I remember back then, I used to not really be a fan of Johto, and I guess I wasn't really sure why. Like Sinnoh, it didn't click with me the first time and I also wasn't really much of a fan of Kanto either, so the post game was just neat but nothing I was looking forward to. Needless to say, I was VERY wrong about what I remembered about this game, because it turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected. Granted, I only played the remakes before so this was a new experience for me. One of the things I remembered not liking was the level scaling because in my mind, it was a lot worse. In reality, it's not really that bad? In fact, I was never in a position where I needed to grind other than in the early game, like maybe a bit before Whitney and Morty since I caught more Pokémon around that time, but for the most part it was smooth sailing. I also used to think that Team Rocket being just... leaderless was kind of lame but in all honesty, I think Team Rocket is pretty good here, maybe better than in Red and Blue? Like with Red and Blue, it may not be the most unique concepts in place, but they work well especially with how old these games are. It also really makes this game feel like a sequel, which I'm not 100% sure if this is true or not, but I heard that originally the series was only going to be Kanto and Johto, so if they went out with this, I wouldn't be mad. Adding onto that, the highlight of this game for me is the post-game in Kanto. It feels like a New Game + where you're pretty overpowered and you have Johto's Pokemon as well. I swept most of Kanto's Gyms in one go just because I loved going around the region and sweeping Gyms. Red was pretty tough but honestly, not as scary as I imagined. Espeon and Snorlax were tough but the starters and Pikachu weren't actually terrible. My whole team contributed a lot throughout the whole game and I never really felt stuck, so I'd say this is pretty well balanced despite how it may seem. So I guess my review is essentially saying this game isn't all that it seems, it may actually subvert your expectations, especially with how big of a jump Gen 2 feels from Gen 1 (especially with Red and Blue's bag system which was... not so good). Overall, very good sequel to Red and Blue that fixes a lot of issues I had with that game, and has both a solid main game and amazing post game that make Johto an honest must play.
My final team:
Coffee (Furret)
Kart (Ampharos)
Artemis (Tentacruel)
Eisharu (Espeon)
Reine (Skarmory)
Jaboopy (Snorlax)