Did anyone not like the leveling of older games?

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Zeldapsychology

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I believe this IS a viable discussion! We are nearly 20yrs. of games surely you have stories of those pre E4 levelings. Or you SUCK at Pokemon and get to the E4 with 1 or 2 50's and the rest teens. I SUCK at the series it seems. So discuss your views on the leveling system? I HATE it in the old games. It's making finishing post game SS and Pre E4 Platinum a HUGE CHORE!
 
I know a lot of people seemed to have pacing problems in Gen 2. I don't know whether this was related to levelling up, but I didn't find levelling up in that game too difficult. Exp points stayed constant for each enemy, and there weren't as many moves back then, I guess. (Travelling along Route 40-41 was tedious, though, due to all that Tentacool/Tentacruels.)

Levelling up in Gen 5 was really annoying. There were too many wild Pokemon that would 1-2HKO my Pokemon (esp between Route 4-9), and for all that trouble, they gave out much less exp that what would have been reasonable, and even less if you're a level above the wild Pokemon. Audino had an unreliable encounter rate, and wasn't annying in itself to defeat as well. I needed that Lucky Egg to actually gain anywhere near adequate exp. That was one game where Gen 6's Exp Share could have helped.
 
Yeah BW was hard in terms of training, for some reason didnt have the same problem in Black2
 
I'm replaying FRLG right now and I think the levelling is a real pain before the first and second gyms - their 'top' pokemon are almost 10 levels higher than the local wildlife and your own pokemon don't come close at the time (Brock's Lv14 Onix and ESPECIALLY that Starmie of Misty's). By the time I reach the S.S. Anne I realise just how much X and Y's experience share and capture Exp makes the games more enjoyable by making the level pacing less of an issue.
 
To be honest, it's not that bad. Yes, the level curve was steeper back then, but it added to the challenge! Not that there was much due to bad AI, but the curve was fine.
 
Solayoh said:
Yeah BW was hard in terms of training, for some reason didnt have the same problem in Black2
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Weirdly I was just thinking the same thing. In White I had to power level my Musharna to finally get through, but I don't remember having to go out of my way like that in Black 2.

As for other games, I still don't completely understand what was going on in gen 2. It was like level barely even mattered after a certain point. I distinctly remember beating Red with ~level 60 pokemon (and bear in mind I was using Ledian, Beedrill, and Noctowl on that team). I've redone the game before and it always turns out the same (beating E4 with 35-40 pokemon, using trainers in Kanto to get them in the 50s, and then going for Red). Silver version is just weird I guess.
 
Is it just me, or is Platinum's leveling BRUTAL? I'm stuck with Level 45s at Cynthia (where I am stuck right now), because everything seems absolutely barren of experience. I only get level ups once every couple of trainer battles for INDIVIDUAL POKEMON. It is ridiculous. It even applies to my traded over Honchkrow.
 
I had the most trouble with gen II, where at a certain point wild pokemon don't seem to lvl up (I think it's between the 4th and 7th gym), and the whole lvling curve just felt odd. And I had the most trouble in pokemon Black/White, where for some reason my pokemon would just not lvl up at all. In pokemon Platinum, lvling was a bit hard too, but luckily the VS Seeker helped out a big deal there.
 
Strangely I was thinking about this the other day. Well here is my thoughts.

Gen 1 was OK for me, not too fast and not too slow. Though being the first gen it didn't have anything else we could base it on. Pikachu was just a little annoying for me to level because it kept on dying.

Gen 2, I found this one easy at first but a couple of the gym leaders were painful to beat. The elite four were easy though which was annoying.

Gen 3 had a nice pace to it through Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald which made the game good to play. FireRed and LeadGreen were a little tougher but not too bad.

Gen 4 was a bit of a pain to be frank about it. The game play was so slow in which made it really tough to level up because battles were dragging on. Platinum was worse but SoulSilver and HeartGold didn't feel as bad.

Gen 5 had Black and White which felt slow too but not from the game play. Some of the Pokemon like Moona seemed to just get crushed easy. Black 2 and White 2 were better I can't put my finger on why. I think I need to replay them.

Gen 6 I feel is a bit too kind to you in the level up aspect of the game. I had a Lv 74 Charizard and Lv 76 Greninja before I hit the elite four. That to me is a bit too much for one game. The leveling has been made too easy.
 
I think leveling in Gens I and II are the worst/most difficult. Gen I doesn't have the EXP bars and none of the Trainers bar the Elite Four are able to be re-fought after the initial battle, which means grinding in Victory Road if you aren't at the right levels for the League.

