I’ve played quite a few Gen 3 hacks but never played RSE proper aside from getting most of the way through Sapphire 20+ years ago, so I just recently completed my first playthrough via Emerald Mini. For the hack itself, I like how it cuts the overworld down to (mostly) its bare essentials, like you get more or less the same experience but more condensed. There are some nice optional additions like a building to train specific EVs, but I don’t like some of the mandatory changes like most gyms and the Elite Four requiring you to battle every trainer in succession without a chance to heal/use items, and Zinnia randomly appearing out of nowhere as the Champion.
As for Emerald itself… I just don’t like it that much, I’m sorry. I really wanted to. Call me a genwunner/twoer, but Gen 3 always struck me as being much less ambitious than the first two, and felt very safe in comparison. I also greatly value music in games, and RSE is a huge step down with a lot of the songs feeling same-y and forgettable (to be fair, I played a lot of the game in fast forward, but I still listened to each song at least once). There’s nothing I hate about the game or anything - the graphics and Pokemon designs are good, the villains are interesting, and of course the addition of new mechanics like abilities - but I don’t know, I don’t see myself doing another playthrough. If I get a Gen 3 itch in the future, I’ll just replay FRLG again or try one of the thousand rom hacks. Or maybe I’m just retarded for doing my first full playthrough with Mini. Though I’ve also heard that a lot of the appeal comes from postgame, so maybe I need to keep going and try the battle frontier? Also contests, but those felt like an RNG fest. Otherwise I’ll move on to Platinum since my only DPP playthrough was Diamond when it first released.
