After doing a very, very big spreadsheet, I found that almost every Pokemon in Generation 2 had some kind of change at some point in development. The only ones who didn't were ones like Yanma or Larvitar. So, here's a big look at some of the notable changes. If you want to know them all, view my spreadsheet here. Trust me, virtually every Pokemon had some change somewhere, and covering them all would be impossible in a single article, nor would it be particularly interesting. Meganium's Spaceworld Connection
Gold -> Silver Design ChangesHowever, rather than focus on Spaceworld connections, how about some Gold and Silver-specific stuff? I believe there is none more interesting than Magby. Magby's design between Gold and Silver is actually quite different. Namely, the belly pattern in Gold is not only different, but it also mirrors Spaceworld. This implies to me that the Gold sprites were made first, and Silver's later. This could have started around 1998, I think. Crystal then darkened the colors of Silver, but the back sprite across all 3 games still kept the old belly patterns. Lugia is another interesting case to look over. Its Gold sprite features talons, and a parting on the left wing. This meant that that wing...wasn't a hand. Silver would remove both of these aspects and remodel the face, which Crystal would build upon when using Gold's sprite for the animated one in its game. Gold's Lugia design was essentially very different. GS -> Crystal Design Changes
Raikou inspired me to go on this little journey, due to the head and weird cloud-cape colour being completely different. Essentially, this Raikou is a completely different design to the Crystal - and thus modern - one. It's a pretty popular bit to look at in the beta section of the Pokemon community, so covering this is a bit of a cop-out, but hey! So what does this mean?So these are just some of the changes I discovered. But, what does this mean? Well, essentially, Pokemon Gold and Silver may well have been rushed out the door. There are many designs that received significant changes in Crystal, many I didn't cover here (basically, view the spreadsheet).
I can sort-of date the Silver sprite additions through Magby and Lugia: it must have been around Late 1998 to early 1999, mid development, once the art style shift was done, and enough so that the Spaceworld designs were not completely changed (See: Meganium). The art style shift happened in 1998, but no Silver sprites were revealed. You can see that the sprites were not "presentable" until later given that only Pokemon Gold's sprites received any coverage at all (Prerelease TCRF page shows this). Naturally though, it's still very vague. I believe that the game was rushed out of the door due to the time it took for the game to be made at all, and that Poke Fever as it was called was slowly dying off. To maintain the hype, it made sense for the sequels to be forced out. Therefore, we got designs that did not match official artwork. Hell, some Silver sprites were the same as the Gold ones (eg. Sneasel, Spinarak, Ariados, Legendary Beasts), or had very small alterations (eg. Hitmontop, Togetic). Crystal took on a pretty arduous task of fixing all these disparities, and it did damn well. So there you have it, some light shed on one of the more interesting parts of Generation 2. What do you think? Do you see any designs that particularly interest you?
