I get it, I definitely think this game is overly hated. This was the "remember when Rare used to make good games" community's punching bag until Yooka-Laylee came along. That being said, this is still my least favorite Banjo-Kazooie game and yes, I'd be more than happy if whatever new Banjo game they make in the future quietly retcons this one and gently pushes this little accident under the rug where it belongs.

It's an interesting game experiment that has its moments, but the writing is so self-deprecative that I worry for the dev team's safety, the art style is grody (why do the teeth and eyes look like that), the new characters introduced in this game range from mediocre to Just The Worst, and, at the end of the day, if I wanted to mess around with making horrible monstrosities with detailed HD-era crafting textures, I'd rather just play LittleBigPlanet.

I both admire this game for being a technological marvel on the Sega Genesis (Look at those 3D graphics! Listen to the main menu and credits music going full Amiga on the Genesis sound chip! Admire the cutscene stills that seemingly destroy the color limitations of the hardware!) and hate it for being an absolute brutal monster of a game to play difficulty-wise. There is literally no reason for a game based off a Disney/Pixar property to be this stingy with the lives and health pick-ups but this game just expects you to do all of these levels pixel perfect with your wonky giant hitbox and your weird grabbing radius because you also start out with zero continues! Castlevania had continues!

While I do love this childhood game of mine and I think the mysterious "you figure it out" nature of recruiting Digimon and progressing through this game gives it a unique charm, it also took me 20 goddamn years to get to the final boss. Any kid that was able to beat this game in the 90's was either a gifted being born with divine will and patience or sprung for the strategy guide because good lord some of the game's puzzles and evolution requirements are disgustingly obtuse.

Also I love that one of the things that you unlock is a jukebox that will crash the game if you try to use it. A+ localization there.

I had to meditate on this game for a couple months after playing it to see what my opinion would be, and I have to say that this game's storytelling, visuals, and general vibe have been sticking with me long after I finished it, even if I think its sequel The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith is the better game overall. It helps that this game leans more into dark comedy and the disgustingly annoying unpleasantness of the main character rather than "oh the cutesy cartoon world is secretly fucked up", even if, yes, it turns out the cutesy cartoon world is secretly fucked up.

It's a game that's set in a cute cartoon world starring a cute bunny character that has a secret fucked up layer to it, but at least there's a substance to it and a rather good attempt at lore-building rather than introducing the darker elements purely for shock value.