An appreciation of Intense Mode

[Generic Gamer]

Something i've noticed, over the last couple days, is some people complaining about Intense Mode, and i'd like to offer my two cents on the matter. i highly doubt this'll amount to anything more than just a crazy man, yelling to the winds, but whatever.

 

As a start, Rejuvenation going into v13 is harder than v12, because the AI is improved, and Field moves no longer negate the current field. i've seen complaints about both, but....i, and a good number of people i know who play intense aren't bothered by this? from my perspective, both of these increase the number of strategies available to the player. an AI that switches out makes certain pokemon and strategies more effective, like Pursuit, Trapping moves, Hazard stacking, and rewards the player for predicting what the AI is going to do. Secondly, terrain moves overlaying, rather than replacing. i'm quite fond of this change, as before, a boss would simply just be trivialized by using a terrain move, which is quite boring in my opinion. now, though? Terrain Moves operate like a second category of weather, which makes it more acceptable in my eyes to actually USE them.

 

all in all, i've been having a blast with Rejuvenation's Intense Mode v13. am i crazy? perhaps. but do remember: if playing the hardest difficulty is hurting your enjoyment of the game, there is no shame in going down to a lower difficulty. A game is a game, and having fun comes first, after all.

[NeoPwyll]

I only played the chapter 15 on intense v13

For me the main issue is that the boss fight feel unfair rather than challenging,

the pokemon have more lvs than the lv cap,

they have moves that you don't have and you don't know what they do,

Also the berries you have nothing until very late

the most important items still don't exist

the tms the most important don't exist yet

And for some reason you can't grind money like in reborn

The Ev cap is not 252 for the majority of the chapter 15 pokemons

You have situations where you have a hard boss but you can't leave to train evs catch the perfect ones to the fight

for me the biggest example is

Spoiler

the fight vs clear where she has very strong pokemon, and then literaly you have a boss pokemon.

I only beat it thanks to my perfect moves and manipulation of the AI, so when that pokemon arrived i had my 5 with full hp, reducing to 1 (2 had sturdy)

 

 

As i said fights should feel challenging rather than unfair.

 

This dificulty should be called Insane

Edited August 9, 2021 by NeoPwyll

[Generic Gamer]

 

24 minutes ago, NeoPwyll said:

I only played the chapter 15 on intense v13

For me the main issue is that the boss fight feel unfair rather than challenging,

the pokemon have more lvs than the lv cap,

they have moves that you don't have and you don't know what they do,

Also the berries you have nothing until very late

the most important items still don't exist

the tms the most important don't exist yet

And for some reason you can't grind money like in reborn

The Ev cap is not 252 for the majority of the chapter 15 pokemons

You have situations where you have a hard boss but you can't leave to train evs catch the perfect ones to the fight

for me the biggest example is

  Reveal hidden contents

the fight vs clear where she has very strong pokemon, and then literaly you have a boss pokemon.

I only beat it thanks to my perfect moves and manipulation of the AI, so when that pokemon arrived i had my 5 with full hp, reducing to 1 (2 had sturdy)

 

 

As i said fights should feel challenging rather than unfair.

 

This dificulty should be called Insane

 

Let me dissect this real quick:

1) Pokemon having more levels than your level cap has been a thing since, idk, v7? hell, if you played on Normal, it'd still probably happen. you should be used to it by now.

 

2) Enemies having moves you don't. since the start of the game. and you're TOLD what the custom moves do. again, you should be used to it by now.

 

3) you can get stirus berries as early as Goldenwood town, thanks to wild linoone. i would not consider that "useless." not to mention, you can buy any berry that isn't Custap, Maranga, or Kee at the Department store before you start chapter 15, provided you did all the sidequests.

4) Leftovers have existed since the level cap was 70, via pickup. Crests, Megas, Z Crystals, and similar items are dispersed around. the game gives you everything you need to win.

 

5) I don't get this point. the game gives you powerful TMs. you can get SCALD before going into chapter 15, for crying out loud! unless you're complaining about not getting Ice Beam or Earthquake. in which case, deal with it, since you don't even have those in Reborn yet.

 

6) You can grind money. the game GIVES YOU THE PAY DAY TM.

7) and the Ev cap was higher than 252 for mons back in v12 intense as well. you should be used to it.

 

The game gives you everything you need to win. it's up to the player to look at everything and figure out how to use what they have, and that's why Intense v13 is so much fun for me.

