The case for early EV Training

[PulsarNyx]

So with the advent of V13, the EV training rooms have been yeeted to post-Valarie, which I feel doesn't improve the game a whole lot.

 

My main argument is this - The removal of early EV training doesn't make the game harder, it just makes it more tedious.

 

Right off the bat, you can already grind EVs off the wild pokemon in Gearen City. HP, Attack, and Speed are pretty simple with the abundance of birds, bugs, and doggos present in pretty much any patch of wild grass. If you're desperate, you can get Special Attack EVs from the Psyduck in Gearen Park, and if you're really desperate you can get Defense EVs from wild Klink and Seedot. The notable exception is Special Defense, which can be easily farmed after Chapter 1 from the Sheridan Village Swablu.

 

The issue is all of these things take significantly more time, and I would argue that the earlier system worked alright. If trainers absolutely needed these EVs for something (such as outspeeding a crucial mon before it wrecked their team), then they would try to get them anyway, spending hours grinding encounters on wild pokemon to get the EVs they wanted. I've done this a few times myself - before I had the AP to get the EV training rooms open, I literally spent a few days getting some of my starters and other mons fully EV trained. It was a terrible experience overall and the only reason I justified it was that I was also getting enough AP in the process to unlock the training rooms.

 

Look, I'm not a game dev, and Jan can do whatever he wants with this game, but I do really feel like the removal of early EV training really slows down the early game, to the detriment of the overall experience.

[Samurai]

It ruins intense mode for me. Intense mode was a good challenge when the EV rooms where still around. Now the removal of the training rooms makes it close to impossible. People will ev train either way but it kinda takes the fun element out of the game when you have to grind for hours instead of a few minutes. 

 

Maybe make them available at the start but at the cost of 15/20 AP instead of 10?

[Feng Lei]

I agree with this. Having speed and HP open from the start gave at least some options and the ability to just work up the points with the AP was also fairly balanced. Having them removed just means more time spent, less real difficulty, though honestly taking EV training away is one of the things that I'd personally never do or recommend for increasing difficulty. Mostly because having to remove EVs later is such a hassle. Honestly, I'd not be so averse to it if we had a free, yes free, way of getting rid of ALL EVs until we had the opportunity to properly EV train. The whole EV system was something I never appreciated, especially in the OLD days of my childhood where it was hidden from players. Fan games like Rejuvenation have the opportunity to rid us of these old evils of tediousness.

[GordoGuido]

I am playing V13 in Intense difficulty and so far, it made me lvl couple more pokemons than what I remember leveling up back then, but I haven't trained a single EV, and I'm doing just fine. I do find myself swaping pokemon in battle a lot more tho, since I cant use items either.

I dont like the change. But it does not make the game impossible, it just forces you to find the correct counters and workarounds now. I do think that monoruns are impossible with most of types now tho. In v12, I ended up realising that it was just better to play 2 tanks and spam revival herbs when I needed to. It was stupid. 

I picked Torchic and honestly, I haven't used it in most of the fights so far, I'm usually just getting mons that have immunities and utility to swap around like crazy in order to succeed in fights 

[shadow of mars]

Well of course it doesn't make the game impossible but it's an unecessary hassle. The early game is already difficult as it is and people will ev train anyway, it will just take hours instead os minutes

I love the update but as I've said before, this change was awful