Pokémon G/S/C In-Game Discussion

[Keiran]

Approved by Birkal~

Gold / Silver / Crystal

Hello! Welcome, Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal are the second installments of the Pokemon series. Released in Japan on November 21st, 1999, September 4th, 2000 in Australia, October 14th, 2000 and finally April 6th, 2001. While retaining the ideas of its predecessors, Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow, G/S/C implements many new and innovative features such as:

• 100 New Pokemon!
• A time system; Day and Night!
• Breeding
• Shiny Pokemon
• Ability to travel to Kanto!
• 2 new types - Steel and Dark.
• "Special" stat split, Special Attack and Special Defence introduced
• Pokerus
• Pokemon gained the ability to hold items; berries were introduced
• Probably even more! (I'm probably forgetting something :<)

General Questions to get the discussion going:

• Which Pokemon did you use; which Pokemon worked and which didn't (Elaborate as to why they were good/sucked)
• What are your fondest memories of the game?
• What are your worst memories of the game?
• What is your favourite new feature in the game?
• What didn't you like in GSC?
• Which Pokemon do you like design-wise? and which not so much
• Did you ever smash Red in Mt. Silver
• Which version did you have?

[NixHex]

I started with Cyndaquil in my first Gold file. My team later included Porygon2 and Houndoom, and I eventually transferred over my faithful Pikachu from Yellow, Articuno, and Venusaur to round out the team. The new Pokemon were the best thing about this game, so they really delivered with this sequel. My favorite memories included raising my Shuckle purely by stalling everything outside of Mt. Silver. It was highly impractical but it felt good beating Pokemon 20-30 levels higher than Shuckle using Toxic, Wrap, Leftovers, and a shitload of Super Potions. The worst parts however were Whitney's Miltank and the Red's Snorlax. God, they took forever. However in future files I just used Curse Haunter to get past Miltank, and I simply prepared myself for Red. Also, shiny Pokemon were an awesome added feature; my only non-RNG, non-pre-set shiny was a Rapidash I found outside of Mt. Silver.

[The QWAZ]

I used a surf spamming kingler, i never did work out why it was so weak. But my favourite thing about GSC was it indroduced me to my all time favourite hitmonlee ( i didnt play any kanto games till last week). Those were the days

[Cherub Agent]

I loved these games...
I'm going to expand on this post later, but at the moment all I want to share is my worst memory of Pokemon Crystal. I had decided to level up a Zubat (because it rocked in Fire Red when it was a Crobat), because I knew that I could get brilliant TMs like Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball early on. Having used these on Crobst in Fire Red, I thought there wouldn't be a problem. I was horrified to learn that Crobat is UNABLE to learn both of these moves in GSC, leaving me with the coverage of Fly and Swift. Seriously GF? That's just uncool...

[DestinyUnknown]

Most GSC pokemon had horrible coverage Cherub Agent haha, even more if it's something like Crobat that usually has bad coverage by itself.

[Raseri]

Crystal was when i trained my first pokemon to level 100, and Drill Peck(i think) Fearow never let me down. I think my first team in the game was something like typhlosion / noctowl / suicune / graveller / electrode / ???

It introduced me to Noctowl who is still among my favourite pokemon.

@The QWAZ
I also didn't understand why some of my moves were so weak, in fact when I played it I didn't understand stats at all and thought only the level mattered

[Cherub Agent]

Oh yeah, Silver was also my first (and only) time where I trained a Pokemon up to level 100. Kadabra was such as beast, and I decided not to evolve it since it looked so much cooler than Alakazam. Psychic and the elemental punches were all it needed to totally kick ass

[Keiran]

Heh, I've never gotten a Pokemon to level 100 in GSC, I tend to start again a lot to use all of the different mons~ Though some Pokemon I expected to suck were quite decent. An example of this was Butterfree. While a mediocre Pokemon competitively, Sleep Powder, Stun spore and Whirlwind allow it to become an effective status spreader. (i'm awkwardly strategic in my runs x_x)

Also, I'd just like to say how awesome Granbull is, it's probably outclassed by Ursaring, however Teddiursa is very rare early in the game or common at the very end of Johto-ish. Its Headbutt (as a Snubbull) managed to 2 hit ko Whitney's Miltank, which was very suprising given its physical bulk.

[Exclamation!]