[BIGFriv]

26 minutes ago, NeoPwyll said:

the pokemon have more lvs than the lv cap,

Reborn also does this often.

 

Quote

hey have moves that you don't have and you don't know what they do,

Theres a guide that tells you all about it inside the gyms.

 

Quote

Also the berries you have nothing until very late

Berry Emporium, Dept Store + You get a multitude of different berries throughout the game as Hidden Items

 

Quote

the most important items still don't exist

Only items that don't exist for the player yet are: Choice Items, some Mega Stones, some Crests and some Z-Crystals.

 

Quote

And for some reason you can't grind money like in reborn

Pay Day + Luck Incense
 

Quote

the tms the most important don't exist yet

I can kinda get this, but these TMs are extremely good: EQ, Ice Beam, U-Turn, Blizzard/Fire Blast/Thunder, Swords Dance and Calm Mind.
Out of these only the Blizzard/Blast and Thunder ones we will probably see soon.
 

Quote

As i said fights should feel challenging rather than unfair.

 

This dificulty should be called Insane

I get what you mean, but what you consider unfair changes from person to person. So it's hard to say.

And about that battle in the spoiler, you can lose that battle you know?

[Gastronely]

My only complain is that the AI has way too much knowledge about the player's team and actions. For example, I remember theorizing a battle against Melia for a mono-grass playthrough, and she always seemed to switch out to a different pokemon when I replaced Slash for Knock off on Leavanny. Also? Every time I tried to substitute, her Hydreigon still attacked, even though it ALWAYS protected when I didn't use the move. The AI moving after you ruins most battles for me, because it gives it a completely unfair advantage. Don't get me wrong. I love the difficulty and balance philosophy behind the game, but making the AI a literal god just makes it harder for the sake of being harder

[Cyphre]

I dont understand the lack of Trick Room TM though. If i want to use this particular strategy, i only got Oranguru or Porygon-Z for this and you cant even breed it on someone. It's still available on those 2 pokemon, so argument that it would be broken to have it also doesnt apply here. 

 

[NeoPwyll]

yes that all exists

but not when you can't change the pokemon buring battle and can't use items during a battle, just like in competitive.

I like this change very much and wanted this in pokemon fan games for a long time.

i just think that increasing the dificulty from normal to intense, and keeping those changes in normal when you change the battle formula, it may increase the dificulty even further than intentional, for me, it may feel unfair.

 

if you like it thats fine

Thats just my opinion. Maybe i didn't express properly

[DemICE]

24 minutes ago, NeoPwyll said:

yes that all exists

but not when you can't change the pokemon buring battle and can't use items during a battle, just like in competitive.

I like this change very much and wanted this in pokemon fan games for a long time.

i just think that increasing the dificulty from normal to intense, and keeping those changes in normal when you change the battle formula, it may increase the dificulty even further than intentional, for me, it may feel unfair.

 

if you like it thats fine

Thats just my opinion. Maybe i didn't express properly

 

Set+No items is an option you are asked to enable or not.  

[Cyphre]

13 minutes ago, DemICE said:

Set+No items is an option you are asked to enable or not. 

Game also directly says when you start it that this ruleset is a "standart Intense esperience", strongly implying this is a suggested experience for Intense. 

[BIGFriv]

39 minutes ago, Cyphre said:

Game also directly says when you start it that this ruleset is a "standart Intense esperience", strongly implying this is a suggested experience for Intense. 

I mean yeah, it was a highly requested feature, and most Intense Players already used Set Mode by default.
Intense is made for Set Mod, Switch Mode is a slightly easier version.

[triplebassist]

4 hours ago, Gastronely said:

My only complain is that the AI has way too much knowledge about the player's team and actions. For example, I remember theorizing a battle against Melia for a mono-grass playthrough, and she always seemed to switch out to a different pokemon when I replaced Slash for Knock off on Leavanny. Also? Every time I tried to substitute, her Hydreigon still attacked, even though it ALWAYS protected when I didn't use the move. The AI moving after you ruins most battles for me, because it gives it a completely unfair advantage. Don't get me wrong. I love the difficulty and balance philosophy behind the game, but making the AI a literal god just makes it harder for the sake of being harder

This has to be the biggest thing. Most of the other complaints are more visible, but I think this is the real issue under the hood. It's really, really hard to strategize properly against an opponent who is always aware of your abilities, your held items, your moves, and when you switch out. I know that the player can achieve this via meta knowledge or using a guide, but it feels like this change makes those more necessary and compounds any existing balance issues

[shadow of mars]

I'm fine with intense as is, with all the fields, items, switching and even the AI going over the 510 EV cap (since it can be "justified" by lore that they are just very strong pokemon, way above average). It's even better now in 13.0.3 as the devs are starting to realize that endless grinding isn't fun

 

But multiple megas, with extra items, seems weird to me and start to feel less like a pokemon game. Idk, it's a weird and feels like cheating.

