Can a Pokemon video game cause someone to commit suicide?
Well, according to this urban legend, it can.
Hey friends, welcome back to top 10 Gaming!
We here at the channel love our gaming creepypastas, so we’re trying out a brand new type of
video format where we focus solely on one creepy pasta story and give you all of the
details rather than outlining ten in one video!
Today, we’re taking a look at one of the scariest Pokemon creepypastas, Come Follow
Me.
So let’s get to it!
Come Follow Me’s origins date back to the release of the original Pokemon games in Japan,
Red and Green, back in February of 1996.
As the story goes, there was a significant number of deaths that occurred a few days
after it’s release on the 27th; deaths of children between the ages of 10 and 15, primarily.
Each of these deaths was thought to have been a suicide, with the victim hanging themselves
or jumping from a fatal height.
Some cases were more disturbing though; some children had forcibly removed their limbs,
bleeding to death.
Another case saw a child had stuck their face inside of a hot oven, and another, a kid had
choked themselves to death by ramming their fist down their throat.
Other children had been reported to have had near death experiences, having been stopped
before killing themselves.
When asked why they had tried to hurt themselves, they reacted in shockingly disturbing ways,
screaming and clawing at their faces, one even scratching at his own eyes, causing blindness.
The only connection between all of these cases was that these children in Japan had played
Pokemon Red or Green.
When the surviving children were presented with the game, they tried to harm themselves.
Authorities thought it was strange; the games didn’t effect everyone, only a small demographic
of kids.
Thousands of kids were playing the game, and it had become a huge hit, but there was no
mass suicide epidemic.
Despite this, the connection to the game was the only lead the police had to go off of.
So the police visited the programmers.
They met with the director of the original games, Satoshi Tajiri, who, when told of the
mass deaths, seemed uncomfortable, but had no information to give them.
Next, they talked to one of the main programmers of the game, Takenori Oota, who explained
to them that it was impossible that the games could have caused the deaths, brushing it
off as a weird coincidence.
The police pressed him for more information, and finally, although begrudgingly, he told
them about a rumour that he had heard.
According to Takenori, the rumour was about the music that played during the Lavender
Town portion of the games.
It had the ability to make some children become ill.
There was nothing to back it up, but the police believed it was worth looking into.
Their next stop was to visit the game’s composer, Junichi Masuda.
Masuda had heard the rumours as well, but denied it was true.
He played the song for the detectives, and of course, nothing happened.
No one felt ill.
That evening, the detectives were baffled.
So they turned to the games themselves.
They booted up one of their confiscated copies of Pokemon Red.
This is when they noticed something odd.
The duration time of the saved file was quite low.
And the player only had a single pokemon in their inventory and roster.
So they tried another cartirdige, and another.
All of them were similar; low play times, and one Pokemon.
Whatever was happening to these children happened early on in the game.
Still baffled, they returned to their list of programmers in hopes to interview more.
To their dismay, they discovered that one of the programmers, a man name Chiro Miura,
had committed suicide shortly after the game was released.
He hadn’t worked much on the title, and had requested his name not appear in the credits.
Taking this as a lead, they went to his apartment to investigate.
At Chiro’s apartment, they found notes piled upon notes, with the phrases “do not enter”
“watch out” and “come follow me” written over and over again.
Still confused, the police inquired with the programmers about Kohji Nisino, a reported
friend of Chiro’s who had gotten him the gig on the game.
This is when they discovered Nisino had locked himself in his apartment since the release
of the game.
After much persuasion, the police convinced Nisino to talk with them.
He told them that Chiro had an interesting idea for the game, and that Takenori allowed
for Chiro to join the project since Nisino had known him for so long.
The detectives started to believe that Chiro had something to do with the deaths spawning
from the game.
Nisino had no idea what this plan of Chiro’s was, other than it was something he wanted
to try for a long time.
Finally, Nisino, after a long time of questioning, snapped when the police asked about “Come
Follow Me”.
Before they could stop it from happening, Nisino pulled out a pistol from under his
couch, putting the barrel in his mouth.
His last words were “don’t follow me” before pulling the trigger.
Months would pass before the police found another lead.
They began to believe that Takenori was right, and that it was all some sort of coincidence.
Until they received a mysterious letter.
It happened out of the blue one day; one of the detectives was walking down the street,
and out of nowhere, a frail sickly looking woman appeared, shoved the letter into his
hand, and immediately disappeared in the crowd of the busy intersection.
The letter was written by Chiro; the handwriting matched.
It was addressed to Nisino.
The letter promised to revolutionize the video game industry with what he had planned, and
the writing had become chaotic as it went on.
This felt like a confirmation of their suspicions.
After receiving the letter, they tracked down one of the only programmers they knew had
worked with Chiro on the game; a man named Sousuke Tamada.
The following interview with Tamada had no other witnesses aside from the detective.
The detectives recorded the interview, which started off with them asking how Tamada knew
Chiro.
Tamada told them he didn’t know him well, despite working with him.
They had met up a few times, and he thought he was weak, wanting to do anything to gain
recognition.
The police kept pushing.
And eventually, Tamada slipped after they brought up the murders.
He told him that Chiro did what he told him to do.
As Tamada slowly moved towards his apartment window, he told the police that chiro followed
his instructions, and that at the start of the game, he had Chiro program something into
the grassy area outside of pallet town, after you get your starter Pokemon from Oak.
It was rare, but for some players, when they stepped into the tall grass, one can spawn….”
He edged closer to the window and the police drew their weapons.
Tamada taunted them to shoot him.
Then, on the recording of the tape, there was a lot of audio distortion.
Screaming could be heard.
Then laughing.
And finally, Tamada saying the words “come follow me” over and over again.
That’s when the tape cut.
The officers, and Tamada were later found dead, with the tape still in the recorder.
Years later, a detective was signed to the cold case.
He reviewed all of the evidence and the tape over and over again.
But finally, he decided to pop in one of the confiscated cartirdiges.
Upon doing so, he started the game, got his starter from Oak, and went into the tall grass.
Nothing.
He tried it with a different cartridge, and another and another.
Until finally, with one of his games, he entered the grass, and the screen had frozen.
It then went black.
And then, text appeared, that read “come follow me, come follow me, come follow me.
I miss you dead, I miss you my husband, I miss you so much.”
He hit the a button to continue, tears following down his cheeks.
His wife and daughter had died in an accident not long ago.
Were they communicating with him?
New text appeared “come follow me, become new again.
We want to see you and hold you, be with you forever and ever and ever and ever.”
The screen cut to black as he cried.
Then, Oak appeared, in the tall grass.
A text box appeared, with Oak’s dialogue saying “come follow me.”
The detective cracked, shouting no, tossing the game to the floor.
But it was too late.
The voices of his wife and daughter filled his head, screaming sad and horrible things,
calling out for him to follow them- And that’s when the detective found his
pistol.
And his pistol found his mouth.
He pulled the trigger, and dropped to the floor, dead.
The case was never solved.
All 104 cartridges that had been confiscated were later burned by another police officer,
making sure not a single one of them would survive.
There we have it friends!
What are your thoughts on Come Follow Me?
Let us know in those comments below!
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In the meantime though, thanks for watching!
I’ll catch you all in the next one!