In the past few years, I have fallen increasingly out of love with the Pokemon franchise. Pokemon Sword and Shield were far too easy, and I found the new Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl to be the same. 

When I was a kid, Pokemon games were almost impossible to beat. I got my first DS when I was seven or eight and at that age, you don’t understand the whole “water beats fire” mechanic that is the basis for Pokemon. So you end up just struggling your way to the Elite 4 with your starter pokemon level to 90 and a Staravia you picked up on Route 1 until Cynthia destroys your team and you give up. 

The beauty of those early pre-3DS and Nintendo Switch Pokemon games is that they were hard. They were difficult to beat as a kid because you were young and stupid, but as you get older they’re still difficult. There’s an innate challenge to the game that makes them replayable. 

But for the new games, they almost force it to be easy. Experience points are distributed to your whole team without you getting a say or an ability to turn it off, gym leaders are total jokes, and you can beat the whole game in 10 hours without having to do anything that requires thought. 

Pokemon Legends: Arceus gave a refreshing new outlook to the series. Before and even after the release, I was extremely skeptical. I thought to myself, “Oh great, another 15-hour romp through a rushed game that is not nearly worth the $60 I’d pay for it.” I had only watched one trailer and, at the time, it hadn’t been all that interesting to me. However, I started hearing rave reviews from my friends. They were begging me to give it a shot, so I did!

This new entry to the series gave me everything I had been wanting. The world of Pokemon Legends: Arceus is enjoyably unforgiving. This is the first time the series has ever addressed the history of the Pokemon world and it’s also the first instance of the game presenting Pokemon as a real threat to your character. When I bought the game I didn’t picture myself running from a giant Alpha Bibarel to avoid getting knocked out, but I loved it. 

The game still holds on to some mechanics that I don’t love like the shared party experience, but the game makes fights much more challenging. Even if you’re facing a Pokemon 30 levels lower than you, there’s a good chance that if they nail your Pokemon with a super-effective move then your Pokemon is KO-ed. It feels invigorating to get beat down and have to return and approach a battle from a different angle. 

Additionally, this is the first Pokemon game I’ve played where I’ve wanted to complete the Pokedex. For the uninitiated, the Pokedex is basically your encyclopedia of Pokémon that you fill out as the game progresses. This is because the game rewards you for completing the Pokedex with higher chances to encounter the notoriously elusive “shiny” Pokemon, something that was near impossible in past games. Plus, the tasks that come with filling the Pokédex are fun and fulfilling and the side quests the developers included in the game keep you from rushing through the main story in a day. 

All of this has revived the franchise for older players. The open-world makes it feel like the game isn’t holding your hand as much, and you can run into trouble all over the map without being reigned in like a toddler. Pokemon is a series that should be fun for everyone! Not something that can be easily consumed and spit out by Game Freak every six months without any value to it. If Nintendo is willing to keep Pokémon challenging, they’re basically guaranteeing themselves an older and younger audience who’ll be willing to buy their games till the end of time!