And yet, you ignored my previous answer where I revealed all the mechanics (which other players figured out on their own without my hand-holding). None of it are obtuse except to people who have next to no experience with Pokemon games. Artificial difficulty? In what way? By making enemy trainers much tougher, smarter and able to use items to be on the same ground as the player? If that is artificial difficulty, then we clearly have two very different views on what it means. Good day.
I more found disdain with the way you used
"git gud". It was rather... Disgusting.
It doesn't reflect what I believe to be the truest sense of the term.
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As for artificial difficulty... Believe it or not, most
fair games do not place the enemy on the same level as the player.
The reason is simple; they are many, you are alone.
In a Pokemon-style game this becomes more pronounced battle after battle, as the resources you require to match them will inevitably rise as time goes on. You simply cannot sustain such without a constant stream of resources to counter that.
Furthermore, most folks that have played Pokemon only really used consumable items
(aside from Pokeballs of course) in unexpected
'no other choice' cases that would otherwise lock them into a
game over.
Actual challenges aside, such as Nuzlock or however it's spelled... People just wanna have a good time.
Again, a challenge is fine, but giving every NPC you face the ability to pump Pokemon with potions is a cheap, unfun deal.
If you've ever read any kind of DM's manual, you'd know just how badly received an enemy healing all the damage you've taken the time and effort to inflict can be. It's a massive taboo and generally feels unfair.
Furthermore, healing items such as potions and those revive crystals in Pokemon are notoriously broken. Even Pokemon's devs admit as much. Those items exist as a fall-back for more tame gamers.
If you insist on the enemy being so broken on the basis of
"matching the player", you have entirely dropped the ball on the balance between player and NPC. Your idea is certainly a pain in the ass... And sadly, no matter your intent, if you don't carefully consider how you build the game from the base up and just slap such broken gimmicks onto NPCs, folks
will call it out.
Because you can't really change the minds of the players when you yourself fundamentally do not understand
why Pokemon had such items in the first place... Nor can you understand that the majority of players rarely used them, as again, they were more of a crutch left for actual
kids.
Because Nintendo recognizes the potential for such a thing as
selective difficulty through in-game item inclusion.