0 Comments
Gastrodon is a fairly interesting Pokemon, and I don't often cover Pokemon beyond Generations 1 and 2. This Pokemon has quite a bit of interesting information about it, so I thought I'd compile it all so you can have a look. In Nintendo Power May 2007, it was said by Junichi Masuda that two "sea slug" Pokemon were meant to be in Ruby and Sapphire, but were cut. It's an interesting topic. There are actually two cut Pokemon in the Cry Order from the German Debug ROM, with fully functional cries. You can get the actual ROM here. Many often talk about Gastrodon and Shellos being in Gen 3 at some point, citing this magazine. However, this is false. The exact statement is; "There's also a sea-slug Pokémon that we weren't able to put in Ruby and Sapphire that we were able to put in this one, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl" It is highly likely that these unspecified Pokemon indirectly inspired Shellos and Gastrodon, like how Gyaoon inspired Tyranitar. I don't believe that these were the two Pokemon we got due tot he statement, though. There is also more evidence for this than one would think, so let's have a look. One case of a concept being completely revised for a game is Mantine, who was originally Haneei. This Pokemon was likely based on Glaucus atlanticus, or the Blue Sea Slug. In the end it became a stingray, more befitting its name (haneru means jump, hane means feather/wing, and ei implies stingray, thanks to TCRF). So it could be theorized that the concept of sea slugs being used for Pokemon could date back to Generation 2, given the appearance of Haneei (although you could say from the name that the evidence is a bit weak). Anyway, let's move on a touch. In August 2006, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl was in a debugging phase. How do we know this? Well, it leaked in June 2019. In this ROM, Shellos and Gastrodon had different Japanese names; Siiusi and Siidorugo, rather than Karanakushi and Toritodon. Gastrodon's name appears to be a reference to Dolgo, a Kaiju (thanks to Helix Chamber). These names were considered a mainstay it appears, as they made it into Pokemon Battle Revolution. In fact, the names made it into the final game under debug options. You may have also seen these sprites before, which are unused in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl as well. It is likely that these are our "Siiusi" and "Siidorugo", the old Shellos and Gastrodon, before they were changed into what they are now. You may notice that Shellos has the East Sea's back. This is because, well, at one point that concept wasn't exactly founded yet. The final game has a debug function talking about the forms. I like to think that they had a bunch of designs for these sea slugs that they liked, and chose to make multiple forms based on, well, the different sea's sea slugs. The Gastrodon here may have been one of the designs that they chose to cut. It makes a lot of sense, as compared to the final game and early Shellos, it's a bit out there. It would have been a bit redundant to have more than 2 forms as well, although the East's head patterns have no record of presence at this time. It could have been in their little Shellos-Gastrodon war chest, though! So there you have it, multiple generations of wanting sea slugs in Pokemon, amounting to the creation of Gastrodon and Shellos. And honestly, I'm glad it came out. It's a well-known competitive Pokemon in the VGC sector for its Storm Drain ability, and frequently finds its way onto teams to counter Rain. While it rarely ventures out of the lower tiers in Smogon, it has an OU tiering under its belt for Gen 5 and frequently travels through every tier above it in every game for one reason or another. While Shellos has significantly less competitive history, it's nice to see all of its development history, providing a deep inside look at how Nintendo designs their Pokemon.
I don't often cover generations after 2 due to a lack of information, but some recent findings with Pokemon HOME have finally given me something to look at. This is some rather new information brought forward by a Twitter user, but I wasn't sure about bringing this article up due to a lack of info. Thanks to an old friend named Eric though, he dug up a Reddit post that brought me to a source for some extra spicy stuff to put together for a new theory.
Back in 2012,Nintendo laid down new trademarks for their Pokemon receiving Mega Evolutions. At the time random (due to Black and White 2 being on the horizon), this included all of the XY Mega Evolutions. It also included Latias and Latios who were in the code of said game, but not released until ORAS. In addition, in 2013, Aggron and Absol were also added to this list. However, there was one, significant outlier: Jynx, who never received a Mega at all. Nobody knew why Jynx was on this list at all. So, what gives? There has been for a while, a long-running idea that Jynx possibly had a Mega Evolution cut back in the day due to this article. And thanks to a tweet by Mattyoukhana_, this has finally received some significant validity. In Pokemon HOME, an unused cry was found that was strikingly similar to Jynx's, with a Mega reverb to boot;
Those who played Generations 6 and 7 should absolutely know what that reverb is: it's a trademark of a Mega cry. My theory, is that this is a removed asset from Pokemon X and Y. Some have said it's a Galarian evolution, but the reverb and echo simply don't match that. Given the trademarks, the context here is clearly different. Besides, if this were the case, where's all the other content from the DLC?
A day later, we also got this tweet stating that Jynx is highly likely to be an alternate form. This lines up with how Galarian and Mega forms are put into the game. In fact, through hacking, it is possible to have Mega Evolutions stored in exactly this way through both Bank and Home. So it definitely isn't Gigantamax.
