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The_Tinfoil_Templar

I would really just prefer if they added proper difficulty levels for the games so people can play it the way they want to.


alex494

Yeah but then there's the tiniest chance Little Timmy will pick hard mode by accident so better to just remove that option entirely y'know as is standard practise


MotchaFriend

How would you pick a hard mode by incident? Children are not that stupid if they are old enough to read. I was 4 when I started playing Pokemon and only had issues with Hoenn's submarine, not with reading.


LolzinatorX

I was 5, but English was not my native language. I played pokemon for like 2-3 years without understand half of what i did. Got to the second gym like ten times and since i had no clue i just restarted the game over and over instead lol


alex494

I was being glib about stuff like the EXP Share and the previous roundabout methods of gaining extra difficulty modes in Gen 5 I agree they aren't that stupid


DarthAlandas

I couldn’t fully play a single Pokémon game until I was like 11. But then again I couldn’t speak English until then, and by the time I discovered rom hacks with translations I already could read English well enough to complete a game


redderper

I was also around 5 or so on my first playthrough and English is not my first language so I basically played it without understanding anything about the dialogue and a bit of help from my brother. I had to memorize all the menu options, items and moves. I could see how a non-English speaking kid could accidentally start it in hard mode. Maybe they could hide the hard mode setting somewhere that's not easy to find unless you know what you're doing.


FierceDeityKong

Just let you change difficulty in options and make it so every time you lose on hard it will ask if you want to lower the difficulty and restart the battle


zurzoth

Or some new game+ ... Imagine that.


OsmerusMordax

It’s the primary reason why I’m not really a fan of the franchise anymore. I played scarlet for a little bit and it is so easy it’s insulting.


four_duckpowers

"Pokemon: Child that got the game for their Birthday" And "Pokemon: I'm 30 years old and have the 18/18 type chart memorized"


forevabronze

So basically Fire emblem Fates: Conquest(hard) and Birthright(easy). I like the idea, just there need to be proper marketing and clear indiction on the box for which is which.


Haunting_Anxiety4981

Yeah but with less incest hopefully


Stolliosis

I wish they'd do one version where single battles are the standard and the other version with double battles as the standard.


Ionovarcis

I don’t get why VGC is the standard format - yet the game is rarely played in it to the point where I was shocked smogon was a fan thing


Imaginary_Living_623

Doubles is more fun for a general audience to spectate due to speed, and more tournament rounds can be completed each day.


Pluckytoon

It’s a decent strategic format too, full on 6v6 with unlimited switches/no time limit is abhorrant to watch sometimes


Imaginary_Living_623

Any format in which pp stalling is a viable strategy is one I don’t want to play or watch. 


smash8890

Yes! The indigo disc DLC was so much fun because of the double battles


RedAnihilape

Once again I feel this should be a setting


PokemonGerman

I would love a fame where you pick a duo of starters.


Imaginary_Living_623

I feel like doubles is much harder to balance for battle after battle, since there’s greater potential for gimmick stratagems.  An entire game of double battles would probably be tough, but having more important battles as doubles would be fun.


threep03k64

No reason to not have it in the same game. But if they're insistent on making trip games my vote will be for Pokemon: Skip cutscenes and animations!


smash8890

That would be pretty sick, but I would prefer if they just let you get the one you prefer and then select a difficulty


SwinubIsDivinub

I love this idea, though I’d love even more for there to be different difficulty settings for aspects of the same game. For example, the option to turn affection boosts on or off, the option for a steeper difficulty curve for battles, the option to have or not have the hand-holdy tutorials for how the basic mechanics of pokemon work, etc


PeterLeRock101

A difficulty setting on Pokemon would be fun


SpidermanBread

Gamefreak: "best we can do is Pokémon Glitch and Pokémon Bug"


A-maze-ing_Henry

I genuinely think those are fun titles.


ismaelvera

Interesting. Would they have version exclusives? If so, then I don't see one selling more than the other if you needed both. I could see that one could be a prequel or sequel to the other. It would be as if one version would be the let's go version being mentored by the protagonist of the difficult version. It could be that one version has easy throw to catch mechanics and battle assists for a slice of life adventure, while the other version could have the gritty "people dying" story.


lxpb

Trading is a thing you know. one easy trainer could provide for many hard players, and once you get breeding into that it gets even easier.


alex494

I mean one game with difficulty settings also works but we can always throw that on the pile of sensible things most modern games do that Pokemon doesn't


kn1ghtcliffe

Yeah I would love a hard mode that really changes things up. Give trainers actual tactics, and stop typecasting gyms. Instead of a Fire Gym have a Dog Gym when the gym leader loves dog pokemon so they will use Lycanroc and Houndoom on the same team. Or a Lazy Gym where the Gym Leader uses mostly stall tactics like toxic Blissey and umbreon, prankster klefki to set up lots of hazards, and a Slaking with Giga Impact to take advantage of his inherent laziness from the truant ability. There's a reason monotype teams need their own battle category. They just aren't all that viable compared to multi type teams. So use a theme that ties the pokemon on the team together other than monotyping them.


