>>52918064The most elegant way to implement it would be having the idea of some in-game "official ruleset" for formal matches (Gym Leaders, E4 and competitive trainers like Nemona) that would mandate no items in battle (maybe with the exception of Battle Items because then what would the point of them be, even though they're overpowered as shit) and set mode.
There's not really a point though, the only way to meaningfully make the games more difficult is self-imposed playstyles, better game design (managing the level curve, better sets) and most importantly better AI. The fact that Game Freak balances around just giving the AI less options instead of actually improving it is embarrassing. Penny's fight being a complete joke (even more than you'd expect from an Eeveelution team) because she just has all of her Pokémon spam Baby-Doll Eyes is inexcusable. You can't make the game harder if the game itself doesn't know how to play the game.
