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Note: Please do not harass the original author or anyone who makes content related to this pasta. This review was simply made for entertainment purposes only. This is all based on MY OPINION as well.

WELCOME BACK TO SAUCEZ REVIEWZ: POKEPASTAS SERIES.

Before I start the review, let me clarify that I have nothing against Star-Byte. A lot of people in the poképasta community look up to her and I’ll admit that I look up to her in a way too. I think a lot of her work has a lot of potential and good ideas. It’s just much of her early work are examples of “it has a good concept but not the best execution”. I don’t want all of my reviews to be critiquing her work though, but maybe I could review one of her works every once in a while since I know there are a couple people who want me to look into TOMMY BOY. Just keep in mind, I still got to review Glitchlett, Top Percentage, and Incinerate.

I am aware of Sparklingdemon’s version of this pasta and I know a couple of people want me to look at that version, and I will try my best to review that review eventually. It’s also another version of this pasta made by Star-Byte as well. So, I’ll do them in order based on publish date. I won’t be surprised if my reviews for the versions of Explorers of Death are going to be split into parts due to the length of the pastas, it’s not because I’m lazy but it’s because of the kb limit for the descriptions. I know I can easily type these reviews with the journal entry format for more space, but it’s just more fun doing it this way and having the cover art above.

This is a pasta many people have urged me to review. Some were telling them this is one of the worst poképastas ever. Do I feel the same about it? Well, I’m not going to be like some certain creepypasta reviewers are where they tend to judge pastas solely based on the amount of blood or clichés used. This was published in 2010, so I can’t be too harsh with the clichés used. If it was 2022, it’d be a different story. But just because it was created in early years of creepypastas, doesn’t automatically excuse the usage of blood and clichés. I just want to clarify that because a couple of people acted like I was defending the blood and cliché usage in the original Forever Mine and Pokémon Dead Channel. What I’m saying is I’m not judging based on WHAT substances are used, but HOW the substances are used. In my opinion, I get more bothered by unneeded references to Lavender Town than I do with blood in poképastas. Explorers of Death has a following with various fanart, fan animations, fan made rom hacks, apparently mods on FNF, and some SFM sh-tposts. Yes, the last two exist. Let’s see how this will do for the 20th milestone.

Note: I haven't read Version 2 or sparklingdemon's remake yet. So anything that I may have suggested for the pasta in this review or anything that's critiqued in this version that may be corrected in the other versions, I wasn't aware of at the time of making this review.
Pasta Name: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Death (Original)

Publish Date: November 9, 2010

Synopsis: After the protagonist forced her starter to be a Vulpix instead of a Squirtle and naming her Myra, her Shinx partner she named Shadow tries to kill Myra to “save” her.

Fun Fact: The protagonist’s personality is bold if she kept getting Squirtle as her starter.

Highlight: The suspense of the story.

Quote: “You can't escape who you truly aaarrreee!”

Story:
I don't have much to say about the pre-game segment. It starts at GameStop and the protag convinced her dad to buy her a video game, which ends up being PDM: Explorers of the Sky.

Now, I like the expressions and metaphors star-byte makes throughout this segment which the expression of words and metaphors tend to be the pros of her work. "Her dad makes a regretful glance at his wallet and a sigh going into the store" and "light reflected off the cover and it shone like a bright blazing star, it seemed to be calling out to me" are examples. Also, you read the instructional manual 3 times during the drive home? That's impressive. Maybe it's my bias because I'm a slow reader or the manual may have been short since their lengths can vary between games. I don't think games even have manuals anymore sadly.

The protag rushed to pop in the DS cartridge and she let out a fangirl squeal once the opening played. I've watched the opening for this review and it's one of the best openings I've seen in a game.

So she selects new adventure and it goes to the personality quiz and she said she was a female for the game and she wanted a Vulpix for her starter.
Let me explain for those who aren't familiar, in the PMD games, you are given a personality quiz and it asks you questions to try to match your personality and depending on your choices, your results will give you the Pokémon you have as your starter.
She answered the quiz honestly and believed she has the personality and nature of a Vulpix (which is relaxed). She got a Squirtle. She was disgusted with getting Squirtle, so she reset her DS to try the quiz again.

This distinctly reminds me of the function of the Shampoodle in Animal Crossing New Leaf with getting a hairstyle based on questions. I hated it.

She retires to get Vulpix, thinking it was a mistake. She got Squirtle again. Protag became furious and reset again. Selected random answers this time, Squirtle again. Reset yet again; this time, she didn't look at the DS screen and selected choices, Squirtle yet again. This means she had a Bold nature if she kept getting Squirtle.
The protag realized she had the internet to look up information about the games to get her majestic flaming fox. "I clicked on the address bar and typed in man's best virtual friend: Google.com." That is the best quote in the whole pasta. Too bad it's aged poorly, knowing how corrupted it's become lately.
She types out on how to get Vulpix. She sighed in relief with how the results were in her favor on what answers to choose for the following questions to get Vulpix as a starter. So I looked up if such sites exist and yeah they do exist.

Her parents said they were going out into town for a while and they left her for the house to herself as she heard the door slam shut, but she didn't care if a meteor was crashing into Earth because she was getting her Vulpix and that was the main focus. Yeah, I remember reading a No Sleep Story (I know, people have ranted about how toxic their community can get but what community doesn't have toxicity?) where a teenager outright ignores an old man screaming for help in favor of playing games and that old man died because mice ate him alive. You can imagine the guilt and regret that teenager felt. But I guess the protag has her priorities which is Vulpix.

The protag put in the answers and screamed joyfully when Vulpix finally showed up for her. If you're wondering how did the protag knew you can get Vulpix as a starter if she's never played a PMD game before, I assume it's from reading the manual earlier. Also, there were some promotion artwork of the game featuring Vulpix. Correct me on anything I get incorrect, PMD: Explorers of the Sky players.

The next screen is the partner selection screen. The protag chose to have a male Shinx as her partner. She thought a Shinx x Vulpix pairing was too adorable to pass on. I have to agree. She named him Shadow after her Luxray from Diamond. She didn't want to spoil anything else from here on out. She wanted to be surprised by what the game had to offer. And was she in for a surprise indeed. After the partner screen, it went static for a split screen; the protag said she didn't notice it because she was ready to get to the game already. Minor nitpick: if you didn't notice the static, then how were you able to bring it up here in the story?

The game started with her Vulpix lying on a beach in the sunset, and she looked beat up and like she was dying, with bruises and scratches in a pool of blood. "Why is there blood in a Pokémon game?"
Early 2021 Reviewer Me: Good flippin' question! Let's just add blood to make things scary!
Current Reviewer Me: Don't worry, there's at least a reasonable purpose for this.

There was never blood in Pokémon. Well, there have been mentions of blood like that one channeler in Pokémon Tower that shouts "give me blood!" and various Pokédex entries, but I know what you mean. The protag got excited that maybe Nintendo took Pokémon to the next level.

A white and dark grey Shinx walked up to Vulpix and the protag got excited about the special color of her partner and was oblivious to the obvious warnings that the game was clearly off. When Shadow noticed the Vulpix, he appeared to be shocked and ran towards the Vulpix. "Oh no, no, no..." Shadow dragged Vulpix away and the screen faded away to black. It was shown in a dark cave with a fire in front of Vulpix. She tried to stand up and stretched, she appeared to be wincing in pain and she collapsed and shivered.

Shadow returned with a berry in his mouth and he dropped up seeing that Vulpix was awake. He ran towards Vulpix. "Please lay down and don't move, don't make any noise at all, be as still and quiet as you can or you and me will regret it." Vulpix stopped shivering. "Good, now don't you dare move a muscle." The textbox had some words that were in bold and italicized. Shadow seemed like a mean partner at this point. Shadow got the berry and asked Vulpix to chew on it slowly and make as little noise or movement as possible. So, Vulpix ate it slowly. "Good job. Now, quietly whisper your name to me. Oh, please don't be who I just know you are, please please please by some miracle be someone else..."

