Yesterday I visited my parents' property to see if any of my stuff in storage was worth selling. After searching through bins of worthless toys and junk, I eventually dug up my old Pokemon Crystal cartridge. Well, actually it belonged to a childhood friend of mine. He'd frequently share his progress in the game and how it brought him joy during rough times. It's been a while since he moved away so I forgot exactly why he gave it to me, but it had to have been important. Pokemon Crystal always had this air of elusiveness as a kid, so I was eager to sink hours into it when I had the chance. Of course with the bustle of college and moving homes, it's inevitable that all my old electronics got put away. I'd still replay these games through emulation, but there's just something special about playing them on original hardware. So I figured I'd write down my experience with Crystal one final time before selling it.
I booted the game up and sat intently through the intro sequence, mesmerized by its appearance on the LCD screen. Once I pressed past the title screen, I was greeted by my old save file. I'm not one to get sentimental about childhood saves, so I gave it a toss and started a fresh file. The usual song and dance played out: I entered my name as Walter, picked Totodile as my starter, and ran into my rival after he had stolen the other starter. I've always had a soft spot for these mean rivals in old Pokemon games, they genuinely felt like kids I'd know in real life. Since I couldn't think of anything clever, I simply left my opponent's name as Silver.
With my journey underway I defeated the trainers north of Cherrygrove City, and went ahead into the Dark Cave. As the name suggests, the interior is pitch black with only the entrance and items visible. I wandered around the cave for a bit, but there's no real point in exploring without having Flash to light it up. As I walked back to the entrance I managed to encounter a Dunsparce, a very rare spawn in this area. At first I was mildly excited, but then I remembered this is Dunsparce we're talking about. With weak stats and a limited movepool, it's neither impressive mechanically or aesthetically. I mean who'd want a fat snake with its eyes shut? With enough scratches the creature fainted, and I made my way out of the cave.
When I stepped outside I was struck with a bizarre sight: the whole game was now engulfed in darkness. I knew this had to be a glitch of some kind, but the fact it even existed was bewildering. I could reset the system to see if the bug would solve itself, but not once had I saved since starting this new file. Well, it probably wouldn't take much time to replay up to this point, but I know it wouldn't take long to get Flash either. All I'd have to do is walk into Violet City, get the HM from Sprout Tower, and finally beat the gym to use the move outside of battle. If nothing else I could be the first person to document this glitch and this proposed solution.
The darkness effect made for an interesting challenge, as I essentially had to play the game blindfolded. I relied on the map and background music as general reference points, and used the visible NPCs for finer mental mapping. Combined with the sound effect that plays when you bump into surfaces, I was able to effectively feel out the level design. Occasionally I'd notice a trainer sprite flicker in and out the corner of the screen. This weirded the hell out of me every time it happened, as if someone in the shadows was secretly following me. I need to be rational, it's likely just a visual artifact caused by the glitch.
With enough trial and error I made it to the top floor of Sprout Tower, got the HM for Flash from the elder, and taught it to a Bellsprout I caught along the way. Since I needed more experience for the gym, I refrained from using the escape rope and walked back down the tower. As I stepped out into Violet City I received a phone call from youngster Joey, the first trainer I exchanged phone numbers with. I was expecting the usual message about his Rattata, but what I got was a bit more puzzling:
"I've heard some people can be read like an open book. I don't read much, but I can tell you're the type of person that's into battling. Let's meet up on Route 30 for a rematch."
Odd, I can't recall Joey ever having this dialogue, but I guess there isn't much noteworthy about what he says. I walked into the gym, beat the trainers, and swept through Falkner with just my Totodile. Now that I had the badge secured, Flash became usable in the overworld. With bated breath, I opened the party menu and commanded my Bellsprout to use Flash. As the screen turned white my suspense rose to an all time high, which made it all the more crushing when the brightness faded.
It is still dark, it is now silent, and I am all alone.
I opened the map to find my location, but the screen only displayed "???". I was nowhere, just an empty plane cut off from the rest of the world. I was reminded of that out of bounds glitch in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, but I never heard of Crystal having something similar. While walking around I'd see chunks of glitchy garbage data littering the map, and it became clear this save file was beyond fixing. Though my curiosity had taken the best of me, I wanted to see what else was left in this void.
After enough wandering around, I hit some kind of trigger and was transported to another map. The title card informed me that I was in Ilex Forest, quite a bit away from Violet City. There was no darkness effect encompassing the area, so the glitch appeared to have resolved itself. It was such a relief to see the game in a normal state, however this moment became fleeting. After a few steps I received a phone call from a unnamed messenger:
"Hey, how about we play another game of hide-and-seek! I'll find a spot out here in the woods, and maybe this time it won't be as easy."
I didn't know what to make of this dialogue, perhaps it's part an unused side quest? I tried searching the map for whoever was on the phone, even checked the shine to see if it was related to an event, but I quickly realized it was going nowhere. I decided to ignore whatever this cut content was and went north to Goldenrod City.
After exiting the area the game once again hit me with a curve ball, as I was warped to the middle of another pitch black void. I opened the map to see I was in Viridian Forest, though I can't imagine what I triggered to get sent all the way across regions. I'm not very familiar with this place in Crystal, so I spent a while getting lost in the darkness. Eerily enough, the only part of the music that played was the tinny percussion section. Here it sounded less like instruments playing and more like rustling in the forest, which I did not like the idea of at all. After some aimless walking another phone call popped up:
"Uh, hey. I went past a bunch of bushes and think I lost track of where I came in. Right now I'm resting near a really tall tree, but I'm scared I can't find a way out. You're still looking for me, right?"