[Gastronely]

Pokemon with more than 510 EVs, megas with items and levels above the level cap are fine, since you can almost always play around it. The real culprit here is the AI

[hepengild]

I think one of the major issues in regards to difficulty aren't necessarily the battles themselves, but the amount of grinding required to do each aforementioned battle.

 

In a perfect world, the Pokemon you've previously trained up to this point will be entirely capable of taking on the next gym. Of course, this isn't the case for intense mode - you need to train up an entirely new team for each battle, crafted meticulously with the sole purpose of overcoming whichever specific boss/gym you're going up against. Now, this isn't a bad thing. Problems only begin to arise when people get to the grind.

 

Scenario: I would like to beat this gym leader. I know, for a fact, that if I catch (insert Pokemon name), I'll be able to defeat them without issue. Catching the Pokemon isn't enough. Now, I need to spend hours grinding EVs and ensure that my nature and IVs don't hinder a potential victory. Luckily, this issue is already being addressed by the developers - EV training rooms are open earlier; alternatively, you can use the debug menu to completely forgo grinding. This is my method, as I don't enjoy grinding EVs. Thus, I don't personally have complaints about the grind anymore, as I don't have to do it. Either way, I understand how irritating it must be for some people.

 

My primary complaint lies within the AI's ability to read your Pokemon's movesets, reacting accordingly. This was an issue with items that, thankfully, has been addressed. Nevertheless, the AI will do different things depending on what moves you have on your Pokemon. It doesn't matter if you use the move, the AI is entirely aware of your moveset as soon as the battle begins.

 

There's also an argument to be made about how the field effect changes restrict gameplay options. I never utilized field changing frequently, but now I don't have much of a choice, even if I wanted to. You'd be able to make a team that could play in the changed field, making the fight a lot easier. Now, I have to specifically play in the opponent's field, utilizing other strategies. You can argue that field-changing trivialized gym battles, but now people are just trivializing the fights in other ways.

 

Changing the field was a legitimate strategy, so I'm not sure why it's seen as a bad thing. I suppose it depends on what you mean by "trivializing" a fight. I just fought Ryland on intense - I built a team around setting up on his Nidoqueen. Set up spikes, stealth rocks, sticky web - afterwards, I set up three sword dances and an agility on my Diggersby. I proceeded to sweep Ryland's entire team with STAB Strength and Earthquake. Should we be trying to shift out strategies where you set up a sweep as well?

 

I'll agree that pre-V13's field changing is probably the most easily accessible strategy. You train up one team that works in grassy terrain, you can use it in every fight. While I don't have very much personal experience with the field changing, I'm curious to know how much it actually trivialized gym fights/other battles. Intense teams are still incredibly strong, even if they aren't playing on their own field.

 

I think there's just an identity issue for how difficulty is meant to be perceived in this game. It's a Pokemon game, so there's not much you can change fundamentally about it. Do we want clear cut, defined strategies for each gym leader? What strategies are deemed illegitimate and should be nerfed/shifted out of gameplay? What actually makes things more difficult in a Pokemon game? As it stands, people are still doing very specific things for each gym battle. Seviper is good against Venam. Swoobat is extremely powerful early game. Hariyama is great against Keta. A team of normal types beats Narcissa. So on and so forth. For each gym leader, you build a counter-team. There aren't really any exceptions.

 

Overall, I'm very open minded about Rejuvenation's balance. I really want to see how it continues to flesh out, and my curiosity is piqued in regards to what the developers prioritize when it comes to this game's difficulty.

[Milotic]

In regards to difficulty V13 was the first version that actually made me train up several new mons, before that I was running thru intense mode with my rain team and a small rotation, not that the game wasnt challenging before but I can appreciate the thought that went into making this version more hellish haha. As far as EVs/IVs are concerned, you should not be playing intense if you are not willing to EV train or debug evs into your pokemon, plain and smiple (having access to EV rooms at the beginning of the game is a vaild argument as well). I cant speak for normal or casual modes I've only ever tried intense

 

With that being said, long time players of rejuvenation have more to work with, not only do are we used to the playstyle and mechanics, we probably have items/pokemon that arent as available in these newer versions. So its understandable for newer players and people restarting to express some frustration.

