Unpopular opinions

Another one of my personal unpopular opinions is that the statement "Unova is underrated" is getting alot more overrated. As much as I like Unova myself (considering it introduced my favorite pokemon of all time), I have seen the majority of pokemon fanbase saying that BW/2 were some of the best games and countless people consider gen 5 to be the golden age of pokemon. I'm not saying Unova is overrated btw, I just mean that it isn't as underrated as people make it out to be. Besides most people that hate Unova are obvious genwunners which are pretty rarely seen these days.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
Another one of my personal unpopular opinions is that the statement "Unova is underrated" is getting alot more overrated. As much as I like Unova myself (considering it introduced my favorite pokemon of all time), I have seen the majority of pokemon fanbase saying that BW/2 were some of the best games and countless people consider gen 5 to be the golden age of pokemon. I'm not saying Unova is overrated btw, I just mean that it isn't as underrated as people make it out to be. Besides most people that hate Unova are obvious genwunners which are pretty rarely seen these days.
You know what region is underrated and is unpopular compared to the others? The Alola region. I get it, Alola is newer than most, and there are things about the games themselves people find 50/50, but I honestly think the Alola storyline as a whole is incredibly well written and gives the region a sense of self-awareness of its role in the Pokémon franchise- something most other regions distinctly lack. I’d even go as far as to say that Alola did Pokémon’s 20th anniversary better than Sinnoh did Pokémon’s 10th anniversary back in 2006-07. Heck, even Cynthia herself shows up for Sinnoh’s 10th birthday. The island hopping nature of Alola is very unique and blends great with Alola’s theme of tradition in how the trials are handled.

The Alola games also introduced so much cool stuff that we take for granted. SOS battles are an excellent new Shiny Hunting method, Z-Moves were an actually balanced and fun gimmick unlike Mega Evolution (which also appears in Gen 7 for those who do like it), the Ultra Beasts gave us a new take on Legendaries... I could go on for a while now.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I think most of the Alola pushback is due to the Ultra versions being essentially full price thinly veiled DLC, as well as a few other gameplay gripes like the Rotom Dex.
As much as I prefer the SM plot over the USUM plot, it’s hard to say that the Ultra games aren’t better from a gameplay perspective. It only seems like DLC because USUM took more of a Platinum route than a B2W2 route, so to speak, while still being split versions. I for one actually support this decision of game design, thinking that “S2M2” as I’ll call it wouldn’t have worked as well as B2W2 did.

Also, a quick note just to get this off my chest: Game Freak thinking that the Unova sequels were a financial failure isn’t true. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, because there’s no evidence to support that. B2W2 didn’t sell worse than BW because they were sequels, they sold worse because we went to the same region again in general. This could be another unpopular opinion in and of itself.
 
Now this is mostly for the first 2 battles but, I like that Hop says "So you've mastered type-matchups?" etc, because (In-game) you are a new trainer who just got their first pokemon, whereas Hop has had a Wooloo for a while. I think this is neat because it builds upon the fact that you are new.

Though I do agree that when he STILL says it in Circhester, or even the League, it's kinda annoying and makes no sense anymore. I mean you've beaten 5 to 8 gyms, of course you know type matchups.
 
You know what region is underrated and is unpopular compared to the others? The Alola region. I get it, Alola is newer than most, and there are things about the games themselves people find 50/50, but I honestly think the Alola storyline as a whole is incredibly well written and gives the region a sense of self-awareness of its role in the Pokémon franchise- something most other regions distinctly lack. I’d even go as far as to say that Alola did Pokémon’s 20th anniversary better than Sinnoh did Pokémon’s 10th anniversary back in 2006-07. Heck, even Cynthia herself shows up for Sinnoh’s 10th birthday. The island hopping nature of Alola is very unique and blends great with Alola’s theme of tradition in how the trials are handled.

The Alola games also introduced so much cool stuff that we take for granted. SOS battles are an excellent new Shiny Hunting method, Z-Moves were an actually balanced and fun gimmick unlike Mega Evolution (which also appears in Gen 7 for those who do like it), the Ultra Beasts gave us a new take on Legendaries... I could go on for a while now.
Y'know what? I actually agree with you. Alola is underrated as it actually tried to be a full fledged game and expanded on some of the content that gen 6 lacked like zygarde formes or ash greninja while also had better open world activities.

