Pokémon Second Generation
From Data Crystal
| Pokémon Gold and Silver | |
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| Name | Pokémon Gold and Silver |
| Genre | RPG/Adventure |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Developer | Game Freak |
| ROM Size | 16Mbit |
| Players | Up to 2 |
| Click here for Hacking Information | |
|---|---|
Pokémon Gold Version and Silver Version were the second generation of Pokémon games to be released. Like Red and Blue before them, they are paired versions, with little coding difference between the two.
The translated versions of these games were greatly expected, and arrived Stateside on October 15, 2000. Again, much like Red and Green/Blue, Gold and Silver were followed by a third version with minor changes, Pokémon Crystal, a year later.
Gold and Silver brought with them many changes to the Pokémon world, as the first "new" games. Unlike Red, Green, Blue, and even Yellow; Pokémon Gold and Silver take place in an entirely new region, west of the area the player explores in the first generation. Despite this, Kanto is visitable later in the game.
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Pokémon Gold and Silver
Story
Pokémon Gold and Silver take place in Johto three years after the events of the games' predecessors. It features a total of seven cities and three towns, along with different geographical locations and Routes connecting most locations to one another. Some areas are only accessible once the player learns a special ability or gains a special item.
The silent protagonist of Pokémon Gold and Silver, is a young boy who lives in New Bark Town. At the beginning of the games, players may choose either Cyndaquil, Totodile, or Chikorita as their Starter Pokémon from Professor Elm. In addition, his rival Silver will steal a Pokémon from Professor Elm and become the protagonist's rival, battling the player at certain points in the game to test the player's Pokémon.
The basic goal of the game is to become the best trainer in all of Johto and Kanto; which is done by raising Pokémon, completing the Pokédex, defeating the eight gym leaders in Johto for Gym Badges, and challenging the Elite Four and the Champion, and then defeating the eight Gym Leaders in Kanto. Finally, the player may face off against Red atop of Mt. Silver. Also throughout the game, the player will have to battle against the forces of Team Rocket, a criminal organization that abuses Pokémon.
Features
Gold and Silver introduced a number of features to the Pokémon video game franchise, many of which set a new standard for every game in the series that followed. Gold and Silver introduced the concept of storing items such as healing items, Poké Balls, and key items in separate compartments in the bag. The updated battle screen showed both how much experience points a Pokémon had until its next level and whether or not an encountered wild Pokémon's species has already been captured. Also, held items raised the bar for strategy, allowing players to outspeed opponents, heal ailments, restore HP in battle, boost the power of moves of a specific type, or increase the Pokémon's happiness, among other uses.
A time system was also introduced. Throughout the game, Pokémon appearances are influenced by time of day: morning, day, and night. Hoothoot, for example, only appears at night. Certain events are also determined by the day of the week, such as the Bug-Catching Contest held in Johto's National Park on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Depending on the day of the week, either "Pokémon March" or "Pokémon Lullaby" can be heard on the PokéGear radio. Pokémon March raises the chance of a Pokémon appearing when the player walks into the grass, while Pokémon Lullaby decreases that chance. Gold and Silver also introduced the concept of evolution by methods other than leveling, using an evolutionary stone, or trading.
PokéGear
The PokéGear is received at the beginning of the game from the protagonist's mother. It has several functions, including displaying the day of the week and the time of day, entered at the beginning of the game, a map of Johto (and later Kanto) once the Map Card is obtained, a cellphone, allowing the user to make calls to people that they've traded phone numbers with, and a radio which allows the player to get tips from Professor Oak and DJ Mary on Oak's Pokémon Talk, affect how active wild Pokémon are by playing Pokémon March or Pokémon Lullaby on the Pokémon Music station, or listen to the Lucky Channel to keep track of the Radio Tower's lottery promotion.
Breeding
With the introduction of breeding, all Pokémon belong to one or two egg groups. It is important to note that legendary Pokémon cannot be bred; they are genderless, and will not breed, even with a Ditto (which can breed with any Pokémon capable of breeding).
