Geeks Peek Freak Leak
October 14, 2024 7:03 AM Subscribe
Pokémon developer Game Freak suffered a server breach recently, leaking an enormous amount of unseen assets, including diagrams of the universe's pantheon, frightening concept art (YT 15:02) and some quite unusual lore.
Some interesting stuff in the leaks, always neat to peek behind the veil a bit. Especially for such a vicious and secretive company with a tightly controlled public image.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:42 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:42 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]
The lore stuff is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, because the creation-myth (which, in the Pokémon universe, is less "myth" than "fact") has it basically as "First there was an Egg, from which came the god Arceus, who begat Palkia (God of Space) and Dialga (God of Time), who begat the Lake Trio (Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit) who tended the seed of life which grew into the whole world." Fine, cool, but all of those Gods (who are also, of course, Pokémon that you can catch and do battle with) are tied to Generation 4, and the Sinnoh (a.k.a. Hisui) region. Which is, itself, fine. If you're going to build out a creation myth, probably better to do it that way than to bring in elements from every region you've created (especially when you're going to keep adding regions and thus keep having to retcon stuff in later. BUT!
All of the Regions in the Pokémon Universe correspond to regions in our world, and it actually goes more microscopic than that, which basically each named place having some version of a real-world counterpart to it. (So, like, Unova is the NYC Metro Area, but it goes beyond that, with Times Square, Central Park, Coney Island, even down to like Brooklyns]'s McCarren Park being represented in the game.) Sinnoh is the Pokémon Universe version of Hokkaido, and Mt. Coronet (where the gods Arceus, Palkia and Dialga can be encountered) is Mt. Asahi. Or, as its Ainu name calls it, Kamui-Mintara, "Playground of the Gods."
And we've got a recent game (Pokémon Legends: Arceusset in Sinnoh's past (when it was called "Hisui") in which the Pokémon-Universe analogue of Ainu tribes are represented during the era of Japanese colonization. The two tribes we meet have worshipped Dialga and Palkia since time immemorial, while the settlers from the other Japanese-analogue regions of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn just recently arrived.
But, like, most of the "Legendary" and "Mythical" pokémon have some sort of, well, legend or myth surrounding them. What makes this kind of wild is that Game Freak decided in Gen 4 that this particular group of Pokémon literally created the world and all the beings in it, retconned other major pokémon into that cosmology (more on that in a minute) and then in Gen 8 decided that these were specifically Ainu gods who then fell into myth after Colonization (because while they certainly exist still in "Diamond," "Pearl"," and "Platinum", the games set in modern-day Sinnoh, the populace shows no signs of worshipping them (there's a church in Hearthome City, but nobody mentions Arceus or anything like that there.) So that's... something.
As for the rest of that cosmology, well, as I said it's certainly largely retconned, and largely kind of a mess. The names we can discern are all from Gens 1-4, so it's pretty clear that somebody created this when putting together the Gen 4 story or similar (and notably before Platinum, since Giratina was introduced there as a third member of the Palkia/Dialga grouping, but is nowhere in this chart) The "children" of the Lake Trio are Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, ruling the domains of Earth, Sea and Sky, which all makes enough sense (as that was basically the Story of Gen 3) and there are some pockets of things grouping other clear trios (the Gen 1 Legendary Birds, centered around Lugia, sure. The Gen 2 Legendary Beasts centered around Ho-oh makes perfect sense. The Regies all grouped together, again, perfect sense.)
But then we get to the Pokémon listed as sub-gods for each of the Domains. For Land, under Groudon, we don't know what any of those names refer to. For Sea, we get Latias and Latios, the "eon duo" from Gen 3 which, while both Dragon/Psychic type, at least have some connection to the oceans, and Metagross, a Gen 3 pseudolegendary (a term with a very specific meaning in game terms but which also is absolutely not unique in-universe - it basically has really good stats but you can catch and train any number of them) with no real oceanic connection that I'm aware of. And for the Sky we have Dragonite (the Gen 1 peudolegendary, which is at least Flying type, so sure) and Tyranitar (the Gen 2 pseudolegendary which is Rock/Dark type and has no connection to the Sky) and Gyarados, which is Water/Flying type but also is neither legendary nor pseudo-legendary, but is in fact the evolution of Magikarp, one of the most common pokémon in basically any region. Meanwhile Salamence, the other Gen 3 pseudolegendary, which is also part Flying type, is nowhere to be found when it would make total sense within the "Sky" domain if we're trying to make this make sense.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:32 PM on October 14 [5 favorites]
All of the Regions in the Pokémon Universe correspond to regions in our world, and it actually goes more microscopic than that, which basically each named place having some version of a real-world counterpart to it. (So, like, Unova is the NYC Metro Area, but it goes beyond that, with Times Square, Central Park, Coney Island, even down to like Brooklyns]'s McCarren Park being represented in the game.) Sinnoh is the Pokémon Universe version of Hokkaido, and Mt. Coronet (where the gods Arceus, Palkia and Dialga can be encountered) is Mt. Asahi. Or, as its Ainu name calls it, Kamui-Mintara, "Playground of the Gods."
