The Switch version of Pokkén does though. Then again that's just an spinoff game.
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Unpopular opinions
- Thread starter antemortem
- Start date
A small note, never suggest ice being SE on water.
Specific Heat is one of the most amazing properties in the universe, fuck it it is the whole reason life exist in this planet and why water is such an important compound.
The amount of energy water can store in its liquid form is disgusting and its resistance to lose it is exponential to the grade at wich it acquires it.
Its easier to turn steam into Ice than what it is to turn water into Ice, water freezez once it loses energy and even there it often needs a soluble catalysts to speed the reaction, heck ithout Ice wavelenght reflective properties coupled with our athmosphere this planet would be a scorched inferno like Venus given the fact that we have molten core capable of creating enough magnetism to protect against the heavy hitters in radiation.
Seriously I dont want to sound offensive but "never go full retard" applies here, never suggest Ice being SE on water unless you have the freeze cold scenario.
Specific Heat is one of the most amazing properties in the universe, fuck it it is the whole reason life exist in this planet and why water is such an important compound.
The amount of energy water can store in its liquid form is disgusting and its resistance to lose it is exponential to the grade at wich it acquires it.
Its easier to turn steam into Ice than what it is to turn water into Ice, water freezez once it loses energy and even there it often needs a soluble catalysts to speed the reaction, heck ithout Ice wavelenght reflective properties coupled with our athmosphere this planet would be a scorched inferno like Venus given the fact that we have molten core capable of creating enough magnetism to protect against the heavy hitters in radiation.
Seriously I dont want to sound offensive but "never go full retard" applies here, never suggest Ice being SE on water unless you have the freeze cold scenario.
fanyfan
i once put 42 mcdonalds chicken nuggets in my anus
Is that why ice is super effective on flying-types?
... In that case Electric shouldn't be super effective against Water because, despite what everyone has been told, water is a poor conductor of electricity (it's additional ions from other minerals in water which carries an electrical current, but the water itself doesn't conduct well).
So, why is Electric-types super effective against Water-types? Well, because we're not zapping water with electricity, we're zapping a creature with water power with electricity. It's not the element itself we're attacking but the creature connected to the element.
This is the same case here. We're not freezing water, we're freezing a creature that's infused with water. And wet things freeze faster, or at least get cold faster.
At the very least Water shouldn't resist Ice.
And look, I get you wanted to educate me about why scientifically it doesn't work, but don't call me "retard". Because, you know what, up till now I didn't know. I knew why Electric being SE against Water- and Flying-types don't make sense, among the many other scientific inaccuracies in Pokemon has doesn't make sense. But this I didn't, and I would respectively ask you not to call me "retarded" (because, BTW, that's kind of disrespectful to people who have actual retardation and mental disability) just cause I didn't know something that honestly many people wouldn't know.
Honestly, Ice has more than enough offensive strengths as it is. It's its defensive properties that's the problem, namely that Ice's only resistance is to Ice itself. (and that Game Freak feels that Avalugg are pretty much the epitome of what Ice types should be: walking glacier tanks)
Besides, Freeze-Dry wouldn't feel as special if Water was normally neutral to Ice. You'd just toss an Ice Beam against that Suicune or Tentacruel or Vaporeon or whatever Water type you'd like to point to.
But that's the issue with Ice, Ice is meant to be fragile when you compare it to other elements (if they want to make a bulky Ice-type they should give them an Ice-type version of the Ability Fur Coat). It's meant to be an offense type thus that's the route it needs to go in.
Other ways I can think of to improve Ice-types (other than having the next new type be weak to it) would be making Freezing more viable (and/or letting Ice-types have an easier time freezing an opponent) and giving them more benefits in Hail.
Other ways I can think of to improve Ice-types (other than having the next new type be weak to it) would be making Freezing more viable (and/or letting Ice-types have an easier time freezing an opponent) and giving them more benefits in Hail.
The problem with Ice types is that they are the glass cannon type, yet Game Freak seems obsessed with making them slow and bulky. So you end up with Pokemon with too many weaknesses to tank well, and not enough Speed to use their offensive abilities well. We need more Ice types like Weavile - glass cannons and fragile speedster.
