Things that spooked you in Pokémon

[Okido]

Halloween is just around the corner now. What better way to celebrate than to reminisce on the times that Pokémon has scared our pants off over the years?

Across the whole franchise, have there ever been any moments, places, sounds, or even Pokémon themselves that you've found frightening or unsettling? (It's okay if that fear is a little unfounded or strange; the unusual ghost stories are always the best ones!)

To name one, when I was a kid playing DPPt, I couldn't stand the room in the Old Chateau with the haunted purple painting on the wall - the one with glowing red eyes that turn to face you when you're nearby. I still find it off-putting that you, the player, know you're being watched... even when you're not in the room.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Definitely the Old Chateau for all the reasons you said

But I also gotta give the Original Cinnabar Mansion a shout out
The Red Eyed Statues, The Diaries, The Backstory on Mew and Mewtwo, etc..
It all just gets so much creepier the more you look into it

 

[airmail]

uhm.. a lot of things, but I think the objectively funniest answer might be shinies?

I was absolutely terrified the first time I saw one - it was a shiny Gligar in Heartgold, and I panicked so badly that I ran, restarted my game, and have never run into a shiny in the wild on accident since. You can imagine my chagrin when I finally looked it up....

Oh, and the Pokemon Center in Lavender Town! When I went in there and saved the sound cut out, the game froze, and I couldn't get it working again for anything. Cried my way through restarting the system and spent the next few years thinking creepypastas were real and that my game was definitely haunted. I, uh, still don't save inside the centers anymore, but it's more habit than superstition now..

 

[DarkMeow]

Once I learnt about the Lavender Town creepypasta, I was both obsessed and terrified of it. I spent a good couple years genuinely thinking it would kill me or something. Thankfully I'm not scared of it anymore. Honestly, to me, the scariest thing about the Lavender Town song is that I just don't like it very much. The way the tones go together just aren't appealing to me. After that, very little spooked me.

The only other time Pokémon genuinely spooked me was that Hex Maniac in X/Y. I remember exploring the city, going into that room, and getting genuinely frightened when the lights flickered and she just like, appeared behind me and floated around. The 3D models in X/Y always looked really uncanny to me, so that just amplified it. I'll never forget it.

 

[Enigmatic Espurr]

Oh boy! Time to showcase how much of a 'fraidy cat I am! Well, most of this stuff is just me being a bit weirded out or startled instead of full-out scared. This got a lot longer than I expected, so I put it in a spoiler box.

Spoiler: Huge Wall of Text

When I played through Pearl, I had no idea that the screen would like, kinda glitch a bit when a poisoned pokemon took damage in the overworld. So I was worried about there being some sort of bug and my data would get corrupted.

The Ghost Girl in Lumiose City definitely startled me. I knew all about the cutscene and everything, but still, reading about it isn't the same as actually witnessing it. While she wasn't the scariest thing I've ever come across in a game, she still spooked me a bit!

While this one isn't exactly scary, it's still a bit unnerving. When you go to stop the Ultimate Weapon in Geosenge Town in X and Y, there's these Flare grunts all blocking the exits to the town. When you try to talk to the ones leading to Route 10--I think--they'll say things like "Nope! I won't listen! I can't hear those Pokemon's cries!" and "Stay back! A kid like you shouldn't be exposed to such sights!" To be honest, while not full-on out terrifying, it's still kind of jarring because even though I already knew about the whole genocide thing, you're deliberately blocked from seeing what the heck is happening on that route. I also got the idea that Team Flare was using their own Pokemon to help fuel the weapon--I don't really know why I thought this at the time, probably because I mistook the memorials made for the pokemon that died powering it in the past were just their husks, seeing as how there were some rock-types like Onyx in the flashback--and that some of them actually seem to care about their pokemon, such as Lysandre's and Mabel's dialogue, only made it more twisted than someone that just didn't, like Cyrus or Ghetsis. I don't know.

Also, during that cutscene that plays after the credits in ORAS--the one where Norman and the PC's mom are talking about what to do with the meteor show tickets--there's just really soft, music box music playing, so I think I had my volume turned up a bit. But because this is teasing the Delta Episode, after they finish talking, the Delta symbol popped up and the Sky Pillar theme started blaring. Needless to say, this startled me.

This next one is just a bit unnerving rather than scary. While most character models in Pokemon Masters look relatively okay, there's still some characters that, in my opinion, ever-so-slightly dip into the Uncanny Valley, either because they had to have their proportions changed a bit too much to match the art style or because they look a bit too similar to their old art style. Like, something about how Colress' eyes seem to be too low on his face is a bit odd. But the one that just weirded me out the most was Professor Sycamore. I can't exactly explain why--something about his eyes is off, his hands just look WAY too big, and something about some of his movements look pretty uncanny--so I actually really disliked him when I first unlocked him. Later though, I got used to his appearance and he grew on me; playing Pokemon X also really helped!

