At least Brawly appears to have been seriously nerfed. Remember the latest trailer for ORAS? Well, for a split second, Brawly's Makuhita is seen at level 16. For reference purposes, it was level 18 in Ruby and Sapphire and level 19 in Emerald. And it's probably not because the ace is something else this time around, because CoroCoro basically confirmed Makuhita was still his ace a while back. Whether this is a one-off thing like Whitney was or a sign of a different level curve, who knows. Nerfing Whitney's levels did make sense, because not only was she the biggest That One Boss this series has ever seen, but Miltank was even given Scrappy and a Lum Berry as an added kick in the nuts. Brawly, however... much less so. And that's a three-level drop compared to Whitney's one. Definitely wondering how this'll all turn out.
Edit: Random suggestion. Remember how in Ruby and Sapphire, the Makuhita had Knock Off? Remember how it's now brutally powerful? Yeah, if we're going to fight that particular set I can see why they nerfed its level so much.
My guess is that someone working at Game Freak is a Cchuggaa Zombie and saw how much he struggled against Brawly in his Emerald LP. jk
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness though, I really hope they haven't toned down the difficulty. Hoenn is not a difficult region, only irritating due to the water.
Maybe they watch Game Grumps and saw how they took 3 tries still couldn't beat him.
DeleteHe wouldn't have struggled if he didn't poison the Makuhita...
DeleteTo be fair, his team was so weak and he chose the wrong moves so often that poison did a really large chunk of the damage. So much so that one can only wonder if he would've pulled it out without the chip damage.
DeleteBrawly is only difficult if you're nuzlocking, and even then he's only difficult if you don't train, and even THEN he's only difficult if you fight him immediately.
ReplyDeleteThey might railroad you to fight him before doing Granite Cave, which would explain the lower levels somewhat.
Or you could do it the wrong way and poison it, as Chuggaaconroy so helpfully demonstrated...
DeleteWell, even if the level curve is lowered, we're still talking about a mere two levels.
ReplyDeleteTHE HORROR!
Two levels this early in the game is pretty dang big, though. As I said before, at least with Whitney they had a REALLY good excuse.
DeleteTo be fair there aren't many trainers in between fighting Roxanne and Brawly... there's only the trainers you fight on Route 116 after getting HM Cut, and the trainers in Dewford Gym themselves. Unless you go to Slateport early.
ReplyDeleteBut even with that fact I don't think Brawly is too difficult for the average person.