this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 154 points 9 months ago (3 children)

You're allowed to return home anytime you want. Just walk your character into their bedroom, tuck them into bed, save, exit to the main menu, and delete the save. Congratulations, you have just completed the alternate ending to Pokémon.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I know I'm replying to my own comment but this reminded me of a joke I once read about the first Bioshock game (Bioshock spoiler incoming)

TitleWhen Andrew Ryan told me to kill him at the end of Bioshock, I shut off the game and deleted the save. A man chooses, a slave obeys.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The VR game Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners has a series of decisions at the end. On my first playthrough I managed to fuck up everything and everybody.

spoilerFirst you can choose to flood either a storage full of supplies that could help a ton of people or a guy trapped in a bunker next to them who was pleading with me through radio. I just didn't have the heart to kill him while he's talking to me, even though sacrificing him would probably be justified in the post-apocalyptic reality of the game.

Then one of the few unambiguously good characters, stricken with grief, threatens to ring a bell which would attract a horde of zombies and lead to a massacre. A soldier is ready to shoot her to prevent that. There's gotta be a way to talk it through, right? Well, no, he was pulling the trigger so I shot him first. That soldier? The guy I refused to flood earlier.

And guess what? I couldn't talk it through. She was adamant she will pull the rope and... I ended up shoting her too. Great fucking job, hero.

It really hit hard too - these were not just dialogue choices or anything. I had to actually turn the right valve in the first case and then pull the trigger in the other two.

Well, this being a VR game, I just put a pistol to my temple and pulled the trigger. Figured that was a valid choice after fucking everything up. I got a standard game over screen, but as far as I'm concerned that's how the story ended that particular playthrough.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Would you recommend the game? It sounds quite interesting from that blurb

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago

The NEET ending.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Shouldn't you also, I don't know, go to school, graduate and become an accountant or something?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Does Pokemon even have accountants? They don't have real banks... only Pokebanks...

Can you collect interest on your Pokemon?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In the second gen your mom can manage your finances for you, although she buys stuff with your money so I wouldn't call it a bank exactly lol.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Bank of Mom is something that most of us know in some form.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah, but you know, danger in the pokémon world is relative.

The worst thing that can happen when you face mafia/terrorists/wannabe dictators is they will make your rat fight theirs. I guess they'll take your lunch money every time you lose, so that's a thing.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Haha oh nooo. The official lore can be surprisingly fucking dark. Even in the games, the reason Jubilife exists is because wild Pokémon smoked an entire village. Burnt the fucking thing to the ground and gave the Galaxy Clan's commander PTSD.

Also in the beginning of Arceus, your rival has only just recovered from hospitalisation after they took a thunderbolt from a Shinx.

Then there are literal wars that break out. And some of the Pokédex entries. And the mangas go fucking dark too at times.

The losing your lunch money is just a game mechanic.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I like the way it's handled in PL:A. Before Pokémon have developed a symbiotic relationship with humans, they will straight up just attack you in the wild.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

I do too. It actually felt a bit like a world filled with potentially dangerous animals, as opposed to magical pets.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The whole lore is an absolute mess, to be fair.

There's Pokémon who should be ridiculously dangerous to even get close to, but no safety measures are required whatsoever and people use them all the time with no consequences. Villains are ready to destroy the world or whatever it takes to reach their goals, but they still won't attack you, or anyone opposing them, directly with their Pokémon. And that's just two of the huge holes in the worldbuilding.

I love the series (well, at least up to XY), but the lore constantly swings between "happy-go-lucky kids-friendly game" and "deep character-driven narrative/creepypasta material", with no coherence between the two. And I love both sides, but trying to make sense of it all is pointless unless you go full theorycrafting and make up your own headcanon.

You can't even use secondary sources because everything has their own canons and you can't make sense of the game through manga information, for example (even though I really wish the game plot was as good as Pokéspe's).

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I wonder how many trainers simply starve to death because they suck at battling

[–] [email protected] 31 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Team Rocket is a lot more sinister when you realize they’re running around causing generations of children to starve in the wilderness

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

And are absolutely not above kidnapping. And that's the two least successful Rockets in the entire organization.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

That's why so many of them became bug catchers and fishers.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Meanwhile professor oak:

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Professor Oak: I don't want to marry a single mother!

Ash's mom:

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

Is that why there's already heavy breathing behind the slammed door?

[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago (2 children)

not true the mom does not give him a rat professor oak does.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Also prof oak is almost certainly giving it to your mother.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Professor Oak is giving it to Ash's mother. You play as "Red."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You play as ash in yellow and to be specific I was talking about the show and it's pretty obvious he was laying out down all over the starter town.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Pallet Town*

But yeah he was laying more pipe than a Cerulean City plumber.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I would ague this is almost a perfect comic

Did OP genuinely not think it was close enough to illicit the comparison that they needed to explain it?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 9 months ago

I wouldn't have gotten it without the last panel. I know nothing about pokemon except memes.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

I grew up with pokemon and I didn't get it until then. I watched the series before streaming so I never watched the beginning and the gameboy game is in vague memory (I had the gameboy color which had like 4 colors or something)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I've never played Pokemon, so, yes.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they just wanted an even number of panels! /j

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Otherwise it would be odd

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

you know ash's mom was getting that milf pussy pounded by professor oak

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Meanwhile the kid collects more rats, each one more powerful than the last, instead of collecting other animals

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

He also like short because it's comfy and easy to wear

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Until he finds the top 1% of rattatas.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

but a fucking cool electric rat

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And the 10 year old wants to be the very best, like no one ever was.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I feel like this comic would've been better if they didn't feel the need to dedicate an entire panel to explaining the joke.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

For those that would get it without the last panel, definitely. Unfortunately mainstream appeal necessitates the explanation.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

That's also how Spartans became adults, somehow!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

And in the latest games you go to school and then they want you to explore the whole region. They absolutely shook up the plot by making the headmaster want you to explore rather than your mom! It's revolutionary!

/S

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I love that your Mom is like, "enjoy your school days, honey!" Whenever you visit from uncovering insane time travel bullshit or exorcizing demons or whatever.

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