PokéGenerated: Crystal (Gen 2)

Since Giant Bomb rose from the ashes, allow me to sort of do the same, despite making my last list. I didn't think I'd return to a three year old series, but here we are. For those wondering, I was planning to finally play every Pokémon generation, before the world and my own life cratered. This road started with wrapping up all of Pokémon Yellow in writing on this website about video games. As I rapidly approach total collapse, I see no reason not to continue my work on the second generation. In fact, I was mostly done with Pokémon Crystal when I wrote that first piece. So, I recently decided to refresh my memory, as well as mop up the tail end of the sequel to the Pokémon progenitor.

Just like with the previous cart, I had to start my journey by scrapping together a new battery. Without power, your playthrough can't be saved and that's a pretty unavoidable flaw. A ton of scratching and chopping later, I badly taped another watch battery onto my cartridge. The hack job looks like tech gore every time, but it works and that's all that matters. If only the Nintendo 3DS eShop still existed, I would've recommended the digital version instead. Emulation isn't the same as trying to catch a light source against the screen of your Nintendo Game Boy with no backlight, but at least the handheld got pretty close. Now then, onto the video game.

As I've stated before, the Pokémon franchise is pretty iterative and, as such, you can expect the same loop in Gen 2 as its predecessor. You travel a pretty linear path, capturing cute monsters periodically and fighting a mass of trainer rivals. You'll find a full rundown of how any main Pokémon game works in my previous piece, should you really need a primer. Realistically, most of us understand how this works. You assemble a team, grind the world to become bigger and better, to ultimately beat the very best. That arc still happens in Crystal.

If anything, Gen 2 is just the game that this concept should've been from the start, in short. There's a little more creature variety, routes aren't as tiresome and you can still feel like you have things to do in the late stages of your playthrough. There's nothing wrong with streamlining the experience – it's a very welcome design decision – but it is also mostly all you'll get. You'll need to wait for Gen 3 for more substantial changes. Still, in 2001, when the Game Boy title launched, this particular mold would've still been fresh enough that just a modified reset was good enough for its audience. I, also, didn't mind beating the Elite Four all over again in a less aggravating way. Releasing this game the same year as the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, however, probably felt a little more awkward. Thank the heavens for backwards compatibility.

There were still some minor details that I found refreshing. Creatures got some snazzy, new sprites and pop into battle with some minimal but lively animations. If you can even make a Rattata look cool, you've hit a real groove here. Lickitung just flicking that floppy mouth meat at you is quite intimidating. And while not every new Pokémon design is a winner, there were enough cuties in there to make my time hunting worth it. While it doesn't seem like that big of a change, these subtleties make Gen 2 feel so much more dynamic and that contributes to the grind seeming less stale in the long run. It's like jingling keys, in a way that I enjoy. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

All the other auxiliary additions in the sequel were either not very interesting or a straight miss. For one, this is the version that starts adding new types, which makes resistances and weaknesses even more confusing. I've played almost 70 hours and I still don't know how Steel is applicable. Additionally, the more creature variations there are, the more you’re expected to mix and match, adjusting your team at many intervals. With four moves per Pokémon, you can only account for so many types, so you have to add a few extra hours of artificial grind, trying to get a pocket pick up to speed for the next area. Luckily, I eventually just bolstered a Miltank to such a level that it kicks almost every opponent in the teeth, but that took an extremely long time. I needed about 15 more hours to beat the Elite Four in Crystal as a direct result.

The other big attraction, the legendary creatures, are counter to the way I want to happen upon new critters. In Gen 2, you'll be able to encounter Suicune, Entei, and Raikou at seemingly random spots. After finding Raikou in a bush about four times, watching it drain all of my Ultra balls and then dip, I decided that I can't be spending my energy on chasing these hybrid cat-dogs, whose design I'm already not too fond of in the first place. I think I've seen Entei once and the exact same thing happened. Now that I have a Master Ball, I could technically go back to roaming wildly, but there's very little incentive to do so. The same sentiment goes for those strange Unown squiggles, which are just a brazen way to increase the amount of Pokémon you need to catch. I base my team around affection over numbers anyway. Pokémon is a game about childlike whimsy and not stat sheets.

As such, my hero run team was just Pokémon I liked the most. Parasect was the jack of all trades, with their Spore attack that puts anyone to sleep instantly. My starter had evolved to a Typhlosion, which is okay for fire moves, but I taught it Headbutt for some extra viability. The aforementioned Miltank was there whenever I didn't know a certain type weakness, since Body Slam works pretty well against most enemies. Sudowoodo is the ultimate vibe pick, but I also taught them Earthquake for funsies. Skarmory is a metal bird; they just need to be in there. My favorite, however, was a versatile Slowbro with four different type moves that almost always hit. I love Slowbro; what an underrated bro. Is this a good team? I literally have no idea, but they managed to get the job done with only some minor difficulties around the last few fights.

Boom. That's credits, so that was the end of the game for me. However, being the victor isn't the end of Pokémon Crystal. After becoming a master, the world opens up and allows the player to return to the region from the first game. I'm of two minds on that concept. On one hand, I didn't care for it at all, since the end of the game is the end of the game. Becoming a master is the point of the entire series, so why would I go do more busywork for no payoff, after completing the objective? On the other hand, however, the second world provides a double whammy that you rarely see in games. For one, the people who missed the first title could still get a chance to experience a better, condensed version of the original. Additionally, super fans who can never get enough are rewarded with almost an entire, extra game, all for the price of one. I didn't do much here, except for trying to catch a few favorites. Even then, I did that for very little reason, since I wasn't going to fight the Elite Four a second time. That said, I can't be too mad at getting such additional goodies for free. Especially in retrospect, this extra world would be sold as at least two waves of downloadable content on modern systems. It's not for me, but that surprise drop did make me feel wistful for the lost days of when game companies focused on enjoyment, over profit. The Mario Bros. arcade game gets added to Super Mario Bros. 3. Namco lets you play Xevious on loading screens. It's such a simple, evident joy. Why not do it? Games used to be better and I'm sick of pretending like that's not true.

So, while most of the additions of the sequel did very little to impress me, I do feel better about it overall, as compared to the original. Once again, Pokémon Crystal plays so smoothly that it really feels like the version that people remember in their mind, much more than the first generation. Anything past that notion is gravy. It's just a good time, point blank. You can't really ask for more than that.

I think the world will catch up to me before I ever get to play Pokémon Sapphire, but I'll try my best. Maybe I'll reach out for help before that happens, but probably not. Stay tuned, I guess. I was originally planning on going through Ruby instead, since I have a phobia of whales, but the save on that red cartridge was 230 hours long and I didn't have the heart to ruin someone's legacy like that. Even if that digital world will never be touched again, that was once someone's baby. I might just have become too sensitive for this callous existence.

That's a little too dark to end things on, so I'll throw in a little aside: Last year, when they released Pokémon TCG Pocket, I went back and played through all of Pokémon Trading Card Game on my 3DS, to contrast the two. It isn't part of this series, but I was blown away at how well this early adaptation translated the actual experience. I ended up blasting through it in just a few days and gave it the best score I've given any Pokémon release on Backloggd. Now that's a video game that I can thoroughly recommend. The same is true for the mini-series of Pokémon Concierge on Netflix. The runtime is incredibly short, but it's the perfect burst of optimism on a dark day, as seen on my Letterboxd. Pokémon really have a magical ability to make us feel better.

Until then.

Gen 2 Rating: 8/10