Nightmare Fuel / Pokémon Uranium

• Your first encounter with a Nuclear Pokémon is likely to be this. Add the area music and the battle music, and... brr.
  • As if Nuclear Pokémon weren't scary enough, later in the game they start attacking in packs. The only saving grace is that it's treated as a double battle against a trainer with a full team, with new Pokémon appearing as the old ones are defeated, as opposed to a 5 vs. 1 horde encounter. Even so, Arceus help you if you lose to one of these, as doing so will crash the game.
• The cutscene in Vinoville, when the sirens start to wail and a radioactive cloud blots out the sun, followed by a Dark Reprise of the Pallet Town theme as something burns in the distance. In the Legen Town shelter, the citizens ask about their Pokémon presumably still in Vinoville. The Rangers don't answer the question.
  • To make it worse, you go back to Route 8 later. The trees have mostly died, the grass is decaying, and a thick layer of smoke covers the screen.
• In the official series, if you lose to the Big Bad, you're warped back to the last Pokémon Center and can just return and fight again, with the boss not progressing at all in their plan since the last fight. Not in this game. If you lose either of the CURIE fights, you're treated to some chillingly dark Game Over text detailing what they went on to do to Tandor because of your failure, before getting booted back to the main menu. CURIE doesn't mess around.
  • The first time around, Tandor suffers 100 years of Nuclear Winter. Or whatever's left of Tandor by then. Also, you and Theo are never heard of again.
  • The second time, you get a more detailed account of what happens after Gamma Uranye launches, in CURIE's words, a "massive thermonuclear detonation". The Pokémon League is in ruins. In the wake of the blast, wild Nuclear Pokémon arise and go after the survivors. The Rangers attempt to stop the hordes, but are outnumbered and are assumed to be overwhelmed. Some people are able to flee Tandor, but those who can't mourn their losses. As before, Tandor falls into a century of Nuclear Winter.
• What is not disturbing about The Anthell? As you enter it, you see a sign that says "The insects are ravenous" and some gibberish that is too scratched to read. Inside, in addition to myriads of Bug-types, you will encounter trainers who are behaving rather oddly. One breaks into an "I love bugs! I love bugs! I love bugs! I love bugs!" Madness Mantra upon defeat, others seem to be awfully keen to serve the "Mother". Suffice to say, if you fail to make it out of the Anthell, you're not returning with your mind intact. And then there's the fact that occasionally, the bugs will outright abduct someone from the outside, too...
• Linkite is the "spirit of a Pokémon that died inside its Poké Ball" which has forgotten what it used to look like and takes the appearance of a Substitute decoy chained to a Poké Ball by a heavy black chain around its neck. Aside from its eerie looks, the backstory also brings up some disturbing implications: if a Pokémon can die inside a Poké Ball, what does that say about the nature of Poké Balls and the Pokémon trapped within?
  • If you trade Linkite away to someone else, it evolves into Chainite, which is so full of wrath that it can barely even be contained by its bindings. According to its Dex entry, "it seeks revenge against the trainer who abandoned it." That's you, by the way. Sweet dreams.
  • They gain new horror in Nuzlocke Mode, where Pokémon can actually die, but they remain in your party to be boxed or released as you please. Could Linkite be the spirits of Nuzlocke casualties whose trainers didn't give them a proper burial?
• There is a guy in Venesi City that talks about some Legendary Pokémon. However, if you ask him about "Urayne", he replies, "I don't know any Pokémon by that name." What makes this creepy is that this happens before you find out about Urayne in-game, so seeing that option come out of nowhere and the associated answer gives Urayne a creepy Un-person vibe.
• Nuclear Plant Zeta. After fighting your way through full teams of Nuclear Pokémon, you and Theo get captured by CURIE. When you wake up, Theo is nowhere to be found, it's pitch black, and you have to make your way through three different areas to activate the power and find a Power Cell for your suit before you can head to the north sector to find him, with Nuclear Pokémon lurking around every corner. The music doesn't help the creepy vibe.
• Among the events that definitely wouldn't fly in a mainstream Pokémon game: If you defeated Garlikid on Route 6, and then talk to the Owten in Professor Larkspur's lab, when you go to leave Silverport Town, several of Larkspur's thugs surround you, knock you out, take your items and Pokémon, and then lock you in a cell where you wake up. Read that over again: you actually get mugged and kidnapped in this game.

---