Pokemon Crystal is the definitive version of the second generation Pokemon games. It takes what made Gold and Silver great and builds upon those games with additional features and tweaks.
Generation 2, and more specifically Crystal, is the Pokemon game that I played the most as a kid and am the most nostalgic about. To me this was peak pokemon and I’ve replayed this game countless times. I remember it broke my heart starting a new game and losing a 100 hour save file and my beloved team, but as soon as I chose my new starter and went out on my adventure, I was overwhelmed with excitement. But that is nostalgia talking. How does the game hold up in 2023?
First thing that I want to say is that Crystal (gen 2 in general) is a huge improvement over the previous generation of Red, Blue, Yellow (and Green). Many of my complaints about Yellow have been addressed and improved upon in this game. Enemy A.I. is still nothing to write home about, but they have drastically improved. Their movesets are more respectable and they don’t spam random or ineffective moves as much. Whenever my Pokemon were on the verge of death, the A.I. tried to finish me off with moves such as Quick Attack, instead of randomly using Leer or wasting its turn on something else. The game is still very easy but can no longer get by just by pressing A during every battle. You need to have at least a little bit of strategy.
One of the new features that was introduced in this game is the ability to make your Pokemon hold items. If you’re reading this I don’t need to explain what this means, but this revolutionary feature has changed the way we build our teams and strategize our battles to this very day. Another new feature that was introduced here that has revolutionized the way we play Pokemon is the ability to breed male and female Pokemon, which then lay eggs that hatch into new Pokemon. Day and night cycle was present in this game for the first time.Different Pokemon are available in the wild depending on what time of the day it is. I remember patiently waiting for the clock to hit 6PM on a friday night so that I could catch a Gastly in the Sprout Tower, then to wake up the next morning at 7AM just so that I could catch a Ledyba that I was never going to use, for Pokedex sake. With the day and night cycle also comes day changes. Every day of the week something different happens in the world. For example, on certain days the Bug Catching contest is available, while certain characters who give you valuable items only appear one day per week. Trainers, such as police officers, will battle you, but only at night. Lapras will appear deep inside a cave, but only on Fridays. All of these events helped the world feel alive.
Speaking of the world, to this day this is the only Pokemon game that has not one but two whole regions, which is probably this game’s most famous feature. I couldn’t believe that when I beat the Elite Four, I was taken all the way to the Kanto region from Pokemon Yellow, and I was all for it. Of course the Kanto region is a lot more condensed and you can probably get through it in just a few hours, but it’s still there and it makes the world feel complete.
Other small quality of life features introduced in this game that I appreciate include the backpack organization. You now have more slots in your backpack and there are separate sections for your TM moves, healing items, and key items, which helps to keep your items more organized. When you encounter a wild pokemon that you have captured before, there is a small pokeball symbol next to its name indicating that you already have it registered in your Pokedex. To use HMs, you can just walk up to the spot that requires the HM and press A to automatically use it. You don’t have to go through menus just to use an HM every time like in the previous generation. There is now an experience points bar below your Pokemon’s name, so now you always know how close you are to leveling up. At the start of each battle, the enemy pokemon will do a cool little animation, which is unique to the Crystal version.
There’s plenty to appreciate and enjoy in this game. Even by today’s standards it is not too shabby. Unfortunately, as with Yellow, there’s really no reason to play this game in 2023, outside of nostalgia and novelty. Playing the remakes Heart Gold and Soul Silver is a much better experience of this generation in every single way. While playing Crystal in 2023, I was still frustrated with the fact that special and physical attacks are not split. For example, ALL fire attacks are special attacks in this game. I taught my Graveler Fire Punch, still thinking that it would be a good physical attack for coverage, but when I used it in battle, the damage it did was very underwhelming. Then I remembered that even though it's a punch, when it's fire it's not a physical move. After 15 years of being used to the physical and special move split, it's very hard to go back to these old games. It feels so unnatural.
Another complaint that I have with this game, which is pretty common and well known, is the level scaling. There is a point in the game where it tries to be a bit more open ended. So you can either go left, or right. Because of this freedom, both paths contain similar leveled enemies. So if you choose to go left, the enemy Pokemon levels will still be somewhat close to yours, but once you go back to the right, it will be a complete cake walk as enemy levels are sometimes almost half of your teams. At this point the game stops being challenging. Killing level 17 Zubats with my Level 32 Faraligatr over and over again is not fun. Once you complete your Gym badge collection, you go on to fight the Elite Four plus the Champion. Their levels are considerably higher than the last couple Gym leaders that you battled. However, there aren’t really any good areas to grind and level up your Pokemon to high enough levels for the Elite Four. You have to battle level 30 Gravelers over and over, which don’t give you all that much exp.
