I've only been playing this game for about a week now and you learn instantly that you have to think about the fights, especially gym leaders. Yes they are hard, but you can beat every gym leader. In fact you can do so multiple ways. It's just getting passed the laziness of having to train a lot of pokemon and utilizing the ones you have for their strengths. Think competatively when you play this game, not like any other pokemon series of game. Those games appeal to pokemon fans of all ages and therefore have a very low difficulty level to appeal to everyone. If that's your type of game, then this one isn't for you. You will die. A lot. You will have to train more than 6 pokemon and you will have to think competatively. ie. Toxic Spikes, Spikes, Status Effects. It's a good game so don't just knock it down because it's difficult. Give it a chance and invest a little more time into it and I assure you you'll feel more rewarded for doing so.