Y’know what? No. No it’s NOT just nostalgia. Pokémon games really aren’t as good anymore. I didn’t so much as touch gen 2 till a month ago on VC, I have 0 nostalgia for them, I started in gen 5 at age 11. And while I like those games for my own reasons, THESE Pokémon games have something special about them, truly. You aren’t forced to do Jack shit, the amount of stuff that’s just sorta there for you to discover on your own is next level, the sprites are beautiful and have this charming chibi proportions to them for the Pokémon AND the trainers. When I play these games I truly feel that it’s MY adventure. I chose to check out sprout tower, I explored dark cave, I came back to union cave to see what else was there, I decided to go east after ecruteak, and I decided I wanted to check out what was on the eastern most side of johto before tackling the radio tower (I didn’t even know you could do that). It was all ME, I made those Decisions. And that feel goes a long fucking way my friends. Play these games man. My play through was only like 20 hours but I felt like I did more than I had done in all my playthroughs of the newer games. The games just don’t waste your time like they do now.