POLL: Difficulty of gym fights

[Zumi]

Title says all. We want to know your opinion on the major fights in Rejuvenation! Did you think they were too hard? Too easy? Or just right? Feel free to tell us.

If you want to add anything to your choices, feel free to reply to this post with your opinions, or if you think you find another battle very difficult/too easy that isn't listed here, please let us know here! We're trying to make the difficulty more fluent instead of having spikes all over the place.

Thank you for taking your time to fill in this poll! We hope you're all excited for the soon arriving release of V7 c:

[Arisato]

I've heard otherwise on the higher difficulties, but surprisingly, I didn't have a problem with Valarie on casual mode. even though lapras ohkoed my manectric w tidal wave weeps

Angie was the only one I actually had trouble with, mainly bc of her field and some of her 'mons knowing EQ, which was pretty bad bc my team has a rather obvious ground weakness + no one who resists ice. Plus I didn't realize Lava Plume would get rid of the field until like halfway through the 6th time I reset. That was on my own part, though, not the game's, and was actually a pretty fun challenge to try and work around.

Ahem...anyways, everyone else was pretty easy, for me at least. I'm super excited for V7! :")

Edited January 3, 2016 by Arisato

[mde2001]

I played casual mode as well and had no problem with Valarie. I don't think she needs a nerf on casual mode at least. She was actually one of the easier leaders. She was much easier than casual mode

Marianette for me.

Honestly, Marianette was the only gym leader who seemed a little too strong in casual mode in my opinion.

[Wavesteel]

I haven't finished the game but I'll try to help. Played on Reborn difficulty btw because I liked reborn's level of challenge.

Venam was way too easy, I am honestly curious why her pokemon were such a low level. At this point 4 of my pokemon were nearing the level cap and shadow duskull had enough xp to immediately go to level 18 after purifying, which I did immediately after the gym fight, and this was without any grinding at all, just the story and the help quests. I think her pokemon should be 3 levels higher, I believe her ace was 17 which should be 20 which is the level cap at that point. I mostly swept her with Trubbish and Growlithe, while I had a bloody Espeon. I tried to use Espeon as little as possible, only using it for her ace, but it could have probably killed 5 of her 6 mons by itself.

Keta was also quite easy, I again tried to use espeon as little as possible but this time I used it to kill about half his mons in both fights. He doesn't seem to deal well with his counters, especially counters on the secondary types of his pokemon (i.e. Hawlucha doesn't have anything to deal with electric types it seems).

Marianette and Narcissa were both great fights in my opinion, definitely challenging, but possible. The only thing I disliked is that a haunted field nerfs dark type attacks which seems thematically off. It is good for the difficulty, but it just seems so off that maybe it should be considered to remove or lessen that effect and make her stronger on other points, which I can't really think of right now, so I'll leave that up to you

To be honest I don't think Valarie was all that overpowered, more ironic in how she gets destroyed by water pokemon herself. I let crawdaunt sword dance and it took out 3 of her pokemon. Even with the speed disadvantage a 5v3 is rather doable. Water type setup sweepers just kill her in general as long as you avoid Lanturne and Lapras. Ludicolo would probably be the best (if it is available, i think it is, but I am not sure)

Crawli was pretty weak as well, Crobat absolutely destroyed him, I loved his signature move though, it gave him a tactical edge while keeping up his offensive momentum. I would love to see more signature moves like that. But he really needs more coverage moves to deal with his weaknesses.

Angie was pretty strong, really strong actually, except she doesn't deal with steel types well. Like at all, Escavalier destroyed her after one sword dance. Hidden power Fire on some of her mons would be enough if she doesn't already have that.

I haven't fought Amber yet, but I'll edit this post after I have.

Edit; I defeated Amber now. Difficulty wise she is pretty strong, unless you use rain dance which trivializes the entire fight (maybe let some of her mons pack Sunny Day to counter that a bit?). Outside of the difficulty I think she was a bit boring because her fight was basically the same as Charlotte, a double battle with AoE fire attacks boosted by sun and the field effect. It would be more interesting if it was a different kind of battle. Maybe a singles battle where she focuses a bit more on the defensive side perhaps, though that doesn't really fit her personality well. Just throwing some ideas out there, but what about perhaps Torkoal as a lead with Stealth Rocks/Yawn/Lava Plume/Signature Move and then the field effect changes stealth rocks into mixed fire/rock damage which would also make Amber herself less weak against SR. I don't really know what her signature move does right now, but what about a fire move with either a really high burn chance or a fire attack that doubles in power against a burned targets kind of like Hex. So she would burn targets with Will-o-Wisp or Lava Plume and then she blasts them with her superpowered signature move. Another possibility would be a signature move that has both a chance to burn and a chance to lower Sp Atk by one stage, dunno. About her Ace Magmortar, have you considered a Belch set and then letting the field boost Belch's power, it could be fun and surprise some people. Like Belch/Fire Blast or Sig move/Substitute/THunderbolt with a Sitrus berry as item, the AI might fuck up and use Belch when it hasn't eaten its berry though.

