Although Platinum was my first proper Pokémon game, Generation 2 was the first one I played as a kid, being introduced to it alongside a copy of the TCB Dual emulator on a CD I must have received from some older kid around where I lived.

Platinum was definitely influential for me in its own ways, but you can argue it's through emulation - this game and all the others on the CD - that I gradually learned about basic tech savviness, got into chiptune and retro video game music, and ultimately became the person I am today in what I do, what I play, and what I listen to.

You might notice that I didn't really talk about the game itself in these first two paragraphs.
I, uh... I went through the first seven gyms, got stuck in the Ice Cave, and never reached Blackthorn City.

It's for that reason that I'm happy to be finally done with Pokémon Crystal after all these long years, but doing so was admittedly a bittersweet experience. I've always considered this one of the better Pokémon generations (not really having played the games past the DS), but its problems are laid bare in stark contrast to future generations.

The easiest example? The difficulty. There's a few reasons I think Generation 2 suffers really heavily compared to the other games. The level curve is something people always mention about this game - how much of Johto between Ecruteak, Mahogany, Olivine and Cianwood hover around the level 20-29 mark, how there isn't much that prepares players for Blue's mid-50s team in Kanto, and how there's absolutely nothing that prepares them against Red.
Lots of other people have gone in a lot of detail about these, but I have a slightly different problem I wanted to address.

Let's explain it with an anecdote: I used a Magneton for my team somewhat out of impulse because I happened to encounter Magnemite on the way to Olivine. On paper, this is a decent idea. Mareep is inaccessible in Crystal; Pikachu and Electabuzz are only available in Kanto; the Thunderstone needed to evolve Eevee into a Jolteon can only be found in Kanto or through receiving calls from an extremely specific NPC; all of which leaves your options for an Electric-type in Johto to Magnemite or Chinchou, the latter of which can't be found unless you fished.

Do you see a problem here? How about if I told you that between Magneton and Lanturn, neither of them learn Thunder or Thunderbolt by level-up, and need to be taught them by buying those moves through Game Corner coins, just like how other Pokémon like Chansey, Tauros and even Gyarados(????) would have to?

Generation 2 has a problem.

Generation 2 has a problem, and it's that I think it's sandwiched between the far more interesting Generations 1 and 3, and - especially with the remakes - doesn't have anything cool to its name anymore other than its aesthetic.

Beneath the surface, Generation 1 has a decent amount of themes and topics, such as Pokémon cloning, genetics and mortality, that lie in the forefront of its narrative. It's definitely even rougher than Generation 2 in terms of its intended gameplay... but it's a lot more immediately exploitable for those willing to put in half an hour into learning some of the most convenient, fun and fascinating glitches that in my opinion only add to the atmosphere that Generation 1 uniquely possesses.

Generation 3 on the other hand improves on the storytelling that Generation 2 tries to introduce to the series (Generation 1 was really only held together with a plot and no story, let's face it), with a compelling main conflict, clearly defined plot curve with its antagonistic team(s), and with a clearly, explicitly defined theme of harmony between human activity, Pokémon and nature.
In terms of its gameplay, Generation 3 is also much more compelling with the addition of abilities, a far more sensible level curve, and a genuinely compelling overworld to explore.

So what does Johto have left to its name? A traditional Japanese theming to it? Emphasis on folklore and legend?

I'm... honestly really not sure. I really like parts of what the prototypes were going for, between Pokémon like Twins that was meant to be a Girafarig pre-evolution before being retooled into Wobbuffet, or Norowara, being the signature move holder of Curse... but I don't know if that iteration of a Generation 2 would have ended up particularly amazing either, especially since it was even worse about game balance from what we know.

I think it's a testament to how solid Pokémon's core formula is that even a game with such questionable design choices as I've mentioned can go on to become such a memorable, beloved entry in a franchise, helped by arguably being the first time Pokémon found an extremely strong aesthetic (artistic and musical) direction within the games. At the end of the day, I really liked playing through this game again.

I know I can thank this trio of games for two things, though:

1) Wow, what a soundtrack, am I right? It's a departure from Junichi Masuda's almost neoclassical Generation 1 soundtrack to be sure, but I think it was a necessary one to ensure Pokémon's musical success moving forward.

2) precious water rabbit friend azumarill best pokemon

Final team: Sandslash / Magneton / Typhlosion / Azumarill / Jumpluff / Shiny Crobat!
It was surprisingly exciting defeating Red with such a team.

Save file playtime: 37:51
Irl playtime: 13:04

I've made it a project to finally finish all the older Pokemon games in roughly chronological order, and now I've finally wrapped up Gen 2.

I'm old and nerdy enough to have played partially-translated versions of Red and Green on No$GMB before they ever came out in the US. I wasn't quite grown, but I was definitely older than the target audience and approached the games as a fan of console RPGs. I was really impressed by how ambitious the games were: a huge amount of monsters that were all playable & with designs that broke away from the medieval fantasy rut that most RPGs were still stuck in.

So with that in mind, Gen 2 is still a big jump in ambition for a handheld RPG. It adds a breeding system, holdable items & a realtime clock that enables a host of subfeatures like daily events, nocturnal/diurnal monsters, time-specific evolutions and moves that vary according to in-game light levels.

And then there's Kanto, a post-game that's nearly as large as the base game. (Though much faster to complete, since the mons in most areas are pretty low level.)

