User blog comment:StillDeciding/Why Pokemon?/@comment-4295646-20120917040642

Your guess is right on the money. It might also have something to do with the unsophisticated graphics (at least for the earlier games; by the time there were Pokemon games on more powerful devices, interest in Pokepastas had already taken root) - it can be unsettling to find lifelike images when you expect them to appear as pixelated approximations at best. The effect is that, suddenly, those dark elements you mentioned feel less programmed, less distanced by the limitations of the medium. It feels like something inching closer.