I've always considering 'leveling' to be the worst part of Pokemon. If you think the game is ruined by removing a single chore from it, then that really only goes to illustrate how fundamentally flawed the battle system is.

For my part, I think it's fine. This has never been a hard game to me, anyway. Only a grindy one. Now I can enjoy more of the parts I like, and less of the parts I hate.

If you're hardcore enough that you want to sink the full amount of man-hours into your Pokemon, you turn the damn item off. Just consider it your "difficulty" option. (although I would personally disagree with the word 'difficulty' here)

I like it for removing some grind but one problem is that I feel less connected to my pokemon since I'm not seeing them in battle scenes as often.

Off topic but I think it's absolutely awesome that you get XP when you capture a pokemon.

Also it no longer divides the EXP up anymore. Battling Pokemon get 100% EXP while every other Pokemon gets %50.

This may have been asked but does sharing the EXP mean everyone levels at a slower rate? e.g. a battle that earns 600EXP normally would actually only earn 100EXP but for each Pokemon in your party.

Thanks.

Edit: Whoops, just read your post @liquidprince thanks.

Exp. All was in red and blue. Why is everyone so mad?

Oh, the internet will complain, but it is a useful thing to have. And you're right! And it's better than the exp all because it doesn't tell you the amounts of exp all of your pokemon got. That was annoying!

Because in Red & Blue the exp. was divided up between each Pokemon. In X & Y, the one in battle gets 100% while all others still get 50% each. It leads to your team becoming incredibly overleveled and the rest of the game posing no challenge (even less than usual). Plus thanks to the super training, not actually using a Pokemon in battle doesn't weaken them.

I'm conflicted about it. Yes, it's nice to have weaker pokes level up without having to switch into them, but I think it makes the game a little too easy. So far I've found it's kind of having a counter effect than what the experience share is supposed to do: instead of leveling up my weaker pokemon while my stronger pokemon do the work, it's leveling up my stronger pokemon while I try and level up the weaker ones more quickly. Most of my pokemon are ten or so levels ahead of the opposition at the moment, which is a bit crazy considering I haven't really been doing that much grinding and I'm not even at the second gym yet. I guess everything levels faster though, and it's nice to not have to wait so long for good moves and evolutions. And it does let me use more pokemon than normal, so HM slaves can maybe be useful.

I don't mind if it seems a little cheap. I've been playing these damn games long enough to want to just level some Pokemon quick.

I love it. Ended up swapping out half my team for just-bred level 1s (Torchic, Ghastly and an Absol), and after a short while they're all combat capable being roughly the same level as the trainers and Pokemon I'm encountering.

It'll make leveling another team later way easier. Still have a Dratini and Lapras to level, and then I'll probably work on all the Eevees.

Heavy repel use has been alleviating some of the balance issues I was having. I think If I'd started this earlier it wouldn't be so dire, but at least I'm not steamrolling everything anymore.