Pendraflare

Age 32
Male
Pennsylvania
Seen July 30th, 2021
Posted March 29th, 2021
6,263 posts
9.8 Years
As we all know, we all love Pokémon games, and everyone has that one that really stands out to them. But every now and then, we have painful memories in them, some of which may affect our thoughts on the game in some way. Possibly not. Others may love them unconditionally. But again, sometimes things get hideous, to the point where it can make it hard for you to look at the game(s) in a positive light. Here's my example... Be warned though, this could get pretty darn sad. Or you may think I deserve to feel this way. Read on.
Spoiler:
As most of you know, I love Black 2 and White 2. In 2015, I did an epic Challenge Mode Nuzlocke on them, and it had some very difficult rules (no usages of Pokémon Centers that weren't straight, limited item purchasing, etcetera). I documented it on Marriland, (now Azurilland), and turned it into a story challenge, which I started documenting in late May. I really wanted to take my time with it and put lots of effort into it.

Throughout most of the game I was thoroughly enjoying it. My team was full of oddballs like Maractus, Grumpig, and even Muk, which had been a lot of fun to show they were awesome. Even after Ghetsis, where I had quite possibly the most inexcusable death I've had, I added a Clefairy to my team to replace it. After spending over two hours EV training it and catching it up with my team, it proved to be a very good team member against those on Route 23 and the first part of Victory Road, even with a -Sp Atk nature.

But then, come Victory Road, I beat those last two Veterans right before Hugh, and decided that instead of being a coward, I would fight more trainers. That Veteran killed the Clefable with a Skarmory that had +2 Attack, was faster, and scored a critical hit, killing it from 2/3. I decided not to train up another Pokémon, instead grabbing my under-leveled Swanna to leech off EXP. Then Hugh happened, and I lost my Grumpig and Maractus, those ALSO to critical hits - the former being OHKO'd by his Bouffalant, and the latter to his Serperior with +3 Attack after using Cotton Guard, which was preceded by two misses with Gunk Shot from the Muk. We won by the skin of our teeth.

After gathering and EV training replacements, one of them being a Druddigon, during training against an Audino that used Double-Edge, the Druddigon had half its health and the Audino used Double-Edge...which sure enough, scored a critical hit and killed the Druddigon. I refused to accept the death after what had just happened, I thought, no, I'm not accepting this. I just lost half my team, I did so much EV training, this is the last thing I deserve. People cheat in -Lockes all the time. It's no big deal. Right?

Nope.

Some people on Azurilland were extremely against it, and I was ready to say goodbye to it. But most of the people who had been supportive of the journey (and what I had done for so long) were still in favor, understanding that I wanted to still enjoy myself (which was hard enough after what had just happened). I continued posting the challenge in spite of what I had done, because they were alright with it. They saw the terrible massacre. And yet, even with all of that, after I was done posting it, the challenge was still declared a loss. I felt demoralized enough after the Hugh fight, then that was the icing on the cake. Come that point, I was left feeling awful about the challenge once again. It nearly broke me to the point where I very nearly gave up on forum documented challenges AGAIN.

The only good thing that came at the end was the Iris fight, which had my Samurott finishing off her Haxorus, and then dealing the final blow to her last Pokémon (Aggron). Other than that, I felt lousy about the challenge for basically throwing it and not taking it down properly after over half a year of work on it, especially after I persevered despite frustration and rage in the Platinum Wedlocke I did earlier that year (and my Black Personalocke for that matter)...and that I underestimated how seriously people take these rules.

If all of this had only happened after, say, two or three months it wouldn't have felt as painful. But after over half a year, and hours and hours and hours of work on it, I felt utterly broken. Almost everyone who's supported the works I've made on Azurilland has said I don't deserve to feel this way, but I really feel like I do.

I think the thing that really broke that adventure for me was before Victory Road, I was ready to call it my favorite Nuzlocke I had ever done...heck, one of my favorite playthroughs of any Pokémon game I had done. Then things just crumbled after I made several epic screw-ups in quick succession, some of which I don't even think I can call mistakes. The challenge was utterly magical until that point, only to completely collapse in a spectacular fashion faster than a rock falling off a skyscraper. Had I still had the Pokémon that I had lost in Victory Road, or even just the Maractus, things wouldn't quite have been as terrible. Even now, all of this is still beyond my craziest scope of comprehension.

