1st Gen I remember my Pokémon dying in Blue

[BreezyAya]

I'm currently playing Omega Ruby and I was having a conversation with a friend about how I'm not using my Swampert a lot because I want to prolong his death by not leveling him up too fast. After being looked at like I had 3 eyes, they said they've never had a Pokémon die. I distinctly remember playing Blue for Gameboy when I was a kid (like 10 or so), and my Blastoise dying when he reached a high level (above 80, though I'm not sure of the exact level). He actually died and I could go visit his grave at the graveyard. I always thought they raised the level they died in the more recent games and that is why it never happened again. Even though I know this happened and it was not a dream or a false memory, I still need validation. Does anyone else remember their Pokémon dying in the original game?

 

[illumine]

I'm currently playing Omega Ruby and I was having a conversation with a friend about how I'm not using my Swampert a lot because I want to prolong his death by not leveling him up too fast.

That's an interesting way of putting it. Do you dislike that Swampert? You might want to consider becoming a rival in the anime, as their quality has gone down considerably since the guy with the curious Blastoise.

That said, the part with finding them in the graveyard seems suspect, but more importantly you wonder why such claims tend to involve places like that, which in the game aren't even really focussed on, and seem mostly used sentimentally, perhaps Pokémon is too scary and cold for such. Anyway, Pokémon generally fainted, rather than dying, in the games. Maybe your Blastoise evolved into a Missingno., and left. Perhaps, though, you were Red from G/S and, after your Pokémon died and went to Lavender Town coincidentally, you caught or trained a team of starters, Pikachu, and things resembling most Pikachu. If it helps, you can continue on with fainted Pokémon if you caught the glitch known as FF, especially in G/S, but by that game at least its level was strictly constrained to the early levels up to around 3 or 4, although if you exceeded this for instance by giving the glitch section-ending Rare Candies, it would level to 255, as it would. Likewise, in the originals you could catch Pokémon above the existent level cap, and past 255 they may reset, and these were generally found beyond the Pokémon data in the game as well despite being present, but in any case high levels are not an impediment. Nonetheless, Pokémon did not die in the originals.

The part about needing validation seems like protesting too much, though, so it's unclear that this is an actual claim rather than a statement of some sort.

 

[Imperator161]

I've never seen a Pokemon actually die in the games, and it shouldn't be able to happen, but your story sparked a memory of my time playing Red, so I thought I would respond.

When I first played Red, I only trained my Blastoise, and barely caught other Pokemon. I didn't exploit glitches or anything else, so every level my Blastoise gained was due to my own dedication. When my Blastoise's level started to get fairly high (80ish, exceeding that of my friends' starters, who they'd had for several more months than I had had my Blastoise), some classmates informed me that my beloved starter would die upon reaching level 100. I had no validation of the outcome either way (I didn't spend much time searching the internet on my dial up connection back then, and there wasn't that much Pokemon info out there), so as my Blastoise approached level 100, I began to dread its imminent passing. I tried to gather as much information as I could, but without much to go on, I eventually took the plunge and leveled it up (I planned on turning off the game without saving if anything went wrong, but of course, I leveled it up vs. the Elite Four, so the game saved anyway).

Incidentally, my Blastoise was fine, although further experience points did nothing for it. Since then, I've leveled up plenty of Pokemon to 100 across the generations, with no ill effect. (Although I'll admit that I tend to prolong the 99--> 100 level up, as things just seem so final, and in some ways, "dead," once my Pokemon can't accept any more experience points.)

So, in answer to your question, no, I've never heard of the player's Pokemon dying in the games except from ill-meaning neighbors and classmates, childhood nightmares, hacks, and creepypastas. I could see Pokemon disappearing due to glitches or the like (or even a friend or sibling releasing them, trading them, or storing them on Stadium, unbeknownst to you), but I've never heard of Pokemon dying, and I'll admit that I'm skeptical of your claim (though I don't deny that that may be what you remember having happened). At this point, I think the R/B code has been analyzed fairly thoroughly, so I can't see any way for Pokemon death having been included without anyone realizing it.

 

[pkmin3033]

I had my fair share of faints during my first Pokemon Red playthrough...and in my Yellow playthrough, too. Most of them came from either my rival or a Gym Leader, though. Misty in particular gave me hell with her bloody Starmie.

I did try and train my Pokemon all equally, my problem came mostly from not training enough, ignoring type advantage entirely - because screw type advantage; I have a badass Charmander! - and in not evolving my Pokemon immediately, because I wanted to learn the better moves earlier. Stats didn't mean much to me back then either. I suffered defeats more out of ignorance than anything else.

...plus, Selfdestruct/Explosion catches everyone by surprise at some point, I think. It's often fatal.