Do you think Game Freak is focusing more on beginners now than the regulars?

[Samster]

Let’s just face the facts, ever since Pokemon Sun and Moon came out, the quality of Pokémon games are dwindling. To me, it seems like they’re forgetting about the people who have played Pokémon since the beginning, and are trying to focus more on the new generation. I don’t know, just the overall style of the game and how the games were put together makes me think that. Do you guys think Game Freak is focusing more on newbies than regulars now?

 

[NATT44]

Yes, this may be true; but you also may be wearing some nostalgia glasses.
Everything about Pokémon (and many Nintendo games, but with many exceptions) is designed to be accessible. That's one reason Nintendo/Pokémon is so popular. Every game has catered to new players in some way, and fan service in the series is sort of limited.
Think about it - the games have never been very difficult. The mechanics have never been very complex. The game never misses a tutorial. The Pokémon games are aimed at younger audiences, and as the current audience ages and becomes more critical, inevitably we will cease to experience new games the same way we used to.
That being said: I'm wearing the same glasses as you. In my opinion, Pokémon peaked in generation IV. Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum (and (HG&SS) featured the perfect roster of Pokémon, a near perfect difficulty curve, a relatively mature storyline and plenty of content, but that's my opinion and nothing more.
In some ways, the quality of the games has gone down. We haven't had a really good battle frontier in a bit, and many players dislike certain changes like the in-battle type effectiveness checker or whatever you want to call it. (but again, that's just to help new players)
Inevitably, we, the players, will grow up. We become more critical of what we play as time goes on - after all, life is short. And to that end, we may have left Pokémon behind. In the end, Pokémon hasn't changed all that much, but maybe you have.

 

[Shiny]

Maybe a little bit but Pokemon has always been made for both experts and beginners. There are always tutorials everywhere in the begininng of the game then after that you are pretty much free to do as you please, with no tutorials. Pokemon Sun and Moon were definitely more beginner friendly than Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Sun and Moon were really easy in my opinion. Diamond and Pearl gave a perfect level of difficulty.

 

[NATT44]

Maybe a little bit but Pokemon has always been made for both experts and beginners. There are always tutorials everywhere in the begininng of the game then after that you are pretty much free to do as you please, with no tutorials. Pokemon Sun and Moon were definitely more beginner friendly than Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Sun and Moon were really easy in my opinion. Diamond and Pearl gave a perfect level of difficulty.

I have to agree with you there; Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (and Platinum) nailed the difficulty curve. I usually hear people complain that these games were actually too hard, especially in the Elite Four and Champion, but I thought they had the perfect level of challenge for both beginners and returning players.
Maybe it stems from my drive as a completionist, but I find that the later games lose the difficulty/challenge balance. At some point between generations IV and V, there were just TOO many Pokémon. This eventually meant that catching all 500-800 monsters was nearly impossible even after hundreds of hours. Yeah, the new catch 'em alls are simply brutal.
Compare this with the newer gym battles (or lack of gym battles, these days) in generation V and later - they just don't have the same challenge level, variety, and overall appeal seen in generations II and IV (exception: generation V Pokémon league was excellent) so the balance is lost.

 

[Artisan]

The only Pokémon game I never had all my party Pokémon faint was Ultra Sun although I used a lot of items and almost got close to losing it was a fair challenge. Totem Pokémon made the game much more difficult and fun but more fair because the unique variety of types and Z crystals available from the beginning of the game. Also note you have to face Necrozma instead of capture him and you get to fight Red or Blue before you get in the Battle Tree. Red's battle alone allowed you to have a fair fight if you kept Pokémon from the beginning of the game as your levels would be slightly lower if not equal to his granted you can use Ultra Beasts and Legends even if it's not required, same with the Evil team bosses so it depends on how you wanted to play.

Diamond and Pearl's Gym Battles, beginning of the game Galactic Admins and Elite Four/Champion were hard even with Full Restores and Revives depending on what your team was but you could still bring the cover legend along making the game way easier especially in Platinum where you use Giratina against Lucian.
HeartGold and Soulsilver was easier but you had a way harder time catching Lugia and Ho-Oh making you probably resort to your Master Ball. Sure Red was a challenge but you built up to that moment by battling all the trainers in Kanto which had higher level mons. Still if you wanted an even more difficult match you'd go up against the Battle Frontier brains but it'll take you forever to get ready unless you wanted to transfer mons. Still harder than RSE imo.

Black and White had a high difficulty although after you beat N and Ghetsis, Alder was a lackluster Champion and you can train every day if you wanted to level up mons and the Battle Subway bosses were easier but I am not sure about he Super versions. The Wifi Train is probably the hardest and unavailable so it feels bad you can't do that. Also Cynthia and Morimoto and your rivals had some challenge for any casual fan.

BW2 had the PWT and that's all I have to say about that and I never played it.

XY was super easy end of discussion but the focus was more on catching every Pokémon and exploring a 3D world.

So I think overall it was easier the later you go but made up for it in USUM by limiting what mons you get and what harder trainers you challenge (even though healing is everywhere it wasn't necessary).

 

[Kadaj]

Let’s just face the facts, ever since Pokemon Sun and Moon came out, the quality of Pokémon games are dwindling. To me, it seems like they’re forgetting about the people who have played Pokémon since the beginning, and are trying to focus more on the new generation. I don’t know, just the overall style of the game and how the games were put together makes me think that. Do you guys think Game Freak is focusing more on newbies than regulars now?

while i do agree with this, i also think that nintendo is making them easier seeing as how older people who want time to play the games whenever possible lack the required time it took to grind/ level in older games and does this to make finishing easier and less time consuming. but since pokemon is supposed to be kid friendly, theyre also thinking about the newer players and to make it short and to the point, its all about making the games as user friendly as possible in terms of nintendo's recent stuff on the nintendo switch (even the wii u seemed to have this as a core focus with the games, no pokemon here but look at super mario 3d world where they give you the option to use an infinite invincibility power if you die a certain number of times in a level, not pokemon obviously but just an example for the purpose of the topic). mario odyssey gave us assist mode, and now pokemon games are letting the player power up with mega evolution and the more recent z power stuff along with an optional affection feature (this helps greatly levelling in sun/moon and ultra, it wasnt really necessary in oras and x/y but the option was still there). im assuming there will be even more ways to level up fast and easily in the upcoming lets go games as well, though im not sure what as of yet