When Shadow was asking this, the protag finds it odd how Shadow's tone changed mid-speech but she loves her split personality. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you saying you can legit hear audio from Shadow's dialogue? Hi, this is future me speaking since I wrote this script while analytically reading this pasta. It turns out there are parts where the protag is legit hearing voices from her DS speakers coming from the characters especially later on in the pasta.

Also, Shadow's rudeness is understandable since they're being chased by a murderer so it makes sense they'd be so anxious.

The protag named her Vulpix Myra and after entering the name, the screen became static and the protag noticed it this time. The protag wondered if it was the DS since she had it for years and used it nearly daily. So, Myra's sprite was shown whispering her name to Shadow and he jumped backward in shock. "M-Myra?!" He was disappointed he could about getting his hopes up so high. The icon of Shadow for the textbox had a tear on his face. Myra was about to talk but Shadow slammed his paw on her muzzle. "I told you not to dare talk." Myra started shivering and appeared crying. Shadow said sorry. "I-I'm sorry. Stop moving, please stop, she'll hear you, I said STOP!" Shadow charged up an electric attack and Myra became as still as a stone. After Myra stopped moving, Shadow stopped his attack and sat down. His sprite was on the verge of crying. Urging to not speak or move. "Don't do anything, please, help me." Shadow walked away from Myra. "I swear to Arceus you better not move while I think of something, something, hopeless..." He went off-screen. The protag dared not press any buttons to make Myra move fearing the consequences of what could happen if she did.

After it became dull from doing nothing, the protag assumed something needed to happen than just lay there, questioning what she could do without moving. She pressed the start button, assuming it wouldn't move Myra. The first option on the screen, she selected items to see if Myra had any options; she had chains as an item. "These chains were found wrapped around your neck. You don't remember how you got them, but you can't take them off." There was no item of interest available.

I don't really have much to say about this part. I do appreciate the build-up and suspense, and it makes you wonder what they are trying to hide from, like why Shadow is being so overprotective of Myra. It's been a solid start so far honestly.

Shadow came back walking in pain and stopped in front of Myra with tears falling down. "Stay still, close your eyes. Don't move. I-I'm sorry, I don't want to do this, but it will all be over with soon..." Shadow charged up a deadly attack of lightning as it lit up the cave. Myra had a shock of horror on her face, staring at Shadow in disbelief. "Don't move! Please, I promise it will only hurt for a second." He begged Myra to comply. He's trying to kill Myra. Myra stood up immediately and disobeyed her partner by racing off of the screen. "You fool! Myra! Come back!" Shadow chased after the Vulpix. The static popped up once again. The protag pointed out on she swore she could see a morbid looking Squirtle luring through the static, but she claimed it was her imagination.

Soooo... what are the complaints here? This story has been good so far and I'm even invested in it. The suspense of what Shadow is trying to protect Myra from is intense. You question Shadow's intentions in wanting to protect or kill Myra. There's a neat build-up to it. The first half of the pasta has been straightforward with some minor hiccups here and there. However, a running theme with a couple of star-byte's early works tend to have beginnings that make the pasta seem promising at first but there's a point in the story that makes it all go downhill. I'm not saying all of her works are like that but it was like this in Pokémon Dead Channel for example where all the cheesy aspects really came in once the protag and BRVR went outside of the cottage. Can the same thing be said about this one? Well... take a look.

The protag said things will start getting good now that Myra ran away from Shadow and she can move again. Myra was in a dungeon in a cave as it seemed like it was a dark crimson red with chains and other torture equipment lined up against the walls. Skulls littered the floor as this was unexpected by the protag for a Pokémon game. Nah, Myra just found her way into the Ocarina of Time Shadow Temple. I will admit my early 2021 counterpart would be ripping this apart because of the blood and skulls.

There was a white and grey Rattata limping in pain and was shocked when they spotted Myra. It got angry and charged toward her as it clearly had the intention of killing her. Being of the most common and annoying Pokémon in the series, the protag assumed Myra will one-hit KO the Rattata. [Insert Youngster Joey Joke]

Turns out Rattata was a challenging foe as it took 5 turns to defeat. The protag was concerned about her PP running out for Myra's moves and she is dead if so as if there was no way to restore PP. The scenes got more disturbing for every screen, Pokémon body parts appeared on the torture equipment, the skulls appeared to have flesh still clinging onto them, blood stains became frequent on the floors and walls. That's something... not to mention, PMD: Explorers of the Sky is a pixeled sprite game, so those sprites had to be well-detailed if you could see flesh clinging onto the skull. We'll have to wait until we get to Sparklingdemon's version of this pasta where they made screenshots of the pasta that are faithful to the sprite work done in the vanilla game. I mean, you all remember the remake for Forever Mine, right?

Each Pokémon got stronger each time and had more intensity of intent in killing Myra. For the final floor, static appeared for 7 seconds. The morbid Squirtle could be seen smiling and was more clear to see. Before you all ask, this was published nearly a year before Sonic.exe since you're probably getting similar vibes from this.
The protag was still in denial by thinking she was imagining it in her head but was still unsettled by it. She pushed onwards, she loved scary things, but she knew something was off. Now, I'm sure some people would say, "well turn off the game then", but then that would be anti-climatic for the story, which is why I now think that point is weak.
Myra was in a large crimson red room of skulls now. "You idiot. Myra, I finally found you!!" Shadow came running up behind Myra.

That's very convenient for Shadow. A minor nitpick: if Shadow was chasing after Myra the whole time, how could he not catch up to her sooner during any of the battles of the challenging, killer opponents Myra was in? That brings up another question, was Myra able to have that much PP for the battles if they got harder each time after the Rattata fight that took 5 turns to defeat? More PP would've been used for each battle. Future me speaking: this question about the PP gets answered later on in the pasta. But, there is something else that bothers me about this that I will bring up later on in the review. Also, I then remembered Shadow was said to be limping in pain earlier in the pasta, so I assume that may have happened to him off-screen while chasing after Myra.

Shadow started charging his attack once again. "You can't escape now. Stay still, thank me. Please, this will hurt a lot less than what she will do! N-Now stay still and die!!" Shadow is trying to give Myra an immediate death, so she doesn't have a slow, painful death from "her"? Interesting concept for "I need to kill you so you won't suffer". The protag couldn't control Myra even if there were a place to run. Protag acknowledged how Myra's own partner was going to kill her and she was irritated by this. Shadow's spark glowed brighter to the point that it was hurtful to look at."This will hurt but only for a moment, now please, hold still while whiwhilwhilwil-" The static returned; Myra and Shadow could still be seen through the static. "Too late." Shadow stopped his attack as the static grew stronger. Wait, was Shadow saying "while" through the textbox or was it auditory as his voice was glitching out? It would look so weird being written in a textbox. I'm having a hard time determining if it's textbox only or textbox with audio. It's likely audio with (or without) textboxes knowing what happens in the pasta later on.

The morbid Squirtle was shown again in the sea of static, the protag saw them clearly for more than a brief second as its flesh was ripped off at parts exposing internal organs and bones, blood flowed out of the numerous gashes all along its body, its shell was cracked opened with a vile bubbling green goo pouring out, and its tail was a very long and torn, and it was holding a dagger on its tail. Its red eye sockets were too large for its eyes shrunken out holding a heart-piercing gaze. The top of its head was cracked open and exposing a pulsing brain with blood gushing out. Razor sharp teeth came from the grin that stretched from cheek to cheek. I'm not the one to deduct points for grammar mistakes but the wrong "its" was used for the description of Squirtle with "it's", which is short for "it is". I mean, "It is tail curled around a dagger at the end." Also, the anime can confirm Squirtle can have razor sharp teeth.

