The battles are not just harder, they are unfair. I can not enjoy the game having to constantly heal after every battle. And the level cap makes it worse. The trainers have pokemon that have moves and abilities that make them impossible to have any advantage with.
I’m sorry I kind of made it thinking about hardcore nuzlockes. I’ll try to tone down the difficulty or make an easier mode.
By the way if you keep one of your Pokemon under leveled 1 level you can use the xs exp you win from some of the male characters to level your Pokemon over the level cap.
There are a lot of useful items scattered, I’ve buffed a few Pokemon and you can acquire a fire gem, grass gem and water gem all at once from the lab guy requesting panties.
I hope some of this helps!