So, why was this removed? Those who have followed this blog know that I have covered Jynx's controversial aspects in-depth on a good few occasions. Back in 1997 over to around 2001, Jynx was the recipient of a good deal of backlash by critics of the Pokemon series. This prompted a change in design, having its skin colour changed from black to purple. It's not unknown to my readers that Jynx's previous role in Gold and Silver was cut, likely due to this controversy. Jynx also hasn't appeared in the anime since 2006, in "Mean with Envy". Jynx is, to put it bluntly, Game Freak's problem child.
So, why would Jynx have been the intended recipient of a Mega Evolution? Well, by this time, the controversy had pretty much completely died down. Electabuzz and Magmortar received evolutions in Diamond and Pearl after all three gained Baby Pokemon in Gold and Silver. Clearly there is some inconsistency here. Jynx, Magmar and Electabuzz have all been seen as a trio in the past, while Pinsir, Scyther and Heracross are another. So, giving it something to make up for this seems quite logical. However, due to how controversial Jynx is, it was left in the dust. For all we know, there could just be a Mega Jynx design in Game Freak's old design vault. Maybe even that Mega Flygon that was also dropped. In fact, the very quote that is used here implies it was planned since XY; "...Flygon has had the potential to have a Mega Evolution since XY, but we were unable to complete a design and so it was dropped from consideration."
In which case, well, why don't we see Mega Flygon on the copyright list? Simple answer here is, well, he was cut early on. All the Mega Evolutions noted here must have been confirmed and/or had designs sorted. Filing a trademark isn't exactly cheap. This would strengthen the idea that Jynx, once again, likely has a Mega form all tucked away in Game Freak's vault. Obviously though, this is all speculation.
However, on this trademark list, we don't see Blaziken at all. I believe that Mega Blaziken may well have replaced Jynx after this discrepancy, as well as to foreshadow - and to build up hype for - ORAS. Far less risky and far more profitable. Jynx is simply not an easily marketable Pokemon, up there with Kadabra. Even the Kanto lovers have a common distaste for it. Can this Pokemon ever catch a break? So, what do I think of this? Well, as a person who's looked heavily into Jynx's history, I would love to see a redemption arc in this PR train wreck. My friend who tipped me off on this is actually a bit of an enthusiast! Jynx is among the most interesting Pokemon in the series, and almost viable to boot. Access to Fake Out, a very accurate sleep move in Lovely Kiss, very nice special attack, and a fairly good speed stat of 95: just 10 points away from breaking the dreaded 100 threshold. An old OU titan in Generations 1-2, and an underdog in Gen 3, seeing Jynx return to the Smogon Singles metagame would be pretty nice. I'd rather see ol' Tauros though, personally. I have requested The Cutting Room Floor, cut content enthusiasts, to have a look through XY to check for this cry. I'm not exactly savvy in datamining anything past GBA, but there are some individuals eager to try and seek out this cry in the data. Or perhaps, something more. Should anything occur, I will post a follow-up article as soon as possible. I have also contacted Mattyoukhana_ for comment. Gyopin is a curious little blighter who always seems to find its ways into leaks about Generations 1 and 2. However, I have never covered this little thing! Gyopin is a pre-evolution to Goldeen - a Baby Pokemon - whose first recorded appearance is in the Pokemon Red and Green Asset Leak. It was positioned at Index No.156, meaning that if you tried encountering it now you would find a MissingNo. in its place. Yes, this is an unmasked MissingNo.! However, it had no known name from that point in time, but these days we call it Gyopin due to its later appearances. The asset leak was released in February 2019, but held for an undetermined amount of time. We only have a back sprite of this little guy, and only in black and white too. However, I have taken it upon myself to make a speculative back sprite using the final Red and Green Goldeen's palette. This was with Bulbapedia's sprite. As a result, we wind up with this; The then-unnamed fish also had a learnset, but I have yet to translate these. I will however provide what I have;
