A minor gripe of mine that comes into the light after having played almost all the way through OR's story (I like taking things slowly, okay?): I feel that at this point, GameFreak could really up the difficulty of the game a few notches.
"But CRoll," you say, frustrated with this point being brought up for the umpteenth time, "haven't you seen the '3+' mark on the box? This game is made for kids, and should be simple enough for them to manage it!"
Of that, I'm perfectly aware. But thing is, as it currently stands, nearly
any Pokémon is good enough for an in-game run. Unless you do some sort of challenge, or purposely build your team with only Jokémons in it, you won't face any problems strolling through the game at a natural pace. No matter what you do, few if any trainers will stand against you, and with only a minimal understanding of the type chart you will blast your way through even the so-called major battles - which usually end up being 4-on-6 or something, in your favour. Easy-peasy, almost no matter how you choose to do things. You'll either be overlevelled, outnumbering the opponents - or purposely restricting yourself.
"So what? Kids might not feel it that way!"
Here's the crux, though: The game is practically throwing Easy Modes after you, a myriad of ways to make the game easier:
- The most obvious of which is the Exp. Share, which when turned on will feed your entire team with experience and EVs, even if you're too young to understand the concept of switching and thus let one Pokémon do all the battling.
- Then there's the Lucky Egg, which is a tad more advanced, in that you need to actively use it for the game to be easier, but it does have a big impact. Your Egg holder will rake in the Experience, and gain levels far faster than it naturally would. At least in ORAS you have to seek it out to obtain it, but once you know how you'll get it in ten minutes.
- TMs could also deserve a mention. Earlier, players tended to save TMs for that one hypothetical Pokémon that could utilize them in the best possible way, but now they're reusable and no less powerful than the one-off tools they used to be. Once you've got TM26, you can slap Earthquake on anything that can learn it, and still have plenty left over for future teambuilding projects. No need to conserve any more (frankly, I think nobody liked that as in most cases you either saved it indefinitely or felt that you wasted it if you used one of the unique ones), just go to town with every TM and give your team all the coverage it could possibly wish for.
- But there's more: Pokémon Amie, which gives boosts to Experience, a chance to dodge moves, heal status, extra Crits, and freely give you the equivalent of a Focus Band. A fully Amie'd Pokémon has a monstrous advantage in the game.
- And there's even more: Mega Evolution. I'd go out on a limb here and say that any Mega Evolution makes most battles a pushover. Blindingly fast and terribly strong, they'll OHKO their way through regular trainers, and deal tremendous damage to even the so-called "ace up the sleeve" of foes in major battles. Even if none of the above applies, you've still got a Pokémon capable of going toe-to-toe with most enemies in the game and win nearly every single time. And the games even go out of their way to shove on you a Mega or two along the way too, so you're sure not to miss them.
At this point, I shouldn't even have to point out that the games have gotten a tendency as of late to practically give you a Legendary Pokémon at some point in the story. The most egregious example being Lati@s in ORAS, but the mandatory capture of Xernes/Yveltal in XY, or Reshiram/Zekrom in BW shows traces of this too. Free or incredibly-easy-to-acquire bulldozers that don't give two flips about foes resisting their moves, or hitting them super-effectively, they've got the stats to take all the hits in the world and KO immediately upon retaliation.
All in all, we're left with incredibly easy games that gives you handfuls of tools to make them even easier if you want to. With so many opportunities to make your Pokémon overpowered, I feel like GameFreak could safely up the base difficulty a little. I doubt very many people would notice, especially late-game when you've got the entire catalogue handed to you multiple times. Just give the major opponents a full team with somewhat tailored movepools and decent levels all over, or a strategy to play by, or something like that. Do anybody remember the Admins in Pokémon XD? Something like that, please...
