This is not Pokemon Yellow. I feel like this should be said. Pokemon Yellow is the only game in the Pokemon franchise that even remotely tries to follow the plot of the anime, so it’s the only game where you can even get close to being Ash from the anime. Even there, it’s not the same. That being said, there’s always the “as close as reasonably possible” goal you can go for, so this will be the guide on how to reach that goal in Pokemon Crystal.

How to Transfer Pokemon from Generation I

To put it shortly, you can’t, not really. There is no tool which can simply transfer Pokemon or any other data on the PC. If you have the hardware, you could do some trading, but with emulation on the PC, you can’t do it.

You can do two things, however. You can edit your saves and copy the data manually, which was buggy for me, or you can use cheats to catch the same Pokemon you had in generation I and then edit the saves to copy EV and IV data, moves and PP levels. This is what I did. I tried just editing the saves with PikaSav first, but this caused the game to behave strangely. Instead, I used some Gameshark cheats in Visual Boy Advance to make Pikachu appear in the wild, caught him, and then edited the save to change his stats to the levels from Pokemon Yellow. The tools I used for this were

• Pikasav 0.4 rc2 for Save File Editing
• Visual Boy Advance for Gameshark Cheats
• The List of Pokemon Crystal Gameshark Cheats on Supercheats

The important cheat here is

• The cheat to catch any Pokemon – 91xx04d2

You need to replace “xx” with the number from the list on Supercheats for the Pokemon you want to catch. When you enable this cheat, the Pokemon you chose will be the only Pokemon to appear in random battles. For Pikachu, the “xx” is “19”. Once I caught him, I saved my game and loaded up Pikasav. First, I opened up the Pokemon Yellow save to write down Pikachu’s stat and move information and then opened the Pokemon Crystal save to set the information for the newly caught Pikachu to those values.

I did this only with Pikachu at first and simply used Pikasav to add all the other Pokemon I caught in Yellow to the Pokedex. The procedure was simply too tedious for me to do it with all my other Pokemon. Later on in the game, I also used this method to get Kingler back into my team.
Depending on how much patience, time and willpower you have, you can do as you please.

How to Follow Ash – Violet City, Flying Gym

Route

New Bark Town -> Route 29 .> Cherrygrove City -> Route 30 -> Route 31 -> Violet City

The Anime

In the anime, Ash Catches a Heracross and a Chikorita well before the first Gym. He also tries using Chikorita in the first gym and fails.

How to Follow

You should probably pick Chikorita as your starter, though the other two are also valid choices, since Ash gets them later in the anime and you won’t be able to get them any other way. Sadly, this means that you’ll have to pick between one of three Pokemon Ash eventually catches. As for Heracross, you can’t get him yet. He only drops from trees in mountain areas, so you need to get Headbutt from Illex Forest first.

How to Follow Ash – Azalea City, Bug Gym

Route

Ruins of Alph -> Route 32 -> Azalea Town

The Anime

In the anime, Ash leaves Charizard, though he’s able to call back on him later. He also catches his Cindaquil.

How to Follow

You can’t do much, really. If you picked Chikorita, you can’t get Cyndaquil, and if you went with Cyndaquil, you already have it, so you can start using it now. If you transferred Charizard, it’s time to put him in the PC, probably.

How to Follow Ash – Goldenrod City, Normal Gym

Route

Ilex Forest -> Day Care Center -> Goldenrod City

The Anime

In the anime, Ash officially gets his Totodile. He also leaves his Squirtle with the Squirtle Squad. Finally, he gets a shiny Noctowl. He’s luckier than I ever was.

How to Follow

Simple. If you picked Totodile as your starter, you have it. If you have a Squirtle in your team, leave it. Not much else to do there. However, since you got Headbut from Ilex forest, it’s time to go get your Heracross. For that, you have to walk all the way to before Azalea Town, to Route 33. I believe this is the closest mountainous route you can get to at the point where you get Headbut. You won’t be able to get Noctowl, not yet. If you want, you could catch a Hoothoot in Illex Forest and evolve it instead.

How to Follow Ash – Ecruteak City, Ghost Gym

Route

National Park -> Route 36 -> Route 37 -> Ecruteak City

The Anime

Nothing of note happens. Ash encounters a large amount of Pokemon, but doesn’t officially expand his roster. He does catch a Beedril and immediately gives it to a friend, though.

