>>41751521it's almost buzzword tier at this point but colosseum had more soul and frankly I think this was reflected in some of the mechanical decisions they made too. the fact that most of the mons you can catch early game are johtomons that are weak as hell (but have decent moves, mercifully) made the gameplay tense in a way that matched the universe. the inability to save wherever you liked did the same thing although I wouldn't defend that as a mechanic in its own sense since it's clearly just a qol downgrade
overall, XD is much smoother to play through, but colosseum hits so much harder. I think colosseum is ultimately the better game
they're also the two best pokemon games ever made 