This unnamed fish would later appear as Gyopin in the Spaceworld 1997 Demo leak that happened in 2018, released by the same person. This time, with far more completion; including a front sprite, a palette to actually look at, and a full learnset. (Credit: The Cutting Room Floor) Gyopin was Pure Water Type, with no stats (as in they were all dummied to 50), and a 50% chance to hold a Berry and a 5% chance to hold the old Mystic Water, the Wet Horn. It evolved more quickly than its Gen 1 counterpart, evolving at Level 16. As for learnset, here we are. Sourcing it from Team Spaceworld's research spreadsheet that I saved a copy of, before it was taken down. I use it for personal research records now. It's essentially Final Goldeen's, with no different moves from there. Levels are a bit different. Demo Goldeen learns moves more slowly by virtue of being a Stage 1 evolution. Gyopin is however a source of confusion for some, due to its design being a bit different to Goldeen. This, is a misconception. Goldeen originally had a spiral horn, which began being changed when Pokemon Yellow was released in September 1998. As a result, considering this fact, Gyopin's design actually makes perfect sense. Pokemon were often proposed in groups, meaning Gyopin was likely intended as a member of the Goldeen line from the very beginning. It just...got removed in the end. (Sprite Credit: The Cutting Room Floor - Gyopin, Bulbapedia - Goldeen) It gets a bit weird though. In all of Goldeen's official artwork from the era - even the Cardass art - I cannot for the life of me find anything showing Goldeen with a spiral horn. In fact, I couldn't find it for Seaking either, despite having the exact same spiral horn trait in Red and Green, and Blue JP. The closest I got to any reference was on some Cardass artwork for Seaking, but it's a bit of a reach. So, what does this mean? The spiral horn sprites for Goldeen and Seaking represent an intermittent design stage, like Gold and Silver's designs for Meganium, Spinarak and the Legendary Beasts being changed for Crystal. I believe that the artwork for Goldeen and Seaking must have been made after their in-game sprites were already finished, thus why their spiral horns were removed in Yellow and later just erased from existence. And, well, I think I can date this as well. I believe it must have happened during - and after - Spaceworld. Pokemon Yellow was released in September 1998, almost a year after Spaceworld. We have sprites showing the spiral horn in the demo, which was changed in the final. I also have a bit of a smoking gun, and that's Seaking's Spaceworld sprites. (Sprite Credit: The Cutting Room Floor) Notice the front sprite's horn: there's no spiral. They were in the middle of the redesign right as Spaceworld was going on. This leads me to believe that perhaps Gyopin and Goldeen have versions of their Spaceworld sprites without the spiral horn being featured as well somewhere, but...that's a reach, I feel. Well, why would they remove such an awesome looking design? I believe the anime must have been using the Red and Green artwork as a basis, as Goldeen had already been shown without a spiral horn. The first appearance was in Pokemon Emergency. In fact, this was its most iconic appearance that even led to Goldeen being featured in Super Smash Bros. doing the exact same thing: flopping on the floor. Thus, they must have changed it for consistency reasons. When did this air? April 8th 1997 in Japan, around the same time as when MicroGroup Game Review Vol.14 was released, doing commentary on the first episode of the anime: there was a lot of promotion going on. I believe Gyopin was removed for several reasons. It would have been extremely weak, and left Goldeen as one of the weakest middle evolutions of all time. Most Baby Pokemon reduce all the older form's stats by around 20, meaning its defenses would have been absolutely pitiful.
