This thread motivated me to find my Platinum cart. It only has 74 hours played, I barely played the Battle Frontier, I barely played wi-fi, and all of my mons were transferred outside box trash.
This makes me sad. Those times were the golden age of Pokemon and I barely scratched the surface of it, and I did so alone, no one I knew played Pokemon. I played a bit more of HGSS which is my favorite game, but again, mostly alone.
I just reset the cart and started a new playthrough, and holy fucking shit this isn't just nostalgia, I'm genuinely falling in love with this game. It's not just comfy, it also has a bunch of features that were somehow more advanced than what GF ever did since. What happened to that group record/TV feature? That was good. And what about the Poketch? Best use of the bottom screen to this day was on the very first two screen game they ever did, what the actual fuck, now we get a badly cropped mini-map and an annoying quipping Rotom (which was already one of my least favorite Pokemon ever).
The pace of the game is also great, with lots of optional little areas and blockades that allow you to explore and get a feel for the region as a real place that you adventure in, not a linear single line that you get guided by endless cutscenes of handholding NPCs through. I explored a bunch of areas blocked by rock smash rocks, then I got the rock smash HM/badge and I went "aha, I can explore those places now", what happened to region design like this?
I could rant all fucking day, but I'm just glad I'm giving Platinum another chance and liking it so much, even though I basically missed it at its peak.
Thanks /vp/, I'll be playing a bunch of this game, I'm nearing maximum comfy right now.
