Experiencing the 2nd Generation from a different View

Though my first Pokémon adventure was Pokémon Blue, it was Pokémon Gold is what made me a fan of the series. Some of my favorite Pokémon come from this generation. With Generation 2, some new features were introduced: 2 new types, Dark and Steel, Pokémon Breeding, Day/Night Cycle, Held Items and Shiny Pokémon and Pokémon Crystal added its own twist of allowing the first playable female character and giving Pokémon animations. For this playthrough of the 2^nd generation I went with Pokémon Crystal via the 3DS port, as I not too familiar with this version of game. Similar to the play through of the Pokémon Red playthrough I have a set of rules to follow and a set of goals to complete.

Rules:

I chose Pokémon Red, causes I played through Pokémon Blue when I was younger and I bought Pokémon Red when the 3DS ports were released so I figure I would just stick with 3DS as much as I can. First what rules have a set for my Pokémon playthroughs:

1. 5 out 6 team members must from the generation that I am playing.
2. All Pokémon I plan to use, both for battle and HMs, must be named.
3. All Legendary Pokémon (non-story captures) can’t be caught until after the Elite 4 is defeated

Playthrough Goals:

1. Collect 8 Johto Gym badges
2. Capture Suicune.
3. Defeat the Elite 4 and become Champion
4. Collect 8 Kanto Gym Badges
5. Defeat Red

With the basics out of the way, let’s start our adventure through the Johto region.

After completing the move to Johto, I went over to Prof. Elm’s Lab to grab my starter Pokémon. I let Twitter decide my starter again and this time they chose Cyndaquil and name it Pyra. Once I got Pyra, I was sent on an errand by Prof. Elm to collect something from Mr. Pokémon. I made my way to his house got a Pokémon egg and also ran into Prof. Oak who gave me a PokeDex. On our way back to Prof. Elm, I ran into a red hair trainer name Silver. When I got back to the lab, I learned that Silver had stolen of the Pokémon Prof. Elm had in his lab. I delivered the egg to Prof. Elm, said bye to Mom and start my Gym Challenge.

On my way to the Violet city, I capture a HootHoot (named it Clockla), a Spinarak (named it Peter), a Zubat (named it Bruce), and a Teddiursa (Merida). Once I got to the city, I went to the Sprout Tower to do some training and go collect Flash. After a short training session and placing Peter in the box, it was time to face Falkner and it wasn’t too bad was able to power my way through his flying type Pokémon.

I restocked on Pokeballs and healing items, grab the egg from Prof. Elm assistance, then headed south to Azalea Town. As I made my way to Azalea town, I discovered one of the differences between Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal, which is Crystal doesn’t have the Mareep line. This kind of sucked cause not only is Ampharos is one of my favorite electric type Pokémon, I was hoping to use it on my team, but I made due with another Pokémon which I will talk about later. I did catch a Wooper and named it Tom as I went through Union Cave. Once I arrived to Azalea Town, the first task to was to help Kurt, the Pokeball maker, with running Team Rocket out of Azalea Well and save the Slowpoke. Once they were gone, I did a bit of training to get Pyra to evolve into Quilava before facing Bugsy. Pyra carried the team through the 2^nd gym and acquired the Hive Badge.

After I receive the 2^nd badge, I made my first of many mistakes in this playthrough. I spent 6 hours to get a Heracross. 6 hours of bashing Merida’s head against a forest worth of trees to get a Heracross, which I name Nikki. The reason I headbutted so many trees was to use a Heracross as my main Pokémon to face Whitney, which since Nikki Bug/Fighting that should have worked. Except for ONE detail, Heracross can only learn 4 fighting moves; Counter and Reversal via level up and Rock Smash and Detect via TM’s. Counter is the only move that would could be learn before facing Whitney in Goldenrod city. Now, I know that I could have gotten a Machop via trade, however I wasn’t thinking and was trying really hard to use as many Gen 2 Pokémon as possible in my playthrough. However, I did make it make it through the gym somehow and collected my 3^rd badge. After beating Whitney and took a small detour and took part of the Bug Catching Contest. Got second place with a Pinsir.

Grabbed the water pale from the flower shop on my way out of Goldenrod and caught the Sudowoodo (named it Bonzai) to clear my way to Ecruteak city. First thing I did when I got to Eruteak city was going to the burned tower to face Silver and awaken the 3 legendary beasts. This is where I also met Eusine, a researcher and expert on the Legendary Beast. After exploring the tower, I went to gym to face Morty and won my 4^th gym badge. Merida was the MVP of this gym as it used lick to hit the ghost type and luckily was rarely hit.

