"Desert Drought"

When you have been trying a type of game repeatedly, you know how to recognize some patterns. Not necessarily knowing things like exact loading times, or other situations that would already enter the deeper niche of the game itself. I mean knowing the location of a certain object by heart, or being able to remember a dialogue, not basic things, but not so advanced either. It was the middle of autumn. The temperature was friendly on both sides, you could go out in shorts, hoping for a warm day, but sometimes you would get a freezing breeze for a few minutes. My younger brother and I have a Nintendo DS with Pokémon Platinum. We shared the same game, it didn't generate distrust in me since he didn't make mistakes like writing my game, he just wanted to make a team of the Pokémon he liked the most and try his luck in the League.

As time passed, the progress was completed, until there was nothing left to do. One day early, I had to leave the house to do some homework, taking the DS with me, to entertain myself along the way. Hours later, while I was returning, I passed by a store where they sold several games
for my console, the thought came to me of purchasing a new one, since, for me, it was necessary. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money, I only brought what was necessary for something to eat, I had most of my savings at home.

It occurred to me to go drink some more and return to the store. When I was passing through a park on the way to my home, I saw a group of people
with some DS in their hands, and I also noticed that a few also had a GameBoy Advance. I would have passed by, but their conversations caught my attention, they were playing the respective versions of Pokémon for that little purple console. He was doubtful whether he should speak to them, because he was a complete stranger, but there was nothing to lose by trying. I approached with the DS in my hands, and was immediately greeted pleasantly, asking me about the progress of my game, we chatted about how much we have completed the Pokédex, we talked about the new 3DS that Nintendo had recently launched, and what would never be missing in a meeting So with Pokémon from the main theme, we exchanged, and we did the inevitable battles with those who had a DS.

A few hours later, they told me about an activity they usually do at these meetings, which consisted of exchanging cartridges and returning the following week to return them. It caught my attention, everyone lined up to propose the games. Since I didn't have another one, I proposed the only one I had. exchanged it for two of the Advance, which belonged to one of the most vocal in the group, he showed his interest in the Platinum version since he had never tried it. Since my console was compatible with those cartridges, I had no problem changing it, plus one of these piqued my curiosity, which was Pokémon Ruby. Being new to the meeting, and to make sure I could trust them, they all gave me their phone numbers, and home locations, to keep in touch. Several hours had already passed, and it was getting late for me. I respectfully said goodbye to each one and left the place. I was sure that the guy I made the exchange with would take good care of my cartridge, since I saw how his console and one of the two games he exchanged were shiny.
However, the same couldn't be said for the Pokémon Ruby cartridge, there was a small layer of dust that was apparently partially removed with my fingers, as if it had been left aside for a while, even without having placed it in its own box.

Removing that detail it could pass as in perfect condition. I put aside the idea of ​​going to buy a new game, with this exchange I would have time
to entertain myself enough. I hadn't been able to get an original Pokémon Ruby cartridge when it was released, so seeing it up close was very gratifying. Instead I had played Sapphire on an emulator years later, my memory of what I had to do in the story was fresh, I knew what could await me, one or another different Pokémon, and heat instead of rain. When I got home I left my things on a chair I had in my room and went to the bathroom to wash my face. When I returned, I saw how my brother was there holding both cartridges, and with the Pokémon cartridge he was removing the remaining dust with a cloth. He turned around and asked me if I had bought them. I explained what I did, he responded with a gesture of understanding, leaving both games on a small table, and returned to his room.

As it was getting dark, I made myself something light for dinner, and got comfortable in my chair to try both games. I chose Pokémon Ruby first. I inserted the cartridge into the bottom of the DS and turned it on. After seeing the initial animation, and pressing Start, I saw how there was already a saved game with the owner's name, something to be expected. 7 medals and just over 60 hours.

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I was curious, I selected it and the first thing I received was a white screen that I was not expecting, if I had had the console very close to my eyes it would have stunned me for a brief moment.

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Although I was puzzled by what happened, I realized that it could be a fog effect, since I could see how there was a black outline in the middle, and I assumed that it must be my character.

I opened the options menu, and chose to see the equipment I had with me: Blaziken, Linoone, Swellow and Sharpedo, all 4 varying between level 40 and 50.

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I walked around and couldn't identify where I was, the terrain was almost in entirely white, with some trees with light yellow details. In a moment, the brightness on the screen quickly decreased, allowing me to locate the place, it was on the outskirts of Littleroot Town.

