it's definitely interesting to watch people at large go from utterly despising this game pair up around 6 years ago to today where this game gets lionized for things that other generations are put down for even when they pull it off better

it's always been pretty funny to me that people complain about how incredibly linear Pokemon maps are when these pair are as linear as it gets with a literal circle around the map. there's a bigger emphasis on the characters themselves compared to the generations before it, but I think N and Bianca were the only characters I thought were interesting at the end of the day

the sprite work is great, and the story is decent with a surprising twist to the formula even if I'd argue that Sun and Moon had a much better story overall and more interesting stories are out there in RPGs in general. the Pokemon designs are great too, whether they're entirely new creatures or reimaginings of Gen 1 Pokemon. the slick UI, the Dreamworld when it was still active, and more still make this game a classic in my eyes.

I just kind of wish people would quit celebrating this game and then turn around and demean later games for things Black and White either started or did much worse on.

also I wish people would stop pretending that Black 2 and White 2 were good entries to this series