...whee for long posts! Rather negative one on GSC, but hey - different people do have differing opinions, and not everyone is going to agree one the one thing, much less a game. And as you said, it is to also show why you don't like it - and tbh I REALLY prefer such posts over the 'omg it sucked/it'll never happen' ones, as there's no reasoning behind them. One gets annoyed by those, as well as the 'this gen was teh bestest' people as well.
But, as I like discussing points... just the odd one or two...or several...:
Besides that, the most powerful Pokémon is a Dragonite, which shouldn't even be there because it's level 50 and not 55.
Meh, they've been inconsistent about that in other games. Take Colosseum and XD - there's a guy who uses a Level 50 Pikachu. In the following game, he's seen with one at 15. Many found this odd (my theory is it's another Pikachu though)... but that's besides the point - just felt like saying it's not the only case of changing levels. 'Cause I can. =P
The difficulty curve of the game was made by a freaking two year-old. At least Kanto made it sort of hard if you picked the Fire-Type starter. (But most critics would argue Hoenn and Sinnoh were worshipping at the altar of Blaziken and Infernape respectively...which is true. However, my argument is that Game Freak should've realized their mistake at Johto instead of continuing to make it over again, and, especially in the case of Hoenn, much worse for the future generations)
If you picked Chikorita as your starter, you were considered one with quite the gutspah, since no gym in Johto AT ALL favors picking it, it's the worst starter offensively, and unless you hop on the bandwagon that is Alakazam, you're starving for a support fighter that can help Chikorita stand on its own four legs and weather the assault of multiple resistances and having 3 of the 8 gyms--the first two being the game's first two gyms--score super-effective hits on it.
...hmm, it DOES seem that there is a way to give yourself some difficulty curve - chose Chikorita! It does make it harder to an extent, especially if you choose your team to make it hard. -_-
A remake however I feel could avert this problem a bit - there's a chance that different/more Pokemon would be catchable, for one. Some of Johto's Pokemon could evolve into their new evolutions as well (like in FR/LG, one could use a Crobat). And generally, Pokemon's movesets have also improved quite decently.
Leveling is an issue that it had, admittedly... but it IS possible that they change it too. They didn't in FR/LG, but one remake game set shouldn't be the end-all-or-be-all measuring stick for what a remake might be like, necessarily.
Speaking of cross-generation evolutions, that's another thing that Johto horribly failed at, a
problem that Sinnoh fixed quite nicely in my opinion; the overabundance of really mediocre, one-liners that had no use to anyone, were absurdly rare, and weren't worth the ridiculous effort put into them to add them to your team. Sinnoh gave much-needed evolutions to ugly ducklings like Gligar, Aipom, Yanma, Togetic, and others.
Meh - every gen I've encountered people complaining about the Pokemon that came forth, and that Game Freak is running out of ideas, etc, etc. There's a number who hate the new evolutions the 4th gen offered up. But of course, that's up to opinion of players.
Compared to Red, Blue and Yellow, Gold, Silver and Crystal were incredibly mediocre. There was no real story like there was in RBY,
Hmm, I'd disagree... Team Rocket in RBY made money with the Game Corner, and wanted a Master Ball for reasons unknown (and maybe control of Sliph Co, to make more money!) Not that great a story... GSC had an attempt of a revival from them - events at Lake of Rage being merely a test for what they planned to do in Radio Tower. Plus Crystal had an extra subplot involving Suicune. Again - something on opinion.
EDIT: Johto's best selling point was brought up to me by a friend of mine. I will admit that Johto has the BEST soundtrack of ANY Pokémon game. However, a remake would likely only damage the game's legendary battle themes (though admittedly, hearing remakes of many of the themes piques my interest in a remake), which adds fuel to the fire of saying how bad a remake would be. =\
How true - the music was fantastic. Goldenrod, Burnt Tower even... plus the Legendary themes (especially the legendary beats in Crystal). I'd say the music was the best out of them all, even piping Colosseum's music, which had Miror B's salsa music. Which is awesome. -_-
Because I've proven why I did it in the first place, I think I've justified the existence of my post. I don't like Johto all that much, and can't understand why people are hailing it as the best gen ever. It doesn't deserve a title, though that's entirely up to the opinion of the people who want this remake. Perhaps seeing their input will help me understand what gets people so hyped about it.
Because either I don't see it, or it's not there.
As to what makes GSC seem so great... hmm. Well, I don't think it was really just one thing, really... music was one, of course, but there were an awful lot of sidequests, for one ranging in size and hidden places to explore. The fact it had a second region is another - even with some annoying downsizing of routes and a lowered difficulty level, it was far more then, say, Sevii Islands, and gave something to those who played RBY as well to see how it changed and all. Hopefully, if a remake is made - it'll be improved upon - and there's no reason why it wouldn't. Even with a reduced region - looking at all the nooks and crannies Johto had, it really did have more to do then other regions as well, IMO.
Features such as the Pokegear (who DIDN'T like the radio?), and the introduction of reversing people via the phone... and the day-night feature, combined with daily events, or events that only happened on specific days are others. It was the first game to use such things, and clearly one of the most popular. It added, for me, a more 'real' feel to the Pokemon world, and a more enjoyable one. Many would agree, I'm sure. *glances at how people whinged about RSE's lack of it, and people's celebrations about it's return in DP*
It was, for it's time, quite a step up from RBY also, for many people, in many different ways, in short. Lost on minor additions here and there - breeding, shiny Pokemon, the challenge to catch all the Unown, even the (quietly used) introduction of berries... new ways to evolve Pokemon added is another minor feature - one of the many out there. There was, IMO a fair bit to do (even if a fair bit was easy, but one could also impose some difficulty on it - heck - for
each Pokemon game ever made one can find challenge threads on forums (like Monotype ones, or a 'Scramble challenge) for assigned Pokemon one must use as a challenge to beat the game). I too liked many of the new Pokemon as well, contray to your opinion, but each to his/her own.
That might go some way to explaining why people liked it. -_- (Yay for quickly-typed long posts of my own).
