Pokémon fans are discussing the possibility of a 4th generation Pokémon still carrying the voice of a deceased person after all these years.
Pijako was a Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Diamond & Pearl that served to highlight a hardware feature of the Nintendo DS. It was a musical parrot-style Pokémon that could record its owner’s voice using the DS’s built-in microphone.
People playing the 4th or 5th generation Pokémon games could record audio for Pijako’s signature attack, Chatter, which then played during battles. This led to Pijako being banned from online formats to prevent people from recording insults or insults and using them via Chat.
As Pokémon Diamond & Pearl launched in 2006, the 4th generation games are approaching their twentieth anniversary. This means that enough time has passed since Pijako’s introduction, leading fans to develop a sad theory about her.
Pijako could carry the voices of the deceased in Pokémon games
A user on the Pokémon Reddit shared a theory that there must be Pijako in the world, on original 4th or 5th generation cartridges, that have the recorded voices of people who have died since the games’ original launch.
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 byu/EtienneTruong inpokemon
“I don’t think the two things are related at all, but surely there is a save file somewhere that has a Pijako having saved someone who is now deceased. This could have been true from the first day of release, or today,” one user said, while another replied, “Either way, it becomes more likely as time goes on.”
Pokémon isn’t the only game where this is possible, as one user pointed out. “Not Pokémon, but I have a copy of the original Nintendogs. There is a special recording where you can record your own voice and play it back. There is a recording of my late friend singing a funny song. I’m always afraid it’ll get corrupted.”
Vocals are locked on DS games, as Chatter only recorded and retained audio on 4th & 5th generation cartridges. Additionally, data was erased when the Pokémon was sent to a PC box, decreasing the likelihood that the audio would be preserved.
That said, the 4th generation games sold millions of copies, and the reason classic Pokémon games are notoriously expensive is because they never sell them. This means there could still be copies of the game out there with voice recordings of the deceased saved in Pijako’s data.
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