I think most of the Alola pushback is due to the Ultra versions being essentially full price thinly veiled DLC, as well as a few other gameplay gripes like the Rotom Dex.
Though I think TMan87 is right why it got underappreciated. And it was mostly bcoz of ultra versions which were rather uneccesory and added little content while having the same price as the previous games
 
USUM are the games I feel are worse in terms of enhancements. They added lackluster amount of content like putting most old legendaries in a randomizer and it has even more tutorials and cutscenes over SM.
Also they are the games where I lost my second competitive living dex because of a wifi corruption. 1000+ hours wasted in a blink of an eye.

Aside from that, I feel the story is even more luckluster than SM. USUM's story feels kinda random:
- Lusamine suppose to be a "hero" but still hunts after her daughter and has frozen Pokemon in her room.
- Racoon Squad in the intro give the impression of badguys, but they suppose to be people trying to stop Necrozma. Or at least ask for help to stop Necrozma.

SM lacked good grinding spots. USUM feels like it's just worth buying it for the ability to grind on of SOS chaining Chansey. And the tutor moves which at that point should be in the maingame.
It annoys me that tutor moves have been put into the next games of the same generation, instead being in the game from the start. It makes the first row of Pokemon games at the start of a generation rather pointless.
 

QuentinQuonce

formerly green_typhlosion
It annoys me that tutor moves have been put into the next games of the same generation, instead being in the game from the start. It makes the first row of Pokemon games at the start of a generation rather pointless.
Yup. I literally sold my copy of Sun and used the proceeds to buy Ultra Moon (just for a bit of variety) as soon as the sequels were announced. What's the point in having the first game? Sure the story's better but in practical terms USUM make the former two completely obsolete.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
One of the biggest reasons I prefer the original Sun & Moon over the Ultra versions is actually because of how USUM struggles to keep an identity. It wants to be a hard game but quite frankly isn't. It wants to be the more gameplay focused of the two and the overadded dialogue sequences make it hard to enjoy that. It wants to be a game aimed towards the aging fanbase but prefers quantity over quality whereas the originals do the opposite in this regard. Not to mention they removed many Pokemon from base Alola in exchange for the increased regional PokéDex size.

See a pattern here? USUM wants to try and fix the problems of the originals, of which I believe there were very few, but ends up shooting itself in the foot instead. Here's a really good example of how the originals are better at keeping their role in the franchise. The game seems self-aware of the fact that Pokémon fans are getting older, and as a result, we saw... maybe a little too many innuendos in that game. I find it underrated on its own how SM felt more maure than the average game. Aaaaand then the Ultra games threw that out the window. Who else remembers that part at Exeggutor Island in the rainstorm? The Ultra games replaced Lillie for this part but were too lazy to give the other dude new dialogue...
 
Some more short thoughts on various recent topics:

Gen 4 being similar to Gen 3
I have never thought about this before, but after reading posts by others about it now, I can definitely see it. That said, I definitely agree that Gen 4 should be considered a spritual successor or a refinement of Gen 3, not a "clone" or something along those lines.

I also feel that there are a lot that Gen 3 does similar to Gen 1, I thought about this recently and I guess this is a good opportunity to bring it up. For instance, many Gen 3 Pokémon are similar to various Pokémon from Gen 1. Some notable examples are the Wurmple line and the Caterpie/Weedle lines, the Skitty and Meowth lines, the Corphish and Krabby lines, the Spheal and Seel lines, the Feebas and Magikarp lines, and possibly others too. It is funny because Gen 5 often gets a lot of hate for having many Pokémon similar to Pokémon from Gen 1, but after looking a little deeper, I feel that the same goes for Gen 3. I remember reading old Serebii threads a while ago and one common complaint about Gen 3 back during the the days when it was the newest was just this, how many Pokémon were "rip-offs" of old ones.

As for more similarities, both Gen 1 and 3 start with a Rock-type Gym (which Gen 4 does as well) and has an Electric-type Gym as the third Gym. There are also Fire-, Psychic-, and Water-type Gyms throughout the regions (although in different orders) and technically a Fighting-type Gym as well if we count the Dojo in Saffron in the Kanto games. Regarding the E4, there are many similarities as well. Three of the Hoenn E4 members use the same types as the E4 in Kanto (Ghost, Ice and Dragon). Their genders are also the same (Drake and Lance are male, Phoebe, Glacia, Agatha and Lorelei are female). Then the last member of the Hoenn E4 uses Dark-types, while Johto previously had a Dark-type user in its E4.

