The Existential Dread of Pokémon in the Postgame

#pokemon #gaming #retrogaming

Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow postgame is really strange. After you beat the elite four, the game teleports you back to Pallet Town with nostalgic music and nothing to do. I took a tour through Kanto in the Pokémon Yellow postgame, checking how each of the towns feel to spend time in after beating the game, and I ranked them all based on how bad I felt there.

[ji_mothy]

Which city do you like best?
Thx for being here <3

[griever]

It kinda makes sense that Red ends up just standing on a mountain. Nothing else to do.

[Panikdemet]

Most games at the time didn't have a postgame.
"You can catch a secret legendary pokemon after the elite four" was top school rumour.

[ZeeBeeZB]

I got the same feeling from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon as a kid. My teammate went from a dynamic emotional friend to just another NPC

[nonnacekim]

I’ve been trying to articulate this since I first beat Blue Version back in 1998. I always just felt… sad, because everything felt kinda lifeless. No one left to battle, no more surprise events. Just your trusty team and the lingering fear that, having conquered the highest (Indigo) plateau of your chosen “profession, ” you’ve peaked at age ten and there are no heights left to climb.

And then Gold and Silver came out!

[FlameSoulis]

You know, just dawned to me...

The only towns without gyms are Pallet Town and Lavendar Town.
A place of beginnings and a place of the end.

[jonothanthrace]

Pallet Town's color scheme always made me feel really depressed, like it's the archetypal "small town you swear you're gonna get out of someday but you never manage to get it together enough to actually leave".

[ViperRaiyu]

In gen 1’s defense, it’s a gameboy game on a completely new IP that nobody was aware would blow up in popularity the way it did. It was an experimental game that became larger than life, but they had no way of knowing that would eventually be the case.

[Aethelhart]

Gold and Silver did a good job with this with the telephone system where trainers would become your friend, call you with tips on outbreaks, sales going on, and even for rematches. Combine that with daily events all over the two region sized world that reset on a bimonthly basis and you have a lot to do and redo post game.

[keizervanenerc]

Fun fact about the jigglypuff in Pewter: if Pikachu is folowing you while you talk to jigglypuff, pikachu falls asleep and stops following you untill you either talk to him or leave the building.

[marcusmclean]

Cinnabar being made uninhabitable by a volcanic eruption within three years has got to count against it being a place I'd want to stay in after completing the game, personally

[Ramtamtama]

Cerulean City - a Sims starter home, several meth houses, and swimming in a 2x2 square

[deadbeatSad]

As a kid, and even now, i get this sadness after I beat a game; especially a game from before "post-game content" or even "NG+" was a thing and all we had was rumors, starting a new file, or be one of the first speedrunners of a game.

It always felt haunted to me. Not as in "a presence where one should not be" but more like "an absence where a presence ought to be". With nothing left to do or achieve, the world felt barren and desolate. Everyone and everything was frozen in time right there and then. I did that.

It made me feel like, for the benefit of the world and its occupants, maybe it would've been better if i had never played the game at all.

[jdb]

I love that the scientist guy in Cinnabar says "It never hurts to have extra items", when it's the place where you get more than you should be able to carry.

[bennydave]

No wonder red glitched out of boundaries and lived atop mt silver for 3 years

[deathstinger]

ngl, based on the title, this one thought this would be more of a video essay on the topic of hypothetically living in a world that never progresses past you clearing the final boss, letting you personally keep all that progress, but the world doesn't recognize or change at all, and the existential dread experiencing something like that in person would cause. Like imagine walking up to someone you hadn't seen in months and they just say the exact same thing they did before you went off and did the plot

[PKNproductions]

I've been obsessed with this feeling and have tried to use it as a metaphor and no one else seems to get it.

Like, it's the same feeling as being on campus right after college finals are over. It's not necessarily empty - the library is still staffed, there are still some cars in the parking lot, etc. It's not literally lifeless, but that's the only word that can describe it

[rickygoldchain]

The 4 boys walking along the railroad tracks are a reference to the movie "Stand By Me" (1986) which is actually based on a Stephen King novella.

[TheZeroNeonix]

I always wished more NPCs would acknowledge your accomplishments after becoming champion, especially in Pallet Town.

"Hey, [player_character]! I heard you won! Congratulations!"

To my memory, the only NPC who does anything different after your victory is the guy blocking Mewtwo's cave.

[jamesfarson]

I am totally here for Pokemon psychogeography