Why do people hate these games again? Story is serviceable but probably the worst thing about the game, but the new Pokémon designs are great and just have this soulful feel unlike the previous gen, double battles are a fine gimmick and add some much needed strategy, and they fully embrace the gimmick, making an entire gym leader (although sadly not the other gym trainers) double battle trainers, there are more interesting rivals, the evil team is more interesting than any previous ones, it had almost all pokemon at the time and they made new sprites of every pokemon, and theres the exp share. Luckily, you can turn it off whenever you want, so you can have it on to help a low level team member out a little bit and then turn it off after youre done so you arent as handholded and overleveled. Theres so much to explore, including a lot of water routes. The last quarter of the game is just surfing around and discovering some towns, and there’s tons of agency with that. In addition, the pacing is great. And I haven’t even touched on the amazing third version or remakes yet