"You can't escape who you truly aaarrreee." A high-pitched screeching voice emitted from the DS. So this confirms the pasta does involve auditory mechanics with the dialogues from the in-game characters.

The protag wanted to turn off the DS but her eyes were forced to keep staring. "I. Am. You." Squirtle Spoke and then the screen went black. The protag wasn't done yet despite her fear growing.

I forgot to mention, you're all probably wondering this and my early 2021 self would be tearing the rest of that Squirtle apart for this but how in the world is that Squirtle still alive in that morbid condition? I don't think it's that a big problem. Honestly, I think seeing a morbid-looking Squirtle as described in the pasta like that even being in the protagonist's perspective would be absolutely terrifying. The only concern I have is with how detailed she described the Squirtle and would be pixeled sprite really handle that much details even though I would assume it's one of those close up sprites the PMD games would show every once in a while.

Myra was in a dark grey cave filled with surprisingly realistic Pokémon corpses scattered everywhere and more bones. Everything was white, black, and grey except for Myra and the blood. Protag thought Squirtle was going overboard with the corpses. Realistic Pokémon corpses for a DS game that still used pixeled sprites, huh?

The protag realized she doesn't have to deal with this crap, so she quickly turned off the DS. Smart idea. But it wouldn't work for some reason. Oh... A screeching voice came up, "I'm not finished with you yet." It sounded like scraping on a chalkboard because of how loud it was. The protag tried to turn down the volume but it didn't work either. "You're going to listen to me like it or not. The protag's blood was turned into ice from fear and shock of what is occurring. " Shouldn't the dialogue have "whether you" between the "me" and "like"?

The protag said it sounded like a demon was speaking to her and she said she wouldn't be surprised if it was one speaking to her. I wouldn't be surprised either, knowing how this is slowly becoming a bit on the cliché side of things, but there's still hope. The protag just kept playing the game.

Were taking out the cartridge, closing the DS, or letting go of the DS not options either? Just a nitpick but still. Also, a missed opportunity: some DS games would play a SFX whenever you closed the DS with the game still playing to save battery which is something I feel many people have forgotten that the DS utilized back then. One example was Super Mario 64 DS (I think) would have Mario say "Bye-bye". So you could've had there be a non-stop screech playing for when the protag closed her DS.

There was a zombie Marill that stood up, then a zombie Poochyena, and eventually, all of the bodies regained movement to swarm poor Myra. Thankfully, they went down in one hit, but there were so many of them. Myra's PP was about to run out for all of her movies as the last zombies fell. Myra got out quickly to stumble upon ancient ruins. Everything was still white, black, and grey, and the protag couldn't find anything to heal Myra with. Remember this one specific detail. The static returned and flashed on the screen. Shadow came back and he was all beat up and worn down with blood streaks left on he walked. Shadow: "Myra, I-" Audio with no textbox played but the static cut off Shadow speaking to Myra."...for your own goo-" Static came back again. "must kill you. It's better th-" (static) "quick and easy dea-" (static) "-ve you, I'm sorry." Shadow charged up his attack with a powerful spark growing and he leaped on Myra to strike her. The protagonist in real life reeled back in pain, screaming as he hit Myra. It was painful as she fell off of her bed, feeling electricity going through her veins. There was pain for a few seconds. The protagonist felt pain and struggled to breathe as there were aches all over her body. She then reached for her DS wanting to see what happened now. I know what you're all probably thinking right now. Now, I can see where the author was probably going with how the protag and Myra are supposed to be connected or the same person metaphorically since Myra seems like a self-insert for the protagonist. However, this whole thing about the protagonist in real life getting hurt as Myra gets hurt feels like it came completely out of nowhere and felt abrupted too. Like, if it had some foreshadowing with the protagonist getting bruises or paper cuts from the battles with the killer white and dark grey Pokémon or the zombie Pokémon earlier, then that would've been slightly better. I'm not saying that this is bad because of how unrealistic it is, but I feel like it's not executed that well and feels abrupt. Like, was the electric pain metaphorically like if the protag could feel like pain from witnessing Myra getting struck and she's aching from falling off the bed and screaming, or did she legit feel the pain? I've had times where I witnessed people getting hurt and just watching them made me feel like I got hurt from witnessing it.

When the protag checked the DS, the static was gone and Shadow was seen cut in half and Myra was charred black. Myra gasped and ran over towards Shadow. Shadow was still alive and he looked up to her. "I-I'm sorry Myr-ra, I-I fail-led..." Protag teared up. He was only trying to save Myra from the suffering of the Squirtle. A low laughter came from the speakers and got louder. Something flashed by Myra at lightning speed wounding her. The protag fell backwards as she felt the blow too. This action was repeated to the point where the protag almost died. "Time to finish this." Lightning struck Myra and kept flowing, and the protag didn't notice since she was face down rolling on the floor in pain. Then how did you know Myra was getting hit if you weren't looking at your DS at the time? Nevermind.
"This is only the start." A voice chimed in. "Only worse will come." Another voice joined in. "Once you're dead, you'll be mine." "Once you're rotting in my Hell, you'll wish you could die." Protag felt more pain per voice chiming into the point of nearly losing consciousness. "Almost there, just-"A loud static noise cut off the voice and torment. The protagonist rolled over, crying and regaining control again. I would comment more about how in the world the protag is feeling all of this pain, but it speaks for itself, honestly. It's just strange. I mean, the NES Godzilla creepypasta (2011) did something similar near the end.

The protag reached for her DS as a cutscene was playing with the morbid Squirtle was lying on its back wrapped in chains. "No... no!!!" The Squirtle was screeching in protest and was slowly melting into acid with green bubbling goo. I'M MEEEEEELLLTTTTTTIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!

The bones and organs melted away as well. The last thing to dissolve was the eyes glaring at the protagonist with a heart-piercing glare. The screen turned to the top half of Shadow's body, struggling to stay alive. Myra walked over and nuzzled Shadow for saving her life and the protagonist's life pretty much. "I guess I did sav-ve you after-r all..." He reached over and licked Myra's face. It took too much strength and he fell down and collapsed onto the ground. He didn't stir again since. The protagonist said "Goodbye, Shadow." Myra repeated the same thing. "Goodbye, Shadow." Aww, this is so wholesome. I like this moment. See? I think whenever this pasta does something good, it does it really good, and when it does something bad, it does it really bad. I think the wholesomeness of this scene was well done.

The weariness from all of the pain with the protag finally took its toll on the protagonist and everything went to black.

The protagonist woke up in bed still in pain, and with memories flowing back into her mind, the first thing she thinks of is "my DS," and she begins searching for it. Her DS ended up being on her desk, and it was turned off. She played it to see if any of the things she just experienced were legit. However, the game was normal. Although, her save file was gone, so she started up a new game knowing her life would be at risk again. What? It legit said that in the pasta. The personality quiz was skipped and it jumped straight to Vulpix laying on the beach during a sunset. She was not bleeding this time. Shadow came up with his normal color scheme. So, the game proceeded like it normally should. After a few minutes, the coast was clear and the protagonist saved the game with a sigh of relief. There was no Squirtle to be found, so she didn't have to waste money getting a new cartridge.

I did originally ask for this part on how did the protag know it was normal if she has never played the vanilla game before or even a PMD game before, but my Discord viewers did make a fair point that the protag assumed it was back to normal since no blood/gore were shown and how Myra had no injuries and Shadow had his normal color scheme. Even critics need critics.

The protagonist got up from bed and realized her parents had not returned home from going into town when they should've been home. It was strange for the protagonist. She went to get a brownie as a late-night snack and went back to bed, assuming they would be home by the time she woke up the following day. I would comment about how eating sugar late at night is never a good idea, but I do the same thing too.