Anyway, overall I loved the game and the gym fights were mostly fun. Looking forward to V7!

Edited January 5, 2016 by Wavesteel

[Felicity]

I can't say because, really, you can't gauge the difficulty of a single fight. Every leader has a crux, an Achilles heel that is the easiest way to beat them. Others wall out that same weakness completely. 'Tis the nature of the game.

If I were you, I'd focus on making the fights feel possible to do and hope the story makes the fight feel significant to the player rather than the difficulty. I could list any number of fantastic fights in RPGs that, in all actuality weren't fights. They were scripted events utilising the games mechanics. Still awesome. But not difficult. This isn't a Souls game, you need not make people tear their hair out.

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

These were my experiences in casual mode. Note probably the only reason I thought Amber was easy is Camerupt.

Venam = very easy

Keta = difficult (living), moderate (spirit)

Marianette = very difficult but balanced out by her only having 3 Pokemon

Narcissa = medium

Valarie = medium

Crawli = medium or difficult depending on what the AI does

Angie = high easy/low medium

Amber = very easy, same as Venam

EDIT: Not sure how I typoed Angie as Anger XD

[Sr.F]

The only battle that was difficult for me (Not counting Valerie of course xD) was Angie when in the Version 5 Cold Truth was OP... My Pyroar and the rest of my team can´t survived with that signature move.

[Bearadactyl]

Am I the only person who had Zero trouble with Valarie? I literally destroyed her, losing only Garbodor in the process on both Reborn and Casual. So, no opinion on Intense.

Crawli needs a general buff overall, Fearow Decimates his team on any difficulty setting. Ludicolo makes Narcissa's team laughable, but without Ludicolo it's a bit of a nightmare. No... Joke intended

Angie was right at about the perfect difficulty I felt, though I feel if you are unable to change her field she might be more difficult than she seemed to me. Honestly, aside from the gym mentions the only things that I feel really need work are (Story Spoilers):

The Groudon Fight. This fight is entirely dependent on what Pokémon you have, and you are basically required to have Noivern and/or Seismitoad/Swampert to do much.

and

The Carnivine Fight. Power Whip either needs to be removed, or Carnivine needs to be descaled by like five levels; even on Casual this fight felt way too difficult. It can two shot a level capped Arcanine with it, and the frequency at which it uses it is horrible. I was only able to defeat it with a full level capped team due to pure luck. I would also recommend allowing some way to mitigate the possibility of encountering it with an under leveled team as well, if only a way to battle other Pokémon in the other Dimension. Encountering it with a low level team and a save that is too far back could result in a lot of angry players who now have a lot of work to do again.

The only one I haven't gotten to on any difficulty setting is Amber, so I will update this post when I beat her.

[Shing]

I played on intense mode so here's my result.

Easy:

Amber. The field was honestly like reborn charlotte field for real. I think volcanic field(the field we double battle geara/zetta) would greatly fit for the place and the buff. It gives more a heating feeling.

Crawli needed a bit buff considering many said that it was easy. Especially pokemon with vivillion or other pokemon with setup. Still through, without perparing or just being too cocky, crawli can be actually be a pain. Still through, a lot have complained for being easy.

Normal: Venam,Soul Keta(??) Marianette, Narcissa, Angie.

Hard

Keta. In for real, if you don't have a xatu/Medicham/Swoobat perhaps. You will be defeated hard with only two of his pokemon. Maybe even one.

And still is difficult considering the moveset really. Just me through, if you have these pokemon i said above, you will have a better time.

And valaire wasn't hard for me, but still through. The field was overdone a bit there. Maybe set some pokemon in the wild so can counter some of valaire pokemon for bit more help? That's just me.

[Might Gai]

i think am the only one voting too easy for narcissa cause shift gear sudowoodo OP

[marteen_]

- Marianette's fight was more BS than hard. Chatter Chatot and Kings Rock Cincinno on the same team? pls

- Valarie and Angie are difficult mostly because of their field effect.

- I had a tough time with Amber, but that was probably because my Altaria and Walerin were the only real answers to her attacks.

Edited January 4, 2016 by marteen_

[Swampellow]

Honestly the fights that are the most disputed mainly come down to the mons that people have on their team + coverage moves. For example, Crawli- he is pretty easy for the most part if you have a decent rock/flying type move/+ a mon that resists bug moves, but without one of those things his fight becomes much more difficult. The same thing applies to Amber, but mainly with speed for her. And the main one people dislike, Valerie I personally didn't find that difficult with the right combination of mons+moves while other people want to murder the ocean because of her field.

[TimTim]

i think am the only one voting too easy for narcissa cause shift gear sudowoodo OP

I have yet to finish my intense mode run, I wouldnt say too easy, but yeah, Narcissa can be easily dealt with if you have the right mon(like my Hypnosis-bred Crobat since Hypnosis is 100 percent accuracy, Chandelure has nothing against Crobat), aside from that, I believe overall, i have most problem with Keta for all modes in general.