Oh, and in the same vein, Whismur's appearance is really creepy to me. Something about its eyes and mouth just looks kind of freaky. Of course, its Pokedex descriptions make it sound really cute, and Aster--the Whismur--is really sweet, but I honestly can't get past its appearance.

The scariest thing though? The time I accidentally saved on Southern Boulevard in Lumoise City and thought my game would be corrupted

Oh, wow this got way longer than I expected!

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

The Strange House from B2/W2.

 

[Pikasso]

The Old Chateau in D/P/Pl, mainly because of the eerie music and the ghosts that occasionally float around in the rooms.

 

[Aozora]

The old man in viridian city who teaches you how to catch Pokémon due to his association with the MissingNo glitch

 

[Harryghost]

The Old Chateau, definitely.

Be me. A kid playing Pokémon Platinum in the middle of the night. I venture into Eterna Forest, and what's this... This forest has such a pleasurable theme. Surely, there wouldn't be anything unnerving here- oh...

The way I ran out of the Old Chateau upon hearing its theme. I closed my game immediately and waited until broad daylight to explore that place XD.

 

[Herbizarre]

My first spook in Pokémon was in the original Gold when some of my Pokémon had the Pokérus. Knowing it was a virus, I thought it was something bad and restarted the game on an impulse. It's sad to think that I also had a shiny Paras (my first random shiny ever) in this file. I redeemed myself by getting another shiny Paras in Legend Arceus though.

The Ghost Girl in Lumiose City is one highlight as well, especially because it came out of nowhere. Unlike Lavender Town or the Old Chateau where you are expected to be spooked, Lumiose City is the last place you'd expect a jump-scare to happen.

 

[c la fet]

The Bad Egg sounds in Pokémon Emerald. I honestly thought my game would die when I heard them

 

[Puddle]

Aether Paradise. On the surface it looks like an idyllic sanctuary for Pokémon, but everything's a little too clean, a little too perfect...

The laboratories in the basement, the masks the scientists wear, and Lusamine's "trophy room" all give me the creeps.

But I also gotta give the Original Cinnabar Mansion a shout out
The Red Eyed Statues, The Diaries, The Backstory on Mew and Mewtwo, etc..
It all just gets so much creepier the more you look into it

I find Cinnabar Mansion especially creepy in Let's Go because you can visit the lab where Mewtwo was created. If you interact with the main glass tank you get some text about how something has been repeatedly beating at the glass from the inside.

The RBY and FRLG versions have eerier music though.

 

[Strawberry Cupcake]

I'd say the only time I was ever really spooked in a Pokemon game was when I first started playing the games back when I was like 8? Whenever the first game came out in the USA when I got to Lavender Town, the music scared me so much as a kid. I now really enjoy it oddly.

 

[R1ke]

Lavender town syndrome, I did believe it for a bit. But I was still curious so tried it. The music is actually unsettling, especially the gen 1 version

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Oh yeah forgot this but seeing Spinarak and Ariados for the first time actually scared the shit out of me

But that's just because I am a MASSIVE Arachniphobe

 

[MC.Princess]

My first fight with Ultra Necrozma in US scared the crap out of me for three reasons: because it looks kinda terrifying, it was way tougher than anything I had fought before, and the fact that it SPOKE.
"Li-Lie-LIIGHT!!!"

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

and the fact that it SPOKE." Li-Lie-LIIGHT!!!"

If that spooked you, how about the Totem Mimikyu, when it just appears behind you in the room and literally says, "See me?!"

 

[MC.Princess]

If that spooked you, how about the Totem Mimikyu, when it just appears behind you in the room and literally says, "See me?!"

Oh yeah, that was terrifying! I had forgotten about it during a (failed) Nuzlocke of US recently, so I got to relive that moment. Funnily enough, it killed my run, so that made it even more terrifying.

 

[Pasio]

A couple of things:

Latios when I encountered it for the first time in Emerald like 11 years ago. It was probably its odd design and especially its cry in Gen 3.

The Pokémon Black 2 Black Kyurem intro screen + entry music when I was 12. They really threw in a beast that looks like it could and would rip you apart, then played a terrifying into to pair up with it .

The music for when you fail an entire story in Pokémon Conquest. This isn't when you lose a match. It's when you lose ALL of your kingdoms or failed the entire story in some other way. This was particularly bad for me because the way I'd fail is by going ALL the way to year 100 just to meme around and test how far I could go, but when I reached year 100, the music gave off a vibe like I destroyed civilization and everyone is dying soon.

Gigantamax Pikachu's cry when I heard it the night before... I hate gigantamax cries.

 

[Firestonepirc]

This isn't a game, but once I watched a terrifying backstory video of Celebi when I was 6. I got over it, but it still gave me the spooks when I got a Celebi card a few years later.