is a ROM Hack of Pokémon Crystal created by Rangi. Aside from general quality-of-life changes, Polished Crystal adds more content to Crystal, in the form of new areas, added events, and cameos from characters from other generations and even the anime.The game's latest update, the 3.0.0 beta, was released in March of 2022.
Pokémon Polished Crystal provides examples of:a
- Adaptational Badass: This game not only gave several of the weaker Pokemon much needes stat boosts, but in some cases even changed their types (for example, Butterfree went from Bug/Flying to Bug/Psychic, and Sunflora went from pure Grass to Grass/Fire, and it also learns some Fire-type moves).
- Adaptation Expansion: This game includes a lot of regions and subplots the original game lacked.
- There's a new Team Rocket subplot taking place in Yellow Forest, a new area analogous to HeartGold and SoulSilver's Safari Zone.
- While in the original the only thing you could find in Cinnabar Island was a Pokemon Center, there are now not just one but two dungeons: the destroyed remains of the Pokemon Mansion and the Cinnabar Volcano, where you can catch Moltres.
- Blaine and Blue's Gyms originally were Boss-Only Level, but here they're proper Gyms with multiple trainers and puzzles.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Several Shiny Pokémon were given different colors, the most notable example being Dragonite becoming blue, making it resemble its pre-evolved forms more, since Lance uses one in his Champion battle.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Several cross-generation relatives of Generation I and II Pokémon appear in the game, such as Munchlax and Togekiss. The exceptions are Lickilicky and Ambipom, since Lickitung and Aipom were removed from the game.
- Moves from later generations have been added to accommodate for the addition of the physical-special split.
- Valerie from X and Y appears after fighting Suicune, you can meet Skyla from Black and White at Olivine Lighthouse, and Maylene from Diamond and Pearl can be battled in the Celadon City restaurant.
- Adaptational Species Change: Kenya the Spearow was changed to a Farfetch'd due to the removal of the Spearow line.
- Adapted Out:
- In order to make room for cross-generation relatives, many Pokémon were removed from the game. These Pokémonnote were either baby Pokémon or Pokémon that didn't end up as something particularly strong.
- Several weaker or gimmicky moves were also removed to accommodate for later-gen moves. Some redundant moves were also removed or merged into one (for example, Fury Attack and Fury Swipes were merged into the Fury Strikes move, whole Synthesis, Morning Sun and Moonlight were merged into the Healing Light move).
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Features from future generations brought here:
- TMs are now reusable.
- Poison is healed outside of battle once the Pokemon is left at 1 HP.
- Respawn any fainted legendaries (except for Celebi) after beating the Elite Four. (Suicune roams instead of appearing in Bell Tower). Also respawns Sudowodo.
- To accommodate the addition of the Physical-Special split, the game's movepool has been expanded to include moves from later generations such as Shadow Claw and Dark Pulse.
- Trade Evolutions can now be done without the aid of another player; for the Gen I trade evolutions, the Pokémon simply needs to level up with a decent amount of EV investment in a single statnote , and for the rest, they simply need to level up while holding their signature item (e.g. Scyther evolves when it levels up holding a Metal Coat, as opposed to trading it while holding one).
- Wild Bellsprout have a chance of carrying Gold Leaves, which function identically to the Heart Scales found in later games. Wild Oddish meanwhile carry Silver Leaves, which allow move tutors to be used an infinite number of times. You can also get Gold and Silver Leaves by headbutting trees.
- Eusine shows you the legendary beasts in Celadon City in case you haven't found them roaming.
- Nuzlocke Mode has a few:
- Nuzlocke rules don't apply until after the first battle with Silver.
- The player isn't restricted to the first encounter of an area if they already caught that Pokémon. They aren't restricted from catching shinies, either.
- Gift Pokémon, such as in-game trades and Bill's Eevee, do not count as encounters.
- Features from future generations brought here:
- Arc Villain: Lawrence III from Pokémon 2000 appears as a rival to the player during the legendary bird sideplot. As one might expect, he's looking for a Moltres so he can summon Lugia, and keeps watch on the player as they catch the three birds.
- Art Evolution:
- Pokémon now have unique menu sprites, as opposed to choosing from a select group of generic sprites as was in the original games.
- The Twins trainers now use their sprite from Black and White, albeit brought down in quality to match the game's artstyle.
