Alright, losers. Help me understand the appeal of the Hoenn region and third gen games in general. I know there's a lot of you Hoenn lovers out there and you always leave me scratching my head.

Gen 1/Kanto: Not going to lie, I'm unable to dislike this at all due to how much nostalgia and my childhood revolved around it. I know it's a broken piece of shit, but it was the first of its kind so it is free from being criticized in my eyes.

Gen 2/Johto: The developers had some experience and were able to make a more solid game. Introduced a bunch of new features like genders, visible exp bar, weather moves, breeding, shinies, clock system, night/day, held items, berries, new pokeballs. They managed to create a rival that was even more of a dick than Blue, but he eventually warmed up to you near the end. Story was more of the same. Team Rocket is back and causing shit. At least the backstory for the legendaries was cool, and climbing the tower to meet Ho-oh at the top was awesome. Also being able to revisit Kanto and fight Red in Mt. Silver. But that's my nostalgia getting in the way.

Gen 3/Hoenn: What happened? Generation 3 didn't change much. Introduced a more customizable way to manage your EVs and added double battles, but at the same time took away the day/night system which was a cool addition. Your rival was your actual friend... and some sickly kid. Not really rivals at all. I think the idea of loving to hate your rival is better than just flat out hating your rival.