https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/our-rainy-protocol
It looks like instead of doing the sensible thing like most of the game based anime do and animate the characters properly they managed to do some poorly put together FPS project that looks like it was taken right out of a playstation 1 title. It's ridiculous because the anime itself looks like it has well done characters and everything but they're all acting like this guys some l33t gamer and it's just them running around hip firing at character models on the screen LOL. It's polygon journalist levels of gaming.
There's a lot of good shit dropping and it feels like I'm having an anime buffet this winter but just be warned there's some really bad stuff too. If anyone wants to watch a game based anime that isn't an RPG there are way better options.
I miss it too, but I also strongly believe my preferences are colored by both nostalgia and a lack of other choices at the time. Not every anime is an Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Like, objectively, Negima was bad. I own ~40 Negima manga, because I liked the show so much, and it was POPULAR back in the heyday, but.. It's not a good show. Like, at all. And the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is... confusing at best as to its popularity. It relied on gimmicks and slight of hand to improve its own ratings, they literally pulled an Augmented Reality AR stunt back before those were a "thing", but Haruhi is still an idol of the anime community.
Chrono Crusade is a fun oldie, though, with the unique prize of "better ending than the source material", since they went past the manga and just started making things up leading to a beautiful ending, while the mangaka went bonkers and off the rails. Still holds up to this day, mostly.
Sola, though? Weird fantasy romance animes back then were... not great. Good concept, but... Wow, that show is mid at best now, one of my favorite romance anime back when, but I cannot re-watch it. A lot of my favorites are like that: They're better in my memories.
I don't think the medium has really advanced in a linear sense. That isn't to say nothing good has come out since then, I just can't get into the million "My Teenage Daughter Got Sucked Into An MMORPG and Has Become the Endgame Boss!" animes that have clogged the catalogue, nor can I watch an anime in a highschool setting at this point. Or really any anime at all.
I'll come back to things like the third arc of Samurai Horror Tales, Paranoia Agent, or Mononoke with my nostalgia intact.
Most of what I like is basically non-existent and esoteric at this point.