The next stop was to battle the Kimono girls to get the HM Surf. After battling the Kimono girls, I realize I needed to change and train my team up. I swapped out Bruce the Zubat with Clockla the Hoothoot and replaced Bonsai with a Magnemite, name MagMike, I caught left of Ecruteak city. After some training I made my way to Olivine city and visited the Lighthouse to talk to Jasmine and grab strength from the local café. I needed to make my way to Cianwood city to get some medicine for the lighthouse Pokémon. After sailing across the sea and reached Cianwood, explored the area north of the city and encountered Sucine again and was challenged by Eusine. After defeating Eusine, I decided to face Chuck and after a few attempts and dealing with a series of critical hits, I acquired the Storm Badge.

I grabbed the HM, Fly, and Secret Potion then headed back to Olivine City to heal up Ampharos in the light tower and challenge Jasmine for the Mineral Badge. Another gym that took more work than it should but we pulled through and got the badge.  

After defeating Jasmine, I headed to Mahogany Town to encounter the red Gyrados at the Lake of Rage and raid the team rocket base. Was able to catch the Gyrados and with the help Champion Lance was able to kick Team Rocket out of town again. After a bit more training, I decided to take on Bryce and with the help of Pyra was able to get the Glacier Badge.

Once I left the Gym, Prof. Elm let me know the radio tower in Goldenrod City had been taken over by team rocket, so ignored him and made a quick trip through the ice path, caught a swinub and named it Piglett, which I planned to use again Claire and made my way to Blackthorn. I mainly did this so I could fly there after dealing with team rocket and use it as some grind some levels and then I was on my way back to Goldenrod City.  I went through the radio tower and kicked Team Rocket out of town again. I remembered that I could grabbed an Eevee from Bill, though I never got around to evolving it to either Umbreon or Epseon which would have been great additions to the team.

After saving the Goldenrod City, I was told that there some kind of event happening at the Tin Tower in Ecruteak. Once I arrived at the tower, I had to defeated the 3 monks guarding the path to start my path to the top of the Tower. I made my way to the tower to discovered that Suicune was waiting for me. I battle and capture the Suicune, but I didn’t give it a name because I had no plan to use it. I made my way back to Blackthorn city to face Clair which was not fun…at all.

This is where my knowledge of Pokémon Types, especially dual types, has a lot of holes. Remember when I caught Piglett, the Swinub, because I needed a way deal with Dragon Pokémon and the only thing, they are weak to is Ice or Dragon. However, Swinub Ice typing doesn’t nullify the Ground type weakness to water and I gave Swinub/Pilloswine’s bulkiness too much credit and Clair’s Dragonair one hit KO using Surf. So, decided to do some more training and got Pyra, MagMike and Merida to evolve and caught a Skyla the Skamory, which I swapped out Clockla for. After a bit of training, I decided to challenge Clair again and I finally beat her…. with Nikki the Heracross…using Fury Cutter. For those who don’t know, Fury Cutter was a new Bug move introduced in Gen 2 where it starts off weak but the more you use it the stronger it gets. RNG was on my side as I was able to keep the chain going to the point that Nikki could start 1 shotting Pokémon. It also helps Heracross is a physical attacker and bug moves are mostly physical. Anyway, I beat Clair, she threw a fit went to the Dragon Shrine and talked to the elder of the group to prove that I was worthy of the badge. Got my 8 badges and now it is time for the Elite 4.

The Elite 4, oh boy this was more painful than it should be. First issue was Will the Psychic Type use, now Will shouldn’t have been a problem. Game plan was MagMike would handle the Xatus and Slowbro and Pyra would take on Jynx and Exeggutor with Nikki as back up, THIS isn’t how it went. Jynx and Eggxecutor where no problem for Pyra but MagMike was having a heck of a time with the Xatus, since it only knew Thundershock and apparently doesn’t learn Thunderbolt through level up, and I learn that Heracross though a bug type still had a time 2 weakness to Psychic due to the fighting time. After making 2 attempts, I decided to take a step back and make some change and the first change was getting a new Pokémon. I went back to the Ice Path and caught Sneasle the Ice/Dark, which I should have just caught in the first place. After some training and money hunting, better healing items tend to be pricey, I finally got my team to where it should be able to hold its own and a good stock of healing items, I was finally able to make it all the through. The team I went into the Elite 4 was:

