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I've been occupied over the weekend and couldn't make updates on my revisit to XY, but it's been quite a journey. Lots of loss, but I'm still pushing through. At my lowest point both Mega Lucario and Nidoking carried me when I had nothing else.
I just finished the Team Flare and Yveltal arc, and Lucario pretty much sweeps everything at that point. There's really nothing Flare can do aside from Lysandre's Gyrados using Earthquake, or assuming your Lucario doesn't outspeed the occasional Houndoom. My run was almost perfect, but sadly I lost Crustle Herm near the end when Malamar got a boosted Superpower crit. Then shortly after I lost my Poliwrath Lily to critical hit Acrobatics from fucking Tierno of all people (how did he even get a Talonflame?)
I had some pretty sweet pickups near the end though, like a late game Sliggoo on Route 19, Zoroark in Pokemon Village, and of course Yveltal, which is fair game because there's nothing else to catch (aside from Hotel events) in Geosenge. It still feels dirty, but I'm out of flying options. Now all that's left is Wulfric and the League.
My impressions on difficulty are a bit different than others, as from this playthrough I don't exactly find the game "too easy." I play with Set mode rather than Shift, and only use experience share after replacing heavy hitters. Having your levels somewhat close can be interesting as mid-late game you run into stronger trainers, and there's so much coverage in this game, not even just from gym leaders. You think you're sweeping Clemont's gym with a ground type you caught in Glimmering Cave, but his Heliolisk ends up using Grass Knot. You really have to consider at all times whether a switch is good or not, and though variety is great, you can still end up with many redundant typings, and this further complicated things for me. I think this would be a good game for those interested level capping runs. IMO the problem is Exp Share contradicting the limited Pokemon that trainers have.