So there are a lot of similarities between Gen 1 and Gen 3 as well, though I wouldn't go as far as to consider Gen 3 a "rip-off" of Gen 1 or something. And I don't consider this to be something negative towards Gen 3 either, I really feel that it manages to have its own identity despite having many similarities to Gen 1. The same goes for Gen 4, which I feel manages have an identity of its own despite having many similarities to Gen 3.

Also, regarding new fans of the series. I believe that every generation creates new fans, not just Gen 4 & 6. Though, those might have created more new fans than other generations, maybe there are "waves" of new fans once in a while, I don't really know.

Sinnoh Gyms
Not sure if I prefer the ones in D/P or Platinum, it has been too long since I played the main story of the Sinnoh games so I don't really remember how they were. However, one thing I was a little disappointed by in Platinum was how it did not feature completely new puzzles or layouts for every Gym, like Emerald did (except for the Petalburg Gym). But that's okay, I still like Platinum a lot.

Alder
I agree about Alder being a great Champion (he's my second favorite after all). His character, backstory and involvement in the main story is amazing. I still prefer Iris though.

Should Unova have been based on the San Francisco Bay Area instead of New York?
I don't think so. I think it was fine that they based Unova on New York. Though I wouldn't mind if they made a region based on the SF Bay Area in the future. I'm not from the US and the only two major US cities I have visited for more than a day are Phoenix and Chicago, so I think that making regions based on other US cities/areas are very welcome because it feels quite exotic for me.

Is Unova overrated, and is Alola underrated?
I don't think so. Unova is my favorite region, so I think it deserves the praise it gets. On the other hand, I think Alola as a region is average at best. It was okay in the end, but not quite on the same level as Unova, Sinnoh, Hoenn or Kalos. So it does not deserve too much praise. IMO, both regions are correctly rated rather than over/underrated.

SM or US/UM?
Back to yet another endless discussion subject. As I have stated many times before, I prefer US/UM. Should the things they added have been DLC for S/M instead? Yes. But now that's not the case, and because of that, I prefer US/UM because they are the games that have many of the things that S/M are missing. I really can't see any reason to go back to S/M after playing US/UM. Yes, US/UM could have made more and better improvements, but what they did are enough for me.
Overall I do really like ORAS, and appreciate it even more now in hindsight because when I look at it for what it is, and not for what I wanted it to be, I can truly appreciate it for the fact that it really is great in its own right and does a great job in reimagining the RSE experience in a modern light, just in a different fashion from how HGSS did it with GSC.
Just wanted to say that I agree with this. I feel the same way about OR/AS, and about many other games as well. Over time, I have come to appreciate many games for what they are, not for what I wanted them to be or for what they could have been. This is mostly notably for the games from Gen 6 and on. I have always liked X/Y but I have really learned to appreciate them more over time. And as said, the same goes for OR/AS. As well as US/UM and S/S, for that matter. Sadly, I don't feel that way about S/M because I prefer US/UM. I wish I could say this for HG/SS as well, but I feel they just have too many issues to the point that I don't think I can ever appreciate them for what they are rather than what I think they could and should have been.
Not to mention they removed many Pokemon from base Alola in exchange for the increased regional PokéDex size.
Which ones did they remove? I can't think of any apart from the Island Scan Pokémon, and the ones that got removed got replaced by others anyway.
 

The Mind Electric

Calming if you look at it right.
Hard agree, Alder is by far and away the best champion (and that's the Pokemon-related hill I'm willing to die on)
Now here's an opinion I can get behind. I think Alder is unfairly glossed over because you don't fight him until the post-game and he's not as cool or hard as Cynthia. He's a well-written character and his team embodies it pretty well. GF's apparent reluctance to try out an experiment like him again is disappointing, especially because they tried to return to form with Diantha in X/Y and it was nowhere near as good as Cynthia.
 
