Research Difficulty of games by pokemon levels

[twillight]

Listed every area's highest level pokemon in order of the walkthroughs are going.
Made 2 chart for every generation: one for the wild pokemons, one for the trainer-used pokemon.
Yet not tried to figure out how to mark totem pokemons for the ultra-games.

Also, no idea how the switch-games work, I heared they don't even have trainers in the anymore, so

Gen 1 has the most unique pattern, making a layed S-figure, and things are all-over the place.

Gen 2 is obviously way too flat, the wild pokemons making everything even worse.

Gen 3 seems to plateau its levelcurve right to the point of The League, where the difficulty spikes. There's also the postgame spike too.

Gen 4 is an interresting case. The trainer-battles seem to be in order, mostly, but it's like the game does not want you to bother with wild pokemons.

Gen 5-1 has obviously problem: the line doesn't really crawls up, and even flatlines around halfway. And The League's level is obviously crawling down.

Gen 5-2 seems to tried to fix 5-1 being way too easy, but its difficulty-graph being a straight line tells this game is still boring.

X/Y is just too easy. Nothing else to add there.

For the Ultra-games I feel the graph would tell more if the graphs would be scaled to the same X-Y length, and would benefit from showing the totem-spikes, which are bigger in actuality for their omni-boosts. It seems to be obvious though it's not just the levels anymore, but number and quality of the trainer parties.

 

[Volt-Ikazuchi]

It seems to be obvious though it's not just the levels anymore, but number and quality of the trainer parties.

Always has been. To be blunt, this is barely useful to identify level spikes.

Switch games do have trainers.
In SwSh they're in routes like usual, but not in the Wild Areas.
In SV, they're everywhere, but they're not mandatory anymore. They need to be talked to.

The bigger problem with a pure level analysis is that it doesn't take into account all the issues that have been making the games too easy nowadays.

For example, looking at this graph, you'd think XY doesn't have level curve issues. Then you turn on the Exp. Share and the game turns into mush. And that's not even counting the horrible movesets that only make the late-game easier because they also have no EVs AT ALL and little to no IVs for most trainers.

 

[KalosianPorygon]

For me, the level of wild Pokémon hardly matters in the game's difficulty. Yes, you can be beaten up by a Level 29 Dugtrio before facing Lt. Surge, but if it was, say, a Magikarp, this high-level opponent would've been easy to defeat.
Similarly, we all have heard of horror stories of wild Wobbuffet knocking out a key party member, but that's because of the species' Ability, stats, and moves, not the level.

Really, the best use of the wild Pokémon graphs is knowing how underleveled they are compared to major Trainers, and although the Johto games are the most infamous examples, Unova onwards have wild Pokémon of levels closer to the Elite 4's Pokémon, meaning you can use them against the last few major opponents without spending too much time grinding levels.

For example, looking at this graph, you'd think XY doesn't have level curve issues. Then you turn on the Exp. Share and the game turns into mush. And that's not even counting the horrible movesets that only make the late-game easier because they also have no EVs AT ALL and little to no IVs for most trainers.

Don't forget the player having access to Mega Evolution, including a free Kanto starter and a free Lucario, both with their respective Mega Stones. Inversely, Pokémon Colosseum is harder than most mainline Pokémon games because of the weak Pokémon you can obtain. Strong options matter too.