I remember having a rough go of it with this game as a child and I was shocked to come back to it and have a similar experience. Pokemon XD is rough in the best way possible, as once you hit the halfway point the difficulty ramps up and the game does not hold your hand. You've got a limited roster of Pokemon (both shadow and normal), generation 3's bad movesets and limited TM selection, a complete lack of an easy way to grind money, and an exponential difficulty curve that does not let up. The only other game in the series I've played where you have to strategize for your boss fights was near the end of Legends: Arceus, but this knocks those fights out of the park. I'm praying either TPC or Genius Sonority manages to either port this and Colosseum to modern hardware or that they get another shot to make a similar experience because there aren't any other games in the series like these two.