On the topic of ORAS, I honestly like ORAS as games more than RS.
The initial games felt like a step back from GS. I know some of my problems are related to technical limitations but Hoeen felt rather boring and lacking of replay value for me coming from GS.
The game is very favorable for Water Types.

ORAS is however a bit too different from RS. It changes the skript and characters in a way that it doesn't feel like remakes but a reimagining. Stuff got cut like going through that one tunnel to find steven to see him immediately after you enter the cave.
Sky Pillar is completely different from what it used to be.
Non of the elements of Emerald were implemented. Not even Navel Rock where Ho-Oh and Lugia could have stayed instead of putting them into Hoopa Rings.
And you get a Lati handed for free.
Oh yes, Mega Evolution being implemented into the main story not only makes the game awfully easy, but also changes the flow of the region's lore to the point parallel universes were introduced and I don't want to go there any further.

As fanservice it is a neat game, but as a remake what the fans wanted, especially with the line about the Battle Frontier, it feels like a slap in the face.
My opinion of these games are more negative knowing that the Frontier was purposely excluded because "most won't appreciate it" because Mobile Games.
I thought the games were made for the fans. Remember? "Hoeen confirmed"?

As for Gen 4 vs Gen 3.
I considered Gen 4 more like a spiritual successor to Gen 2 similar how I felt Gen 3 was to Gen 1. Old Pokemon get pre-evolution and evolution by a noticable amount. They are also the games with remakes of the Gen's they are succeeding.
Thinking about it more, I struggle to find a lot of stuff in common with gen 2 and 4.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
As fanservice it is a neat game, but as a remake what the fans wanted, especially with the line about the Battle Frontier, it feels like a slap in the face.
My opinion of these games are more negative knowing that the Frontier was purposely excluded because "most won't appreciate it" because Mobile Games.
I thought the games were made for the fans. Remember? "Hoeen confirmed"?
As much I hate to say this... hot take, but they’re actually right. Pokémon fans will always find a way to complain about anything, and while I don’t really understand what mobile gaming had to do with this, I can’t get myself to think that this feature would be enough to turn ORAS into a “bad” Pokémon game. It sucks that it was cut, sure, but is the inevitable complaining from a fanbase this toxic (you guys in the forums are great for the most part) worth the effort of adding in seven battle facilities, half of which aren’t even that popular?

Edit: I am not saying I dislike the Battle Frontier. Besides, I feel like that opinion would be a little too unpopular. I am only saying that Game Freak being aware of the fanbase’s lack of appreciation is a sign that some people need to get their sh** together.
 
As much I hate to say this... hot take, but they’re actually right. Pokémon fans will always find a way to complain about anything, and while I don’t really understand what mobile gaming had to do with this, I can’t get myself to think that this feature would be enough to turn ORAS into a “bad” Pokémon game. It sucks that it was cut, sure, but is the inevitable complaining from a fanbase this toxic (you guys in the forums are great for the most part) worth the effort of adding in seven battle facilities, half of which aren’t even that popular?

Edit: I am not saying I dislike the Battle Frontier. Besides, I feel like that opinion would be a little too unpopular. I am only saying that Game Freak being aware of the fanbase’s lack of appreciation is a sign that some people need to get their sh** together.
I mean with this kind of reasoning you could justify removing literally any feature. Why even bother coding the underground in the Sinnoh remakes? The shitty fanbase is gonna harass Masuda on twitter anyway!!!
At the end of the day, corners get cut because games are getting more difficult to make and game freak is still following the same release schedule as 20 years ago, not because of some sort of cat and mouse game with the fanbase.
 

bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I mean with this kind of reasoning you could justify removing literally any feature. Why even bother coding the underground in the Sinnoh remakes? The shitty fanbase is gonna harass Masuda on twitter anyway!!!
At the end of the day, corners get cut because games are getting more difficult to make and game freak is still following the same release schedule as 20 years ago, not because of some sort of cat and mouse game with the fanbase.
I definitely agree that it’s lazy game development and the fact that newer games are kind of rushed sometimes. But... is it lazy sometimes? Honestly, I don’t even know. This thread’s starting to confuse me lol
 
As much I hate to say this... hot take, but they’re actually right. Pokémon fans will always find a way to complain about anything, and while I don’t really understand what mobile gaming had to do with this, I can’t get myself to think that this feature would be enough to turn ORAS into a “bad” Pokémon game. It sucks that it was cut, sure, but is the inevitable complaining from a fanbase this toxic (you guys in the forums are great for the most part) worth the effort of adding in seven battle facilities, half of which aren’t even that popular?

