There is too much to say about this game, it is as core Pokemon as it gets and it slaughters competition. This is where Pokemon found its game identity moving forward. It's certainly not as deep as I once thought it was as a child, even compared to other Pokemon games, but it has continuity and consequences for actions. Something the other games have never gotten right since. Everything came together correctly for Emerald and I wish the stakes could be even half as high as they were in Emerald.