1.01 | Miserable Little Plant
11/8/2024, 10:26 AM
ahhh, how long has it been? too long, that's how! it's been forever since i played vanilla Pokemon Crystal, no special stipulations like needing to play in Japanese or playing a ROM hack like Crystal Clear, just true pure Crystal this time. i swear, it's like coming home whenever i play this game, and the late Autumn weather is adding heaps to that.
before we get started, here's my options i set. like i said, no fancy rulesets or stipulations, we're not doing a Nuzlocke so playing on shift is fair game. text speed is fast too of course, and i'm keeping battle scene on. it won't waste your time since you don't have to watch this in real time, and i like the battle animations, so it's a win-win for both of us.
you know what they say, "nothin' to it but to do it."
this is objectively the best feature they added to the game in the transition from Gold/Silver to Crystal. every game should let you play as a girl, no exceptions.
howdy, professor! we get sent through Oak's usual spiel, Pokemon are fascinating creatures and all that. i always found it kind of weird that Oak is the one telling us all this, considering our professor for this game is Elm, but i guess that wasn't really a thing that was set in stone yet.
as you can imagine, i'll be naming myself Mot, since... that's my name. does anyone realistically choose those default names when they play these games casually? i get that it's faster for speedruns at least, but otherwise? come on, you're playing as yourself here.
and here we are, in our room. i said in the primer that i love this game's music, and that starts pretty much as soon as you get into the game. New Bark Town's theme has been implanted into my brain for the past 12 or so years, and i don't see it ever leaving anytime soon. it's such an excellent starting theme, better than Pallet Town, if you ask me. it's kind of this perfect inbetween of being adventurous and relaxed, and i feel that's something the HeartGold/SoulSilver rendition of the theme loses, leaning all the way into the laid-back aspect of it.
something that always bugged me as a kid was that, when you get your PokeGear, your mom asks you if you know how to use it. no matter if you say yes or no, she'll always explain it anyways. it's like those Kirby tutorials that do the same thing. gee, isn't that convenient?
howdy, what's u- hey, hey!! no one kicks me back two tiles and gets away with it! geez, what's their deal?
well whatever, i get a cool Pokemon and they don't. Elm here wants us to go see Mr. Pokemon and find out what crazy stuff he's talking about this time, since everyone at the lab is too busy apparently. speaking of Pokemon, here comes the most important decision of the game... the starter! our options for this game are...
Cyndaquil!
this is my go-to pick whenever i'm doing a casual gen 2 playthrough. Cyndaquil grows up to be a speedy special attacker, and the lack of a physical/special split helps it here, since it's gonna be using that special attack stat for all of its STAB moves. not only that, but i really love the designs of all three stages of Cyndaquil, they're all great! if i just wanna take it easy and breeze through the game, i almost always jump for Cyndaquil, it's an excellent choice.
Totodile!
i'll be completely honest... i've never run Totodile, not in all my years of Gen 2-ing. i've certainly tried, but every time i just end up dropping the game for one reason or another. it's kind of weird how consistent it is. that being said, i know from watching Chuggaaconroy's Crystal let's play about 10 billion times that Totodile is an excellent choice, as it has a good matchup against many of the gym leaders in this game. not to mention, it's a great user of Surf, and since it's your starter, you'll always have access to that move for navigating the field, no extra throwaway pokemon required.
Chikorita!
oh Chikorita, no matter how outclassed you are by your peers, you'll always be my real favorite. Chikorita is a famously difficult starter to use in gen 2, and is generally considered to be pretty bad. it has a bad matchup against many of the gym leaders, its movepool is pretty shallow, and grass type just generally gets stomped on in Gen 2. that said, i love Chikorita and its evolutions' designs, and it's always been my absolute favorite of the three options here. not only that, but a while ago i did a playthrough of Pokemon Crystal all in Japanese, (a language i can't read) and i chose Chikorita as my starter. and surprisingly enough, it like, kinda worked?? so i don't think it's as bad as people usually make it out to be.
now, here's the big question. which of these sweet little cherubs will i be choosing as my starter? well, i've run Cyndaquil far too many times at this point, and i wanna try something different. Totodile always makes me want to stop playing for some reason, so i don't think that'll be ideal either. which leaves us with Chikorita, an underdog pick. like i said in its bio, i love Chikorita despite its flaws, and i think it deserves more time in the limelight. no one ever picks this little guy, especially not for a let's play, and i demand justice! so Chikorita it is!
after about 20 seconds of thinking of a good name for our little buddy, i settled on Jano. why that name? well, just like the Rayman 2 character, i'm gonna raise Jano to be a green monster that people will learn to fear. or, at least that's what i'm gonna tell him. i know he's gonna struggle a lot, but ain't that just the life of a Chikorita?
hmmm... that seems about right, in terms of stats. another weakness of Chikorita is its low special attack. Grass is strictly special in this generation, since the physical/special split wouldn't happen 'till gen 4. while Chikorita is meant to be bulky first and foremost, the low attack stats don't help it very much either. that said, it is good at setting up, since it gets access to a few status moves, as grass starters tend to do, so we aren't entirely screwed. also, it should be noted that your starter always comes holding a berry. held items were introduced in gen 2, so i guess they wanted to show that off asap.
well with that, i guess it's time we got a move on. geez, i've been writing this for about an hour and a half and i've only just now gotten my starter? come on Mot, get your act together!
