As someone who never played Gen 4 before (starting in Gen 5 myself), I was very excited to see what all the buzz about it was and I wasn't let down in the slightest. Having come in when the series started to take on a more linear approach to region design, seeing the relative freedom offered in Sinnoh was fantastic and the lore and world-building it provided as well through out-of-the-way nuggets of info such as the Canalave Library, Arceus's plates or simply talking to certain random NPC's kept me invested in exploring throughout.
The Grand Underground is also a fantastic addition to the core Pokemon loop and, while I lament the fact that secret bases had to be culled for it to happen, the sheer variety of Pokemon and items that can be found down there more than makes up for it and I can definitely see myself constantly going back down for a bit of mining or to try and get more rare mons (I cannot begin to tell you how hype it was to find wild Tropius, Absol and Houndoom before the 3rd Gym).
Another thing that I hold these games in probably the highest regard out of all the Pokemon games I've played is the difficulty. Knowing that EXP Share would always be turned on prior to the game coming out, I decided to have a rotating team so that way I'd never be overleveled for the fights to come. This turned out to be the best decision I could've made because they absolutely cranked the trainers in this game up to the max. This was probably the first time I've ever lost to a Gym Leader before in a Pokemon game.... and it happened TWICE (once to Maylene and again to Fantina). Even besides that though, the trainers (especially Gym Leaders) had genuine competitive movesets which, as someone who's used to simple AI in Pokemon games, was one hell of a surprise. However, it just made beating them all the more satisfying and I don't think I'll ever forget moments like beating Candice with only Toxicroak left standing after her Abomasnow decimated my entire team or tag teaming Cynthia's Milotic with my Toxicroak and Glaceon over the course of 15 turns.
However, that isn't to say the game's perfect. The variety of Pokemon available without the Grand Underground is still disappointingly low (I personally believe you should've been able to obtain Pokeradar before beating the game so that way the variety would be far greater but that's just me). The music is quite weird where I prefer the og versions of the songs that I adored from the originals (Snowpoint City, Route 216 and Amity Square) yet absolutely love the ones that I didn't care at all for in the originals (Route 203, Eterna City and ESPECIALLY Solaceon Town). And of course, there's no point in ignoring the Phanpy in the room: the graphics. I personally liked them for the most part and where they look good they REALLY look good (like the trainer battles, water or sunset). However, the same is equally as true for when they look BAD. For example, the bottom half of Route 212 can be genuinely sore on the eyes and some characters are almost impossible to take seriously when chibi-fied (poor Cyrus and Volkner....).
Despite all this though, I still had a great time with BDSP for it's refreshingly challenging campaign, brilliant additions in the Grand Underground and such and simply being able to use some of my favourite Gen 4 Pokemon in a Gen 4 game. It has faults that are definitely hard to ignore but overall, I very much enjoyed my time in Sinnoh.
The Grand Underground is also a fantastic addition to the core Pokemon loop and, while I lament the fact that secret bases had to be culled for it to happen, the sheer variety of Pokemon and items that can be found down there more than makes up for it and I can definitely see myself constantly going back down for a bit of mining or to try and get more rare mons (I cannot begin to tell you how hype it was to find wild Tropius, Absol and Houndoom before the 3rd Gym).
Another thing that I hold these games in probably the highest regard out of all the Pokemon games I've played is the difficulty. Knowing that EXP Share would always be turned on prior to the game coming out, I decided to have a rotating team so that way I'd never be overleveled for the fights to come. This turned out to be the best decision I could've made because they absolutely cranked the trainers in this game up to the max. This was probably the first time I've ever lost to a Gym Leader before in a Pokemon game.... and it happened TWICE (once to Maylene and again to Fantina). Even besides that though, the trainers (especially Gym Leaders) had genuine competitive movesets which, as someone who's used to simple AI in Pokemon games, was one hell of a surprise. However, it just made beating them all the more satisfying and I don't think I'll ever forget moments like beating Candice with only Toxicroak left standing after her Abomasnow decimated my entire team or tag teaming Cynthia's Milotic with my Toxicroak and Glaceon over the course of 15 turns.
However, that isn't to say the game's perfect. The variety of Pokemon available without the Grand Underground is still disappointingly low (I personally believe you should've been able to obtain Pokeradar before beating the game so that way the variety would be far greater but that's just me). The music is quite weird where I prefer the og versions of the songs that I adored from the originals (Snowpoint City, Route 216 and Amity Square) yet absolutely love the ones that I didn't care at all for in the originals (Route 203, Eterna City and ESPECIALLY Solaceon Town). And of course, there's no point in ignoring the Phanpy in the room: the graphics. I personally liked them for the most part and where they look good they REALLY look good (like the trainer battles, water or sunset). However, the same is equally as true for when they look BAD. For example, the bottom half of Route 212 can be genuinely sore on the eyes and some characters are almost impossible to take seriously when chibi-fied (poor Cyrus and Volkner....).
Despite all this though, I still had a great time with BDSP for it's refreshingly challenging campaign, brilliant additions in the Grand Underground and such and simply being able to use some of my favourite Gen 4 Pokemon in a Gen 4 game. It has faults that are definitely hard to ignore but overall, I very much enjoyed my time in Sinnoh.