The game has a pretty hard difficulty curve. I noticed early game how easy it was to sweep someone or be swept yourself. It seems like once you boost your stats even a little bit, u are borderline unstoppable. I wish there was a casual mode to this game as i'm not really a serious player. As a side note, has the type match-ups been changed? water pulse was not very effective on a sneasel, whom im pretty sure wasnt advertised to have a revamped typing. I also do support the idea of getting a breeder or some system to grind. if u don;t want it, that's ok, but some people cannot stand the tedium of grinding.