Talk:Pokémon Black/@comment-35099047-20190801200523

So, I recently finished the ROM hack for this game and I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

So, the ending of the pasta implies the true purpose of the cartridge, or at least the narrator's perception of it, at that is the inevitability of death. That no matter your life, good or bad, you'll be taken by death. While there is definitely some themes of that towards the end, I'd argue there's a purpose to the entire concept.

And that is: it's a morality test game.

The premise is, how would a player react if they had a Pokémon that is unkillable, and could instakill every single Pokémon in the game? Even if it's treated as a scary thing, even if it's implied the Pokémon die, would the player use Ghost to breeze through the game? And after that... When you wipe out all of a trainer's Pokémon, you get the option to Curse and kill the trainer, too. It doesn't serve any purpose; you can just run away and spare their lives. Will you kill trainers, just because you can?

And it punishes you at the end, haunting you with the images of every living thing you used Curse on. Reading it in the story was cool, but playing the game was something else entirely.

I will say though, there is actually a massive plot hole (or... game design flaw?) in the game that genuinely bothers me.

Supposedly, Curse is not supposed to work on Ghost type Pokémon; but this leads to a potential softlock. If you only had Ghost in your party, and face any trainer with a Ghost type... then you're stuck there and would have to reset. In a severe case, imagine saving in Agatha's room with only Ghost. You're stuck there, since the other trainer's Pokémon are too scared to kill you, and you can't hurt their Ghost Pokemon.

When I played the Creepy Black ROM, I could Curse and kill Ghost types, but I actually don't mind that inaccuracy because it irons out an inherent flaw with Creepy Black's design.

This story set the foundation for all Pokémon creepypastas, along with Lost Silver. It is one of the first of the thousands that came afterwards. I can't really judge it for its tropes or say it's "too cliché" because THIS is where those clichés came from.

And for what this story is? It holds up really well. The fact that people are still coming back to read this is proof.

I'm glad that a ROM is out there now for folks to play and experience for themselves. I would even say it helps add to the immersion of the pasta itself. Is it a fanmade ROM hack based off of this story? Or did someone find the original cartridge and dump the ROM, allowing people to produce reproduction carts? It's a lot of fun and food for the imagination.