Work Text:
I recently got interested in Pokémon. The rom hacks for the older games, to be exact. Some of them can be genuinely fun to play; others can just be laughed at for one reason or another, or they can be purely made to shock the player, be it with the themes mentioned or the imagery. Even though I found some rom hacks that could be considered shocking, they never made me feel, well, shocked. One exception can be made now, though.
One day, in a Goodwill store that I usually shop at in search for games I like, I found a cartridge for Pokémon red. The charizard's face was scribbled over with what seemed to be a red permanent marker, and the sticker was very scratched. The sticker probably got scratched from time, but I had no idea to why the Charizard had it's head completely covered... I brushed that off, though, and bought it out of curiosity.
I went back home and into my room, instantly booting the game into my Gameboy. The game had its normal startup, with the Gengar and Nidorino fighting, but I did notice that the animation was more... refined? Not really, but it didn't look as plain as the original. The title screen showed up. "Pokémon: Strangled Red version". Interesting name for a rom hack, if I say so myself. Not only the name was different, but the character who appeared on the title screen, Red, was replaced with a new character. This character had long hair, almost reaching to their waist. And the Pokémon don't scroll randomly like the original, A Charmander always being present instead.
I started the game, and I was instantly put into the overworld, instead of being greeted by Prof. Oak. A cutscene of sorts played out...
A character approaches a bed, my character seemingly sleeping there.
"Steven!"
"C'mon, wake up!"
"You can't be lazy now, we have to see Prof. Oak today!"
Then my character had an exclamation mark above their head. They woke up, finally.
"Mike...?"
"O-Oh yeah, our starters!"
"Oh Arceus, did I sleep for too long again...?"
My character spoke by themselves! It does make sense, since Red was replaced with this protagonist now. So the name of the protagonist is Steven. I'm playing as this new character now, without any kind of intro or anything. I didn't know that this kind of thing was possible in rom hacking! And the mention of Arceus makes it a bit obvious that this was made when Diamond/Pearl came out.
Mike, the other character, started talking again.
"Not at all. We're only some minutes late, but the professor probably still has Pokémon to give!"
"Heh, I thought you said that you didn't need your big bro to wake you up anymore"
So they're brothers? That explains why Mike just went to Steven's room without any worry.
"Sorry, I just couldn't pass the opportunity of teasing ya'"
"Anyways, go get yourself ready. I'll be waiting outside!"
As Mike said that, he left the room. Now I could finally move Steven around!
The bedroom that I started in is way different than the original. There was another bed present, some piles of clothing near Steven's bed, and the SNES is not there anymore. When I went to interact with the things scattered around the room, the narration seemed to be in Steven's point of view. For example, when I interacted with Mike's bed, it said:
"This is my brother's bed!"
"He messed it all up..."
"But he'll come back to fix it soon enough! He doesn't like wrinkled beds, after all!"
After I interacted with everything and withdrew a potion from the PC, I went to the tall grass to trigger the Prof. Oak cutscene, and it all went normally.
The dialogue between the professor was the same, but Mike wasn't as antagonistic as Blue was. Instead, he was more polite than Blue, even letting me pick my Pokémon with no complaints!
"Go ahead, lil bro!"
"I'll choose right after you do!"
Only two Pokéballs were present instead of the usual three. Even Prof. Oak commented on that by saying someone already got the other Pokémon before we got there. The Pokémon present in them were Squirtle and Charmander. Since I wanted to go with what I saw on the title screen, I chose Charmander. Then a small cutscene played right after i chose it.
"A Charmander, huh? Good choice, lil bro!"
"Do you want to call it anything?"
And instead of giving me the "yes" and "no" options, Steven replied to the question himself.
"..."
"Miki...!"
After choosing my Pokémon, Mike got Squirtle, obviously, since it was the only Pokémon left on the table.
"Neat, a Squirtle!"
"Since you gave your Pokémon a nickname, it's only fair for me to do so as well, right?"
"I'll call him..."
"Dewdrop! Sounds cool, right?"
The rival can give nicknames too! That's new, ain't it? I know, I thought the same thing.
