I’m getting a real kick out of Emerald Seaglass

My first games were G/S/C, so this scratches my old-person brain in a satisfying way.

Now, the story and gameplay is for the most part just Emerald; if you didn’t like Emerald, you probably won’t like this. There are some little additions to the map, like an underwater catching contest (à la Gen II bug catching contest) and some altered terrain in some cities that makes them more visually interesting.

There’s also a DexNav system that is very convenient in that, among other reasons, it lets you know when you’ve encountered all the Pokémon in a given area—this is important because areas have more diverse Pokémon, some of which have very low encounter rates. It also gives you access to even rarer, “hidden” Pokémon that can only be encountered via the DexNav. All of this lends to a “catch ’em all” style of play that I quite enjoy.

By far the biggest change and my favorite is the Gen II-style graphics. The overworld, battle sprites, and text, etc. have all been changed to a G/S/C style that I love. The sprites, including the overworld follower ones, are very charming and are “cohesive”—i.e. I haven’t encountered any Gen-III whose transformation makes them obvious fanart; they look like they belong in an “official” game.

This has quickly joined hacks like Polished Crystal and Gaia as a “comfort game” for me.