Gen II has horrendous level arrangement for wild Pokémon, with the highest being level 40 at Mt. Silver, and by that point your team's probably already in the 50s-60s. The Trainers aren't too bad (though lack of rematches outside of PokeGear calls is severely hampering). I do recall getting to high levels by running though the Elite Four and SS Aqua multiple times (back when you could actually rematch the Trainers there each time, as opposed to HGSS).
 
I didn't mind it. There just weren't enough decent training spots outside of the E4 in some of the older games.
 
You know, I never noticed an issue until I played black and white. I think it's because getting back into the series, I expected way too much. I lost interest in B/W and saw it simply as a way to catch legendaries. Anyway, I hated leveling in Black. Guess I just wasn't invested in it.
 
The EXP system was perfectly fine pre-4th gen (although GSCHGSS really did have bad pacing, but that was a fault of the region design and the levels that they set for the wild Pokemon and trainers more than it was the actual EXP system). It only really became a problem in 5th and 6th gen with EXP being given based on levels and the EXP Share respectively, those things threw off the balance and made the grinding either too easy or too hard. Also neither of them had trainer rematches outside of gimmicks (most of which were limited in some way), so that made it harder to find a way to train.
 
I'm playing through Platinum (just got it a few days ago) and I completely agree, the leveling is painful. Might just rush through with my starter to get the legendaries I need to transfer over.
 
I feel that Generation 6 overcompensated for the difficulty of leveling in previous generations. There was that team-wide Experience Share and the Battle Chateau which always had new trainers to battle. Fun, but far too easy. On the other end of the spectrum, however, I'm playing through Platinum right now and dear God, is it painful to level up. At least with Sapphire I had the Trainer's Eyes so I could actually find trainers who would fight me again. This running around with a Vs. Seeker is truly obnoxious.

It's challenging, but it's also kind of annoying in the game. RS got it right with the Trainer's Eyes, IMO.
 
I always hated leveling in Pokemon, and most games actually. So Gen VI is a blessing to me when it comes to raising competitive teams.

In past gens I seemed to always have that one Pokemon that would be extremely behind the rest of my team in terms of levels, so it would usually end up as being the HM'mon of the team.
 
I personally prefer the newer system becuse, since I am a VGC player first and foremost, I usually only level up my 'mons to Lv. 50.
 
I've noticed this, too. GSC and their remakes had the worst distribution of levels ever. I must've spent hours in Mt Silver just TRYING to get above Lv 60, and I STILL haven't gotten there yet (though, to be fair, I pretty well gave up on them by that point). Gen IV had a very slow pace, too, but at least it was bearable to me, as the Vs Seeker helped a lot (plus, extra cash!), though once you got to Victory Road, it slowed down again. It could be especially tough when you considered Cynthia's Pokemon, so you had to be ready for them or you're history.

White and Black were a bit on the slow side at times, especially since they changed the system. I admit, I spent most of my early routes hunting down Audino for a quick boost, as the Gym Leaders could be brutal if unprepared (I'm lookin' at you, Watchog with Retaliate!). B2W2 seemed to fix that issue a bit, though I did have some problems, but not as bad as BW, but it was doable.

XY really alleviated the problem with the full-team EXP Share and the Battle Chateau. A bit too much, though, I admit. While it was nice to level up all my teammates in one swoop, along with a great training ground like the Battle Chateau, I did end up grossly overleveled at times (a Greninja by the time I got to Grant, for example). That was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the form that no teammate was left behind and you didn't burn as much battery life, but a curse that it made the games a bit too easy. However, since they reverted back to the original EXP system, I call it a fair enough trade-off.

But yes, I did notice that some of the earlier games had bit of an off-kilter EXP curve. Hopefully ORAS will find a better balance between the earlier gen's slow pace and the current gen's almost too easy system.
 
CynthiaLover said:
White and Black were a bit on the slow side at times, especially since they changed the system. I admit, I spent most of my early routes hunting down Audino for a quick boost, as the Gym Leaders could be brutal if unprepared (I'm lookin' at you, Watchog with Retaliate!). B2W2 seemed to fix that issue a bit, though I did have some problems, but not as bad as BW, but it was doable.
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I did notice this too on my current playthrough with Black 2. Level-grinding in my Black 1 playthrough (Dec '13 - June '14) was difficult as heck even with Audino - I'd be lucky if I could get even 1/3-1/4 of the EXP required for levelling up. Audino-farming in my current playthrough of Black 2 seem better - they usually give out 1/3 as a bare minimum, and a couple of times my Pokemon gained 2 levels in a single battle. (And this is when most other aspects being the same/similar.) I wonder if Audinos in BW2 give out more EXP than in BW1...
 
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