First Impressions of Crystal ClearCrystal Clear is the very first Game Boy/Colour Pokemon game I've played. Previously, the oldest Pokemon game I'd played was Emerald, where the more detailed sprites and faithful colour palettes kept it feeling modern. In contrast, the Game Boy Colour games are mostly white, black, or bright primary colours. Combined with the blocky sprites, stark UI, and transitions made of flashing bright colours, the game was downright unpleasant to look at. Crystal Clear alleviates some of these issues, in a limited way, by allowing users to turn off certain animations and customise parts of the UI. Crystal is extremely outdated, graphically, to the point I wish it wasn't used as the base of this hack.
The developer Shockslayer still managed to cram a lot of trainer customisation options into the game, though, thanks to creative use of sprite palettes. Choosing one of the many variations of colours for my trainer convinced me that the GBC's capabilities aren't as limited as the garish palettes of the overworld make it out to be. (I could only conclude they hired people more capable than them to do the sprites for gens 3 - 5...) The ability to customise the bag's and Pokegear's colours - which affected their UI colours too! - was a novelty which I'm surprised the mainline games didn't include as part of their customisation; those details helped make parts of the game comfortable in a way that just customising clothes and names doesn't.
Only the first 251 'mons are available, just like the original Gen 2 games, leading me to reconsider a lot of Pokemon I'd deride as useless if I hadn't already forgotten them. On top of that, Shockslayer has managed to implement an extremely impressive Pokedex for such an ancient game which makes finding new team members so much more enjoyable. Not only is the flavour text included, but the moment a new Pokemon is registered you can view its locations, base stats, evolution tree (including evolution methods and levels), level-up moves, TM/HM moves, and egg moves and egg groups. Shockslayer has even added all-new features, my favourite being a list of the Pokemon that can be found at your current location. Ones you don't know are listed as question marks - this encouraged me to spend more time than I normally would walking through grass, hoping to find something I'd not seen before.
This hack is well known for being open world and giving you a choice of 24 starters - as well as a choice of starting town. I chose Vulpix and left Viridian City almost immediately after I spawned in it. At first, the lack of directions (I'm not familiar with Kanto) was disorienting, until I decided to give up on following a set sequence of cities and wandered about looking for something interesting. I tried and failed to catch a Pikachu in Viridian Forest, the second Pokemon I saw in the wild, ever, and almost succumbed to a Butterfree's insanely strong Confusion while searching for a second one. By the end of my session, I'd reached Pewter City, where several people told me they could give me cool items if only I had a gym badge. The experience felt a little empty - but that's because I hadn't chosen a goal for myself. The best part of Pokemon is when you overcome the obstacles in your way to reach it.
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