The grind happens because of a legitimate design choice, the ability to choose your direction after a certain town and the requirement that all paths must have equal levels to accommodate that. A problem no other Pokemon game has because they have a defined level curve as you progress through the linear path the Gyms provide (until S/V which has the opposite issue).
Its a problem that only Gen 2 has and its not something you can just handwave off because its a dominating issue for the second half of the game until it culminates in Red basically having 20 levels on you if you play the game normally, or spend dozens of hours to catch up to him.
I don't know who that is. If I was getting my opinions from someone else I'd cite them, but I've actually played all the games sans gen 4-6 or 7. Whenever Moon was. HGSS was the exception as that is Gen 4, right? But that was only a few years ago.
JRPGs have grinding. You can minimize it, like in Chrono Trigger, but eliminating it just can't happen.
Chrono Cross tried to get rid of it, but it was undercut by its infuriating plot.
The grind happens because of a legitimate design choice, the ability to choose your direction after a certain town and the requirement that all paths must have equal levels to accommodate that. A problem no other Pokemon game has because they have a defined level curve as you progress through the linear path the Gyms provide (until S/V which has the opposite issue).
Its a problem that only Gen 2 has and its not something you can just handwave off because its a dominating issue for the second half of the game until it culminates in Red basically having 20 levels on you if you play the game normally, or spend dozens of hours to catch up to him.
Yes, I saw SmithPlays Pokémon's videos too.
That's why I said HGSS is better.
I don't know who that is. If I was getting my opinions from someone else I'd cite them, but I've actually played all the games sans gen 4-6 or 7. Whenever Moon was. HGSS was the exception as that is Gen 4, right? But that was only a few years ago.
2009 was "only a few years ago?"