Pokémon has had quite the impressive career so far. The franchise started back in 1996 and was almost immediately an international hit. Since then, the property has dipped its toes into every genre available, whether it’s film, animation, manga, games, comics, books, and even playing cards. The games have released on every mainline Nintendo console and a new one is almost always in development. Furthermore, in each of these pieces of media, there are new characters, fresh mechanics, unique concepts, and complex storylines. It’s quite a lot to manage, especially while avoiding mistakes. All this to say that there have been a ton of opportunities for the staff behind Pokémon to mess up, and quite honestly, they have.
There are just too many different projects to avoid errors and mistakes completely. I mean, think about it, there are over 800 Pokémon nowadays, with new comics, cards, games, and shows coming out annually. Now, a lot of these mistakes were caught and cut before the games shipped, but not all of them were erased. Some of the errors weren’t found until after the game had been released, and some were just poor moves in general. But, it’s not all bad. Over the years, we’ve had some truly talented people working on the Pokémon franchise who knew when to cut things that just weren’t working. Be aware, many of the items on this list are my own personal picks, and if you disagree, feel free to let us know. Enough talk, let’s get started covering the 15 Last Minute Changes That Hurt Pokémon (And 15 That Saved It).
30 Hurt: Left Out Some Great Designs In Gold And Silver
Just recently actually, fans discovered a whole slew of Pokémon from back in generation II that was never used. Now, Gen II is actually my favorite as it has what I feel to be the strongest lineup of new Pokémon, with two entire regions to explore.
However, you can’t really argue that excluding all of these Pokémon didn’t hurt the franchise in some small way. Sure, some of them are probably better left on the cutting room floor (looking at you Ditto evolution), but a lot of these designs are frankly charming. But, it’s sad to see that they never became official Pokémon.
29 Saved: They Didn’t Make Gorochu Canon
Pikachu might just be one of the most well-known video game icons in history. I mean yeah, sure there’s Sonic, Mario, and Master Chief, but Pikachu has always been the poster child for Pokémon. It’s just such a wholesome and adorable mouse.
But, what if I told you there were originally plans to make a third evolution named Gorochu that had fangs and teeth? Not so wholesome anymore, right? Pikachu was going to be the beginning of a three-stage evolution (this was before Pichu). Ultimately, it was scrapped, which was a great decision considering Pikachu probably wouldn’t have become anything near the icon it is today if it had moved forward.
28 Hurt: You Can’t Skateboard
So, here’s the thing, I think the Pokémon Adventures manga is tragically unappreciated. The best part about this line of comics is that each generation’s protagonists have their own personality and arc. Gold is, in particular, a skateboarding, pool-cue using, charming, and hot-headed 90s kid.
The plan was originally to have players be able to skateboard around in Gold and Silver; there are even sprites of the skateboard found in the game files. But unfortunately, this was never fully included. Sad too, because finally, we’d have a way to move faster indoors, which still bothers me today.
27 Saved: Happa Is Spooky, Thanks For Not Making It Official
Alright, so remember all those scrapped designs for Pokémon? I mean, there are truly a lot of them, so I’m sure you’ve seen at least one. Well, most of the time, they’re good designs in their own way. Sure, the finalized design is usually better, but I can often see how the concept design would have also been good.
Not this time, though. The concept design for Chikorita is abysmal. Honestly, it’s kind of a monstrosity. Its name is Happa; it has no legs, just stumps, and possibly one eye. Believe me, I’m not really a fan of Chikorita, but I’m way more of a fan that this thing wasn’t the design they ended up using.
26 Hurt: Hydreigon Should Have Been A Tank
There are some Pokémon that ended up nothing like how they were originally designed, and Hydreigon is one of those Pokémon. Currently, it looks a bit like a knock-off Yu-Gi-Oh card, but originally, Hyrdreigon was a tank. Literally.
The three-headed beast was supposed to be a cyborg dragon, with some aspects, like its tire-tread stomach, aimed to make it look like a tank. The design didn’t quite work and it was scrapped until late into development. Then, it was simply based on a Japanese mythical creature, similar to the Greek Hydra, which typically had eight heads. So, instead of a sweet cyborg tank, we get another dragon, with five fewer heads than it should’ve had? Lame move Game Freak.
