To this day, I cannot believe how many people love this game. Following Pokemon is cool, the only good city is Ecruteak whereas every other city feels empty. FireRed was a great remake that fixed and modernized Red and Blue. And yet the level curve of this game fucking blows. Chikorita is trash and Totodile is okay at best. Where the fuck are the Johto 'mons? Larvitar is where? Oh, Mount Silver, where you go to fight Red. That's....dumb. Good luck using Houndour. Johto is just Kanto's remains and it sucks. The story is basically "Boss, come back. Pweez" followed by "Here's a wing, go catch birb".

I could go on and on about how much I do not like (not quite hate but it is my least favorite region) but instead I'll give a few more good notes. The QoL improvements was great with auto-running and the DayCare always calling you about when your eggs are ready. PokeGear is one of the best communication devices they have come up with. They brought back the Sinnoh Battle Frontier when they did not have to at all. Roaming legendaries was also pretty cool.

While I go against the majority of the fanbase with this game, the points I make cannot be ignored. You[re almost always underleveled and Gyms 4-7 are way too close to each other with little grinding availability. Then you're fighting Level 36's before you know it. The game looks gorgeous but it ends there.