I like Finneon tbh, it's a cute evo line that sticks out to me compared to the more generic fish mons we usually get
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Game Freak hit with another hack, info leaking
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I remain convinced it exists basically as an easter egg. Manaphy's entire shtick is hatching from an egg, so it's easy to think "hey... I can breed more!" so you breed it with a Ditto and get...a regular egg? That hatches into a different pokemon?! Wow!!
Finneon and Lumineon look alright, but honestly the fact that they've remained so forgettable for so long is... wow
not that they need to be flashy and innovative all the time, but c'mon game freak couldn't have given them at least SOMETHING to make them not only stand out from the crowd but to possess a meaningful advantage of its own??? idk it's sad watching such a potentially interesting pokemon go to waste
Things are feeling to slow down a bit (I know, famous last words). Not sure what your leak sources are showing, but the Reddit page is now mostly just posting concept art. Not that I'm complaining of course, love seeing the art style and original envisioned plans; just that a lot of it is more personal appreciation and not really much to talk about. But there's still some stuff:
- Gen 5 was originally planned to last all the way into 2014, a Mythical planned for each year. Gen V did have 4 Mythicals, but obviously plans changed and XY was released in 2013. No clue if the Mythicals we got were made before or after this plan, or if this plan steered their design. Now the release order we got was Victini (April 2011), Keldeo (June 2012), Meloetta (July 2012), & Genesect (August 2012), which I'm not sure matches with the descriptions. It feels like the "adorable" and "cute" Mythicals would be Victini or Meloetta, both who are also mysterious and powerful. Likewise, that leaves the "cool" Mythicals to Keldeo and Genesect, but once again both have mysteries connected to them. If I had to guess, Victini was the "cute, mysterious, & powerful" Mythical originally planned for 2014 but it was decided to be used as an early adopter award. The 2011 "cool" and 2012 "adorable" Pokemon were Keldeo & Meloetta, respectfully, who if I recall were released at the same time as Keldeo got a Movie and Meloetta got a Short & role in the anime. That would then leave Genesect as 2013's "cool & mysterious" Mythical, said mystery more built up in the anime (and paid off in a Movie); though B2W2 did more explain Genesect's backstory than BW did.
- Festival Plaza in the Gen VII games was a virtual reality location, but concept art suggests it maybe was going to be a physical place: an attraction on top of a giant boat! I wonder if the idea was scrapped because the Poke Pelago was already some random location out at sea near Alolan and didn't want to have another.
- Mirage Island was going to be in ORAS. After 10 days since you started playing, the game spits out a random number between 1 & 65,535 and if you have more Pokemon registered in your Pokedex than Mirage Island will appear (otherwise next day it'll RNG a new number). It also mentions it'll "set", which while will make sense if you go to it as you'll learn why later, not sure if that's also true if you don't. Eitherway, when it does appear the game will do everything in it's power to tell you: The Pokemon Nurse will mention it and I think there will be a new report on TV (though I feel the Nurse telling you kind of defeats the purpose, like maybe instead of the Pokemon Nurse have some random NPCs appear in the Pokemon Center which only attentive players would notice weren't there before). Now it sounds like Mirage Island doesn't have a set location but will have several places it can appear and you have to search for it. But once you do find it, upon hopping onto it you're congratulated for finding Mirage Island and given the option to name it! Why does it not have a set location you can name it? Well because you can share your island with other players of course! When another player you connected with view your records your Mirage Island will appear in their game, there would even be a TV report about it! Pretty cool idea... but here's where I feel the idea fall flat (and they did the Mirage Spots instead): The only thing on Mirage Island are Liechi Berry trees and tall grass that only contain wild Wynaut. That's it. And yes, I know, that's what Mirage Island originally had, but if you're going to be able to name it and share it with other players would have been cool if they mixed things up a bit more. Like instead of it always being Liechi Berries have it randomly generate several kind of Berries, notably one of the Type Resisting Berries and one of a few rare Berries (Liechi, Ganlon, Salac, Petaya, Apicot, Lansat, Starf, Enigma, Micle, Custap, Jaboca, Rowap, Kee, or Maranga).
- I think the storyboarders for the XY medal parade scene was hungry.