Which is especially a shame since he's not only one of the Champions that does more in his game's than ones before and after him but also has a deeper and tragic back story (not to mention how all this affects the characters in the games, especially the rivals making one more menacing while causing development in the other). Quick Champion look through:
Blue: Grandson of Oak, he's also the rival and acts like a jerk to you throughout the story. Aside your childhood rivalry not much is known, and being a grandson of a famous Professor it's assumed he's well off. Other media has given both him and his sister a case of dead parents but nothing official has ever stated this. All that aside, his role in the game is to make the player want to beat him, hardly changing until the very end when Oak arrives you tells him why he keeps losing to the player (BTW we're not going into his changes in future games, just in the games where they were the Champion).
Lance: One of the more active Champions. Former Elite Four member and student of the Dragon Master in Blackthorn's Dragon's Den, he also works for the Pokemon League as a field agent, such as when he was tasked to dismantle Team Rocket's operation at the Lake or Rage. The Lake of Rage mission shows he's fully capable and honestly probably didn't need the player's help though still appreciated the back-up. He also encounters Silver and defeats him before telling him to change his attitude, something which affects Silver and starts his character development into a better person.
Steven: Son of the current Devon Corporation president, though involved with the story he's more there to provide an exposition dump and give you access to important places. ORAS added there being some friction between him and his father though it's never focused on (just comes off that Steven is serious while his father is more laid back). Steven takes more of an active role in the Delta Episode, though still much in a background by acting like the player's mission control and telling us where to go next.
Wallace: Former Gym Leader and Pokemon Contest star, in Emerald he also is just an exposition dump and important location access key. ORAS gave him a niece (and an off screen older sister) but that's more to give Lisia back story than him (also he's not Champion in ORAS though heavily hint he will be a Champion in the future).
Cynthia: Granddaughter of Celestic Town elders, not much about Cynthia herself in known even though we meet her grandparents and younger sister. Though that's a theme with Cynthia just in general, she's an enigma wrapped about by a mystery. She takes the cake when it comes to helping the player but not taking charge, being there when the player takes on the main villain of the game but just stands off to the side.
Iris: A child prodigy from the Village of Dragons, she started out as a pupil of Drayden but one of her goals was to become a Champion. And with training from Drayden and encouragement from Alder, she did so thus giving Unova a Champion who "earned" the title. Her role in the story is still limited though, she honestly did more in the original BW where she was one of the Gym Leaders who appeared to hold off the Seven Sages. Also her bravery in BW's Castelia City was an inspiration to Bianca, while in B2W2 just feels like her helping out there was a callback to her helping out in the original BW.
Diantha: A movie star even when she was a child... yeah, that's pretty much all I got for Diantha. She's completely not involved with the story and only really interacts with the player and turning down Lysandre's ideas. Really needed that Z version to flesh her out a bit, or XY could have been re-written to have her more involved when Lysandre makes his genocide announcement.
Kukui: Okay, technically not a Champion but substituted for one to give Alola's first Champion, the player, a final battle. Professor of the Alola region, Kukui was all over the place as he was more or less guiding the player and Hau through their Island Challenge to get them to the point they could earn the title as Champion for the Pokemon League he built (which is a bit nefarious on his part). Like with other characters, part of his story revolves around Lillie, him and his wife, Burnet, acting as foster parents to Lillie after running away from Lusamine. Despite all this, he was absent for the climax of the main story.
Hau: Another "technically not the Champion", Hau takes Kukui's place as the Champion opponent in USUM though with the goal of becoming Alola's first Champion (not to mention he's the first Title Defense opponent in the original SM). Grandson of the Kahuna of Melemele, Hala, Hau is a rival so you meet him plenty of times and does get involved with the story, notably helping you and Gladion raid Aether Foundation. But after that he drops off and isn't there for the main story climax. Hau does a deeper story involving his father abandoning the family as he couldn't stand living in Hala's shadow. This is notable as, though Hau doesn't outwardly show this has affected him, at the same time one of his goals is to beat his grandfather in an all out battle (though Hau has great respect and admiration for Hala who loves him back).
