I love the open-ended nature of Crystal Clear. You have so many options available to you at all times; maybe you want to try a new starter from 20+ options. Maybe you want a team with three Kanto starters and three Johto starters (all are catchable). You have the option to go to whatever gym you want when and in what order. Repeat playthroughs aren’t bogged down by story; you can run off, grab the free Farfetch’d almost immediately, and start flying wherever you want. The ‘end game’ contains every single legendary of the time. You can ignore the Elite 4 as long as you choose to. Gyms are re-challengeable at any of 16 sets of levels.


Crystal Clear is fantastic for a choose-your-adventure ROM Hack. You could play through it a dozen times and still have unique experiences left. In terms of expanding on being more than just a standard Pokemon game’s experience (play through it once, limited by barriers set by the game and thus your team is limited to Pokemon it expects you to have), it’s fantastic. The main drawback I’ve heard from people is that being storyless and directionless means that if you are looking for a plot-driven experience or just the standard limitations set by a regular Pokemon game, then you don’t have that; but if you want the sandbox experience, Crystal Clear is by far the best romhack I’ve ever seen.