Pokémon GS Vitro vs Crystal: What Changed

GS Vitro compared with Crystal

Pokémon GS Vitro is not a line-for-line port of Pokémon Crystal. The story is described as mostly the same. The way you move through Johto is not.

What changed

The left column is the Game Boy Color game. The right column is the 2026 Windows game.

US Crystal date kept as a disagreement. Vitro’s Kanto line is the FAQ, not a guess.
	Pokémon Crystal	Pokémon GS Vitro
Platform	Game Boy Color	Windows, plus phone and Mac players
Release	Japan 14 Dec 2000; US 29 or 30 Jul 2001; Europe 2 Nov 2001	30 Oct 2026
Region you can walk	Johto, then Kanto	Johto. Kanto not in the first version
Dex	251	More than 350 obtainable
Shiny rate	About 1/8192	1/4094
Field moves	HMs	Field Moves from the start
Progress	Linear	Free Mode and scaled levels
Megas	None	21 new forms
Link play	Cable, and a mobile adapter in Japan	No servers; offline codes in one post

What I would not call it

It is not a one-to-one remake, and it is not “Crystal with Kanto included.” The developer post is the reason I trust Free Mode over a news line that named a single start city.

Source status

Reviewed 2 November 2026. Documents from the same publisher count as one source.
Claim	Reading	Status
Vitro release	30 Oct 2026	2 independent reports: GameRant, RetroDodo
Crystal US release	29–30 Jul 2001, differing reference records	Source disagreement retained
Vitro mechanics	Developer pages and Reddit description	1 developer publisher

Questions

When did Crystal release in the US?

Serebii says 29 July 2001. Wikipedia says 30 July 2001. I print both.

Is the story new?

A developer reply says it is basically Crystal’s story with small adaptations. One source.

Kanto

Crystal’s post-game region is absent here.

Kanto →

Shiny odds

1/4094 here, about 1/8192 in Crystal.

Shiny odds →

Megas

21 forms Crystal never had.

Megas →