Pokémon Crystal is Better Than Pokémon Heartgold/Soulsilver

Fun fact: Once you reach Celadon in Heartgold you can obtain the GBSound, a key item that allows you to select the original music from gen II.

If I remember correctly Red's levels were boosted because Barry had become the strongest trainer since Crystal came out (his starter hitting level 85 after 20 wins in the Hall of Fame). Wanting to put Red in his rightful spot as the most monstrously powerful trainer in all of pokemon, they boosted his levels to surpass Barry.

In HG/SS I liked how after you got all the Kanto badges and you went through the elite 4 again the levels and Pokemon were stronger. Lance was a dragon trainer who was actually able to have a variety of strong dragons. I LOVE Lance's HG/SS rematch team.

Also the virtual console version of Crystal let you catch celebi

I’m here to say you’re wrong, but I’ll watch the video and respect your opinion anyway.

Kris was removed because she was heavily associated with Crystal Version, so to preserve Crystal's legacy they created a new female trainer for the modern era and made both Ethen and Lyra the duality of HGSS for whichever gender you chose. Also what i really liked about HGSS is theres a cheatcode that let you play as Dawn/Lucas since their data remains in the game for union rooms/trading/battling. Also one of the great things about HGSS is that you can get the original starters as well as the Hoenn starters and even previous legendaries, tho it does suck that you have to wait post game to get suicune.

I’m definitely with you with the “not saving the world” plot. As a kid, what I loved about Crystal was that I did feel like an everyday trainer who was going at their own pace, doing their own thing. That made finding new things that weren’t pointed out to me so exciting! I love that catching legendaries is optional as it comes down to your exploration skills as well as the skills you’ve learnt battling and catching Pokémon throughout the game. When I think Pokémon, I don’t think of saving the world, I think of developing as a trainer, getting the gym badges and defeating some bad guys who are just evil without having some deep seeded lore (though I love lore when it comes to the region and locations within it).

I noticed a few more things, as, you guessed, Gen 2 is also my favorite. 1- Your starter holds a Berry in the original games. This served not only as a backup healing for beginners, but to teach veterans (from Gen 1) that there was a new mechanic in these games. If you were replaying GSC for whatever reason, you could choose to take said berry and save it for the sick Miltank quest. Pure Genius. 2- In the original GSC as well as in HGSS there's diurnal and nocturnal pokémon, that only appear at day or night, respectively. In the originals, however, if you used headbutt there was a chance a NOCTURNAL pokemon would appear during the DAY, and vice versa. The best thing about this is that said pokémon would appear SLEEPING! This gave more immersion to the world, as nocturnal pokémon didn't just disappear during the day, they just went to sleep on the trees! I was BAFFLED they removed this in the remakes, such an amazing little detail! 3- No room decoration. This one always bothered me, not because it's a feature I loved, but because they went the extra mile to replicate the "Pokemon Pikachu 2 - GSC" connection features with the PokéWalker, so it felt strange not including something SO simple! It was very limited on the gameboy, because the game took the entirety of the 1MB cartridge, but just think about it, they could've included more giant dools, trophies, posters, really make it almost as good as the secret base system in Gen3.

Pokemon Yellow was my favorite....until I played Crystal. It was 2017 and one of my friends recommended Crystal to me. I felt like I missed out for well over a decade

Tbf in heartgold you're also supposed to do the silver + e4 stuff too before the red finale, as well as catching legendaries and collecting the gym leaders' numbers, etc. These have you facing off against late 60s-mid 70s trainers by the end of it, which puts the level gap between lance and red at around the same distance as red and blue was originally. Not to mention there's both a non-glitch way to infinitely grind rare candies (pokeathlon) and infinite rematches vs level 50-60 gym leaders & e4/lance (the best rematch options in the original was Cal's 3 level 50s and the level 40-50 e4 gauntlet no one likes using for grinding). So even with the jump in levels, hg/ss makes getting up in levels waaaaay easier - and it's actually viable to catch a pokemon in kanto and get them up to snuff without selling your soul or glitching cloned rare candies into existence.

Imma have to disagree by a long shot. As good as Crystal was, HGSS really fine tuned it completely. You have Pokemon following you, you have the literal best events every created in mainline games, you even have the original GBC music and many other things. Also being able to get Pokemon from D/P/PL and all GBA games like Emerald AND the pokewalker. You also don't need to hold down a button to run so that's definitely a plus. Did I also mention the special features involving your Pokemons nature? If you know, you know. Honestly there's just a bunch of little fine tuned features that made the remakes so remarkably great.

