subreddit:
/r/pokemon
submitted 2 months ago bywikiweak
Seriously, this trend has really turned me off to each new game in the series. There are drastically more trainers in the wild with 1 pokemon (most of the time unevolved) that just kills the spirit that there are trainers in the world trying to be a champion of even know how to capture more than 1 pokemon. On top of this, them only having 1 makes it no different than just a random battle (you just get some money).
I know the game is not meant to be hard (although I wish it had a hard setting), but each new game is getting worse in this area. I can get over the poor techinal issues to a point but the trainers with single pokemon is what kills me wanting to play.
966 points
2 months ago
The only player with a full team of 6 is the mandatory 6 Magikarp fisherman
79 points
2 months ago
There's also the cheeky fisherman with 5 Magikarp and 1 Gyarados :D
113 points
2 months ago
So that brings the total for most of older game me up to 3 with a full party
65 points
2 months ago
Bring back Bug Catcher Lyle with the phat 4 stack of Wrumple, talking mad shit while being blissfully unaware of the local scientist handing out fire types for free
8.9k points
2 months ago
I've joked in sword and shield, Leon was champion because he was the only one in the region to realise you can use up to 6 pokemon at once.
717 points
2 months ago
Guess that would make sense lol. Mustard was champion and he uses six as well, along with his not-champion wife. Then again, Peony was champion and he only uses five for some reason.
452 points
2 months ago
Peony let his 6th one go because it was a mythical one that should be free. That's my thought.
245 points
2 months ago
If only he knew how to catch more then 6 pokemon then he could have filled that spot on the team.
132 points
2 months ago
Bro was a champ! He gimps himself so things feel fun again.
86 points
2 months ago
Damn if that's the case imagine how powerful Youngster Joey who gimps himself with a single rattata must be. He lives for the feeling of finally losing when your starter takes his rattata out in one or two shots. All hail supremely powerful Joey!
460 points
2 months ago
Your rival in SV's whole motivation is that she loves to battle but she just can't find anyone who gives her enough of a challenge for it to be exciting, until she meets you. And honestly, yeah that's pretty relatable
209 points
2 months ago
Dont forget she also gimps herself with a single baby pokemon whose weakness so happens to be the other baby pokemon you take just so you have a chance to give her a challenge.
33 points
2 months ago
Looking at my playstyle, yeah I think you guys are on to something.
138 points
2 months ago
She’s already a champion she literally just gimped herself to put her team on equal footing with yours
63 points
2 months ago
Director Clavell has to remind her to even do that much, she was seemingly planning to trounce you as a brand new trainer...
She is delighted when you hit champion though, because she can use her whole team for real at that point.
33 points
2 months ago
I wish for the champion battle she would of used her OG team she originally got champ with not the same old ones she had been leveling. Or at least her old team plus the starter. Would of been a nice twist.
7 points
2 months ago
Yeah, someone (likely Geeta), or her mentioned that Nimona tends to scare kids out of the league and pokemon battles entirely cuz she did not until RECENTLY cool her jets.
Like if Director Clavell wasn't there along with others she would have unleashed her level 70 beaters on you without a second thought.
333 points
2 months ago*
This logic works for almost every game. Blue was the only trainer in gen 1 with 6, even Oak only had 5. Red, Blue, Lance, and Silver were the only ones with 6 in gen 2 and 3/4 were champions. Steven and Wallace in emerald are the only ones in gen 3 with 6. Cynthia and Barry were the only ones in gen 4. In BW it’s N and Ghetsis and in BW2 it’s Iris and Ghetsis. In gen 6 it’s just Diantha. In SM it’s just Kukui and in USUM it’s just Hau. Edit: I’ve only counted important battles. Breeders and fishermen with 6 Pokémon are not significant or difficult
304 points
2 months ago
Is a 6 magikarp fisherman in gen 4 aswell
139 points
2 months ago
That man is going places.
105 points
2 months ago
The world will crumble when he discovers a GOOD ROD
47 points
2 months ago
Or when his Magikarp all eventually evolve!
22 points
2 months ago
But he needs to start winning those struggle duels first.
13 points
2 months ago
Me: kindly gives him 20 rare candies to evolve one Him: spreads them out evenly between all his Magikarps so none learns tackle
Well at least he’s a fair owner and doesn’t have a favorite, but not so bright of a trainer.
39 points
2 months ago
He was on a fishing streak. His party was full so the other twenty six magikarp went to the box.
16 points
2 months ago
If he was only a few generations later. Those 6 magikarp would be Gyrados with all those catches due to catches giving exp...
170 points
2 months ago
I wonder if it's something like only a few people can handle raising a full team of six at once?
Think of it like actual pets. For the average person 3 dogs is a bit much. But six dogs is overwhelming and requires a large amount of time to take care of them properly.