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I walked around the houses to momentarily enjoy the song playing in the background, although removing that, the atmosphere felt desolate. The vegetation and buildings were covered in a glow that pulsed in intensity, and the NPCs who should have been walking outside were missing. I had the suspicion that the shine could be a defect of the cartridge from being exposed for a long time without any protection. I had a slight desire to try the other game, but at the same time I believed that it could be a secret event that I didn't know about, which encouraged me to continue.

I followed the first route until I reached Oldale Town and entered its Pokémon Center.

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My intention was to reach the PC and get two other members to complete my team. When I entered the building, I was presented with a situation that convinced me I was at an occult event. There was a line of people waiting to be seen by the nurse, it even seemed to be in real time, without me doing anything, the person in front of the counter automatically moved sideways, letting the line move forward. My team had a little life left, so I had to stand in place and wait my turn. I have to say, if it took your time, I waited about 10 minutes.

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As the line moved forward, I tried to interact with those in front and behind me, but received no response.

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I saw how some entered the building and stood in line, while others left. I was very interested to see what this was about, I had never seen it before. When I got to the counter there was no welcome dialogue, the nurse placed my 4 Pokémon in the machine and at the end she just said: “Next.”

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which caused me to automatically move out of line. I entered the PC to get two other Pokémon to complete my team, it was obvious that they had been captured and left here, since they all had a low level. I took out the ones that could be most useful to me and headed to the store to see if that strange event in the Center would repeat itself. I was right, another line, although with a smaller capacity.

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When it was my turn I could notice how healing objects in general were at a higher price, up to double their value. In my interest to continue investigating, I toured the nearby areas, and when I saw Route 103, I noticed how the river that should separate the road in two had changed, it was almost entirely sand, with just a few puddles left around it.

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Nearby was one of those little covers of land where you can harvest berries, but they had no movement animation, and were not affected by the constant glow. I interacted with the ground, they gave me a message that the already planted berries have completely dried up, showing me a small animation as if they turned into dust. I tried to plant a few, but I got a message: “This soil is too dry to plant anything.”

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I came to the conclusion that it could be the legendary Pokémon of this edition, since they emphasized the heat, some people on the routes gave me comments about the high temperatures, some even cut their messages halfway due to fatigue.

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I would think it would be like Sapphire, there they only show you a change in the weather, but they don't add things like changing the NPC's dialogue or new effects on the screen, this has more detail. I went into my team menu to command Swellow to use Fly and see where he left off in the game, the map left me puzzled. Slight differences were noticeable, the most obvious was that the greenish tone of the earth was a little more orange. Sootopolis was marked as not visited. Although I had the move Dive in my possession, neither Sharpedo nor any other Pokémon on the PC had learned it.

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I felt strange, Groudon is supposed to be released when you enter the bottom of the sea and see first-hand its awakening, all the effects on the climate should be after that. How did it activate without first having used Dive? Perhaps the owner of the game never knew how the move was used, but that doesn't explain why the weather was already present. I selected Lilycove City as the destination, upon arrival, the gloomy background music belonging to the hot weather began to play. One detail that I had overlooked was that my team was taking damage, I hadn't done a single fight since the last time I healed them, but most of them had a little less health, except for Blaziken, who had not been affected. The Pokémon Center had almost twice as many people waiting in line, and the prices of the healing items in the store tripled in cost I made the decision to go to the cities further away from Arrecipolis to heal my team, taking advantage of a shorter queue, and the prices of the items should not be so high.

The money I had was enough for a considerable amount of potions, revives and a few anti-burns. I returned to Lilycove, and used Surf to go to the cave where Groudon wakes up, to see what would be there. Usually in this part the trainers in the sea are quite annoying because of the amount of them floating around, but now there was no one. I didn't encounter many wild Pokémon on the way either, but the few that I came across had a detail: they started the fight with a little less life, they even suffered from the burnt state.

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I taught Sharpedo Dive and entered the Sea Cave. At the entrance was the Submarine that Team Magma uses to get here. As I was advancing, I came across several members who were supposed to cut me off, but they were lying under a layer of dirt, along with some Mightyenas graphics, also buried.

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No one moved from their place, they didn't look away, nor did they answer me if I interacted. I quickly reached the end of the cave, and my character paused for a few seconds, to begin walking towards the lava pit in the center.

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Maxie and Archie were there, the latter was in the same state, on the ground, with a little dirt on top. Maxie was standing right in front of the lava, without turning to see me, he said something:

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The smoke around dispersed, an earthquake began to hit the cave, and in one swift movement Maxie fell into the lava, slowly sinking and disappearing.