So, where's Alder in all this? A thing that stands about Alder's backstory is that he's just a strong trainer. He's not related to anyone famous, he's not a prodigy, he started out as any ol' trainer. Granted his starter was a Larvesta, but he was a trainer during a different time (I believe he's the oldest Champion, being he has a grandson), infact he carries all his Pokemon with him because he doesn't know how PCs work. However Alder's backstory takes a sharp turn as he didn't just become the Champion, rather first he suffered a tragedy where his Started got sick and died. This caused him to become a wanderer, not knowing what he wants in life as he and his starter Larvesta's goal were just to become strong but never stopping to think for what, and now regrets not having spent more fun times with his gone partner. Eventually, Alder's reputation got him to be invited to become Unova's Champion instead of earning the title as other Champions have. During his time as Champion he'd then encounter Marshal, a trainer who, liked Alder in the past, sought to become the strongest though had no end goals. Marshal eventually becomes Alder's pupil and Alder helps him both become stronger and grow as a person (as seen in the Heart's Desire Memory Link).
Come to the original BW, Alder is still wandering around (and occasionally visiting Celestial Tower to ring the soul soothing bell) though is now having run-ins with the player and more importantly the "main" rival, Cheren. Cheren reminded Alder of himself and Marshal, again someone seeking to become the strongest though with no end goal, and so gives words of advice to Cheren to have him ignore the regrets he has, and results in character growth for Cheren. But Alder's role doesn't stop there, he's very much involved with the main plot as Team Plasma's goal is for N to become Champion, thus needs to defeat Alder. This is where Alder not earning the Champion title comes back in, N defeats Alder easily and even talks down to him, pointing out how he was just elected to be a Champion and not earning it of his or his Pokemon's own accord. It helps set up N to be a trainer to be reckon with, not only because he defeated the Champion but how cruelly he does so because he thinks lesser of Alder. When you battle Alder in the post game to officially become Champion, it's more treated like a forgone conclusion than an epic battle it is in other games, this can even be heard in Alder's battle theme which is less intense and more celebratory. Finally, as mentioned above, his final act as Champion was assuring his successor was someone that Unova would be proud to call their Champion having earned it: Iris.
Alder is very much overlooked as a Champion simply because he's overshadowed by N, but Alder is one of the more developed Pokemon characters, definitely the most developed Champion having a lot of backstory and major involvement in the original BW (not so much B2W2, but he's retired by than).
Well, here's something that people will definitely not agree on.
GSC's postgame was a barren wasteland shaped like Kanto.
Let's be honest here, all you had to do there was fight the Kanto Gym Leaders, with catching Snorlax and fixing the Power Plant (Which had a key component stolen by a single Rocket Grunt. Let this sink in.) being roadblocks.
Battling the Kanto Gym Leaders is cool, no doubt, but let's be honest, with the majority of the trainers being that underleveled and nothing really memorable to do beyond that, all it had was nostalgia.
The Red battle was cool, until you remembered how underleveled you were, because the level curve in GSC is nothing short of atrocious.
Which takes me to my next point. Linearity vs. Non-Linearity.
It flat-out doesn't work unless we have Origins-style Gym Matches where the leader changes its team according to the number of badges the player has. Furthermore, it's utterly pointless if the lower ranked teams don't employ Stadium-Style level caps.
What I mean, taking Kanto as an example since I'm remaking R/B (And to a lesser extent Crystal) using Crystal as a base to use in my Stadium 2 Hack. (Not shilling, this bit will be important later)
As most of you know, Kanto's Gyms after Misty can be done in a very flexible order. So for the sake of argument, let's assume a player skipped Lt. Surge.
If there are no level caps, said player can just come back after beating 6 Gyms and roflstomp him due to the massive level advantage.
Utilizing a system like Stadium Cup rules, we could have something like this:
Third Gym Rules: No pokémon can exceed Lv.25, Leader Match will be a 3v3 battle (following the standard Singles format). Additionally, the combined total level of the three-Pokémon battle team must be no more than 65.