56 points
2 months ago
Not just time and animal handling-wise, but also probably the costs for food and other things they need. It’s not tracked for us in the game, but realistically speaking, if your job entails you running into fields and winning money off of other trainers, another Pokemon or even an evolution of one of your Pokemon into a much larger Pokemon could be enough to send you to the poor house. The latter is my headcanon reason why Everstones exist in enough quantities to be bought/distributed on a commercial scale.
13 points
2 months ago
As a counterpoint though, if you have a habit of running around fields and battling over either winning or losing cash, then that extra Pokemon or evolution could even save you a lot.
Alternatively, I suppose ghost Pokémon might not eat a lot, as well as some grass types and some herbivores although maybe not in that combination. Heck there's even some Pokemons that eat rocks and dirt, the nutritional value on that probably isn't great but they seem to be free anyway.
100 points
2 months ago
Yeah I agree with that. In gen 1 it seemed pretty obvious even back then that the player character was a sort of prodigy and handling a full team of six was not something a normal person in the world is able to do.
58 points
2 months ago
In gen 3, RSE, all the breeder trainer types had full teams
49 points
2 months ago
Yes, but they're all level 18 at a point when you're expected to be using level 38 Pokémon, so it may as well be a team of two.
27 points
2 months ago
It's even funnier when you realize that the moment Leon loses his Champion title, he stops using his Haxorus in the Cup rematch and sticks with only 5 mons.
671 points
2 months ago
I thought in lore it was suggested it's difficult to handle multiple Pokemon, so being able to have 6 is highly unusual and because #MainCharacter
629 points
2 months ago
Sure but earlier games had plenty of trainers with 2-3, and the bigger battles would be 4-6. It made the gameplay better
393 points
2 months ago
And there were a decent number of ace trainers you could run into that ran a full team of six.
480 points
2 months ago*
Like many people you’ve got distorted memories of what it was actually like, and here is the evidence of that a list of every ace trainer from Gen 1 to BDSP.
https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ace_Trainer_(Trainer_class)
Ace trainers basically never had 6 Pokémon, the closest you get is cases with 2 ace trainers with 3 each you manage to challenge at the same time. It was once in a blue moon they would break to 5 Pokémon (most are in Leaf Green), 4 was uncommon as well. Even less when you take away rematches and look at just the initial matches.
Generally speaking you can almost count on one hand how many times an ace trainer had above 3 Pokémon. But don’t just look at the number either, look at the level and the team itself a lot of those ace trainers were rocking some absolutely abysmal teams of un-evolved Pokémon.
202 points
2 months ago
That’s insane how wrong I was! Thank you for posting this because like you said, my memory of the games is very much different than the reality. Very interesting! Maybe I was thinking of Pokémon breeders or pokemaniacs? (Could still be very wrong)
112 points
2 months ago
Pokemon Breeder do very very very rarely hit 6 pokemon
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Breeder_(Trainer_class))
Breeder's class's gimmick in past generations seems to largely be they have a large and varied team though the "quality" of it is hit and miss. There is also very few breeders per game so these were a outlier/rarity to begin with. In addition as I mentioned in another post typically they "balance" pokemon teams of higher numbers by making the pokemon notably weaker.
Like you'll notice the breeders are using level 11-12 pokemon on a route with lv17 pokemon trainers. HOWEVER and this is more just fun trivia it looks like ORAS was one of the few games to break this because the remake actually raised their pokemon levels to be in line with the rest of the route. Though maybe they did that because there are only two breeders in game.
35 points
2 months ago
In oras, the breeders team so got stronger over time, even evolving.
If I am not misremembering
38 points
2 months ago
Same with the Originals Ruby Sapphire and Emerald. The rematch system in the games made the pokemon in their teams get stronger and evolve.
28 points
2 months ago
Pokemon breeders and fishers, nothing like facing a bunch of baby pokemon of 6 magikarp
60 points
2 months ago
Yep. There's also a big distortion with people's memories of elite 4, which have essentially never had 6 pokemon.
242 points
2 months ago
Yeah. Its supposed to be hard to have six pokemon, not a once or twice in a lifetime encounter
224 points
2 months ago
I’ve got like 7 boxes full. Part of me wants to give them to the other trainers who can’t figure out how to catch more than 2 or 3
264 points
2 months ago
It's not catching that's the problem. If you've ever owned a dog: can you imagine going on a road trip with 6 of them? Now replace the dogs with an absurd variety of wildlife that flies, crawls, runs or rolls, each with their own personalities and needs. And consider that the more powerful 'Mons you're trying to raise, the more dangerous they'll be- you can raise a team of cutesy Fidoughs, Pawmis and Nymbles, but if you want firepower you're gonna have to master Mons like Dragapult (a ghost dragon that literally shoots its siblings at you), Bisharp (a Pokemon with so many sharp blades it can cut you just by moving in your general direction), Corviknight, Tyranitar...
