I really tried

[Souleater229]

I really wanted to like this game. The setting, the atmosphere, the story. I loved about 95% of this but that last 5%, the battles, they are just not fun. I like the idea of tuning the difficulty but this is rediculous. Noy only are you weaker then pretty much every single trainer you come across but then the field effects add a whole new level of bullshit, doubling damage, reducing damage, removing immunites and the gym leaders are never on the recieving end of any negatives and get all the perks. Normally you could grind up, use pokemon with type advantage or catch stronger pokemon but you can't really do that either because you grind to high your pokemon don't listen to you, Gym leaders pokemon team is loaded up with pokemon, moves and held items that make type advantage meaningless or the field effect screws you over, and good luck finding stronger pokemon because it wasn't till I played this game that I started using the phrase "good pokemon". I made it to the third gym and all the wild pokemon I ran into with the exception of a few "event" pokemon, were all bug, normal, poison, flying and grass type. I understand that some people like this level of difficulty but this is not for me. It's not even "challenging" at this point, it's just not fair. I never feel like I'm winning, I'm only surviving and that's not fun. I wish all the best to the creator and hope those that enjoy it continue to do so.

[enu]

That's because you're approaching the game with same mindset as the official games. This is much harder but it's not that difficult when you get into it. In fact several people made mods to make the game even more challenging. Anyway let's break it down:

 

- In general this is not a game where you can just walk into a gym with 6 random mons and expect to win. You need to prepare and consider your options.

- Fields are an additional challenge and for many players the main thing why they like the game. Yes the fields generally favor the opponent however many of them can either be destroyed or used to your advantage in some way.

- There are many mons hidden around the game that you'd normally not consider strong but are very very good during early game.

 

Lemme give you some examples:

 

- Julia is 5 levels below the level cap so if you train a bit you can beat her with pretty much anything.

- There is a Kriketune available before the first gym. This thing completely crushes several early gym with Fury Cutter.

- Shelly sets up Rain to prevent the Forest field to be set on fire. But you can get Hail TM, override the rain and then set the forest ablaze. Or you can get Castform and use Sunny Day which also changes the field to Rainbow.

- Later on an ice type gym leader has a field called Mirror Arena. Ice types can't be underestimated there however the field also drastically buffs Mirror Shot which can also be invoked by Nature Power. So pretty much any mon with Nature Power makes the battle much easier.

 

Every opponent has some weakness if you look for it. This game really rewards exploration where you get more options (be it TMs, mons, items...) and preparation. You can always get the field notes before each gym and study them to find out how to either get rid of the field or use it to your advantage. The league manager also reveals some of the strategies each gym leader is using so that you can consider a counter. For many players this is a lot of fun.

 

The upcoming version has passwords to have the game use random field, or enforce a field you prefer to all battles or even remove fields altogether. There is also a password that lets you skip battles. Then we added one that lets you steal pokemon for the opposing trainers... None of those are balanced whatsoever but can be fun. There is a lot you can do.

 

That said if you're struggling this early on, the game probably really isn't for you. The difficulty tends to increase further as the game progresses. Anyway good luck with whatever game you play next!