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Groudon's roar was heard at a low volume, as if it were somewhere far away. That scene shocked me, I didn't expect to see something like that. I tried to talk to Archie, to no avail. Guided by the previous roar, I headed to the Ancestral Cave to face Groudon, the closer I got to Sootopolis, the wild Pokémon that appeared to me began to fight while burned and with less than half of their life, they did not even attack due to the climate that caused them too much damage. My Pokémon were also affected by this, I had to heal them from time to time.

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During the journey I became curious as to why such events were happening. I had to remember the patterns I saw throughout my time playing. As far as I know, these types of games have the capacity of an internal clock to handle events in real time. It will be my guess, perhaps, while the last activated event of the game was that Team Magma had left in the submarine to awaken Groudon, the game was set aside, but the clock continued ticking, and with it, the events still continued, with, or without the protagonist. It seemed like something very crazy for a Game Boy Advance game to be able to completely alter history, but still just a deduction. When I came out of the depths, I saw those changes that I already saw coming after everything before, not a single person in the surroundings, and the buildings had their doors closed. Small red lines of what I can guess were lava, fell down the rocks that surrounded the city.

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When I entered the cave and took a step forward, a series of light earthquakes blocked the entrance. As we moved forward, the same piles of dirt appeared as in the previous cave, now with normal trainers, some were in a gray scale.

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The closer I got to the depths of the cave, the more earthquakes appeared, until I reached what I assumed was the last section. I identified that now those submerged in the earth were my Rival, the Gym Leader of Sootopolis, and the Champion. All without color.

Just ahead I met Wally, and to my surprise, he was standing with his back to me, he approached me, along with a text box and at a reduced speed.

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After telling me that, he walked away. I already assumed what to expect, I healed my team as much as I could and followed it. I went down to the top floor, the fog had dissipated, and there was Groudon, in front of Wally. I approached and the battle start transition began, without any preparation sequence. It was Wally and I, against Groudon.

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Blaziken along with Magneton went out to fight against a Level 90 legendary, which I didn't expect.

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The weather had changed, instead of being a sunny day, the text said that the magma took control of the field, slightly damaging Blaziken, but it multiplied in Magneton's case, leaving his life bar almost in half. It was a long battle, not because it was level, but because it was a difference of eleven Pokémon against just one, and they all fell little by little, apart from the difference in level, the weather left them very vulnerable. Wally took over when his entire team was weakened. My last Pokémon was knocked down, causing me to get in front as well, Groudon got another turn to attack, blasting Wally,

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and then me. We both fell like a Pokémon, and no message came out saying that I had nothing left to continue fighting, the game exited the battle screen, there were now two land graphics where I was standing.

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A deep red fade appeared, causing me to put the console aside.

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My brother spoke to me from the other side of my room, surprising me since I hadn't heard since when I was here. I asked him when he came in, and he answered that since he saw that I was going to fight Groudon, he had come to tell me the time since it was too late. I had lost track of time, it was almost two in the morning. He told me that he was also attentive, watching what was happening with the game from behind, and asked me something that left me dismayed, “Didn't you smell something burning a few moments ago?”

I took the returned console, and I could feel it, the back had raised its temperature. Maybe it had been like this for a while, but I wouldn't have realized it. Although that smell was not there. “Maybe it was the hours of use, you've been playing since you got home” said my brother, I didn't answer him because I was thinking. The red screen disappeared, giving me an aerial view of Littleroot Town, although something didn't add up. Around the town there were small white borders as if it were a photo, and next to it, what appeared to be sand was scattered in small pixels, a broken Pokéball on the left side, and on the right, I want to think they were yellowish rocks buried in ashes. After a few seconds, the game restarted. I wanted to play again, but I had forgotten one detail, I had not saved at any time since I started playing.

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I think it would be better to sleep. My brother returned to his room and I went to rest. It's been several days since I tried that game, and it was time to return it. I didn't tell the owner anything, he didn't mention anything to me these days either, maybe he put it back in storage and it still won't be used.
My internal clock hypothesis could turn out to be correct, although I don't think I can remove that doubt for now. However, I have forgotten to tell one thing. When my brother mentioned the possible reason for the console's temperature to me, I had been thinking about this. On weekends, I have had sessions of many hours, longer than those played with that cartridge, and with games from the DS itself, which should be more demanding. There has never been such a notable rise in temperature, a game of that kind shouldn't even stress the console a bit. Although it doesn't matter at this point, I'll probably never see him again. But after seeing how it ended, I understand that it would be for the best.

Edit Report
Pub: 09 Apr 2024 00:25 UTC
Edit: 09 Apr 2024 07:24 UTC
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