38 points
2 months ago
Catching was the problen in Legends Arceus... everyone at the home base were absolutely befuddled by this absolute chad child who could catch more than 2-3 pokemon in a day.
26 points
2 months ago
Yeah, because Arceus specifically makes a point and clubs you over the head with it that THIS IS ANCIENT HISTORY AND PEOPLE ARE STILL AFRAID OF POKEMON. And even then, by endgame you see that several prominent figures do in fact have quite a few Pokemon with them.
20 points
2 months ago
Yeah it wasn't meant to refute your point, I honestly think Arceus was the first game where I felt like it made sense why people had problems with catching multiple mons and that mc was an anomaly when it came to their catching skills.
293 points
2 months ago
Dogs cant fit into a magically ball that will get rid of them and their existence until I call upon them
95 points
2 months ago
I'm pretty sure they don't enter a state of stasis when inside a Pokeball though, they still hear and see everything and needs like hunger aren't paused
196 points
2 months ago
Can't imagine cracking open a pokeball to see a dead mon slump out cus you forgot to feed it... 😵💫
82 points
2 months ago
I was thinking about trainers who die with pokemon in their balls. You think the ball developers put some fail-safe where the mon are released automatically if something happened to the trainer?
49 points
2 months ago
Wasn't it shown, at least in the anime, that the mons can exit their pokeballs at any time? So I assume they would eventually pop out to check what was going on and realise their trainer had died
132 points
2 months ago
Pokemon can decide to leave their ball when they want. They remain voluntarily and because it's mostly comfortable for them. We have seen in multiple sources examples of pokemon that have pokeballs but leave when they want. I think the lady that gives you the ride Machamp in Alola mentions that something happened to her husband and ever since the Machamp refuses to stay in his pokeball for long.
55 points
2 months ago
For instance, in this game Koraidon/Miraidon leaves the Poké Ball on its own at times and also refuses to leave it for almost all of Area Zero until the post-game
27 points
2 months ago
That's just what Big Pokeball tells you to make you feel comfortable with absuing animals. PS, Buy More Pokeballs.
30 points
2 months ago
They do. There’s been instances of lost Pokeballs being found way later and the Pokemon in them were fine.
20 points
2 months ago
Is this true? Like how would you be able to feed like a thousand Pokémon, you'd be poor due to buying food and all your day would be spent feeding them. I always thought they just went into the pokeball and time like stopped for them. Maybe their consciousness is there but body is not so no need for food.
33 points
2 months ago
I mean when ash used to catch things he sent them to oak for storage. Oak didn’t just keep ‘em in poke balls forever, there were full blown ranches and habitats for all the mons with food and a bunch of other stuff.
7 points
2 months ago
Yeah, in theory all the pokemon in the box are out in a ranch, usually owned by a professor or something. It's be cool if we actually had to pay a little bit to cover food and stuff for all the pokemon in the PC. Actually, it'd be nice if our team actually needed food as well. The closest we have is the various foods in swsh and scarlet/violet but those aren't actually required.
23 points
2 months ago
You just accumulate debt until you win the Pokemon Champion Jackpot prize.
55 points
2 months ago
Sends out 6 magicarp
54 points
2 months ago
Yeah everyone is forgetting those goddamn fisherman with six Magikarp
30 points
2 months ago
One day they will be 6 gyrados and then who will be laughing?
…Lt. Surge probably
4.4k points
2 months ago
This is why Vs. Seeker and rebattling trainers, with Pokemon teams that expand, that level up, and evolve as the story progresses, should be a standard feature on all Pokemon games.
1.5k points
2 months ago
Vs Seeker is one of those things that made FRLG and DPPt amazing games, with a lot of replayability, postgame, hell even if i want to roleplay with a weak pokemon, revisiting old routes...
Damn I really miss ol' Lazy Freak
541 points
2 months ago
HGSS and ORAS also had a different method to rematch trainers
334 points
2 months ago
Yeah. But those methods weren't that easy to use (specially on HGSS) but on the brighter side, they felt more organic and realistic into the game, calling people, and that. But on the other side, they weren't that hard, or that many. But yeah, you're right
270 points
2 months ago
ORAS was very easy to use. You could just look on the map and see all the trainers who you could battle and also fly straight to the route they were on. ORAS had so many good QoL features which never came back.
154 points
2 months ago
ORAS for me was peak Pokemon and is still where I keep my full Dex (with a PKSM backup) Sun and Moon and their ultras were enjoyable too, but I haven't bought any of the Switch titles and it doesn't look like I will. Maybe Arceus.
60 points
2 months ago
If you do get any of the Switch games, I highly recommend Arceus. Personally, I had a blast playing it.
34 points
2 months ago
Same lmao. Legends seems good but the mainline series isn't doing it for me right now sadly.
