Pokemon Cursed Pearl

Journal Entry 1 October 15th, 2013

So last Saturday when I went to Gamestop with Shade and Aura to get Pokemon X, I also picked up a used copy of Pokemon Pearl because I lost my old copy. Last night I finally set Pokemon X down for a minute and booted up Pokemon Pearl. I don't think Gamestop checked this game, because something is wrong with it. I started the game and the save file had a number instead of a name. The number was 444.

I opened it up because I wanted to see if there were any pokemon I wanted to trade over before started up a new game. Everything just seems wrong. The player character appeared in the bedroom, but it said he had eight badges, so I'm assuming the last owner sold the game right after beating the champion. The player character is pale and he looks like he has tears in his eyes.

I opened the pokemon menu and there were only two pokemon in the team, a Palkia and a Charizard. But the sprites were visibly beat up. I mean bruised and bleeding. The palkia was covered in cuts, particularly three claw marks on its chest, and the tip of its tail was missing. MISSING. and blood was leaking out of the cut off end. It had ten HP left. The charizard was almost all black and blue, and his wings had bloody holes and tears. He had fifty points.

I went downstairs to have Mom heal it them, but downstairs things just got worse. All the furniture was either turned over or out of place. The cushion the mother usually sat on was covered in blood and the mother laid across, with blood all over her too. I pressed the A button next to her and it simply said "Mom is dead." This has to be either some weird hacking or an illegitimate bootleg copy made my someone who's really fucking sick. But if it's just a hack I think the game should go back to normal when I restart.

So I went to Sandgem town to get to a pc and trade over some pokemon. On the way there I noticed there were no trainers along the way. I remembered where some of them were, but there was just splatters of blood where they used to stand, and random splatters of blood in the tall grass too. On the way I ran into a Starly. Palkia quickly defeated it, but it said "The wild Starly died." And when the battle scene faded, the tall grass i was standing in was splattered with blood.

When I arrived in Sandgem Town, I nearly walked into a character I'd never seen before. He she or it was dressed in all black and wore a ninja like mask, except there was no opening for the eyes. It's entire face was covered with black cloth. I didn't have a chance to talk to it before it disappeared. Shrugging it off, I went to the pokemon center. Joy was not joyful to see me. "If you insist, I'll make your pokemon ready to fight again." She said before healing them.

Palkia and Charizard looked normal again, thank goodness. I went through my boxes and traded some pokemon over. Instead of saying to take care of the pokemon, each one I traded over to Soul Silver said "_____ is happy to be with you!" Since that seemed weird, I checked their friendship. All the traded pokemon were at max friendship. So I saved the games and put them down. I'll play more later. I'm going to search online to see if there are any other known pokemon games hacked like this. Have any of you guys heard of anything like this?

Journal Entry 2 October 22, 2013

So after doing lots of searching, I have found nothing. There is no evidence of this strange character online. No screenshots, no mention of him, no hints that might be referring to him. NOTHING. Not even anything about bootlegged gamecards of Pokemon Pearl containing the other macabre parts of this game.

As creepy as all that was, I was still hoping restarting the game would return it to normal. I was relieved when I started a new game and saved over the 444 file to find the game beginning and playing as normal. I was completely and utterly relieved and I thought telling you all was fine now would be my last journal entry.

But things started getting strange again after my first gym battle. When I stepped out of the Oreburg Gym, the strange black figure stood near the edge of the screen to the far right. My character got a shocked exclamation point over her head, though the figure was not in her line of sight at all. Then the figure disappeared as it had before.

That's when the colors on the game became a little duller, and my character became paler. I did a little bit of basic training before going to bed, deciding to challenge the first gym tomorrow.

The next morning I got up to take my dog for a morning walk, but when I opened the door he tried to run away from it. He usually loves walks.

I poked my head out the door and saw something heart stopping. From the corner of my eye, I saw standing down the street at the end of the block a figure dressed all in black with an eyeless ninja hood. When I turned to look directly at it, it vanished.

I want to stop playing. I really do. As much as I try to stay away from it. It's like something is compelling me and I don't like it.

After the second gym, the shadow figure appeared again, a little closer this time. After this appearance the trees began losing their leaves and the music has become slightly distorted. That night I saw the shadow figure out my window, standing down the street under the street light, a little closer than before.

A car drove right towards it, apparently not seeing it. The figure did not move. Right when the car was about to hit it, it vanished again. The next day I lost the first battle of the game to my rival. It seemed tougher than I should have. I spend the whole day beefing up my pokemon but couldn't beat him, so I made no real progress that day.

The day before yesterday I woke up in pain. My back really hurt. I turned my back to the mirror and found long, straight bruises on my back, like I'd been beaten with a rod. As much as I want to smash the game with my dad's sledgehammer, as much as I want to make a fire out in the yard and throw it in, as much as I want to destroy it in any way possible, I can't. If I try to harm or break it in any way, I just can't. My hands won't obey me. And I still can't stop playing, no matter how much I don't want to.

With each gym I beat, the figure gets a little closer, both in the game and in real life. If I fail to make progress I wake up to bruising. I've tried to screw around in the game and avoid progress to stall the shadow figure, but every time I fail to make progress, the injuries get worse.

I couldn't find the receipt, so  I tried taking it back to gamestop and offering it to them for trade in value. They wouldn't take it. The employees refused to give me a reason, they just wouldn't take it. I'm on the fifth gym now. What do I do? This thing is cursed.

Journal Entry 3 October 30th, 2013

After the fifth gym I've had no choice but to continue playing. The music became more distorted, the characters all grew either sad or afraid, all the trees became bare, and the bloody spots I talked about in the 444 save file started appearing again. Speaking of 444, after beating the seventh gym and saving my game, I came back later to find the file 444 had replaced mine.

Thinking it was some kind of a glitch and that I was freed because I no longer had a save file, I opened it up to make sure it was so, but no. It was indeed my game but the file name had been changed. I know this is obvious, but I don't think this game's last owner named their file 444 either.

After the final gym, the next time I went back to my house I found the mother character dead on the floor covered in blood. When I walked up to her and pressed A, it simply said "Mom is dead." That's when the tears appeared in my character's eyes.

I beat the last gym a few nights ago and that time the figure was inside my house. It was in the living room standing by the door. I had to get rid of it, but the thought had occurred to me by now that destroying the game may unleash the evil contained within.

I tried to take it out and bury it, but when I tried to leave I found myself digging it up and playing again the same night. This thing has too much of a hold on me to get rid of it myself. So I gave the game to a friend. I told her not to play it and to lock it in a box and get rid of it somewhere it will never be found.

I haven't seen the figure or been bruised again. She told me that she put it in a metal box with a bunch of rocks, took the box to the middle of a nearby lake, and threw it in. Hopefully that will be the last of the cursed Pokemon Pearl game card. That thing will never be able to hurt anyone again and won't even see the light of day. I just hope she told me the truth and didn't play that game.