Part 1: Welcome to the World of Improvements!

Update 01: Welcome to the World of Improvements!

Opening and Intro



Man, three years on and Old Man Lecture is still a timeless classic.



C'mon, you know how this game plays. Who the fuck hasn't played THESE games? If not, then it'll become pretty obvious as we go along. That's tutorials for ya.



Our ever vigilant protagonist.

"in next time!"

And the technological marvel in these games is RADIO. We'll be seeing a lot more of it later.



Anyway, let's turn on our PC. There's not much we can do here for now, but let's get our free Poti-



O-oh, okay. Never mind then.



Well, in any case, let's head downstairs and explore the brand new region of Johto. Can't wait!

New Bark Town



Oh yes, new to this LP will be music links! This is something I really should've included in my Yellow LP, but now I'm fixing that. Time to just stroll out of the house...

Chat With Mom



: He said he wanted you to do something for him. Oh! I almost forgot! Your POKéMON GEAR is back from the repair shop. Here you go!



: POKéMON GEAR, or just POKéGEAR. It's essential if you want to be a good trainer. Oh, the day of the week isn't set. You mustn't forget that!



We'll get into the POKéGEAR later, but new in these games is TIME. Like actual full on time that affects things in the game. Hmm, I wonder when I started recording this game...




Sure. Whenever the clocks needs to change, we can reflect that in game. But that really won't be a factor.

"the PHONE?"

New technology scares me greatly, so sure.

: I'll read the instructions. Turn the POKéGEAR on and select the PHONE icon. Phone numbers are stored in memory. Just choose a name you want to call. Gee, isn't that convenient?

New Bark Town

: PROF.ELM is waiting for you. Hurry up, baby!

Phew, as you can immediately see, these games are a lot wordier than the previous games. Still, that's what text dumps are for...



: MARINA, have you heard? My daughter is adamant about becoming PROF.ELMs assistant. She really loves POKéMON!


New Bark Town: The Town Where Winds of a New Beginning Blow
(From, well, new bark, the start of a new adventure, the beginnings of the game, you get the idea.)
Wakaba Town: The town where winds of a new beginning blow.
(From wakaba, "new leaves" or "fresh verdure".)



And finally, we are outside. At night. With improved graphics and sprites and lights in the windows. What a time to be alive.



Well, MOM did say ELM was next door (yeah I won't be shouting names, I use the caps lock enough for transcribing), so let's head in. As an aside, Professor Elm's name is obvious, following the tree theme, but Dr. Utsugi, is from, well, utsugi, the Japanese name of the flower/shrub group Deutzia.



: When he's caught up in his POKéMON research, he even forgets to eat.



: "Why has no one ever witnessed a POKéMON's birth? I want to know! I will dedicate my life to the study of POKéMON!" It's a part of PROF.ELM's research papers.



Well as much as I would love to just walk into the grass and get attacked by magical creatures, let's check the lab fir-



Uhhhh...

"LAB..."

: ...What are you staring at?



Uh, how wude. Anyway, before I forget, let's have a look at this POKéGEAR thing.



So far we have the current time and the phone. And only one number, our mother. Aw man, it's like being back in Year 7...



: Oh, hi, MARINA! Wasn't PROF.ELM waiting for you?

Pokémon Lab



Alright fine, we'll go to our goddamn objective.



: I'm conducting new POKéMON research right now. I was wondering if you could help me with it, MARINA. You see... I'm writing a paper that I want to present at a conference. But there are some things I don't quite understand yet.



Pooket Munstars? I love those guys!

: Thanks, MARINA! You're a great help! When I announce my findings, I'm sure we'll delve a bit deeper into the many mysteries of POKéMON. You can count on it!



: Okay... Hey, listen. I have an acquaintance called MR. POKéMON. He keeps finding weird things and raving about his discoveries. Anyway, I just got an e-mail from him saying that this time it's real. It is intriguing, but we're busy with our POKéMON research...



: I want you to raise one of the POKéMON contained in these BALLS. You'll be that POKéMON's first partner, MARINA! Go on. Pick one!



Hmm. That sounds like a big choice. Need time to think. Let's poke around.



Well Elm had to learn it from someone I suppose...




Hmm. Well that was fun. Back to business.

"fire POKéMON?"


HP: 39 | ATK: 52 | DEF: 43 | SP.ATK: 60 | SP.DEF: 50 | SPD: 65 | TOTAL: 309
#004: Cyndaquil

New to the LP, click the image to go the analysis, but if not, there's still plenty of info there. Bolded stats are the higher ones, while underlines stats are the lowesy ones. Anyway, let's look at the other choices.



"water POKéMON?"


