Crystal Heart - A Journey Through Johto

With the 20th anniversary of Generation 2 being upon us, I took it upon myself to go back to the olden days and finally play Pokemon Crystal. I've played Gold, Silver, and their respective remakes, but I've never went through the definitive Generation 2 experience. With this journey, I'm aiming to complete it to the best of my ability (not really 100% it, but do as much as I can on my own) and aim to really immerse myself in the game. I am a huge Pokemon fan with countless hours to many games, but I've noticed I've come to create campaign after campaign of playing the game on the sidelines; chugging through battles while distracted by YouTube or some other sort of social media. With this run, I want to take in every bit of the game and truly feel like I'm role playing in a role playing game; no distractions or outside outlets are allowed when progressing through the story (but I may allow them during grinding).

I start off the game picking Cyndaquil. It was a hard choice, actually, as I spent a solid 10 minutes staring at the Pokeballs. It's the first time I've started a run in years where I didn't either play my entire team ahead of time or let a random number generator decide my fate. I had no idea what this journey would bring me; it was just me and the three choices that faced me. I'm not even ten minutes in and I've felt more Pokemon magic than I have in a long time. I choose the fire starter and appropriately name him Kindle. I go around and talk to everyone before making my way to Cherrygrove City. After facing my Rival, Silver, I'm able to obtain Pokeballs and set forth on my true path. I catch every new species I see, but only some take the honor of joining my party. Those members are a Hoothoot (Books) and a Spinarak (Spine), while also adding two temporary members to the team, a Sentret (Scroll) and a Hoppip (Poem).

I'm not too sure of how I want to construct my team, but those Pokemon appeal to me as of right now. I don't want to plan too far ahead, as I feel like it will devolve my experience back into a game of stats and numbers as opposed to the original goal of going back to taking my time and having fun at every step of the way. I do know I want a Quagsire and maybe a Bellossom though. I'm not opposed to having a big team that surpasses 6 members, as I really do want to try to clock as much hours as I can with this experience, and it'll help the Pokedex side of things too.

Anyway, after a couple days of turning on the game, playing for a brief moment before work, and going about my real-life day, I've developed a sort of routine. Since I haven't gotten very far, not even reaching Violet yet, it's quite simple to go back to previous routes to collect the new berry spawns. I usually shrug over the simple 10 HP restoration, but this new outlook of trying to make the most out of even the mundane has me appreciating the daily events of the old game. It was really before its time, as these 24 hour cycles will give their way into better things in future generations. It really made me feel like I was a citizen in the world, doing my morning rituals before I set out for the rest of the day. I play a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links, and this sort of reminded me of the mobile game phenomenon of signing in for a moment to collect some rewards and going back to your real-life world.

Before challenging Falkner, I decided to train up my non-traditional team members, Sentret and Hoppip, a bit up for the sake of it. Although they're not really a part of the team and haven't fought any trainers, I think it's worth giving them some love. It might let me find a shiny in the wild after all. I actually don't mind level grinding in Pokemon; I think it's fun just going into the wild for the sake of it and train. It's not really a burden, as I'm not setting aside an arduous goal of "having to reach Level X for the boss". I can start and stop whenever, and when I get bored of training in the wild, I can just stop and proceed with my adventure. Also, Younger Joey called for a rematch, so it felt pretty cool to be able to battle a friend before taking on the Gym Leader. It's like two allies trying their best to improve before taking on the city's best trainer.

I beat Falkner with ease. Hoothoot beat the Pidgey, while Spinarak poisoned the Pidgeotto, allowing Cyndaquil to finish up the job with a Leer and two Tackles. I'm currently on Day 3, and I save my game in Violet City, awaiting the night to fall upon us after a day of irl work to catch the illustrious Wooper. I'll also be catching a Gastly too since I'm already here! Once I catch the Wooper, I think I'll traverse a bit through the Dark Cave, as it lets Wooper get some levels when facing some wild Geodudes. I wonder if I can find a Dunsparce?

Team:

Gotta say, I like how you are using the weaker and overlooked Johto pokemon

Thank you! It wasn't intentional, I just really like those Pokemon and haven't used them in a while.

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Update 02 - Day 05

After traversing through the Dark Cave and training up my Wooper, I realized I was low on Pokeballs (and money), so attempting to catch a Dunsparce wasn't wise. I'm letting Mom save my money so I can get her exclusives, but it's really making the Catch Em All aspect of it stressful; I really have to manage who and when to catch for right now. My Togepi egg hatches and show it to Elm, which also let me bump into Tuscany on the way who gave me the Pink Bow! It's currently on my Sentret, as I use his STAB Normal moves more than my Hoothoot. However, this might change, as inside Union Cave, I find Swift and teach it to Hoothoot. Once I start using Hoothoot more for neutral hits as opposed to Super Effective Pecks, I think I'll make the swap. Regardless, we head out of Union Cave after training Wooper to an appropriate level and barge into some Rockets in the well. I didn't know that in Gen 2, the last Grunt only had Koffing; in the remakes, he also has a Zubat.

