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Health and Wellness

Lavender Town Syndrome

Pokemon Based Depression

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Lavender Town Syndrome

For over almost twenty year the Pokémon franchise has managed to keep people's hearts young as well as keep people entertained with the popular video games. This year, Pokémon has managed to stay in headlines with the release of the first smartphone app, Pokémon GO, and the newest 3DS games, Pokémon Sun and Moon. Yet this story takes people back to the humble beginnings of the Pokémon games.

In the beginning of the Pokémon video game series were the three games, Red, Blue and Yellow. These games were set in the Kanto region and had a simple 8-Bit look and soundtrack. One of the main locations in the game was Lavender Town, but it wasn’t for Team Rocket. Instead it was well known for being depressing.

The main part of the town is the Pokémon Tower. It acts as a cemetary for all of the Pokoemon of the region that have died. As the player goes through the tower they have to battle trainers, but also go against certain parnormal events in the tower.

In later versions Pokemon Red, Blue ,and Green the player goes against the ghost of a Marowak that was killed by Team Rocket. But in the earlier versions of the games Players have to battle a zombie called Buried Alive

Players go to the top of the Pokemon Tower and either go to the center or the tombstone on the right and press the "A" button. Buried Alive then says, "You're... Here. I'm trapped... And I'm lonely... So very lonely... Won't you join me?" After Buried Alive says this you engage in a battle with him. The problem wiht this battle is that there is no way to win.

He has two Pokemon called White Hands, Ash's Pika, and other pokemon that are level 90 and up. White Hands act like the pokemon Ditto and take on the shape of the opposing pokemon. Ash's PIKA looks like a normal Pikachu but has blood on its mouth and hands

When the trainer loses instead of owing BuriedAlive money the game pulls up a screen that says GAME OVER. The image that is shown is Buried Alive eating the flesh of a trainer.

On the other hand if player manages to defeat Buried Alive the game will freeze. This happens becasue no programming was created to show that a player will defeat Buried Alive. The only reason that this happens is becasue no prgramming ws written to show that the trainer won or would win.

One of the major factors that goes into Lavender Town Syndrome is the music that was played on the original versions of the games. This music has been analyzed by many skeptical YouTubers and have found that the music has Unown, alphabet looking Pokemon, spelling out the words LEAVE NOW.

Lavender Town's strange music is said to be the primary casue of a mass series of suicides in the late 1990's after Pokeomn Red, and Blue were released. At least two-hundred children between the ages of 7 and 12 committed suicide by jumping or falling from high places. This epidemic never reached the United States and was only in Japan; for the children that didn't commit suicide they experienced headaches and were irritable.

In later games the music was changed to sound softer and Buried Alive was changed to the Marowak ghost that is known in Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. Lavender Town Syndrome was eliminated but the original version of the music has been posted on YouTube. The town's dark atmosphere display a sinister side of the Pokemon franchise.



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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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