So there you have it: Gyopin, the Goldeen line's long lost baby, and part of one of many Generation 1 redesigns. What do you think? Personally, I wish that horn stayed, it adds a lot more personality to this line of Pokemon. Many often call Goldeen and Seaking basic, mundane and/or unimaginative. Personally I absolutely love Seaking, given my love for the more regal kinds of goldfish. Shoutout to Game Freak for giving it Swords Dance again in Sword and Shield after being deprived of it for 2 decades by the way. That was a Gen 2 event move, one of the most unfortunate casualties of the move to Gen 3. Left me super miffed. But anyway, that marks another mystery solved about not just Gyopin, but the entire Goldeen line! With the emergence of the Pokemon Index List, the Capsule Monsters concepts, and so much more, many theories have been arising about Gen 1's development. From what Beta Pokemon became what to whether Magby and Elekid were in the game at some point. But none would be more backed up than the belief Blastoise was originally a standalone Pokemon. Sounds weird, doesn't it? But worry not, Papa Plague has you covered with all the information, continuing from an article I made a while ago. I originally thought that MissingNo. Index 181 could be two things: an unused evolution line from Spaceworld or an alternate Blastoise. Let's just say the prior theory was blown completely out the water. You see, I was originally kind of confused about Mew's placement in the index, as the last 3 MissingNo. in the Index were used for sprites in Lavender Tower and the Pewter Museum of Science. I initially believed they could have been reused, but what if they were intended for this all along? We could simply come to that conclusion and it all makes a lot of sense. As for Spaceworld, well, I did say it was circumstantial in that original article. So now, we arrive at the #AltBlastoise theory, with my old image to guide us through. We actually came across some very useful information to help validate this entire thing now too! For starters, let's bring up the main points from before;
But now, we have a new point. You see, thanks to the NHK broadcast showing that sprite sheet, we have confirmation that Blastoise used Cry No.30, which corresponds to Index Number 181: MissingNo. Hex B5. Weird coincidence, is it not? Suddenly we have some extremely strong evidence that Blastoise would have been separate from the Squirtle line at some point, backed up by design differences and general oddities spanning years. Next article will be going into Omega in more detail, the Pokemon which Mew replaced in the final game! Given how much history there is on Shellder and Cloyster at this point, I decided it would be fitting to discuss the entire history of the two lines. Linked by the claims of a "Spiral Shellder" being attached to Slowpoke so it becomes Slowbro, there's a lot to take in here. So, let's take a trip down memory lane to witness the development of some of Kanto's most interesting Pokemon! Funnily enough, both Cloyster and Slowbro existed in the Capsule Monsters sprite sheets. These sheets were taken at rather different times, but are nevertheless significant in devising the history of the two lines.
Slowbro was the 4th Pokemon conceived in Capsule Monsters going by the sheet, although it sits at Index Number 8 in the final game. Thus, the idea of a Shellder latching onto it is likely an afterthought or something. This also means that Tārban technically had its design made at this time, and could well have been saved for later as well. This is a bit of a reach, however. Cloyster, as it turns out, thanks to the NHK report that was unearthed, was also made during this time period. But this is where it gets weird: it was named Shellder, not Cloyster. This could partially explain why the thing on Slowbro's tail is called a "Spiral Shellder" in Pokedex Entries nowadays, but it's still a bit odd. It gets weirder though, as in the final game, the Shellder we know fills the index number Cloyster should be at; Cloyster is actually Index Number 139 in the final game. This could explain why Shellder's sprite was downsized during development. On a side note, Shellder held Scyther's index number for a period during development, before Scyther was moved to Index Number 26. This is reflected in the Popularity Poll (note that Scyther uses Index Number 23). As for how long and when this started, well, is hard to tell. What these facts mean, well, there are a few theories and facts that can be derived from this.
