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GameFreak Giga-Leaks: We were robbed edition (Gen 6 concepts and scrapped pokemon)

A remora-like Pokemon

Peanut baby

Peanut baby evolution (Peanut dragon?)

Early Flabebe concept

They even designed Floette and Florges (Did they decide these looked TOO good??)

I think the worst part about these leaks is that any chance of some of these designs being used in the future is now ZERO

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GameFreak Giga-Leak

Some of the leaked beta Pokemon go hard, man.

Unnamed Spider-Lily pokemon Beta Shiftry Un-named Magnet crab Pokemon Unnamed flower ganguro child pokemon Unnamed chicken/penguin/bowling pin pokemon

And then we have unused things that clearly got retooled into different Pokemon later

Beta Scraggy is interesting because it shows the general concept has been around AT LEAST since gen 3, meaning in gen 5 they dipped back into old concepts and pulled him out of the Beta realm. That means some of the cooler beta pokemon still have some hope of appearing in later games, though some of them may be changed, possibly beyond recognition... For example

Its possible that this fighting ape Pokemon with fire patterns may have been heavily retooled into the Infernape line in gen 4

This little fellow was far enough along in development that he had concept art and a name, "Warabito" or "Warabit" (Water-Rabit.) He was meant to be the gen 3 water starter, but was replaced with Mudkip at some point. Its likely this concept was cannibalized and retooled into gen 8's Scorbunny and gen 4's Buizel

This wouldn't be the first time one beta concept was used to create 2 unrelated Pokemon

We know that this thing was cannibalized and used in the designs for Blaziken, Latios, and Latias

Beta Pokemon is a truly fascinating realm of the franchise that, sadly we usually only get to see because of leaks. And thats probably because GameFreak never really throws out a design. Even an unused concept can be retooled and made an official pokemon years down the line, or pulled apart and used to make multiple new Pokemon

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This is some quality brain rot right here

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I feel like Game Theory has done irreparable damage to fandom brains

Not everything present in a game is canon. Up until maybe 10 years ago, optional content and easter eggs in a game were considered non-canon by default, unless otherwise directly stated.

In media, there's the term "Diegetic" Diegetic means that the characters within the story are experiencing it. If a song is playing, and the characters can hear it, then the music is diegetic. If a song is just playing to enhance a scene, then its called Non-Diegetic, and the characters in the story cannot hear it. Diegetics has evolved to encompass not just audio, but visual aspects of media as well. SPOILERS FOR A 25 YEAR OLD MOVIE

from a purely visual standpoint, Brad Pitt's character is non-diegetic for this entire movie despite the main character frequently interacting with him and him seemingly interacting with the world around him. Another great example of visual non-diegetics is the anime adaptation of JoJo part 4, in which the entirety of the season is colored in a bizarre otherworldly palette, most prominent among them being the Yellow skies and teal grass.

The characters within this world don't see a yellow sky. they see a blue sky.

This can be applied to video games as well. Just because you see something, does not mean that Link always sees it. Mario portraits in Hyrule Castle?

Non-diegetic easter egg. 90% of armor obtained in Breath of the wild and Tears of the Kingdom?

Non-Diegetic

Why does this matter? Because when it comes to non-diegetic things, like the color of the sky in JoJo part 4, or a large number of armor sets and weapons found in Breath of the wild and Tears of the kingdom, not only CAN they be disregarded when it comes to theory crafting, but they SHOULD be.

DE-MatPattify your brains, kids.

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The legend of Zelda: A title that finally makes sense

Buckle up kiddos, this is gonna be a LONG one

For a long time now, one question has plagued the Zelda fandom. Haunted us, kept us up at night, made us sit on the toilet in deep thought for way too long, causing our legs to fall asleep... And the question is... "If the story is about Link, then why's it called 'The legend of Zelda?'"

As I was pondering Tears of the Kingdom, as I tend to do, a realization struck me like a truck striking the protagonist of an Isekai anime in episode 1. But first, I need to lay the groundwork a little.

BotW and TotK play it fast and loose with the pre-established Zelda lore. Everything seems to be "canon" regardless of timeline, resulting in massive paradoxes and contradictions that can only mean that NONE of the previous games are canon. How can that be? Its right there in the name. They're legends. We haven't been playing through "historical facts" we've been playing through LEGENDS. Stories. So what makes Breath of the wild and Tears of the kingdom any different? Because we see the origin point of those legends.

In TotK, we see the earliest days of Hyrule, the origins of Ganondorf, and many many things that would make their way into the legends told in Hyrule. Legends we, as the player, have been experiencing over the last few decades.

The Sages

The "dark world"

Islands in the sky

And a constant paranoia that someone named Ganondorf would return, even though all living memory of that person had long since disappeared.