Combine this with an decent team and an AI that actually switches, we could have a challenging fight without inflating the level curve while making grinding a bad option instead of a band-aid solution like the "Challenge Mode" of BW2. This could make a non-linear game work very well.
Now let's compare this to the bad example. GSC Johto. Pryce should never have a lower-leveled ace than his canonically preceding Gym's Leader, Jasmine. That split path did nothing but kill the momentum of the game by making most Trainers and Wild Pokemons even more underleveled.
Back to the point I raised with my Stadium 2 hack, it's really obvious that there are a lot of pokémons that simply live in the shadows of other similar pokémon with absolutely no niche besides in-game performance and even that isn't guaranteed.
It's a very glaring issue when you're actually trying to get some variety for loads of trainer teams, because if you want to make them tougher, you have very few options aside from giving them the actually good pokémon.
For example, Fearow and Dodrio. Besides In-Game Performance, Fearow has nothing on Dodrio. So when you have to design teams for a dozen or so Bird Keepers, it gets tough for to just not pick Dodrio instead of Fearow, which makes things repetitive.
So there's my third point. Pokémon needs a major rebalance.
We have huge numbers of pokémons who are simply bad and completely unable to carve even a small niche for themselves.
To keep things in the Normal/Flying territory, Unfezant doesn't have a single advantage or even an unique trait to compete with the other early birds. Compare this to say, Noctowl, which is also terrible, but at least works differently from Pidgeot and Fearow.
Furthermore, the power creep is approaching unsustainable levels. BST's are very inflated, and Mega Evos did not help in the slightest, meaning that some pokemons actually could use some toning down instead of GF just inflating the early gen mons' Base Stats.
I have more unpopular opinions, but this post is long enough as is.
GSC's postgame was a barren wasteland shaped like Kanto.
Let's be honest here, all you had to do there was fight the Kanto Gym Leaders, with catching Snorlax and fixing the Power Plant (Which had a key component stolen by a single Rocket Grunt. Let this sink in.) being roadblocks.
Battling the Kanto Gym Leaders is cool, no doubt, but let's be honest, with the majority of the trainers being that underleveled and nothing really memorable to do beyond that, all it had was nostalgia.
The Red battle was cool, until you remembered how underleveled you were, because the level curve in GSC is nothing short of atrocious.
Which takes me to my next point. Linearity vs. Non-Linearity.
It flat-out doesn't work unless we have Origins-style Gym Matches where the leader changes its team according to the number of badges the player has. Furthermore, it's utterly pointless if the lower ranked teams don't employ Stadium-Style level caps.
What I mean, taking Kanto as an example since I'm remaking R/B (And to a lesser extent Crystal) using Crystal as a base to use in my Stadium 2 Hack. (Not shilling, this bit will be important later)
As most of you know, Kanto's Gyms after Misty can be done in a very flexible order. So for the sake of argument, let's assume a player skipped Lt. Surge.
If there are no level caps, said player can just come back after beating 6 Gyms and roflstomp him due to the massive level advantage.
Utilizing a system like Stadium Cup rules, we could have something like this:
Third Gym Rules: No pokémon can exceed Lv.25, Leader Match will be a 3v3 battle (following the standard Singles format). Additionally, the combined total level of the three-Pokémon battle team must be no more than 65.
Combine this with an decent team and an AI that actually switches, we could have a challenging fight without inflating the level curve while making grinding a bad option instead of a band-aid solution like the "Challenge Mode" of BW2. This could make a non-linear game work very well.
Now let's compare this to the bad example. GSC Johto. Pryce should never have a lower-leveled ace than his canonically preceding Gym's Leader, Jasmine. That split path did nothing but kill the momentum of the game by making most Trainers and Wild Pokemons even more underleveled.
Back to the point I raised with my Stadium 2 hack, it's really obvious that there are a lot of pokémons that simply live in the shadows of other similar pokémon with absolutely no niche besides in-game performance and even that isn't guaranteed.
