Soapbox options allow our particular person writers and contributors to voice their opinions on sizzling subjects and random stuff they have been chewing over. At this time, Ethan chateaus himself within the creepiest place within the Pokémon world…
Ah, Lavender City — the place the place the journeys of outdated Pokémon finish and the nightmares of younger trainers are born. This gothic locale from the unique Sport Boy titles has transcended its franchise into an iconic piece of popular culture in its personal proper, and it’s not exhausting to see why. Between its downbeat aesthetic, its surprisingly ahead exploration of mortality, and its plethora of related web legends, Lavender City completely deserves its repute as one of the vital memorably spooky locations in gaming.
Okay, we’ve received the niceties out of the best way. For all of that notoriety, Lavender City is way from the scariest place Pokémon Trainers can go to — neither is it the place that tormented my goals as a baby. For that, one should enterprise all the best way to the Eterna Forest in Sinnoh. There, deep within the woods, lies an deserted mansion generally known as the Previous Chateau.
Featured in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Platinum, and their Change remakes, the Previous Chateau instantly distinguishes itself from Lavender City in a single notable division. In contrast to the Kantonian settlement, the Previous Chateau is a very non-compulsory space that your common participant can be forgiven for lacking on a breezy playthrough. It lurks within the shadows off the crushed path of the Eterna Forest and requires the Lower HM, which means that you should deliberately backtrack and come across it after your first time via the world.
As a younger Pokémon participant with no prior data of the Gen 4 video games, restricted web entry, and a yearning for journey, I used to be thrilled once I found the Previous Chateau for the primary time. In fact, that intrigue rapidly was abject horror once I realized simply what precisely I had discovered.
From its exterior, the Previous Chateau seems like an unassuming if moderately gloomy manor. Nevertheless, upon entrance, the soundtrack wastes barely a millisecond in informing you that you’ve made a large mistake in coming right here. The constructing’s theme is a warped, disjointed melody that invokes a powerful feeling of unpleasantness, with wavering tones and unsettling moans sprinkled all through. It was this track that signaled one thing essential to my eight-year-old self: the place Lavender City is somber, the Previous Chateau is downright sinister.
Contained in the dilapidated mansion, you’ll be able to discover a variety of rooms unfold throughout two flooring. The Previous Chateau’s format and aesthetic aren’t something too out of the atypical, however it solely takes a bit little bit of exploring to grasp that one thing isn’t fairly proper. Observing a statue within the lobby, it feels prefer it’s evident proper at you. In one of many bedrooms, you might be watched by a classical portray with glowing crimson eyes that immediately disappear once you look instantly at it. In one more room, an old school TV blares static with what the sport identifies as an “oddly malevolent really feel.”
These little particulars are creepy sufficient on their very own, however the complete lack of interactable NPCs or fellow Trainers makes exploring fairly the daunting activity. You might be utterly alone as you plunge into the depths of this derelict locale — at the least, that’s what you may consider at first.
Maybe probably the most notorious facet of the Previous Chateau is that Ghost-type Pokémon aren’t the one phantoms it homes. Exploring numerous components of the home can lead to sightings of honest-to-goodness human specters. In one of many bedrooms, there’s an opportunity you’ll witness a bit woman standing within the adjoining room, who wordlessly glides out into the hallway and out of sight. An identical encounter can happen within the eating room, the place you may even see an outdated man hover towards the kitchen, just for him to vanish if adopted.
These supernatural episodes are temporary and quiet, however they had been greater than sufficient to make me hot-foot it again outdoors once I first noticed them. Maybe much more unnerving than these encounters is the truth that they occur utterly at random — there’s no technique to definitively set off them, and a participant who’s none the wiser to their existence has a stable shot of by no means encountering them in any respect.
I used to be terrified by the Previous Chateau as a child. That’s to be anticipated — it’s a spot expressly crafted to scare the pants off of unsuspecting gamers. However I feel the best way that this particular location caught in my thoughts has a lot to do with its thriller.
As spooky as it could be, I perceive Lavender City. I perceive why the vengeful spirit of Marowak haunts Pokémon Tower. The Previous Chateau provides no such explanations for its numerous phenomena. The identities of phantoms who roam its halls are unknown. Actually, the Previous Chateau is seldom talked about anyplace else within the sport. It exists in a wierd little bubble, utterly faraway from all the pieces else. That ambiguity serves as the proper slate for the creativeness to run wild.
Left with few clues, gamers have tried to glean particulars concerning the mansion and its ghostly inhabitants via skinny threads of environmental storytelling. One frequent principle is that the unknown little woman fell deathly sick, and the outdated man unsuccessfully tried to remedy her ailment — therefore the telltale Antidote that may be discovered within the kitchen’s waste bin. Then, there’s the matter of Rotom, a Pokémon dwelling within the mansion’s TV who seemingly bears ties to each the historical past of the Previous Chateau and Crew Galactic Commander Charon, as implied by a number of in-game paperwork and journals. These bits of hypothesis characterize the tip of the iceberg, and fan dialogue provides the Previous Chateau a good darker edge.
As a lot as I really like the Previous Chateau and all of the creepy lore surrounding it, I have to admit that the scare issue of visiting the place has dulled a bit for me. I’m not the impressionable child I as soon as was, and I’m acquainted with the manor’s format and tips.
Nonetheless, I couldn’t assist however get just a few goosebumps whereas gathering footage for this text as I re-entered the mansion and heard that chilling OST for the umpteenth time. As I revisited rooms I believed had been oh-so-familiar, my coronary heart dropped the identical approach it did years earlier than once I heard a sinister snigger earlier than getting into one of many bedrooms — a recent contact added within the Change remakes.
Even a childhood and alter later, the Previous Chateau nonetheless finds methods to get beneath the pores and skin.