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Play With Your Buddies / Let's Nuzlocke Pokemon Crystal Clear - Part 7: The Dead Rise
« on: August 23, 2021, 04:12:13 am »Spoiler: Part 1: Character Creation (click to show/hide)
Hello again, Bay 12! I'm ATHATH, and this is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8pZe38dr4
Pokemon Crystal Clear. Specifically, my second attempt at completing a Nuzlocke of it.
This is the first screen of the game after that fantastic opening (the background music is a cover of MM3's title screen's theme, BTW). If you hold down Select while pressing A on NEW GAME...
You'll be asked if you want to enable NUZLOCKE MODE. Since that's what we're here to do, we of course say YES.
After rejecting the game's offer of explaining the Nuzlocke rules it uses and the NUZLOCKE MODE-specific changes to Crystal Clear (you have to beat all 16 gyms to challenge the E4, you don't have to fill out the Pokedex to fight the true final boss, etc.), we're presented with a list of clauses that we can accept or decline. I'm not going to post images of all of them (or their explanations) here, but I'll list the important ones I've enabled:
We now get the option to select not just our starting region...
... but also our starting town.
I suppose I should explain- Crystal Clear's defining feature is that it turns Pokemon Crystal into an open world game. Most of the obstacles preventing travel between locations without specific HMs, plot progress, etc. have been removed, allowing you to go where you please and challenge the gyms in any order. The magnet train works from the get-go and ships can take you to more ports, which really helps make Kanto and Johto feel less disconnected from each other (and gives a point to the magnet train's existence). Pretty much the entire Team Rocket part of the plotline has been ripped out, including the Rocket Hideout (thank god). Almost every trainer and gym leader in the game will scale to your badge count, so the Kanto leaders and overworld trainers won't just immediately dunk on you. The wild Pokemon (aside from most of the static ones), however, won't, which is apparently an "intentional design decision". I'd recommend either grabbing a smoke ball ASAP or keeping out of the tall grass in the early game.
Anyway, my choice of Saffron City here is important for reasons I'll explain later. One of them is that your starter counts as an encounter for the city you start in, and Saffron doesn't have any available gift Pokemon like, say, Goldenrod does.
There's also character customization. You can choose both your sprite and the colors of its color palette, along with the colors of your bag and Pokedex.
There's a variety of available player character sprites (including ones for some of the manga-only characters, I believe), but I'm going to go with Blue's here because it will cause a special interaction with Viridian City's gym leader, according to the game's documentation.
To make my character not look exactly like Blue, I give them a color palette that makes them look as pale as aghost sheet.
Nothing fancy here, just my name.
And we're on to starter selection.
Crystal Clear has a wide variety of available starters, with most of them having gimmicks. The badge requirements for HMs have been removed, so trainers who choose Seel can use Surf from the get-go, for example. I chose Eevee for my first run, which was a somewhat foolish decision, as you can easily pick up a gift Eevee from not one, but two different locations (and buy them from the Game Corners).
For this run, we're choosing Growlithe, because Growlithe's gimmick is being an absolutely busted starter.
I know I have a screwed up sleep schedule, game, you don't have to rub it in.
Crystal Clear gives you the option to save just before receiving a gift pokemon, to make shiny hunting them less painful.
It also lets you see a 'mon's DVs at the top of its nicknaming screen, allowing you to give them a more appropriate initial nickname.
.....
Hello again, Bay 12! I'm ATHATH, and this is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8pZe38dr4
Pokemon Crystal Clear. Specifically, mysecond third attempt at completing a Nuzlocke of it.
Much better (DVs range from 0-15 in Gen 2). Sadly, "Disc One Nuke" is too long to be a nickname in this game, so we'll have to settle for just "Nuke".
To close off this starting update, here are some screenshots of the summary menus of our soon-to-be-terrifyingly-powerful pupper. Note that both Special Attack and Special Defence use the same "SPC" DV in this generation, and that DV is positioned AFTER the DV for Speed ("SPE").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8pZe38dr4
Pokemon Crystal Clear. Specifically, my second attempt at completing a Nuzlocke of it.
