Pokémon Crystal Version

aka: Pocket Monsters Crystal, Pokémon Edición Cristal, Pokémon Kristall-Edition, Pokémon Version Cristal, Pokémon Versione Cristallo, Pokémon X, Pokémon: Versão Crystal - Temos que pegar!
Moby ID: 12055
Game Boy Color Specs
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Description official descriptions

Pokémon Crystal is an upgrade of the parallel Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver. The game is to its parallels like Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition and Pokémon Emerald are to to theirs. This means that the storyline, characters, and gameplay are basically the same, only there have been made several updates and changes to make this game more exciting and fun.

  • The player can now play as both a male and a female character.
  • The Pokémon Suicune plays a much bigger role, both as a character and a Pokémon. The player will meet it earlier and be able to catch it easier at Tin Tower as well as encountering it three times before.
  • New characters: Eusine, The Poké Seer and more.
  • New interface, a sign will appear at the bottom of the screen when entering a new area showing where the player is (route, area).
  • New animations: Pokémon move when entering combat screen.
  • New Pokémon locations, exceptions, moves and additions.

These are among the most significant changes to the upgrade version. However, the player will find many new details in the gameplay and interface that makes the game more exciting.

Spellings

  • ポケットモンスター クリスタルバージョン - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Game Boy Color version)

59 People (52 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 46 ratings with 1 reviews)

Girl Power!

The Good
Pokemon gets around to equal rights for all genders in this hybrid edition to Gold and Silver.In Crystal, players can choose a male or female protagonist. This doesn't have an affect on story mode but it does allow for a slight change in the Pokemon universe.

A more noticeable change is prominent in more than just trainer gender. Pokemon now posses genders (except for some species) and can use gender related attacks as well. Genders come into greater play outside of battles though. At a day care Pokemon place, players can leave a male and female Pokemon of compatible species and the two will do the "freaky-freaky" and produce a Pokemon egg. After carrying around the egg for an unspecified amount of time (approximately a few days) a baby Pokemon will emerge from the egg, which can range from a first stage of one of the parent Pokemon (several Pokemon evolve in 3 stages) or a baby version of the Pokemon (example, a Riachu and Ditto can produce an egg for Pichu, a baby version of Pikachu not found in the wild).

The clock comes into a much greater play this time around. Crystal version uses a built in clock that creates day and night, which has an affect on when certain places are open, which Pokemon are active, and even which Pokemon evolve. The game can even adjusted for day-light savings time.

Items are better organized in this game as well. Thanks to a special pack, your items are placed in certain compartments which opens up room for more items to be carried.

The display box and animations for battles are also greatly improved. The Pokemon have greater animations than merely sliding across the screen and are fully colored. The HUD display shows what gender the Pokemon is, how much experience points it has, and it even shows if you have already caught the Pokemon. This creates less stuff for the player to worry about and more time to play around.

Replay value has been increased 10 fold in this Pokemon update. There is a battle arena and battle tower to ensure players always have random encounters and money to use. Some beaten trainers will even swap phone numbers with you and let you know about the activity of wild Pokemon, give you items, or even challenge you to rematches. There are even radio contests for Players to enter and people who will give you mystery gifts for your room (which can be decorated anyway you choose).

The Bad
Despite how much extra the game has added, Crystal version still suffers from some flaws that it never bothered to answer. The inability to save during a battle is still persistent, and with a much larger more advanced game, this is an even bigger problem than before.

Despite the addition of a new Pokemon world to explore, the old Pokemon world got completely neglected. Several places that made Pokemon fun in the early games (the Safari Zone, Veridian Forrest, Pokemon Tower) are no longer playable locations and the gym leaders of old no longer pose a challenge, merely a distraction. And the final battle with a guy named Red (his old rival Blue runs a gym, funny huh?) is not very climactic when all he has to say is "... ..." during your entire encounter.

The rare Pokemon are an even bigger burden to find this time. Rather than placing them in a cave or easy to find place, the rare Pokemon stumble upon you. This is annoying because players are never prepared to face them , and since these rare creatures can't be captured with regular Pokeballs, encounters are blown and the Pokemon evades capture to never be seen again (since they only appear once).

And depending on your own copy, the game will stop saving data after you save, resulting in loosing your progress and never being able to save it again.

The Bottom Line
Crystal version is arguably one of the largest expansions to the Pokemon genre. With new monsters, a new world, and more to do, gamers will have plenty on their plate if they have never played this game before. However, old flaws still persist in the game and keep it from being perfect. If you can look past this though, you will be rewarded with a truly positive Pokemon experience.

Game Boy Color · by Lawnmower Man (137) · 2008

Trivia

"Vietnamese Crystal" Bootleg

A pirated version of the game, colloquially called Pokémon Vietnamese Crystal due to the country in which it was first known to be sold, became infamous after being featured in a Let's Play series on YouTube. The game is based on the official Japanese release, and seems to have been translated to at least one intermediate language before being translated into English. This has resulted in numerous mistranslations that are widely regarded to be comedic, as well as several severe bugs that make it difficult to play the game to completion.

Virtual Console Alterations

Since the Nintendo 3DS isn't compatible with the long-obsolete Game Link Cable, Virtual Console releases of this game use the system's local wireless features for link trades and battles. Several attack animations have also been toned down for the safety of players with photosensitive epilepsy or other sensory conditions, and Jynx's sprite in the Japanese release was changed to match its depiction in international versions.

In addition, one particular in-game event is significantly altered for the Virtual Console version. In the Game Boy Color version, capturing Celebi required use of the Pokémon Mobile System GB service, which was only available in Japan until the end of 2002. Although data for the sidequest was left in international releases, it was inaccessible through normal gameplay. The Virtual Console release makes this sidequest available to all regions without use of an outside event or service, and alters or removes several aspects of the quest to make it accessible much earlier in the story.

Regional Differences

In addition to the Celebi sidequest mentioned above, the Japanese Game Boy Color release of Crystal Version allows players to access wireless features through a peripheral called the Mobile Game Boy Adapter. These include trading and battling with other players online, shared details about other players' activity, and the ability to download event-exclusive content. The peripheral was not sold outside of Japan, so only a single event download was fully localized and implemented in international releases, where it was available through a slightly different method. None of these mobile features are functional in the Japanese Virtual Console release.

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Pokémon Ruby Version
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Pokémon Emerald Version
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Pokémon Diamond Version
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Pokémon Pearl Version
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Pokémon Platinum Version
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Pokémon Black Version
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Pokémon White Version
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Related Sites +

  • Pokèmon Elite 2000
    A Pokèmon fan site good at covering the latest news about coming and existing Pokèmon games.
  • Psypokes
    A comprehensive Pokèmon site that covers all there is to know about the Pokèmon games.

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  • MobyGames ID: 12055
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by bowser724.

Nintendo 3DS added by Rik Hideto.

Additional contributors: Freeman, gamewarrior, DarkDante, formercontrib, Spag, LordRM, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Harmony♡, GenesisBR.

Game added February 10, 2004. Last modified March 22, 2024.