I finished this hack twice now since the release of 2.0.
First time was a bit of a let down, because of a lack of planning. I grabbed Shinx and forgot the elemental fang attacks were gen4. I tried to train Shellder, but forgot how bad its moveset was. I loved Ariados in the early game, but at some point stopped using it because neither bug nor poison have a really great coverage. So I slowly ended up only using my Medicham, which was incredibly strong, with huge power and had a lot of coverage with the egg move tutor: Psycho Cut, High Jump Kick, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch.
I did train that Houndoom up for the first e4 fight, Medicham ended up being level 80 and didn't really need help though.
So I decided to do a fairy monotype the second time and it was great. I also picked up the early lucky egg I forgot last time.
Before Norman, there were not many options, I was stuck with Marill and Snubbull (and Ralts, but I couldn't find a female one for the life of me, so I couldn't get Gardevoir and didn't train it), but those two have a nice coverage and Wattson was the only gym that gave me trouble. As soon as I had surf I went to pick up Togepi and Absol. I actually got the Vulpix from Wondertrade, I regret not going there sooner, only rock smash is needed, I could have gotten a third team member a bit earlier. If I hadn't needed an HM slave, I probably would have picked up Mawile as well, but I refused to put 3 water moves on my Azumarill.
Azumarill with huge power and roll out carried a lot. Absol is just super strong in this hack (and its shiny super pretty) and overshadowed Granbull later in the game. One swords dance and it murders almost everything, with a great coverage (Psychic, Fairy, Dark). Togekiss was my main special attacker, as I got it sooner than Vulpix, and already on level 35, so Ninetales never really caught up.
During the e4 fight, there was only one enemy mon that gave me real trouble. That Gardevoir destroyed my team and I came crawling out of that fight with 4 fainted team members. Everything else went pretty smoothly.
Besides the obvious game mechanics (love the new moves, the new mons, the shiny hunter AND THE DEX NAV!) I love the graphics. The green is just so green and the combat colors are so nice. That day night system is incredibly beautiful. When I first heard it would only be day and night, not morning like in GSC (which was always my favorite time of day) I was sceptical, but I'd take those awesome lit windows over morning always.
The only thing that drove me a bit crazy was EV training and unlike in 1.1 I slacked a bit. Not beacuse of the training itself, but because running to a room means skipping battle with 12 wild dittos, and because training Granbull for atk means 42 battles with double intimidate. I just trained my shiny purple boy and filled the EVs on the others and left it at that. Not that EV training is needed outside of the Battle Frontier, though the gym leaders and the e4 are noticeably stronger and have more diverse mons. Not fighting 2 Banette and 2 Dusclops in the e4 is refreshing.
All in all, this hack has almost every feature I could ever want in an Emerald hack and looks great on top of it. I will surely play this again.
