that’s why i obsessively powertrained in HG — like three games in a row (sapphire, leaf green, pearl) i’d hit the elite four and just never gotten any further because i was way too underleveled.  and johto in particular i knew had a really mean level curve

so i made sure to grind up 5 levels before _every damn_ town, and my entire team was bred and hatched on another game for the exp boost