- XY Concept art for Calem's Bedroom and Serene's Bedroom. Quite the difference. Calem gets a loft bed, desk with computer (plus some books, a soda can, whipped cream, and a tea cup), fancy chair, and behind that a flat screen TV & game console with game boxes sprawled about (and we have another soda can and plate on the stair banister, Calem is truly a teenage boy); also according to the map there's a bookcase behind the TV and the windows open to a balcony. Meanwhile Serena has a queen size bed with fancy tiara-shaped headboard & overhead lamps, a (computerless) desk, and a changing room with folding door; and according to the map the changing room is connected to a big balcony (and of course it's clean, girls amirite?). Though, seriously, as one Reddit poster commented: "Rhyhorn racing must pay a bomb if you can afford a bedroom like that for your kid, damn". Actually, another one said "If the MCs would be siblings, you would know immediately who is the parent(s)'s favourite", but I don't know about that. Sure, Serena has the fancy queen bed and what has to be one of if not the biggest room in the house, but Calem has a computer and tv + game console (which looks to be missing in Serena's room, though there is a corner of her room we don't see that has a square but isn't labelled with anything) and comfy chair (actually where is Serena's chair? Why isn't it at her desk. Is it at the unknown corner square?). It may be because I'm a boy, but I would choose Calem's room over Serena's; I still get a balcony. BTW this is the player's house in the game, bit of a downgrade.
- The cancelled Pokemon Rodeo Game was going to let you put tattoo decals on your Pokemon.
- Related, they were thinking of adding a Pokemon dress-up feature in Sun & Moon, not only would your trainer where clothes matching your Pokemon but your Pokemon could wear hats, glasses, mustaches, horns, whiskers, scars and other accessories. Maybe Pokemon Musicals may have a chance to come back afterall...
- There was going to be a Marshadow Event where it would appear around Alola hidden in shadows.
- Remember Lusamine's messed up Trophy Room with all the cryogenically frozen Pokemon? Did you ever think you look up? Actually this concept art looks different from how the Trophy Room actually looks like. In the game the frozen Pokemon were in cubes on pedestals. Here it looks like the frozen Pokemon are meant to be stored in containers that are then slotted into the wall.
- There was going to be a cave in Sun & Moon you could use Dive in.
- Here are the sheets with prototype plant names & the final name explanations for Gen I Gym Leaders, Trainer Classes, & Elite Four. Does anyone know if someone translated it?
- Early Wishiwashi (two images seperate). Another more closer to the final.
- Nanu's Dark backstory. GEEZ. And taking a guess: Girl = Acerola. Aether Foundation man = Faba (probably on orders from Lusamine as a favor to gain Guzma's loyalty).
- Speaking of Faba, here's how truly horrible he is.
- Not sure anyone pointed out but originally it wasn't just Raichu that got an Alolan variant, base Pichu was supposed to evolve into a (part) Fire-type Alolan Pikachu who evolves into a (part) Fire-type Raichu. I'm assuming just they would be Electric/Fire. Obviously tossed probably because they wanted Pikachu to also remain the same. Not sure why Alolan Raichu didn't go with the Fire-typing, maybe because of Alolan Marowak?
- So here's an interesting one as we technically already knew about it. Shoko Nakagawa is an actress best known for her hosting role on Pokemon Sunday and its other iterations. She also has voiced a character in every Pokemon movie since the Rise of Darkrai. Notably one of these voice roles was Notched-Ear Pichu from Arceus and the Jewel of Life, and it was during this time she broke a "no photography" rule during an expo showing off concept art for the movie. Notably, concept art for Notched-Ear Pichu, one which showed several possible other variations they could have picked (including one that was nearly white which she mentioned in an interview). Now the picture in her photo is of course blurry as you have to blow it up to get a good look at it... but now we just have all of them right here (or rather the first link I gave). There's base Pichu & Notched-Ear Pichu, but other options include (and these are my names, no clue what the Japanese says) Tuft-Hair, White, Bow, Heart-Cheek, Bronze, Toga, Dress, Ear-Sash, and Ear-Clip (the clip seemingly having come from Sheena's scarf, though this must be an early design of Sheena as she doesn't have that in the movie; maybe she would have if they went with this Pichu?).