After that, Mike challenged me to a battle, like the usual thing rivals do. I don't think I should call him that... he's more of a friendly rival.
The fight was over, and I could finally proceed with the game. The game went similarly to the original, but some new items and characters were added here and there; some characters were shown to be younger than canon (e.g. Red and Blue being around 4-6), and some things were removed from the game, probably to make more space for the new things. I got most of my Pokémon to evolve, but Miki was always in the first space, while the others were just for assistance. This was one of the few rom hacks that got me playing from the beginning to the end... sadly.
I fought through the elite four, and I came across Mike again. The location for the battle was different, a crowd present, and a kind of narrator was there too! And the location looked more like an arena than the original. The narrator started talking.
"Welcome, everyone! Thank you for coming here, either in person, or watching on your TVs!"
"It seems that the two trainers found themselves on a standstill in the arena!"
"Who will get the title of champion? We'll find out soon enough!"
Mike started to speak, his demeanor seeming... colder?
"Let's get this over with, brother."
That's something I noticed in my playthrough. Mike slowly started getting more antagonistic, but not to the point of being evil. He was still friendly, but he was more competitive and determined to become champion. At this point, though, he seemed to be on his limit.
The battle started, and I went through most of Mike's Pokémon, but his Blastoise was the one giving me the most trouble. I luckily hit a crit on it eventually, leaving Dewdrop with 3 hp left. That triggered an event to happen.
"Dewdrop's barely standing! Looks like we already know who's gonna be the new champion!" The narrator from earlier said, and a sound effect from the game made it clear that people in the crowd were chanting Steven's name. Mike's sprite appeared for a bit, I think it lasted for five seconds, and said to his Blastoise...
"Dew..."
"Use Skull Bash."
Then Dewdrop came back to his original spot. An animation played of Blastoise curling up into its shell, spinning rapidly, then the shell aimed at Miki's head.
The screen cut to black right after.
A text box appears after some seconds of only a black screen being present.
"Oh... gosh, I- what happened?!" The narrator from earlier said while the screen was still black. "Did that Blastoise just... Oh my Arceus..."
An animation played of Steven falling to his knees, looking at what happened to Miki. It then showed a sprite of Miki laying on the ground, her head not present anymore. It was blown to a bloody pulp. All because of Mike's command.
Mike was then seen running away from the scene with the "got away safely" sound effect playing as well. The flavor text simply said:
"Mike ran away..."
"That bastard."
My game shut down after that.
How the hell did someone pull that off on a Gameboy game?! All of that was astonishing, yet very impressive. I had to take a little break from the game after that because I still had to process what happened. And I never thought I'd say that about a ROM HACK. After a week or so, I decided to give the game another shot, but instead of Charmander, I'd try to choose Squirtle. When I tried starting a new game, though, a text box appeared, simply saying "No."
I tried again and again, but the same message appeared. I went with my already existing save file, and... I was in the Pokémon Tower. But I was on the arena from the final battle, wasn't I?
I tried leaving the tower, but yet again, the "No." flavor text appeared. Some extra text was added this time, though.
"I can't leave Miki."
I went to the top of the tower, and when I did so, Steven walked automatically to Miki's grave.
Steven remained stationary for a bit, then some ellipses appeared above his sprite. Finally, some dialogue appears.
"Oh, Miki..."
"After all of these years... I still can't accept you're gone."
"I wish I could do something to stop that from happening to you."
"I'm sorry, Miki."
"I wish I could see you again, one more time..."
Years... Well, that's a huge time skip. Not even a transition or something. That might have cramped the code for the game, so that's easy to understand.
After Steven's line of dialogue, a weird cackle-ish noise played. Steven quickly looked around, and a question mark appeared in a similar manner as the ellipsis from earlier.
"What the..." Steven started, but his dialogue got interrupted with a simple animation from his point of view. A very odd creature walked closer to him from the tower's shadows. It looked like... a Pokémon? Its appearance was oddly similar to Beta Arceus. So this rom was made when the unused files were leaked!
