I have a history with Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver. While the first Pokemon game I ever beat was Emerald and the first Pokemon game I picked a starter in was Black/White, HGSS was the first Pokemon game I played. A kid in my elementary school had the game and let me play for a bit, and while it took a while for me to actually get into the franchise as a whole, it still makes HGSS a pretty important game for me. It only helps that it happened to be one of the best and most beloved games in the series.
Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver is arguably the sacred cow of the Pokemon series, a legendarily good remake that improved every aspect of the original game with better graphics and music, a larger Pokedex, a beefier postgame, QoL improvements carrying over from Gens 3 & 4, and most importantly, the ability to have your Pokemon walk behind you. And yeah, I absolutely agree. HeartGold & SoulSilver takes a fantastic Pokemon game and makes it better in pretty much every way. The spritework is absolutely gorgeous, the redesigned gyms are way more fun, the Kanto postgame that may have been a bit undercooked on the Game Boy Color feels far more fleshed-out, the Battle Frontier is back and just as good as ever, the Pokeathlon minigames are addictive as hell, and Pokemon walking behind you is the greatest addition ever made to a Pokemon game, prove me wrong. However, I actually don't have too much else to say about HeartGold & SoulSilver beyond that, it kind of comes with the territory of gushing about the remake. Sure, this is an incredible remake, but it's not a transformative one. It doesn't fix a game that was bad or flawed, it builds on the already fantastic foundation that is Pokemon Gold, Silver, and especially Crystal. As a result, this post is going to be a bit different than usual, as it's not really about HeartGold & SoulSilver. Instead, I'm really going to be talking about why I love Pokemon Crystal and by extension, Johto as a whole.
Pokemon Crystal is an incredibly ambitious game, even by the standards of the Game Boy Color which is full of ambitious games. It not only took the solid foundation that Pokemon RBY laid out and improved on it with countless additions ranging from breeding to shinies to a playable female trainer to trainer rematches, but it went further by really pushing the handheld's hardware in impressive ways. There was a full 24-hour day/night cycle that would not only change the time of day in game but would even trigger different events, there was a massive postgame that took the entirety of Kanto and crammed it into the same cart, and even included online capabilities in the Japanese version thanks to Nintendo's online adaptor. It is genuinely incredible how much Game Freak and Nintendo managed to cram into a single Game Boy Color cartridge, and it's just as much of a miracle that it all manages to hold together as well as it does. While I find Gen I a bit rudamentary and hilariously unbalanced (though still fun!), I could absolutely go back and play the original Pokemon Crystal whenever I wanted and still have a great time. It really feels like this is the first game where Pokemon truly realizes its potential of giving the player a large virtual world to explore with tons of activities to do and loads of Pokemon to catch.
In terms of its overworld design, Johto also takes a pretty massive step up from its predecessor. The routes in Kanto are pretty basic, at least until the very last few, with not too much to explore beyond the occasional maze. The routes in Johto, on the other hand, feel quite a bit more involved. Split paths and fun activities placed in the middle of routes feel increasingly common, and we start to get some real behemoth routes in Routes 32, 45, and 47 (a HGSS exclusive, actually!). But where Johto really excels is in its towns, which I still think stand out as some of the best in the series. From Violet, to Goldenrod, to Ecruteak, Olivine, Mahogany, and Blackthorn, the towns in Johto are consistently memorable, visually varied, and jam-packed with fun stuff to do. Many towns even have a very fun mini dungeon for you to do like Violet's Sprout Tower, Ecruteak's Burned Tower, and Mahogany's Just A Souvenir Shop. And this is an aspect where I think HGSS absolutely surpasses the original. HeartGold & SoulSilver does so much extra work to make the different towns stand out all the more. Violet City's purple theming gets more of a focus, Goldenrod City looks busier and more cramped, and Ecruteak in particular is transformed by the addition of a bright orange autumn backdrop.
Another area where I think the Johto games excel is in the story. Pokemon is not known for its strong narratives and I would by no means rank Gen 2's narrative up with the likes of Black & White, Sun & Moon, or Scarlet & Violet, but it does do a few things particularly well. For starters, I like how involved Johto's narrative is without being handholdy about it. While Johto mostly has the same hands off approach that many games prior to Gen 6 have, you will find yourself constantly going on missions to stop Team Rocket's plans, and they're always a blast and a fun change of pace. But my favorite thing about Johto's story is its rival. Silver is the best Pokemon rival, hands down, no contest. Right from the get-go, you get the sense that Silver is more dangerous than your first rival, Blue, was. He stole his starter Pokemon, is often seen abusing them, and focuses on making as strong a team. Silver is an unrepentant jerk for most of the game, but in a way that makes him really endearing and fun to run into. He also has quite the solid character arc as you learn he was neglected by his father, who happens to be the head of Team Rocket, and ends up repeatedly learning to be nicer to his Pokemon and to stop his futile search for strength and revenge. But it doesn't happen instantaneously, Silver has a slow and gradual growth throughout the game that makes his eventual change of heart feel rewarding.
In terms of its presentation, Pokemon Crystal was already a pretty good-looking game for the console with clean Pokemon designs, a charming art style, and well-placed splashes of color, but as I implied earlier, HeartGold & SoulSilver goes so much further with it. The DS Pokemon games had this lovely 2D/3D artstyle that still stands out as my favorite in the franchise, and the added detail and color helps to fully realize Johto in a way the Game Boy Color just wasn't able to. And I hate to keep harping on it, but the sheer amount of work Game Freak put into the very silly unimportant system of Pokemon walking behind you deserves so much praise. Every single Pokemon has its own unique set of sprites and walking animation, they have a bunch of emotions they can express based on the environment, and even the shiny forms are kept shiny in the overworld. In terms of its music, Johto also has one of my favorite Pokemon soundtracks, though I do admittedly prefer the chiptune version a bit. There's a fair share of strong battle themes and solid route themes, but the town themes in particular shine incredibly brightly in Johto. They are so cozy and nostalgic, even for someone like me who never really grew up with these games. I could list all the town themes and call it a day, but the highlights in particular include Azalea Town, Goldenrod City, Violet City, National Park, Ecruteak City, and the Game Corner.
So yeah, Pokemon Crystal is a game I have a lot of love for. Between all the massive improvements its made to its mechanics and combat, to the phenomenal towns and environments, to the top-tier rival, to one of the coolest postgames ever, to the lovely score, to just how much it pushes its hardware. But what makes HeartGold & SoulSilver so great is that it keeps all of that and escalates it even more. The gameplay was further improved upon, the environments were made even more varied, the postgame was expanded upon in several directions, the overall presentation was more polished, and it managed to push the DS's hardware just as much with its many ambitious new additions such as the walking Pokemon, commemorative photos, increased dex size, and ridiculously large amount of content. Pokemon Crystal was already one of my favorite Pokemon games, but the countless fantastic additions HGSS managed to lift it up to a very respectable second.
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