The Pokémon franchise is about players engaging in the art of capturing and battling pet animals, which can be seen as a pretty dark idea from the get-go. But the light-hearted, colorful nature of the games has made them a phenomenon that kids and adults of all ages can enjoy.
Nevertheless, there are times when the Pokémon franchise has strayed into the darker, more mature territory. This has occurred often, particularly as the various criminal teams players come up against in the games have evolved over time into more deadly terrorists with even more sinister intentions. It doesn't always make sense, but this darker territory has heralded some great success for the franchise.
6 Pokémon Sapphire
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It isn’t the darkest plot that an evil team comes up with in any of the games, but still, Team Aqua was a little too close to success in Pokémon Sapphire when they attempted to control the legendary Pokémon Kyogre and utilize him for their devilish misdeeds.
Their plan was, in simple terms, to force Kyogre to flood the entire world. Obsessed with water and convinced that flooding the world was best for humanity, somehow, if their plan had succeeded they surely would have killed millions, if not billions of people. The fact that this stopping them is the secondary goal of the player in Sapphire makes for a dark aspect to an otherwise delightful, happy game.
5 Pokémon X/Y
Flooding the world would kill most people, but having an active goal to kill almost everyone in the world is definitely a darker plot. In Pokémon X&Y, Team Flare is the terrorist organization that the player is forced to confront and stop from enacting their horrific plans.
This time, the goal is to create what Team Flare members refer to as “a beautiful world” by reactivating the Ultimate Weapon built centuries earlier. This machine would kill off most of the world’s population in creating the world they envision, and their plan is perhaps a little too reminiscent of Thanos to seem like it belongs in a light-hearted game like Pokémon.
4 Pokémon Ultra Sun/Moon
The Ultra Sun/Moon games have a variety of dark doings which makes them feel a little bit more adult than most Pokémon games. The most terrifying of which include but are not limited to child abuse, gang violence, brutal manipulation of characters, and experimentation being performed on Pokémon throughout.
The scariness of Necrozma also lurks throughout these games, as the threat of a Pokémon which could wipe everybody out is somehow more deeply unnerving than fighting against fellow humans looking to do the same thing. Besides this, players get to see the tragic things which occur to characters like Lusamine, both in her actions and in the things which occur to her throughout the game.
3 Pokémon Black & White 2
This pair of games have got a lot of darkness going for them. There are once again subplots involving hefty subject matters such as child abuse and manipulation, but beyond these are matters like the straight-up attempted murder of the player by Ghetsis. This character, perhaps more than any other villainous organization ruler in the franchise, is a horribly dark one.
Black & White 2 wasn’t afraid to tackle the consequences of the first Black & White games in what was a very upsetting fashion at times. There’s even a ghost that appears, and it is implied that she was murdered by Darkrai, this less abstract idea that Pokémon can be physically dangerous to humans is not often explored in the games, but it is a terrifying idea that humans and Pokémon can actually come to blows.
2 Pokémon Colosseum
The Snag Machine, quite simply, is the most horrible invention in Pokémon history. Team Snagem could, using this device, steal any Pokémon owned by a trainer. Essentially a brainwashing machine, the entire idea of taking free will away from Pokémon and forcing them to fight for Team Snagem is a violently horrible, dark theme for a game.
Turning Pokémon via their experimental processes into Shadow Pokémon, forced to do their bidding without any will of their own, essentially destroys Pokémon. Making these creatures into shells for their own personal use is a horrible idea that Team Cipher enacted in Pokémon Colosseum. It’s also worth mentioning that Team Cipher had pretty much overrun or taken control of almost every city in Orre. This kind of violent overthrow by one of the terrorist organizations makes for a much darker journey through the game than is common for the Pokémon franchise.
1 Pokémon Legends: Arceus
It is rare to see such a violent shift in the Pokémon franchise. But for years, fans have been asking for a more adult-oriented game, and Arceus is definitely the answer to those questions. The entire setting of this world, deep in the past compared to other Pokémon games, changed much about what players had come to expect of the series.
In this setting, most people in the towns visited were suspicious of the player character. They didn’t trust new people, felt like they couldn’t afford to feed them, and were convinced they were crazy for daring to venture out alone into the wild. This world, where Pokémon were considered enemies by practically all humans, was a crazy one to explore and experience and was a much darker take on the franchise in general.