Stay out of the tall grass.
Niantic
Pokémon is a delightful, kid-friendly adventure that’s also home to some of the most disturbing writing in video games tucked away in the Pokédex.
One of the great things about Pokémon is how varied they are. Some are cute woodland creatures, while others are literal palaces built on bones. Palossand sucks out its victims’ souls, then just leaves their skeletons buried beneath its sand.
The Phantump makes a sound like “eerie screams,” which is spooky, but the troubling part is that they’re apparently the spirits of children who died in the forest. While that doesn’t necessarily make them dangerous, it does raise some serious questions about what on Earth is going on in that forest.
The OG creepy Pokémon hides in people’s shadows to “laugh at their fright,” so it’s a bully on top of being scary. You also “hear your loved ones’ voices calling out to you” if you stand close. That’s harsh even for Pokémon, which I’m quickly learning is the scariest game ever made.
More Pokédex entries than you’d expect talk about child abduction, but Drifloon’s specifies that it “drags them away to the afterlife,” just to make sure your mental image is as horrifying as the concept.
Pokémon are dangerous. They’re monsters, after all. That’s not enough to make one particularly scary, unless, like Gourgeist, they inflict pain just for fun. According to the Alpha Sapphire Pokédex, it wraps victims in its arms, then “sings joyfully as it observes the suffering of its prey.”
“There once was an incident in which it took away a child it hypnotized.” No further information. Why are children allowed near Pokémon?
Malamar is scary on multiple levels. It can put people completely in its control through hypnosis, then use its digestive fluids to dissolve them. According to Pokémon Shield’s Pokédex, it’s used its powers to affect “history-changing events.”