- Hey, a leak that I have a connection to. Back when we were doing Judge-A-Pokemon Express (boy been a while since we did one, last one we did was... Walking Wake and Iron Leaves. Huh, there's quite a few we need to catch-up on... including one I don't think was ever published) my Pokemon Avatar was Ph.D Cosplay Pikachu (the very same one in my signature). And to get to the point, here is concept art of quite a different design for Ph.D Cosplay Pikachu! Instead of swirly glasses and pigtails it went with a more Einstein look with bushy white hair and mustache (despite it still being a girl, which is probably why they changed it). Shirt is a bit different, is wearing a tie, is not wearing pants nor shoes, and there's a symbol on the back of its jacket which I don't think is on the final (at least it's not on the plush toy version). Curious what differences the others had.
- Wrapping up with a batch from Sun & Moon. First, there was a scrapped Grass-type Basilisk (I'm assuming they mean the animal and not the mythical creature) which before evolution has a water walking ability? Eitherway, looked like it got scrapped because it's design was too similar to the Salandit family and if they went forward with it was told would have to make them a pair. Interesting, I guess making them a pair would also suggest making them version exclusive and didn't want to do that for the Salandit family (or have to give a similar gimmick to this Grass Basilisk) so scrapped it.
- There was going to be a mini-game called "LIVE Caravan" where players would end a "Parallel World" in order to solve strange occurrences. And while you could play it alone, it's meant to be played in a group and will feel more satisfying if you do (uggh). Sounds like it was also going to primarily be touch screen (hope you put screen protectors on your 3DS). I'm going to guess this was probably an initial attempt to involve the Ultra Space concept before really getting into it in USUM.
- And finally Raids were originally going to be in Sun & Moon! Calling it Survival Island, you would go up against giant mechanical Pokemon. You either recruit other players through wifi or be with NPCs, you try to defeat as many mechanical Pokemon as you can within a time limit, each player has 3 Pokemon with them, and the only way to heal & cure status conditions is with Berries. So not only is this a prototype concept for Raid Battles, but also of Max Raid Battles!
This is very much a case of "they were/are never gonna pull this off no matter what". Even if we got a Pokemon game with BoTW dev time and a Red Dead 2 number of in-house developers on board making sure a bajillion different fully 3D clothes and accessories look good on hundreds of body types would still be an insane ask. Any sort of Pokemon customization would have to be harshly limited somehow, e.g. only doing stickers like Rodeo would've
These read to me like vague conceptual pitches rather than any real concrete plans that were set aside. The Electric/Fire Pikachu seems like a general explanation of the regional form idea using the line for familiarity's sake.
Depicted: The average 3DS 4 seconds into trying to run this
Gen 3 graphics weekly logs still are yet to be fully translated
Attachments
I'd imagine this idea was set aside not because of Z being cancelled but because they quickly realized that trying to make a Dragon type that can counter Xerneas is an exercise in futility
I don't think there's any way a Japanese kid's game lets you apply tattoos to anything in the final version. I do like that they're still thinking of Pokemon customization(hats and similar headgear could be simple and effective), but I'm pretty sure technical limitations and just not considering it a priority will make it not happen.
The aesthetics of this would be great, and more 3D maze dungeons could be fun, but this is another one where practical concerns make it unsurprising it was cut.
Pokemon Rodeo was probably aimed at older players, but also I don't think there's any strict ban on tattoo decals in general, much less on critters specifically. The ones in there specifically aren't even that outlandish.
I'm sure they would have found a way to make it work against Xerneas, so I doubt it was because they thought it'd be futile.
I'm not surprised the original idea was 2 forms. The 2 moves and the whole balancing shtick seemed prime for it. Reworking them into what the 10 & 100% forms eventually became makes sense, even if the initial concepts didnt' get too far.
I'm sure they would have found a way to make it work against Xerneas, so I doubt it was because they thought it'd be futile.
Okay, there is way too many things to catch up on, so I'm just going to talk about a couple of things that stood out to me. Sorry if this doesn't bring anything new to the discussion:
- I had no idea Lizargun was known for years. I'm so shocked I never heard talk about it before now. The Charizard fan in me is extremely curious about the design, even if by principle I hated that XY gave it two Megas (specially since, just like with Mewtwo, the X one feels like a fanservice one- I prefer them, but the Y ones are so much more natural step ups). I'm really curious as to where the design could have gone, specially since ironically enough Charizard is so popular it will never get a regional form (I guess mega Z is still possible tho...if it needs to happen it better be just Fire)
- Alolan Scyther and Rhydon. I really want to talk about those.
