>>38296154>A couple of IVs, egg moves, shit that is irrelevant for casual playthroughs?IVs sure, but egg moves aren't irrelevant for casual playthroughs at all, since they give you completely new options for how to buld your team. Unless you mean it's irrelevant in the sense that you can still sweep the E4 just by using an overleveled starter, but in that case Emerald's slightly higher difficulty is also completely irrelevant.
>Infinite TMs are ok, but physical/special split is hardly relevant for casual playthroughs at allOnce again, this is just wrong. The split means many more Pokemon than before are now viable, and in different ways as well, which again means you have more freedom in teambuilding.
>How is Platinum relevantIt's not, my point was merely that there is little point in playing Emerald for the BF in general when Plat's version is better. I doubt the OP cares about the BF at all since it sounds more like they and their girlfriend just want a game to play through Hoenn in, not one to spend hundreds of hours grinding the postgame of.
>You also say "infamously" as if that's a popular opinion when that couldn't be further from the truth. I know some people like it, but it seems to me the general opinion is that it isn't good, the trumpets meme exists for a reason.
>Harder difficultyBarely
>Faster engine & battlesFair point, but I personally don't care too much.
>Doesn't butcher areas like granite cave and new mauvilleGranite Cave is better in ORAS, New Mauvile is worse but it barely matters. You also ignore the fact that many areas are improved, like Sea Mauvile.
>Has Game Corner, more Trick House puzzlesThe Game Corner sucks, and while less content in the Trick House is disappointing it's a minor problem.
>Sprites and not soulless 3d modelsThe gen 3 sprites are horrible and the models are great. The animations aren't, but that isn't the model, and even still bad animation is still better than no animation.