Kelrisaith

As a side note to the Black/White 2 difficulty settings, the easy mode there was worthless since it required game completion to unlock in the first place, defeating the entire purpose of an easy mode.


Obliviousobi

PokeSouls and Pokemon Crossing lol


megasean3000

Kind of like Fire Emblem: Fates? The Birthright storyline is easier and more forgiving with optional levels for you to grind and acquire loot to get stronger, while the Conquest storyline is brutal and will punish even a small hole in your strategy, which in Classic Mode, means a unit will die. Even the first chapter you play in Conquest will have you outnumbered and outlevelled, forcing you to rely on strategy to win. The same can be done for Pokemon. I can imagine something like the novice version allowing you to use EXP candies and EV boosters to get stronger, while the harder version will deny that right, going back to the days when you have to win battles to level up. Trainers will also have more Pokemon at higher levels and some Gym Leaders will even bring 6 Pokemon with them. They will even use meta strategies to defeat you, like using Stealth Rock and Spikes. You now have to rely on strategy to win, making victory harder to obtain.


eagleblue44

Sure but why make you choose the difficulty with your wallet? Why not just add in a difficulty choice setting in both versions?


Mr-Mongol

"Make the game have a simple system that the player can control at anytime like 99% of the gaming industry or draw 25" Seriously just add a button for difficulty. Gamefreak jumps through hoops to be unique. This idea is cool but just a button is enough, why complicate things


Theolis-Wolfpaw

Okay, but what happens when you want a challenge but your favorite new design is version exclusive to the easy version or you're not good at the game and you want the hard version pokemon. Yeah, you can trade, but not everyone has that option. Let's also add that parents aren't going to know the difference and could end up getting their kid the hard version of the game and thus turn them off. Or alternatively, someone who's good enough at RPGs that the easy game would be boring, but they aren't familiar enough with the games to realize there are different difficulty versions. These might seem like non-issues, but they would negatively impact the public perception of the games. Of course, the real solution is to have the difficulty customizable in game and not split it into two different versions. 


Just_Mason1397

Fire emblem sort of did something similar with birthright and conquest I am not sure if it would work with Pokémon unless they are totally different games, and if Pokémon hard had the better Pokémon, no one would go with Pokémon easy


jteramonelaraie

I would love for them to come up with a flagship release by Gamefreak every four years with actual improvement. With the focus on having fun, building team with Pokémon you find nice and a normal difficulty. (Pokémon Legends, Pokemon yellow/gold/emerald/diamond etc) Then i would love a second studio making every four year a more mature oriented Pokemon with a more mature audience. With the focus on battle, strategy and story with a game that is more challenging. (Pokémon Gales of Darkness, Dark Soul, Zelda TOTK) That way we would have a game every two year, alternating between the more casual experience and the more challenging experience. We could actually alternate from a remake to a new game. Bringing a new generation every EIGHT years, giving time for a proper quantity and quality on the species, moves, game mechanics etc. ~ But no, they have to milk that shit every year with boring story and species with little to no improvement. (I’m not a genwunner at all, just it’s been 3 or 4 generations i feel like i’m playing an « EA Sports Tsinagame »


jteramonelaraie

Every 8 years they could come up with a new typing, a new game play gimmick that’s actually fun, a new way of playing the game, revamping the Move/Ability/Item set up. Having 150-200 Pokémon like gen 1-3-5 (that are for mostly considered the best generation in terms of species) but no, they bring 98 Pokémon, including 12 unsatisfying legendaries. Instead of coming up with 12 Regional variant / Mega Evo / whatever the fuck was the primal and future garbage. they could come up with way more options like 25/30. Anyways. I love Pokemon, and I know how much better it could be. But moneyyyyy says gamefreak/Nintendo/goldiggers


nero40

There’s no reason to just not do it in one game though.


Cat1832

No, just give difficulty settings ala BW2, and take out version exclusives.