It's a very glaring issue when you're actually trying to get some variety for loads of trainer teams, because if you want to make them tougher, you have very few options aside from giving them the actually good pokémon.
For example, Fearow and Dodrio. Besides In-Game Performance, Fearow has nothing on Dodrio. So when you have to design teams for a dozen or so Bird Keepers, it gets tough for to just not pick Dodrio instead of Fearow, which makes things repetitive.
So there's my third point. Pokémon needs a major rebalance.
We have huge numbers of pokémons who are simply bad and completely unable to carve even a small niche for themselves.
To keep things in the Normal/Flying territory, Unfezant doesn't have a single advantage or even an unique trait to compete with the other early birds. Compare this to say, Noctowl, which is also terrible, but at least works differently from Pidgeot and Fearow.
Furthermore, the power creep is approaching unsustainable levels. BST's are very inflated, and Mega Evos did not help in the slightest, meaning that some pokemons actually could use some toning down instead of GF just inflating the early gen mons' Base Stats.
I have more unpopular opinions, but this post is long enough as is.
I agree about Kanto really lacking in the post-game department but I think that had to do with the technology at the time. IIRC Satoru Iwata did some serious programming and compression to have what we got, fit onto the cartridge. I don't think were was much space left on it for anything else. Could the space have been used for something smaller but more engaging? Perhaps. But nothing beats finding Red for the first time. And there is something nice about getting stomped by him the first time you run into him.
While I acknowledge the awesome work Mr. Iwata did, having Janine's team on the fifties instead of the forties would take the exact same space and the battle would be less of a joke.
Edit: Just checked her GSC team. The highlight is a Lv. 33 Ariados without a single Poison move and packing Scary Face and String Shot.
She faced the Champion, a trainer that straight up beat her father with that. This thing can be bodied by Meganium.
The worst part of Gen 2 Kanto was that you never felt challenged until Red, making the whole region a mindless power trip for the most part.
It felt more like a training ground for new team members. I get the appeal and the utility for this case, but I think it was underwhelming.
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And that's the problem with Kanto in GSC. It's not only gameplay-wise, but it's literally filler.
And the remakes did not do much to fix that. A level bump, two areas that return and hardly anything else.
Come to think of it, GSC had the excuse of just using the extra space Mr. Iwata got. What's HGSS' excuse?
Though I wonder what they could have added...
Hey, someone who agrees with me we should at least try a level cap system! I also like the idea of limiting yourself to as many Pokemon that the Gym Leader has (I also think the Gym Challenge should be made where you have to take on the whole Gym in one try. Any Experience or Money you would normally get is stored until you beat the Gym and if you forfeit the Gym Trainers and puzzle reset and you lose that stored up Experience and Money).
That said, I think caps should follow number of badges you have. Get a new Badge, increase the level cap. Also no need for the "combined total level must be no more than 65" as the Level Cap will handle that. However what you would need to do is, if the trainer battles with a Pokemon that reached the Level Cap, have its experience store somewhere until they can raise the level cap (think Colosseum does with Shadow Pokemon). Also we should have allowances for the younger players who may have a difficult time, though that can be solved by having multiple difficulties with different number of restrictions (like Easy Mode having the Level Cap be a bit higher and not restricting the amount of Pokemon you can use against the Gym Leader).
Well I think one thing GF should start doing, and to be fair have started, is making the regional bird, rodent, and bug more interesting while using older gen Pokemon to fill in the gap their gen equivalent would have normally (thus letting their gen equivalent do something interesting).
But yeah, while I like Mega Pokemon their BSTs were a bit inflated so they could use a redo (instead of increasing their base by a flat number I think a percent increase would make things less extreme); might allow us to get more Mega Pokemon. Also I do like that every generation they're giving a handful of old Pokemon a BST increase. It's not a complete rebalance and nothing is getting weaker, but at the very least old mons are being given the chance to "catch-up". Also let's not forget a re-examine into Moves and even Abilities, as a single Move/Ability can make or break a Pokemon in some cases (especially with Z-Moves, even if a Pokemon gets a weak move of a certain Type they can turn it into a one use bomb if it'll be worth it for them to do so).