Suddenly, the protag realized something odd was happening with her body, especially her respiratory system. She was struggling to breathe. She realized she was choking and wasn't sure if it was from munching on the brownie. So she ran straight to the sink to get some water and guzzle it down hurriedly. It didn't ease the choking, though. Her neck was itchy, and it started to get harder to walk now. She looked into the mirror and noticed her neck was... wrapped with blood-stained... chains... Her eyes widened with horror as she couldn't pull the chains off. She thought it would be best to run out of the house and get help from her neighbors. She then realized she was trapped as she noticed that the doors were locked shut and the windows were bolted shut. She tried to escape by ramming into the window's glass, only to bounce back.

Protag fell onto the floor, moaning in pain. Something dripped onto her clothes. When she looked up to face it. The moonlight dimmed on it revealed her worst nightmare floating in front of her. "You should have just accepted who you are." Its sick grin widened and lightning struck. The end.

..... What in the world just happened...? No, really? I'm so confused by this ending. So lemme get this straight, what happened to Myra in the original save file started to happen to the protagonist in real life with having the chains around her neck? And is this implying that the morbid looking Squirtle came to real life to finish off the protagonist? Again, I'm not asking for all pastas to be realistic, but let's be honest, that is such a huge stretch... Actually, the question is was her "worst nightmare" the Squirtle? You assume it is because it's her worst nightmare because she thought the Squirtle was gone as Squirtle was harassing her, Myra, and Shadow throughout the game. Or was it a demon, since earlier, the protagonist said she wouldn't be surprised if she was talking to a demon after hearing Squirtle's voice talking to her? And I'm mostly confused by the lightning strike. I might be overthinking it, but was it Squirtle that used the lightning attack or did Shadow somehow come to real life to save or end the protagonist's life to avoid suffering from Squirtle's torment? It just ends with "its sick grin widened, and lightning struck." Who got struck by the lightning? I might be overthinking it, but I assume it's the protagonist because Squirtle was out to attack her. Again, not all pastas have to be realistic, but thinking about it, would you imagine a cartoonish and morbid-looking creature from a pixeled DS game ever come to real life to attack a player? That just sounds more silly than anything. Sure, if we look at this ending in the protagonist's perspective, seeing the Squirtle in real life would be absolutely terrifying and I think that's what star-byte was trying to go for for creepy factors like "the monster never left" type of trope, but it's a huge stretch and too cheesy for my taste. To be honest, I find a plushie doll being right behind you after a cursed game shuts off more believable and less cheesy than this. Also, it's pretty abrupt and out of nowhere too. Yes, I think this was the worst part of the whole pasta. I thought the nearly over half of it was good for the most part with some hiccups here and there. Great build up and suspense. I like the characters too, but this ending was just cheesy.

How was the story even written if the protag got killed at the end? It's clearly written in first person. I think this point earlier me made is a grey area now because it is fair to point out since it was written in first person. However, at the same time, it's a creepypasta and that's a bit on the nitpicking side. It doesn't always have to be logical and the main point is to scare us.

FURTHER THOUGHTS:
So earlier I said that Myra's PP running low didn't bother after all of those battles she had to fight. But, since it was made clear in the pasta that the protag couldn't find anywhere to heal Myra, then the thing that does bother me is Myra's HP. I'm even surprised HP was never brought up in this pasta considering how much pain, suffering, hits, and battles Myra went through unless it involves Myra and the protagonist being connected with each other and feeling the pain of each other. If Myra at the beginning was struggling to get up and had blood on her chains around her neck and in a puddle of blood with bruises around her body, you would assume she's lost at least a decent amount of her HP from all of that. She had to fight those killer black and dark grey Pokémon as it was stated they got more difficult each battle, then she had to fight all of the zombies (in fairness, it is stated they were all taken down in one-hit), then Shadow's attempt to kill her with a lightning attack, and then the number of times Squirtle hit her. Like, how much HP do you have, Myra? It likely has to do with Myra's HP being the protagonist's "HP" (since she was close to dying when Squirtle said "almost there" before Shadow saved her life) since you know, they felt the same pain simultaneously... somehow...

Well, either way, all I can say is, really to all the users who told them this was one of the worst poképastas they've ever read? I can accept different opinions, therefore just to give out mine, I don't think this one is bottom five material. Again, ignoring the cheesy, abrupt ending, I still think this pasta had a great story with some minor flaws and characters that I surprisingly got invested in. I really like the character arc with Shadow too, he seemed nasty and overly demanding at first, but he only wanted Myra to have a painless death rather than to suffer from Squirtle's torment, and he managed to save Myra in the end. Is this pasta flawless? No. One of the worst? Not even close.

So, will this pasta be struck as a fresh pasta or will it suffer the torment with the rating of spoiled pasta?

Well, it's kinda obvious with what I said before and throughout the review.

I think whenever this pasta does something good, it does it really good, and when it does something bad, it does it really bad. It's wholesome in that one scene with Shadow saving Myra and they both were great characters and have a lot of suspense and build-up within the story. The aspect of the protagonist hurting as Myra hurts is forced and came out of nowhere and the ending with what I assume was Squirtle coming to real life to presumptively kill off the protagonist at the end was so cheesy and abrupt and it kind of killed the credibility of the pasta in a way. I'm just repeating myself at the point.

I guess a new thing I could say is I feel like more could've been described with the killer white and dark grey Pokémon battles and the zombies because I feel like those segments just came and went so quickly. There could've been some descriptions and build-up with the battles as the protagonist fears and is paranoid about Myra's PP running out per battle.

In conclusion, with its share of big pros and big cons, it's neither a fresh pasta or a spoiled pasta. So, what is it then? Do I have a rating for that? Oh yeah, I do! It's a DRIED PASTA! Hey, I was surprised too by this because I thought it was going to be another spoiled pasta before actually reading it properly. And when I was half way through reading it analytically, I thought it was going to be a fresh pasta but then, the ending and so...

My rankings for the reviewed PokéPastas so far (from best to worst, top to bottom):
1. Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver – Fresh
2. Forever Mine (Remake) - Fresh
3. Absol (Reaper) - Fresh
4. La Condena de Milotic – Fresh
5. Hypno's Lullaby – Fresh
6. Forever Mine (Original) - Fresh
7. Disabled - Fresh
8. Strangled Red – Dried
9. Zombreon - Dried
10. Lost Silver – Dried
11. PMD: Explorers of Death (Original) - Dried
12. White Hand and Buried Alive - Dried
13. Lavender Town Syndrome - Dried
14. Creepy Black – Dried
15. Abandon Lonliness - Spoiled
16. Pokémon Dead Channel – Spoiled
17. Pokémon Dead Channel 2 - Spoiled
18. Prevention of Evolution (Original) - Spoiled
19. Milotic's Revenge – Spoiled
20. Leaf Green Beta Scene - Spoiled

7 Fresh Pastas | 7 Dried Pastas | 6 Spoiled Pastas

I put it above White Hand, Buried Alive, Lavender Town Syndrome, and Creepy Black because I was invested in PMD more compared to them. However, Lost Silver wasn't as flawed as PMD: Explorers of Death. Strangled Red had arguably more flaws and plot holes than Lost Silver but the creepy factors near the ending with Steven going insane with Missingno and all is what saved it and boosted it a lot which is the job of a creepypasta in being creepy.

But, at least we are finally done with PMD: Explorers of Death like I promised I would do, right?.... right?...
-PMD: Explorers of Death V2
-PMD: Explorers of Death Remake by sparklingdemon

Oh boy...

Hint for next review: Well, I'm going to take on those later eventually. For next time, how about we look at a shorter poképasta.
Click here to view the full list of every PokéPasta review so far

Description
Note: Please do not harass the original author or anyone who makes content related to this pasta. This review was simply made for entertainment purposes only. This is all based on MY OPINION as well.