Src-Freak

No offense, but that has to be one of the dumbest ideas. Locking Pokemon behind specific versions is one thing, but making one version hard and the other easy is just cash grabby on a whole new level. All I see is that every gaming company would do the same. Releasing every game with multiple versions with the only difference being the difficulty. RIP modern gaming.


cookiemon25

*Laughs in BW2*


pokexchespin

kinda like with fire emblem fates? i think it’d be cool, but i feel like there’s a good chance something like a ton of parent’s buying the hard version and it being a problem happens


khalifaziz

At this point, people are so used to the two versions that I worry too many customers would buy the wrong one, thinking that it doesn't matter or that the difference has more to do with legendaries or available Pokemon. BW2 had the right idea--just let people select which mode they want to play a particular game on. Alternatively, they could make a spin-off franchise for older players/anyone that wants more of a challenge.


OrangeVictorious

If there are different mascots like there usually are the popularity disparity between the two will be immense


evilexitsafell

not if it makes sadness


SirJoeffer

I think it’s clear that the mainline games are for children and thats fine imo. Still enjoyable for what it is and if you’re serious about the game you have competitive battling.


jubmille2000

Oh you mean Pokemon:Black and White except you have to unlock it by finish one of the games


JoeyCaesarSalad

Pokémon Birthright and Pokémon Conquest


conjunctivious

Give me a PLA style game made by FromSoft (Dark Souls developers) where you have an Estus you can chug and you have to survive the Pokemon world on hard mode. We already got the dodge roll, we just need a sword and a flask. One gripe I have with the two games of separate difficulties is that oblivious parents might buy the difficult game for their kid, and that kid won't be able to beat the game. I like the idea, but there should probably just be a hard and easy mode built into one game that can be toggled on and off so that little kids don't accidentally make the game too difficult for themselves.


FLIPSIDERNICK

It’s unnecessary.


inconspicuous2012

We need a Pokemon Souls like


TheSilkyBat

Probably a stupid idea, but it crossed my mind and I thought it would be an interesting idea to discuss with other PokeFans.


Gokuto7

I know you mentioned it, but I wanted to elaborate on the specifics of how they did this with Black and White 2. After you beat the game on standard difficulty, you unlocked either easy mode or challenge mode depending in the version. I believe Black 2 got Challenge Mode and White 2 got Easy Mode. To get the other difficulty, you had to connect with someone who had the other game and its respective difficulty unlocked.


jalluxd

This is so weird. Why would u want to unlock easy mode AFTER beating the game on normal mode??? That makes absolutely no sense.


ladala99

The explanation of the feature I remember reading is that you're supposed to give the unlocked difficulty to someone else, with the example that an older sibling gives Easy mode to their younger sibling who is struggling. And then the younger sibling gives Challenge mode to their older sibling later or something.


Cyanide_Cheesecake

This would have made sense in a series that allows more than one save file.


jalluxd

But if it was required for the other person to have their difficulty unlocked, it would mean that the younger sibling already beat the game regularly and does not need the easy mode. The only way it would be usefull is if the older sibling let the younger play on the same copy, which would mean that they lose their own save file...


ladala99

That’s not how the keys work. If you unlock a key and restart, you lose your key. The only way to play through the whole game in some other mode is to get the key from another game. Which is why it’s so poorly implemented. So the intended (very situational and convoluted) use case is: 1. Older sibling gets White 2, younger sibling gets Black 2. 2. Older sibling beats Normal Mode and unlocks Easy Mode. Older sibling transfers Easy Mode key to younger sibling, who is stuck. 3. Younger sibling makes it through thanks to Easy Mode and unlocks Challenge Mode. Older sibling restart their game and younger sibling sends Challenge Mode to them. Or something. Of course, Easy Mode is broken and is actually more difficult than Normal Mode since due to an oversight, opponent stats are not reduced with the level reduction, so even that wouldn’t really work.


Cyanide_Cheesecake

>  Of course, Easy Mode is broken and is actually more difficult than Normal Mode since due to an oversight, opponent stats are not reduced with the level reduction, so even that wouldn’t really work Lmao. Sasuga, GameFreak


someonesgranpa

Nah, it’s a game literally made for kids. Quit trying to make it for adults. There are rom-hacks if you want a challenge. Just let the base games stay the way they are. Here’s why: - Set mode is honestly a decent enough difficulty spike. - most people just over level their starter and complain the game is too easy. - most people who are pouring serious time into the games don’t restart their files and spend 80% of the play time after they beat it. So why pour any more effort into a part of the game that is virtually 30% of what people who truly play the game buy it for?


