TALES OF TERROR

Lavender Town Syndrome and Pokémon Creepypastas

Lavender Town Syndrome is a popular internet phenomena concering the first generation of Pokémon video games, Pokémon Red and Green Versions released in Japan in 1996. The general consensus is that the first couple dozen copies of the game contained a different theme for a part of the game known as "Lavender Town", which in the real game, is a gravesite for Pokémon and has a few eerie things in it, already for a children's game. The theme as presented in these copies had incredibly high frequencies that only children and young teens can be able to process, due to their ears not being fully developed. The effect of these notes, as typically documented, included headaches, paranoia, nosebleeds and suicidal tendancies. The music was supposedly featured in the beta versions of the game during the testing stage. However, due to the suicides, the frequencies had to be fixed to be far less nauseating, which postponed the games' release date from it's original December 1995 deadline to February 1996, which could explain why the copyright date for all Pokémon games has been 1995.

As it's very unlikely that a story like this would be covered up so easily, at least from western news, the fact that there have never been any other documented illnesses surrounding music and videos that attempt to re-create the original Lavender Town theme have not had any negative side-effects on children, it's unlikely that Lavender Town Syndrome is real. However, there have been several fan games and conspiracy theory videos attempting to simulate what it must have felt like under the effects of the syndrome.

Aside from Lavender Town Syndrome, there have been several other popular Pokémon-related creepypastas. One of which is called "Pokémon Creepy Black", or just "Pokémon Black", not to be confused with the generation 5 game of the same name. Pokémon Creepy Black centres around a video game bootleg collector who claims to have owned a hacked version of Pokémon Red with some morbid differences. The first is that when acquiring a starter Pokémon, Professor Oak also gives you another Pokémon called "GHOST", who looks like the Ghost Pokémon that you'd normally find in Pokémon Tower without the Silph Scope. This Pokémon only knew one move, which was "Curse", which did'nt work like it would in the later games in which it debuted. Instead, when used, the screen would cut to black, the Pokémon's cry would be heard in slow-motion, and the Pokémon would have died (instead of fainted). This move also apparently worked on trainers, which would then be replaced by a tombstone on the overworld. Once the Elite Four is beaten and you enter the Hall of Fame, the game fast-forwards to when Red is an old man, and when arriving back at Pallet Town, the "GHOST" confronts him also, uses "Curse" on him, resulting in the game crashing and it's safe file being erased, implicating that he died. Unfortunately, the owner of the game lost the cartridge when he moved to a new house, so he couldn't provide screen caps.

Another noteworthy Pokémon Creepypasta is "Pokémon Lost Silver", based on Pokémon Silver. In it, a college student decides to build up his hype for Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver by buying a used Pokémon Silver cartridge. However, the game typically crashed on the Game Freak logo at the being, except for one instance in which the player found the title character standing in a dark room. The author checked his profile and found that the previous owner had done pretty well in the game. He eventually found his way out of the room, and wierd things began to happen, such as the player's profile displaying information that should be impossible for the player to accomplish, the character's profile picture slowly rotting and losing body parts, his Pokémon Party began to change and level-up without reason and a Pokémon Battle with Red from the first game, which ended with the Pokémon dying. After the character becomes a ghost, he gives up his life and a shot of a grave is seen of the character. After that, the game crashes. This story is cited as one of the best video game-themed creepypastas ever written.