WELCOME BACK TO SAUCEZ REVIEWZ: POKEPASTAS SERIES.

Before I start the review, let me clarify that I have nothing against Star-Byte. A lot of people in the poképasta community look up to her and I’ll admit that I look up to her in a way too. I think a lot of her work has a lot of potential and good ideas. It’s just much of her early work are examples of “it has a good concept but not the best execution”. I don’t want all of my reviews to be critiquing her work though, but maybe I could review one of her works every once in a while since I know there are a couple people who want me to look into TOMMY BOY. Just keep in mind, I still got to review Glitchlett, Top Percentage, and Incinerate.

I am aware of Sparklingdemon’s version of this pasta and I know a couple of people want me to look at that version, and I will try my best to review that review eventually. It’s also another version of this pasta made by Star-Byte as well. So, I’ll do them in order based on publish date. I won’t be surprised if my reviews for the versions of Explorers of Death are going to be split into parts due to the length of the pastas, it’s not because I’m lazy but it’s because of the kb limit for the descriptions. I know I can easily type these reviews with the journal entry format for more space, but it’s just more fun doing it this way and having the cover art above.

This is a pasta many people have urged me to review. Some were telling them this is one of the worst poképastas ever. Do I feel the same about it? Well, I’m not going to be like some certain creepypasta reviewers are where they tend to judge pastas solely based on the amount of blood or clichés used. This was published in 2010, so I can’t be too harsh with the clichés used. If it was 2022, it’d be a different story. But just because it was created in early years of creepypastas, doesn’t automatically excuse the usage of blood and clichés. I just want to clarify that because a couple of people acted like I was defending the blood and cliché usage in the original Forever Mine and Pokémon Dead Channel. What I’m saying is I’m not judging based on WHAT substances are used, but HOW the substances are used. In my opinion, I get more bothered by unneeded references to Lavender Town than I do with blood in poképastas. Explorers of Death has a following with various fanart, fan animations, fan made rom hacks, apparently mods on FNF, and some SFM sh-tposts. Yes, the last two exist. Let’s see how this will do for the 20th milestone.

Note: I haven't read Version 2 or sparklingdemon's remake yet. So anything that I may have suggested for the pasta in this review or anything that's critiqued in this version that may be corrected in the other versions, I wasn't aware of at the time of making this review.
Pasta Name: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Death (Original)

Publish Date: November 9, 2010

Synopsis: After the protagonist forced her starter to be a Vulpix instead of a Squirtle and naming her Myra, her Shinx partner she named Shadow tries to kill Myra to “save” her.

Fun Fact: The protagonist’s personality is bold if she kept getting Squirtle as her starter.

Highlight: The suspense of the story.

Quote: “You can't escape who you truly aaarrreee!”

Story:
I don't have much to say about the pre-game segment. It starts at GameStop and the protag convinced her dad to buy her a video game, which ends up being PDM: Explorers of the Sky.

Now, I like the expressions and metaphors star-byte makes throughout this segment which the expression of words and metaphors tend to be the pros of her work. "Her dad makes a regretful glance at his wallet and a sigh going into the store" and "light reflected off the cover and it shone like a bright blazing star, it seemed to be calling out to me" are examples. Also, you read the instructional manual 3 times during the drive home? That's impressive. Maybe it's my bias because I'm a slow reader or the manual may have been short since their lengths can vary between games. I don't think games even have manuals anymore sadly.

The protag rushed to pop in the DS cartridge and she let out a fangirl squeal once the opening played. I've watched the opening for this review and it's one of the best openings I've seen in a game.

So she selects new adventure and it goes to the personality quiz and she said she was a female for the game and she wanted a Vulpix for her starter.
Let me explain for those who aren't familiar, in the PMD games, you are given a personality quiz and it asks you questions to try to match your personality and depending on your choices, your results will give you the Pokémon you have as your starter.
She answered the quiz honestly and believed she has the personality and nature of a Vulpix (which is relaxed). She got a Squirtle. She was disgusted with getting Squirtle, so she reset her DS to try the quiz again.

This distinctly reminds me of the function of the Shampoodle in Animal Crossing New Leaf with getting a hairstyle based on questions. I hated it.

She retires to get Vulpix, thinking it was a mistake. She got Squirtle again. Protag became furious and reset again. Selected random answers this time, Squirtle again. Reset yet again; this time, she didn't look at the DS screen and selected choices, Squirtle yet again. This means she had a Bold nature if she kept getting Squirtle.
The protag realized she had the internet to look up information about the games to get her majestic flaming fox. "I clicked on the address bar and typed in man's best virtual friend: Google.com." That is the best quote in the whole pasta. Too bad it's aged poorly, knowing how corrupted it's become lately.
She types out on how to get Vulpix. She sighed in relief with how the results were in her favor on what answers to choose for the following questions to get Vulpix as a starter. So I looked up if such sites exist and yeah they do exist.

Her parents said they were going out into town for a while and they left her for the house to herself as she heard the door slam shut, but she didn't care if a meteor was crashing into Earth because she was getting her Vulpix and that was the main focus. Yeah, I remember reading a No Sleep Story (I know, people have ranted about how toxic their community can get but what community doesn't have toxicity?) where a teenager outright ignores an old man screaming for help in favor of playing games and that old man died because mice ate him alive. You can imagine the guilt and regret that teenager felt. But I guess the protag has her priorities which is Vulpix.

The protag put in the answers and screamed joyfully when Vulpix finally showed up for her. If you're wondering how did the protag knew you can get Vulpix as a starter if she's never played a PMD game before, I assume it's from reading the manual earlier. Also, there were some promotion artwork of the game featuring Vulpix. Correct me on anything I get incorrect, PMD: Explorers of the Sky players.

The next screen is the partner selection screen. The protag chose to have a male Shinx as her partner. She thought a Shinx x Vulpix pairing was too adorable to pass on. I have to agree. She named him Shadow after her Luxray from Diamond. She didn't want to spoil anything else from here on out. She wanted to be surprised by what the game had to offer. And was she in for a surprise indeed. After the partner screen, it went static for a split screen; the protag said she didn't notice it because she was ready to get to the game already. Minor nitpick: if you didn't notice the static, then how were you able to bring it up here in the story?

The game started with her Vulpix lying on a beach in the sunset, and she looked beat up and like she was dying, with bruises and scratches in a pool of blood. "Why is there blood in a Pokémon game?"
Early 2021 Reviewer Me: Good flippin' question! Let's just add blood to make things scary!
Current Reviewer Me: Don't worry, there's at least a reasonable purpose for this.

There was never blood in Pokémon. Well, there have been mentions of blood like that one channeler in Pokémon Tower that shouts "give me blood!" and various Pokédex entries, but I know what you mean. The protag got excited that maybe Nintendo took Pokémon to the next level.

A white and dark grey Shinx walked up to Vulpix and the protag got excited about the special color of her partner and was oblivious to the obvious warnings that the game was clearly off. When Shadow noticed the Vulpix, he appeared to be shocked and ran towards the Vulpix. "Oh no, no, no..." Shadow dragged Vulpix away and the screen faded away to black. It was shown in a dark cave with a fire in front of Vulpix. She tried to stand up and stretched, she appeared to be wincing in pain and she collapsed and shivered.

Shadow returned with a berry in his mouth and he dropped up seeing that Vulpix was awake. He ran towards Vulpix. "Please lay down and don't move, don't make any noise at all, be as still and quiet as you can or you and me will regret it." Vulpix stopped shivering. "Good, now don't you dare move a muscle." The textbox had some words that were in bold and italicized. Shadow seemed like a mean partner at this point. Shadow got the berry and asked Vulpix to chew on it slowly and make as little noise or movement as possible. So, Vulpix ate it slowly. "Good job. Now, quietly whisper your name to me. Oh, please don't be who I just know you are, please please please by some miracle be someone else..."