- Ascended Extra: Zigzagged with Lyra. If the player chose Ethan in HeartGold and SoulSilver, she played the role of a recurring NPC who wasn't that important aside from giving out the obligatory catching tutorial. Here, she plays the role of the Friendly Rival. However, she can't be picked as the female playable character since Kris already fills that role.
- Balance Buff:
- Several Pokémon's base stat totals and movesets have been updated to reflect the changes made in X and Y.
- HMs are much more worthwhile for battle: Cut has gone from a Normal move with 50 power to a Steel move with 60 power. Strength has gone from a Normal-type move with 80 power to Fighting-type move with 90 power. Fly has 100% chance to hit.
- Bootstrapped Leitmotif:
- Lyra's rival theme is the rival theme from X and Y.
- Red gets Blue's Champion theme rather than sharing a theme with Lance. Green meanwhile gets Iris' Champion theme from Black 2 and White 2.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Several locations that were removed between Generations I and II, such as the Pokémon Mansion and Cerulean Cave, were brought back in Polished Crystal.
- The Gen I legendaries and fossils can now be obtained by the player whereas they weren't in the Gen II games.
- The Cameo:
- The Yellow Forest subplot features a fight against Jessie and James, using their Pokémon from the original series.
- Yellow Forest itself features Yellow from Pokémon Adventures, who when fought will give the player a Light Ball.
- Lorelei from the original Indigo League Elite Four appears as an optional fight in the Ice Cave.
- Kalos Gym Leader Valerie appears on the Bellchime Trail after fighting Suicune. Beating her rewards the player with the Dazzling Gleam TM.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Averted with Champion Lance in this hack. His two Dragonites (the third one from the original was replaced by Kingdra) have levels increased to 58 and 60, so the Dragonites aren't underleveled compared to their evolution requirement. In addition, his Aerodactyl can actually learn Rock Slide by level up and TM.
- Cutting Off the Branches:
- The Gen II games opted to give Red all the Kanto starters and Blue Exeggutor, Arcanine, and Gyarados to avoid making any starter choice canon. Polished Crystal meanwhile gives Red a Charizard and Blue a Blastoise. Green naturally gets Venusaur.
- This also applies to the Kanto fossils; Blue gets Kabutops, Red gets Omastar, and Green gets Aerodactyl.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Red, the True Final Boss of the original games. Beating him gives you access to Polished Crystal's True Final Boss, Green.
- Foreshadowing: Lawrence III is looking for a Moltres to add to his collection. It turns out that Green beat him to it.
- Friendly Rival: Lyra now plays this role opposite Silver, meaning that she chooses the starter weak to the one you picked.
- Guide Dang It!: Mew and Celebi are catchable in Polished Crystal, but getting them is more obtuse than with the other Legendaries.
- For Mew, the player has to find an Old Sea Map in the Pokémon Mansion, then bring it to the Seagallop Ferry in Vermillion City, which will then take you to the Faraway Island where Mew resides.
- For Celebi, the player has to beat the Elite Four, then go to the Goldenrod Pokémon Center to Wonder Trade for a shiny Pichu, which is holding a GS Ball. Then they have to take the ball to Kurt, who will inspect it until the Elite Four is beaten again, after which Kurt will return it to the player. Then it has to be taken to the Ilex Forest shrine, where Celebi can finally be encountered.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Green supplants Red as the game's True Final Boss, and her Venusaur is the highest-leveled enemy Pokémon in the game at level 100.
- No Casualties Run: Polished Crystal includes a Nuzlocke Mode, which enforces Nuzlocke rules onto the player, such as preventing a fainted Pokémon from being used.
- Shout-Out: The Unown text on the walls of the Ruins of Alph now includes various silly messages, including (but not limited to) "Drink your Ovaltine!", "Who watches the Watchmen?", "Consult Helix", and the Konami Code.
- Single Specimen Species: Averted in two instances:
- Aside from the three legendary birds the player can find in the wild, Lawrence III has an Articuno and Zapdos in his party, while Green has a Moltres in hers.
- There are two Mew found in the game: the one on Faraway Island, and the one owned by Green.
- True Final Boss: Green, who can only be fought after beating Red. All of her Pokémon are over level 90, and she has a legendary and a mythical in her party.