I'm not sure I can call B2W2 my favorite games after that. Hopefully when I go for redemption more than likely sometime this year, I'll be able to take that statement back, but right now it's hard for me to be totally in favor of them. The above incident in the spoiler just really left me feeling tainted. Witari please stay away from me

So, when it comes to games you really like, have things ever happened in them to make them sour on you? Is there anything in particular that you do to help you forget bad things that happen there and allow you to like as much as you always have? Discuss.
Azurilland | Twitter | Nuzlocke Forums
May someday resurface in full. We'll see what happens down the road!
I had my copy of X corrupt for absolutely no reason whatsoever, costing me over a decade's worth of hard work in Pokemon dating all the way back to the third generation titles, including a lot of spinoff exclusives, the few shinies I'd actually managed to find myself, and event Legendaries. Soured my experience of the entire franchise, pretty much. I'm still not over it. I don't really know what I can do since the slate has been pretty much wiped clean. So yeah. I get where you're coming from - this stuff can really hurt if you invest so much time and effort into it and it rewards you by kicking you so hard you're catapulted into the stratosphere.

I guess all you can really do is just try and make more memories, and try to have the good memories outweigh the bad ones. As long as you can keep enjoying yourself, it doesn't matter too much if you experience the occasional hiccup, right? When you have no real mistakes to learn from in these instances it's pretty hard to take anything positive away from it, but just to keep going with it.

Fannie

Don't let my milk go lumpy

Age 31
Female
UK
Seen December 31st, 2016
Posted May 14th, 2016
552 posts
7.5 Years
no usages of Pokémon Centers that weren't straight
Sorry, I feel really dumb, but can you explain that to me??
4656 - 9729 - 6391
CDB gone dun'd the adorable avatar
clicky here to drop by his shop

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
Sorry, I feel really dumb, but can you explain that to me??
He had a restriction in terms of using Pokemon Centers. It was not being able to use them at all if I recall.

Anyways, my worst memory would have to be Black 2 corrupting because I had a high-leveled Join Avenue and some powerful Pokemon on my team. It was a shame because it meant so much hard work went to waste.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
Visit my Tumblr page if you wish to contact me.

http://daikenkki.tumblr.com/
Seen January 1st, 2023
Posted March 23rd, 2022
3,316 posts
9.2 Years
after reading your story i think you should just not care what people think. if you wanted to continue on regardless of the rules of the challenge then just do so with whatever means you need to do it by. you followed the challenge up to that point and got pretty far, I think it's fair to say you just wanted to finish it since you were so close. was it a completely successful nuzlocke? no it wasnt. but you did it to the best of your ability and that's all that really matters.

i've never had a game soured for me, but sometimes i do get frustrated. I once did an all bug team on hg as a sort of challenge for myself and basically most of my team sucked and i had to drag 3-4 members of the team once i was past morty to finish. i pretty much won against the elite four and champion with just pinsir and scizor because the rest were useless. after that i took a nice break from playing lol
Male
Obscure cities, that are dark.
Seen July 4th, 2016
Posted July 4th, 2016
611 posts
8.5 Years
Eh, does it really count as a bad experience with the game if you make it harder by pretending that Pokémon die? You figure you could probably make the game less enjoyable in lots of ways. You could always try a Ditto solo run, if it made you feel better.

Other than that, while there were quite a few things which were troubling about the games, I can't recall too many bad experiences earlier on, and less so if played more recently. There was a fairly long time when I wasn't playing any of these games, of course. I guess that missing out on a free Shuckle earlier on in G/S was a bit unfortunate. It may have been worth getting a Gyarados from the Lake of Rage as well, other than the shiny one.
When it dawns that Keats' idea of 'negative capability' is basically reducible to the public perception of Lucario.


Fannie

Don't let my milk go lumpy

Age 31
Female
UK
Seen December 31st, 2016
Posted May 14th, 2016
552 posts
7.5 Years
He had a restriction in terms of using Pokemon Centers. It was not being able to use them at all if I recall.
Ah, I thought so but the wording made me unsure. Thank you for clearing that up :)
4656 - 9729 - 6391
CDB gone dun'd the adorable avatar
clicky here to drop by his shop