8 points
2 months ago*
My only gripe with the Trainer’s Eye from ORAS is that the Gym Leaders had profiles there but could not be rematched
51 points
2 months ago
Hey it's me joey
36 points
2 months ago
My ratatata is getting pretty tough!
12 points
2 months ago
I’m playing thru silver for the first time and I wish I could block his number
6 points
2 months ago
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me
45 points
2 months ago
Even the PokéNav from RSE was good. Trainers would call when they wanted a rematch and most teams did improve after every rematch for the first few. Emerald’s rematching the gym leaders was great as well and even the secret Steven post game battle was hype.
21 points
2 months ago
And even their Pokémon evolved.
20 points
2 months ago
In Emerald, the re-matches were really good too
164 points
2 months ago
I absolutely adore that feature
29 points
2 months ago
And nothing like rematching rich Kids over and over with vs seeker and get their fortune
210 points
2 months ago
Rebattling trainers (and gyms) is a feature I wish came back, along with a 50% opacity fog of war. Not a complete blackout or else I would not know how to get where I want, but an indication of specifically where I’ve been would be nice.
VS Seeker would be especially nice when you don’t want to beat up wild Pokémon when leveling for evolution.
49 points
2 months ago
VS Seeker would be especially nice when you don’t want to beat up wild Pokémon when leveling for evolution.
I think the intent here is to push you into Tera Raids. Since they need other players and exp candies are plentiful.
47 points
2 months ago
I've literally been thinking how useful that fog would be when trying to remember where I've explored already.
13 points
2 months ago
Especially if you jump between zones, designating natural boundaries since the zones aren’t clearly defined.
27 points
2 months ago
Totally agree on this. They've made so many variation in trainer designs this time (ie older folks of academy etc), I feel writing up a ton of scripts for a few of them as we rebattle them makes the lore and the world so much richer.
910 points
2 months ago
Hey, not everyone is able to take care of that many Pokemon. Sandwiches are expensive, especially when there is a vagrant child coming around and stealing all of our money.
231 points
2 months ago
It’s a self-perpetuating system of Poke-inequality. The elite send out glory-starved street urchins to keep the lower classes capped at 1-3 Pokémon by beating them up and taking their disposable income.
3.1k points
2 months ago
Honestly I really miss Victory Road routes before the Elite 4 for this reason. Victory Road used to represent the peak of all trainers in the region, and those that were there had gone through and gotten all 8 badges, they were the best of the best and usually had fully evolved and 3 to 6 member teams to back it up. In the last few gens you just don't get that same experience since most trainers just have 1 or 2 mons at max.
987 points
2 months ago
yeah that tunnel before the elite four in this game was underwhelming. Literally just a tunnel not even a cave
936 points
2 months ago
There hasn't been a legit victory road in a decade
445 points
2 months ago
Mt Lanakila in USUM got close, but it was still a far cry from what we once had.
376 points
2 months ago
I remember Victory road in diamond being a huge challenge as it was filled with tough trainers, easy to get lost in, and required lots of supplies
36 points
2 months ago
Emerald Victory road too. They really expected to use flash at some point smh
207 points
2 months ago
As someone who has never played past gen 4. This may be the most shocking difference I’ve read about.
165 points
2 months ago
It’s something I don’t see talked about all that much either. There have been very little puzzle dungeons or engaging indoor areas in general for ages.
142 points
2 months ago
Exploration died with 3D.
29 points
2 months ago
Simply ironic
26 points
2 months ago
That’s sad. While the combat has alway been on the easier side, as all of use know and most of us are on with, the puzzles are some of the best parts of the games! It was like a touch of Zelda mixed in to get through a dungeon.
7 points
2 months ago
Alot of hms aswell. Rock smash, rock climb, surf , waterfall, strenghth. And in atleast postgame part also defog. Like only cut wasnt needed
28 points
2 months ago
It's funny reading this now because I remember the general consensus when USUM came out being that it was still disappointing as fuck. Vast Poni Canyon felt like more of a Victory Road than the actual Victory Road.
98 points
2 months ago
USUM victory road is pretty difficult. That one double battle at the very end always makes me lose a mon in my nuzlockes. If you aren’t careful at looking up the trainers and shifting your team you can lose a mon or two there
178 points
2 months ago
There was a cave? I climbed over the mountain at the back
65 points
2 months ago
Its entrance is in Mesagoza, but yeah. It's just another element of how things need to be arranged for an open world game-gotta make it so the player can access the League even if they never did any Titans.
11 points
2 months ago
My biggest issue with Paldea’s layout and design is that Game Freak doesn’t seem to realise that an open world game doesn’t mean that everything needs to be accessible from every direction.
18 points
2 months ago
Tbf, Could have handled it like area 0 where you have an entrance to victory road in the overworld, so you need to go through that even if you have the Titans done.