This is the first screen of the game after that fantastic opening (the background music is a cover of MM3's title screen's theme, BTW). If you hold down Select while pressing A on NEW GAME...
You'll be asked if you want to enable NUZLOCKE MODE. Since that's what we're here to do, we of course say YES.
After rejecting the game's offer of explaining the Nuzlocke rules it uses and the NUZLOCKE MODE-specific changes to Crystal Clear (you have to beat all 16 gyms to challenge the E4, you don't have to fill out the Pokedex to fight the true final boss, etc.), we're presented with a list of clauses that we can accept or decline. I'm not going to post images of all of them (or their explanations) here, but I'll list the important ones I've enabled:
- Natural odds shiny clause
- Dupes clause
- No item use in battle (Pokeballs (when fighting wild Pokemon) and held items are exceptions, of course)
- Legendaries ARE legal (if they meet the other Nuzlocke requirements)
- Set battle style is always used, regardless of settings (this optional clause is here to "prevent temptation", according to the game)
- The stat EXP (basically the Gen 2 equivalent of EVs) of the 'mons of enemy trainers will scale with the number of gym badges I have
- A level cap based on the number of gym badges I have is enforced (I can't use 'mons with levels over the cap and my 'mons can't gain EXP once they reach it)
We now get the option to select not just our starting region...
... but also our starting town.
I suppose I should explain- Crystal Clear's defining feature is that it turns Pokemon Crystal into an open world game. Most of the obstacles preventing travel between locations without specific HMs, plot progress, etc. have been removed, allowing you to go where you please and challenge the gyms in any order. The magnet train works from the get-go and ships can take you to more ports, which really helps make Kanto and Johto feel less disconnected from each other (and gives a point to the magnet train's existence). Pretty much the entire Team Rocket part of the plotline has been ripped out, including the Rocket Hideout (thank god). Almost every trainer and gym leader in the game will scale to your badge count, so the Kanto leaders and overworld trainers won't just immediately dunk on you. The wild Pokemon (aside from most of the static ones), however, won't, which is apparently an "intentional design decision". I'd recommend either grabbing a smoke ball ASAP or keeping out of the tall grass in the early game.
Anyway, my choice of Saffron City here is important for reasons I'll explain later. One of them is that your starter counts as an encounter for the city you start in, and Saffron doesn't have any available gift Pokemon like, say, Goldenrod does.
There's also character customization. You can choose both your sprite and the colors of its color palette, along with the colors of your bag and Pokedex.
There's a variety of available player character sprites (including ones for some of the manga-only characters, I believe), but I'm going to go with Blue's here because it will cause a special interaction with Viridian City's gym leader, according to the game's documentation.
To make my character not look exactly like Blue, I give them a color palette that makes them look as pale as a
Nothing fancy here, just my name.
And we're on to starter selection.
Crystal Clear has a wide variety of available starters, with most of them having gimmicks. The badge requirements for HMs have been removed, so trainers who choose Seel can use Surf from the get-go, for example. I chose Eevee for my first run, which was a somewhat foolish decision, as you can easily pick up a gift Eevee from not one, but two different locations (and buy them from the Game Corners).
For this run, we're choosing Growlithe, because Growlithe's gimmick is being an absolutely busted starter.
I know I have a screwed up sleep schedule, game, you don't have to rub it in.
Crystal Clear gives you the option to save just before receiving a gift pokemon, to make shiny hunting them less painful.
It also lets you see a 'mon's DVs at the top of its nicknaming screen, allowing you to give them a more appropriate initial nickname.
.....
Hello again, Bay 12! I'm ATHATH, and this is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8pZe38dr4
Pokemon Crystal Clear. Specifically, my
Much better (DVs range from 0-15 in Gen 2). Sadly, "Disc One Nuke" is too long to be a nickname in this game, so we'll have to settle for just "Nuke".
To close off this starting update, here are some screenshots of the summary menus of our soon-to-be-terrifyingly-powerful pupper. Note that both Special Attack and Special Defence use the same "SPC" DV in this generation, and that DV is positioned AFTER the DV for Speed ("SPE").