This and Black/White are the standards Pokemon games should be held to. The story's engaging without being too in-your-face, the Sinnoh region is the best designed region in the whole franchise, a lot of my favorite Pokemon are from this game, and it's super easy to just pick up and play.
The only reason this is 4.5 instead of 5 is because of technical issues slowing down the game in-battle and while saving.

Imagine a JRPG that makes battling enemies a bad thing. Imagine that the game also makes bosses invincible unless you find the one item that can instakill them. That's this game. It's bad, don't pick it up. I gave up after world 3, and I rarely give up on games.

Just play Bug Fables instead.

The added story was eh, but the extra classes, units, and boosting items for the main game made it so much more worth it.
(This review is for the whole DLC pass)

I am not smart enough for this game.

I've probably put more time into this game than every other game combined. It's so much fun with a small group of friends.

This game gave me repetitive strain injury

Second-best Kirby game, with the best soundtrack in the series IMO. If you like Kirby or 3D platformers, play this. Please.

Fun Homestuck visual novel, but the ending is kinda ruined by the other Homestuck stuff it's associated with. If you're not a Homestuck fan or don't like characters being trans, skip this.

Very fun tower defense game, although it can get repetitive because every stage has the same "best strategy" once you unlock all the plants.

How does an obscure-ish Pokemon spinoff have one of the best stories ever told in a video game? I don't know, but it does. Go play it.

The game is kinda generic compared to the games that came afterwards, but when it came out it was a very welcome return to form for the franchise. And it has the second-best antagonist in any of the games.

It's a fantastic game. Fun gameplay and deep story, and it has 3 endings.

The original is free at its website, and there are macOS and Linux ports there too, so nobody has an excuse not to play it.

Great time waster but I suck at it.