Pokémon Crystal Version (2000)

At long last, I have finished my review of Pokémon Crystal Version. Last week, I posted a status sharing my site at the suggestion of my beloved Octjillery. Some of you said you'd be interested in what I do with it going forward, so here's my first post containing a content update.

With 18,212 words from November 10 until today, this is by far the longest review I've ever written. I'm sure that's daunting to many people, but feel free to absorb it in chunks if you'd prefer. Spend time with it. Let it stew. Take it for walks. Teach it tricks. Whatever you do, I appreciate any and all of anyone's time.

I believe this article more than any other most closely reflects my goals in writing. It's equal parts personal retrospective and review, and in not wanting to sacrifice thoroughness for either I've written something appropriately dense. Like all of my pages, I consider this to be a living document that I may update from time to time with more information or revised opinions. Regardless, I'd say the main thrust of my experience and impressions with the game are present right now, and I'm not worried about losing any immediate post-completion thoughts.

I'll stop blabbering now! Feedback, questions, comments — anything at all — I'm happy to hear. I hope you find it a pleasurable if not insightful read. Take care.

https://noahsb1c7c15d6d.wordpress.com/video-game-reviews/pokemon-crystal/

I’m enjoying going back to this. For the first 90 mins or so I was worried I’d made the wrong choice, and that I should have started HeartGold instead. But, it’s been easily 15+ years since I properly played Gen II, and I think I made the right choice.

It’s missing some QoL stuff from newer games, but not nearly as bad as I’d feared, and I love the original Gen II art style and spritework. More detail and colour than Gen I (which looks especially good on the Analogue Pocket), but still keeping the character that I feel we slowly lost in the transition into polygonal models. The little animations in Crystal are a nice touch too.

I probably will flip my intended play order for the next games around though; I’d intended to move onto LeafGreen and then Emerald, but I think double-Kanto is likely to burn me out. Not to mention, I’ve never actually played Emerald (only Ruby, and only once), so there should be a good mix of stuff I’d forgotten and stuff new to me.

Just finished Crystal for first the first time and here are my thoughts:

Pro:

• authentic world (some unique city designs, good to navigate too)
• most of the core features (I like the most) are present
  (e.g. hatching, berries, choice of gender)
• animated Pokémon sprites
• the world feels so dynamic because of the day and nighttime cycle, the daily events and various radio shows
• nice and fitting music
• most the new Pokémon aren't great fighters, but make the world more lively and realistic

Contra:

• Post game could be more challenging (except for RED)
• Chikorita is so much weaker then the other starter
• the placement of some important items and persons are sometimes arbitrary (e.g. Exp. Share, Poké Flute)
• the distribution of the Pokémon before the LEAGUE leaves you with too few options for a viable team
• no proper training area for higher levels after the LEAGUE
• very tedious Team Rocket hideouts

Great game that still mostly holds up in 2018. Much like I remember from Pokemon Yellow, the color palette still looks like it was shoehorned on top of a black & white game... but it's not terrible.

Coming from FireRed on the GBA, this adds Pokemon sprite animations, breeding, and legendaries. You can have your character's mom take a cut of all the money you win from trainer battles, but this seemed fairly useless during my playthrough; since all she did with that money was buy a couple potions and some decorations for my room. For people who enjoyed getting calls from Cousin Roman to go bowling, you can share your phone number with select NPCs you meet. Also, playing on a 3DS makes it easy to migrate your Pokemon to Sun/Moon with the Pokemon Bank.

The difficulty also seems reduced from FireRed. Not once did all of my Pokemon get knocked out in this playthrough. I didn't particularly spend much time grinding at all, and was around level 40 with my main party of Meganium, Suicine, Machoke, Dragonair, Pidgeotto, and Gyarados when I hit the Elite Four. I actually forgot to buy Revives and only had 2 in my inventory, yet I still was able to beat the Elite Four in one try (maybe because Suicine is a bit overpowered).

And now I can apparently replay the entire Red/Blue/Yellow map again. So, that's pretty cool.