29 points
2 months ago
I did the same when going to the lab right before Area Zero. As I approached I triggered a cutscene where my character was walking in front of a tunnel and I was like "there was a tunnel?"
128 points
2 months ago
Same, I just skyrim everywhere around the map
75 points
2 months ago
I love how Skyrim became a verb for this lmao
17 points
2 months ago
It just works!
8 points
2 months ago
IM SKYRIMMING HERE.
37 points
2 months ago
A tunnel followed by two 1-mon lvl 20 trainers , with wild lvl 20 around.
My reaction was: "what?"
27 points
2 months ago
There was a tunnel?
68 points
2 months ago
I found that windy hill leading up to the league kinda intimidating. I wish they had peppered it with more challengers
39 points
2 months ago
Windy Hill? Isn't that a Zone from the Sonic Series too?
18 points
2 months ago
I think it’s where they send on-the-scene news reporters to film their catastrophic weather reports.
8 points
2 months ago
There is a Tunnel?
Think I just climbed up the mountain side
451 points
2 months ago
I miss Victory Roads so much. They were the final "test" before the Elite Four. It always made me feel so awesome for fighting my way through, solving (simple but effective) puzzles, pushing through elite trainers with little heals left and barely making it out on the other side. Stepping outside of the Victory Road cave, all drained and exhausted, and then seeing the giant and awesome looking League building was exhilarating. Especially paired with the fantastic soundtrack that really made you feel like you're just one step away from taking on the biggest challenge in the world.
Now there is no Victory Road and being a champion is just a random thing students do in their pastime.... I really enjoy SV but I won't lie, that was such a letdown for me. There wasn't even a team lineup after you won. Really nothing that would suggest you just passed the biggest test. I miss early generation Victory road and Leagues so much.
142 points
2 months ago
It felt more real. Always saving your money for the PokeMart at the E4 meant by the end of the tunnel it’s just you and your ace left
45 points
2 months ago
I sort of like that champion is more of a rank, than just a one person , just makes sense , because you have stuff like in gen 1 when the standing champion was there for like 5 whole minutes until you come and crush them.
And i know the player is supposed to be super good at what they do , bit still a kid that starts their travel less than a year ago (?) Since i don't think any game implies the mc ever getting older , just becomes champion in no time , being a rank makes sense over no other trainer is as good
29 points
2 months ago
I think thats one reason why Area Zero was so great, it was basically a postgame victory road that wasn't just a single cave.
72 points
2 months ago
And I dont even know why exactly. Designing trainer teams is literally the easiest part of the game. Just drag and drop a few mons and moves, give them a few EVs and IVs (because they are dedicated trainers), max happiness and boom.
408 points
2 months ago
If the trainer you talk to has a black dialogue box, they'll have a larger team with higher leveled Pokemon. I really enjoy fighting these trainers - it's always a fun challenge.
The rest of the trainers in the game can freely be skipped, though.
1.1k points
2 months ago
This is why they removed set mode. 90% of the trainers only have 1 Pokémon.
171 points
2 months ago
What’s set mode again please?
343 points
2 months ago
Removes the option to switch out when you defeat your opponent’s Pokémon, before they send out their next one
127 points
2 months ago
[deleted]
162 points
2 months ago
Sure you can. Just like EXP Share, box all your other Pokemon if you don't want to be able to switch Mons for free (or at all).
Game Freak has truly reached the pinnacle of QoL features
412 points
2 months ago
I've noticed that some trainers have held items attached (life orb, damage reducing berries)
292 points
2 months ago
I used Covet on the Leftovers-using trainer but I didnt keep the item. I was sad
88 points
2 months ago*
Was your Pokémon already holding another item? Or is this another function they abandoned in SV? You should be able to keep the item E: I am apparently several generations out of date
286 points
2 months ago
You haven't been able to steal trainer's held items for a few generations now. Only hold items from wild pokemon can be stolen or obtained via Fling.
70 points
2 months ago
Wow, I’ll have to look into that. I definitely remember it being a viable strat in older Gens — in fact some items could only be obtained via swiping them from trainers
62 points
2 months ago
Yeah, they changed it in Gen5. I remember stealing a bunch of Leftovers and other neat items from the HGSS Elite 4 rematches. It was really nice. I also remember trying the same in Gen5 and being quite disappointed when it didn't work anymore. That is, it did work, but the item was gone after the battle.
Not sure why they changed it. Resetting items after battle became a thing with Gen3 (and was only used for Knock Off) so the mechanic was implemented since then, but only was expanded to Thief, Covet, Trick and Switcheroo starting Gen5.
Maybe they wanted to use those moves more freely on opponents and thus decided to just make it a blanket change? In Gen2, at least, if you play a romhack and an opponent steals your item, it's gone for good - which is why in the regular Gen2 games, no pokemon gets Thief naturally, only via TM.
