Pokemon 5th gen confirmed 100%

Agreed. The Elite 4 in Generation 2 was at very highest maybe level 49 or low 50's from one of Lance's Dragonites (Hell, all I can remember is that none of them were even level 55- an oddity considering that's the level Dragonair becomes Dragonite). Difficulty increase after Johto? I wouldn't exactly say that. They all stayed around the same difficulty tier as the lower members in the Elite Four except for Blue.

I looked over at Bulbapedia, and I'm glad to see the changes they made to fix the difficulty for what happens after the Elite 4. Elite 4's still pretty wimpy; but at least they made it so that they actually do step up the difficulty so that there's a challenge after the Elite 4.

Really? A Steelix that had Sunny Day? Brilliant.

I hope Generation 5's Elite Four is actually challenging. Also, does anyone have any guesses on where in Japan the setting this game is going to be is going to be based on?

It might be Hoenn take 2. As you might know, the D/P/Pt story takes place pretty much during HG/SSs Kanto part, 3 years after FR/LG and R/S/E (which most likely plays during FR/LGs post-league Sevii Island part). Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh all have appeared after the 3-year-gap, but Hoenn hasn't (Sinnoh and Johto haven't appeared before the 3 year gap either, but they already appeared on the DS). So I believe it's either Hoenn or a new, unknown, region.

I hope that by the end of the Elite 4 + Champion your team(if you raise them at equal rates, without crazy grinding) your team can be at least Lv. 65, and that after another, smaller story(if the main game is 30 hours, this would be ~15 hours), your team is at least Lv.85, with a Red-like trainer at the end. I like the way HG/SS takes your Pokémon all the way to Lv.70~75 (if you defeat all trainers). The game feels really nice to play trough while not being as easy as the originals. I hope they continue this trend.