Despite one of the many reasons I hated XY enough to leave the franchise being Kanto pandering, I genuinely didn't pick up Alolan forms were Gen 1-only at first. I was just so excited about such a good concept and new takes on older mons, it really didn't stick out to me. This would have been completely differenr with Scyther and Rhydon. Scyther apparently evolved into just plain old Scizor, which, as much as I love that mon and how interesting the potential implications could have been down the road (maybe we would have never gotten Dripplin amd Hydrapple would have been a shared evo, who knows), it's just too much. You really have to be obsessed with Kanto pandering and arbitrary restrictions to do that. Rhydon is even worse because it feels like a personal attack: I have already ranted here on how I believe Rhyperior may be one of the worst designs ever (not my least favourite, but it's such a mess). Giving Rhydon a regional form that doesn't evolve into a new/split and potentially better Rhyperior would have been the nail in the coffin.
- Mega Jynx actually had a cool design, even if by principle I would still rather have a normal evo. The Mega Venusaur is also so much better than we got and could have even worked as another mega.
- This is a *very* general thing, but I'm both glad and sad to how many scrapped ideas show they are actually very ambitious...probably too much given their schedule and the nature of Pokemom as a game.
However, it also means I probably was overthinking what they could do with it in ZA and rather than at least getting other of Loki's children like say, Sleipnir they can potentially just give it random animals as mounts or whatever. I suppose ot depends of the value more the cell aspect or the mythology connections.
- I had no idea Lizargun was known for years. I'm so shocked I never heard talk about it before now. The Charizard fan in me is extremely curious about the design, even if by principle I hated that XY gave it two Megas (specially since, just like with Mewtwo, the X one feels like a fanservice one- I prefer them, but the Y ones are so much more natural step ups). I'm really curious as to where the design could have gone, specially since ironically enough Charizard is so popular it will never get a regional form (I guess mega Z is still possible tho...if it needs to happen it better be just Fire)
- Alolan Scyther and Rhydon. I really want to talk about those.
Despite one of the many reasons I hated XY enough to leave the franchise being Kanto pandering, I genuinely didn't pick up Alolan forms were Gen 1-only at first. I was just so excited about such a good concept and new takes on older mons, it really didn't stick out to me. This would have been completely differenr with Scyther and Rhydon. Scyther apparently evolved into just plain old Scizor, which, as much as I love that mon and how interesting the potential implications could have been down the road (maybe we would have never gotten Dripplin amd Hydrapple would have been a shared evo, who knows), it's just too much. You really have to be obsessed with Kanto pandering and arbitrary restrictions to do that. Rhydon is even worse because it feels like a personal attack: I have already ranted here on how I believe Rhyperior may be one of the worst designs ever (not my least favourite, but it's such a mess). Giving Rhydon a regional form that doesn't evolve into a new/split and potentially better Rhyperior would have been the nail in the coffin.
- Mega Jynx actually had a cool design, even if by principle I would still rather have a normal evo. The Mega Venusaur is also so much better than we got and could have even worked as another mega.
- This is a *very* general thing, but I'm both glad and sad to how many scrapped ideas show they are actually very ambitious...probably too much given their schedule and the nature of Pokemom as a game.
This is fascinating because, while Zygarde is the only of the trio whose design didn't wow me away and become and instant favourite, I always appreciated its three forms because of how well they integrate the concept of the three children of Loki (he had more actually, but those three are specific siblings and Hel just fits so perfectly for 100% with being half dead and all). It's impressive that originally they were just counter concepts to Xerneas/Yveltal. As R_N said it isn't surprising given the two signature moves and I was fully expecting two different forms back then, specially after Kyurem. Of course Pokrmon can have more than a single inspiration, you can't convince me Yveltal was never meant by some of its designers to be a Yatagaratsu, but still.
However, it also means I probably was overthinking what they could do with it in ZA and rather than at least getting other of Loki's children like say, Sleipnir they can potentially just give it random animals as mounts or whatever. I suppose ot depends of the value more the cell aspect or the mythology connections.
The DP scrapped Pokemon that we got back in the giga leak didn't really make the rounds nearly as much as the scratch pad scribbles of existing dudes. Hard to compete with "regigigas as drawn by a child" and "the eerie otherworldly arceus" when Chargun in particular only had a name & a dex category reference that indicated it was a multi-headed design.