About music from gen 2: I actually prefer the Gen 3 versions instead of the originals OR HGSS versions, the GBA REALLY MADE THEM STICK AND BE GRAND!

Rock Climb would be a better move if it were a rock type move instead of normal

18:20 While I understand where you’re coming from here, I personally didn’t see it like that. I thought of it as more hopeful and uplifting. The fact that Blaine and some scientists (Formerly from the fossil lab/Pokémon Mansion I’d like to assume) all decided to band together and create a Gym that tells the rest of the world and the player Cinnabar lives on is kind of inspiring in a way.

calling lyra a rival is like calling dawn or lucas a rival lol

Pokemon Theory: Was the eruption of Cinnabar’s volcano a result of Groudon awakening and having that massive showdown with Kyogre in the Hoenn region?

I enjoyed how clearly passionate you are about Pokémon Crystal and the relationship you developed with this game over the years and during your childhood. I mean, that's THE ESSENCE of Pokémon and why it's such an amazing, thriving franchise! Nonetheless... I still have to point out that all points pro-Crystal in detriment of HGSS are entirely nitpicks (with exception of the worse level curve with Red, that's fair). To be completely fair, you warned us about this, but still, most of this video can be grossely resumed to "oh, yeah, this thing in HGSS is amazing, but I enjoyed it more in Crystal because of nostalgia + art style". Playing devil's advocate, the art style and soundfont of Crystal is INCREDIBLY charming. At the end of the day, it's a matter of preference if you enjoy the retro style more than the new style, and that's completely understandable. But besides that, all other points are nostalgia speaking... HGSS, compared to Crystal, has the entire package of updates that come with being a Gen 4 VS a Gen 2 game (physical/special split, better movesets, Johto Pokémon evolutions like Weavile, Mamoswine and Yanmega, etc etc etc). On top of that, being remakes of GOLD and SILVER, there was literally no requirement by the creators to include Crystal elements like the Suicune and Eusine plot lines, something that they STILL did (imagine if BDSP had Platinum elements, how much better it would have been...). HGSS also has the Mareep line as an available Pokémon, a staple Johto Pokémon completely gone in Crystal. Now let's talk about the things that HGSS included that they had zero reason to add on, but included because the creators said "FUCK IT let's make this the most complete Pokémon game ever": - Pokémon following you - Pokeathlon (such a cool facility of extra content...) - Berry Farming - Safari Zone (and the BEAUTIFUL routes leading to it) - Cerulean Cave, Viridian Forest and most of the unfinished Kanto spots - GB Sounds for listening to the crispy, crispy GBC soundfont you love so much - THE. FREAKING. BATTLE. FRONTIER. This was supposed to be ONLY in Platinum! And they still did it! NOT EVEN ORAS DID THIS! - The possibility of getting all of: Latios/Latias, a Hoenn starter and Kyogre/Groudon + Rayquaza - Gym Rematches - And the cherry on top: the events of Celebi and Arceus that you could access at the time, that not only expand the lore of the game but gave us added new content that was mesmerizing to see (the confirmation of Giovanni being Silver's father, Sinjoh Ruins with the WACK cutscene that plays with Arceus surrounded by Unown, showing the player REAL LIFE IMAGES IN A POKÉMON GAME - also this cutscene ends with you recieving a Egg with either Palkia, Dialga or Giratina) There must be things I'm forgetting. I know there are. But HGSS is, essentially, an entirely unique Pokémon game in this franchise, and that's because the design philosophy behind the creation of these two masterpieces was something that completely changed over the years. For anyone still reading this, enjoy this treat of a Pokémon game, because, in the foreseeable future, there won't be anything like it.

Thank you so much for the Kris appreciation. She was my first Pokémon protag so she means a lot to me. I adore Crystal, it’s also my favorite!

I also miss the old days of legendaries just being something you can go find if you want to, but in modern games it's all about the damn box legendaries. I've never cared much for legendaries, so I can agree with you on that one!

Who remembers on the OG crystal you could clone Pokemon by turning off ur game IMMEDIATELY when they it says don't save at the CPU. I'm a dinosaur. 😂