Watch to the end or this video won't make full sense.

Allow me to share my memory of Gen 2. I was super excited about Houndoom and to have it on my team. I would play with my gameboy under the cover at night to try and find one. I eventually beat Johto and begged my parents to get me the guide to find out where it was. Needless to say my little heart was crushed and confused when I found out it was not only not in Johto but the most random route in Kanto...I still grinded that shit to fight Red though.

I always laugh at that 1% Dunsparce rate because my most recent replay of Crystal, the first pokemon I found in Dark Cave was a Dunsparce 🤣

"Espeon doesn't ever appear in Jotho"

Uhhh, the Kimono girls would like a word.

Me at Age 33 after 20+ years of playing this game: WTF YOU CAN GET PHANPY BEFORE FALKNER!?

Even with all this, gen2 is probably my favourite, it had just so many places to explore, i really remember it fondly

One of the things I think would be great for you to fix is the move incompatibility for all of the Pokemon. For example, in GSC Venusaur cannot learn Sludge Bomb but in later gens it does. I think taking moves that existed in Gens 1 and 2 which Pokemon could learn in later gens should be made available. It would make some movesets so much better and give more Pokemon more niches.

Like Aerodactyl with Rock Slide would be pretty scary if it just flinches you to death. Venusaur with Sludge Bomb/Earthquake can be a decent mixed sweeper. It would open up some creativity.

I also think making ghost type special and dark type physical would make sense. Gengar with special Shadow Ball is cool and even Espeon packing Shadow Ball is neat.

Me Walks in

"Pokémon gen 2 is terrible"

Me walks out

They didn't have the same philosophy for new pokemons back then. New mons were supposed to be kind of secret and you were supposed to either get lucky or go out of your way to find them. Unlike gens 3+ where new mons are the main focus (because they're not supposed to be sequels like gen 2 was)

Video: GEN 2 IS BAD?

Me a Gen 2 lover.  "All this time I had no idea "😨

But I had so much fun playing these than most recent titles.

In your rom hack, make sure you fix the issues like some of the poke balls not working like they are supposed to, and also other glitches that were there.

You forgot to mention that the original Gen 2 GBC cartridge's battery runs dry quicker than Gen 1's because of the clock, and when that battery runs dry, your save file is gone.

Gen 1 was my first pokemon game and I still remember gen 2 more fondly.

I think Jhoto's story could use some touch-ups in terms of impact like you did with the rival. But I'm hoping, but fairly confident, you get that the biggest theme under the surface of it all is that life simply moves forward. You have a team of weirdos who cant take the L like their boss did after being confronted with the first trainer to do so and win. You have the new day/night cycle which has it's own mechanics in terms of what you find in the wild + certain evolutions. You have an entire region that has changed since Red went on his journey and became a legend. And then you have the big secret at the mountain top. I think it's fairly hard to see that bigger picture because not enough was done despite the framework to tell that story being there. Like imagine if Giovani came back... only to side with the protag as the new final battle with team rocket. And he comes back because we discover, in the grief at his now repeated losses to Gold/Silver, our rival joins team Rocket temporarily because the admiins will give him "stronger" Pokemon. It provides a much needed bit of closure for Giovani's character arc that, at least from my memory, we somewhat got in RBY by the end. But it would also serve as a similar twist + lowest point for the rival - him only being able to snap out of it after we beat him despite his temporary team + his father stepping in to make sure his son doesn't repeat the mistakes of the father.

Definitely remember on every playthrough I needed to grind for hours before the elite four to clear it comfortably. This usually came in the form of me giving mom all my money and playing the elite four over and over again because it was quicker to wipe than train in victory road

The worst part is that most of these problems weren't fixed in HGSS, which is such a shame as HGSS is fantastic otherwise.

While HG/SS did help a lot with the: physical/special, new moves, new Pokemon, the ability to get evolution stones a lot sooner, & various evolutions the level issues & some bad options was still a problem. Also trade evolutions especially with specific held items was still a massive pain

But you can't deny how good hgss look despite of the flaws

I actually like that Team Rocket is so disenfranchised after their leader leaves. Like sometimes there’s a power vacuum in an org. I do think it should have been a B plot tho