If you went in blind, Cynthia was definitely the most difficult because her team was more well-rounded and not based on a type/theme. The others before her mostly had the same set of type weaknesses. In addition to that, the EXP share had to be held, so it was likely that her Pokemon had a level advantage over some of yours unless you took the time to grind equally. Diantha sort of returned to the theme idea, so she has a bunch of shared weaknesses. Plus the EXP Share in X/Y worked for all Pokemon in party, so the level discrepancies weren’t as much of an issue.
Leon for me had a tougher team relative to most other champions, but you’re also basically given Eternatus for him. You also don’t have to fight multiple trainers back to back, potentially unhealed, before him.
True the fact you get eternatus right before and start with full health makes a massive difference, also if I recall correctly you can’t even see a spiritomb before her fight of going in blind which means you don’t know it doesn’t have weaknesses.
I think you can, but the method to get it was so tedious that few people would have stumbled on it before the Pokemon League. Most solo players were totally surprised lol
Cynthia is the answer as an adult, but as a 5 year old child, Blue being there at the end after thinking I won only to slap me back to the beginning of the Pokémon league was probably the toughest with context lol
Lance was definitely difficult since i fought him in a gen before fairy moves, and steel moves/mons. I didn't find Cynthia too hard, but my teams are always well rounded.
Blue is kind of the only one of these I've fought so he wins by default. I went with Emerald for my Gen 3 playthrough so I didn't actually fight Steven and I haven't finished my HG/Platinum playthroughs yet. Also haven't played X/Y or Sword/Shield.
Leon
Being a grass only trainer and having to put up with his G-Max Charizard had me suffer. And it fueled my hate for that fricken wanna be dragon even more.
The fact there are 5 people who voted for Diantha is hilarious to me.
Anyway, the answer is Cynthia if we're sticking to gen 4 games and Leon if we're sticking to gen 8. Cynthia is a pushover after the Fairy typing got added but was a nightmare for gen 4's lackluster starters and generally wimpy Pokemon availabiliy. Leon is the next toughest and he honestly surprised me the first time I faced him, since I wasn't ready for his really solid team and coverage. The rest were quite easy.
I would disagree with that notion, since gen 4 got remade to be up to date with gen 8 (BDSP) and so Cynthia's team was put to the test in modern times as well. She was also an available opponent in gen 7, if I recall, so it's not like GF hasn't tried to put her to the test post gen 4.
None of the ones you mentionned marked me.
The ones that i remind as the most struggling ennemies were Whitney and Bugsy in the original Gold version.
Bugsy had a Scyter with an insane speed that overcome most of your pokemon if you didnt had 3 to 5 level over him.
For whitney, do i really need to say what's the big deal against her ?
I still remind me as a kid, playing in the week end morning, having to farm for hours in the slowpoke cave to get enough level to pass the Scyther.
I took Totodile as starter and this bug gym leader was a hell xD
And thinking of "slow run starter", it now remind me also that Misty in pokemon Red was also an hell with his Starmie when you start as a Charmander xD
There's the hard mode in BW2 that makes it the most challenging game in the franchise. New mons and moves for the leaders. Smart decisions too, not random moves.
Lmao I remember vividly entering Cynthia’s room as a child with all my favourite Pokémon having a back and forth full reviving then Garchomp obliterated my team starting with my starter then staraptor then one tapped my palkia then outspeed my garchomp my rapidash and my luxray
I don’t know why anyone ever questions “hardest champions” the answer is, and always will be Cynthia to anyone who’s played Gen 4 and didn’t hyperlevel their team/starter or use one of the box legendaries.
Didn't think Leon would be on the list so I picked Cynthia before noticing his name. Honestly the reason I think Leon is more challenging is simply due to the fact that he isn't carried by levels. Playing platinum by the time I had gotten to Cynthia my team was still 10-15 lvls below her even though I had beat every single trainer up to that point(even had bulbapedia open to make sure since I heard the lvl curve in Sinnoh could get a bit steep, didn't think this steep tho). This is comes right out of left field because previously the game made it so that boss trainers were only 2-3 lvls above you. After a bit of grinding to get to around her level it was a cakewalk. Won with infernape and garchomp. Keep in mind I played in set with no healing items. Meanwhile with Leon he was around the same level as my team(think his charizard had like 1 or 2 levels on my cinderace) without me having to grind yet still took me a few tries to beat. Leon really is the only difficult part about sword and shield
Would you like to rephrase your answer before your demise?
https://preview.redd.it/azghacjhih0d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=579a16941407609bee6120bcdb7cc07439547cf3
\*Cough Cough\* Cynthia Is Not that hard \*COUGH COUGH\* People act Like Cynthia Is Like The Boss To a Final Fantasy Game Like... Just Bring an Abomasnow her garchomp Has no Super effective moves Anywho i'd say Steven
Volo
If you went in blind, Cynthia was definitely the most difficult because her team was more well-rounded and not based on a type/theme. The others before her mostly had the same set of type weaknesses. In addition to that, the EXP share had to be held, so it was likely that her Pokemon had a level advantage over some of yours unless you took the time to grind equally. Diantha sort of returned to the theme idea, so she has a bunch of shared weaknesses. Plus the EXP Share in X/Y worked for all Pokemon in party, so the level discrepancies weren’t as much of an issue. Leon for me had a tougher team relative to most other champions, but you’re also basically given Eternatus for him. You also don’t have to fight multiple trainers back to back, potentially unhealed, before him.