When Shadow was asking this, the protag finds it odd how Shadow's tone changed mid-speech but she loves her split personality. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you saying you can legit hear audio from Shadow's dialogue? Hi, this is future me speaking since I wrote this script while analytically reading this pasta. It turns out there are parts where the protag is legit hearing voices from her DS speakers coming from the characters especially later on in the pasta.

Also, Shadow's rudeness is understandable since they're being chased by a murderer so it makes sense they'd be so anxious.

The protag named her Vulpix Myra and after entering the name, the screen became static and the protag noticed it this time. The protag wondered if it was the DS since she had it for years and used it nearly daily. So, Myra's sprite was shown whispering her name to Shadow and he jumped backward in shock. "M-Myra?!" He was disappointed he could about getting his hopes up so high. The icon of Shadow for the textbox had a tear on his face. Myra was about to talk but Shadow slammed his paw on her muzzle. "I told you not to dare talk." Myra started shivering and appeared crying. Shadow said sorry. "I-I'm sorry. Stop moving, please stop, she'll hear you, I said STOP!" Shadow charged up an electric attack and Myra became as still as a stone. After Myra stopped moving, Shadow stopped his attack and sat down. His sprite was on the verge of crying. Urging to not speak or move. "Don't do anything, please, help me." Shadow walked away from Myra. "I swear to Arceus you better not move while I think of something, something, hopeless..." He went off-screen. The protag dared not press any buttons to make Myra move fearing the consequences of what could happen if she did.

After it became dull from doing nothing, the protag assumed something needed to happen than just lay there, questioning what she could do without moving. She pressed the start button, assuming it wouldn't move Myra. The first option on the screen, she selected items to see if Myra had any options; she had chains as an item. "These chains were found wrapped around your neck. You don't remember how you got them, but you can't take them off." There was no item of interest available.

I don't really have much to say about this part. I do appreciate the build-up and suspense, and it makes you wonder what they are trying to hide from, like why Shadow is being so overprotective of Myra. It's been a solid start so far honestly.

Shadow came back walking in pain and stopped in front of Myra with tears falling down. "Stay still, close your eyes. Don't move. I-I'm sorry, I don't want to do this, but it will all be over with soon..." Shadow charged up a deadly attack of lightning as it lit up the cave. Myra had a shock of horror on her face, staring at Shadow in disbelief. "Don't move! Please, I promise it will only hurt for a second." He begged Myra to comply. He's trying to kill Myra. Myra stood up immediately and disobeyed her partner by racing off of the screen. "You fool! Myra! Come back!" Shadow chased after the Vulpix. The static popped up once again. The protag pointed out on she swore she could see a morbid looking Squirtle luring through the static, but she claimed it was her imagination.

Soooo... what are the complaints here? This story has been good so far and I'm even invested in it. The suspense of what Shadow is trying to protect Myra from is intense. You question Shadow's intentions in wanting to protect or kill Myra. There's a neat build-up to it. The first half of the pasta has been straightforward with some minor hiccups here and there. However, a running theme with a couple of star-byte's early works tend to have beginnings that make the pasta seem promising at first but there's a point in the story that makes it all go downhill. I'm not saying all of her works are like that but it was like this in Pokémon Dead Channel for example where all the cheesy aspects really came in once the protag and BRVR went outside of the cottage. Can the same thing be said about this one? Well... take a look.

The protag said things will start getting good now that Myra ran away from Shadow and she can move again. Myra was in a dungeon in a cave as it seemed like it was a dark crimson red with chains and other torture equipment lined up against the walls. Skulls littered the floor as this was unexpected by the protag for a Pokémon game. Nah, Myra just found her way into the Ocarina of Time Shadow Temple. I will admit my early 2021 counterpart would be ripping this apart because of the blood and skulls.

There was a white and grey Rattata limping in pain and was shocked when they spotted Myra. It got angry and charged toward her as it clearly had the intention of killing her. Being of the most common and annoying Pokémon in the series, the protag assumed Myra will one-hit KO the Rattata. [Insert Youngster Joey Joke]

Turns out Rattata was a challenging foe as it took 5 turns to defeat. The protag was concerned about her PP running out for Myra's moves and she is dead if so as if there was no way to restore PP. The scenes got more disturbing for every screen, Pokémon body parts appeared on the torture equipment, the skulls appeared to have flesh still clinging onto them, blood stains became frequent on the floors and walls. That's something... not to mention, PMD: Explorers of the Sky is a pixeled sprite game, so those sprites had to be well-detailed if you could see flesh clinging onto the skull. We'll have to wait until we get to Sparklingdemon's version of this pasta where they made screenshots of the pasta that are faithful to the sprite work done in the vanilla game. I mean, you all remember the remake for Forever Mine, right?

Each Pokémon got stronger each time and had more intensity of intent in killing Myra. For the final floor, static appeared for 7 seconds. The morbid Squirtle could be seen smiling and was more clear to see. Before you all ask, this was published nearly a year before Sonic.exe since you're probably getting similar vibes from this.
The protag was still in denial by thinking she was imagining it in her head but was still unsettled by it. She pushed onwards, she loved scary things, but she knew something was off. Now, I'm sure some people would say, "well turn off the game then", but then that would be anti-climatic for the story, which is why I now think that point is weak.
Myra was in a large crimson red room of skulls now. "You idiot. Myra, I finally found you!!" Shadow came running up behind Myra.

That's very convenient for Shadow. A minor nitpick: if Shadow was chasing after Myra the whole time, how could he not catch up to her sooner during any of the battles of the challenging, killer opponents Myra was in? That brings up another question, was Myra able to have that much PP for the battles if they got harder each time after the Rattata fight that took 5 turns to defeat? More PP would've been used for each battle. Future me speaking: this question about the PP gets answered later on in the pasta. But, there is something else that bothers me about this that I will bring up later on in the review. Also, I then remembered Shadow was said to be limping in pain earlier in the pasta, so I assume that may have happened to him off-screen while chasing after Myra.

Shadow started charging his attack once again. "You can't escape now. Stay still, thank me. Please, this will hurt a lot less than what she will do! N-Now stay still and die!!" Shadow is trying to give Myra an immediate death, so she doesn't have a slow, painful death from "her"? Interesting concept for "I need to kill you so you won't suffer". The protag couldn't control Myra even if there were a place to run. Protag acknowledged how Myra's own partner was going to kill her and she was irritated by this. Shadow's spark glowed brighter to the point that it was hurtful to look at."This will hurt but only for a moment, now please, hold still while whiwhilwhilwil-" The static returned; Myra and Shadow could still be seen through the static. "Too late." Shadow stopped his attack as the static grew stronger. Wait, was Shadow saying "while" through the textbox or was it auditory as his voice was glitching out? It would look so weird being written in a textbox. I'm having a hard time determining if it's textbox only or textbox with audio. It's likely audio with (or without) textboxes knowing what happens in the pasta later on.

The morbid Squirtle was shown again in the sea of static, the protag saw them clearly for more than a brief second as its flesh was ripped off at parts exposing internal organs and bones, blood flowed out of the numerous gashes all along its body, its shell was cracked opened with a vile bubbling green goo pouring out, and its tail was a very long and torn, and it was holding a dagger on its tail. Its red eye sockets were too large for its eyes shrunken out holding a heart-piercing gaze. The top of its head was cracked open and exposing a pulsing brain with blood gushing out. Razor sharp teeth came from the grin that stretched from cheek to cheek. I'm not the one to deduct points for grammar mistakes but the wrong "its" was used for the description of Squirtle with "it's", which is short for "it is". I mean, "It is tail curled around a dagger at the end." Also, the anime can confirm Squirtle can have razor sharp teeth.

