It appears another "gigaleak" has gone down, involving Nintendo. According to sources online, it appears that Game Freak has been hacked, resulting in internal data from the company being leaked to the public. Those involved in the hacking community or those within general Pokemon related groups...
Which is exactly why I stopped playing after Gen 2, which was the peak of the series IMO. If you want to see everything the series has to offer, just play Gold/Silver (or their remakes on the DS). No reason to waste time and money on any other Pokémon game.
Gen 4 was peak IMO, both the new Pokemon were excellent as well as the best remakes ever made. Gen 4 has Platinum and HeartGold SoulSilver which are the best games in the series.
Radical Red and Polished Crystal are peak, in my opinion. I can’t go back to the lack of special/physical split, it’s just awful.
Have you tried Unbound?
I have! It was great as well. I think it’s my favorite original romhack so far. I’m planning on playing Insurgence next, although that’s a fan-game as opposed to real romhack.
I’ve got Insurgence, and Reborn ready to go as soon as I get through Unbound! I’m glad you’ve been able to enjoy these so much! As soon as Did You Know Gaming released a video about Nintendo taking down fan games and rom hacks, I immediately went and got as many of the more polished and lauded ones as soon as I possibly could! :)
I really liked Prism. And I don’t know, Radical Red just played different from how I like my single player pokemon experience.
Pokemon Black/White 1 & 2 are as close to that as you want. Great story, amazing songs that i still hum to this day, and the designs are as solid as Gen 1 and 2.