A group of fish playing Pokemon Sapphire finally beat the game after a 3100-hour journey

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2020-11-07 18:05 (JST)
Translated by. Ari Clark

A certain group of players has whipped up a storm of excitement all over Japan by entering the Hall of Fame in Pokemon Sapphire. As of 7 a.m. on November 7, they had logged a total playtime of 3,195 hours. The players in question were, literally, fish. That’s right—the four fish that have been playing through Pokemon Sapphire in an ongoing YouTube Let’s Play on the Mutekimaru Channel since June of this year have finally beaten the game’s main story.

The channel has been running a Let’s Play of some pet tropical fish playing through Pokemon Sapphire instead of their owner, an office worker (hereafter referred to as Mutekimaru Channel). Specifically, Mutekimaru Channel used a Nintendo GameCube (running GameBoy software), a USB camera, and a custom program to import the movements of the fish into the game as they swam around in the water. With this setup, whenever a fish passed though the areas of the fishtank that corresponded to the directional arrows and the A and B buttons, their character in the game would move around, too.

There were originally two tropical fish playing the game, but their numbers have currently grown to four. Maurice, the original player; Ponyo, who caused an infamous mishap; Moo, a beauty with flowing fins; and Lala, an energetic swimmer with the best gaming skills of all, have been playing through the game in shifts. Although Mutekimaru Channel has intervened in situations where it would otherwise have been impossible to make any more progress through the game, the controls are basically left up to the fish themselves.

Of course, a bunch of fish aimlessly swimming around were hardly going to have a smooth playthrough. It took 60 hours before they caught their first Pokemon, and even after that, they kept wandering back and forth between Dewford Town and Slateport City for some reason. Worse yet, in July of this year, Ponyo accidentally released their most powerful fighter, a Blaziken, causing what fans called “The Big NOOO Incident”. The mishap went viral, spreading awareness of the channel’s existence all over Japan.

It was an exasperating livestream that hardly made any progress through the game at all, and yet it had a mysterious appeal that turned out to be the key to the channel’s popularity. Fans could leave the channel on like background music during work, occasionally checking in to see whether the fish were up to some puzzling antics, or making progress through the game at an unexpected moment…just watching the behavior of these carefree fish made for soothing content that earned itself a growing fanbase. Better yet, it occasionally generated dramatic twists that nobody could have seen coming.

The fishes’ battle against Wattson, the Gym Leader of Mauville City, turned into a grueling struggle due to type disadvantages. After suffering through nine consecutive defeats, their ace fighter, a Swellow (nicknamed AAQPO♂), showed its stuff in the final match. Despite losing 3/4 of its HP to its nemesis, a Magneton, it snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by scoring a direct hit on its opponent with Quick Attack. This narrow and hard-won victory finally brought an end to a mortal struggle that had spanned 84 hours.

One of the players also made a “discovery” that was the talk of the internet for having been found by a fish. It involved a scenario in the Seafloor Cavern, where players must use their Strength ability to push boulders around and solve a puzzle. While Lala was wandering around and randomly pushing boulders this way and that, some of the boulders that had disappeared offscreen somehow returned to their original positions.

Then, when she tried to push one of those boulders, it somehow cloned another boulder from underneath itself. The bug was later confirmed to be reproducible, according to Mutekimaru Channel, and it became known as “the new glitch discovered by a fish”. Welcome to the modern age, when fish can perform debugging.

We can’t spare enough page space here to cover all the drama, but after having many exciting adventures, the fishy squad finally made it all the way to the Elite Four.  With Lala playing, they suffered through 15 consecutive defeats to get to the final match against Steven Stone, racking up a total playtime of over 3,185 hours. Almost all their Pokemon had fainted, starting with their usual star player, AAQPO♂, and their only remaining refuge was EMOMYAMU, a level 72 Walrein. Armed with its Absolute Zero and Blizzard moves, they made their last stand.

 “What did you see on your journey with Pokémon? What did you feel, meeting so many other Trainers like you?” What did the fish think of Steven’s questions? The gloves were off for their final battle. When Steven sent Skarmory and Claydol into the fray, Lala unleashed an unhesitating barrage of Blizzards. She took them each down with a single blow, but at that point, her mightiest weapon, Blizzard, ran out of PP.

After thinking it over, the trainer selected Ice Ball as her next move. This is Walrein’s signature sequential attack, which fires off five successive attacks that get stronger each time, reaching a maximum firepower of 480. However, once this move has been selected, it becomes impossible to change tactics until either one of the attacks misses or all five turns have passed. Lala had made a daring final gamble.

With her first and second attacks both backed up by a type advantage, she successfully took down Cradily. Next up was Armaldo, and then Aggron, whose type resistance slowed them down a little. Still, with its Ice Ball attack growing more and more powerful, EMOMYAMU was able to take it down, too. At last, the final hurdle appeared: Metagross. It was a potentially lethal opponent to a Water/Ice type like Walrein. There was just one narrow path to victory. They would have to hit it with Ice Ball at maximum firepower and take it down with a single blow. Everything depended on that one turn.

＊11:14:00~

It was a direct hit. Metagross went down. The fish had defeated the Champion. And so, the four bettas collectively known as “Mutekimaru” entered the Hall of Fame. After receiving the blessings of Steven, May, and Professor Birch, the trainers meandered their way into the innermost sanctum. There, the names of the Pokemon that had fought to the finish for them over their many long hours of battle were recorded: AAQPO♂ (アQPO♂), ORURYOMU (オルルョム), CHIKI   yoTA (チキ　ョた), ERARAMAMA (エララママ),         w (        w), and EMOMYAMU (エモミャム).

Their nicknames had all been given to them by the fish themselves. On that early Saturday morning, without any fanfare, the curtain came down on a challenge that was the first and probably the last of its kind.  A little later, their owner, Mutekimaru Channel, confirmed that it was true. The livestream that had spanned approximately half a year had come to an end. With #PokemonClear and #Mutekimaru trending on Japanese Twitter, Japan blessed the fish with an outpouring of smiles and tears.

The Mutekimaru Channel livestreamed continuously, day and night, for a full six months and change. Strangely enough, during that time, there were so many things happening out in the world. Many people’s lives were irrevocably changed. Many people were struggling all alone. In the midst of it all, this channel continued its Let’s Play, determined to make “a livestream that anyone could watch at any time”. No matter how much daily life had changed, whenever you went back to this channel, those fish were always still mindlessly continuing to play

The genius of their achievement was not merely its attention-grabbing strangeness, but also the opportunity to reflect upon the weighty passage of time that it provided for the fans who eagerly watched the stream as the year 2020 went by. You could say it got the reception that it did because it was more than just a long-running livestream; it evolved from a simple Let’s Play into an ever-present part of our collective lives.

Some fans have already called for the fish to quickly embark on their next Let’s Play. However, protecting the health of the fish is the number-one priority for Mutekimaru Channel, and even their present achievement was only accomplished by incorporating plenty of breaks for rest and recuperation. For now, we should all express our gratitude and quiet congratulations to the four fish who completed this unprecedented challenge. You can check out the long journey of the Mutekimaru squad at this YouTube link.