
After wandering for a while, I found that if you go through Diglett’s Cave, one of the cuttable bushes that normally blocks the path on the other side is no longer there, allowing you to advance and return to Pallet Town. And regardless of where you went, the music of Lavender Town continued on an infinite loop. You could go pretty much anywhere in the overworld at this point, though your movement was limited by the fact that you had no Pokémon to use HMs. There were still the tombstones of the trainers that you used Curse on, however. The overworld was entirely empty - there were no people at all. You no longer had any Pokémon with you, not even Ghost, who up to this point had been impossible to remove from your party through depositing in the PC. The man moved at only half of your normal walking speed. You then realized this man was your character. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. A box appeared with the words “Many years later…” It then cut to Lavender Tower. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of very under leveled Pokémon, the screen cut to black. The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. And because Curse made the game so easy, I essentially used it throughout the whole adventure. I figured this was the gimmick of the game, allowing you to use the previously uncapturable Ghosts. It was usable in your final battle against them, however. It would also fail if it was used against trainers that you would have to face again, such as your Rival or Giovanni. The move “Curse” was not usable in all instances. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone like the ones at Lavender Tower. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer’s sprite would be gone. If you selected “Run”, the battle would end as it normally does.

What’s even stranger is that after defeating a trainer and seeing “Red received $200 for winning!”, the battle commands would appear again. The implication was that the Pokémon died. If used in a battle against a trainer, when the Pokéballs representing their Pokemon would appear in the corner, they would have one fewer Pokéball. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokémon would be gone.

The cry of the defending Pokémon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. When the move “Curse” was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. Defending Pokémon were unable to attack Ghost - it would only say they were too scared to move.
