Pokémon Crystal Legacy

What it is

Pokémon Crystal Legacy is a hack of Pokémon Crystal led by YouTuber TheSmithPlays and built on the community disassembly of the game. The aim is not a new adventure but a better-balanced version of the original: the same Johto and Kanto, with the weak spots of Generation 2 addressed.

What's changed

• Moves and Pokémon learnsets reworked, and wild Pokémon spread more evenly across the regions
• New teams for regular trainers, Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the rival and other bosses, with a smoother level curve
• Reworked Team Rocket and rival storylines
• Kanto Gym Leader and Elite Four rematches, and new Battle Tower rewards
• A Hard mode, plus a Hardcore mode (fainted Pokémon stay fainted, and a wipe sends you back to your last save) since version 1.3
• Many quality-of-life features and text fixes

Version 1.3.1, from August 2024, is a bug-fix update.

Playing it

The patches are on the project's GitHub releases page; apply one to your own copy of Pokémon Crystal following the README. Led by TheSmithPlays, with programming by Craig and a team of testers.