I really think instead of a new shiny gimmick that GF should have a gen of re-focusing where they take a look back at everything they have and either re-work it, fix what didn't work, and expand upon it. Make it into a complete or at least more complete idea before going on to something completely new.
Gen 2's level curve was good.
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...
Please don't raise your pitchforks, because I actually have a reason to like this, even as weird as it may seem. As a child, the level curve screwed me over hard, but I actually liked the fact that it did. There's just something cathartic about beating all the gyms, despite having a level 32 Quilava, and I fondly remember grinding unintentionally the cave with Lugia while searching for it , when you run out of repels ( or if your like me, didn't have any). The lack of grinding spots never actually bothered me, since I beat most of the tough battles through the power of frienship and love ( hax and more hax) which made me love the game even more, That and as a kid, I purposely ran away from trainers as well, so you can imagine how underleveled I was when I inevitably faced Red. I understand that some people have this notion that having no grinding spots is a bad thing, but I honestly never saw it as a problem, unless you play competitive. Nowadays, everyone expects that the postgame has to include Blissey Bases, or Chansey EXP grinding farms, and therefore see Gen 2's lack of either as a heavy negative. I feel like grinding is antithetical in the main story unless you are completing the pokedex, because I love an uphill battle, which is something that Gen 2 really conveyed. Gen 2 really just gave off this feeling of an uphill battle, when you realized that Lance had level 60s, and you had your puny pathetic 40s, and Red having levels 70s compared to your 50s, with you not really knowing what either would throw at you, it felt more of an accomplishment when you inevitably beat either of them against the odds. I feel like everyone loves to bash on Gen 2 for many reason, some legitimate, but I feel like that lack of a grinding spot helped embellish how much of an uphill battle the last part of the game was
...
...
Please don't raise your pitchforks, because I actually have a reason to like this, even as weird as it may seem. As a child, the level curve screwed me over hard, but I actually liked the fact that it did. There's just something cathartic about beating all the gyms, despite having a level 32 Quilava, and I fondly remember grinding unintentionally the cave with Lugia while searching for it , when you run out of repels ( or if your like me, didn't have any). The lack of grinding spots never actually bothered me, since I beat most of the tough battles through the power of frienship and love ( hax and more hax) which made me love the game even more, That and as a kid, I purposely ran away from trainers as well, so you can imagine how underleveled I was when I inevitably faced Red. I understand that some people have this notion that having no grinding spots is a bad thing, but I honestly never saw it as a problem, unless you play competitive. Nowadays, everyone expects that the postgame has to include Blissey Bases, or Chansey EXP grinding farms, and therefore see Gen 2's lack of either as a heavy negative. I feel like grinding is antithetical in the main story unless you are completing the pokedex, because I love an uphill battle, which is something that Gen 2 really conveyed. Gen 2 really just gave off this feeling of an uphill battle, when you realized that Lance had level 60s, and you had your puny pathetic 40s, and Red having levels 70s compared to your 50s, with you not really knowing what either would throw at you, it felt more of an accomplishment when you inevitably beat either of them against the odds. I feel like everyone loves to bash on Gen 2 for many reason, some legitimate, but I feel like that lack of a grinding spot helped embellish how much of an uphill battle the last part of the game was
... the highest leveled Pokemon in Lance's team was a level 50 Dragonite. And maybe it was different before Crystal, but I don't recall ever being able to run from a trainer battle.
Hmm, could've sworn he had a level 60, but then again, it was a while since I last played it, so I probably misremembered. As for the running away thing, I meant more as I just avoided trainer battles in general, so there were a lot of areas in the game with some trainers still left, because I never bothered to fight them
The level cap wouldn't take care of the total team level.
65 was not a typo. The player wouldn't be able to show up with 3 pokemons the same level as the Gym Leader's Ace.
I also think that the small BST increases for older gens mons are a bit of a problem since they help to increase the power creep.
Gonna have to disagree. It promoted grinding and was a fake "difficulty" barrier.