Edit: I am not saying I dislike the Battle Frontier. Besides, I feel like that opinion would be a little too unpopular. I am only saying that Game Freak being aware of the fanbase’s lack of appreciation is a sign that some people need to get their sh** together.
Perhaps this part of the interview will explain what I mean

Q:We noticed ORAS had a lower difficulty level compared to previous Pokemon games. What bought you to this decision? Any chance that future games will have the possibility to adjust difficulty level as seen in Black and White 2?

A:What? How come you've already played the games? hearty laughter [the games were supposed to come out in Italy the day after the interview] We created a "balanced" game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games, so the time they dedicate to a single game is less than in the past. The player can choose to keep on playing after the main story and continue to the post-game, where the difficulty rises and there are much more difficult Trainers and challenges to overcome.

Q:Why wasn't the Battle Frontier in the remakes?

A:This question is connected with my previous answer. We didn't put the BF in ORAS for this very reason.

Yes, there will be always people that will be upset. But far less people were disappointed prior to this interview reveal in which Masuda sacrifices difficulty and content in favor to make the games more accessible for the modern generation. AND because nobody got the time to play their games apparently, basically insulting the efford they put into the games, because people can just play games on smartphones.
Makes you wonder why they even bother making games on an actual console when they won't put the time and dedication for people that actually put time and dedication to learn these things.

Personally I don't mind adapting difficulty and the Battle Frontier is pretty hard. But they could still have both. Making a fair challenge for the fans that were looking for the games and an experience for newcomers.
And it is not like they can't balance out the difficulty in the Battle Frontier. We got so many means to get Pokemon with good stats now, but it's basically wasted for online experience and copypasted Battle Maison.

Lastly, I don't know how many will disagree with me, but I will still be bold and claim that more people would like seeing the Battle Frontier back, rather than seeing contests being added into ORAS.
They did remove the Pokeblock Minigame too. Hardly anyone cares.
 
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bdt2002

Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs superfan
is a Pre-Contributor
I think this is a big part of why gaming seems like it gets worse over the years. They’re always trying to make games more accessible for newer generations. This isn’t a bad practice in theory, but it just makes me question something...
Perhaps this part of the interview will explain what I mean

Q:We noticed ORAS had a lower difficulty level compared to previous Pokemon games. What bought you to this decision? Any chance that future games will have the possibility to adjust difficulty level as seen in Black and White 2?

A:What? How come you've already played the games? hearty laughter [the games were supposed to come out in Italy the day after the interview] We created a "balanced" game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games, so the time they dedicate to a single game is less than in the past. The player can choose to keep on playing after the main story and continue to the post-game, where the difficulty rises and there are much more difficult Trainers and challenges to overcome.

Q:Why wasn't the Battle Frontier in the remakes?

A:This question is connected with my previous answer. We didn't put the BF in ORAS for this very reason.

Yes, there will be always people that will be upset. But far less people were disappointed prior to this interview reveal in which Masuda sacrifices difficulty and content in favor to make the games more accessible for the modern generation. AND because nobody got the time to play their games apparently, basically insulting the efford they put into the games, because people can just play games on smartphones.
Makes you wonder why they even bother making games on an actual console when they won't put the time and dedication for people that actually put time and dedication to learn these things.

Personally I don't mind adapting difficulty and the Battle Frontier is pretty hard. But they could still have both. Making a fair challenge for the fans that were looking for the games and an experience for newcomers.
And it is not like they can't balance out the difficulty in the Battle Frontier. We got so many means to get Pokemon with good stats now, but it's basically wasted for online experience and copypasted Battle Maison.

Lastly, I don't know who many will disagree with me, but I will still be bold and claim that more people would like seeing the Battle Frontier back, rather than seeing contests being added into ORAS.
They did remove the Pokeblock Minigame too.
 
I think this is a big part of why gaming seems like it gets worse over the years. They’re always trying to make games more accessible for newer generations. This isn’t a bad practice in theory, but it just makes me question something...
Making games more accessible for newer generations is inherently a good idea. Games as a medium and an industry haven't (apparently, also extremely subjectively) gotten worse over the years because of greater attention toward accessibility. If a game falters in this area, it's due to poor execution.
 