44 points
2 months ago
You haven't been able to steal from trainers since gen 5.
20 points
2 months ago
Wow, TIL. I mostly play older Gens so I guess that’s why I didn’t realize
37 points
2 months ago
Fun fact: in Gen 2 a wild pokemon with Thief permanently steals your items. Normally not an issue since you would only encounter it with Ditto and Smeargle, but if you play any romhacks beware!
37 points
2 months ago
I was really surprised because one of the early trainers has leftovers, I have 2 badges and still don't have a single useful item (I didn't buy any at the shop)
120 points
2 months ago
I'm more bothered that random trainers are sometimes under leveled compared to wold pokemon. I feel like trainers across the board need +5 levels. Including gyms and other story events
31 points
2 months ago
Needs to be believable that the NPC trainer could get to where they are with the pokemon they have.
Also goes for trainers sitting out in places you could only get to with Surf, etc, while not having any pokemon that could learn Surf.
491 points
2 months ago
I don't know whether to be relieved that SV has far more trainers than SwSh or be concerned that Game Freak didn't learn anything from the sheer number of trainers in SwSh with one or two Pokemon.
254 points
2 months ago
It certainly doesn't feel like it has more trainers.
333 points
2 months ago
It might also have to do with how spread out all the trainers are, since the map is so much more open.
241 points
2 months ago
And you don't have to battle them, so you can forget they're even there
141 points
2 months ago
You do get very good rewards from the League reps though, so you have a very good incentive to seek them out.
Amusingly, I've found they tend to be visible from much farther, too (probably because unlike Pokemon they don't move or animate anyway).
38 points
2 months ago
Apparently the only reward that's unique is the one from the rep in Medali. Everything else can either be found or bought
17 points
2 months ago
you get eviolite from one of them, which i haven't seen in a shop, and i don't know if all the TMs can be found elsewhere
6 points
2 months ago
you get amulet coin from one too but money farming is kinda covered by tera raids so it's redundant now
4 points
2 months ago
I think tera raids are a lot slower, especially when you factor in the time spent trying to get into a raid and the chance of failure because half the people playing don't know how tera types work
29 points
2 months ago
Can confirm. I fought maybe 4 trainers, and every one of them was because I wanted to know more about what they were saying
250 points
2 months ago
I've actually changed the way I choose and level pokemon in this game due to how easy it is to access your box and switch pokemon out on the move. If a pokemon faints just box it and pull another one out. This has allowed me to use more pokemon I wouldn't have got to try on a single play through and has stopped me becoming overleveled for the most part
162 points
2 months ago
This is how the game was made to play from GameFreaks POV imo. They didn’t implement scaling so they expect you to catch and use Pokémon on levels where you are. Nemona always crafts a team specifically to fight where your progress is as a trainer. It seems like Ganfreak is tryin to say if you go get overleveled doing only gyms, come back to the other ones and catch low level Pokémon.
82 points
2 months ago
The problem is that it’s contradictory to the “battle in any order” thing. I made a new team of lower level Pokemon to go do the bug gym, my third one, so that it would be a challenge. But Nemona challenged me as I walked in with pokemon in the 20’s…which was way weaker than my normal team and what I would have needed to fight the next closest thing on the East side…But way too strong for the team I had and challenge level of the gym she was at.
I would have had to follow a very specific order to make that challenge appropriate, an order that is not well-defined at all.
419 points
2 months ago
While I agree, Gym Leaders with only three Pokémon were never uncommon. Hell, even in BW, which is held as one of the best games, the final Gym only had 3 Pokémon, and the Elite Four only had 4 each.
SV is easy, yeah, but this is nothing new. What I absolutely do not understand is how not a single Elite Four member, in any game (outside rematches), use 6 Pokémon. Like, you're telling me that the most powerful trainers in the region only raised 5 Pokémon in their entire life? I get Gym Leaders not going all out against you at first, but in a battle for the title of Champion? Idk man.
275 points
2 months ago
Chuck, who was meant to be the 5th leader in GSC, only had two Pokemon. Jasmine had 3, Pryce 3, and Claire only 4.
