Pokemon Crystal Review (Game Boy Color, 2001)

The second generation of Pokemon titles proved that the monster collecting phenomenon was not just a fad. They broke sales records, and firmly established the series as one of the biggest in the world. They were still however tied to the hardware of the original Game Boy. To say they looked dated is an understatement. These games did have support for the Game Boy Color but were still backwards compatible. What I mean is they weren’t designed specifically for the newest hardware. Nintendo surprised everyone by announcing a third version to be released later. This was Pokemon Crystal, and it was a Game Boy Color exclusive. The game took advantage of the upgraded specs, and at the time was the most advanced game in the series released. In my opinion Pokemon Crystal is the best game in the franchise, but also one of the best RPGs of all time.

Pokemon Crystal follows the same story as the Gold and Silver versions. Here you play as a youth living in the Johto region of the Pokemon world some time after the events of the originals. The game begins as your character is given their first creature by the kindly Professor Elm. Soon after he meets Professor Oak and is given the Pokedex. At this point our protagonist decides to set out on their own Pokemon adventure to challenge and defeat the elite 4 and become the best trainer in the world. Along the way they’re tasked with catching em all, as well as stopping Team Rocket after their revival. It’s typical as far as a Pokemon game goes, but effective enough. Once you complete all of the challenges in Johto you can explore Kanto (from Red/Blue/Yellow) as well. Eventually the protagonist from the original games can even be challenged.

So what are Pokemon exactly? They are the non-human creatures that inhabit the world. This includes animals, fish, birds, and everything in between. Even ghosts are Pokemon, as well as mythical beasts like dragons. Your goal in Pokemon Crystal is to capture these creatures by first weakening them and then throwing poke balls at them. When you’ve successfully caught one they are added to your team. Besides this collection aspect the game is a fairly traditional turn based RPG. You view the action from an overhead perspective outside of battle and can walk in all four cardinal directions. Basically you wander from town to town exploring wild areas in between, and battle Pokemon that hide in tall grass and within caves. You’ll also be challenged by other trainers when you walk into their gaze.

As I’ve already mentioned the battle system is turn based, and fairly traditional for the genre. You send one Pokemon out to battle at a time, and only ever face a single enemy creature at once. You have the basic commands like run, and item, but you can switch your Pokemon (at the cost of a turn) as well. Each of your creatures can know up to four moves at a time, and these are what you rely on to attack and cause various effects during battle. They can learn more of course, but you’ll have to choose which ones best befit your strategies. Each Pokemon also is designated to at least one type, and sometimes a second. This is basically their element, and it determines their weaknesses and strengths.

Types include the basics like fire, water, ground, rock, flying etc with some fancier ones like dragon, ice, psychic and more. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, and the key to victory is making a well rounded team. Even two separate species of Pokemon of the same type can have drastically differing stats, and learn very different sets of moves. Each attack even has its own type association. When a Pokemon uses a move that matches one of their elements the damage is doubled. Despite targeting children in the marketing the series is robust with depth and detailed in strategy. The amount of planning that you could put into making a well rounded team is staggering. Even back in this second generation of games.

Now it’s time to cover the second generation games generally, and then we’ll talk about what Crystal adds to them. First of all the Johto region is quite different from Kanto. Both in terms of layout and content. They share some similarities such as having towns, oceans, rivers, forests, towns etc, but all locations here are new. This also means there’s a new cast of characters as well. The story is largely the same, but your starting point, end point and everything in between is all different content. One of the sub-plots here is that Team Rocket (the evil organization from the first games) was thought to have been disbanded, but is in the early stages of revival. This is one of the few titles in the series with a returning villain and I’m here for it. Even if it is just Team Rocket.

The new Pokemon added here are kind of a mixed bag. Their designs and even names for the most part just don’t feel as iconic as the original lineup. The starters however are my favorite in the entire series. Chikorita for example evolves into Bayleef which feels like the first good grass type Pokemon up to that point. Totodile is also really cool and ranks as one of my favorite water based starters. The only weak link is Cyndaquil. It can’t measure up to Charmander. Other designs like Wooper, Hitmontop and the new bug types are boring. I really wanted to like Azurill and Togetic, but they are so weak I couldn’t make them work The best part of the new lineup is actually the new evolutions for some of the old guys. Steelix, Scizor, Kingdra, Slowking, and Blissey are excellent additions that make previously nonviable Pokemon now useful.

There’s also an internal battery built right into the cartridge. This is used not only for your save file but also to track the real world time. Think Animal Crossing, but before that even. The time in the real world is reflected in Pokemon Crystal. Certain characters and events only occur at specific hours, and even on different days of the week. Some Pokemon only come out when it’s night, and others during daylight hours. This is incredibly immersive. When the games first released I found myself actually changing plans because of the internal clock. What’s nice is the fact that you can ignore it if you so choose. There are no roadblocks to the main quest based on time. It’s pretty much all optional features that are locked behind it. This was incredibly impressive for a Game Boy Color game.

This is also the only game in the franchise to feature two different regions. While the focus is in fact on the quest in Johto after becoming the champion there you can travel back to Kanto from the original games. It has been scaled a bit to fit into this massive cartridge but most of the old locations are there, as are the Pokemon you encounter. What’s more is the fact that you can even challenge the Gym leaders of this region and take on the original (albeit more powerful) Kanto elite 4. The fact that Nintendo included this was absolutely huge back in the day. Furthermore there are 100 new Pokemon added in this second generation including new starters and legendaries. While you’ll still see most of the old creatures here and there the lineup is really rounded out with the new critters.

While the single player quest is a lot of fun (and will take you hours upon hours to complete) Pokemon has always been strongest in its meta game. After all you can only topple the elite 4 so many times with different teams before it gets old. That’s where the multiplayer comes in. In Crystal you can link to another friend (provided you both have Game Boys) and trade Pokemon between the versions. Some of these creatures can only be obtained in specific variations of the game. The Kanto starters for example (Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle) are nowhere to be found in any second generation title. They’re usable however if you link up and trade for one with someone who has Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow. Of course you can’t send any of the new Pokemon to the old games, nor can you battle with any of the new ones against those versions.

So what does Pokemon Crystal have that Gold and Silver don’t? It is still the same base game. There is no real change in content aside from a few added characters and a different lineup of Pokemon to catch. The first new feature you’ll notice is the ability to choose between a boy or a girl protagonist. I’m sure female Pokemon fans were overjoyed by this, and the fact that Nintendo overlooked it until now is surprising. Furthermore each Pokemon has new sprites in battle, and they all have little animations at their introduction. This may sound small but it adds so much more character to the game. It’s also really impressive given the Game Boy Color’s hardware. Don’t get me wrong. You can still get the whole experience with Gold and Silver. Crystal is just prettier, slightly more fleshed out, and has more features.

Pokemon Crystal is a phenomenal looking Game Boy Color game. The fact that the developers were able to fit over 250 different Pokemon into the cartridge, complete with animations, is quite a feat of engineering. What’s more is that all of these sprites are improved over even Gold/Silver. Everything is easily distinguishable and look more like their modern counterparts than ever before. While exploring the visuals are a bit on the boring side. It looks very similar to how Red and Blue did so many years before. Many of the tiles are even re-used. The transitions from day to night however look really nice. I enjoyed small graphical details like lights shining through windows after the sun set, and the general darker graphics that dusk bring. The music is quite good too. There’s kind of an overarching Fall theme present in the soundtrack that I really like.