of EXP and money obtained to make the game harder or speed up grinding sessions. I think that should just be commonplace in RPGs.

I stand by the opinion that Pokemon has never been and never needs to be difficult, and Nuzlockes or challenge runs can be fine to fix the problems players have, but I do also think the more options we have for accessibility in our games we have, the better, and that includes harder difficulties.
 
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Yes, there's nothing to loose. They don't even have to make you choose the difficult from menu or something like that. There are a bunch of options, mostly mentioned by Corveone, that could be turned on/off for the players. If those changes were all singular, then the player would have full control over difficulty, even getting a somewhat harder/easier type of playing. For example, one could play with affection on, level cap off, items off, set Battle mode off. That would allow to give different kind of playing experiences and those changes could be reverted at any time.

That said, i found the SV DLC to be quite harder than the usual games. I also like the choice of double battles.
 
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