A baby Pokémon will be born when a male Pokémon and a female Pokémon that share at least one egg group are left at the Pokémon Daycare. In the case of Pokémon that are always male (Hitmontop, Nidoking, Tauros, etc.), or Pokémon who can breed but whose gender is unknown (Magnemite, Voltorb), the only way to produce a baby from these species is by breeding them with a Ditto.
A baby Pokémon will inherit the species of its mother (or non-Ditto parent in the case of a Ditto breeding) and inheritable moves from its father (when it's not a Ditto). Fathers always pass down TM moves that the baby's species could learn, which are valuable (since some are only obtainable one time). If both parents know a move that the baby's species learns by leveling up, the baby is born knowing that move as well. Fathers may also pass down special moves called "egg moves" to the baby that it would not normally be able to learn by leveling up or evolving.
Shiny Pokémon
The game introduces shiny Pokémon, Pokémon which have a different coloring than their species has normally, and which appear very rarely (a 1 in 8,192 chance). In these games, shiny Pokémon often have better stats than regular Pokémon, but can never achieve maximum stats for that species (as shininess is based on the Pokémon's IVs in this generation). There is one exception to the shiny Pokémon system: a Red Gyarados can be found at the Lake of Rage. Since it is part of the storyline, it is impossible not to encounter this Pokémon as shiny.
Pokérus
Pokérus (a portmanteau of "Pokémon" and "virus") was introduced. Encountering a Pokémon with the virus is even rarer than encountering a shiny Pokémon, with the odds estimated to be somewhere around a 1 in 21,845 chance. Pokérus doubles the special experience (a concept adapted to later installments as effort values) that the player's Pokémon gain each time the infected Pokémon participates in battle (provided the battle is won and the infected Pokémon does not faint).
Type and Stat Changes
Two new types were introduced, Steel-type and Dark-type. These two types serve to balance the Psychic-type, which previously was only weak to Bug-type moves; however, Bug-types lacked any powerful offensive moves in past games. In addition, the Steel and Dark types also balanced the Fighting-type, which was only super effective against Normal-, Ice-, and Rock-types (all of which are rarely used in competitive battling); Steel and Dark are both weak against Fighting. Steel-type Pokémon are known for their very high defense; they are highly resistant to many types and their moves are strong against Ice and Rock-type Pokémon. Dark-types are immune to Psychic-type moves and have moves with malicious-sounding names, like Bite (previously of the Normal-type) and Thief, which are super-effective against Psychic-types. Dark-types are also strong against Ghost-types, thus being the only type that has an attack advantage over Ghost-type Pokémon besides Ghost-type moves themselves. Dark-type Pokémon are also weak against Bug-type attacks.
Some type match-ups were changed as well. In Generation I Ghost-type moves had no effect on Psychic-types; this was changed to super-effective as it was in the Pokémon television series. Poison-type originally were effective against Bug-types and Bug-types ineffective against Poison; this was changed to Poison doing normal damage to Bug and Bug becoming not very effective against Poison, seriously limiting the effectiveness and usage of both Bug-types and Poison-types. Ice-type moves were also made not very effective against Fire-type (previously they did normal damage). In this version several moves had their type changed. For example, the move Gust was a Normal-type in the first generation games but is now a Flying-type move; the move Bite was a Normal-type move in the first generation, but now is Dark-type. Two Pokémon, Magnemite and Magneton are now Electric/Steel (in Generation I, they were pure Electric).
Another major change from the original games was the splitting of the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense. Again, this increased aspects of strategy, for Pokémon were now more specialized. Some were good special attackers, while others were better physical attackers; the same now held true for Defense and Special Defense. For example, Cloyster has a decent Special stat in Generation I, but in all later games, has a decent Special Attack, but low Special Defense.
