Plug in. “Start”. Play.

Saturday night rolled around and I opened up my shimmering, teal 3DS and booted up the game. It showed a small galaxy with comets coming out of the it at diagonals in the shape of an “X” along with some upbeat music. I’m ready, I said to myself, still unsure of the future. The “X” formed a gateway to a bright blue screen of waves with a “Pokémon” sign, outlined in blue and filled in with a bright yellow. Then, a big, sheen, blue “X” appeared with waves coming out of the top corners. At the same time, I looked up how to restart the game on my laptop in front of me; it said to press the “Up” arrow as well as B and X when it plays the opening credits. I can do this. I followed the instructions and it quickly came up with showing a grey checker board background and a textbox that said “Delete all saved data?” and two buttons saying “YES” and “NO”. The “NO” button was highlighted in red flashing corners like it was trying to persuade me to not delete my game and start over. Regaining my confidence was only half the battle. As I summoned all of my strength, I pushed the “Up” arrow and pressed the “A” button signaling the 3DS to delete my saved data. Immediately after, a part of me regretted the decision, but I said to myself, You can’t go back now, Celeste, there is no time to mourn the loss of your Pokémon. Just start the game again and all will be well.

The opening credits played again with music and I pressed the “A” button to get started. A man in a white labcoat appeared on the screen with a light grey background, he started talking.

“Welcome to the world of Pokémon. I am Augustine Sycamore, the Kalos region’s very own Pokémon Professor.” A Skiddo (a Pokémon resembling a deer mixed with bush) appeared from a pokéball. “This world of ours is widely inhabited by creatures known as Pokémon!” he continued, “The mysterious creatures can be found in every corner of our world… Some run across the plains, others fly through the skies, and other yet swim deep in the oceans… ” As the professor explained this, a screen showed a big picture a wild Pokémon looking excited and happy. Some of them were flying like birds, others were swimming in the water like fish, and some were walking on land or jumping in the air excitedly. They all looks so joyful which made me smile from ear to ear at the sight of it. It made me feel renewed in a weird and pleasing way.“We live together with these Pokémon lending our strength to one another to live and prosper,” he continued.

After the monologue, a boy character, dressed in a blue jacket and pants with a black satchel, a red baseball cap with black sunglasses, a black and green wrist-band and black combat boots appeared on the left on a platform. To the right, there was a girl dressed in a collared black tank top, a red high-waisted skirt, black thigh-highs and boots, a red purse and a red fedora with white sunglasses and a black and green wrist-band. I was so elated to start a new game, so I quickly chose the “girl” option, and another screen popped up with three faces. The one all the way to the left had pale skin, blonde hair and sparkly, blue eyes, the middle girl had tan skin, dark brown eyes and light brown hair. Finally, the one on the right had dark skin, mysteriously dark eyes and black as night hair. I chose the one in the middle because it looked more like me than the other ones. At this point, I felt more confident about my decision to start over, in fact, I was genuinely thrilled.

Then next screen was of the professor again, he told me to give a letter to “my mother” in game and to have fun. I started playing the game according to the directions the characters gave me (even though I already know most of the stuff, it was a good review on my Pokémon knowledge). I splurged into the game and starting playing. Time itself stopped for me to frolic around with this game (not literally, of course). Unraveling the tape of the future was my goal in this game; to experience new things, to make myself anew.
. . .

Starting over can be a good thing. It gives you a chance to fix the things you did wrong and other things. Refreshing your mind can help you solve a problem in a different way than before. I have restarted games lots of times before because I felt like I wasn’t connected with it anymore. Just remember that starting over is a good thing, but it shouldn’t be taken lightly. You can lose data, important information or your favorite character. If you think it over, you can make something great.

Works Cited
"Pokémon X and Pokémon Y." Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. Pokémon, n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.