Later on we find the Slowpoke line getting more love, with Slowking being featured in Pokemon The Movie 2000 and being one of the first Pokemon revealed for Gold and Silver in June of 1996. Nothing really changes here. Later we see Tārban get added in the Spaceworld Demo as some bizarre...thing with only 3 moves. Incomplete, sadly it didn't get to fly and be seen in the final game. It answered so many questions and theories though, I'm glad we got closure in the end. I do think that the Slowpoke Line inspired Mantine's later design, going from a sea slug-inspired beast to a ray with a remoraid attached to it. Perhaps Tārban inspired the concept of a Mantyke with Remoraid in the party becoming Mantine! After all, Sinnoh appeared to use heavy inspiration from the Spaceworld Prototype. It's amazing to see how such an interesting line of Pokemon have such intricate history. While there are still mysteries to solve, it's cool to look at now and try to come up with theories to figure them out. Helix Chamber released some more info on Capsule Monsters Sprites after a shock report, featuring more early designs of the Pokemon. It confirms a multitude of theories, so I'm going to cover this with some speculation thrown in. Before we continue, these numbers on the paper are cry numbers, so you may want a list to gather an idea of how they sounded. From left to right, these are the Pokemon shown;
This is a very interesting sheet, as it not only shows a beta Pokemon, but it's a Beta Pokemon that has been bugging us historians for a while. You see, there's been a thing called "The Mystery O" among the thing, where we have a shred of a name of a Pokemon but nothing else. It just happened to be on this sheet! So here I just made a very poorly made reconstruction (using Helix Chamber's of the part as a basis) that I totally didn't make in 2 mins in MS Paint. Anyway, meet Omega, the ultimate E-Series Robot- wait, that's not it...I mean, the original user of Blastoise's cry! Yeah, this Pokemon looks pretty weird and early, much like the rest of the Pokemon there. It's not really much, just another Pokemon to add to the dinosaur list (likely why it was cut in my opinion). It's overall another Pokemon to go with the likes of Deer and Crocky, as it lived and died in exactly the same span of time. It's funny how this design didn't even get reused in the Spaceworld 1997 Demo. Seems they definitely did not like this Pokemon and killed it before it laid eggs. The name was so cool though! Next up we have Scyther, who I will say has the best sprite in the history of Pokemon in the Blue JP / Red and Blue Int games. I will die on this hill, you cannot prove me wrong. Anyway, we can agree that Scyther had very humble beginnings in Pokemon. Crappy sprite in Capumon, looked ugly in Green, had no Bug Moves and the only Flying STAB was 35 Base Power Wing Attack...yeah. Game Freak did not like this poor boy. To be honest, that initial sprite makes me think it was originally a Bug/Dragon Type, with the face and all. All speculation though. Gyarados was very different originally, seemed the original idea was to bring in something from Tremors or whatever. It may shock you, but yes, that name is Gyarados'. It looks a bit like Omanyte or Omastar, but a closer look will tell you that spiral is actually it dipping down or something. Hard to describe. But yeah, this explains why Magikarp is so far ahead at Index Number 133. The designs were originally very separate! Perhaps this inspired Eelektross at some point? It's all very interesting!
Now, the Cloyster thing is pretty weird, so bear with me. Index Number 23 has quite a bit of history to it now.
Blastoise being shown here so early also shows it is even more likely that it wasn't meant to be an evolution for Wartortle, strengthened by its placement in the popularity poll and the MissingNo. entry coming after Wartortle (as shown in another one of my articles). I believe this is a very plausible theory now. So yeah, that's some crazy info that we have here now! I've also updated my research document with this new information, so feel free to check it out! This is very likely to be the last time I cover this magazine until someone translates the Hideo Kojima area of the magazine (someone is doing it for me, next week seems promising). Also, apologies for my inconsistent uploading of articles, I like to keep it spaced out but it gets a bit much sometimes. I have covered parts of "Hitmontop" before, but never actually went in depth or put it all in one place. So, it feels correct to put it here. Given the turtle has no real thoughts on it, I don't think it warrants an article (Unless I need filler...heh). This article is mainly to compile my thoughts, and to clear up any misinformation regarding this thing. So, let's begin this with what is the speculative history of Hitmontop. All the images here will be recycled from my previous articles, since there's no point in redoing them: they're fine! One thing I questioned in my initial research of the Spaceworld 1997 Demo back in June-July times, the biggest thing I questioned was the drastic difference in design. The only similarity was the concept of a spinning top, but even then it is quite the reach. Now, let's bring up the interview retranslation that Obskyr did. It has been agreed upon that the designs were never intended to be canon from the beginning: notice that Tyranitar wasn't in the Spaceworld Demo. It wasn't intended to exist up until after Spaceworld when the designs were looked over again. I believe that as a result, we can say the same for "Hitmontop", who I don't think is Hitmontop at all. Thinking about it, the only way that we can really explain the drastic design difference and the existence of Hitmontop in the Spaceworld Demo is that this Pokemon is not actually a beta Hitmontop. It never was. Hitmontop is based on a practitioner of Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art. Got to commend Game Freak for researching such an obscure thing tbh, pretty cool. Hell, the Japanese name is a homage to it. Anyway, getting off track. This weird Pokemon doesn't feature any implications of any kind of fighting style, and is simply a spinning top. If anything, I really think it looks like Clefairy. Here's an image I put together using my HQ scanned images of it; Ken Sugimori stated in the interview with the writers of the magazine, that he had the idea of a parallel universe when designing these Pokemon. They were not meant to be canon, but obviously Tyranitar really complicated this when Ken looked back at his old designs and thought "hey let's contradict this for a laugh".