Oh, I loved GSC so much! It was the first Pokémon game I ever owned. I don't remember what starter I picked first tough, because I beat the game so many times, and allways picked a different starter from the previous playtrough.

[Arcticblast]

SIlver was my first game - started with Cyndaquil, used very little else - followed by Crystal and then Gold.

When I was 7 or so, I lost Crystal. Last year on my birthday, my girlfriend bought me Crystal. I'm using a team of three - Typhlosion, Crobat and Quagsire.

[Cobraroll]

The first Pokémon game I owned myself was Crystal. Previously, I had played my cousin's R/B/Y games for who knows how long.

I started with Totodile, and kinda built a team from there. It took a while for me to learn the lesson of never catching the Pokémon you meet early in the game. I remember with fondness how Totodile first evolved, or how we finally managed to beat Whitney. Never since has a gym leader been that challenging. Weirdly enough, I can't remember my in-game team any more. Feraligatr was a favourite, and I think Donphan was on it as well. I also stuck with Ferret gruelly long. Sunflora and Azumarill also found their way to my team for some time.

I was gutted when I took my Feraligatr back from Day Care after trying to breed it. I had used the awesome Dynamitepunch TM on it, only for it to be replaced by Slash by those mindless DayCare people. And yes, it took me a couple of years to realize that the move is called DynamicPunch. I guess it was the move animation that made me think it had something to do with dynamite.

Going to, and subsequently exploring, Kanto, was fun. It was great making the Magnet Train working again, or to finally get to Pewter where the Silver Wing awaited. I never got around to capture Raikou, so I never got Ho-oh.

Finally, trading Pokémon from R/B/Y, getting Bulbasaur and Squirtle and all the other quirky 'mons from gen. I. The ability to use these older Pokémon in my new adventure was really, really cool.

Also, I remember raising ALL the Pokémon I catched to lvl. 55. Even Wobbuffet, which is a nightmare to train. Looking back at it, I can't understand how I managed to endure that much grinding. Level-wise, G/S/C is a snoozefest. Once a day, you can beat ONE trainer in the middle of F-ing nowhere, he's the ONLY rebattleable guy who uses Pokémon above lvl. 50. I think I got my Tyranitar to lvl. 83, but I never bothered to train any Pokémon higher than that. I had an odd 80-something at lvl. 55-70, though. Quite little return for a game I clocked 290 hours in.
Training for the E4 was not very fun either. Strolling around in that grass for who knows how long...

Later on, I got Gold, which I beat with a more thought-out and cemented team:
Typloshion, Victreebel, Gengar, Starmie, Fearow and Heracross, I think. A really cool gang of awesome Pokémon, who braved Johto and Kanto alike in search of new challenges to face.


Ahhh... memories.

[Yamata no Orochi]

I thought it had only 93 pokemon, but whatever.
Anyways, from what I remembered I had:
Meganium
Magnezone
Noctowl
Arbok
Crobat
Alakazam

My favorite part of Johto was Ectureak town because the music was just beautiful and the idea of it was great.
I didn't care much about the Day/Night mechanics, but damn the Bug Contest was fun.

[Prof. Elm]

Started with Cyndaquil, which then evolved into Typhlosion. He was a badass with Flamethrower/ DynamicPunch/ ThunderPunch/ E-Quake. Destroyed everything.

[PrimeMinister]

My team: Typhlosion lv. 72

That was all I needed.

[Texas Cloverleaf]

TYPHLOSION

Yeah, my first Gold run all i remember is Tyhplosion and Ampharos, and it being an awesome game.

Then in my first silver game I got a Typhlosion with Flamethrower/Thunderpunch/Earthquake and Swift, and went at the E4 with a team of Typhlosion/Typhlosion/Typhlosion/Typhlosion/Typhlosion/Lugia (cause i needed a Fly slave) and smashed errything.

Also Gold Pokemon designs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>the rest

[atsync]

Pokemon Silver was my first pokemon game. I noticed all my friends were into pokemon so I decided to get into it too. Everyone else had Gold so I got Silver (plus Lugia is cooler than Ho-oh). I don't think any other pokemon game will be able to make me feel the way Silver felt when I played it the first time. I guess it's my fault because I always find out everything about the new games when info is leaked and obviously I'm harder to impress now that I'm older than I was back then.