"Oh, you poor thing..." — The strange new character said to Steven. — "Still looking over your beloved Charizard's grave, even after all these years..."
Steven's sprite shook from side-to-side, signaling that he was shivering.
"Be not afraid, Steven. I do not mean you any harm."
"On the contrary, I'm here to assist you."
"I see you're still mourning over your beloved Miki..."
"All because of your merciless brother, taking her life away, and running like a coward."
Steven hid behind the tombstone he was looking over before.
"Anyway, human, call me Deifictus. You may not know me; you may be scared, and I understand."
"Since humans like you are always afraid of the unknown,"
"But fear not, Steven, for I'm not your enemy. I'm the very opposite..."
"I'm your savior."
Steven's sprite slowed its shivering. "What... What do you mean by that...?" Steven would ask, seeming very skeptical about the "savior" talk.
"So you were already fooled by HIM... Oh well, that isn't relevant at the moment."
Steven seemed confused by that statement, as shown by the question mark above his sprite.
Deifictus continued, though.
"Anyways, I know just the thing you can do to bring your beloved starter back..."
"Now, could you stop cowering behind that tombstone...? You need to pay close attention to me, human."
Steven slowly moved closer to Deifictus, still with some slight shivers in his sprite.
"W-what do I have to do, then...?"
After Steven asked that, the cackle sound effect played, but in a quieter fashion. The overworld grew darker and more monochromatic than before, then Deifictus threw this line.
"You'll have to kill your brother."
Steven's shaking stopped in an instant.
"Wh-.. what?" he asked simply, backing away a bit.
"Oh, Steven, don't you get it?" — Deifictus approached Steven. — "A sacrifice must be made. Sinners must perish so the pure can remain. For me to bring Miki back to life... You'll need to end that traitor's life."
"He ran away when you needed him the most; he didn't even apologize to you, and worse, he didn't even show up to her funeral."
"Don't you see? This is your chance to avenge Miki; this is your chance to give him what he gave Miki—pain."
Steven's sprite changed. He seemed to be looking down at the ground, his eyes obscured in shadow...
"... Alright. I will."
Another laugh came out from the Gameboy after Steven's reply.
"Perfect..." — Deifictus said back. — "You always wished to be stronger than that scumbag of a brother... I could give you the strength you always desired. Come forth, human..."
After that line of dialogue, another pixel-animated scene plays. Steven steps forth once, and Deifictus pounces onto him. It was a very short scene, so right before the animation ended, it just cut to black.
We're back in the overworld, and as I take some steps around the tower, I noticed that Steven's movement was oddly slow...
"Don't mind the sluggish movement, you should focus more on your goal..." — Deifictus says to Steven, starting to give some kind of... Tutorial? — "You want more more strength? Those Pokémon look like a good place to start. Those smaller ones are more fearful, they're not worth your time. But you see those in the caves...? They seem strong enough for you to take care of."
At this point of the game, I need to fight wild Pokémon without an actual Pokémon of my own? Most of them ran away from battle before I could even attack them, but the bigger and stronger Pokémon were good places to get exp, even though I only had one move... "Strangle". It made some serious damage, even though most of the Pokémon I encountered didn't even have necks.
I couldn't get into any buildings like the Pokemart, the Pokémon Center, or even the houses! Almost everything else is not too interesting to comment about, but I'll just say that the way back to Pallet Town was painfully long. After all the walking, though, I finally arrived to Pallet town.
The only house I could enter was Mike's home.
When I entered Mike's house, my movement became way slower than before; As I walked around, I heard a sound similar to snoring coming from the stairs, and the sound was coming from a door at the end of the corridor... Mike's room.
"It's him. His room." — Steven begins speaking when I approach the door. — "This is my chance... My chance to finally have Miki back..."
After that small interaction, I entered the room, and a creaking noise played when I did so. We woke up Mike.
"Huh...? Steven...? What are you doing here?" — Mike says, his sprite poking out from the bedsheets.
Steven walked forward once without input. When he did, an almost unnoticeable red hue is covering my screen, slowing down the already obnoxious wind noises.