 

The AI is annoying for sure, but it can be easily manipulated, sometimes I think the AI is too smart for its own good. I remember fighting Gearea this version, i had a Dark type Silvally and i basically spammed magic coat on his Dragpualt (as it continued to use Willowisp, AI was determined as hell to burn my Silvally) until it died from burn lmao. The double switches also become very predictable after a few tries

 

Basically these battles get easier with repitiion, unfortunately we wont get the satisfaction of heading straight into a battle and winning in 1 go (without a few restarts first), and i think that is everyone's main issue. I agree that it probably shouldnt be this way, but thats why we came here to play a more difficult game. It should give the player a sense of satisfaction defeating hacked mons and an All-knowing AI system. The devs are basically saying make your team as broken as possible (within the limits of the game), strategize and have fun with it. As terrorizing as these battles are, they are still winnable

 

[fellowry]

Get a mixed feeling from me, the AI being smart is actually a great thing in my opinion, it increase the challenge by a lot feels like im playing with a real guys and beating them give me some sense of accomplishment. one of the reasons why v13 is far harder than v12 is because of the AI so props to the dev for this

 

Over level Lv caps and ev, limited items and movepool is kinda the norm for game like this so nothing new

 

my only complain is some of the battle is unreasonably tedious rather than difficult and restrict team building and strategy, for example kowpadunga and saki requires a very specific strategy to to win

 

also Compoundeyes Butterfree with sleep powder is super busted in early game, i kinda abused it to destroy Mariannette and Geara lol

[DemICE]

12 hours ago, hepengild said:

 

There's also an argument to be made about how the field effect changes restrict gameplay options. I never utilized field changing frequently, but now I don't have much of a choice, even if I wanted to. You'd be able to make a team that could play in the changed field, making the fight a lot easier. Now, I have to specifically play in the opponent's field, utilizing other strategies. You can argue that field-changing trivialized gym battles, but now people are just trivializing the fights in other ways.

 

Changing the field was a legitimate strategy, so I'm not sure why it's seen as a bad thing. I suppose it depends on what you mean by "trivializing" a fight. I just fought Ryland on intense - I built a team around setting up on his Nidoqueen. Set up spikes, stealth rocks, sticky web - afterwards, I set up three sword dances and an agility on my Diggersby. I proceeded to sweep Ryland's entire team with STAB Strength and Earthquake. Should we be trying to shift out strategies where you set up a sweep as well?

 

I'll agree that pre-V13's field changing is probably the most easily accessible strategy. You train up one team that works in grassy terrain, you can use it in every fight. While I don't have very much personal experience with the field changing, I'm curious to know how much it actually trivialized gym fights/other battles. Intense teams are still incredibly strong, even if they aren't playing on their own field.

Unlike everything else,  Terrain moves are a single button that you can brainlessly carry and click on every battle and you have nearly won because in a field-based game, bosses are helpless outside their design.     However bosses are built to an extent to be able to prevent/counter  setup/hazards,  and  accounting for some glaring counter pokemon to an extent. They even account for possible natural field transformations in most cases.  This isn't feasible for terrain cheese.   You can literally carry a sylveon in every fight and click misty terrain at any point and invalidate the fight's design.  Its brainless to the point of not deserving to even be called a strategy,  because there is zero thought process in doing it. Almost noone used the terrain moves for their unique benefits. The whole intention was  "get rid of the damn field".  And when someone who spent days/weeks designing a battle around a field gimmick and trying for everything to function properly, sees people choosing to basically skip the actual fight,  it makes em question if the effort was even worth it after all. 

[Cyphre]

53 minutes ago, DemICE said:

Its brainless to the point of not deserving to even be called a strategy,  because there is zero thought process in doing it.

As well as crippling opponents to set up on them and then sweep. Or using a Trick room. Or utilize Light Clay screens. Or spamming status like sleep. Or Destiny bond the pokemon you have troubles with. Or Wobuffet abuse with either direct counters or perish trap. Or Endeavor. Or abusing Swift Swim. Or a myriad other things that dont immediately pop into my mind. 

The notion that changing a Field is a more one-button and inferior strategy to all other possible abusive one-button brainless things you can do in Pokemon is just absurd and completely wrong. 

