Pokemon DS games might house voices of the dead in morbid fan theory

Pokemon fans are discussing the possibility of a Gen 4 Pokemon that still carries the voice of the deceased after all of these years.

Chatot was a Pokemon introduced in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl that helped show off a hardware feature of the Nintendo DS. It was a musical parrot-style Pokemon that could record its owner’s voice using the DS’ built-in microphone.

People playing the Gen 4 or 5 Pokemon games could record audio for Chatot’s signature move, Chatter, which would then play in battle. This led to Chatot being banned in online formats to prevent people from recording insults or slurs and using them via Chatter.

As Pokemon Diamond & Pearl launched in 2006, the Gen 4 games are approaching their twentieth anniversary. This means much time has passed since Chatot’s introduction, leading fans to develop a sad fan theory about it.

Chatot may carry the voices of the deceased

A user on the Pokemon Reddit has shared a theory that there must be Chatot out there in the world on original Gen 4 or 5 cartridges that possess the recorded voices of people who passed away in the years since the games originally launched.

With Gen 4 celebrating its 17th anniversary this year, there must be at least one cartridge containing a Chatot who can still use the voice of a now-dead person
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“I don’t think both things are related at all, but sure, there’s a save file out there that has a Chatot that recorded someone that is now dead. This could have been true on day 1 release, or today,” one user said, while another responded, “Either way, it gets more likely as time passes.”

Pokemon isn’t the only game where this is possible, as one user pointed out. “Not Pokemon, but I have a copy of the original Nintendogs. It has a special record where you can record your own voice and play it back. It has a recording of my late friend singing a silly song. I’m always scared of it getting corrupted.”

The voices are locked to the DS games, as Chatter only recorded & retained audio on the Gen 4 & 5 cartridges. Also, the data was wiped when the Pokemon was sent to a PC box, decreasing the likelihood of the audio being retained.

That being said, the Gen 4 games sold millions of copies, and the reason the classic Pokemon games are notoriously expensive is that they never sell them. This means there could still be copies of the game out there with voice recordings of the deceased saved within Chatot’s data.