>>51765065the main proof that hgss were exceptions to the norm and most remakes are shit
it's still (without a doubt) the best way to explore kanto, but holy shit is it boring. The region itself looked better in black and white when you couldn't see that 90% of it was the same copy-pasted green route with maybe a yellow dirt pathway or some water off to the side for "uniqueness", the locking of cross-gen evos behind postgame was completely retarded, and interrupting the game 2/3 of the way through to force a shitty Sevii Islands segment was really really stupid. The soundtrack also sucked ass- save for a few notable exceptions, it felt like the music was just trying to include every single instrument available at once, and it leads to awful awful tracks with noisy over-the-top remixes of classical tunes that were made iconic through their simplicity (basically every route theme, pallet town, and the wild pokemon battle theme come to mind).
The game obviously isn't a disaster; it's still relatively fun for people who don't mind Kanto, I'm sure, and the relatively nonlinear progression is greatly appreciated (especially considering the more recent regions). The mon designs are still good, the battles require a slight modicum of thought as opposed to the truly brain dead shit that settled in post gen-7, and the gen 3 spritework will never stop being extremely charming.
tl;dr: the games aren't for me and they're pretty shitty as remakes (the only improvement is the graphics and lack of shitty gen 1 jank like wrap mechanics really, maybe also the inclusion of a postgame but really the ruby/sapphire fetch quest is just fucking annoying so that's debatable), but they're pretty alright for those who like Kanto probably.
Nowhere near as good as HGSS in terms of remake, but easily better than ORASS and BDSM
