I decided to use Crystal as my main game for my generation 2 play playthrough. I didn’t make this choice lightly and it was ultimately because of the small aesthetic improvements as well as some minor gameplay changes. I began my adventure in New Bark Town on a quiet afternoon. I first encountered my mom who gave me my Pokégear which will allow me to make and receive phone calls, look at my map, check the time, and eventually even have a radio. My tasks were as follows: choose my starter Pokémon and find “Mr. Pokémon”, Professor Elm’s old colleague. Now the journey to finding Mr. Pokémon takes me through several areas with many chances to battle, so choosing the right starter is important. I also wanted to think ahead strategy-wise and choose a starter that is a bit easier on me when fighting gym leaders. My decision: Cyndaquil. I was considering Chikorita due to its higher defense, but Cyndaquil makes up for it in speed as well as having the best Special Attack score out of the three choices. I think a fire-type Pokémon is a bit weak early game, but as I level that will be a moot point. After grabbing a free Potion from Professor Elm’s aide, I headed west out of town.

My first stop was Route 29. Unlike the Generation 1 games, this pathway to the next town was full of grassy patches that were largely unavoidable. There are a few new Pokémon along this route that I’ll need to add to my Pokédex, but unfortunately I do not have any Pokéballs yet. This is also my first opportunity to pick a berry! Berries are a new addition to the Pokémon game series in this generation and provide various healing properties. You can either give a berry to a Pokémon to hold and heal itself in battle or you can hold on to them yourself and heal them on your own. I made my way through Route 29 with my Cyndaquil and gained a few levels. Upon entering Cherrygrove City, I was met by an old man who offered me a tour of the city. Now usually, I don’t take NPCs up on their offers to show me things, but don’t decline the tour! When the tour is over, he gives you a map card for your Pokégear. Other stops of note in town are the Pokémon Center for healing and Pokémart for purchasing goods. Keep heading north until you get to Route 30.

The goal here on Route 30 is to find Mr. Pokémon’s house and pick up the item Professor Elm requested: the Mystery Egg. In the process of making your way to Mr. Pokémon’s house, make sure you stay to the right side of the map as you don’t want to fight the trainers yet. When I met Mr. Pokémon, Professor Oak was also there and he graciously handed me a Pokédex to fill. Now that I have what I need, I backtracked through Route 30 and made my way back to New Bark Town. Unfortunately along the way, I met up with my rival (who I named Gary) and made quick work of his Totodile. When I got back to Professor Elm and handed him the Mystery Egg, his assistant gave me my first Pokéballs. Before heading back out, I checked in with Mom who offered to hold my money for me, which I declined– something I feel like I might regret in the future. Now on Route 29, it was time to catch my first Pokémon: Hoothoot. Another new thing about Generation 2 games is that there is an internal clock that keeps track of a morning, day, and night cycle. This cycle influences what Pokémon may appear in the wild. Since I was playing in the night time, Hoothoot was the only new Pokémon available to catch. Once I did so, I headed back towards Route 30 to battle those trainers and level up my Pokémon to start to prepare for my first gym battle.

There were four trainers I had to battle along the way towards Violet City. None were particularly difficult, but after fighting the first trainer, Joey, I became aware of yet another new feature introduced in Generation 2: getting people’s phone numbers. Now don’t get me wrong– I love a cool, new feature, but only one hour in and I’m already annoyed by it. The phone allows you to call other trainers, your mom, Professor Elm, etc. BUT it also allows others to call you. Randomly. Just like real life, I felt total dread when my phone would ring. So far, it seems to be Joey just calling telling me about various battles he’s had or Pokémon he’s caught. I hope he cuts it out soon because it’s annoying. When I got to Violet City, I healed up and decided to try and at least beat the trainers in the Violet City gym to see if I was leveled enough to take on Falkner. Falkner has a pretty weak party: a level 7 Pidgey and a level 9 Pidgeotto. It was a little challenging since Pidgeotto used Mud Slap which lowered my accuracy (and did damage), but ultimately I was successful and earned my very first badge! On my way out of Violet City gym, I received an urgent call from Professor Elm who told me that one of his aides was waiting for me at the Pokémon Center. I wonder what this means…

I met Professor Elm’s assistant and he gave me an egg to carry. Once I finished healing up, I had to head to Sprout Tower to get Flash. The good thing is that Sprout Tower exists as a place to grind out some levels before facing the first gym trainer. Luckily for me, I chose Cyndaquil who was one level away from learning Ember which would make quick work of all of the Bellsprouts I encountered. I fought every trainer that was in the tower and got my Cyndaquil to level 15 where it evolved into Quilava. Once I picked up Flash, I made my way back down to Violet City, healed up, and prepared to move on to the next chapter in my journey.

Generation II Living Dex Percentage: 2.00%
Generation II Living Dex Count: 2/100
National Living Dex Percentage: 14.93%
Played Time: 2 hours and 9 minutes