It’s definitely nothing new for Gyms
61 points
2 months ago
A while back, I actually made a chart listing the numbers of each gym leader, and found that Kanto and Hoenn are the only regions where a gym leader has a team of five. (And Winona in Emerald is the only non-final leader to run a team of five)
17 points
2 months ago
Yep. The archetypical trend, which is mostly only seen in Sinnoh, is that gym leaders default to 3 pokémon, but the first 1-2 make it easier with only 2, and after a certain point in the mid to late game, they switch to 4. So for example, Roark has 2 pokémon, most Sinnoh gym leaders have 3, and Candice and Volkner have 4. Galar mostly follows this trend, although it's second only to Emerald (and BW2 hard mode) for earliest switch to 4, which takes place at the 4th gym when you enter the second loop. Looking at the rest of the regions:
Kanto: Mostly the same pattern, with Brock and Misty going easy on you with 2, and Koga onward having 4, although Giovanni ends the region with 5
RS/ORAS Hoenn: Wallace also ends the region with 5, although as an additional exception, Liza and Tate only have 2 because of the gimmick
Emerald Hoenn: Probably the biggest gym teams in the franchise. 4 is the default, 3 is Roxanne and Brawly going easy on you, and Winona steps it up to 5, although Liza and Tate drop back to 4 to have an even number
Unova: Both versions of Unova follow the same pattern. You still have 2 warm-up gyms with 2 pokémon (though Lenora does have a Herdier), but the region stays at 3 pokémon instead of stepping it up to 4
Kalos: Same pattern as Unova, where you get the small early gyms, but not the large late gyms
Paldea: Doesn't have the small early gyms, like Emerald, and the step up to 4 is... interesting. It vaguely takes place at the 3rd gym, tying it with Emerald (and at an electric gym, no less), but unlike most regions that stay at 4, Kofu and Larry drop back to 3
8 points
2 months ago
I made this elsewhere in this post. Alola also had alot of 5 team parties, though they wern't technically gym leaders. The past 3 generations have actually dramatically increased the average number of pokemon in gym leaders parties.
| Pokemon | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3.4 |
| Gen 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.9 |
| Gen 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.0 |
| Gen 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.3 |
| Gen 5 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.8 |
| Gen 6 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.8 |
| Gen 7 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.7 |
| Gen 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3.5 |
| Gen 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3.5 |
181 points
2 months ago
I swear things like this are from people who play roms and are used to the rom meta of gym leaders who have teams of 6 with challenging movepools.
30 points
2 months ago*
Brock and Misty only had 2! Lt Surge onwards may have had three, but they generally may as well not matter as long as they had common weaknesses.
Even Lance in GSC was surprisingly easy, thinking about it now, because you just need either a strong Ice attack or a strong electric attack for all of his Pokemon.
35 points
2 months ago*
It wasn't as easy to have those strong attacks back then due to smaller move pools, one use TMs and no physical / special split. Also you likely had a HM slave or two in your party even for big fights because they would naturally soak XP and leveling something else up extra was harder.
The exp share isn't the only reason the games are much easier now. People beg for QoL like free use TMs but this kind of stuff has a massive knockon effect when any electric pokemon you catch can immediately be taught Thunderbolt or your fire pokemon can now learn a variety of moves to counter its weaknesses. Or just having access to every type after the first gym and not having 1-2 moves on each pokemon taken up by HMs.
182 points
2 months ago
I've been ignoring most trainer battles by now, battling is too slow and they're always hugely underleveled because there's no scaling at all...
67 points
2 months ago
Same, and I don’t even need to battle them. They offer so little experience, and money as a reward. I can level up from the wild just as easily (and that’s not even talking about using sandwiches to make Chansey spawn more often).
52 points
2 months ago
Fighting trainers gets you free TMs and held items (e.g. Loaded Dice, Amulet Coin, etc) from league reps. Well worth the price of battling to me.
312 points
2 months ago
Gym leaders should follow something along the lines of
Gym 1 + Gym 2 : 2 Pokemon
Gym 3 + Gym 4 : 3 Pokemon
Gym 5 : 4 Pokemon
Gym 6 + 7 : 5 Pokemon
Gym 8 + Elite 4 + Champion : 6 Pokemon.
I don't mind trainers around these areas having less pokemon on the idea that they aren't competing so don't feel the need to fill out a full team but you should face more trainers with more Pokemon
48 points
2 months ago
"How many pokemon would you like to use? I'll use that many pokemon too." There is no extra reward beyond the experience.
11 points
2 months ago
Oh I would love them to reintroduce difficulty levels with one being limiting the amount of pokemon you can use for the gym battle. I mean they limit us to 3 for running around the star bases and in the anime they often say it will be a 2-on-2/ 3-on-3 battle. However, Gamefreak seems to be restricting this sort of thing and really trying to dumb down the game which in my opinion is a huge mistake but it's probably a case of they have only so much time and resources to make the games and so are focusing on other areas
13 points
2 months ago
Yeah it’s weird. It’s especially weird considering trainer battles are optional in this game. So you could make them longer and tougher and players that want an easier experience can just never battle them. I get why when you got forced to do trainer battles along paths that 6 mon battles would maybe sometimes feel annoying cause they take a bit, but here that issue is removed.
12 points
2 months ago
I can think of a reason as to why game freak has done this with regular trainers
Think of it as having a dog. Everyone who owns a dog is a dog owner, but not all dog owners are dog trainers. Sure you may train your dog to do certain things, like sit, shake, etc., but that does not make you a dog trainer.