[BIGFriv]

16 minutes ago, Cyphre said:

As well as crippling opponents to set up on them and then sweep. Or using a Trick room. Or utilize Light Clay screens. Or spamming status like sleep. Or Destiny bond the pokemon you have troubles with. Or Wobuffet abuse with either direct counters or perish trap. Or Endeavor. Or abusing Swift Swim. Or a myriad other things that dont immediately pop into my mind. 

The notion that changing a Field is a more one-button and inferior strategy to all other possible abusive one-button brainless things you can do in Pokemon is just absurd and completely wrong. 

Most other things only change 1 thing, Trick Room is speed, Swift Swim would require Rain etc...

But field effect manipulation is just broken, it changes many more things, Grassy Terrain doesnt only heal you a bit at end of turn, or boost your grass moves, it does much more than that.
The AI loses a lot of benefits from the field with you just using one move, specially when fights are based around the field.
It's basically a certain death for many fights, Trick Room isnt, the AI can still utilise it even if they are slower, and even then, didn't you say in another thread about not understanding why Trick Room is only available in 2 mons?? Thats exactly why, it's a pretty strong move, that thankfully only a couple mons learn by lvl up, so its easier to control over the dozen of mons that learn terrain moves.
It gives the player a lot more room to play around than the enemy, the player can prepare before hand, and battle design wise, using moves to change the field in a sort of battle of attrition.
Volcano > Cave > Volcano, where youre constantly fighting over the arena with the AI is just so so much more interesting and engaging.

[vepper]

This is coming from someone who plays the game on normal, so it's not really from personal experience so much as it is opinion. 

 

Grinding new pokemon to counter gyms is incredibly fast in this version. You can sometimes EV train 6 pokemon all at once within a few minutes, and then you get massive EXP candies as well. I don't really mind the game encouraging lots of team changes.

Intense having unfair advantages, even things as extreme as multiple megas with hold items, isn't something I mind (partly because I don't play it, heh) - it's the hard mode of an already difficult game, it has permission to be silly. I hope not too much of that leaks over to normal - there's already a bit of it with a few pre-statused Pokemon holding other items, essentially giving them a (better) flame/toxic orb and a second hold item, while also adding a system to (understandably - this shouldn't be reverted) prevent the player from doing that. Extra EVs may be a thing near the very end of the game like with Reborn, however, so I'm prepared for that.

Field changing in this version is interesting. The terrain change was 100% necessary; even without terrain moves Rillaboom alone necessitates the system being reworked; while Blaziken has always been around as an ez mode pick, a starter that can literally disable the primary new game mechanic would be extreme. I do wish some of the natural field change routes weren't removed in V13, though I understand keeping a gym leader stuck in a disadvantageous field is essentially an instant win. I assume this was to lessen the amount of possibilities to have to balance around - fields that will change to one other field, so the gym leader's moves generally will revert it back. There are absolutely still times you can work that into your favor - I don't think Erick, at least on normal, actually has no way to re-poison his water; while he still gets buffs from it, it also opens up using Surf to absolutely curbstomp him, especially if you have a fast Torrent starter like Greninja or Inteleon.

Terrains are also still good even as an overlap - the fact they put Pincurchins right before Valarie is clear they want you to still use them to your benefit.

 

Most of my issues with V13 have been remedied, and some I also would have gotten used to even if they weren't changed. Again, this was based on Normal, but I think a lot of the base opinions still stand - hard modes are supposed to be stupid and I don't mind that one bit. (the IV cards at least unlocked before most trainers actually have specialized EVs anyway) 

[Blacephal]

Well, this is an interesting topic!!! 

I've played through the whole intense mode (13.0.0) with the added rules of Set & Item ban from the start of the game, and i got some mixed feelings about the difficulty. And because I can’t shut up, i’m going to tell my opinion (yay... i'm sorry)

 

The all-knowing AI

 

Yes, i definitely can understand the feeling of unfairness, the fact that the AI could know the items and moves i used felt a little cheap, BUT, that was the same reason i could win a lot of fights, because the AI is even more abusable right now, it always "over predicts" and you can play around it in a lot of fun ways if you have the time, teams members and items. It’s, in my opinion, something that’s fun, it’s a new layer of challenge.

 

The Grind that's no more

 

I'm so happy to see some changes in the patches that helped with this little problem. In the original version I got to the point that I wanted to have a debug menu just to make things faster or to change to normal mode. I ended up using one team.. but like a box full of rotations, and that took a lot of time. Fortunately, this problem is disappearing as the patches come, giving the player access to more tools to modify, build or rebuild their teams, and that's just amazing, i really appreciate what the team of rejuvenation is doing in this matter. 