Pokémon Crystal
| Pokémon Crystal | |
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| Name | Pokémon Crystal |
| Genre | RPG/Adventure |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Developer | Game Freak |
| ROM Size | 16Mbit |
| Players | Up to 2 |
| Click here for Hacking information | |
|---|---|
Pokémon Crystal Version is the third game in the second generation of Pokémon games, being released as a sister game to the earlier Gold and Silver Versions.
Story
The story for Crystal Version remains largely the same, however, throughout the adventure the player will now come across a man named Eusine that is hopeful of catching the legendary Pokémon Suicune. To earn Suicune's respect, Eusine will often challenge the player to a battle.
- The introduction of the ability to play as a girl.
- Another character, Eusine, is added to the game. He is searching for Suicune as well, and will battle players to earn its respect.
- Changes were made to the Ruins of Alph. This included more common Unown, as well as a new subplot – completing enough puzzles allows the player to read a secret message left behind by the Unown. It suggests that the Unown were left behind by the ancient civilization that constructed the Ruins of Alph, and that the statues that line the interior were made by the Unown.
- Suicune, instead of being a side legendary Pokémon, has a prominent role in the game's storyline. The player will constantly find Suicune in various locations throughout Johto. After receiving a Clear Bell the player will have a chance to battle and capture it in the Tin Tower, and it will not run away.
- The chain of events to obtain the Rising Badge is altered. Where previously, it involved a trip to the Dragon's Den to retrieve the Dragon Fang, it now involves entering the Dragon Shrine within the Den. There, Clair's grandfather and leader of the dragon-user clan quizzes the player on their style of battling. Clair arrives and still refuses to hand over her badge after the player passes. In response, her grandfather threatens to tell Lance, of whom Clair is terrified. If all the questions are answered correctly, the player will receive a Dratini that knows ExtremeSpeed upon returning and speaking with Clair's grandfather.
Features
Gameplay
- Discolored or incorrectly drawn sprites were corrected in this version.
- Both Lugia and Ho-Oh can be found in this game.
- Extra grass was added to the route west of Violet City, and in this grass, Growlithe can be caught, allowing players to acquire a Fire-type Pokémon much earlier than in other versions (assuming they did not choose Cyndaquil), and making a large difference in the availability of Fire-types for areas like the Azalea Gym and the Sprout Tower, where Fire-types are super-effective. Areas like the Ice Path and Lance's chamber at the Indigo Plateau received alternate designs as well.
- Players can now catch certain Pokémon that were exclusive to either Gold or Silver. For example, Gligar and Skarmory are both catchable in this game but were exclusive to only a certain version previously.
- Sneasel appears in the Ice Path, whereas in Gold and Silver it did not appear until reaching Mt. Silver.
- Previously, trainers who called on the cell phone all said the same thing with only the names of the Pokémon they reference. Trainers are now given distinct personalities (one talks about shopping, another about grooming), and call for reasons other than battling, such as giving the player items or informing them of a rare Pokémon appearing (Wade gives the player Berries, Alan gives them a Fire Stone, etc).
- Some trainers were repositioned on the map.
- The Pokémon Daycare folk will give a free Pokémon egg to the player.
- The "reset the clock" glitch from Pokémon Gold and Silver was fixed.
Added Features
- The Buena's Password radio show was added, which players can listen to on their PokéGear and receive points in order to redeem prizes.
- Raikou, Entei, and Suicune have their own special battle music when the player encounters them in the wild, making Crystal the first game to sport special legendary Pokémon battle music.
- All Pokémon are now met in battle with a short animation.
- Players can now choose whether to play as a boy or girl at the beginning of the game. This option does not change gameplay in any way, but will show a different front and back graphic for the trainer.
Pokémon Gold and Silver Hacking
Due to the many features introduced in Gold and Silver and the fair difficulty in learning your way around the coding, this generation of games has been hacked quite often and many of the most popular and wildly experimental hacks have come of it.
Pokémon Crystal Hacking
Despite the many changes and addition of features unseen in the previous two Pokémon games, Crystal Version has not been as extensively hacked. The arrangement of some coding is different, deterring many who would rather work off the more widely understood Gold and Silver Versions.
