History
I got Pokémon Gold for Xmas 2000 and it was really my first generation/game I didn't have to share after playing hand-me-down Blue/Red/Yellow. And as a result of that nostalgia, Johto has remained my favorite region with my favorite designs:
But despite being enamored with the game back in the day I never finished it and my bad habit of just starting over when coming back to the game after some time was partly to blame. So after the announcement of the 3DS eShop shutting down earlier this year I grabbed Crystal before it was too late and decided I would finally beat this white whale.
The Good
Despite being an over two decade old JRPG, this game still holds up incredibly well and I don't think it's just nostalgia talking here. When talking about games like this, it seems you can easily take the good for granted and not appreciate how it is. All the towns have a unique vibe from their layout, aesthetic and sometimes history, routes are varied with trainer battles and tall grass, I now miss using HMs for moves, progress and hidden items, and of course the music by Junichi Masuda makes the GBC sing. I feel like I don't see the praise of him enough tbh, it seems like Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda and other Square composers in general get all the glory.
Grinding in this game, despite taking forever... is also good? Don't' get me wrong, I still prefer EXP share as it just shaves unnecessary time off of an already long game but there is something to be said of the time investment making you truly appreciate the progress you do make. And I had more than a few close calls and moments when grinding that I'll always remember when it comes to this franchise because of this game' limitations. And when I was JUST able to beat the Elite Four with my near Lvl 50 party, where I got stuck as a dumb kid who didn't stock up on items, it made victory all the more sweet. Oh and it made getting the Kanto gym badges an easy victory lap:
The Bad
In my time spent online, it feels like the controversy of a game not having a complete Pokédex started with Ruby/Sapphire with its jump to the GBA. But I was dismayed at Pokémon being in Gold/Silver NOT being in Crystal. I wanted to catch more than a few original 151 as well but they aren't in this. Maybe because we got 100 new ones with this generation the sting was taken out of their exclusion. Plus it was easy to just get the then only "old" game and catch them there. I can't say for sure though, I was only 5 at the time and not online arguing with people. Was it a big deal back then?
The only other bad thing was the end of my time with the game which was catching the legendary dogs:
My god, this was annoying and almost made me lose my mind. If you don't know, here's how you catch them; you'll need to trigger a mandatory cutscene near the beginning of the game to make them scatter across the region. Two of them are caught by finding them in the wild/grass. The most efficient way of doing this however is insane. Have a party of Pokémon higher than Lvl 25 but no higher than 40. Fly to Ecruteak City and head South across three different routes all connected to each other. Use a Max Repel to make sure all other enemies in grass won't show up. If you don't find them, fly back to the city and repeat. Don't bother using your Pokédex to find them because they have a clause in their programming making sure if you try to chase them down, you'll NEVER be in the same area as them. Found one? Good, now make sure one of your team has a speed stat higher than 110 so they can go first before Raikou or Entei use Roar to end the battle or flee to end the battle (Suicine is like a traditional battle/not found in grass). Use Mean Look to make sure they can't escape (which Roar negates btw!) or Hypnosis to put them to sleep. Then weaken and capture across your assuredly many encounters.
After an hour of trying this the legit way and making no progress, I said fuck it and duplicated a bunch of Master Balls (it's very easy) and just caught them on the next sighting. Which sucks because it soured me on the game a bit. And with my playtime coming up on 100 hours, I said screw it again, doing the same for Suicine, Lugia and Ho-Oh even though I probably should've just taken a break and got them legit like I wanted to. But part of me just wanted to be done after spending so much time with antiquated systems/mechanics. Thankfully after sleeping I'm no longer crabby and am going to pick up my Omega Ruby playthrough (right before Final Four) and finish that before Violet comes out next week.
I got Pokémon Gold for Xmas 2000 and it was really my first generation/game I didn't have to share after playing hand-me-down Blue/Red/Yellow. And as a result of that nostalgia, Johto has remained my favorite region with my favorite designs:
Smeargle
Skarmory
Misdreavus
Skarmory
Misdreavus
But despite being enamored with the game back in the day I never finished it and my bad habit of just starting over when coming back to the game after some time was partly to blame. So after the announcement of the 3DS eShop shutting down earlier this year I grabbed Crystal before it was too late and decided I would finally beat this white whale.
The Good
Despite being an over two decade old JRPG, this game still holds up incredibly well and I don't think it's just nostalgia talking here. When talking about games like this, it seems you can easily take the good for granted and not appreciate how it is. All the towns have a unique vibe from their layout, aesthetic and sometimes history, routes are varied with trainer battles and tall grass, I now miss using HMs for moves, progress and hidden items, and of course the music by Junichi Masuda makes the GBC sing. I feel like I don't see the praise of him enough tbh, it seems like Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda and other Square composers in general get all the glory.
Grinding in this game, despite taking forever... is also good? Don't' get me wrong, I still prefer EXP share as it just shaves unnecessary time off of an already long game but there is something to be said of the time investment making you truly appreciate the progress you do make. And I had more than a few close calls and moments when grinding that I'll always remember when it comes to this franchise because of this game' limitations. And when I was JUST able to beat the Elite Four with my near Lvl 50 party, where I got stuck as a dumb kid who didn't stock up on items, it made victory all the more sweet. Oh and it made getting the Kanto gym badges an easy victory lap:
The Bad
In my time spent online, it feels like the controversy of a game not having a complete Pokédex started with Ruby/Sapphire with its jump to the GBA. But I was dismayed at Pokémon being in Gold/Silver NOT being in Crystal. I wanted to catch more than a few original 151 as well but they aren't in this. Maybe because we got 100 new ones with this generation the sting was taken out of their exclusion. Plus it was easy to just get the then only "old" game and catch them there. I can't say for sure though, I was only 5 at the time and not online arguing with people. Was it a big deal back then?
The only other bad thing was the end of my time with the game which was catching the legendary dogs:
My god, this was annoying and almost made me lose my mind. If you don't know, here's how you catch them; you'll need to trigger a mandatory cutscene near the beginning of the game to make them scatter across the region. Two of them are caught by finding them in the wild/grass. The most efficient way of doing this however is insane. Have a party of Pokémon higher than Lvl 25 but no higher than 40. Fly to Ecruteak City and head South across three different routes all connected to each other. Use a Max Repel to make sure all other enemies in grass won't show up. If you don't find them, fly back to the city and repeat. Don't bother using your Pokédex to find them because they have a clause in their programming making sure if you try to chase them down, you'll NEVER be in the same area as them. Found one? Good, now make sure one of your team has a speed stat higher than 110 so they can go first before Raikou or Entei use Roar to end the battle or flee to end the battle (Suicine is like a traditional battle/not found in grass). Use Mean Look to make sure they can't escape (which Roar negates btw!) or Hypnosis to put them to sleep. Then weaken and capture across your assuredly many encounters.
After an hour of trying this the legit way and making no progress, I said fuck it and duplicated a bunch of Master Balls (it's very easy) and just caught them on the next sighting. Which sucks because it soured me on the game a bit. And with my playtime coming up on 100 hours, I said screw it again, doing the same for Suicine, Lugia and Ho-Oh even though I probably should've just taken a break and got them legit like I wanted to. But part of me just wanted to be done after spending so much time with antiquated systems/mechanics. Thankfully after sleeping I'm no longer crabby and am going to pick up my Omega Ruby playthrough (right before Final Four) and finish that before Violet comes out next week.
I'm finished!