The game's story is barely there, as always, but I do like how your Gen 2 rival is just some guy who sucks. He's not even the final trainer you have to beat to become the champion.

undeniably, there was something lost during the transition from gen 1 to 2. you can even start to see it from red/blue to yellow. designs became less abstract, instead opting to ape the designs shown in the anime. the feeling of a JRPG monster game was traded in favor of eschewing a new genre, something a cross between that and a pet simulator. it's very fascinating for me to go back and see how distinctly unpokemon red/blue was, and gen 2 is really where you start to see a lot of the themes and tone come about.

on some level, i do prefer red/blue to this game. there's a greater "pick up and play" element to it for me, there's a staggering amount of content condensed into a relatively simple experience. something about the game design of red/blue evokes a "do another playthrough" desire out of me; it could be the relative minimalism by series standards or just the fact that it feels so video game-y in a way that pokemon's largely abandoned. charmander isn't a cute little salamander, it's a monster that's meant to grow into something greater than itself. and sure, some of the NPCs in the game do remark about how cute and adorable pokemon like jigglypuff and meowth are, but there's this implied understanding that, to be a superior pokemon trainer, you should be looking at stats and moves, not at designs.

fastforward to gen 2, and you get an almost completely opposite message from the game. there's a greater emphasis on bonding with your pokemon, both in the addition of a friendship statistic and also in the form of friendship evolutions. baby pokemon are added despite serving no advantage in gameplay terms and being relatively useless. much more gimmick pokemon are added that seemingly lack real-world counterparts to add to the world, like shuckle and gligar. in large part, gen 2 is the point in the series when pokemon decided to stop being centered on imitating the real world with a JRPG lens and instead became its own, lived-in universe. pokemon have mythos and lore beyond pokedex entries now! you can breed pokemon and get powerful egg moves onto things, regardless of how sensible it may be (hello chikorita with ancientpower)! gen 2 is when we look at pokemon's world in greater detail instead of abstraction. on the one hand, i appreciate and miss the abstraction of gen 1. on the other, it's undeniable that gen 2's when the pokemon series really kicked into high gear and cultivated its iconography and gameplay systems beyond what many expected of a fad of the year series.

it's worth mentioning that this game does a lot of quality of life improvements as well as bug fixes and move effect retoolings from gen 1 that were sorely needed. i could spend what feels like days listing off everything improved, but it's staggering when you sit down and bullet-point out how much of gen 1 needed to be fixed by its sequels; moreso staggering that it was. it's very easy to go "the jump from gen 1 to gen 2 was big", but it doesn't feel quite as big until you play them both back to back. the art style alone is so different that the games feel as though they're not even related. pokemon red/blue was the blueprint, pokemon GSC was the reinvention.

the largest and probably most damning flaw of the game for me is that a large portion of the gen 2 pokemon are prohibitively difficult to obtain. some are locked away behind trade evolutions, some are only obtainable after beating the elite four, and some are just painfully rare encounters (see: dunsparce, teddiursa, and swarm pokemon like yanma + qwilfish). and literally half the gym leaders only use pokemon from gen 1. you're telling me that you introduced one new ghost type pokemon in misdreavus, and not a single fucking person in morty's gym uses it? and falkner is left by the wayside in only using pidgey and pidgeotto. sure, he's the first gym leader, but you really couldn't have at least given him something at least a little interesting like hoothoot or murkrow?

but i'm nitpicking. this game is considered a hallmark of the series, and, when you consider the context, it's easy to see why. as much fondness as you could have for digimon, you simply must admit that it lacks a pokemon GSC. it lacks a video game that dominated markets and cemented its series as a mainstay of pop culture. for what pokemon has become and what we all wish it could be, there was a time when it felt like it was truly breaking new ground, as though it were mapping uncharted territory. that was exciting. thrilling, even.

My favorite part of this game was when I came back to it in my backlog, died once, respawned at the previous save point, accidentally hit save again, and my character vanished from the screen and went behind it, but the game saved THAT aspect of it. So, any attempt to reload the game resulted in me trapped inside the save device, unable to move again.

It's my favorite part of the game because I only lost about 90 minutes of gameplay instead of more if that or something worse happened later, so I wasted less time having to play it this way and less of my time overall. THANKS, METAMORFOSE S!

It's funny that a disgraced 90s rockstar fart has something to reveal about FPS.

We have gone from understanding the space designed for the challenge of navigation and combat to offering it as a scripted process between arenas with action at 2 heights (maybe 3-4)

One of the things I remember about Duke Nukem 3d was the arsenal and the architectural makeup contributed to a slightly more irreverent (and farting) aesthetic that differentiated it from any Doom clone, ironic that forever feels like a frankenstein from the 2000 shooter without nothing that differentiates it beyond his big mouth

i sleep, um dos jogos mais sem graça já lançados e um dos mais conturbados também o que contribuiu, projeto reiniciado várias vezes por vários estúdios diferentes, o jogo não ficou 14 anos em desenvolvimento, reiniciado no mínimo umas 4 vezes

Não tem muito mais o que falar não, o jogo é feio, história sem graça, personagem perdeu o carisma, bugado etc etc etc nada salva nesse jogo

Se pelo menos fosse divertido, o jogo real já nasceu morto.

O maior problema desse jogo foi o fato dele ter sido lançado, podia ter ficado só no papel mesmo, falta de competência e responsabilidade o nome só maluco achou que iria sair algo bom disso

Pelo menos da pra desenhar numa lousa.