I still stand in my opinion on how most pokemon games were hard as a mix of shit accessibility + bad game design

We can have (and tbh at this point we are kinda due having) hard pokemon games, but we can also have them without jank level curves and shit movepools/options for the player. Better ai, smart item choice (held and used), evs/ivs, movepool, pokemon choice. Making a harder pokemon games that arent just bullshit is possible, but I'm unsure gamefreak cares about that
 
Making games more accessible for newer generations is inherently a good idea. Games as a medium and an industry haven't (apparently, also extremely subjectively) gotten worse over the years because of greater attention toward accessibility. If a game falters in this area, it's due to poor execution.
I would say the games that fail in this aspect (Pokemon unfortunately being one of those) is that they tend to focus solely on making them more accessible, without actually taking in consideration also the older fans.

A bit supported by the fact that we're all fucking sheeps anyway older fans will still likely buy new games of a series they been playing for years, games that succeed in the accessibility idea are games that include both simplified variants and harder/difficult ones. You guessed it, I'm talking of difficulty settings or difficulty curve that start very easy but peaks somewhat rapidly toward whatever the intended level is, or offer additional challenge aimed at veterans and more hardcore players.

I am somewhat confident noone would trash on Pokemon ""sword/shield"" (but you can use any of the recent entries) if they were kept easy/accessible as they are, but also included postgame challenges that are actually interesting for older players (yup, facilities being one of them) as well as... you know... difficulty settings. I like for example DQ11's design of having Draconig Trials, aka a range of optional difficulties that make your gameplay harder (like, can't craft gear, can't use certain skills, etc), but are indeed completely optional and you don't have to opt into them, or the omnipresent harsh postgame superbosses that Final Fantasy series historically included.

SwSh had a bit of attention toward QoL changes for competitive players, which is nice, but definitely doesnt really count as "postgame" nor "challenges". If anything (as welcome as those were), it just made any challenge of preparation for PvP even shorter, further reducing the time you spend playing.

...which again... is kinda GF's philosophy in last entries: "We see players are turning more and more toward gachas and pick-and-drop games, so we'll make the game easy to pick-and-drop". And due to winner's curse, they will keep doing this I'm afraid.
 

ScraftyIsTheBest

On to new Horizons!
is a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
The other problem has to do with Pokemon's niche and competition compared to other RPGs/JRPGs out there in general. Pokemon doesn't have the monopoly on people's minds like it used to, even if it's still well known and iconic as a franchise. RPGs like Persona, Fire Emblem, SMT, and vice versa have started to grow in popularity over the past few years and also have a lot of attention nowadays, and those franchises inherently occupy the niche of a more serious RPG on the market, so Pokemon trying to be difficult means it has to have something to differentiate itself from other more serious RPGs like Persona or Final Fantasy which are pretty big on the market nowadays, and it being "accessible" is probably its biggest draw on the market.

Another thing is that likely makes Game Freak aversive to making the games more difficult is that one of the things about Pokemon that makes it stand out compared to other RPG franchises on the market is not only its accessibility, but since day one even in the Gen 1 days the charm of Pokemon is that you can play it however you want, and I think GF probably realizes this. You want to do a monotype run? You can do that, and probably succeed. Are you a kid at heart and you want to brute force the entire game with just your awesome starter? Go ahead and try, and you can probably succeed with that too. This is a kind of flexibility that not a lot of other RPGs offer, and this is why you often see people doing self-imposed challenge runs of Pokemon games even back in the Gen 3/4 days. Stuff like Nuzlockes, egg lockes, Scramble runs, etc. I think Game Freak knows that a lot of people genuinely enjoy doing self-imposed runs like this and trying to make the games more difficult would go against that. The draw to Pokemon over other RPGs is that yes, you can do less tham optimal challenge runs, and sure, these playstyles may not be the most optimal way of playing the games, but if you wanna try? That's on you.