And even worse than encouraging grinding, it didn't even provide you with suitable places for it.
I don't mean grass full of Audinos, but come on, having to grind for Red in a place with Wild Mons around 30 levels below him is just bad design.
The uphill battle you mentioned could've been done a lot better, forced grinding is bad and extremely lazy.
While I agree making an uphill battle could've been done much better, you probably need to remember that back then, kids in general were a lot more patient and forgiving of "fake difficulty". Especially since there was no Internet, there wasn't a reason to grind back then unless you somehow already knew, which meant that the discovery and battle of Red was that much more harrowing and much more fun as a result. All in all, Red is meant to be an end-game boss, and he isn't meant to be beaten. Why else would you think he would be so ridiculously over-leveled compared to the rest of the game, over than to show that he is truly the boss. The lack of grinding spots also help this feeling, as why would you grind if you are already the champion. What purpose would that serve. Of course, if you knew about Red, you would still grind, but I imagine the conscious decision was to make Red as hard as possible compared to the rest of the game, so that the player would get surprised by the end-boss. This point is even more illustrated due to the fact that it isn't even canon that you beat Red. Besides, you aren't even forced to grind against Red, I beat him as kid without going out of my way to grind to level 70 or something, just by natural progression plus some accidental grinding and having a semi-balanced team.
Um, what? Gold defeating Red is canon; there’s not even a hint of ambiguity about it. Sure he’s overleveled to serve as the game’s ultimate final boss, but he is meant to be beaten. There’s a credit sequence after the battle and everything
... And why not? Why can't I have my entire team be the same level as the Gym Leader's highest Pokemon (or be at the level cap's limit in maybe a case where the Gym Leader's ace will be over the level cap limit to provide a bit of a challenge)? There's a difference between forcing the player to enter a battle on an even playing field and then there's forcing them to enter at a disadvantage. The former feels like I'm going up against someone who is testing me to see if I'm ready to go to the next level, all my Pokemon having reached the current ceiling and ready to show off what we can do and have learned to advance even further. The latter may limit our choices, if outright forcing us to get a weaker Pokemon, forcing us into a battle we're seemingly supposed to be the underdog in. It goes against the idea we're training these Pokemon to be the best they can be, oh wait, Gym Leader wants to have an unfair advantage, better keep party underleveled or switch in a weaker Pokemon so I go in with one less capable Pokemon. And what are you going to do when it comes to the Pokemon League? Will that also have a "team level sum limit"? That REALLY seems unfair. It'll feel like the entire Pokemon League doesn't feel sure enough it's employees can win so they'll do their best to implement rules so trainers come in nerfed.
I think we're now approaching the "Exp Share Off" line. The line where you're trying to impose your belief how challenging the game should be on someone who may not. Level Caps are fine, still before the line as it's not preventing the player from training their Pokemon up to the cap. Restricting them to how many Pokemon they can use against the Gym Leader is right on the line, we've approached "fair/equal challenge" territory as we provided a little restriction but it's a restriction the player doesn't have to make a compromise for. "Team level sum limit" is over the line, you are now forcing the player to play a certain way, lest they go in unprepared or at an even greater disadvantage. If YOU want to restrict yourself to that rule go right ahead, but don't tell anyone else they can't train their Pokemon they want to train them; don't tell a player to "turn off the Exp Share" if they don't want to.
Where is this exact power creep you're seeing? I'm curious if maybe you're confusing Pokemon becoming more specialized/gimmick focused as the BST for normal Pokemon having increased over the years because, it hasn't really that much. The only major example would be the Mega Pokemon, but they're an extreme case.
If anything Gen VII has been a breathe of fresh air to the meta since it doesn't have that many high speed offensive Pokemon which was becoming a bit of a problem.
I mean, this is without a doubt true, but I'm not sure if it's a real problem. It's not like there aren't other ways to trivialize the gyms. Lt. Surge himself is probably one of the most prominent examples of this, what with Diglett's Cave being five feet away. And that's not limited to him, but more or less applies to all of Kanto...