Breath and Tears are the only true canon Zelda games. Every other game has been a legend told throughout Hyrule's history within the world we see in Breath and Tears. Altered, and embellished over the centuries through countless retellings.

SO, treating Breath and Tears as the true canon, we see that the present day Zelda traveled back in time to the era of Hyrule's founding. She spent time with the first king and queen, telling them of her time, of the calamity, and of a swordsman named Link who wields a magic sword. She witnessed the rise and fall of the one true Ganondorf, but with prior knowledge of the future KNOWING that he'd come back, she planted the seeds to make sure that the world would be ready in her era to fight Ganondorf when he returned.

She told the sages the story of her home time, of a swordsman named Link who would stand against Ganondorf when he returned, and save Hyrule. Events that would not come to pass in the span of any of their lifetimes. Over the centuries, the story she told was passed down and spread. Altered and embellished with each retelling to the point that, over time, it was unrecognizable from the one Zelda had told all those years ago, and it may have reached a point where reality and fantasy blended together. Its possible that, the story became so old that people began making up new installments to the story of a heroic swordsman named "Link" wielding a magic sword, saving Hyrule and other lands time and time again. Some stories followed the same Link.

others followed some new kid who happened to be named Link

But all were inspired by one Link who lived in a time that had yet to come

and over the centuries, that original story was lost to time. But its fundamentals remained. The fundamentals at the core of the story, the HISTORY that had yet to come, that Zelda told all those centuries ago. The Demon king Ganondorf will return, and a hero named Link, wielding a sword with the power to destroy evil, will stand against him. And THAT, is the legend of Zelda.

[hyrule-in-a-pokeball]

The legend of Zelda: A title that finally makes sense

Buckle up kiddos, this is gonna be a LONG one

For a long time now, one question has plagued the Zelda fandom. Haunted us, kept us up at night, made us sit on the toilet in deep thought for way too long, causing our legs to fall asleep... And the question is... "If the story is about Link, then why's it called 'The legend of Zelda?'"

As I was pondering Tears of the Kingdom, as I tend to do, a realization struck me like a truck striking the protagonist of an Isekai anime in episode 1. But first, I need to lay the groundwork a little.

BotW and TotK play it fast and loose with the pre-established Zelda lore. Everything seems to be "canon" regardless of timeline, resulting in massive paradoxes and contradictions that can only mean that NONE of the previous games are canon. How can that be? Its right there in the name. They're legends. We haven't been playing through "historical facts" we've been playing through LEGENDS. Stories. So what makes Breath of the wild and Tears of the kingdom any different? Because we see the origin point of those legends.

In TotK, we see the earliest days of Hyrule, the origins of Ganondorf, and many many things that would make their way into the legends told in Hyrule. Legends we, as the player, have been experiencing over the last few decades.

The Sages

The "dark world"

Islands in the sky

And a constant paranoia that someone named Ganondorf would return, even though all living memory of that person had long since disappeared.

Breath and Tears are the only true canon Zelda games. Every other game has been a legend told throughout Hyrule's history within the world we see in Breath and Tears. Altered, and embellished over the centuries through countless retellings.

SO, treating Breath and Tears as the true canon, we see that the present day Zelda traveled back in time to the era of Hyrule's founding. She spent time with the first king and queen, telling them of her time, of the calamity, and of a swordsman named Link who wields a magic sword. She witnessed the rise and fall of the one true Ganondorf, but with prior knowledge of the future KNOWING that he'd come back, she planted the seeds to make sure that the world would be ready in her era to fight Ganondorf when he returned.

She told the sages the story of her home time, of a swordsman named Link who would stand against Ganondorf when he returned, and save Hyrule. Events that would not come to pass in the span of any of their lifetimes. Over the centuries, the story she told was passed down and spread. Altered and embellished with each retelling to the point that, over time, it was unrecognizable from the one Zelda had told all those years ago, and it may have reached a point where reality and fantasy blended together. Its possible that, the story became so old that people began making up new installments to the story of a heroic swordsman named "Link" wielding a magic sword, saving Hyrule and other lands time and time again. Some stories followed the same Link.

others followed some new kid who happened to be named Link

But all were inspired by one Link who lived in a time that had yet to come

and over the centuries, that original story was lost to time. But its fundamentals remained. The fundamentals at the core of the story, the HISTORY that had yet to come, that Zelda told all those centuries ago. The Demon king Ganondorf will return, and a hero named Link, wielding a sword with the power to destroy evil, will stand against him. And THAT, is the legend of Zelda.

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Sounds like something ol' MatPat would have figured out in his prime.

