Completed Pokémon Nightshade

kess137 · Aug 17, 2023

Finished the game, and really loved it! Haven't played a pokemon game since pokemon crystal, and this game had so much personality, and an engaging plot. It was really fun. I LOVED the gameplay loop of being a ranger, sorting out park troubles, but then I got invested in the creepy elements of the game, and reaalllly thought it was foreshadowing something it wasn't, and left feeling slightly let down.

It seemed to be leaning HARD into "dad is overprotective of you... Marty is sleepwalking and can't explain his own actions... Marty may literally not have a soul (it's played for laughs, but given that it happens after the game's first moment of real horror, it's hard to ignore the nagging voice saying 'soooomething is obviously going on with marty...')
And then:
... something happened in this hospital... EVERYTHING IS ABOUT GHOSTS... something terrible happened to CYPRESS'S DAUGHTER... Do you get it yet?
LOL you're not a ghost or anything like that. Cypress had a secret second daughter we didn't mention until this exact moment, and SHE was the one who was experimented on, not you. Marty's odd behavior is just a red herring and has no payoff. To be clear: The game was great, it was just the ending that felt a little shaky.

That said, I loved the game, and will definitely save it to replay!

Bugs I encountered (fwiw, given that I'm years late to this release!):

1. Game crashed if Pancham grew to level 32. (the point at which it could evolve, if I have a dark type in my party. Doesn't matter whether or not I have a dark type- it always crashes.
2. Repeatedly got a popup error (not a crash though) if I defeated/caught a chewtle that used jaw lock in battle. Relatedly, I could run away from chewtle, even if it used jaw lock in battle. No error if I did that.
3. Maybe I'm just crazy, but water-type chewtle seemed to be "not very effective" to NEARLY EVERY type of move. Just seemed very odd, but I didn't explore it rigorously.
4. In Nightshade hospital, when you exit the morgue, your character enters the CORRECT room via the WRONG door. Like, they do return to the reception area (or whatever it's called), but they enter that room via the door labeled "out," not the morgue.
5. Typo near the end of the game, right after Sal's flashback, Boss tells us: "You really are an accomoplished ranger."
6. The game lets you evolve pokemon who evolve at night (chingling, snom), but not the ones who evolve during the day (yungoos, fomantis). Using the versatile item "trade stone" does not work on either of these pokemon. There doesn't seem to be any way to evolve sinistea or piloswine either.
7. Many pokemon are missing from the pokedex, and a couple of locations are incorrect (see below).
8. You can pick up infinite Teddiursa eggs in Ursa Den.

Notes for any other crazy players who want to "catch em all,"

1. Yungoos, sinistea, pancham, and fomantis can't evolve, so don't waste time with them.
2. You can evolve swinub to piloswine but not mamoswine. You can evolve your one kirlia to gallade OR gardevoir, but not both.

The linked pokedex (pokemon encounter locations guide) is missing some information:
Incorrect entry: Comfey is caught in the lily memorial garden and lily memorial tower, NOT poppy forest.
Incomplete entries: Joltik is also found in the kyanite mine switch puzzle, hypno is also found in the nightshade hospital maze, and vivillon is also found in the lily memorial garden.
Missing entries:
Keep an eye out for overworld sprites, which you can interact with to scoop up unlisted pokemon.
Combee (chance to spawn after interacting with hives)
Mimikyu (hatches from egg in Baccata manor)
Zubat (Kyanite Cave F1/F2/B1)
Espurr (nightshade hospital maze, also appears as a random encounter in the lily memorial tower)
Cubone (talk to cubone in marowak's shop)
wooper (emerald lake)
voltorb (power station one)
ledian (cypress pond)
vibrava (cypress pond)
lapras (talk to man next to lapras in cypress pond)
muk (nightshade hospital maze)

Additionally, the random encounters in the nightshade hospital maze are not listed at all. I found the following:
Duosion
Audino
Gothorita
Chansey

Completed Pokémon Nightshade

kess137

Rookie