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, physical/special split is a fine gimmick and add some much needed strategy, and they fully embrace the gimmick, making the entire game (and every game after) use the PSS, 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 the day/night cycle was added back. Also secret bases returned and expanded the scope by having a massive underground to explore and mine up items in with a fun minigame. Theres so much to explore, including a few water routes. There's also the exp share also, 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. In addition, the pacing is great. I won't even touch on the disappointing third version or remakes