I think another full on double battle game could be fun.
After nuzlocking XD, things can drop fast if you lead with something disadvantageous. And even if you lead perfectly, you rarely can steam roll everything without taking damage; something on their side usually lives and counter attacks
If you want a more challenging experience playing Pokémon, choose weaker team members.
That's literally it. The games have had built-in difficulty since day one.
Just give the opponents actual strategies. The GameCube titles are perfectly fine with how difficult they are, for example. Gen 7 also attempts this, to varying degrees of success.
Orre-like region with few overworld pokemon available to catch. Make the campaign teach players how to play the meta instead of relying on leveling as the sense of progression. Include a generation of starters and early-route mons which only evolve in conjunction with an in-game event, rather than when they reach a set level, and whose movepools are limited to a couple of common sets.
Implement about half single and half double battles in the main game, with an option to have your team arranged with your singles lead vs your two doubles lead if you don’t want to use the same pokemon in both.
Have the doubles battles generally consist of matches against 1 pair of pokemon with ONE strategy commonly used in VGC. Around midway through the game start having doubles against opponents with 4 mons total so that they can begin showing off progressively more advanced strategies. Similar for singles—make good use of hazard/weather setters, baton passers, knock-off, etc., and progressively set up more well-rounded teams. Eliminate traditional hand-holding from dialogue and obstacles and instead be *initially more* hand-holdy in the gameplay of battles by forcing players to rotate through a curriculum of particular strategies to overcome opponents; treat every battle like a puzzle to be solved, and let that be the theme of hints for the generation.
Encourage players to lose; have plenty of large areas with optional battles, but make sure to have some mandatory corridors and boss/gym fights to cover a core curriculum of battle strategies requiring mastery of simpler setups before the harder ones are available. Have players’ teams fully heal between battles (win or lose) and restore any used up held-items. Reduce the emphasis on currency and randomly generated one-time use items; have deliberately-placed hold items accessible in the overworld right around the time they become relevant.
Open up free exploration and diversity of available mons after the game has finished teaching you the meta. Do away with EVs and IVs; use some kind of super-training minigame you can do at any time in place of EVs from battles. Use a system like battle teams for individual pokemon, enabling players to save different runs of moves+stat spreads for a single given mon.
Once players have access to unrestricted exploration and free infinite tools to tweak their teams with zero grinding, grant access to the game’s wormhole/crystal cavern gimmick: access to missions with randomly generated rare encounters + npc battles where you can’t adjust your team until you either reach the mission’s end or lose, and now you DO have to worry about healing items, PP, and lingering status conditions. This is the only place to catch gimmick mons.
If you import a pokemon via Home from another copy of the game which has cleared the main story and mandatory gauntlet of educational battles, you can immediately access the full post-game. Pokemon passed forward from the Poke Transporter/etc. similarly unlock post-game areas which correspond to generation-/region-inspired missions and team fodder that you would normally have to clear main game objectives for.
Continue to produce “traditional” pokemon games alongside this new category which still follow the mainline game formulas, and make them at least as difficult as Sun/Moon, but market them as if they’re the new Let’s Go games. Make a point of showing young children, old people, and casual-/non-fans playing them in ads. Let them import whatever they want from Go; release a poke-walker-like app which lets them take their team with them to battle their colleagues at work or school using the mainline game battle system. Restrict this from the new category of games for a little while so they don’t get their shit packed in by the other fanbase.
Open up free exploration and diversity of available mons after the game has finished teaching you the meta. Do away with EVs and IVs; use some kind of super-training minigame you can do at any time in place of EVs from battles. Use a system like battle teams for individual pokemon, enabling players to save different runs of moves+stat spreads for a single given mon.
Once players have access to unrestricted exploration and free infinite tools to tweak their teams with zero grinding, grant access to the game’s wormhole/crystal cavern gimmick: access to missions with randomly generated rare encounters + NPC battles where you can’t adjust your team until you either reach the mission’s end or lose, and now you DO have to worry about healing items, PP, and lingering status conditions. This is the only place to catch gimmick mons.
If you import a pokemon via Home from another copy of the game which has cleared the main story and mandatory gauntlet of educational battles, you can immediately access the full post-game. Pokemon passed forward from the Poke Transporter/etc. similarly unlock post-game areas which correspond to generation-/region-inspired missions and team fodder that you would normally have to clear main game objectives for.
Continue to produce “traditional” pokemon games alongside this new category which still follow the mainline game formulas, and make them at least as difficult as Sun/Moon, but market them as if they’re the new Let’s Go games. Make a point of showing young children, old people, and casual-/non-fans playing them in ads. Let them import whatever they want from Go; release a poke-walker-like app which lets them take their team with them to battle their colleagues at work or school using the mainline game battle system. Restrict this from the new category of games for a little while so they don’t get their shit packed in by the other fanbase.
Gym Leaders have more Pokemon based on when you fight them
3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6
No more monotype Gym leaders/Elite 4. Have them follow a theme that's not type based that results in one Pokemon spamming 1 move to kill them all.
3 pkmn- No EVs
4 pkmn- 25% max EVs
5 pkmn- 50% max EVs
6 pkmn- 75% max EVs
E4 all have 6 mons with max EVs
All Gym Leaders and E4 have Held items.