So really, this Pokemon was never meant to be used from the beginning. As I said in my previous articles, this Pokemon was a throwaway design, just like the turtle and Tyranitar (god it still feels weird saying that). All in all, the most this Pokemon could have done is indirectly contribute to Hitmontop's inception: the concept of a spinning top, that evolved from there thanks to the drug-fueled beings that are Pokemon's designers. So, not Hitmontop. It's about as irrelevant as the turtle Pokemon that may or may not have become Tirtouga. After I got myself a copy of the magazine and scanned it all, I decided to take all this a bit further. With access to the best possible quality images of it, I couldn't just leave it at that. Given we only had a very poor translation of the page, I got Obskyr from Team Spaceworld to retranslate the page for us. So now, we have an improved translation erasing any grey areas that we initially had. Due to my PNG Copy being 16.3 MB I couldn't get it on here, but you can view it here. To compensate and for a more streamlined experience for you all, there's a JPEG version below. So overall, this translation has some key differences thanks to the kanji being legible: firstly, it confirms that Tyranitar was a throwaway design. I went over this in two articles, which you can see here and here. However, the latter is thrown into question. You see, Sugimori states here that these were original designs, made for a parallel universe of sorts. A separate world, in his words. Thus, these designs were never intended to be canon at all. This is more of a practice go or something, although the motivation is not mentioned. Thus, that's speculation. In regards to my Tyranitar Dev History Article being thrown into question, it's mainly because I claimed that Ken Sugimori likely polished Gyaoon to make Tyranitar. While Question 3 does support this, Question 1 does not. In fact, Question 1 could outright deconfirm this: Ken Sugimori claims they are original. However, polishing an old design and using it could also be just as good as an original. It could be a final hurrah for a Pokemon Design he had a kinship with. Or, he revived the concept of a Godzilla-like Pokemon as I said. It could mean anything, and sadly this is the one question we'll leave with: was Tyranitar a revived concept, or an original throwaway design before its inception in the final game? I believe this also confirms that Hitmontop was never, ever a part of this. From this I infer that this is simply a non-canon design (as stated in the original interview) that was taken from the Clefairy formula. They feel sort of similar. Possibly a Clefairy in a parallel universe as he claimed? Now for the turtle design. I agree with the masses that this could well have indirectly inspired Tirtouga. There are some very strong similarities between the two, although there are some differences between them that are natural with age. Now, I believe that the Clefairy-Hitmontop mishmash was laid to bed quickly after this magazine was published. I think Ken Sugimori did what he did in Question 3 to bring Tyranitar into being: looked back at the magazine, liked the idea, and pitched it. The turtle, I believe, was redesigned across multiple generations to eventually become Tirtouga.
