Which Pokémon game first allowed players to choose a female player character?

Pokémon Crystal was the first Pokémon game to let players choose a female player character.

Released for the Game Boy Color in Japan in 2000 and internationally in 2001, Pokémon Crystal is an enhanced version of Pokémon Gold and Silver. It retains the Johto setting and much of the original story, but adds features including animated Pokémon sprites and a choice between a male or female protagonist.

The female protagonist is named Kris in later official materials, although the player can choose a different name in the game. Earlier main-series games offered a male player character as the default playable human lead. Pokémon Crystal's choice was an important step toward the character-selection systems used in later Pokémon titles. Pokémon Yellow is sometimes mistakenly named because it added Pikachu-focused story elements, but it did not introduce a selectable female protagonist. Emerald and Platinum also offer additional content, yet both were released after Crystal and therefore cannot be the first game with this feature.