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I was just going through HGSS again after fucking around in Legends Arceus when I realised something.
I'd never beaten HGSS. Hadn't even gotten any Pokemon past level 30 besides the Red Gyarados.
And yet, even when I was a kid, I'd keep resetting it and playing it through to Whitney and maybe Morty, and then just keep playing Voltorb Flip and the Pokéathlon over and over again, plus trying out the Safari Zone recently via a SoulSilver cart I picked up below $100 somehow.
I just realised now that the core of Pokémon, being encountering and catching them, and standard 1v1/2v2 battling them, are the two things I despise most in these games, with no longevity.
I like it when said battles give me options, like the stupid shit in the battle frontier looks amazing, as was the B2W2 World Championship having actually cool stuff like mixed and rotation battles, or inverse in XY.
That's not even mentioning catching in L:A without needing to encounter manually, just toss a ball, and maybe stun with debris, and it's fucking done compared to how slow SV feels afterwards.
But above all, I want the stupid shit that has nothing to do with either, or even me or my Pokémon. Give me more shit like Join Avenue without the trappings of Festival Plaza, give me more arcade-ish games to play for said prizes, the Pokéathlon that's as optional as it's worthless, give me new contests, more of those ridiculous performances like in BW, the Mantine Surfing in USUM, sneak in other Frontier facilities like the Agency being a slightly shittier Factory, give more Ribbons/Marks for inane horseshit that's fun to find/achieve, ride Pokemon challenges like the balloon chases in Legends Arceus, gimme puzzle battles like Ingo's Path of Solitude, even nothingburgers like the Olive Roll or Bug-Catching Contest, even playing with Pokemon like Amie/Refresh or just camping out.
Just stop with the shitty standard battles. Gimme stuff to actually have fun with. I want the worthless that gave the old shit value.
