>>54384403I just finished going through Crystal right now with a full run, completing a Johto living dex (only missing Celebi, since I have to wait for Kurt and I wanted to leave that for last as a symbolic "goodbye" to Crystal).
I have to say that, having taken my time with this game, it's become one of my favorite Pokémon experiences. Going through it slowly meant I allowed myself to enjoy the timed events like the Bug Catching Contest, I kept track of which Pokémon I needed to catch the next day in the morning/day/night, I took my time with breeding mons and grinding them.
I mostly played around with the Johto mons and their lower power compared to Kanto mons, along with their more utility-based movesets, made the game way more challenging than Gen 1 (especially because I refused to grind, which meant I was consistently way below the level cap... but even then, it never felt impossible? I always felt like I had the tools to win, which led to a lot of victories being like 10 levels below the cap). The music and the sprites of these games feel really charming, and the color palettes and style of the sprites made this game way more beautiful than it has any right to be. The UI, especially the in-battle one, is extremely satisfying to look at (the EXP bar is soooo satisfying).
I also had to play Silver to get some exclusives, which meant I could trade Misdreavus and Larvitar from Mt. Silver to my copy of Silver and use them way earlier, and that made replaying through the game less of a hassle. The amount of replayability Pokémon has in general has always been good, but transfering the mons I found in Kanto to Silver for the early game added so much to the replayability.
It truly feels like they wanted to make the best Pokémon game with Crystal. Don't trust the anti-Johto propaganda. Some design choices in this game sound bad without the context of the game, but I guarantee they make sense when you actually play the games.