[niklam]

OK, so valarie is not broken. We get pokemon that counter her team so she is just right. Any less would be too easy...

[Zumi]

OK, so valarie is not broken. We get pokemon that counter her team so she is just right. Any less would be too easy...

We've gotten way too many complaints from people about her field effect being a big problem though, so she's getting nerfed regardless. This is something that has already been set in stone.

[SansTheSkeleton]

Before doing anything, I have challenged myself by never rotating my team; once team was done, it has to get me through the entire game.

Let's just say that bite me a few times besides Gym Leader; like the one time where I smartly picked Melia [unaware of what exactly picking her would do]... and the battle still ended up being a trouble.

Venam: Just right. It's the first Gym battle, so it took a bit of luck on few things, but the difficulty was okay. You don't have much choice at this point in the game.

Keta: Easy. My team kinda countered him. The second fight was noticeably harder, but not hard. He doesn't have too many options on Vileplume, and Toxic plus Glare kinda wears his team out.

Marianette: Somewhat hard. It took a while to get a strategy for her, she gave me problems, but it wasn't too painful.

Narcissa: Similar situation as with Keta. I just kinda had the right team for her.

Valarie: Hard, but after n-th try, I knew what she was packing where, so I just switched in whatever team member was good for it. Sure, Milotic KOd a bunch of my Pokémon, but that IS her ace, isn't it?

Crawli: Probably the easiest one. I just went through his team like it was nothing. Granted Bug-type isn't the greatest one, but still. Even his special move wasn't too much of problem.

Angie: I don't remember this fight too well, so the details are kinda ambigious. I remember I had a good start, but I think at the end she started to give me problems, so I just went out for Head Smash and kill everything ASAP.

Amber: BURN IN HELL BITCH. Holy shit. My team was consistenly swept by her LEADS. And when they did a stupid and died, I was killed by whatever came out next. The only reason I actually won her was because I went back for Rain Dance, which countered a lot of her things, plus Blizzard that countered her further. Fever Pitch was so buffed by everything, it was enough to KO my Floatzel most of the time, despite being at the level cap. This is literally the only point in the entire run where rotating my team actually crossed my thoughts. It was that bad.

Edited January 4, 2016 by SansTheSkeleton

[Might Gai]

i think besides valerie get a prankster screens meostic and everything is easy/challanging even underlvld

[Fumble]

I don't really remember much about Intense mode, although I do remember Reborn mode:

Venam was kind of a pushover, since she was so low leveled compared to us...

Keta was just right to hard, although I don't think I would change him anymore. He's already been buffed by taking out Granbull and Will-o-Wisp Leavanny, but I still had Xatu~

Marianette... asdfghjkl Marianette's new Field made her a lot more challenging than I thought she'd be, since I was fairly unprepared from all of her offensive pressure (especially that Cinccino, ugh).

Narcissa was okay, the Dark nerf made it somewhat more difficult, but Ghost types still wrecked her.

I haven't even fought Valerie after hearing how hard she is.

Crawli was really easy, since Stealth Rocks is a thing. RIP.

Angie was okay, not much to say about her.

Amber was just right due to the TM for Rain Dance (thank you thank you thank you). I guess other Eruption Pokemon could take her out too, but oh well.

[Meruem]

overall, everything is alright. talking mostly about intense mode 'cause i didnt play the others.

i just wish venam, keta and angie were harder.

[Alex]

valarie was too easy pls buff though tbh remove the ground moves not working thing and Valerie will be much more fun

Also king's rock on Cinccino on insane is kind of dumb since there is like nothing that outspeeds it (I can't remember if I had Crobat by that point) and having to take big damage and then outplay the coinflip is kind of frustrating (especially worse since the field means Ghost-types are useless and you can't take advantage of an immunity, rip Dusclops)

Also I have learned toxic spikes is a very good move on insane

[Milotic]

Having played through both Normal and Intense mode, i'd say everybody was just right, except Crawli, Narcissa, Venam, and Valarie obv. Crawli is a pretty easy gym leader, if you have the right mons. Intense Crawli could be a bit more challenging like his freakin gym puzzle lol. He really doesnt have any huge threats aside from maybe volcarona and yanmega, but even then if you have rocks then those threats are gone.

Venam is the first gym so I understand that you cant make her super hard OP, but Intense Venam was a pushover, im sure the AI system had played a small part in that battle as well iirc, like wasting potions and making unnecessary switches.

Intense Narcissa was also pretty medium. Tbh I think Pre-nerf Narcissa from V4 should come back for Intense mode, as much hell as she was lol, it was definitely challenging, and Jan has put in a lot of new pokemon, so maybe it won't be near impossible to win now.

As for Valarie(intense and normal), Im sure she's already gonna catch the nerf gun real fast, battle was fun, but very difficult.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Milotic

[DarkPuleL2KY]

I feel reborn mode was too easy, i tried to switch it to intense but then Jan removed that option. I would love to see that option to change difficulty there again