"You can't escape who you truly aaarrreee." A high-pitched screeching voice emitted from the DS. So this confirms the pasta does involve auditory mechanics with the dialogues from the in-game characters.

The protag wanted to turn off the DS but her eyes were forced to keep staring. "I. Am. You." Squirtle Spoke and then the screen went black. The protag wasn't done yet despite her fear growing.

I forgot to mention, you're all probably wondering this and my early 2021 self would be tearing the rest of that Squirtle apart for this but how in the world is that Squirtle still alive in that morbid condition? I don't think it's that a big problem. Honestly, I think seeing a morbid-looking Squirtle as described in the pasta like that even being in the protagonist's perspective would be absolutely terrifying. The only concern I have is with how detailed she described the Squirtle and would be pixeled sprite really handle that much details even though I would assume it's one of those close up sprites the PMD games would show every once in a while.

Myra was in a dark grey cave filled with surprisingly realistic Pokémon corpses scattered everywhere and more bones. Everything was white, black, and grey except for Myra and the blood. Protag thought Squirtle was going overboard with the corpses. Realistic Pokémon corpses for a DS game that still used pixeled sprites, huh?

The protag realized she doesn't have to deal with this crap, so she quickly turned off the DS. Smart idea. But it wouldn't work for some reason. Oh... A screeching voice came up, "I'm not finished with you yet." It sounded like scraping on a chalkboard because of how loud it was. The protag tried to turn down the volume but it didn't work either. "You're going to listen to me like it or not. The protag's blood was turned into ice from fear and shock of what is occurring. " Shouldn't the dialogue have "whether you" between the "me" and "like"?

The protag said it sounded like a demon was speaking to her and she said she wouldn't be surprised if it was one speaking to her. I wouldn't be surprised either, knowing how this is slowly becoming a bit on the cliché side of things, but there's still hope. The protag just kept playing the game.

Were taking out the cartridge, closing the DS, or letting go of the DS not options either? Just a nitpick but still. Also, a missed opportunity: some DS games would play a SFX whenever you closed the DS with the game still playing to save battery which is something I feel many people have forgotten that the DS utilized back then. One example was Super Mario 64 DS (I think) would have Mario say "Bye-bye". So you could've had there be a non-stop screech playing for when the protag closed her DS.

There was a zombie Marill that stood up, then a zombie Poochyena, and eventually, all of the bodies regained movement to swarm poor Myra. Thankfully, they went down in one hit, but there were so many of them. Myra's PP was about to run out for all of her movies as the last zombies fell. Myra got out quickly to stumble upon ancient ruins. Everything was still white, black, and grey, and the protag couldn't find anything to heal Myra with. Remember this one specific detail. The static returned and flashed on the screen. Shadow came back and he was all beat up and worn down with blood streaks left on he walked. Shadow: "Myra, I-" Audio with no textbox played but the static cut off Shadow speaking to Myra."...for your own goo-" Static came back again. "must kill you. It's better th-" (static) "quick and easy dea-" (static) "-ve you, I'm sorry." Shadow charged up his attack with a powerful spark growing and he leaped on Myra to strike her. The protagonist in real life reeled back in pain, screaming as he hit Myra. It was painful as she fell off of her bed, feeling electricity going through her veins. There was pain for a few seconds. The protagonist felt pain and struggled to breathe as there were aches all over her body. She then reached for her DS wanting to see what happened now. I know what you're all probably thinking right now. Now, I can see where the author was probably going with how the protag and Myra are supposed to be connected or the same person metaphorically since Myra seems like a self-insert for the protagonist. However, this whole thing about the protagonist in real life getting hurt as Myra gets hurt feels like it came completely out of nowhere and felt abrupted too. Like, if it had some foreshadowing with the protagonist getting bruises or paper cuts from the battles with the killer white and dark grey Pokémon or the zombie Pokémon earlier, then that would've been slightly better. I'm not saying that this is bad because of how unrealistic it is, but I feel like it's not executed that well and feels abrupt. Like, was the electric pain metaphorically like if the protag could feel like pain from witnessing Myra getting struck and she's aching from falling off the bed and screaming, or did she legit feel the pain? I've had times where I witnessed people getting hurt and just watching them made me feel like I got hurt from witnessing it.

When the protag checked the DS, the static was gone and Shadow was seen cut in half and Myra was charred black. Myra gasped and ran over towards Shadow. Shadow was still alive and he looked up to her. "I-I'm sorry Myr-ra, I-I fail-led..." Protag teared up. He was only trying to save Myra from the suffering of the Squirtle. A low laughter came from the speakers and got louder. Something flashed by Myra at lightning speed wounding her. The protag fell backwards as she felt the blow too. This action was repeated to the point where the protag almost died. "Time to finish this." Lightning struck Myra and kept flowing, and the protag didn't notice since she was face down rolling on the floor in pain. Then how did you know Myra was getting hit if you weren't looking at your DS at the time? Nevermind.
"This is only the start." A voice chimed in. "Only worse will come." Another voice joined in. "Once you're dead, you'll be mine." "Once you're rotting in my Hell, you'll wish you could die." Protag felt more pain per voice chiming into the point of nearly losing consciousness. "Almost there, just-"A loud static noise cut off the voice and torment. The protagonist rolled over, crying and regaining control again. I would comment more about how in the world the protag is feeling all of this pain, but it speaks for itself, honestly. It's just strange. I mean, the NES Godzilla creepypasta (2011) did something similar near the end.

The protag reached for her DS as a cutscene was playing with the morbid Squirtle was lying on its back wrapped in chains. "No... no!!!" The Squirtle was screeching in protest and was slowly melting into acid with green bubbling goo. I'M MEEEEEELLLTTTTTTIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!

The bones and organs melted away as well. The last thing to dissolve was the eyes glaring at the protagonist with a heart-piercing glare. The screen turned to the top half of Shadow's body, struggling to stay alive. Myra walked over and nuzzled Shadow for saving her life and the protagonist's life pretty much. "I guess I did sav-ve you after-r all..." He reached over and licked Myra's face. It took too much strength and he fell down and collapsed onto the ground. He didn't stir again since. The protagonist said "Goodbye, Shadow." Myra repeated the same thing. "Goodbye, Shadow." Aww, this is so wholesome. I like this moment. See? I think whenever this pasta does something good, it does it really good, and when it does something bad, it does it really bad. I think the wholesomeness of this scene was well done.

The weariness from all of the pain with the protag finally took its toll on the protagonist and everything went to black.

The protagonist woke up in bed still in pain, and with memories flowing back into her mind, the first thing she thinks of is "my DS," and she begins searching for it. Her DS ended up being on her desk, and it was turned off. She played it to see if any of the things she just experienced were legit. However, the game was normal. Although, her save file was gone, so she started up a new game knowing her life would be at risk again. What? It legit said that in the pasta. The personality quiz was skipped and it jumped straight to Vulpix laying on the beach during a sunset. She was not bleeding this time. Shadow came up with his normal color scheme. So, the game proceeded like it normally should. After a few minutes, the coast was clear and the protagonist saved the game with a sigh of relief. There was no Squirtle to be found, so she didn't have to waste money getting a new cartridge.

I did originally ask for this part on how did the protag know it was normal if she has never played the vanilla game before or even a PMD game before, but my Discord viewers did make a fair point that the protag assumed it was back to normal since no blood/gore were shown and how Myra had no injuries and Shadow had his normal color scheme. Even critics need critics.

The protagonist got up from bed and realized her parents had not returned home from going into town when they should've been home. It was strange for the protagonist. She went to get a brownie as a late-night snack and went back to bed, assuming they would be home by the time she woke up the following day. I would comment about how eating sugar late at night is never a good idea, but I do the same thing too.