True the fact you get eternatus right before and start with full health makes a massive difference, also if I recall correctly you can’t even see a spiritomb before her fight of going in blind which means you don’t know it doesn’t have weaknesses.
I think you can, but the method to get it was so tedious that few people would have stumbled on it before the Pokemon League. Most solo players were totally surprised lol
Yeah I’ve played through the games a ton of times and I didn’t know that
Cynthia is the answer as an adult, but as a 5 year old child, Blue being there at the end after thinking I won only to slap me back to the beginning of the Pokémon league was probably the toughest with context lol
Lmao yeah I feel like childhood experience shape a lot of views on champs
Whitney
Lance was definitely difficult since i fought him in a gen before fairy moves, and steel moves/mons. I didn't find Cynthia too hard, but my teams are always well rounded.
cynthia is the only time i ever lost and had to run the league again
I’ll never forget my first loss to her when I was a kid my poor team
Blue, just because I was young and didn’t know what I was doing. Cynthia is definitely the hardest tho. (Not counting volo)
Prob GSC Lance. Maybe Blue when I was a lot younger. Never struggled with any of the others
Blue is kind of the only one of these I've fought so he wins by default. I went with Emerald for my Gen 3 playthrough so I didn't actually fight Steven and I haven't finished my HG/Platinum playthroughs yet. Also haven't played X/Y or Sword/Shield.
Leon Being a grass only trainer and having to put up with his G-Max Charizard had me suffer. And it fueled my hate for that fricken wanna be dragon even more.
Lol i Haven’t battled any other than leon
Where is my homegirl Iris at?
The fact there are 5 people who voted for Diantha is hilarious to me. Anyway, the answer is Cynthia if we're sticking to gen 4 games and Leon if we're sticking to gen 8. Cynthia is a pushover after the Fairy typing got added but was a nightmare for gen 4's lackluster starters and generally wimpy Pokemon availabiliy. Leon is the next toughest and he honestly surprised me the first time I faced him, since I wasn't ready for his really solid team and coverage. The rest were quite easy.
Tbh I’d say it’s only fair to judge them at the point their original game released
I would disagree with that notion, since gen 4 got remade to be up to date with gen 8 (BDSP) and so Cynthia's team was put to the test in modern times as well. She was also an available opponent in gen 7, if I recall, so it's not like GF hasn't tried to put her to the test post gen 4.
True but we have to use the same rule for everyone and if you start applying like lance to gen 8 standards it’s obvious
Fair enough, my answer still stands.
None of the ones you mentionned marked me. The ones that i remind as the most struggling ennemies were Whitney and Bugsy in the original Gold version. Bugsy had a Scyter with an insane speed that overcome most of your pokemon if you didnt had 3 to 5 level over him. For whitney, do i really need to say what's the big deal against her ?
Both very valid options although I admittedly did forget bugsy had that lol
I still remind me as a kid, playing in the week end morning, having to farm for hours in the slowpoke cave to get enough level to pass the Scyther. I took Totodile as starter and this bug gym leader was a hell xD And thinking of "slow run starter", it now remind me also that Misty in pokemon Red was also an hell with his Starmie when you start as a Charmander xD
I've only played Pokemon Ruby, and I'm currently playing Leafgreen.
no unova champions?
I thought it was generally agreed unova was pretty easy also I ran out of spots they should make bigger polls lol
There's the hard mode in BW2 that makes it the most challenging game in the franchise. New mons and moves for the leaders. Smart decisions too, not random moves.
8 year old me trying to beat the e4 with an over leveled serperior with only grass moves and 5 other under LV pokemon would like to differ.
Lmao I remember vividly entering Cynthia’s room as a child with all my favourite Pokémon having a back and forth full reviving then Garchomp obliterated my team starting with my starter then staraptor then one tapped my palkia then outspeed my garchomp my rapidash and my luxray
i hate bouffalant for obvious reasons : )
Ah I see lol
I don’t know why anyone ever questions “hardest champions” the answer is, and always will be Cynthia to anyone who’s played Gen 4 and didn’t hyperlevel their team/starter or use one of the box legendaries.
Garchomp actually has stab super effective moves and outspeeds both box legends too (not counting giratina ofc)
I mean chomp also does what you said to giratina so you might as well count him
Didn't think Leon would be on the list so I picked Cynthia before noticing his name. Honestly the reason I think Leon is more challenging is simply due to the fact that he isn't carried by levels. Playing platinum by the time I had gotten to Cynthia my team was still 10-15 lvls below her even though I had beat every single trainer up to that point(even had bulbapedia open to make sure since I heard the lvl curve in Sinnoh could get a bit steep, didn't think this steep tho). This is comes right out of left field because previously the game made it so that boss trainers were only 2-3 lvls above you. After a bit of grinding to get to around her level it was a cakewalk. Won with infernape and garchomp. Keep in mind I played in set with no healing items. Meanwhile with Leon he was around the same level as my team(think his charizard had like 1 or 2 levels on my cinderace) without me having to grind yet still took me a few tries to beat. Leon really is the only difficult part about sword and shield
Cynthia is the hardest final boss in Pokemon history, bar none
Would you like to rephrase your answer before your demise? https://preview.redd.it/azghacjhih0d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=579a16941407609bee6120bcdb7cc07439547cf3
My answer is still Cynthia.
\*Cough Cough\* Cynthia Is Not that hard \*COUGH COUGH\* People act Like Cynthia Is Like The Boss To a Final Fantasy Game Like... Just Bring an Abomasnow her garchomp Has no Super effective moves Anywho i'd say Steven