I spend the night in Azalea and appropriately collect the Apricot and Berries around the area, which also leads me to Cyndaquil's evolution inside of the gym. I beat Bugzy with ease, as both Quilava and Hoothoot resisted his Fury Cutter strategy.I only needed Quilava, but I also used a bit of Spinarak to chip some free EXP out of his cocoon duo. The rival was a breeze as well, but there was a bit of a Spite war between Hoothoot and Gastly. I was asleep for so long that I almost ran out of Pecks! Hoothoot does wonders against his Gastly and Zubat, but the Croconaw was the big threat. Luckily, Spinarak saves the day by getting a key Poison Sting to inflict the deadly status and the rest was just history. All of my Pokemon got EXP from his starter as I kept having to switch when low as I don't want to really on healing items. It wasn't difficult, just a game of patience really.

I catch my next team member inside the Ilex Forest: Leaflet the Oddish. She will be the permanent replacement to my Hoppip. I grind her up to the same level as the rest of my team in the Union Cave, as a combination of Geodude, Sandshrew, and Onix makes for an easy level up experience. I head to Goldenrod, catching some more Pokemon along the way, using Sentret to take down the wilds along the way. I like using him for that, as it lets him stay on par with the team without using experience in trainer battles as I don't really consider him to be a main party member. He evolves right before we reach to Goldenrod and I temporarily box him to try to hatch the Mystery Egg from the Daycare. I have a lot of catching to do with all these new routes; might even train some PC mons to Level 10 or so for some bug evos

Save game.

Team:

chaos11011 said:

Thank you! It wasn't intentional, I just really like those Pokemon and haven't used them in a while.

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Update 02 - Day 05

After traversing through the Dark Cave and training up my Wooper, I realized I was low on Pokeballs (and money), so attempting to catch a Dunsparce wasn't wise. I'm letting Mom save my money so I can get her exclusives, but it's really making the Catch Em All aspect of it stressful; I really have to manage who and when to catch for right now. My Togepi egg hatches and show it to Elm, which also let me bump into Tuscany on the way who gave me the Pink Bow! It's currently on my Sentret, as I use his STAB Normal moves more than my Hoothoot. However, this might change, as inside Union Cave, I find Swift and teach it to Hoothoot. Once I start using Hoothoot more for neutral hits as opposed to Super Effective Pecks, I think I'll make the swap. Regardless, we head out of Union Cave after training Wooper to an appropriate level and barge into some Rockets in the well. I didn't know that in Gen 2, the last Grunt only had Koffing; in the remakes, he also has a Zubat.

I spend the night in Azalea and appropriately collect the Apricot and Berries around the area, which also leads me to Cyndaquil's evolution inside of the gym. I beat Bugzy with ease, as both Quilava and Hoothoot resisted his Fury Cutter strategy.I only needed Quilava, but I also used a bit of Spinarak to chip some free EXP out of his cocoon duo. The rival was a breeze as well, but there was a bit of a Spite war between Hoothoot and Gastly. I was asleep for so long that I almost ran out of Pecks! Hoothoot does wonders against his Gastly and Zubat, but the Croconaw was the big threat. Luckily, Spinarak saves the day by getting a key Poison Sting to inflict the deadly status and the rest was just history. All of my Pokemon got EXP from his starter as I kept having to switch when low as I don't want to really on healing items. It wasn't difficult, just a game of patience really.

I catch my next team member inside the Ilex Forest: Leaflet the Oddish. She will be the permanent replacement to my Hoppip. I grind her up to the same level as the rest of my team in the Union Cave, as a combination of Geodude, Sandshrew, and Onix makes for an easy level up experience. I head to Goldenrod, catching some more Pokemon along the way, using Sentret to take down the wilds along the way. I like using him for that, as it lets him stay on par with the team without using experience in trainer battles as I don't really consider him to be a main party member. He evolves right before we reach to Goldenrod and I temporarily box him to try to hatch the Mystery Egg from the Daycare. I have a lot of catching to do with all these new routes; might even train some PC mons to Level 10 or so for some bug evos

Save game.

Team:

Spoiler:

Day: 5
Time: 7:02
Badges: 2
Dex: 32

Kindle - 17
Ember | Headbutt | Leer | Smokescreen

Books - 16
Peck | Tackle | Hypnosis | Growl

Spine - 16
Poison Sting | Constrict | Scary Face | String Shot

Note - 16
Water Gun | Slam | Tail Whip

Leaflet - 15
Absorb | Poison Powder | Sweet Scent

Scroll - 15
Quick Attack | Cut | Tackle | Defense Curl

Click to expand...

I must say, I love the fire, water and grass core you are using there. Feels really good to see oddish get some love!