Some random trainers have Held items on their "ace"
Bring back Set mode as an option
No restriction on items, because kids need to be able to complete the games without a giant barrier. You can easily self-impose no items An NPC at the Pokemon Center that changes your Pokemon's natures.
the one thing I'd probably say to make it slightly harder is to make natures locked in to being what pokemon thinks is useful, as well as making the opposing trainer switch if it sees a move the current pokemon is weak to.
example: You have a Greninja with Water Shuriken, Surf, Ice Beam, and Dark Pulse. The opposing team consists of Magcargo, Clodsire, and Slowbro. Since Slowbro resists Surf, Water Shuriken and Ice Beam, it'd be switched in, even if it could be weak to dark pulse.
better ai
pvp
idk, maybe you are only allowed to use 5 items in a trainer battle but that idea probably sucks
I think another full on double battle game could be fun.
After nuzlocking XD, things can drop fast if you lead with something disadvantageous. And even if you lead perfectly, you rarely can steam roll everything without taking damage; something on their side usually lives and counter attacks
you force the player to triforce
▲
▲▲
epic fail
Make GL/e4/Champ battle's "Official Battles".
Set LV 25/50, no items, no friendship bonus, 3vs Singles and 4v4 for the one double Gym.
If you want a more challenging experience playing Pokémon, choose weaker team members.
That's literally it. The games have had built-in difficulty since day one.
Just put a hard mode.
Get ILCA to do the teams. They pulled no punches with BDSP's E4.
Just give the opponents actual strategies. The GameCube titles are perfectly fine with how difficult they are, for example. Gen 7 also attempts this, to varying degrees of success.
Orre-like region with few overworld pokemon available to catch. Make the campaign teach players how to play the meta instead of relying on leveling as the sense of progression. Include a generation of starters and early-route mons which only evolve in conjunction with an in-game event, rather than when they reach a set level, and whose movepools are limited to a couple of common sets.
Implement about half single and half double battles in the main game, with an option to have your team arranged with your singles lead vs your two doubles lead if you don’t want to use the same pokemon in both.
Have the doubles battles generally consist of matches against 1 pair of pokemon with ONE strategy commonly used in VGC. Around midway through the game start having doubles against opponents with 4 mons total so that they can begin showing off progressively more advanced strategies. Similar for singles—make good use of hazard/weather setters, baton passers, knock-off, etc., and progressively set up more well-rounded teams. Eliminate traditional hand-holding from dialogue and obstacles and instead be *initially more* hand-holdy in the gameplay of battles by forcing players to rotate through a curriculum of particular strategies to overcome opponents; treat every battle like a puzzle to be solved, and let that be the theme of hints for the generation.
Encourage players to lose; have plenty of large areas with optional battles, but make sure to have some mandatory corridors and boss/gym fights to cover a core curriculum of battle strategies requiring mastery of simpler setups before the harder ones are available. Have players’ teams fully heal between battles (win or lose) and restore any used up held-items. Reduce the emphasis on currency and randomly generated one-time use items; have deliberately-placed hold items accessible in the overworld right around the time they become relevant.
Open up free exploration and diversity of available mons after the game has finished teaching you the meta. Do away with EVs and IVs; use some kind of super-training minigame you can do at any time in place of EVs from battles. Use a system like battle teams for individual pokemon, enabling players to save different runs of moves+stat spreads for a single given mon.
Once players have access to unrestricted exploration and free infinite tools to tweak their teams with zero grinding, grant access to the game’s wormhole/crystal cavern gimmick: access to missions with randomly generated rare encounters + npc battles where you can’t adjust your team until you either reach the mission’s end or lose, and now you DO have to worry about healing items, PP, and lingering status conditions. This is the only place to catch gimmick mons.
If you import a pokemon via Home from another copy of the game which has cleared the main story and mandatory gauntlet of educational battles, you can immediately access the full post-game. Pokemon passed forward from the Poke Transporter/etc. similarly unlock post-game areas which correspond to generation-/region-inspired missions and team fodder that you would normally have to clear main game objectives for.
Continue to produce “traditional” pokemon games alongside this new category which still follow the mainline game formulas, and make them at least as difficult as Sun/Moon, but market them as if they’re the new Let’s Go games. Make a point of showing young children, old people, and casual-/non-fans playing them in ads. Let them import whatever they want from Go; release a poke-walker-like app which lets them take their team with them to battle their colleagues at work or school using the mainline game battle system. Restrict this from the new category of games for a little while so they don’t get their shit packed in by the other fanbase.
thank god you don't design games
Why? That design makes perfect sense for a player that knows nothing at the start to be able to learn and progress properly.
Enforce set style and remove the bag from trainer battles. That's it
Gym Leaders have more Pokemon based on when you fight them
3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6
No more monotype Gym leaders/Elite 4. Have them follow a theme that's not type based that results in one Pokemon spamming 1 move to kill them all.
3 pkmn- No EVs
4 pkmn- 25% max EVs
5 pkmn- 50% max EVs
6 pkmn- 75% max EVs
E4 all have 6 mons with max EVs
All Gym Leaders and E4 have Held items.
Some random trainers have Held items on their "ace"
Bring back Set mode as an option
No restriction on items, because kids need to be able to complete the games without a giant barrier. You can easily self-impose no items
An NPC at the Pokemon Center that changes your Pokemon's natures.
Define unfair.
the one thing I'd probably say to make it slightly harder is to make natures locked in to being what pokemon thinks is useful, as well as making the opposing trainer switch if it sees a move the current pokemon is weak to.
example: You have a Greninja with Water Shuriken, Surf, Ice Beam, and Dark Pulse. The opposing team consists of Magcargo, Clodsire, and Slowbro. Since Slowbro resists Surf, Water Shuriken and Ice Beam, it'd be switched in, even if it could be weak to dark pulse.
npcs are stupid but have a large statistical adavntage, literally just what the old games did.