HP: 50 | ATK: 65 | DEF: 64 | SP.ATK: 44 | SP.DEF: 48 | SPD: 43 | TOTAL: 314
#007: Totodile

Tempting, but there's still one more choice.

"grass POKéMON?"


HP: 45 | ATK: 49 | DEF: 65 | SP.ATK: 49 | SP.DEF: 65 | SPD: 45 | TOTAL: 318
#001: Chikorita

So compared to the original games, where Bulbasaur was easy mode, Squirtle was intermediate mode and Charmander was hard mode, we now have Cyndaquil as easy mode, Totodile as intermediate mode and Chikorita as hard mode. There's never a wrong choice in any game, so always follow your heart.



Quick save and we'll go with Chikorita, cause I just love choosing the Grass types.

: I think that's a great POKéMON too!



And thanks to the end of the Yellow thread, we have our nickname. I'm sure we'll pick up the other two eventually.



: It's almost a direct route there, so you can't miss it. But just in case, here's my phone number. Call me if anything comes up!



: If your POKéMON is hurt, you should heal it with this machine. Feel free to use it anytime. MARINA, I'm counting on you!

: MR.POKéMON goes everywhere and finds rarities. Too bad they're just rare and not very useful...



Okay, let's get going on our grand adventure with no more text bo-



: MARINA, I want you to have this for your errand.



Ah, here's where our first Potion is. Just handing it to me instead of making me search for it myself, god they've really casualised these games.

: There are only two of us, so we're always busy.

New Bark Town



Okay, let's have a look at our new Pokemon. We'll go more in depth very soon, but let's go over the new things.



First up we have the more general info, including genders and a way to easily track experience. Then we have the moves and held item, which take effect when certain conditions are fulfilled. A Berry will restore 10HP when the Pokemon goes under 50% of its health. Nothing too amazing, but it saves a turn to use a Potion, though I would recommend to keep the Berry for now. Then we have the OT, as well as the various stats, including the now split Special. No longer is it a broken pile of crap and can be different values for each Pokemon, with some nice calculations we'll see in just a little bit.

Route 29



Now we can actually begin our journey proper, with brand new placards introduced in Crystal.




But getting to the next town over won't be easy. As with a number of RPGs, we have random encounters. So battling is almost unavoidable.

Wild Pokemon Battle



And we literally can't go one step without encountering a wild Pokemon.



And new to Crystal are Pokemon animations! We can also see a longer animation when we check a Pokemon's status, but the one's you encounter in battle will suffice. We'll also go over the templates when we can actually obtain these Pokemon for our own team, right now all we can do is fight them.



Battling is very similar to Gen 1 and has remained pretty much consistent across the series. You can either attack, switch to another Pokemon, use an item or run away. To begin with, there's not much we can do aside from use Tackle (Taiatari: Body Blow), a standard Normal move with 35 Base Power, 35 Power Points and 95% accuracy, or Growl (Nakigoe: Cry), a Normal status move with 40PP and 100% accuracy that lowers the opponent's Attack by one stage.



I won't be giffing the attack animations. These updates are enough work as they are.

Wild Pokemon Defeated



Overall, not very tough, nor very interesting. But now we can see experience in battle and can tell how close a Pokemon is to leveling up. Nice!

Route 29



Ah, this will be a fun time.



We'll still go over any new moves we encounter, since some have changed from the previous games. Not Tail Whip (Shippo wo Furu: Tail Wag) though, still a Normal status move with 30PP and 100% accuracy that lowers Defense by one stage.



Moving onwards. Though this is a dead end, so let's head elsewhere.



Of course.



While finding nothing but Rattata is incredibly exciting, least we get enough experience to level up!



The great thing about Route 29 when compared to Route 1 is it's larger and has more chances to encounter Pokemon. Exciting.



Good to pick up another Potion, in case our starter gets too low.



Oh wow, an actual new Pokemon! But since Petunia is already level 6, we won't fight anything else, we don't need to level up too much.




And while I remember, the Bag has been overhauled. While we still have 20 spaces for items, we have separate pockets for Pokeballs, Key Items and TMs and HMs, so we have more space overall to carry things, which is amazing.



Oh I did that earlier for no reason at all.

"take a shortcut."

Let's have ourselves a little detour, since it's here.

Route 46



Well it's a bit of a dead end and while there are some new Pokemon here, there's no need to encounter them now.

Route 29



So let's continue on.



Yep, the encounter rates change depending on the time of day. No it's not annoying, what are you talking about?



And with actual time passing, we have trees that can grow berries. It's very basic in comparison to Gen 3 onwards, since the trees refresh every day at midnight for one berry at a time.



Otherwise, we've made it to Cherrygrove City, which we'll explore next time.