Completed the RetroAchievements set for this playthrough. Overall a really solid set, good balance of difficulty without relying on too many easily missable achievements or obnoxious requirements, as well as being a nice excuse to see some of the little touches you might miss otherwise. I did have to start up a second playthrough for the secret seashells achievement though, but that was mainly due to the game locking you out of two of them unless you obtain them at a really specific point.

Playing this game again after the Switch remake reminded me of how much I enjoyed it, as well as all the things I didn’t care for about the remake: the soundtrack (while mostly good to great) had a few tracks that felt like major downgrades from the original, the dungeon builder feature was way less interesting than it should’ve been, and most importantly they removed the photo album mechanic. I guess it makes sense considering the photos were only there for the Game Boy Camera, but it was really neat having all these little moments captured and highlighted.

I could play this game a hundred more times and I don’t think I’d get tired of it. For a Game Boy game, the level of detail and the amount of actual worldbuilding this thing has still blows me away, and reminds me why to this day I consider it my all-time favorite game.