>>33357176Reusable TMs were one of the most positive and welcome changes to the series. You can tell how much it changed the games for the better when you go back to an older game and have to deal with the old TM system again.
As far as difficulty is concerned, I don't really think the old limitations were so much difficult as they were frustrating, and that's just fake difficulty at best. If the game punishes you for using a feature, it just makes you not want to use it at all. After all, how many TMs were left sitting in the bag because players wanted to save them? How is a feature like that even functional at that point?
Reusable TMs give you more freedom in planning your movesets, and not only does that contribute to greater variety, it actually tests your battling skills because you're tested on applicability. You have access to all these moves, now let's see how well you use them in practice.
>>33357845Whether it's going out of your way or not, isn't it better for the game to offer you different difficulty options that you're in no way bound to but not punished for, either, than to back you into a corner so you have to make a choice? If there's a conceivable way to control the difficulty and tailor it to your needs, that can only be a good thing because it means there's no "intended" way to play it in the first place.
>>33358931I actually agree with this. It was always a bit annoying having to sacrifice a move slot in order to advance through an area, but gen 4 really was the tipping point. Until then, HMs were a decent concept, at least on paper, but they took it too far in Sinnoh.
At least Surf and Fly were useful in battle, plus they were the ones you'd use the most out in the field. But when a lot of them were only used in maybe one or two locations, it was more frustrating than anything.
At the end of the day, I think Poké Ride was the best and most logical solution for this problem, and I hope it sticks around.
