I had a lot more fun with this than I was expecting to, to be completely honest. I had the honour of playing this alongside some of my closest ever friends, and it really elevated my experience. Pokemon Pearl is close to my heart, so the remake - while very lackluster in some very notable areas - is still a good experience. I like the faster battle system, I like the new friendship mechanics and I like the Grand Underground. However, they all come with downsides. The game is now pretty easy. I managed to still find myself in many challenging situations, as I refused to grind and kept myself limited to a very small team of Pokemon throughout my playthrough. However, even with those self-imposed challenges, the game rarely presented a challenge until the Elite Four. That said, I still beat them in 2 tries. It is Pokemon though, so I'm not surprised. Supposedly the post-game is hard, which is cool. All in all though, I was satisfied playing Pokemon in a region that didn't suck shit, with Pokemon that I actually liked. I got really attached to my team and to Sinnoh in general - and the core gameplay of Pokemon is satisfying enough to do the rest of the work. As a remake? It could be a lot better. As a game? It's pretty good.