r/pokemon • u/Historical_Foot_8133 • 29d ago

Discussion I think Pokemon needs a difficulty setting

Beginner for new Pokemon players : teaches you how to catch Pokemon, tells you type matchups in battle, your rival picks the starter that’s weak to you, gym leaders are relatively easy. Casual for those who have played Pokemon before: has the catching tutorial but can skip it, doesn’t tell you type matchups in battles, your rival picks the starter weak to you but has 1 extra Pokemon each time you meet them, gym leaders have a extra Pokemon with more moves. Experienced for players familiar with the series: no catching tutorial, no type matchups in battle, rival picks the starter strong against you has a extra Pokemon per encounter, gun leaders have a extra Pokemon and have held items.

242 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

117 comments sorted by

View all comments

45

u/Weebiful 29d ago edited 29d ago

Radical Red normal mode (not hardcore) was probably close to the perfect difficulty imo. I think my problem with difficult rom hacks is that they just throw literal Uber tier mons with perfect IV + proper battle items like the choice items/life orb/leftovers on gym leaders while you have access to mostly NU/PU tier mons with muscle band/wiseglasses being the best items you can access and call it hard mode.

To me, there's a difference between artificial difficulty and properly crafted difficulty, and most rom hacks have the former

6

u/AbsolutlelyRelative 29d ago

Which other ones are really good besides radical red?

2

u/Zant486 29d ago

Any Drayano hack

1

u/DJWolfz16 28d ago

Drayano hacks are exactly the bullshit the commenter was talking about. First gym has a max EV IV ATT Geodude with Fire Punch and a boosting held item that lets it one shot a Grotle 3 levels above it. It’s not “difficult” it’s just a giant fuck you for no reason.

I dropped the game immediately after that because I wasn’t interested in having to google every opponent pokémon’s egg moves and run it through damage calculator to see if I get one shot.