What the hell are these messages? Despite the game continuing to escalate in strangeness, I pressed forward and eventually reached an exit on the map. Of course, this spat me back out into the glitchy nowhere void. This time I was left wandering for quite a while, and I began to question if I should call it quits. Eventually I received yet another phone call:
"We understand your concern about the harassment your son faces, and have done as much as we can to reduce bullying across the whole school. We asked if he had any friends to support him, and he mentioned one student..."
At this point I was done with whatever was wrong with this copy of Crystal, so I promptly shut the Game Boy off without saving. I exited my room to make myself dinner, organize some shelves, etc. Really I was doing anything to take my mind off the game, but there was this nagging in my head that drew me back to it. What would happen if I started from the beginning? Would everything still be normal? In a bid to satisfy this curiosity, I picked the system up and gave Crystal another spin.
To my utter shock, a file had been saved. It even had my name and all the information from when I last played. I opened the save to found myself in some sort of room with an NPC. It actually resembled the player's room from New Bark Town, though a few decorations may have been moved around. I went to interact with the NPC, but for some reason the dialogue box took longer than usual to show up. When it finally did, the character said:
"The doctors said my condition is beyond treatment, so I'm left having it become worse every day. I wish you could understand what it's like, slowly losing your vision. It's as if everything I thought I knew is slipping away, and I'm sinking into a pocket of misery. Please, don't leave me. I don't want to be alone, not like this..."
With every line of text the room grew darker and darker, until it became empty void. The music had been reduced a low ambient hum, with the menu sounds cutting through like a knife. The only thing that remained visible in the area was an item. I walked over and picked it up, which gave the message:
"Suicune was added to the party!"
An upbeat jingle played alongside the message, but it felt wrong when cutting back to the low humming. After the text box closed the player sprite was replaced with the rival, Silver. Even the art on the trainer card was changed to Silver, though my name remained the same. I went to look at the Suicune in my party, but I was unsettled to see it named "No Return".
I was expecting to be warped back to the nowhere area, but where I actually went was far more disturbing. I found myself walking in a white void. There weren't any glitched visuals, but instead large deep blue eyes filling the screen. The player sprite had darkened into silhouette while the music was comprised of discordant notes and textures, similar to what the radio plays in the Ruins of Alph. I tried to braving this area to find something, anything, but the eyes grew too unnerving. It's as if they were glaring straight through the screen and into my soul.
At a certain point my character stopped in place for what felt like forever, and I thought the game finally crashed. Eventually a garbled trainer sprite slowly walked up behind me. With my suspense risen once again, it said:
"You know the saying that some people can be read like an open book, right? I wish I knew it back then, back when I assumed you cared. You've left me in the recesses of your mind for far too long, but now is the time to make amends. So pay up, thief."
A battle was then initiated with the unnamed trainer, resembling a glitchy youngster sprite. His Pokemon team consisted of only a single Xatu, which it seemed to know moves that it normally couldn't learn. I figured with the legendary Suicune on my side this battle would've been simple, but it proved far more problematic. The Xatu would repeatedly use Sand Attack to lower my accuracy, use Confuse Ray to redirect my attacks, use Recover to undo any hits I managed to land, and use Mean Look to... I can't even begin to know. This left my team aimlessly flailing around, missing most of their attacks while damaging themselves. Even when I manage to land a hit, he'd simply use recover to gain that health back. The battle ultimately proved futile as, one by one, my team members struggled to death. After losing the battle, with sweat in my palms, the trainer gave the parting message:
"One way or another, we will meet again. So watch out, Wal-"
SNAP, the lights in my room suddenly cut out. In a panic I flipped the switches over and over until everything came back on, to which I noticed my Game Boy had also shut off. I ran to the device and feverishly powered it on to see what else happened. The game booted up and made its way past the title screen, only for a message to pop up saying that my save data had corrupted. No matter how much I tinkered and reset the system, I could not create a new save. While I'm relieved that nothing unsettling could pop up again, I'm now stuck with a dead cartridge. Since I can't exactly sell off a broken game, the Crystal cart will remain tucked away just as it had before
...
I'm writing this section as an addendum to the bizarre experience I had with that Pokemon Crystal cartridge. For the past few weeks I've been having strange, even disturbing dreams. Most often I'd find myself lost in complete darkness, only able to rustling and cries out in the distance. These dreams bore a striking resemblance to what I saw in the game, to which I accepted they had a connection. I eventually destroyed the cartridge in a desperate attempt to end these restless nights, but that proved to be a grave mistake. Now they've developed into full night terrors, and I've been struggling to sleep ever since. I remember in one nightmare a figure emerged from the shadows, its body deformed and mutated, drug me across the ground and performed unspeakable actions to my eyes.
At first I disregarded the idea that the game could be haunted, but now there could be no other explanation. Whatever the entity wanted me to fulfill, destroying the cartridge had prevented me from doing so. Now I can't see how else I could please this spirit, so I am left to suffer with these nightmares.
I am too far gone, and there is no return...
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Written by Zucchini, March 2026
Images taken from Pokemon Crystal, edited by Zucchini