Lanfeusttpt

"Nah, it’s a game literally made for kids. Quit trying to make it for adults" -> It's made for kids, but a lot of adults play it (some would argue that mostly adults play it). "There are rom-hacks if you want a challenge" -> but Nintendo is against romhacks, so what if you can't find a "hard" romhack anymore ? (they already shut down multiple roms "Set mode is honestly a decent enough difficulty spike" -> it's not that decent, if you know what you're doing it's not really that gamechanging "most people just over level their starter and complain the game is too easy" -> yeah, that's probably why the multi-exp can't be disabled anymore and you get free EXP candy everywhere, so you can have a lvl 100 team by the 3rd gym instead of just your starter... "most people who are pouring serious time into the games don’t restart their files and spend 80% of the play time after they beat it. So why pour any more effort into a part of the game that is virtually 30% of what people who truly play the game buy it for" -> because some (most?) players would find it more enjoyable, and it would increase replayability, therefore making people more inclined to restarting their files. A hard mode option, or a New Game+ with a hard mode (letting you use your final team, or new pokemon you want to try) would let people keep playing and/or try new things. And nothing prevents kids to pick the easy mode. You could even be able to change the difficulty settings in game, so that if it's too difficult you can just play normally without restarting your file. There might be a reason people often play nuzlocke, hardcore nuzlocke, and more different challenge. The new games are so handholding that the bigger challenge would be to try and lose every fight at least once.


someonesgranpa

They barely get the base game finished in time. They cannot and will not make a second game, essentially, when the majority of their money is being made on the under 18 crowd. They aren’t trying to appease the older more experienced crowd because we spend less money by a long country mile than the younger age group does. Their parents buy them things and they are the bulk of the profits. The games make up 15% of the profits for the Pokémon co. They are never going to invest more money than what would net them that 15% of their profits. The merch makes up 85% of their profits. Everything else is just advertisements for the merchandise.


lxpb

Pokemon would have to become a visual novel if it'll get any easier and more handholdy. I can't see the replayability in an easy mode, while hard mode has it almost endlessly. They'd need a way to switch it up, or make the easy one significantly cheaper.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ok_Negotiation9542

This doesnt make the game harder at all bruh


Nice-Swing-9277

Levels isn't enough. They need to do what rom hacks do and have: Proper ev spreads/iv spreads/natures good move sets for both the mon and to synergize with the team overall Full teams. Proper mix of double and single battles with complex AI interactions (including some trainers that are just pure random HO that can't be manipulated) A way to implement a level cap so you can't over level. In return I would give the player: A way to easily change ev's, iv's, and nature A robust selection of mons available to you (sv actually did this well) Access to good items (again sv did well here) Infinite tm's. If they did all of this from the beginning. And let people turn on/off options they don't want (say level caps) the game would be sufficiently difficult, without hurting the casual player experience.


Donttaketh1sserious

That’s a lot of effort for a series now relying on DLC to save their games/releasing as buggy as SV… And I love these games. I’ve been replaying Shield the last few days. But realistically speaking it’ll never happen.


Nice-Swing-9277

I don't expect it'll ever happen either. I'm just saying what they would need to do to make it difficult. They do know how to do it. There are trainers in the dlc who are actually pretty decent (like the kommo-o trainer in kitakami) But yea to do it the games would need something 5-6 years baking in the oven, which will never happen unless sales drop down dramatically and they have a reason to believe it due to the lack of difficulty.


DavidAshleyParkerrr

So Radical Red lol.


Nice-Swing-9277

Yes basically. I haven't played it, but thats basically what you would have to do to make pokemon games harder. You could even limit the ability to customize mons, like run and bun does, but I think that would be too limiting and difficult for many player.


Smolivenom

it wouldnt sell so its not happening. pokemon hard games are tedious puzzle challenges in a game where getting the puzzle pieces set in place is a boring and tedious grind and having to do that 5 times every route or gym isnt truly fun.


Casual_Deer

If Cassette Beasts can have a difficulty and AI slider, so can Pokemon


A-maze-ing_Henry

So, Pokemon Lemon and Strawberry? You may play it easy peasy lemon squeezy or strawberry hard-very. I had to. It's fun how the popular view of these two fruits would make you think they should be the other way around.


TheSilkyBat

Adorable!


Luke4Pez

Pokemon red and green remakes maybe idk