How to Follow

Do nothing, basically. You’ll just spend a lot of time cancelling the evolution of your starter, since the first one to evolve in the anime is Chikorita and that’s only after Ecruteak Gym. If you want to follow the story, catch and release a Beedril using Headbut. It definitely drops from trees back in Illex forest. I never did this. Oh, and it’s finally time to get that Noctowl, if you haven’t gotten a Hoothoot in Illex forest. You can find it on Route 37 at night.

How to Follow Ash – Cianwood City, Fighting Gym

Route

Route 38 -> Route 39 -> Olvine City -> Route 40 -> Route 41 -> Cianwood City

The Anime

During this time, Chikorita evolves into Bayleef. That’s about it for the anime.

How to Follow

Simple. Just follow the story and finally let Chikorita evolve. If you’re like me, this doesn’t mean you can stop cancelling its evolution, since its level will be high enough to evolve to the final form, which doesn’t happen in the anime. Note that you’ll go through Olivine City, which also has a gym, but you’ll have to return to that later, since that’s how the game story goes.
You might not have a Pokemon able to use Surf at this point, so it’s time to bring in one from your old team. I picked Kingler, but if you want to also follow the Whirl Islands part, it might be time to get Lapras. I didn’t bother.

How to Follow Ash – Olivine City, Steel Gym

Route

Route 41 -> Olivine Gym (or just fly)

The Anime

At this point, the Whirl Islands part of the anime starts and ends with the Whirpool Cup

How to Follow

I didn’t. The whirl islands are just an area in the game, not a region like in the anime. I just went back to Olivine and beat the gym.

How to Follow Ash – Mahogany Town, Ice Gym

Route

Mt. Mortar -> Route 42 -> Mahogany Town -> Route 43 -> Lake of Rage -> Mahogany Town

The Anime

Some major events happen in the anime, just like in the game and the Phanpy Egg hatches.

How to Follow

You can’t get a Phanpy yet, so you can’t really do much, other than going with the story and beating the gym.

How to Follow Ash – Blackthorn City, Dragon Gym

Route

Route 44 -> Ice Path -> Blackthorn City

The Anime

Again, not much of note happens here regarding Ash’s roster.

How to Follow

Play through it and get to Blackthorn City. You might want to catch a Phanpy on Route 45, south of Blackthorn in the morning before tackling the Gym.

How to Follow Ash – The League

Route

Go back to your home town and Surf to the east, then go through Victory Road to get to the League.

How to Follow

At this point, you can forget about the anime. All you have to do is beat the game. None of your Pokemon will evolve further, nor will you be able to expand your team. Technically, Ash uses Larvitar for a while in the anime, but he never really catches it and you can’t get it in the game yet anyway.

 

 

Since I missed a bunch of things in my Pokemon Yellow playthrough, I decided to do some research on Pokemon Crystal and the Johto part of the anime series, so I could develop a sort of plan about what I’ll be doing. I’m still going to make a bunch of mistakes, probably even more than before, but at least I’ll feel a bit better about it.

The first thing I did was to see which episodes the major game events happen in and which Pokemon Ash obtains.  This is what I’ve figured out:

List of Pokemon Ash Obtains in the Johto Region

• Heracross
• Chikorita – evolves in Johto
• Totodile
• Cyndaquil – doesn’t evolve in Johto
• Noctowl – caught already evolved
• Beedril – given to a friend right away
• Phanpy – doesn’t evolve in Johto
• Larvitar – not really caught, leaves soon

The list isn’t exactly huge, that’s the first problem. The second problem is that there’s no version of the game which “follows the anime more closely” as Pokemon Yellow was in the first generation. Sadly, this means that I can only pick one out of the three starters. Overall, other than my Pikachu, by the end of the game, I’ll be using Heracross, Bayleef, Noctowl and Phanpy.  It’s not exactly a huge team, but it can work. I might have to catch an HM slave, though.

In the anime, Ash obtains Heracross, Chikorita, Totodile and Cyndaquil before the first gym. Chikorita evolves into Bayleef after the fourth gym and kicks major ass in the fifth gym. Both Phanpy and Larvitar hatch from an egg, but I think I’ll be catching them around the time when they’re supposed to be hatched, since eggs are too unpredictable.

I’ll pick Chikorita as my starter, simply because that was the first starter Ash got. If I ever get a chance to catch the other two in later games, I’ll do it. As for Heracross, I’m supposed to catch him at the first route, Route 29, but I need Headbutt to encounter him, so I’ll get back to it after Ilex Forest.

Other than that, I’ll also need a navigation route.