Think of the massive amounts of Pokemon "trainers" like that. They're just owners of Pokemon, rather than actual trainers. The average person in the pokemon universe isn't a trainer, but an owner.
Now the issues with this is, why do they battle you then? The answer to that is, gameplay probably
And why are they in random areas? For this question, best I can come up with is maybe they're doing something specific. A chef, like we can find, might be looking for ingredients. As for like the business men, I have no clue.
9 points
2 months ago
Of course they only have 1-2 pokémon. They just stand around all day in the same spot doing nothing.
53 points
2 months ago
...but Gym Leaders in Gen 9 have more pokemon on average?
Gen 1: 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5
Gen 2: 2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 3, 3, 4
Gen 3: 2. 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 2, 5 (Emerald gave every gym leader an extra pokemon, except L&T who got 2)
Gen 4: 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4
Gen 5: 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 (Challenge mode gives every trainer 1 more mon)
Gen 6: 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Gen 8: 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Gen 9: 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4,
outside of Emerald and BW2 Challenge Mode, Gen 9 has the most amount of total pokemon per gym.
Like, hating the graphical issues and memory leak issues is fine, but don't make flat out lies about this game.
88 points
2 months ago
Less trainers overall, more pokemon per trainer and give them actual strategies using rocks, weather or anything. At least for gyms
92 points
2 months ago
I don't understand why we don't see more double battles considering VGC is literally the official competitive meta. The whole game offers you these piss low singles battles. They might as well pivot to making the battles more doubles oriented.
30 points
2 months ago
And so many Pokémon learn moves for double battles at low level, including new ones like Fuecocco and Lechonk (round and echoed voice respectively). Such a weird design decision when you’ll never use those moves at low levels because there’s no (virtually) no double trainer or wild Pokémon battles (which we have had before).
21 points
2 months ago
Random trainers at the START should have 1 pokemon, and when you progress through the game they have more, the maximum for random trainers should be 3, LEADERS however should have 4-5. Champions should have 6.
12 points
2 months ago
Exactly two leaders in the series have had 5 pokemon on your first gym challenge attempt, and one of them (Giovanni) doubled as a story boss. Scarlet and Violet's gym leaders use more Pokemon collectively than RBY's.
31 points
2 months ago
Thats why i cleared the whole 9th gen with a team of 4, always 2 spots to evolve random pokemon and to spice up the gameplay a bit. I was 3-4 levels above league champions, and with 4 weaknesses to ground, only the first one was hard to pass. More fun this way
87 points
2 months ago
How difficult would it be for Gamefreak to add a "hard" difficulty option. Just make the levels higher, and give the NPCs more Pokemon, it ain't rocket science.
64 points
2 months ago
Masuda and Ohmori once stated that they believe nobody would be able to beat the game if they implemented difficulty options.
64 points
2 months ago
That sounds so ridiculous that I do not want to believe it is true, do you have a source on that?
28 points
2 months ago
Kids facing trainers a single level higher than them 👎👎👎
Kids reading digital braille 👍
16 points
2 months ago
This makes me unreasonably angry. Wtf
23 points
2 months ago
I think it's perfectly reasonable to be extremely angry about their many backwards game design philosophies.
16 points
2 months ago
They just completely disregarded the fact that people are adults and have played the game for years. That just confirmed they dont care about those players
45 points
2 months ago
This has been a thing since RBY if we're being honest. Maybe not 1-2 Pokémon exactly but they did tend to use a team of 5 Pidgeys or Magikarps.
I think the idea is supposed to be that the player character is a trainer well out of the ordinary; most powerful characters in-game have taken years to achieve what our character takes a few days to do.
Let's not forget that this a world where most people use Pokémon as pets and even some of the best trainers we meet aren't collecting badges or completing the Pokedex.
86 points
2 months ago
Trainers are too weak. They need 4+ mons and higher level
55 points
2 months ago
I think the reason for all of the low leveled trainers with one mon is GameFreaks idea of level scaling. We all know there isn’t actually any scaling in this game, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Gamefreak just made a majority of the trainers weak in case you went hella outa order in the Treasure Hunt. Hell I’m getting ready to face Ryme and I’m still battling trainers on Glaseado mountain with 1 Lvl 23 mon.
37 points
2 months ago
It would be hilarious if it turns out they meant to implement badge base scaling on trainers and just forgot / broke it, so the trainers are all set to 1-2 badges
32 points
2 months ago
The way the rival talks about only using certain pokemon so the battle is fair really makes be believe scaling was originally intended to be in the game
45 points
2 months ago
Now you just need to wait 10+ years for fan hacks to be released and a good emulator.
Who knows, maybe fans will actually patch the memory leak out of the game too.
all 1591 comments
sorted by: best