Less than a week had passed and the package had already shown up. I opened the bubble mailer and pulled out the case. It looked legit, they had cut no corners on giving a full Pokémon experience. The front cover was a shiny yellow with a happy Pichu and the title. On the back were a couple pictures of a cave, a Pokémon battle and what looked like a daycare or something. It had a Magby, Azurill, and Budew together, so maybe they were the starters. Interesting choices, but I didn’t hate it.
The little blurb read ‘The Ohmu region, a place of peace where Pokémon and humans live in unity. Set out on your journey with your partner today, because the world of Pokémon isn’t just for kids after all!’ It seemed straightforward enough, classic pokemon play style using the engine from Legends. I took the little cartridge out of the case, put it in my Switch and headed out the door. As I walked to the bus stop. I went through the start up.
“Oh! Hello there! And welcome to the world of Pokémon! I’m Professor Kauri.” She was a younger woman with black hair in a messy bun. She wore a graphic tee under her lab coat. “I study Pokémon and human interaction. I think you were sent here to help me? But first let me know a little bit about you…” at this point it let me do the minor customization for my character. I’ll give the modder this, they made sure to have some gender neutral presets as well as the classic male/female options. I went with a shoulder length blonde girl and named her Scout.
“Oh yes, Scout! You were the young lady sent to help me with my research. You’ll be working with my assistant here.” She gestured to the side and the game revealed a young man. He had chestnut hair and a bit of an awkward yet cute vibe to him.
“Hi Little Miss, I’ll be helping you on your journey. My name is…” they gave me the classic option of naming your ‘rival’ type character, so I went with “…Dylan. I’ve been helping the professor around the lab for a while now, but she realized she needed to send someone out into the field to further explore what life is like for Pokémon and the people around them. That’s where you come in.”
“Thank you Dylan. Yes Scout, you’ll go on your very own Pokémon journey around the Ohmu region and report your day to day adventures to me. But for now get some sleep and we’ll see you tomorrow. Your very own Pokémon legend is about to unfold! A world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon awaits!”
I must not have been paying as close attention to my surroundings as I should have, because that’s when I stumbled off of the sidewalk. The headlights were so bright and I closed my eyes tight as I sat frozen in the road, but the inevitable never came.
“Oh there you are, Little Miss! You shouldn’t go off into the tall grass on your own, it really isn’t safe. Oh dear.” He paused and I opened my eyes to see that I was in fact sitting in a patch of tall grass. The sun behind me made his chestnut hair shine. It was Dylan. “Looks like you’ve already realized it’s dangerous. Come on now, let’s go get you some dry clothes. Can’t have you going into the lab soaking wet after all.” I took his outstretched hand confused. What did he mean soaking wet, but looking down I was shocked to see the big wet patch on my pants. I guess Truck-Kun bearing down on you will cause that…
<Edited by @Aliceko_chan over on Twitter!>
Playpen of Ko 