Probably find an object in the world with a specific length we can determine in real world measurements, then figure out how many it takes laying end to end to make, say, 1 kilometer, or build up to a Km. Then from there, take that and see how many kilometers fit inside a given region. Do some math witchcraft and bam. You got areas.

But there's an easier way.

Birdamn study guy! He tells you exactly how far you traveled in meters. Mark you starting point, mark your landing point, take note of whatever distance he said you traveled bam, you have your ruler. Take a screenshot of the map, get it on your computer and work it out from there.

He measures distance in meters, so 1000 meters = 1Kilometer

it might be a stupid question but is there a way to know the area of hyrule and the area of each region ? Like I don't know how it would be calculated and I don't know if an awesome someone already did that, if someone has any answer, please tell in the comms or in tags 🙏🙏🙏

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POKEMON LEGENDS Z-A ANNOUNCED FOR 2025 RELEASE

What we know >It takes place in Kalos, and according to NoA twitter, takes place "Entirely" within Lumios city >Mega Evolution to return (Makes sense, as it takes place in Kalos) Thats it, thats all we know based on what was revealed.

What we know based on common sense. It will not take place during the war detailed in Kalos' back story. That war took place 3000 years ago. three-THOUSAND. Thats so long ago that the year count hits 0 and keeps going into negative numbers for another 970+ years.

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ANOTHER REASON I STRONGLY BELIEVE WE'RE GETTING BLACK 3/WHITE 3

Lacey of the BB League Elite 4 is stated to be the daughter of a famous Unova gym leader. Despite being a fairy specialist, she inexplicably has an Excadrill on her team, the signature Pokemon of Clay, the ground-type Gym leader of Driftveil city.

HOWEVER

She also has a Plusle and Minun when you battle her for the first time, and she's also stated to be from Nimbasa city. SHE ALSO states her self that her mom is a model.

BASICALLY

So what does this have to do with the title of this post?

A lot of time has passed in the Pokemon world since the events of Black 2 and White 2. Lacey is a teenager, clearly older than protagonist, and she did not exist at the time of B2/W2

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The other hero of my Indigo disk playthrough.

Ability: Punk Rock (30% boost to sound based moves) Tera-type: Normal Item: Throat spray Moves of note: BOOMBURST

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An unlikely duo naturally formed in my playthrough of the Indigo Disk. Dragonite (Canned Heat) Ability: Multiscale (Reduces incoming damage by half if at full HP) Item: Weakness policy (Boosts ATK and Sp. ATK when hit by a super effective move) Moves of note: Dragon Dance, Extreme speed Clefairy (Whitest Mage) Ability: Friend guard (Reduces all damage taken by ally Pokemon by 25%) Item: Eviolite Moves of note: Light screen. Life dew

These two got me through a lot of the tougher battles, and even Kieran was a cake walk with them

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This team fell apart pretty fast and I found myself putting together teams specifically designed to deal with each BB Elite 4 member's type specialty.

Friend guard Clefairy became a mainstay on the team though. Lody. Combining Friend guard Clefairy with Dance Policy Dragonite? BIG fun

MY BLUEBERRY ACADEMY TEAM

I have no idea how to construct a doubles team, so I figured I'd just build around Ceruledge. Gastrodon has storm drain which will divert water attacks. Torkoal for the sun Orthworm is there to switch in on ground-type moves Toxicroak has dry skin, so he can work with Gastrodon's rain dance. And Sinistcha is there to provide a little healing support and also be my special attacker

SUPER basic, but I think it'll do. I'm really not good at building doubles teams. I'm also sure it'll change as I play through BB academy. My planned team for Kitakami quickly got replaced by Kitakami natives, after all, and I definitely want to put a Feraligatr on my team ASAP

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THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU CLEAR THE STORY OF INDIGO DISK

Fly up to the big glass ball at the top of the terrarium. There's some goodies waiting up there for you.

Go to the crystal pool in Kitakami for a surprise (This leads into another bit of post-story content but you'll easily find that on your own. Its pretty unmissable)

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THOUGHTS ON INDIGO DISK (No story spoilers)

YES, I have thoughts! Shocking, I know.

Lets start with what I liked The Terrarium The terrarium is a really cool idea. A huge artificial environment with biomes and different Pokemon existing within them.

We have Savannah biome, which I imagine is how the Safari zone would look like in the open world era of Pokemon The coastal biome, which is home to many water and grass types, and you can also find a few Alolan forms here.

The Canyon biome, which is home to rough n tough Pokemon like fighting, rock, and ground types.

And the Polar biome, which is populated by many ice types.

Each biome can be upgraded. Visually, this changed nothing, but it adds starter Pokemon to the biome.