25 Saved: Concept Hitmontop Is So Much Worse
Another concept design that I’m honestly a bit torn on is the demo design for Hitmontop. The Hitmontop we know nowadays was obviously based on hip-hop dancing, primarily when R&B dancers spin on their head. But, the Hitmontop in this demo design is much more about the feet. How can I tell? Well, because it is literally a spinning top with feet attached.
Weirdly enough, I like the absurdity of it, but there is no arguing that it isn’t lousy. Because it is.
24 Hurt: Masuda Dislikes Making Pokémon “Cool”
Junichi Masuda, the director of many Pokémon games, shared his own personal way of designing Pokémon on his blog, and frankly, I don’t quite agree with his mentality here. Masuda doesn’t think that Pokémon should look “cool.”
He avoids any sort of angular aspects and tries to round out whatever he can in a Pokémon’s design. In this way, he says that they become characters, instead of just an awesome design you appreciate and then forget. But, I think some of the best designs in the series are what he would describe as “cool.” It seems like Masuda’s own aesthetic preferences have impacted the Pokémon franchise in a way many people don’t seem to like.
23 Saved: Deciding On Battles Being From Trainer’s Perspective
One of the strongest aspects of Pokémon is its immersion. It wouldn’t have been nearly the success if the dev team didn’t do their absolute best to make you honestly feel like a Pokémon Trainer.
One of the many ways this is done was in the older games where the idea was to have the camera in battles be from the perspective of your playable character. But, the staff talked about multiple different camera angles originally, and the battle system could have just as easily been from a bird’s-eye camera angle. Thankfully, it wasn’t, and we could fully immerse ourselves. Here’s to pretending we were a ten-year-old making our pet fight other pets.
22 Hurt: Prolonging The Anime For So Long
So, if you like Pokémon, I’m sure you’ve seen at least one episode of the Pokémon animation. Whether it’s the seasons from way back when or the recent and refreshing Sun and Moon season, the anime was originally set to end about a year and a half after production.
The team had planned to have the show flash forward years into the future to show Misty taking care of a “mysterious kid” with a Pikachu companion. They actually had already made some of the footage! But, Pokémon was just doing too well, and the men in suits decided that Ash can never leave, or age for that matter.
21 Saved: Unused Designs Usually Become Something Else
Junichi Masuda has been with Game Freak since the beginning and has directed Pokémon games for a long time now. On his personal blog, he talks more about the way he and his team design Pokémon.
According to Masuda, they try their utmost not to scrap designs. If a design isn’t up to snuff, then they keep working on that design in the background and include it in the next game. This “no man left behind” mentality is great because it means there are no bad ideas, just ones that need a bit more polishing. I personally think it’s a big factor in Pokémon’s continued success.
20 Hurt: Lake Of Rage Had Its Own Town
The Lake of Rage is one of the trademark areas in Pokémon. It’s where many people got their first shiny since Red Gyarados is basically an unavoidable encounter. Also, it’s where Team Rocket forcefully evolved all the Magikarp, even though you could catch a Magikarp there after they left.
However, during development, apparently, there was going to be a town surrounding the lake with a Gym and everything. Sadly, in the final version, there are only two houses near it. Maybe they scrapped it because they had planned to have the Red Gyarados, who is uncontrollable and full of rage, destroy the town? I could easily see Game Freak cutting that concept for it being too violent, but who knows? This is all just speculation.
19 Saved: No Wicked Ash
Pokémon has tons of movies under its belt and I’m sure everyone has their favorite. Well, the thirteenth one focused on the mythical Pokémon named Zoroark. This Pokémon wasn’t “Legendary” per se, but it might as well have been.
In the trailers, fans were surprised to see what looked to be the spooky version of Ash staring down his original. A cliche trope to be sure. Luckily, this turned out to be the way Zoroark revealed it’s copying ability in the movie, showing that it could take the form of anyone, even Ash. An easy way to turn a bad idea into a neat way to show off the poster Pokémon of the film.
18 Hurt: Giovanni And Red Could’ve Been Big
Pokémon Gold and Silver are some of the most well-beloved Pokémon games out there. One of the main reasons for this adoration is that after beating the Pokémon League in Hoenn, you’re allowed to go back to Kanto and fight through it again three years after Pokémon Blue and Red take place. There isn’t much story in this second half of the game, but apparently, there was supposed to be.
