Getting to play a console Pokemon game with an actual story was a dream back in the 2000s when this game and its predecessor came out. In my opinion, the original is narratively stronger, but the mechanical additions make this more fun to play. Adding the purify chamber means that purifying shadow pokemon is far more painless and quick. The simple change that opposing trainers can have more than 1 shadow pokemon means that the potential roster is so much larger. Also, the ability to catch wild pokemon makes transferring from R/S/E actually viable as you don't have to give up any Pokemon from the limited roster to do so. I distinctly remember catching a ton of Pokemon, so I could import every Pokemon I had off a rented copy of Sapphire before having to return it to the store. A small gripe is that I wish there were more new locations, but I recognize the value of being able to reuse assets in game development.