"Looking for something? I can see it in your eyes..." — Mike's tone... Changed? His dialogue made him sound so confused before, what's with the sudden tone-shift? — "Miki, right? You still miss her, even after so long? Psh, pathetic..."
Steven came one step closer, the red hue becoming more visible as he does. Mike keeps talking.
"Now, now, there's no need to get stressed... You know I'm right."
"It's so pathetic that you still have an emotional connection to her for all these years...!"
"You should've already moved on a long time ago. I sure did."
Another step ahead.
"Y'know... Ever since Miki was gone, everything has become so peaceful..."
"You were finally out of my way, I could be champion, but..."
"The thought of seeing you be champion while carrying the burden of your dead Pokémon amused me even more."
Steven's sprite was trembling now, showing that he was getting progressively angrier at Mike's comments. All the while I'm still confused to why Mike's personality changed in the middle of the conversation.
"That's it!" — Deifictus finally speaks up. — "Release all of that pent up rage inside you, Steven!"
"Show him who really deserves death now!"
A battle starts against Mike. Not Dewdrop, only Mike. His face looked uncanny, with piercing eyes and a wide smile...
Without any other choices, I used "Strangle". It didn't do as much damage as it did with the Pokémon, which makes sense.
As I kept using the move, Mike kept spewing dialogue...
"Can't you see? This is pointless!"
"Why don't you just give up and accept it?"
"Miki's GONE."
"And she's never, EVER coming back!"
That must've angered Steven a lot, since when I used the move one more time...
"Wait- no nO NO NO, STO-"
I hit a crit. Mike's sprite changed from his uncanny grin, to a face full of pain and remorse. I could see tears on the sprite, too, as small as the details were...
It wasn't Mike saying those things, was it?
One more animation plays, showing a close-up of Mike's unmoving body, as Steven let go of his neck. Mike is dead. Steven's face completely changes from rage to regret.
While Steven is still trying to process what he just did, something can be heard from behind him...
A giggle. Then a booming, bit-crushed guffaw.
Deifictus.
"Oh my, I can't believe you actually BELIEVED ME! You should be seeing the look on your face right now!"
"What a fool you are!"
Steven then looks at his reflection on a mirror that's on the wall. His arms are clawed from Mike's nails digging through his skin while trying to pull him away, and his outfit is slightly stained with blood that Mike coughed out.
"And you know what's the funniest part?! Everyone will think YOU did it! Everyone you love is GONE!"
The laugh kept getting louder and louder, and all Steven does is pull himself up with his head hanging...
"Why... Why would you-" — Steven's dialogue gets interrupted by Deifictus'.
"'Ooh, why would you do this, you were supposed to be my savior, ooh'-"
"You're so predictable it's HILARIOUS."
"I can't believe I even need to say it, I thought you humans were smarter than this..."
"I have decieved you."
"You have nothing. You have noone. All you have now... Is a corpse."
"Now, mortal, what will you do...? What actions will you make after witnessing how unfair life can be...?"
Then Deifictus finally dissapears. Control has finally been given to me once more.
I tried leaving the room, but Steven just interacted with the door as if it was a solid wall. No escape, huh?
I interacted with the bed where Mike is laying dead on...
"My brother's bed"
"It became very messy..."
"... He isn't here to fix this mess anymore."
Steven's sprite shook, and changed to another asset that made it look like he was crying while burying his head on the mattress.
"I'm so sorry, Mike..."
"Please... I need you more than ever, brother..."
"What am I supposed to do now...?!"
Everything faded to black. It ended right there, and the credits rolled without any special animations or anything. Just white text on a black screen.
This rom hack really subverted my expectations! I'd tell you to check it out, but I can't find a way to make the rom public. I wish I could comment more about the new stuff added; There were new characters added into the narrative, like Steven's love interest, Daisy, but I didn't comment about those because I think everything's worth checking yourself.
If anyone out there has the "Strangled Red" rom as well, please share it around. More people need to see this rom hack; The story can be flawed at times, but not everything is perfect, right? It was still touching to me, and I think it's worth checking out.