- Joined
- Dec 15, 2009
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A hot take arising from another thread - as much as I miss it, I completely understand why the Emerald-style tough Battle Frontier no longer exists in quite the same way. It was a wonderful new mini-region to explore, but the difficulty was probably a little misjudged; if a typical 12-year old player would significantly struggle to defeat the Brains with only the information provided by the game itself (i.e, no substantive reference to EVs, IVs, STAB and the like), Game Freak do have to seriously consider whether developing such content is time well-spent. It doesn't help that each facility is more than a little grindy before you can make your way to the interesting fights with actual personalities.
I was 11 when Emerald came out, and I couldn't even get past the first few trainers in the Battle Frontier. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't earn money or experience points, and couldn't use Rayquaza. The worst thing of all, though, was that once my team members reached level 51 I could only use them against level 100 opponents. The whole experience left quite a bad taste in my mouth, and I've disliked battle facilities ever since.