I would have been interested in seeing it just for the precedent of going back to starters and giving them new evolutions. To an extent Megas & I guess the Hisuians are kiiiiinda like that, but it'd still be different from Chargun, the explicit other species. Who knows, maybe after 4 generations of having that on the table instead of Hisuian Decidueye/Typhlosion/Samurott we could have gotten regional evolutions?
Now that you mention it, the Hisuian forms are pretty much split evos in a lot of ways. Maybe it would have been better if they were actual species in fact because that could potentially mean more radical design changes, even through i love the Hisui trio (how can I not, they picked some of my favourite starters ever, I doubt I will ever like another trio as much).
I had no idea ir was supposed to have multiple heads. That makes it even more fascinating because rather than building on Charmeleon they took it on a whole different direction.
Megas and other gimmick forms I feel they are just more comfortable with because they are just temporal forms so they are not really an alternative or a substitute to the originals. It's why I think Zard may never get a regional evo- you just can't market it as easily. Friede's can't turn into a regional form and then revert back, so you can't promote both the original and the new one as easily as with a Mega.
All thinks considered, and knowing Lyssandre even had a Mega Charizard originally (which is funny- back in the SV leaks, when I learned Volcarona had two Paradoxes I was so sure they would be the aces of the villain), it really shows the favoritism dates way back than most of us usually think of, they just were upfront about it on Kalos and Galar.
I hope this is one of the real documents and not a made up one like those memos because this is so incredibly funny and explains so much about the weird way the american branch talked about it for years.
Personally I love the note of "keep it purposely vague" and "dont ever refer it as quasi in public"
It definitely seems to me like a fake, like I can’t imagine that being real tbh.
Well at least they were considering bringing back the Diving mechanic. Alola feels odd how much it tries to ignore water even though it's a series of islands (and when there is water its usually landlocked or the barrier from shore is short; there's nothing like exploring the perimeter of the islands or having some way out islands we see in the distance we can go to; and the only time we go between them is for the USUM Mantine surfing minigame). Like the most explorative surfing segment was I think Vast Poni Canyon (and maybe Ten Carot Hill, I don't exactly remember) as there was an easy to overlook patch of water which led to an isolated area (infact I'm willing to bet maybe that would be the location of this Diving Cave; if Diving wasn't going to be fully implemented around the region they'd treat it like the Abyssal Ruins in Gen V).
That's not a bad theory actually. Maybe not for Aura Break, but for the Ability these two forms would have gotten.
"Z Form" (what we now know as 50% Form) is merely a monitor so it's Ability is more focused on "keeping balance", which translates to having Fairy Aura and Dark Aura weaken their Type instead of boosting it.
"VSX" and "VSY" Forms would have a new Ability (we'll call it "Aura Inverse") which, instead of reversing the effects of Fairy/Dark Aura, if Zygarde is facing either Xerneas or Yveltal then just the members of the Aura Trio will have their Type Chart Inversed. So:
- Zygarde would be Weak to Poison, Rock, & Fighting; Resist Ice, Dragon, Fairy, & Electric.
- Xerneas would be Weak to Dragon, Fighting, Bug, & Dark; Resist Poison & Steel.
- Yveltal would be Weak to Ground, Psychic, Ghost, Grass, & Dark; Resist Rock, Electric, Ice, & Fairy.
Would certainly flip the table in Zygarde's favor. Also, since Zygarde is now focused on countering Xerneas & Yveltal instead of keeping balance, Fairy/Dark Aura would work naturally... which doesn't help Xerneas as Zygarde is no longer weak to Fairy, and bad for Yveltal as it's now weak to the Type its strengthening. That way in Double Battles you can have these Zygarde forms be partnered with a Fairy- or Dark-type.
"Would sort of make Thousand Arrow's special effects pointless"; No, this Inversing effect would only last as long as Zygarde is out, so if Zygarde were to be switched out or faint Yveltal would gain back its Ground-type immunity unless it had Thousand Arrows used on it.