First up was Will; Grey handled the 2 Xatus, Pyra took on Jynx and Exeggutor and MagMike took out Slowbro. Next was Koga; this was pretty easy as Pyra took out Ariados, Venomoth and Forretress and Tom was able to deal with Muk and MagMike to face Crobat. Bruno was up next and he did give me a little trouble, Skyla handled Hitmontop and Tom took out Onix and it took both to take out Machamp. Tom and Pyra helped up with Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. This is where I really wished I would have used a Natu I caught while explore the Unnown ruins but the time for good ideas left about 30 hours ago.

Karen ended being a bigger pain then plan only cause her Houndoom just hit like a truck. Nikki saw some action against Umbreon, Pyra took out Vileplue, Tom crushed Gengar, Grey froze Murkow and Tom came back to beat Houndoom.

Finally, time to face Lance and I made the mistake and starting out with Grey to go against Gyarados, however, it worked out in my favor as Grey hit a critical Ice Punch that ended up freezing. So, I took advantage of it and swapped out to MagMike to finish it off. Then came one of his three, yes, I said THREE Dragonites. Now I have made it this far once and learn that strongest one had Fire Blast, however to combat this I used Tom which just learned Rain Dance to weaken it and power up Surf which was already being powered up by Mystic Water was able to do enough damage so when Tom did fall do Hyper Beam, I was able to bring Grey out and finish the job. I used the other Pokémon as meat shields for Grey and Tom so they could be healed. Tom handled Aerodactyl and Charizard with no issues and the other two Dragonites went by out thanks to a lot of healing and swapping but I did it, I beat the 8 Johto Gym Leaders and the Elite 4 and became the new champion. As much as I would like to call it there, still have a lot of work to do as I make my way to Kanto to face the gym leaders there and then go face Red on Mount Silver.

After becoming the Champion, I received a ticket to the S.S. Aqua and made my way to Vermilion City. I challenged and defeated Lt. Surge to start my Kanto Gym challenge. Tom basically wiped the floor with this gym. I then headed up north to Cerulean City to face Misty and fix the Power Plant. I decided to fix the Power Plant but traveling east to the entrance of the Rock Tunnel and then surfing south to the Power Plant to learn that there was a missing part. Made my way back to Cerulean to find a Team Rocket sneaking around. After a battle, I learned that the grunt hid the part in the Cerulean Gym, so I went got the part then went back to the Power Plant to return it and receive Zap Cannon as a reward. After one more trip back to Cerulean City. After ruining Misty’s date, it was time to earn the Cascade Badge. After beating Misty, I made my way to Celadon City by going through Rock Tunnel and stopping in Lavender Town to upgrade my Radio App. After exploring Celadon City, a bit, I went to face Erika and her grass type Pokémon. Pyra and Skyla swept through this gym and I earned the Rainbow Badge. I decided take the Bicycle Road south to Fushia City. Since Koga is now in the Elite Four, his daughter Janine took over the Gym. Defeated Janine and got the Soul Badge, then made my way back Vermilion City to face the Snorlax blocking Diglett Cave. Using the new station on the Radio app to wake up the Snorlax. I capture the Snorlax and named it Sleepy, in case I need a wall. Used Diglett Cave to get to Pewter City and as I was about to enter Pewter City Gym, I remembered that I hadn’t faced Sabrina in Saffron City. So, I flew back to Saffron City and after Grey wipe the floor with Sabrina’s team, I earned the Marsh Badge. Flew back to Pewter City and defeated Brock to earned the Boulder Badge.

