Pokemon Sapphire

Hello there internet. I’ve been recently have been having serious problems lately, and I feel that I could be in danger. Sorry if it’s a long read, but this has gotten really freaky for me. This is regarding a used game of Pokémon Sapphire I just recently got.

For those who don’t know, I’m somewhat of a Poké-nerd. I’ve been a fan of the series since me and my older brother got the first generation games, Red for him, and Blue for me. Eventually as time passed, my brother grew out of it, but I still remained faithful to the series (well, gamewise, at least. The show has gone downhill after the first series in my opinion.)

Anyways, it started a few weeks ago, when one of my internet buddies posted that he was going to start his Pokémon Ruby version over, and recording his progress and posting it on youtube. After talking about it for a bit with him, he joked about how I should restart a sapphire game. Even though it wasn’t serious, it got me in the mood to possibly play through it again.

However, I didn’t want to restart my old sapphire game over, since I had gotten so far in it, as well as had a lot of Pokémon not found in that game in the Pokédex. And I didn’t want to download an emulator and rom, so I decided that I would just get my hands on a new copy of the game. I searched for a few days online, finding a lot of sapphire games, but most were too pricey for me.


Finally, I found one that was about $3. The description said it was in good condition, with a scratch on the label, and some writing on the back with black permanent marker. Satisfied with what I found, I decided to purchase it. I couldn’t wait to get it in the mail.

A few days later, it finally arrived in the mail. As I unboxed it, I noticed the label had a scratch through the middle of it, like the description said online. As I turned it around, and saw the word “Sorrow” etched on the back of the cartridge in black permanent marker as well. Other than that, it looked like it was in fine shape. So then I put it in my Gameboy Advance SP and turned the power on.

After the title screen played, I looked at the first selection screen, when I noticed the save file on the game to be somewhat perplexing. The trainer’s name was “DAVE”, and he had all 386 Pokémon on his Pokédex. I checked his game file, and sure enough, he had every single Pokémon, even a legit Celebi (I checked Serebii.net to confirm this)! I was so astonished at this, as this was a goldmine for a Pokémon collector.

I also checked his team out, all of them level 100. This is his team:
Salamence
Girafarig
Plusle (nicknamed “Bolty”)
Sceptile
Blaziken
Swampert (nicknamed “Miko”)

Though, I was at a dilemma about what to do with his game file, whether to erase it, or preserve it. In the end, I transferred legendary, rare, and team to my Heart Gold game, so they wouldn’t be totally erased. After that, I started a new game, called my trainer “Brendan” (this is his default name. I chose Torchic as my starter, beat May, and got the Pokédex from Professor Birch, and saved my game at Oldale town. After that, I shut off the game, giving myself a break from it.

After a while, I decided to play some more, so I turned on the power. But after the intro screen, a message appeared on the screen:

Your save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be loaded.

And sure enough, my file was gone, and DAVE’s file was in its place. At first, I was a little disappointed, and thought nothing of it. Plus, I have experienced the same problem on my Diamond version of Pokémon, so this wasn’t something new to me. Plus, I knew a way around it; by saving the game twice. That way, it would revert to the first save, and my progress wouldn’t be deleted.

So, I restarted the game again, doing everything over, and saved twice. I turned the power off and on again, and the corrupt file message didn’t show itself, and my file was the same as when I last saved. I felt like I accomplished something there, and I went on in the game, reaching Rustboro city. I double saved it again, and went to sleep, since it was late at night at that point.

Now here’s where it starts getting freaky. The next day, I turned on the game, and the corrupt message showed up again. I chuckled at first, thinking it wasn’t a problem, but after the message went away, it showed that DAVE’s file was there! I was frustrated, and didn’t expect it, since I saved quite a few times. So, I went in and inputed the delete file code. I selected yes after it asked me if I wanted to delete it.

After that, the screen went black, and a message showed up. It said “My legacy… you’re trying to erase it…” At this point, I was freaked out of my mind. It felt like the game was talking to me. I don’t know why I didn’t shut off the game at this point, but I kept playing, like it was in control of me.

When the black screen disappeared, it showed Brendan in a cave room. I was at the south end of it, and a three square hallway in the center was to the north of me. The music that was playing was the same music you hear inside of Mt. Pyre, and Shoal cave. I checked the stats of my Pokémon and trainer, and it turned out to be the same as the trainer I made yesterday, and the Pokémon I had since my last save.

After checking, I walked through the passageway, which seemed like it was pretty long. Eventually, I found myself in another box room, just like the one I was in at the beginning. However, there was another Brendan standing in the middle of the room, facing north. I went up to the doppelganger, pressed A, and he turned around. This Brendan’s eyes were red, and he said “GO AWAY!”

Then a battle started. I was facing Pokémon Trainer DAVE, and his trainer was Brendan’s, except his eyes were red, and he looked angry. The music in the background was the Regi battle music. He had only one Pokémon with him; his Level 100 Plusle named Bolty. It looked sad, and the cry it gave out was if it fainted. Since my Pokémon were around level 11, I was no match for him, and his Plusle took out my team in one hit each. After my last Pokémon fainted, he appeared on screen again, and said “Now it’s your turn.”

Then the message said “Brendan is out of usuable Pokémon.” But instead of the normal message of “Brendan whited out…” it said “Brendan was killed.” Then the screen went black for a few seconds.

After the black screen went away, it showed a grassy field, with gravestones scattered around. There was a single golden gravestone in the middle. After a few seconds, a message appeared. It read a chilling message that made me shiver. (I changed the name part of the message on here, since I don’t want to reveal my real name):

Here lies XXX

I was shocked. There was a gravestone, with my real life name on it, and I never even used my name in the game. I turned off the game, and haven’t played it since.

I’m at a dilemma now, whether to pick it up again, or just get rid of the game, and get a new one. All I can say is that this scares the shit out of me.