Some people say Pokémon is an RPG, but maybe it’s really a horror game.

August 29 was launch day for the brand-new Pokémon Masters mobile game, and fans across Japan fired up their smartphones as soon as they could to start playing. However, instead of encountering adorable Pocket Monsters, some players have been encountering annoying bugs instead.

A common complaint is the game freezing with an error message telling players to move somewhere with a stronger signal, even in areas with proper coverage. Other problems have included the player’s Pokémon not appearing…

…and even the entire in-game world not bothering to show up.

▼ “(Because of a bug) all I can see is a white light.”

https://twitter.com/danger_rasu/status/1166911305225080834

However, some people have been able to actually play the game. Pokémon Masters’ big selling point is that it features human characters from a variety of Pokémon game/anime generations, and that promise was fulfilled when Japanese Twitter user @rioteto_sasugaa ran into Generation 1 rival Blue…

https://twitter.com/rioteto_sarsugaa/status/1166900743191707649

…or at least the terrifying remains of his physical form as he’s ripped between conflicting planes of existence.

▼ You can see Blue (confusingly named “Green” in Japan) on the far right in his intended, non-traumatizing form.

Of course, with Blue being the basis for the Pokémon anime’s arrogant Gary, maybe you feel like being cursed with such a grotesque form is just comeuppance for Professor Oak’s snotty grandson. But would you remain so blasé if this were happening to one of the franchise’s good guys, like Brock or Misty?

If it weren’t for the Japanese text identifying Takeshi/タケシ and Kasumi/カスミ (Brock and Misty’s names in Japan), we’d have no idea who these are supposed to be, or even that they’re supposed to be people.

https://twitter.com/rioteto_sasugaa/status/1166902749562191873

But hey, at least there’s a consistent sense of in-world immersion, as the screen for @rioteto_sasugaa to create his avatar looked like this.

https://twitter.com/rioteto_sasugaa/status/1166901138156732416

▼ Oh, and there’s also fan art of distorted Brock.

https://twitter.com/KoganEcm/status/1166924776792674304

To be fair, @rioteto_sasugaa seems to be the only one who’s encountered such dramatic graphical bugs, so it’s not clear if the problem is with the game itself, or maybe related to a problem with his phone. Even if it’s not, Pokémon Masters isn’t the first game in the modern era to have some pretty shocking glitches when gamers first get a chance to play it. Still, while such horrors would make for an appropriately spooky Halloween play, hopefully the problem gets cleared up before then.

Source: Twitter/@rioteto_sasugaa via Hachima Kiko
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