Went south to Pallet Town to then surf south to the remains of Cinnabar Island. Between Pokémon Blue/Red/Yellow and Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal a volcano went off and destroy the city. Went to Blaine’s makeshift gym and with the help of Tom earned badge number 15. Now it was time to head back north to Viridian City to challenge the final Kanto Gym Leader, Blue. Luckily, my team was diverse enough to handle Blue’s team and earn the Earth Badge and with that I have collect all 8 Kanto badges. I went to visit Prof. Oak in Pallet town and after showing him all the Kanto badges gave me access to the final area, Silver Cave. Silver Cave is the current training spot of Red who team is made up of the 3 Kanto Starters, Esepeon, Snorlax and Pikachu who are in the 70’s and 80’s. So did a bit of training and caught a Misdreavus and named it Danni. I was starting to get impatient and was wanting to wrap this playthrough up so decided to face Red with a very under leveled team. However, thanks to type advantage and descent stats the first run went pretty well minus dealing with his Snorlax and Blastoise. For the second attempt I swapped out MagMike and Nikki for Sleepy the Snorlax and Danni the recently caught Misdreavus. I taught Sleepy, Thunder Punch to deal with the Blastoise and the main use of Danni was to be some sort of wall so I could heal Pokémon while dealing with Red’s Snorlax. Returned to Silver Cave and faced Red one more time. Tom took out Pikachu and Charizard, Pyra took out Venusaur, Grey took out Esepeon. It took several members of my team to take out Snorlax and then used Sleepy to take on his Blastoise. After 3 Thunder Punches, Sleepy was able to defeat his Blastoise and help me win against Red and with that my journey in Johto is complete.

Or it would be if on one of my trips to Goldenrod City to grab a Thunder Punch TM, I wasn’t given the GS Ball as I left the PokeCenter. Apparently, in the 3DS version of Pokémon Crystal, they programmed the Celebi special event, which back in the day required a special adapter that connected your Gameboy to a cellphone to then download the even or something like that. So, I figure I would do a couple of more post game events just for kicks and giggles. After getting the GS ball, took it to Kurt and had to wait a full day before I would be given it back, which is fine I needed to put the game down after beating Red and all the training. Next day, I went back to Kurt and who gave me the GS ball back and ask me to investigate the Ilex Forest. I placed the GS ball in the shrine and then Celebi appear in front of me. Celebi is only level 30, so I was scared to hit it with my Pokémon but I was able to catch it with a Great Ball.

The next thing I wanted to explore was the Battle Tower. This was Crystal exclusive and where you take 3 Pokémon and try to win as many battles as possible to earn better prizes. I tried this once and after facing a Kingdra and decided I didn’t want to deal with that bs. The last area I wanted to explore Whirl Islands to find Lugia. I received the Silver ring while in Pewter City and also received the Master Ball from Prof. Elm after earning all 8 Johto Gym Badges, I wasn’t too worried about it. After making way to the Whirl Islands and finding the correct path to Lugia and started my battle with the legendary beast. I was first planning on saving the Master Ball for either Entei or Raikou so I could face Ho-oh, but I decided I didn’t feel like trying to running around Johto trying to catch them. I threw the Master Ball and capture Lugia and with that I felt good ending my Johto journey.

My Johto journey wasn’t too crazy but I did feel like I struggled a bit on this more than I did the Pokémon Red playthrough. Think my biggest issue was trying to build a descent team and my lack of knowledge about dual type Pokémon weakness. The move set of some of my team members also didn’t happen, like Magneton and Heracross. Magneton only learned 2 electric moves, Thundershock and Zap Cannon, the one of the weakest electric moves and powerful move with bad accuracy and with no Thunderbolt TM and the only to get the Thunder TM was to gamble and earned 5500 coins I really didn’t have an answer to Water type Pokémon. I was lucky enough to be able to out power most of those encounters. I was really thought Heracross was going to be my Normal and Psychic type, but apparently the Bug type doesn’t cancel out the Fighting type weakness to Psychic. However, doing more research about the game overall would have helped as well. These first 2 playthroughs were done solely based on my memory and learning as I go, which I don’t mind but I definitely was losing my focus and found it hard to find motivation to play the game. Think moving forward, I will try to have a better plan of what I need to accomplish during each session to make this series go by a bit smoother since I have about 10 more games to playthrough.

Overall, I did enjoy my time in Pokémon Crystal and experiencing the growth of the series as I go game by game. It is time to say goodbye to Johto for now and head to the Hoenn region in Pokémon Sapphire. Thank you so much for reading and until next time; be kind, be safe and game on!

Series Playthrough Stats:

Red Playthrough:

Collected: 8 Gym Badges

Capture: 70/151 Pokémon

Total Play time: 20 hours and 44 minutes.

Crystal Playthrough:

Collected: 16 Gym Badges

Capture: 42/251 Pokémon

Total Play time: 56 hours and 30 minutes.

Total Playthrough:

Collected: 24 Gym Badges

Capture: 112 Pokémon

Total Play time: 77 hours and 14 minutes.