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every pokemon game has mechanics that make the game easier, the difference between gens 3-5* and gens 6+ is how many of those mechanics you have to ignore to make the game somewhat at challenging.
want emerald, platinum, or BW2 to be challenging? play on set, no items in battle, train a balanced team(which you should do anyway), and you’re good to go.
want to make XY or SM or, yes, USUM harder? do all of the stuff I just listed, but also turn off the exp. share, ignore amie/refresh, don’t use megas/z-moves, don’t super train, don’t use TMs, and then you might have to use your brain.
gens 8 and 9 prevent you from turning off the exp. share, so in addition to ALL the stuff mentioned previously, you’ll also need to constantly rotate team members and not use exp. candies.
if there was ever any metric that could prove pokemon has gotten easier, this is it.
*gens 1 and 2 are piss easy no matter what you do