According to an interview with Satoshi Tajiri, during the early stages of development, Red and Giovanni played a much larger part in the later story. But sadly, in the end, it was reduced to just the Red battle, which is still amazing mind you.
17 Saved: Weedle Didn’t Become A Cockroach
Game Freak usually isn’t all too open about cut designs and unused Pokémon. That’s because fans have a tendency to complain by comparing Pokémon we didn’t get to ones we did. Well, in a rare instance, they actually released some images for Pokémon that never made it into Pokémon Red and Blue.
In these photos, we can see some designs for Weedle, Kakuna, and Beedrill. It’s not really bee-focused anymore, rather, Weedle was apparently going to become a cockroach. Honestly, the third evolution looks a lot like Ledyba, but much more gross. All and all, a solid choice on their part to stray away from the cockroach aesthetic.
16 Hurt: Stuck In The Past
Game making didn’t use to have so many options. Back then, developers only had a limited amount of space, tools, and hardware they could use.
When Red and Blue released, it was quite literally packed as full as it could be, there was almost no more space available. This is why a Pokémon could only learn four moves, and why you could only have six at a time. The Pokémon Company had actually planned to increase both your move pool and Pokémon team size going forward, but the mechanics had become too much of a staple. This mentality is what I feel hurts Pokémon the most, as it’s why the games change so little mechanically.
15 Saved: Releasing Games Simultaneously
Surprisingly, games haven’t always been so easily accessible. Every country has their own methods, hinderances, and organizations that can impede the release of a video game. Due to this, as well as a few other reasons, games used to release in different regions on different dates. Now, we’ve slowly been attempting to get rid of that system, but Japanese games are having a harder time. Usually, these games will still release in Japan first.
Pokémon was also like this for a long time, that is, until Pokémon Black and White. Junichi Masuda, the director of the game, was actually incredibly excited about releasing the game simultaneously in America and Japan, and the act of doing so truly did bring audiences closer together.
14 Hurt: Not Evolving Past Routes Or Roads
Remember how I said that Red and Blue had almost no free space? That’s also why we got routes and roads. That’s right, the roads in Pokémon games were a limitation of the time.
Due to how packed the game was, the Pokémon Company couldn’t quite make the more open areas they wanted in the game. Those maps would have larger file sizes, and that means less Pokémon would make it in. It was another sacrifice they made so that we could get all 150 of the originals. While I’m thankful, routes are still a crucial part of the games today, and I think it’s holding Pokémon back.
13 Saved: N Could Almost See Through Time
So, if you can remember, N was the anti-hero in Pokémon Black and White, as well as its sequel. He was a green haired semi-pacifist that believed Pokémon should be free. It was, in my opinion, the first time Game Freak used a common complaint about their franchise as a plot point.
People have made jokes about comparing Pokémon battles to underground animal fighting for years now, and N seemed to be their complaints given form. But apparently, according to concept art and interviews, N was also intended to be able to see into both the past and future. I think we can all agree that would have been a bad addition to an already incredibly complex character.
12 Hurt: Bird Pokémon Should’ve Been There From The Beginning
Pokémon Red and Blue are fundamentally defective as many of the mechanics in the game don’t work at all like intended. One big cut was that bird-type Pokémon ended up being removed from the games entirely. For the number of birds that there are in the first 150, you’d think they’d have received their own type in the beginning.
We can actually see that the concept was cut late into development, considering that the mythical MissingNo. is actually a bird-type. Sure, it’s basically just bird-type only in name, considering it has no advantages or disadvantages against the types it should, but still, it’s sad to see it was cut.
11 Saved: They Adapted To An Older Audience
Pokémon is a franchise for children. It always has been, always will be. But, does that mean adults can’t enjoy it? Absolutely not. All animation should be written with both the young and old in mind.
However, early Pokémon games were obviously only targeted for younger audiences. Sure, there were adult jokes in them, but only in very subtle ways. Nowadays, the Pokémon Company very obviously makes Pokémon games for both the young and old. It’s why we’ve seen more complex characters, plots, and ideas. It has let the franchise grow in a way where it can be enjoyed by just about anyone.
