Pokemon Scarlet Player’s Loss of 1000+ Hours Highlights a Lesson for Future Switch 2 Owners

Heartbreak and Pixels: A Pokémon Disaster on the Switch 2

Okay, picture this. You’ve been a die-hard Pokémon fan for, like, 20 years, right? You’ve assembled this dream team of critters across consoles, from your classic Game Boy Advance days with LeafGreen to late nights on your Nintendo DS playing Diamond. Fast forward, and you’re trying to transfer all these precious digital buddies to the shiny new Nintendo Switch 2. But then, bam. Disaster strikes. It’s gone. Twenty years’ worth of memories — I’m talking over a thousand hours of game time — just vanished into the ether.

Yeah, that happened to someone. No clue why I find these stories so gripping, but here we are. Maybe it’s the thrill of knowing my own save files are (hopefully) safe? Anyway, this whole ordeal kicked off after the Switch 2 dropped on June 5. 3.5 million have flown off the shelves in the first week! But alas, no new Pokemon titles with the launch. Pokemon Legends: Z-A is coming, but not until October. At least the backward compatibility’s there, so folks weren’t supposed to lose their Pokémon… or so they thought.

Not needing a moment to lose, this fan planned to transfer their favorites to the new Switch 2, expecting it to be a seamless experience. But then, surprise! They fired up Pokemon Scarlet and were greeted not by their trusty Pikachu, but by the dreaded language selection and character creation screens. Oof. Talk about a nosedive right into bad luck-ville.

Others chimed in, saying they’d had similar heart attacks with their save data, but most managed to recover it. One Reddit user even suggested pressing some combination like up, B, and X at the start screen to find a hidden backup save file. What a wild ride, right? Except, no joy for our original sufferer. Nintendo support was buzzing with other issues too, so yeah, might take a bit to sort out similar messes.

The silver lining? This player didn’t lose all their Pokémon, thank goodness. Those stashed in the Pokémon Home cloud service (thank the digital heavens) can still be transferred to the new games. Yet, the emotional toll hit hard. They passed on offers from fellow fans to trade replacement Pokémon, probably because, I mean, can you ever replace nostalgia?

So, what’s the moral here? Back up your save data, folks. Multiple times. And maybe throw in a little prayer to Arceus for good measure. Stay safe out there in the Pokémon universe.

Suddenly craving a digital adventure myself… where did I put my old console?