So there we go! The Sugimori Interview has been retranslated and we have answers! This is quite a big theory that has been proven true quite a few times throughout the discovery period of the Spaceworld Demo. I'll be giving my take on it, with help from The Cutting Room Floor and my own knowledge. A friend, Mooliecool, also helped me figure all this out a while ago as well. So, what are these similarities? Well, it runs deep and I'll have to explain from the ground up. It appears that Pokemon Gold and Silver were originally going to be set on an entire continent. In my article on The Jynx Controversy, you'll see that from Corocoro's December 1997 Issue they state the town to be Kyoto-like. For those who have read Corocoro before in any capacity, they like to hint things strongly, which are usually confirmations. In regards to the continent, it is deeply inspired by the real world. I identified it regionally in my Spaceworld Analysis in various areas, but TCRF went much deeper into it and managed to even tie the areas together perfectly. Now, with this in mind, I can easily go to the next part. You see, the north eastern area of the Spaceworld Demo's Pokemon Continent bears a striking resemblance to Sinnoh's Town Map. Note that this image was really sloppily done by myself, so chances are you'll have to try and recreate what I was trying to do here yourself if you want to see what I mean properly. Now, one thing I'd like to get straight here: no, I am not saying that it is a fully identical thing or anything. However, this specific area I put the image over is important. There are 4, possibly 5, areas which bear a resemblance to Sinnoh areas. Here's a comparison, with Town Map locations for convenience. I'd recommend zooming in or something to see the images from TCRF. Credited them accordingly for their comparison screenshots, and their bit on their wiki should give a sufficient explanation from them. They're much more credible than me at least. As you can see, there are 3 areas which TCRF went over as well as 2 others that I noticed. Now, the Iron Island one, at least to me, makes a lot of sense. It's connected to what can be seen as Beta Canalave City, only you use a Surf Route to get to it. It seems that it was more of a mine this time around, and the minecarts in the Final Game could well have been used here if I am correct. This would also connect Oreburgh City as a possible point of reference as well. Everything leads back to Sinnoh here, no? The fact Canalave City has a remixed GSC Credits Theme for its town music is even more of a flag for me. As for Pastoria City, I wouldn't say the maps themselves are similar. It's more that it appears to be a point of reference FOR Pastoria City. The structure has a mild similarity if you mirror it, but it's closer to Fuchsia at this point in development. I believe that the whole animal abuse controversy is what lead to the zoos being erased, and the rest can be attributed to change over the course of what is almost two decades at this point. The thing that put this on the radar for me is that is was in fact in the Sinnoh area on the map. Thus, it naturally gets at least a fair trial in my book. Now, the Sinnoh similarities don't end here. There's more, namely in the Pokemon found in the demo. As you can see here, there are 5 Pokemon that were scrapped in the making of the demo, only to be reused in Sinnoh. This is Ken Sugimori's "reuse all concepts" ideology from my MicroGroup Game Review Article in play, I think. They have all changed quite radically, which is once again from the almost 2 decades of being thrown around. Hell, we can see that prototype Mr. Mime Pre-Evo go from an egg to a clown child: kind of crazy, huh?
I believe that Hoenn and Sinnoh were both a part of an effort to complete the entire Beta GSC Continent, to complete the ambition that the game had. This is why they moved to Unova, then Kalos, then Alola: because they don't have the groundwork anymore. The continent now exists, there's no need to go back. This is why there are so many Johto throwbacks in Sinnoh, such as Weavile. They were adding Pokemon that were initially scrapped, since they were using the work they did on this demo. The reason Game Freak holds back designs is usually because they are unsatisfactory. It's clear why Nameru was held back: the thing is pretty darn ugly and looks like a King's Rock Evolution even though it isn't. I wish it was, I actually kind of like it. There's has some sort of a charm to it. Why am I talking about this? It's the reason why GSC was rebuilt to begin with. There's an interview saying that higher-ups did not like this demo, and thus they changed everything. Given the demo's progress, I'd say this happened a bit after Spaceworld. So the design of the region- no, the whole game, was unsatisfactory or hit a roadblock. However, it was never simply canned. It was reused, and we can see that in Hoenn and Sinnoh alike. It's kind of crazy how concepts work, huh? The more I look at this demo, the more interesting it becomes. It's not just a glimpse into the way Game Freak makes games, but a full, detailed look. |
About meSo I really, really like researching Prototype Pokemon information. That's about it. I also do things on Smogon, I guess. Archives
January 2021
Categories
All
|