Recently been playing through every game. FRLG is one of the best games in the series.
Gen 1 was already really strongly designed from the get go, with great pacing, a good difficulty level (ie not hard but requiring you to do more than just mindlessly mash the A button for 20 hours), very well spaced out placement of Pokemon, and a very open ended feel. FRLG was able to refine this by debugging the fuck out of it, and modernizing it. It also has little touches to flesh out the story, making it the best in the series (ie; not shitty garbage like nearly every other game in the series, hands off, uses primarily environmental story telling in a comparatively grounded framework)
The music is basically a perfect update from Gen 1, and by default is one of the best in the series. Redesigns also were great, as they updated them without completely changing what the original designs were going for. Graphically, it (and the rest of Gen 3) are the most consistently good looking games in the series, with solid sprite work, good tilesets, and an overall feel that feels appropriately baseline "Pokemon". It also doesn't suffer from absolutely molasses level game speed like Gen 4 does. Doesn't waste your time.
In addition, the postgame was solid, added quite a bit of content (about half of Gen 2 mons, breeding, battle hill, and a good land mass to explore alongside some fun small story stuff). The Sevii islands are also soulful beyond belief, and I can't help but wonder if some of the Johto mons present were initially conceptualized for Gen 1.
Additional mechanics like Vs Seeker and Fame Checker were great additions that every game in the series would benefit from.
Really it's biggest flaws are not including the Battle tower (though to its credit this wasn't a hard established trend/desire yet), and the evolution restriction like
>>53279002 mentioned. Should've also included a Day Night cycle.
Anyone disagreeing with this post is objectively incorrect.