Suddenly, the protag realized something odd was happening with her body, especially her respiratory system. She was struggling to breathe. She realized she was choking and wasn't sure if it was from munching on the brownie. So she ran straight to the sink to get some water and guzzle it down hurriedly. It didn't ease the choking, though. Her neck was itchy, and it started to get harder to walk now. She looked into the mirror and noticed her neck was... wrapped with blood-stained... chains... Her eyes widened with horror as she couldn't pull the chains off. She thought it would be best to run out of the house and get help from her neighbors. She then realized she was trapped as she noticed that the doors were locked shut and the windows were bolted shut. She tried to escape by ramming into the window's glass, only to bounce back.

Protag fell onto the floor, moaning in pain. Something dripped onto her clothes. When she looked up to face it. The moonlight dimmed on it revealed her worst nightmare floating in front of her. "You should have just accepted who you are." Its sick grin widened and lightning struck. The end.

..... What in the world just happened...? No, really? I'm so confused by this ending. So lemme get this straight, what happened to Myra in the original save file started to happen to the protagonist in real life with having the chains around her neck? And is this implying that the morbid looking Squirtle came to real life to finish off the protagonist? Again, I'm not asking for all pastas to be realistic, but let's be honest, that is such a huge stretch... Actually, the question is was her "worst nightmare" the Squirtle? You assume it is because it's her worst nightmare because she thought the Squirtle was gone as Squirtle was harassing her, Myra, and Shadow throughout the game. Or was it a demon, since earlier, the protagonist said she wouldn't be surprised if she was talking to a demon after hearing Squirtle's voice talking to her? And I'm mostly confused by the lightning strike. I might be overthinking it, but was it Squirtle that used the lightning attack or did Shadow somehow come to real life to save or end the protagonist's life to avoid suffering from Squirtle's torment? It just ends with "its sick grin widened, and lightning struck." Who got struck by the lightning? I might be overthinking it, but I assume it's the protagonist because Squirtle was out to attack her. Again, not all pastas have to be realistic, but thinking about it, would you imagine a cartoonish and morbid-looking creature from a pixeled DS game ever come to real life to attack a player? That just sounds more silly than anything. Sure, if we look at this ending in the protagonist's perspective, seeing the Squirtle in real life would be absolutely terrifying and I think that's what star-byte was trying to go for for creepy factors like "the monster never left" type of trope, but it's a huge stretch and too cheesy for my taste. To be honest, I find a plushie doll being right behind you after a cursed game shuts off more believable and less cheesy than this. Also, it's pretty abrupt and out of nowhere too. Yes, I think this was the worst part of the whole pasta. I thought the nearly over half of it was good for the most part with some hiccups here and there. Great build up and suspense. I like the characters too, but this ending was just cheesy.

How was the story even written if the protag got killed at the end? It's clearly written in first person. I think this point earlier me made is a grey area now because it is fair to point out since it was written in first person. However, at the same time, it's a creepypasta and that's a bit on the nitpicking side. It doesn't always have to be logical and the main point is to scare us.

FURTHER THOUGHTS:
So earlier I said that Myra's PP running low didn't bother after all of those battles she had to fight. But, since it was made clear in the pasta that the protag couldn't find anywhere to heal Myra, then the thing that does bother me is Myra's HP. I'm even surprised HP was never brought up in this pasta considering how much pain, suffering, hits, and battles Myra went through unless it involves Myra and the protagonist being connected with each other and feeling the pain of each other. If Myra at the beginning was struggling to get up and had blood on her chains around her neck and in a puddle of blood with bruises around her body, you would assume she's lost at least a decent amount of her HP from all of that. She had to fight those killer black and dark grey Pokémon as it was stated they got more difficult each battle, then she had to fight all of the zombies (in fairness, it is stated they were all taken down in one-hit), then Shadow's attempt to kill her with a lightning attack, and then the number of times Squirtle hit her. Like, how much HP do you have, Myra? It likely has to do with Myra's HP being the protagonist's "HP" (since she was close to dying when Squirtle said "almost there" before Shadow saved her life) since you know, they felt the same pain simultaneously... somehow...

Well, either way, all I can say is, really to all the users who told them this was one of the worst poképastas they've ever read? I can accept different opinions, therefore just to give out mine, I don't think this one is bottom five material. Again, ignoring the cheesy, abrupt ending, I still think this pasta had a great story with some minor flaws and characters that I surprisingly got invested in. I really like the character arc with Shadow too, he seemed nasty and overly demanding at first, but he only wanted Myra to have a painless death rather than to suffer from Squirtle's torment, and he managed to save Myra in the end. Is this pasta flawless? No. One of the worst? Not even close.

So, will this pasta be struck as a fresh pasta or will it suffer the torment with the rating of spoiled pasta?

Well, it's kinda obvious with what I said before and throughout the review.

I think whenever this pasta does something good, it does it really good, and when it does something bad, it does it really bad. It's wholesome in that one scene with Shadow saving Myra and they both were great characters and have a lot of suspense and build-up within the story. The aspect of the protagonist hurting as Myra hurts is forced and came out of nowhere and the ending with what I assume was Squirtle coming to real life to presumptively kill off the protagonist at the end was so cheesy and abrupt and it kind of killed the credibility of the pasta in a way. I'm just repeating myself at the point.

I guess a new thing I could say is I feel like more could've been described with the killer white and dark grey Pokémon battles and the zombies because I feel like those segments just came and went so quickly. There could've been some descriptions and build-up with the battles as the protagonist fears and is paranoid about Myra's PP running out per battle.

In conclusion, with its share of big pros and big cons, it's neither a fresh pasta or a spoiled pasta. So, what is it then? Do I have a rating for that? Oh yeah, I do! It's a DRIED PASTA! Hey, I was surprised too by this because I thought it was going to be another spoiled pasta before actually reading it properly. And when I was half way through reading it analytically, I thought it was going to be a fresh pasta but then, the ending and so...

My rankings for the reviewed PokéPastas so far (from best to worst, top to bottom):
1. Easter Egg - Snow on Mt. Silver – Fresh
2. Forever Mine (Remake) - Fresh
3. Absol (Reaper) - Fresh
4. La Condena de Milotic – Fresh
5. Hypno's Lullaby – Fresh
6. Forever Mine (Original) - Fresh
7. Disabled - Fresh
8. Strangled Red – Dried
9. Zombreon - Dried
10. Lost Silver – Dried
11. PMD: Explorers of Death (Original) - Dried
12. White Hand and Buried Alive - Dried
13. Lavender Town Syndrome - Dried
14. Creepy Black – Dried
15. Abandon Lonliness - Spoiled
16. Pokémon Dead Channel – Spoiled
17. Pokémon Dead Channel 2 - Spoiled
18. Prevention of Evolution (Original) - Spoiled
19. Milotic's Revenge – Spoiled
20. Leaf Green Beta Scene - Spoiled

7 Fresh Pastas | 7 Dried Pastas | 6 Spoiled Pastas

I put it above White Hand, Buried Alive, Lavender Town Syndrome, and Creepy Black because I was invested in PMD more compared to them. However, Lost Silver wasn't as flawed as PMD: Explorers of Death. Strangled Red had arguably more flaws and plot holes than Lost Silver but the creepy factors near the ending with Steven going insane with Missingno and all is what saved it and boosted it a lot which is the job of a creepypasta in being creepy.

But, at least we are finally done with PMD: Explorers of Death like I promised I would do, right?.... right?...
-PMD: Explorers of Death V2
-PMD: Explorers of Death Remake by sparklingdemon

Oh boy...

Hint for next review: Well, I'm going to take on those later eventually. For next time, how about we look at a shorter poképasta.
Click here to view the full list of every PokéPasta review so far