This hack is legitimately amazing for a Crystal remake.
My criticisms:
1) Difficulty (or lack thereof). I was running through the game, just seeing what it was, just with a Cyndaquil. It destroyed everything (up to after the Slowpoke Well, after which I tried to save and there was an error and it restarted my game, thus losing the save file. Doh!) and I had to do no grinding. Not saying you need to copy ShinyGold, but I am saying that Crystal was ridiculously easy. :P
I am aware of this, although I'm trying to make everything as accurate to Crystal as possible, and this falls under that category. Sometime in the future, there's probably going to be a CrystalDust X-type thing, for people who want a challenge.
2) Wild Pokemon diversity. Or maybe I didn't look hard enough. I saw no Poliwag's on the route to Violet and saw no Bellsprouts in Sprout Tower.
For the Poliwags, that's because they come out at night and Beta 1 doesn't have RTC-dependent wild Pokémon encounters In Beta 2, however,there will be. For the Bellsprouts, that's just because... well, there actually ARE none in Sprout Tower. Confusing, isn't it?
3) Not getting to pick the rival's name. Most people don't care, but I always liked naming my rival something derogatory. This feature wasn't in Emerald, so until recently, I didn't know how to add it in. It will be present in Beta 2, don't worry.
4) Lack of distinction with original Crystal. From what I played, it seems like an exact copy. I liked Crystal, but I don't want to download a hack just to play a prettyfied version of it. Well, this is the reason behind this hack: to make it as accurate as possible to GSC, mainly for nostalgic purposes. This is that one hack where you try out something small that was in GSC and you're sure wouldn't have made it here, but it has, and you're amazed.
I really love the work you have been doing and good job so far! I can't wait for the next beta. Thanks! Neither can I. :P