I picked Chikorita as my starter because everyone was picking Totodile and Cyndaquil. I soloed the game with it, which you could actually get away with back then (I did lose alot to some of the gyms though). Still, it did let me get it to lv. 100 quite quickly. I remember my friends were all WTF when they saw my lv. 100 Meganium while they still had their Lv. 55 Feraligatrs and Typhlosions.

Because it was my first game, it was really hard for me to actually appreciate the new features at the time. I got Pokemon Yellow and played through that, and then thought to myself "wow Silver really is amazing". I also have fond memories of abusing the duplication glitch way too much. Too bad it wasn't as easy to do in Crystal as it was in Silver (it was possible in Crystal I think but the timing had to be exact).

The only thing that sucked about the games was how the battery ran dry really quickly. I had mine replaced a couple of years ago but I don't think it has much time left in it now. I might want to play through it again soon before it's too late (dunno if I'll replace it again).

I also got Crystal. I remember how awesome I felt seeing the animated sprites for the first time. I also really liked the early route pokemon. Being able to catch both Phanpy and Teddiursa before the first gym was excellent. Unforetunately, my copy of Crystal was in my GBC when it was stolen so I can't play it anymore (not on a cart anyway). Oh well.

[Solace*]

I was pretty young when these games came out, and the only thing I really remember was training an Ampharos to level 100 and sweeping the Elite 4 over and over again, yet still managing to struggle with Red.

I honestly think these games are probably the best in the entire series. Everything about it was so well done, including the return to Kanto. (Returning to old places is something I'd love them to use in the newer games). GSC was fun and provided a real final challenge, which is something I feel the new games just fall short on. Honestly, I just love GSC and everything about it! :)

[Treadshot A1]

I'm going to say that while I didn't get too far in the games, my favorite part of GSC was waking up one day on holiday, finding out my dad had gone out for the day (and I was at home for the day) and then him returning to surprise me with Gold and Silver! Best. Surprise. Present. Ever.

Also, they introduced Quilava. That makes Johto cool in my book. Nowadays I'm also a fan of Houndoom (ever since I steamrolled through things in XD), Celebi and Totodile, but I just couldn't get past how awesome Quilava was. I used to play with my Quilava figure all the time, and it made me so happy to have it. I think I still have it somewhere, stowed away. Jolteon (my other favorite figure) I think I also still have, which I'll have to dig out one day so I can have the two on display again.

[Amarillo]

Typhlosion<3

I'd also always catch Gastly, only to realize that I'll never get to fully evolve it >.> gsc was the first game i finished (partially because I was too dumb to get past rock tunnel), and that alone makes it an awesome experience in my books. Also, the eevee and red gyarados<3

[Silver Owns]

Only flaw in these games was when the battery died and you could no longer save an adventure. Other than that generation 2 will go down as my favorite generation ever

[Exclamation!]

Well, that's not really a flaw, it's something unavoidable.

[Robcore™]

Gold, Silver and Crystal.. now those are three little names that send a little shiver down my spine and a smile upon my face.

I’m quite fortunate really that I was just the right age really to understand and be captivated by the Pokémon craze when it first came out. The anime, the trading card game, Red, Blue and Yellow, the full lot, it completely consumed everybody and in a way, bound us all together as we succumbed to this craze. Everything was about that game, we lived and breathed it. But strangely enough, whilst I’ll always hold Red/Blue/Yellow in the same esteem that I hold Tetris and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (games from my childhood), I don’t really hold them as high as I hold Gold in particular.

I’m a huge believer in hype. If you correctly build something up, in entertainment, in games, in anything, if you build something up brilliantly and it doesn’t completely bomb, it’ll make it feel better than it really is. When Yellow had come out, there was already talk of a sequel, a Pokémon 2, and I can remember as a wide-eyed boy, running to the top of the street each week to pick up a copy of the Nintendo Official Magazine in the hope of there being more information, more pictures, a release date. With Red and Blue, it kind of came out of nowhere – I had no interest in it prior to getting it as a Christmas present – where as Gold and Silver was a slow foreplay. I remember waiting anxiously, wishing my year away and most of the next in the hope that I’d wake up and it’d be April 6th to get my hands on them, to dig into the next generation. I didn’t have to mind, my parents imported Gold from the US for me so I could have it for Christmas 2000/1; needless to say I didn’t put the game down for yonks; I think I was at Ho-Oh by the end of Christmas Day. What a few days that was though, saw Pokémon 2000 at Cinema with one of my best friends, went home dreaming of a miracle and actually got one, haha. And after all that hype, the game didn’t disappoint, from the moment I saw Cyndaquil and Totodile, to the moment I finally caught Lugia... I loved every single second of it.

