So I'm currently playing through Pokemon Violet and I am enjoying. However, I've noticed something during my playthrough semi-recently that I've noticed whenever I play any Pokemon game: the level progression. Now in Pokemon Violet, it's open-world and also up to the player as to what path they take and what order they complete certain events in.
In any case, I've been following IGN's guide on the game and have completed (in this order) Cortondo Gym (Bug), Open Sky Titan (Flying), Team Star's Giacomo (Dark), Artazon Gym (Grass), Stony Cliff Titan (Rock), and Levincia Gym (Electric). The guide recommends that I go up against Team Star's Mela (Fire) next, so I'm currently working on leveling up a team of Water-type Pokemon. Most of them average at about level 20. The guide however recommends that I be at level 27 with my Pokemon. I'm trying my hardest but every time I load up the game, I'm hit with the constant feel that I have to go level up and I can't go do the next thing in game. It feels stifling, and this isn't the first time I've felt this while playing a Pokemon game. While doing a Nuzlocke challenge, I decided that I would literally invent a rule that says I could hack in Rare Candies to level up my Pokemon if grinding gets too boring and annoying.
Has anyone else felt this? I want to love one of my favorite franchises and keep playing the games, but I also don't want to boot them up and feel like I'm dragging a rock in a sack down the road.
Honestly, just running through the game with the same team (minor adjustments along the way), I didn't notice any major roadblocks and one-shot most gym pokemon without any major levelling. I think the issue may be that you're trying to make a full team of the same type, when one pokemon is completely sufficient.
Now I'm not saying your way is wrong, play the way you enjoy, but building a full team for one gym/camp seems overkill. And this game is slower to level than SwSh from my hazy memory of SwSh, so that may play into your experience.
I didn't really grind XP except one time when I accidentally skipped a gym (levelwise) and faced a much tougher one than the game intended.
I think one of the reasons I'm playing this game differently than I usually do (which is to just use a small set of 'Mons that I caught early on) because I'm trying to min-max my type advantages. The game (and the internet) make it somewhat easy to do that, but it takes a boatload of time. Another reason could be that I don't want to go in underleveled and have my entire team squashed in 30 seconds.