Hi, /vp/. Gold and Silver get a lot of flak on here mainly because of their slow story progression, as well as the level curve near the end of Johto. But have you ever considered that these games are just simply not meant to be played in the same way as the others? I just recently got into them again, but with a totally different outlook, and it was the most fun I've had with Pokemon in a long time. In any of the other games, you could blaze through the main campaign in one sitting without much trouble. But Gold and Silver actively punish that style of play.

In these games, you're meant to take your time. You log on each day to rematch trainers and participate in daily events, sort of like an MMO. Of course, there's a bit of grinding involved here. But when it is spread out over the course of days, it doesn't feel particularly grindy at all. I completed the game in seven days, grabbing every one of the day-exclusive items from the siblings and stockpiling up on berries. I logged on in the daytime to catch Sunkern, and then in the night to catch Gastly. By the time I'd completed Johto, I had trained up over a dozen different Pokemon that I'd been swapping out at my convenience. By the end of Kanto, I had replaced half of the team I'd used in the Pokemon League before battling Red.