>start up X >get through the first few gyms >get bored

>>26399482
It's a game geared towards kids anon. I wish they would just implement difficulty settings like challenge mode in white. Options are never a bad thing.

>Pokemon
>Challenging
>Ever when they actually made the Pokemon not shit
The only "challenging" ones were RBY and GSC and mostly by extension because of how shit your Pokemon were, not because there was any legitimate challenge you could plan around and used strategy to beat

>>26399500
>kids shouldn't be challenged

>>26399513
>challenges for children and challenges for adults are the same
Anon, surely you don't think this is true.

>>26399502
This just isn't true. Stop spouting this meme.

I bought Yellow on VC when it came out and it was legitimately more difficult than any Pokemon game I've played since Crystal.

The difficult curve was steeper. I actually had to grind a few times to catch up to trainer levels. I actually had a couple close call gym battles, and the elite four was thrilling as fuck.

Then I go back to playing XY/ORAS and I'm always 5+ levels ahead of trainers even though I never grind and even use repels.

>>26399513
I'm not saying it shouldn't be challenging, just giving a possible reason why gamefreak is making it more casual. I'd love for Pokemon to actually be a challenge outside of nuzlockes etc.

>>26399482
Every new gen i lowkey hope "this is finally the one they're going to introduce setting up difficulty at the beginning" but they never do

But if im honest i couldnt careless, if it still hasnt hindered my enjoyment of the game in however many years I doubt it will now so w/e

>>26399482
the games didnt change all that much, you just got better at playing the game.

>>26399539
I'm replaying Red right now because of the VC release, I'm not "spouting a meme". Interesting how you didn't actually explain what made the game "difficult", just that it "was" and you just grinded to solve it. That isn't strategic or "challenging". Having to "grind" isn't an indication of difficulty. You also wouldn't have to grind if a Pokemon's level up moveset weren't shit and you didn't have to wait until Cinnabar so you could use TMs without breaking them and losing them permanently. It's funny you said you're playing Yellow because it's easily the most obvious way to show the problem. The game is "harder" because you have a gimped Pokemon on your team to begin with. Yellow actually made it easier by giving Butterfree Confusion on level up. There is no reason at any point you can't reasonably deal with trainers past Brock either, since each Gym comes with a Pokemon that beats it in the surrounding area.

>>26399553
the games did got easier, it's the price you pay for the franchise's growth, but you (probably) also got better at playing it. the games will never be to the difficulty standards of an experienced player, it is what it is

>>26399717
>>26399623
Here by the way, not arguing the games didn't get easier, they objectively did, just saying that the games being oh so difficult before is some very rose tinted glasses when they were mostly only "hard" because of design flaws, ESPECIALLY RBY and still some holdout in GSC

>>26399717
Options should be allowed. They did it in BW2 albeit in a halfassed manner.

>>26399739
I mean that I agree with, having the option to chose difficulty from the get-go would be definitely great

I've replayed Yellow, Pearl, and am replaying X this year and haven't noticed any real difference in difficulty even with EXP Share on in the last. I haven't turned it off at all because I just want to blaze through and I'm still somehow several levels below most foes.

>>26399816
I know in X I had trouble with the rock gym leader's fossil pokemon. I can understand why I would in theory since fossil pokemon have higher base stats than most Pokemon you might have at that point but I can't think of why I had a problem. I don't think I actually lost and I don't remember what caused problems, could have just been a bad team or bad luck.

>>26399717
There are a few other games that are actually difficult even for players that know how things work.

Sure, they can keep a great pace but they also know that they can be just wiped out at a moment notice.
That's thanks to the fact that the enemies are always enemies, so they can play with their attributes (HP/Atk/Def and such) or altering the damage formula in higher difficulties.

Sadly, this can't be done in Pokémon because your party is composed by those same enemies. It needs a better AI, but GF is lazy and all that.

>>26399502
>RBY
>Challenging
Fuck off.
You Pokrmon were shit, that's true, but so were your opponents. You could easily beat the league with an underlevelled team provided your levels were decent.
GSC were also easy because of the shit level scaling.
The only challenge in those games was Red and that's because of his level 70s team with the level 80 Pikachu.
Pokemon games aren't challenging without self imposed challenges period.

All main Pokemon games have the same difficulty: none

>>26399964
When I said "your pokemon" I didnt mean literally the "pokemon you captured and used on your team" but Pokemon in general. They have shit level up movesets and that was what NPCs by and large used.

Also I will admit to being randomly ambushed by the couple early Raticates you see and finding them legitimately tough because they have a relatively high power stab move and are fast and have fully evolved stats at that point in the game. It also doesnt' help that again the Pokemon are shit and therefore had shit moves and I'm going into gyms 4 and 5 with a Charmeleon still using Ember and actually being happy to pick up Slash. Never been underleveled yet though

>>26399482
The only challenge in any pokemon game ever has been user implemented. Game too hard? Just grind for a bit. Game too easy? Underlevel your pokemon or get a new team.

I increase the challenge by never using any items or potions and rotating my pokemon so they all gain experience. I also sometimes keep pokemon from evolving. One high level pokemon can beat the game in the blink of an eye.

I don't blame you though. If you look at the new games and compare them to the older ones you see that pokemon get better and better moves and more useful abilities. There are some pokemon in the older gens that are pretty useless, making the game more challenging. Now almost any pokemon is good enough to be useful in the whole game.

>>26399873
I feel like a lot of the issues experienced players have with the main game could be solved by just allowing the enemy trainer pokemon to behave like the ones in later stages of the Battle Tower/Battle Tower variants

I mean from the start allow enemy NPC to carry berries, special items etc and also allow the player to have access to those kinds of items from the start (say by winning x amount of random encounters, some kind of point system you earn for random battling etc) but STILL allowing the casual player (particularly kids) to get through the game without having to learn in-depth metagame (of if anything just implement the difficulty setting where normal it continues as it is and the harder difficulties would allow those items, higher levels, balanced teams to opponent trainers from the start)

One pet peeve I've always had was fighting with the Gen Villains Grunts, because they'll always carry the same pokemon, same amount unless they're admins/leaders etc, since we fight so many of them during the game I always wanted variation to their pokes because even as a little kid playing it I remember being like "ok i used this attack that last time and it killed it right away" so you get accustomed to a pattern and that goes for nearly every random trainer you encounter and also your rival (except for the starter your rival should change pokes about as much as you do desu)

anyway TLDR Yes the AI needs some work

>>26399482
>When will GF make Pokemon reasonably challenging again?

When you get a head injury and regress back to your childhood. Pokemon was never excessively hard.

>>26399482
>He's missing the point of Pokemon
You wanna be challenged, go online or a go to a facility. There.