Bulbagarden

I guess I’m going to be the one to ask… why?

If you mean "why I'm playing one of the worst games in the franchise" it's to try to see what everyone sees in it. Everyone is always praising it to the high heavens but I can never see what's so special about HGSS. I just see the same flaws that the original Johto games have, now with updated mechanics and a useless gimmick that serves no practical purpose. So I'm attempting to try to play it as if it just came out and see if I can understand why everyone gushes about it. But so far... no dice. I'm only in Azalea Town and already it feels like a chore.

Well, that’s too bad. To each their own, though! There’s absolutely no reason why everyone’s opinions should have to be the same as popular opinion, and everyone has their own perfectly valid (and often interesting!) reasons why they don’t like certain games. A lot of people seem to forget that (or worse, don’t even know at all).

As for me, Gold and Silver are actually some of my favorite Pokémon games (I have yet to play HGSS), but a lot of that love is due to nostalgia. Certainly I know that they’re not perfect games, though; not by a long shot (and not just because of age). I got the impression that HGSS did improve a lot of the originals’ shortcomings, but I also know that some other things were surprisingly not really addressed that much (levels, anyone?). I guess I’ll have to really play them for myself one day to see…

The best parts of HGSS IMO (and I think a lot of the people that like HGSS would share this opinion) are later in the game, you're probably not going to see the appeal of the game this early. Don't expect it to feel like much of an improvement for a while, most of the big improvements come after you've beaten the Elite 4.

And that's bad game design. If you can't grab your audience as soon as possible to get them invested in the game then it's gonna be a chore to get to the "good stuff", which is locked away behind a large wall and several hours of gameplay. And it doesn't make the trip to reach the "good stuff" worth it if the early game is slow and tedious. Which is another point against HGSS IMO. If the early game isn't improved over its previous version and it a slow slog to play through it then that's not worth the effort.