This was the first traditional pokemon game I've played since Yellow came out, so as far as typing and weaknesses go I was more or less entirely blind outside of core memories like "Charmanders tail was going out cause the rain in the episode Ash first got him, so clearly water is strong against fire."

Going in so blind might be kind of a downside because it definitely didn't help my case when I was getting washed by gyms I just didn't have anything for, i.e the Psychic gym. I had to grind for a couple hours with a new Pokemon with a dark type move just to beat this one, but I pushed through.

Also, I don't think grinding games like this are really for me. I'm not sure if the later games in the series are as bad, but this one had some rough moments. The elite four rush at the end felt really exhausting, for example. This might just be a skill issue, because again this may as well have been a first pokemon experience for me, but I still felt the grinding was rough.

THAT SAID, the game was a lot of fun. I loved seeing all the lil' dudes and catching new friends. I liked the rivals, and while I THOUGHT the person stalking me was my dad, it just turned out to be a regular guy.