>>57413734It is that bad unfortunately. For one, the Pokemon. There's a number of problems I have with the Pokemon here.
The first has to be the Pokemon design/stats/moves. A lot of the Pokemon this gen are extremely weak, both in terms of movepools and stats. Pokemon like Noctowl, Sneasel, and more are handicapped by some combination of issues. Noctowl is fine design wise, but it has terrible stats and poor moves. Sneasel is a Dark/Ice type with terrible special attack. How are you ever going to use this thing? Heracross is a great design with good stats, and even it feels useless because it has no good moves. Most of the Pokemon don't have bad design, but they're not appealing options because they just happen to be extremely weak (moves and/or statwise). There's a reason why most Johto teams run a starter, Ampahros, and Gyarados: the other Pokemon just aren't worth it.
Even the Gym leaders suffer from this issue. Morty doesn't use a Misdreavus, he uses Gengar. Falkner doesn't use Noctowl, he uses Pidgeotto. Chuck doesn't use Hitmotop, he uses Poliwrath. They gym leaders don't feel representative of the region because, were they to use Johto Pokemon, they would be too weak.
That's not to say there's no good Pokemon in Johto, because there are. Or there would be, if it weren't for the fact, that, for some reason, nearly all the good Pokemon are locked in Kanto. Houndoom, Tyranitar, and pokemon that evolve with a stone, are all locked behind Kanto. Why?
Even worse, Crystal, the "definitive verson" of Gen 2, still has similar issues. You can't even obtain a Ampharos, one of Gen 2's most iconic Pokemon, period. Why?
I had such a hard time building a team in Gold because the Pokemon are either weak or straight up unavailable.