I’ve always loved that generation ever since. Even as my peers began to stray away from it, it still had it’s grip entirely held onto me. Little things that made you feel that whilst you’d grown up, the games had also grown up with you at the same time with features such as night and day, new Pokémon coupled with the old.. birthing some of my lasting favourites in Sneasel, Lugia, Scizor and Murkrow..

As for my final ingame team, I believed it was Sneasel, Dragonite, Scizor, Lapras, Typhlosion and Espeon. This was on Crystal too, so it was a cool Extremespeed Dragonite..

[Fatecrashers]

Pokemon Gold was my first Pokemon game, and from there I went onto Crystal, Blue, Yellow, and then the GBA and DS games. I loved my choice of Totodile in GSC and so I've been picking the Water starter ever since. In the remake HeartGold the Totodile family's movepool and coverage only got stronger, which was totally boss. Obviously, the Totodile family is also the best looking out of all the starter families.

The only other Pokemon I remember from my very first run are Noctowl, Haunter, and I think the Machoke from Goldenrod was also in the mix. Noctowl and Haunter both knew the Hypnosis / Dream Eater combo, and were pretty handy when it came down to hunting the legendary beasts.

Fondest memory would be owning Red at Mt Silver over and over again with my level 100 Feraligatr, with a moveset of Ice Punch, Surf, Slash, and Bite. I also enjoyed making Elite 4 runs and attaching an Exp. Share to a weaker mon just to have them level up 5 levels at a time and seeing what moves they learnt. Also I found a shiny Growlithe, which I didn't realise was shiny at first because the colour's almost exactly the same -_-

Worst thing might be discovering how nerfed Kanto was, given that Cinnabar was destroyed, Seafoams was just one room with Blaine in it, Safari Zone was closed, Viridian Forest was lame, plus no Cerulean Cave. Needless to say I was very glad when all of these things came back in full force in HeartGold.

Favorite feature is possibly the time feature, I really enjoyed discovering what new Pokemon appeared at what hours, and how everything took on a new appearance at night. The sprite animations in Crystal basically blew my mind, and I maintain that these animations are still the best animated sprites to date; they show so much personality, and don't just wiggle and shake around like in the newer games. Black / White animations are getting there, but I still prefer Crystal sprites for nostalgic reasons.

[Tobes]

I'm also part of that crowd whose first game was Pokemon Gold. It was an incredibly pervasive part of my childhood, and I played through it (and Crystal) quite a few times. I'd restart after beating Red because I always wanted more from the game, new experiences. I didn't want the story, the adventure to end. And that's a good thing. Perhaps it's the nostalgia goggles talking, but I really do think it is the best Pokemon game. The level curves of the later half of the game are off, especially considering that Red is ridiculously high in level when compared to the relatively low-leveled Elite Four you have to grind against. This is one of the reasons I really liked HeartGold, because it fixed most of the few flaws I could find in the game. It'll never replace Gold for me, but it is still an excellent game.

I'll admit the game has really dug its claws into my psyche though. Not that I mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XjouKSkSeM

For example, just listening to this gives me a profound sense of serenity that's difficult for me to find anywhere else (and, not-coincidentally, some of the the few others I've found were from other Pokemon games). Anything that can influence me like this is a wonderful thing. Pokemon Gold was, for me, and I'm sure for others, a living, breathing part of my childhood. It's not the only reason I am where I am today, here on Smogon, but I think I wouldn't be as invested (if only by a little bit) if it weren't for it.

[StallMandibuzz]

Ah, GSC... Such fond memories. One memory I have, although I doubt you could call it fond, was while my four year old brother was playing with my Crystal, he finds a Shiny Tentacool outside of Whirl Islands, and he immediately destroys it with a Hyper Beam from my Tyranitar. He eventually deleted the whole game while I was in the dentist's, and I could never get it past the E4 again. :/ I managed to get all 16 badges and was going to go beat Red when he deleted it, was so ticked at him. :| But it was an amazing game, nonetheless. I still wonder why they got rid of Lavender Town's tower, although I've heard plenty of Creepypastas supposedly explaining why.