DragonWasTakenLol

The sprites are perfect, and the atmosphere and music is the best in the series. The gen 4 graphics work perfectly with the gen 2 design. The challenge of the first 8 gyms and then the league is fun, and then a whole other region with a final boss as one of the strongest npcs in the series and being red from the gen 1 games is perfect. Gen 2 Pokémon designs have it all from cute weak bugs and babies like ledian and cleffa, to cool and strong designs like tyranitar and skarmory. The box art legends are so great, Ho-oh being tied to the beasts and the bell tower being great lore, and lugia has a lackluster appearance in the games, but it’s movie more than makes up for it with its ties to the kanto birds, giving them a place in the lore. The gym leaders in johto having gen 1 Pokémon as their aces are not ideal, and gen 2 Pokémon only being found in kanto is not great game design but you can look past both of those issues. The level curve is stupid and is very annoying for the late game but exploring the kanto region fighting all the trainers I could was fun. All the other add on features like the battle frontier and contests are great post game features. The game feels like a lot of love and passion was put into it and is a masterpiece.