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Honestly one of the most soulful regions in the franchise. The variety in the environment and the unique, memorable designs carry it through all else.
Diving opens up a new way to explore the region but unfortunately it wasn't properly fleshed out until ORAS and even then it still felt a little empty. Particularly if it was more available you have the benefit of no wild battles while underwater (unless you walk into grass).
Secret bases are kino and contests are a great alternative/side quest to the main story. Berries getting more fleshed out are also another great feature of the gen.
Abilities and double battles were a neat upgrade, but like how that one anon said, the physical/special split not happening until gen 4 leaves plenty to be desired gameplay-wise.
The story was neat and the legendary pokemon felt like they had a lot more weight to them, as you genuinely feel the impact of them being awoken. I just wish there were a lot more time between waking them up and battling them to let that feeling sink in longer.
One of the biggest gripes is the fact that you can't transfer gen 2 pokemon over, which was a huge reason for the drop in popularity. However, this was back in the time when spinoffs were actually encouraged and we had amazing opportunities to get the gen 2 pokemon with the gamecube games.
The bike swap feature also allows for some neat interactions with exploring the world. One of my favorite things in RPGs is wondering how/why i can't get to a certain area and then finally figuring out how to do it being an amazing feeling (see: rock climb), but once again, wish there was more to it.
Rayquaza being added as a post-game event is amazing and i wish the deoxys event was added like in ORAS (sans zinnia). Emerald honestly has the best post-game events such as the groudon/kyogre spots and the battle frontier, which is the single greatest post-game of the entire franchise which i could honestly talk about for hours.
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