Of course the different forms would need to have something to counter the Mortality Duo's Signature Moves:
- For Xerneas you gotta hard counter that Geomancy. Sure you can give Zygarde Haze (or maybe give Thousand Waves an additional stat resetting/holding effect if used by VSX), but I think it would be more deviously fun to give it Topsy-Turvy. Nothing about Topsy-Turvy (just "Flip" in Japanese) makes it sound like a move only the Inkay family can use, and would fit with Zygarde having "reversing powers". So Xerneas would use Geomany on its first turn, Zygarde would use Thousand Waves to trap it, Xerneas will then boost its stats the second, and Zygarde would Topsy-Turvy to completely nerf it. Then probably KO it with a Dragon Move next turn. Being a quadruped beast, I can see VSX having higher Speed in exchange for lower SpA and maybe some defenses.
- For Yveltal it would be countering Oblivion Wing's healing. The most obvious option is give it Heal Block, not only takes care of Oblivion Wing but also Roost. And, yeah, nothing really else to say here. Thousand Arrows would be its go-to Move (or Earthquake) otherwise. Statwise, with VSX being fast, VSY would be the slower one with likely equal SpA and maybe higher defenses; though I think it could learn Trick Room too.
Eitherway, while it's likely we'll never see these forms in their true intended state (I doubt they would have looked like 10% and 100%, their general shape is just a leftover of this concept seemingly), at the same time would be neat if we saw something truly harkening back to it in Z-A. 75% Form(s) with 162 HP and a BST 680; that way it could also have Power Construct as an Ability.
Hm... base Sleipnir would fit the "beast" aspect of VSX, but if you mix it with a centaur you can also get in the important aspect of VSY being an archer!
It is funny that even GF aren't quite sure what to make of Phione, existing for the sole purpose of flavor. Like, if the Manaphy Egg had to be in an Egg Group for programming reasons, I don't see why they couldn't have put it in "Undiscovered". They made it both Water 1 & Fairy just for additional lore. Now this made them realize Manaphy could technically "breed", which gave them the idea to do Phione. And I don't think they hate Phione. It's a fun idea, they just didn't realize at the time it'll give them a slight headache with Legendary categorization. I think the way they see Phione is that it's just a "bonus" directly connect to Manaphy, like it wasn't until Legends Arceus where you can catch wild ones (and that's only because there's no breeding mechanic in PLA, and they're still connected to Manaphy as 3 appear with it and no more will spawn until after catching Manaphy).
Now a notable thing here is that, though this list is meant to explain the difference between a Legendary & Mythical, it does also include Ultra Beasts and separates them into their own group. And I imagine if there's an updated version of this list the same will go for the Paradox Pokemon. So I'd argue the definitions aren't set in stone.
So I think the major issue with Phione is simply it's the ONLY one. If they made some more "Quesi-Mythical" it could solve this issue as they would then create a new group which Phione would be grandfathered into. Like, imagine if maybe Latios and Latias could breed and create a "Latieon". Or Heatran has that strange gimmick where it can be male or female, maybe they can create a "Heatemp".
What Power Plant Mythical? If you mean the Prism Tower mythical, no, Xurkitree feels like it's a concept born from being an Ultra Beast. We don't know much about the Prism Tower Pokemon except, well, that's what it is. We have no clue whether it actually looks like a tower, it's some kind of elemental being, or if its more organic like an animal or humanoid (and is its basis more "realistic" or mythological).
Caught up, so some recent new stuff from Reddit's leak thread:
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- Someone just posted the "Gen V Beta (Art) Roster". It's a funny thing to scan over.
- Now we already discussed the rather disappointing discovery that the four mysterious had pretty mundane meanings, three were number and the last was just "god". Now here's that document, written by Masuda, that revealed this and goes into even more detail. For one thing, it reveals the backstory of the ruins: the king described in the temple died in battle protecting his kingdom. The queen was heartbroken so built this temple in memory of him, herself falling into an "eternal sleep" in the temple; thus reuniting the two. It also says N may be a descendant, something that was hinted at by Zinzolin in B2W2 when he gave the player the translations of the glyphs; this apparently has to do with the king having called the "beings" (very likely Pokemon) as "creature" at a time no one else was. Masuda noted that the mystery of the Ruins was supposed to be multiple game spanning, though after Gen V it was really never brought up again (though in SV's Blueberry Academy DLC Raifort mentions she's been the Abyssal Ruins, though she doesn't really reveal anything about it). Finally there was also an explanation of the numerical glyphs. First we have the glyphs 1 through 10, then 100, 1k, 10k, 100k, & 1 million (which is also the glyph that means "god" which is what the king was called). Then it shows two examples how you write a certain number using the glyphs. Finally an explanation is given to what the four highest value glyphs are showing/representing. 1k is meant to be a "great tree bearing fruit"; 10k is "a greater tree able to bear more fruit"; (knowing that, maybe 10 is a sprout and 100 is it budding; not sure what 1 through 9 are, maybe seeds and growing roots?); 100k is "the gathering of many creatures" (I have no clue how that shows that, at best it looks like a fish); and finally 1 million is "the creature known as god", and I think it's maybe supposed to be depicting a dragon?
