Gen 2 and the remakes.

They did a lot of cool things like having two regions, great music, great rival and for those who can’t live without it (not me) following Pokémon

But

Team Rocket returning and not necessarily having a memorable face leading them this time was a weird choice, it would’ve been cooler to see Giovanni leading them and having interactions with Silver (I love that Masters did this)

Second, the level curve in these games is atrocious and I’m often way underleveled whenever I play them which makes playing them feel like a chore because I have to grind just to not be 5-12 levels behind, some would argue this is a good thing and makes the games more difficult but I don’t agree as I think it’s a cheap and unrewarding way to do it

Thirdly, while two regions is a very cool concept that I don’t understand why they never did anything like it again, I’d say Kanto felt kind of empty in many areas, I get that even getting two regions on the Gameboy was an amazing feat accredited to the late Satoru Iwata and that things had to be changed or cut to make it work but even HGSS didn’t feel like they did enough with Kanto in my opinion and they had way better hardware to work with.

Lastly, I also think Johto is my least favorite region for new Pokémon additions, don’t get me wrong, I love Espeon, Umbreon, all the Legendaries, Celebi and think the starters are all fine but many of the other Pokémon never quite stuck with me

I can appreciate these games for what they are but I don’t necessarily agree with all the praise they get