I haven't been this hooked into mainline Pokemon battling in ages, it's amazing how well back-to-back PvE battles go with rogue-like elements. Having restrictions on healing item use and set battle rules, and not starting every battle able to fully heal in-between, you actually have to engage with the mechanics of the series that the mainline games have stubbornly refused to offer for ages.

I've always LOATHED "hard" difficulty romhacks since they basically just pit you against competitive team builds on normal trainers while you have some mid-level, shoddy pkmn with no held items available. Pokerogue, however, takes advantage of the vanilla formula and makes you feel like you're on a journey with only slight deviations, like being allowed to have multiple held items or even stack held items for boosted effects.

I've never once felt like the game was overtly unfair, even with the amount of RNG involved in a run (well, except for a certain trainer's ace Pokemon, there's a reason Smogon banned it from ubers). Most of the time, I could've just made better decisions on what I caught and which items I chose. Hell, if you're lucky and find your favorite Pokemon in the wild, you can probably take it to the endgame with how the game lets you build your teams over the course of your journey.

Overall, better than the actual games IMO and is MUST play for anyone who wants a Pokemon game that respects its combat, but dislikes online competitive.