Its all double battles I actually came to really enjoy the double battles, which is surprising because in the older main games, I would always do everything I could to avoid double battles. The standard trainer double battles usually consister of a trainer with just 2 Pokemon, though sometimes they'll have 3. Its very clear that these standard trainers are designed to teach you about double battles, as they tend to employ small strategies, like a maniac who has double intimidators.

The BB League Throughout the terrarium are BB League club members. These trainers are much stronger than the average terrarium trainer and are distinguished by their black text boxes and BB League club uniforms. They offer you your toughest challenge outside of the BB Elite 4. I found myself actually having to plan my moves rather than the standard "hit biggest attack to win lol" The music The trainer and wild pokemon music are both remixes of Unova's trainer and wild Pokemon music respectively. The terrarium overworld music also has bits of Unova music mixed into it, such as Driftveil's theme. Both the BB Elite 4 and the BB League Champion music outclass all Paldea gym/E4/Champ themes.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE BP and BBQs So there's a ton of stuff in this DLC thats locked behind Blueberry points or "BP" To earn BP, you need to do Blueberry quests, or "BBQs" This is all fine and dandy until you get into the meat of it.

1: To bring a coach to the club room, it costs 200 BP You need to bring all available coaches in THREE TIMES to unlock a new coach. You starting roster of coaches is the Paldea gym leaders.

2. In order to upgrade the terrarium so that starters begin appearing, you need to use 3000 points to upgrade a biome. Each biome costs 3000, for a total of 12,000 BP required. Other upgrades are similarly locked behind anywhere from 200 BP to 500 BP

Now, here's where the problem starts. At any given time you have 3 BBQs available to you, the vast majority of which award a STAGGERING... 20BP. Some award 30, some award 40. But most award 20. After completing 10 BBQs, a high value BBQ will appear that will award anywhere from 100 to 200 BP

Are you starting to see the problem here? It is a HELL of a grind. And not a fun one. BBQs come in a small variety >Take picture of Pokemon in (X) biome >Take picture of a Pokemon swimming >Take picture of a Pokemon flying >Sneak up and surprise 1 Pokemon >Defeat a terastalized wild Pokemon >Terastalize your Pokemon and defeat a wild Pokemon >Capture a Pokemon >Capture an (X) type Pokemon >Pick up 10 items off the ground >Defeat 10 wild Pokemon with auto battle >Travel 500 yards Most of these will award you 20 BP You are going to be doing a lot of these. For a long time. Especially if you want to unlock all the starters. OH And Perrin's back with a new quest for you, but she requires you to have 200 entries in the BBA Regional dex. So if you wanna get to her content, you kind of have to upgrade those biomes.

The 19th tera-type Stellar-type is our 19th terra-type, and... Its pretty lame. Yeah, don't bother with it, regular terastalization is stronger. Stellar-type is basically just Protean. It will become the first type you use and give it a 20% boost. It offers no defensive capabilities. Only offensive.

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MY BLUEBERRY ACADEMY TEAM

I have no idea how to construct a doubles team, so I figured I'd just build around Ceruledge. Gastrodon has storm drain which will divert water attacks. Torkoal for the sun Orthworm is there to switch in on ground-type moves Toxicroak has dry skin, so he can work with Gastrodon's rain dance. And Sinistcha is there to provide a little healing support and also be my special attacker

SUPER basic, but I think it'll do. I'm really not good at building doubles teams. I'm also sure it'll change as I play through BB academy. My planned team for Kitakami quickly got replaced by Kitakami natives, after all, and I definitely want to put a Feraligatr on my team ASAP

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LESS THAN 72 HOURS WE'LL BE OFF TO BLUEBERRY ACADEMY!

So, have you readied a new team for the field trip? According to Serebii.net Blueberry Academy deals exclusively in double battles, meaning your singles format team you've likely been using for ages now might have some trouble stacking up against the students there.

Being a singles format purist myself, I have absolutely no idea how to build a doubles team, so I'm planning to just struggle through

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TRAINER BATTLES AT BLUEBERRY ACADEMY

Recently, Joe Merrick of Serebii.net got to play a little bit of the second installment of the Pokemon scarlet and Violet DLC, the indigo disk, and he made mention of something very interesting.

Every trainer battle, including the elite 4 member he got to battle, used the double battle format.

I'm sure there are a lot of double battle lovers and VGC players out there who are going to be perfectly fine with this, but for those of us who prefer the single battle format, it looks like we're going to have to do some learning! I think my little friend guard raid Clefairies are going to be seeing lot of battle time during the Indigo disk.

Look at this like a heads up! Start looking into double battle strats and putting together a doubles team for the upcoming DLC. Double battles are a lot tougher when you're team isn't designed around it, after all