>>28970646>>28971046>and lack of trainers to fightWhile not as convenient as a Vs. Seeker, the Phone Calls start to rack up endless re-matches, and they even get marked on the map for you. They scale in difficulty too, so as long as you occasionally rematch the trainers, you shouldn't have too much trouble with NPC's being underleveled. (This is another reason why NPC's often start out underleveled on your first encounter)
>The "notice me giovanni-senpai!" plot is fucking terrible tooI completely disagree. We actually see Team Rocket go as far as to torture Pokémon. Rumors of stealing Pokémon are one thing, but in Johto we see them actually be Pokémon villains in their desperation to bring their boss back, who they are idolizing. Then the Celebi Event is the cherry on top for me.
>The only enjoyment I found in kanto was fighting the gym leadersThe Gym Leaders are indeed one of the best parts of the game. But don't forget that you don't just "fight" them. Each and every one of them has a fun little out-of-gym interaction, and some of them even require little quests for you, such as Surge only giving you his number when you have caught a Zapdos.
>I love PWT so muchGlad we agree on that, PWT was based.
>Exploring Kanto again just felt like a very boring slog to get to the gym leadersThe Kanto side of the game was very much supposed to be a melancholy splash of nostalgia. Seeing things grow, die. Some things are bigger, some things are gone. It culminates with you reaching Palette and hearing Red's mother say how he hasn't come home in a while. One of the things I love about the games is how atmospheric they feel, from the comfy sense of starting an adventure, to the nostalgic lap around Kanto.