Pokemon Crystal – Quick Walkthrough

• New Bark Town (Get starter)
• Route 29 into Cherrygrove City
• Routes 30, 31 into Violet City (Gym)
• Ruins of Alph into Route 32 into Azalea Town (Gym)
• Ilex Forest (get Headbutt)
• Back to route 31 and catch a Heracross (needs to be a mountain tree)
• Back to Ilex Forest, Day Care Center, Goldenrod City (Gym)
• Catch and release Beedril (Headbutt in a forest)
• After gym, find Sudowoodo and go back to flower shop for the watering can.
• Get rid of Sudowoodo (catch?)
• Routes 36 and 37, catch Noctowl
• Ecruteak City (Gym)
• Routes 38 and 39, evolve Bayleef
• into Olivine City (Gym)
• Routes 40 and 41 into Cyanwood City (Gym)
• Mt. Mortar, Lake of Rage (shiny Gyarados), Mahogany Town(Gym)
• Ice Path into Blackthorn City (Gym)
• Routes 45 and 46, catch a Phanpy, keep it for later

After this, it’s straight for the League. Once that’s over, I can go to Mt. Silver and possibly catch a Larvitar. Ash technically never caught one, but he did use it.

 

 

Over the last few days, I’ve been doing some googling on how to somehow transfer my Pokemon team from Pokemon Yellow to Pokemon Crystal, which is my choice for the second generation game I’ll be playing. I’ve found a couple of possibilities and with plenty of pros and cons for each. Pikasav seemed like the most promising one. It allows editing of first and second generation save games. You can edit individual Pokemon, your team, and PC boxes, stats and can even export a Pokemon and import it into another save.

• Pikasav – A Generation I and II save file editor

It has a serious problem, though. It can only import Pokemon into another save of the same generation, possibly even only to the exact same game. I’m sure of the former, but I haven’t tried the latter, so I can’t say for sure. In any case, I could not export my Pokemon from Pokemon Yellow and import them to Pokemon Crystal. I did some more research and for a moment, even considered switching to the DS releases HeartGold and SoulSilver, but I ended up deciding against it because it would only make the eventual switch to Ruby/Sapphire even harder. I also tried looking for other tools that might be able to do it, but apparently, the generation II games have some weird save format which hasn’t been completely cracked yet.

My next option was to manually add a Pokemon to my crystal save by creating a fresh one and then copying the IV and EV values, experience and moves. For a few moments, I actually thought this would work, but it created a whole new set of issues. Each time I would add a Pokemon or an item, my game would freeze upon selecting that Pokemon or item. Clearly,  this wasn’t an option. I did progress a bit, though. I realized I can easily changed my Pokedex data, so I at least managed to add the data from Pokemon Yellow to my Pokedex in Pokemon Crystal.

I then tried playing until I got my starter, saving my game and then editing that starter. I created a copy of it, then changed its species and sprite to my Pikachu and modify its attributes to their proper values form Yellow. This showed promise because my game didn’t freeze this time and I could use my Pikachu fine. All of its data was there to, compared to the previous attempt, where its name and some other information seemed to be corrupted. It didn’t last long, though. After I fought a battle, I realized this wouldn’t work either, because after each battle, I would have several instances of “??? is evolving” and a corrupted sprite being shown on the screen.

For my last try, I resorted to gameshark. I added a couple of pokeballs to my inventory and went to route 29. I then enabled a cheat to make all the random battles against a wild Pikachu and caught one. I saved my game, opened up the save in Pikasav and edited the new Pikachu’s IV’s and stat experience (the EV equivalent of the first two generations) to the values from my Pikachu in Yellow. I decided to leave it at level 2, simply because it feels like in the anime, Pikachu somehow gets weaker in each new region, having to regain and surpass its strength. Thanks to stat experience, this might actually work here to. I also added its old moves and modified them according to my usage of PP Ups in Pokemon Yellow.

• Gamefaqs – Gameshark Codes for Pokemon Crystal

This was the first thing I did that worked without causing any issues in the game. It did present an issue for me, though. I would now have to enable a cheat and catch each Pokemon I had in Yellow, then save my game, exit the emulator, open it in Pikasav and modify the values. I decided not to waste my time on this, since in the end, this challenge is about making the game fun for me. Instead, I’ll just modify my Pokedex to add the data from my first game and then add any Pokemon on an individual basis, depending on if and when I need them. Honestly, though, I don’t think I’ll need anything other than my Pikachu.

In any case, I had my starter and I had my Pikachu. I was ready to start Pokemon Crystal