- Ever wondered what in the world the "Height" number was measuring? Well wonder no more! Here's the explanation for Gens 1 through 7, and here's the updates for USUM! And as many guessed, it's different rules for different Pokemon. Well, as explained in the top right legends of the first list, when it's not as straight forward as a bipedal or tall-standing Pokemon, ideally it falls into these four general groups: "Birds" (feet to head/crest when viewed from front), "Fishes" (nose to tail fins when viewed from side), "Dogs/Four-Legged Animals" (feet to head/crest when viewed from front), and Long (aka serpent body; nose to tail tip when stretched out). Though of course not all Pokemon body shapes are created equal, so there are some Pokemon which needed further details (such as what should be counted and what shouldn't be). It's interesting for winged Pokemon whey went for feet to head instead of wingspan, I guess they didn't want to make it too confusing?
- While we're on miscellaneous Pokedex info, here's the one for Body Shapes; though this one doesn't really reveal much we couldn't already guess.
- Beta ORAS cutscenes reveal the TRUE villain of both versions of the game: Professor Sycamore! Why they choose Sycamore as the placeholder, they couldn't find the folder for Lysandre?
- More scrapped Alolan Pokemon. In addition to Alolan Snorlax, Alolan Scyther, Niwatori 1 & 2 (aka the Chicken), and Matamata 1 & 2 (Turtonator's prevos, it being based on a turtle species called "Mata mata"), there was Menehune 1 & 2. The Menehune are a Hawaiian mythical Dwarf-like race that lives in the forests far away from human settlements and are excellent craftspeople.
Finally, some XY Gym stuff:
- The original puzzle for Lumiose Gym (which, if you remember, was inside Prism Tower) was going to involve lighting up different parts of the tower. Can't quite make make out what were exactly supposed to do from the illustration alone, like obviously we're supposed to plug in everything but that feels a little too simple, and there's two different kinds of "light boxes" (big square one with 6 lights and small slanted ones with 1 light). Don't know why they scrapped it, though an odd connection to a Sinnoh Gym: Hearthome Gym. In DP is was also a trivia quiz where you rose up floors, though in Platinum it was changed to a light puzzle where you had to use flashlights to find a symbol that matches the door to the next room (said flashlight sprite also found in the original DP, suggesting this may have been what the original Hearthome Gym puzzle was supposed to be). And now we discover Lumiose Gym was also a light-based puzzle which got scrapped for a quiz show where you rose up the tower. So for now on if there's ever a Gym that's an out-of-place quiz, we can assume it was a replacement for a light-based puzzle; I think that's what we're supposed to take away from this.
- Next is a batch of concept art. But it's not just drawings, though there's plenty of them. For several of the Gyms, they pulled out the arts and crafts and made a miniature version of it! For Cyllage Gym they made a model of the rock climbing wall out of DUPLOs (I think the green represents the right path and the yellow the trainers), Coumarine Gym they made a clay model, Laverre Gym they had an actual dollhouse for reference, Anistar Gym they drew the maze out on a clay ball, and Snowbelle Gym they cut up a cardboard box and taped DUBLOs on it (I think we're seeing from the back as I'm guessing the yellow is Wulfric? Guessing the red are meant to be the devices to turn the squares. Not sure what the green on top are, the intended correct arrangement?).
Oh I had kept meaning to bring it up, but Beta Kyurem's wings are cool because I think that element -of these strange pronged "wings" pointed forward- still made it to final but only in a round about way: the very first thing I thought of on seeing it was the cutscene where it breaks its pronged "wings" free of its ice and flings them forward to begin absofusion.
Likely meant for a different purpose originally, but cool to see how design elements can carry over in that way.
Likely meant for a different purpose originally, but cool to see how design elements can carry over in that way.
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