If the last arc used all its bad coupons at the end of the arc to make an amazing experience up to a certain point then FRLG sprinkles its coupons equally throughout the arc. This is bad, like really bad. Yet I still somehow enjoyed myself. So right off the bat there are a ton of easy to spot problems that plague this arc. If I were to lets say describe its problems in five sections it would be: Characters, Mechanics, Location, Villains, Plot. These are very vague points I know but I will get into them one by one now. So in terms of characters Green is probably my biggest problem with this arc. We are made to feel like Green will be the protagonist for this arc, she has an interesting story and is right at the end of her character arc. I was excited for this, Green is a favourite of mine but sadly none of that happened... She is taken out of the action for a while right away and even after she returns she does very little. What a waste of a great character... And for what? So Red could once again be the main character. Red was fine in this arc but there was no reason for him to steal the show again. I did miss Red I'll admit but Red already had his story told. Both Blue and Green would of been better picks to lead this story but in due time they are left behind. The only part this was maybe worthit was when Red fought against Giovanni but I don't think that made up for what was ultimately lost. I don't want this review to be too long so let's speedrun through the rest of the important characters. Blue was cool and I liked his battle for end but the battle became pretty much a joke considering every trainer and their mum learned the special moves by emerald. Blue just like Green needed more focus. Yellow was well used and I'm not too mad she played a bit of a minor role in this case. Silver was a nothing character. There is so much you can do with Giovanni and Silver's relationship yet Silver felt like a blank canvas jsut for Giovanni to have his time to shine. Giovanni speaking of which was ok. Liked some of his bits but I wish we got to see him develop further. Why not let us see more of his love for his son. How it feels about his past. I feel like his arc was just missing something. Lorelei was a mistake during this arc... Enough said on that, she was handled extremely poorly. Lastly Ultima was just boring. Her role in this arc felt completely unimportant just so we could see a cool 3 pokedex holder super move panel I guess. I still feel like the story could be easily reworked without her and nothing would change which is terrible for a story. She had a decent personality but by the end she felt like a nothing character. Mechanics is my second main problem and what I mean by it is how forced every new mechanic introduced during this arc felt. If you've read my previous reviews you'll know how much I praised how adventures took game elements even out there mechanics and made them feel natural and developed. Well this arc doesn't do any of that. Almost everything they take from the games feels forced, sometimes it feels like I'm just reading an advert for FRLG. That's a real shame considering I've never felt that reading adventures before. Yellow for instance adapted a game that basically was only different because the started was pikachu yet was able to craft such a great sequel. Dexoys especially felt super out of place regardless of any hollow explanation they tried to give for its inclusion in the plot. I know the sevii islands added alot of things and they probably wanted to showcase alot of it but I believe all that pandering was at the cost of the story. To Lead off from that the location of the sevii islands felt wasted in this arc. I honestly would of rathered a more adventurous kind of arc instead of just using the islands as empty battle grounds with little personality. The villains were goofy as all hell. I didn't hate them but the last thing they were was opposing. The plot doesn't need much on it. I get a headace thinking about it. Its just really dumb and all over the place. So why the hell did I even give this an above average score? I've said so much bad but at the end of the day my thoughts are quite black and white. This arc has buckets of flowing problems yet I can't help but love it. It's dumb, and objectively probably the worst arc but one thing's for sure is I never got bored. I would rather that than the somewhat forgettable arc of GSC even if I still would rate that higher. Don't go into this arc expecting a reasonable story. Just have fun is my biggests request lol. Overall a fun but absurd trip back to kanto that does so much wrong leading to a delightful headace. Sorry this review was so long.
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