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It was the only game that actually had catching everything (y'know the series entire gimmick) as the main gameplay. The last game that did that was LGPE, which was also the last good pokemon game before it.
But sadly, even though the actual battles didn't get more interesting or difficult. they removed the catching mechanics so you go back to catching 6 mons at most and then pressing A to get through the rest of the game.
In fact, PLA actually managed to actually have wild encounters be challenging, especially when you got in a fight with an Alpha and its underlings at the same time.
Mainline is a complete joke at this point.
