My perception of the GC Pokémon games as a veteran fan of the series who hadn't played them was "Colosseum is Pokémon Stadium 3 with a really barebones story mode tacked on, and XD is the actual realization of said story mode concept". After beating both just now, I've been able to realize how wrong I was about that.
Despite what the cool dark Lugia on the cover might suggest, this is by far the most nothing game in the whole franchise. The story continues Colosseum's, but doesn't actually take anything interesting from it (not that it had much to work with) or expand it in any way. It just takes advantage of the previous groundwork in story and assets to pump out another game. In most other things, it just follows Colosseum's path with little change, around half the locations are reused and their length is actually around the same (although I'd say XD has a bit more content).
It's actually really easy to understand why people think this is better than Colosseum. It fixes many of the things that were wrong with it, so that's a given. However, I don't think these fixes deserve much credit. In Colosseum, you walk slowly as fuck, can't save anywhere, healing spots are placed in unconventional places...All of this is fixed in XD. These are all issues that XD's own developers placed, very intentionally so, to artificially increase play time. Removing those makes the game easier to play, but they won't get any good words from me for that when they themselves designed it like that.
In regards to Shadow Pokémon, in my Colosseum review I said they were an interesting addition, despite how lackluster their implementation is (actually rotating your team is a hassle, purification is kinda slow, etc). Issues were detected, and the Purify Machine was implemented. Don't get me wrong, I love how it works, kinda like a puzzle in which you have to search for the pieces (catch Pokémon). In fact, it's the only think I'd say I actually really like about XD. The thing is, by virtue of this mechanic existing, the idea of actually using Shadow Pokémon disappears completely. Doesn't make much sense when they're the main focus of the game, doesn't it?
The level curve is also a bit better than Colosseum. Said level curve was more like a ladder, spikes were sudden and steep. However, you had pretty good Pokémon at your disposal, some of them being legendaries, and this time using them isn't that much of an "option" but an asset that you acquire to beat the game. In XD, the curve is more like a slope: after the first third of the game all of your opponents will be a bit overleveled in respect to you if you level up a full team of six. It gets a bit too high of a slope in the endgame, but the thing that actually makes it really hard is the fact that although you have a wider selection of Pokémon, most of them aren't very good/don't get any good moves, all the while your opponents have pretty nice teams. Also, they made you able to catch some wild Pokémon for some reason (I guess because people whined about it). Devs must have implemented it with some resentment because actually trying to use said mechanic feels miserable.
From an "objective" point of view, XD is really the better game. However, I like to value the originality and effort necessary to jumpstart a game's mechanics, world and story when looking at its sequels (looking at you Zelda Tears of the Kingdom). Yeah, many things about Colosseum suck ass, but I'm willing to go soft on it because of it. I won't do that about a continuist sequel.
Wonder why my whole review was comparing Colosseum and XD? The reason is pretty simple: I have nothing of value to say about XD, because XD has nothing of value to say about itself.
Despite what the cool dark Lugia on the cover might suggest, this is by far the most nothing game in the whole franchise. The story continues Colosseum's, but doesn't actually take anything interesting from it (not that it had much to work with) or expand it in any way. It just takes advantage of the previous groundwork in story and assets to pump out another game. In most other things, it just follows Colosseum's path with little change, around half the locations are reused and their length is actually around the same (although I'd say XD has a bit more content).
It's actually really easy to understand why people think this is better than Colosseum. It fixes many of the things that were wrong with it, so that's a given. However, I don't think these fixes deserve much credit. In Colosseum, you walk slowly as fuck, can't save anywhere, healing spots are placed in unconventional places...All of this is fixed in XD. These are all issues that XD's own developers placed, very intentionally so, to artificially increase play time. Removing those makes the game easier to play, but they won't get any good words from me for that when they themselves designed it like that.
In regards to Shadow Pokémon, in my Colosseum review I said they were an interesting addition, despite how lackluster their implementation is (actually rotating your team is a hassle, purification is kinda slow, etc). Issues were detected, and the Purify Machine was implemented. Don't get me wrong, I love how it works, kinda like a puzzle in which you have to search for the pieces (catch Pokémon). In fact, it's the only think I'd say I actually really like about XD. The thing is, by virtue of this mechanic existing, the idea of actually using Shadow Pokémon disappears completely. Doesn't make much sense when they're the main focus of the game, doesn't it?
The level curve is also a bit better than Colosseum. Said level curve was more like a ladder, spikes were sudden and steep. However, you had pretty good Pokémon at your disposal, some of them being legendaries, and this time using them isn't that much of an "option" but an asset that you acquire to beat the game. In XD, the curve is more like a slope: after the first third of the game all of your opponents will be a bit overleveled in respect to you if you level up a full team of six. It gets a bit too high of a slope in the endgame, but the thing that actually makes it really hard is the fact that although you have a wider selection of Pokémon, most of them aren't very good/don't get any good moves, all the while your opponents have pretty nice teams. Also, they made you able to catch some wild Pokémon for some reason (I guess because people whined about it). Devs must have implemented it with some resentment because actually trying to use said mechanic feels miserable.
From an "objective" point of view, XD is really the better game. However, I like to value the originality and effort necessary to jumpstart a game's mechanics, world and story when looking at its sequels (looking at you Zelda Tears of the Kingdom). Yeah, many things about Colosseum suck ass, but I'm willing to go soft on it because of it. I won't do that about a continuist sequel.
Wonder why my whole review was comparing Colosseum and XD? The reason is pretty simple: I have nothing of value to say about XD, because XD has nothing of value to say about itself.