This Pokémon Creepypasta Will Change How You Look At Ghost Types
In the early days of the internet it was almost impossible to surf the web without running into a creepypasta. The term "creepypasta" is given to a style of urban legend that began propping up all over the internet in the late 1990s. These stories are usually, well, creepy and easy to understand — and especially easy to copy, paste, and share with others online. Just about everyone who's been on the internet long enough has heard of one, like the infamous Sonic.exe urban legend that became real, or the well-known Slenderman.
"Pokémon" has long been the subject of gaming-related creepypastas, perhaps the most famous of which is Lavender Town Syndrome. This disorder was said to have been caused by the original music for Lavender Town in the first "Pokémon" games, and caused the deaths of real-life children in Japan by suicide. Despite causing mass hysteria, nothing of the sort ever happened in reality — one of many viral gaming stories that turned out to be fake.
One other infamous "Pokémon" creepypasta from more than a decade go detailed "Pokémon Black," a ROM hack of the original "Pokémon" games. According to the story, it was found at a flea market, and had some unsettling differences, like the ability to kill trainers and an unreleasable Pokémon called GHOST. That's all about par for the course for a gaming creepypasta, but what makes "Pokémon Black" stand out is its incredibly unsettling ending.
A bootleg game collector, a black cartridge, and a GHOST
In the creepypasta, the author recounted an experience they had after buying a bootleg "Pokémon" game five years prior. Inconveniently enough, the author moved and lost the cartridge so they couldn't prove they still owned it, but conveniently enough they had one picture of it available for the story. It's an all-black cartridge with the "Pokémon" logo in grey, with no other lettering aside from the GAME BOY logo at the top. The author says that the game started like normal, with a slightly different title screen with the "Black Version" subtitle. Then, the real game began.
After the player went through the starting motions, they'd discover another Pokémon available alongside Squirtle, Charmander, or Bulbasaur: GHOST. GHOST was a Level 1 Pokémon that apparently had the same sprite as the unidentified Gastly that haunt Lavender Town — infamously home to some of the most disturbing moments in a Rated E game. These Gastly are incorporeal until players get the Silph Scope, but the item didn't clear anything up about this mysterious GHOST.
It only had one move, Curse, which the author notes didn't exist in the first "Pokémon" generation. Other Pokémon weren't able to attack GHOST, in fact they were "too scared to move." Because other Pokémon won't act, GHOST was untouchable in every battle, but one Curse was all it needed to get rid of an opponent for good.
Other trainers and Pokémon could be cursed, and killed, by the player
The author of the "Pokémon Black" creepypasta said that when they used Curse on a Pokémon, the game would fade to black, play a distorted, lower-pitched version of the target Pokémon's cry, then fade back only for players to see that the opposing Pokémon was gone. However, according to the original poster, in trainer battles something very different could happen after the battle was over.
If Curse was used to eradicate a trainer's Pokémon in battle, another text box would pop up after the dust had settled. The text box asked players to choose either "Run" or "Curse." If players selected "Run," the overworld would return and continue like normal. If players selected "Curse," when they re-appeared, a tombstone would be where the opposing trainer had been. If the "Pokémon Black" ROM hack was indeed real, killing another Pokémon trainer would be a video game moment that's impossible to forget.
It's worth noting that though GHOST couldn't be removed from the party, released, or separated from the player, there was one method to part ways forever. After beating the Elite Four, players go to the Hall of Fame to recap their journey. What happens after is like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story — a montage of death, and a final, doomed confrontation.
An unsettling montage of death and the player's curse
According to the story, Curse made "Pokémon Black" so easy that the author used it constantly. GHOST and some "severely underleveled" Pokémon were in the Hall of Fame before the game cut to black. A text box appeared that read "many years later," and the game faded back in to show the player as an old man looking at graves in Lavender Town.
Everything in the overworld was gone, the same for every NPC aside from tombstones. When players returned to Pallet Town and walked to the exact spot where the game began, the screen faded to black again. Sprites of Pokémon that the author cursed appeared, starting with their first Caterpie.
Eventually, the game started showing the sprites of cursed trainers, as the tones of the Lavender Town music slowly became more twisted and demonic in what must have been one of the creepiest moments in a "Pokemon" game.
After the montage, the player claims to have fought GHOST directly. The author said all they could do was Struggle, but eventually, it all ended as GHOST used Curse one last time — on the player. After that, the game black-screened, and only a hard restart could get it working again. Once rebooted, the only option was to start a new game — the author claims to have played through it many times, but every character met the same terrible fate.