 

The fields have changed 

 

It's cool that technically you can't cheese every fight with terrain changes because it makes you think for some other strategies and i understand this, BUT i have two particular issues with this:

 

1- It's sad that you can't break or change some fields like you could in the past, and i'm not talking about using grassy terrain of grassy surge (i'm actualy a fan of the interactions this brings to the gameplay, i really liked the overlaping effects of fields and not just destroying them), i'm talking about the really FUN and crazy-wacky ways you could change fields, it's something that it's even said inside the game, and then i ask, why you can't do it now? it's not something that you can do easily and with no kind of effort, you have to do a lot of changes in the teams you're using to not just change the field, but to use it to your advantage, or to go into really specific fields. And no, doing this (not allowing this dynamic interacctions with fields) is not a real way to stop ''cheese tactics''
 

2- You can say that this was a method to stop mindlessly winning fights, but there's a mistake with that assumption, 'cause you will and can break the game in a million different (less fun) ways, you can use destiny bond, bastiodon crest, F.E.A.R, wonder guard, neutralizing gas, AI abuse, innards out, baton pass, minimize, etc. 
I swept Souta using two pokemon, raichu and A-palossand, and i have seeing people use destiny bond and shedinja to win against Saki without a problem (Also, please, tell me, i don't know, but can you still use the lame field change of rainbow field?).
The only real way to stop people from using those kind of strategies is to limit almost every option the player has, and that's definitely not a good way to go unless you want a kaizo... 

And speaking of unfair things, i need to rant about the ONLY REALLY UNFAIR!!! -also spoilers- fight in the intense mode with the added rules...

 

Spoiler

Who wants to flip coins to win?!?!

Ejem...
WHY DOES THE RESHIRAM FIGHT HAS TO BE LUCK RELIANT!?!?!?
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... help
I swear it took me more than 30 attempts to win, i always lost because of missing a move, losing the speed tie with espeon, having a low count of sleep turns, crits, and such... i know i usually have bad luck, but for arceus sake, that was just insane. 

 

Anyway, moving on...

 

Intensive creativity
oh, and spoilers too
 

Spoiler

 

I think this version of rejuvenation was a fantastic way of showing the imagination, heart and soul that was put in this game, from the avenium forms, more use of cinematics, wonderful art, and a lot more things that enlisting wouldn't be enough of fair. 

But there was one thing i don't usually see people talking about, and it's the new surprises in battles, and with this i'm referring to the fights against Neon & Magenta and Saki (those were the two fights i noticed this) 

I remember my reaction the first time i got to fight for the psychic badge, i LOVED to see the use of what i think is/was a specific trick room on Neon's pokemon, it's an incredible idea i didn't think was possible, and the use of wonder room with the Saki fight was more of the same. 
i think this opens a lot of possibilities to play around with the difficulty, it's just adding to the fields and more

 

Friendship ended with LO Mega-Ray. Now seed Eternatus-Eternamax is my best friend
 

Oh boi, this is something, 'cause I don't know how to feel about it, and yes, I titled this with a really bad meme attempt.

 

While being in the same category of "ways to break the rules of pokemon", adding challenge and dancing around the problematic concept of unfairness, it's something that I feel can be used in a bad way.

 

I loved the gimmick that i explained before with the creativity topic, it brings attention to some mechanics of the game that usually don't get that much love with fields or fights in general (one way more then the other), but the use of items while also using megas felt like it was to much, and not even increasing the difficulty in some battles 

In some fights I didn't even realize or notice that some mega pokemon had items, while others gave me headaches (damn you useless ?????, you and your fragile crested beheeyem)

What I'm trying to say is, the items can feel like over-the-top artificial difficulty, can take the game to a ridiculous extreme (this is the point I'm referring to when I say this CAN be bad, but not necessarily), and it also feels… lame?
I don’t know, i’m conflicted, i don’t like it, and can see problems, but at the same time i’m just ‘’ok’’ with it and I can see the use of this mechanic in more interesting ways that are not just giving X broken mega Y broken item (i don't want to see a M-mewtwo X/Y with a seed inside the New World field) 

I swear i'll stop right know 

Overall, the new intense mode is a great experience, i really enjoyed it (not to the point i would replay it), i can understand some changes and appreciate a lot more of them while also having some thoughts about them.

Omg, you read all of this.... ty!