Overall, as I’ve said before, this was a huge improvement over the previous generation and it goes down as one of the absolute GOATs in my book, despite by my relatively low score.
Generation 2, and more specifically Crystal, is the Pokemon game that I played the most as a kid and am the most nostalgic about. To me this was peak pokemon and I’ve replayed this game countless times. I remember it broke my heart starting a new game and losing a 100 hour save file and my beloved team, but as soon as I chose my new starter and went out on my adventure, I was overwhelmed with excitement. But that is nostalgia talking. How does the game hold up in 2023?
First thing that I want to say is that Crystal (gen 2 in general) is a huge improvement over the previous generation of Red, Blue, Yellow (and Green). Many of my complaints about Yellow have been addressed and improved upon in this game. Enemy A.I. is still nothing to write home about, but they have drastically improved. Their movesets are more respectable and they don’t spam random or ineffective moves as much. Whenever my Pokemon were on the verge of death, the A.I. tried to finish me off with moves such as Quick Attack, instead of randomly using Leer or wasting its turn on something else. The game is still very easy but can no longer get by just by pressing A during every battle. You need to have at least a little bit of strategy.
One of the new features that was introduced in this game is the ability to make your Pokemon hold items. If you’re reading this I don’t need to explain what this means, but this revolutionary feature has changed the way we build our teams and strategize our battles to this very day. Another new feature that was introduced here that has revolutionized the way we play Pokemon is the ability to breed male and female Pokemon, which then lay eggs that hatch into new Pokemon. Day and night cycle was present in this game for the first time.Different Pokemon are available in the wild depending on what time of the day it is. I remember patiently waiting for the clock to hit 6PM on a friday night so that I could catch a Gastly in the Sprout Tower, then to wake up the next morning at 7AM just so that I could catch a Ledyba that I was never going to use, for Pokedex sake. With the day and night cycle also comes day changes. Every day of the week something different happens in the world. For example, on certain days the Bug Catching contest is available, while certain characters who give you valuable items only appear one day per week. Trainers, such as police officers, will battle you, but only at night. Lapras will appear deep inside a cave, but only on Fridays. All of these events helped the world feel alive.
Speaking of the world, to this day this is the only Pokemon game that has not one but two whole regions, which is probably this game’s most famous feature. I couldn’t believe that when I beat the Elite Four, I was taken all the way to the Kanto region from Pokemon Yellow, and I was all for it. Of course the Kanto region is a lot more condensed and you can probably get through it in just a few hours, but it’s still there and it makes the world feel complete.
Other small quality of life features introduced in this game that I appreciate include the backpack organization. You now have more slots in your backpack and there are separate sections for your TM moves, healing items, and key items, which helps to keep your items more organized. When you encounter a wild pokemon that you have captured before, there is a small pokeball symbol next to its name indicating that you already have it registered in your Pokedex. To use HMs, you can just walk up to the spot that requires the HM and press A to automatically use it. You don’t have to go through menus just to use an HM every time like in the previous generation. There is now an experience points bar below your Pokemon’s name, so now you always know how close you are to leveling up. At the start of each battle, the enemy pokemon will do a cool little animation, which is unique to the Crystal version.
There’s plenty to appreciate and enjoy in this game. Even by today’s standards it is not too shabby. Unfortunately, as with Yellow, there’s really no reason to play this game in 2023, outside of nostalgia and novelty. Playing the remakes Heart Gold and Soul Silver is a much better experience of this generation in every single way. While playing Crystal in 2023, I was still frustrated with the fact that special and physical attacks are not split. For example, ALL fire attacks are special attacks in this game. I taught my Graveler Fire Punch, still thinking that it would be a good physical attack for coverage, but when I used it in battle, the damage it did was very underwhelming. Then I remembered that even though it's a punch, when it's fire it's not a physical move. After 15 years of being used to the physical and special move split, it's very hard to go back to these old games. It feels so unnatural.
Another complaint that I have with this game, which is pretty common and well known, is the level scaling. There is a point in the game where it tries to be a bit more open ended. So you can either go left, or right. Because of this freedom, both paths contain similar leveled enemies. So if you choose to go left, the enemy Pokemon levels will still be somewhat close to yours, but once you go back to the right, it will be a complete cake walk as enemy levels are sometimes almost half of your teams. At this point the game stops being challenging. Killing level 17 Zubats with my Level 32 Faraligatr over and over again is not fun. Once you complete your Gym badge collection, you go on to fight the Elite Four plus the Champion. Their levels are considerably higher than the last couple Gym leaders that you battled. However, there aren’t really any good areas to grind and level up your Pokemon to high enough levels for the Elite Four. You have to battle level 30 Gravelers over and over, which don’t give you all that much exp.
Overall, as I’ve said before, this was a huge improvement over the previous generation and it goes down as one of the absolute GOATs in my book, despite by my relatively low score.