Brock: all three starters can handle him
Misty: catch an army of Oddish/Bellsprout
Surge: Diglett
Erika: Cycling Road has Spearow, Doduo and HM Fly
Koga: TM Psychic or that Diglett from before if you kept it
Sabrina: probably the least obvious one, but you have access to the entire region by this point as well as the Master Ball, so worst case you can fall back on Articuno or Zapdos
Blaine: either use one of the in-game trade options on Cinnabar or revisit Seafoam
Giovanni: see above
Misty: catch an army of Oddish/Bellsprout
Surge: Diglett
Erika: Cycling Road has Spearow, Doduo and HM Fly
Koga: TM Psychic or that Diglett from before if you kept it
Sabrina: probably the least obvious one, but you have access to the entire region by this point as well as the Master Ball, so worst case you can fall back on Articuno or Zapdos
Blaine: either use one of the in-game trade options on Cinnabar or revisit Seafoam
Giovanni: see above
...as well as other games. To take BW as an example:
tea brothers: gift Monkey
Lenora: Throh, Sawk and Timburr are available on the next route
Burgh: Darumaka is available on the next route
Elisa: Sandile
Clay: in-game trade Basculin, although it might admittedly need some support
Skyla: you get a few electric types to choose from as well as the Lucky Egg
Brycen: the Mienfoo you can catch just north of Icirrus is probably easiest
dragon: nothing too obvious I guess, but considering you can easily catch competently leveled Pokemon between Dragonspiral Tower and Routes 9 and 10, they probably figured you could put something viable together - and if not, there's always the option to do some backtracking and exploring and snag Cobalion or Virizon
Lenora: Throh, Sawk and Timburr are available on the next route
Burgh: Darumaka is available on the next route
Elisa: Sandile
Clay: in-game trade Basculin, although it might admittedly need some support
Skyla: you get a few electric types to choose from as well as the Lucky Egg
Brycen: the Mienfoo you can catch just north of Icirrus is probably easiest
dragon: nothing too obvious I guess, but considering you can easily catch competently leveled Pokemon between Dragonspiral Tower and Routes 9 and 10, they probably figured you could put something viable together - and if not, there's always the option to do some backtracking and exploring and snag Cobalion or Virizon
You can look at most gyms/trials in any game and you'll find that Gamefreak often provides nearby solutions for them. And they kind of have to do that to prevent players from getting stuck or having to grind for too long (which can still happen of course, but not very easily). But fact of the matter is that if you want to have an easy time with a gym, you'll almost always have ways to accomplish that without too much hassle.
Thinking about it like this, I think it's fair to ask if gyms are actually meant to be difficult. And the answer might just be "no, not necessarily, unless the player wants them to be." Following that, giving players the ability to skip gyms and return to them at a later point - even without an increase in levels - is merely another option to accomplish that. You could also argue that it gives players greater freedom in other areas by letting them use more different teams for their playthroughs even if those teams aren't always equipped to deal with a gym the moment you get there for the first time.
That said, I don't think Stadium style gyms are a bad idea, but at the same time they would definitely mark a shift in design philosophy.
Keep in mind that lore-wise Gym Leaders are there to test you, and are not meant to be roadblocks or anything.
Wouldn't it actually make sense that their teams happen to have hard counters living nearby? Perhaps many of them want you to figure that out.
When did I say you need to get in underleveled?
The leader never has pokemons the same level.
So for the sake of simplicity, let's assume the example given has Lt. Surge with two Lv. 20 Pokémon and his ace at 25.
Do you go in with your own ace to match it and two pokemons at lv. 20? Or would you rather spring for a more balanced team spread like 22/22/21, even if you get underleveled against the ace?
There are a lot of ways both trainers can use the level spread, just like in Stadium.
In fact, let me give you another example, the player skips Surge and decides to have Erika as the third Gym Leader.
Exact same rules, each Gym is treated like a tier, so the levels must be consistent.
However, due to Oddish and Bellsprout evolution levels, she decides to go with a balanced level spread.
Do you follow suit or do you use a ace like Surge and shows up with an Overleveled mon?
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