>>38660673Bonus points:
BW had an actual reason to give each one only four Pokémon. During the League, the player fought one more boss with six Pokémon than expected—so they ended up facing six more Pokémon than usual, and Game Freak removed four (one per Elite) to compensate. The player still faced not only *as many* Pokémon in the League as usual but *more.*
There were, of course, other factors making it more lenient—the player could heal and was allowed to leave before N and Ghetsis—but N and Ghetsis were also fought consecutively with no chance to save, and the player also caught Reshiram or Zekrom before N with no chance to save unless they lost the first time, so it evened out to some extent; whether this was easier or harder than most Leagues is subjective.
In the postgame, when this doesn't apply, they also all had full rematch teams.
B2W2 also used four Pokémon per Elite, but at least Challenge Mode gave the option to rectify this in some cases, and they still all had full rematch teams for the postgame.
XY saw that BW got away with four Pokémon per Elite and ignored all of the reasons why it worked and why it was necessary. They also did not gain any Pokémon postgame.
(In my personal opinion, each Elite was also weaker than in BW anyway; the only one even worth acknowledging is Siebold. But I know this is subjective, so I'll rest my case on the other parts of my argument instead.)
Seriously, this was mishandled. I'm glad Alola went back to five-Pokémon teams.