I've seen people around here propose the idea of level capping the games per gym or whatnot, and other things to try to explicitly make the game more difficult, and while that would be great for more serious players (like myself), a problem especially with the idea of Level Capping in regards to EXP Share is that it would explicitly murder playstyle flexibility. Monotype runs would be dead in the water because they can't rely on a level advantage to compensate for a type disadvantage. Brute forcing with your starter would become impossible to do for those who wanna try that. Now ideally, a difficulty setting would probably be the best way to implement more challenge-conducive ideas like Level Cap, smarter AI, better movesets, and use of items and whatnot for more serious gamers, ie a "Challenge" Mode and then a "Norma/Easy" mode for newer players: problem is I don't know if GF thinks the "serious" playerbase is big enough to warrant that idea, if such idea even crossed their mind to begin with, and Pokemon's niche is that you can play it however you want in the first place, which has always been its niche from the start.

Thinking about it more, I struggle to find a lot of stuff in common with gen 2 and 4.
There are a few more stuff they have in common aside from new evolutions and pre-evo baby Pokemon.

Namely the return of the Day/Night cycle in Gen 4, and the fact that it also reinstates changing Pokemon availability based on what time of day it is just like Gen 2 had. The regions of Sinnoh and Johto are also heavily mythology driven with their legendaries and their lore being deeply integrated into their respective regions. That's kind of the bulk of what I can remember.
 
Another thing is that likely makes Game Freak aversive to making the games more difficult is that one of the things about Pokemon that makes it stand out compared to other RPG franchises on the market is not only its accessibility, but since day one even in the Gen 1 days the charm of Pokemon is that you can play it however you want, and I think GF probably realizes this. You want to do a monotype run? You can do that, and probably succeed. Are you a kid at heart and you want to brute force the entire game with just your awesome starter? Go ahead and try, and you can probably succeed with that too. This is a kind of flexibility that not a lot of other RPGs offer, and this is why you often see people doing self-imposed challenge runs of Pokemon games even back in the Gen 3/4 days. Stuff like Nuzlockes, egg lockes, Scramble runs, etc. I think Game Freak knows that a lot of people genuinely enjoy doing self-imposed runs like this and trying to make the games more difficult would go against that. The draw to Pokemon over other RPGs is that yes, you can do less tham optimal challenge runs, and sure, these playstyles may not be the most optimal way of playing the games, but if you wanna try? That's on you.
They said something in the lines of this in one of the interviews before the release of Sword and Shield. That they want us to make the difficulty with our gameplay choices.
 
I've seen people around here propose the idea of level capping the games per gym or whatnot, and other things to try to explicitly make the game more difficult, and while that would be great for more serious players (like myself), a problem especially with the idea of Level Capping in regards to EXP Share is that it would explicitly murder playstyle flexibility. Monotype runs would be dead in the water because they can't rely on a level advantage to compensate for a type disadvantage. Brute forcing with your starter would become impossible to do for those who wanna try that. Now ideally, a difficulty setting would probably be the best way to implement more challenge-conducive ideas like Level Cap, smarter AI, better movesets, and use of items and whatnot for more serious gamers, ie a "Challenge" Mode and then a "Norma/Easy" mode for newer players: problem is I don't know if GF thinks the "serious" playerbase is big enough to warrant that idea, if such idea even crossed their mind to begin with, and Pokemon's niche is that you can play it however you want in the first place, which has always been its niche from the start.
Yeah, level caps are utter BS. These are in Pokemon Radical Red, a ROM hack I've been playing recently, and they suck since they severely limit the options you can use to beat the current boss. This isn't a knock against Radical Red, since this is a ROM Hack aimed at the more hardcore players and clearly took a ton of effort to make, but I wouldn't want this in an official Pokemon game unless its a setting in the menu or something. Optimally EV'd Pokemon are also a pain to fight since its difficult to properly EV your own Pokemon during a normal playthrough of the game. That being said, I'm less opposed to these and think that they are a good way to make mono-type bosses like Nanu and route-specific Ace Trainers with 2 Pokemon more challenging.

I think the best way to increase the challenge of the game while keeping it fair is just changing the way bosses work. Make the first 4 gyms about type match-ups to ease new players to the mechanic, then make the last 4 gyms more about strategy or a gym specific gimmick. Sword and Shield kinda did this with Raihan and Klara / Avery, but frankly, they came a bit too late in the game. I like Dynamaxing as a way to make the bosses harder, but the fact that you can use it as well is kind of a turnoff.
 

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