

Before, a sudden Pokémon fight could set you back hours of progress, but you always knew where to go next and what to expect and could prepare accordingly.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have open worlds, and it lends a feeling of unpredictability to their difficulty. However, the newest entries in the Pokémon franchise take that concept to the extreme, with differing results.

And with a larger world with more to do, getting around those walls was less of an issue. You’d be hard-pressed to hit many walls in Pokémon Sword and Shield until at least the last few Gyms. However, recent titles have added more ways to train your Pokémon, introduced new types and moves to create more balance, or generally made the games easier. Many earlier titles have sharp teeth, tremendous difficulty spikes, and some borderline unfair sections, probably partially due to developer inexperience. While Pokémon has undergone some changes over the years, one of the largest is to its difficulty curve.