And we've got a recent game (Pokémon Legends: Arceusset in Sinnoh's past (when it was called "Hisui") in which the Pokémon-Universe analogue of Ainu tribes are represented during the era of Japanese colonization. The two tribes we meet have worshipped Dialga and Palkia since time immemorial, while the settlers from the other Japanese-analogue regions of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn just recently arrived.
But, like, most of the "Legendary" and "Mythical" pokémon have some sort of, well, legend or myth surrounding them. What makes this kind of wild is that Game Freak decided in Gen 4 that this particular group of Pokémon literally created the world and all the beings in it, retconned other major pokémon into that cosmology (more on that in a minute) and then in Gen 8 decided that these were specifically Ainu gods who then fell into myth after Colonization (because while they certainly exist still in "Diamond," "Pearl"," and "Platinum", the games set in modern-day Sinnoh, the populace shows no signs of worshipping them (there's a church in Hearthome City, but nobody mentions Arceus or anything like that there.) So that's... something.
As for the rest of that cosmology, well, as I said it's certainly largely retconned, and largely kind of a mess. The names we can discern are all from Gens 1-4, so it's pretty clear that somebody created this when putting together the Gen 4 story or similar (and notably before Platinum, since Giratina was introduced there as a third member of the Palkia/Dialga grouping, but is nowhere in this chart) The "children" of the Lake Trio are Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, ruling the domains of Earth, Sea and Sky, which all makes enough sense (as that was basically the Story of Gen 3) and there are some pockets of things grouping other clear trios (the Gen 1 Legendary Birds, centered around Lugia, sure. The Gen 2 Legendary Beasts centered around Ho-oh makes perfect sense. The Regies all grouped together, again, perfect sense.)
But then we get to the Pokémon listed as sub-gods for each of the Domains. For Land, under Groudon, we don't know what any of those names refer to. For Sea, we get Latias and Latios, the "eon duo" from Gen 3 which, while both Dragon/Psychic type, at least have some connection to the oceans, and Metagross, a Gen 3 pseudolegendary (a term with a very specific meaning in game terms but which also is absolutely not unique in-universe - it basically has really good stats but you can catch and train any number of them) with no real oceanic connection that I'm aware of. And for the Sky we have Dragonite (the Gen 1 peudolegendary, which is at least Flying type, so sure) and Tyranitar (the Gen 2 pseudolegendary which is Rock/Dark type and has no connection to the Sky) and Gyarados, which is Water/Flying type but also is neither legendary nor pseudo-legendary, but is in fact the evolution of Magikarp, one of the most common pokémon in basically any region. Meanwhile Salamence, the other Gen 3 pseudolegendary, which is also part Flying type, is nowhere to be found when it would make total sense within the "Sky" domain if we're trying to make this make sense.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:32 PM on October 14 [5 favorites]
Ryan Broderick at Garbage Day mentioned the leaks in the most recent issue and had this to say:
posted by oc-to-po-des at 8:30 PM on October 14 [2 favorites]
And, apparently, someone at Game Freak came up with the idea of a Typhlosion kidnapping a young girl and breeding with her. See, writing weird fanfic smut doesn’t have to be a phase you grow out of. You can eventually get hired to do it for your favorite games if you’re good enough.Emphasis mine, because it truly felt relevant to my own career trajectory.
posted by oc-to-po-des at 8:30 PM on October 14 [2 favorites]
At long last we may be able to solve the two decades old schoolyard mystery of Pikablue!
More on point, the mythology stuff is intriguing. Am I wrong in thinking that they appear to be coming up with elaborate backstories that resemble existing myths, legends and folklore so that they may process them internally and come up with simplified and euphemised versions suitable for the consumption of children. Much like how many myths, fables and fairytales have gone from the gory and graphic to cutesy and Disney?
I realise this leak is not victimless, but I am nonetheless fascinated. I just wish companies were capable of releasing this kind of information more freely. To catch internal glimpses of a multi decade work of cooperative creativity is just wonderful.
posted by Kitten as a cat at 11:03 PM on October 14
More on point, the mythology stuff is intriguing. Am I wrong in thinking that they appear to be coming up with elaborate backstories that resemble existing myths, legends and folklore so that they may process them internally and come up with simplified and euphemised versions suitable for the consumption of children. Much like how many myths, fables and fairytales have gone from the gory and graphic to cutesy and Disney?
I realise this leak is not victimless, but I am nonetheless fascinated. I just wish companies were capable of releasing this kind of information more freely. To catch internal glimpses of a multi decade work of cooperative creativity is just wonderful.
posted by Kitten as a cat at 11:03 PM on October 14
Sorry to double post, but is it possible the original script for the third movie is somewhere in there?
posted by Kitten as a cat at 11:13 PM on October 14
posted by Kitten as a cat at 11:13 PM on October 14
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posted by i used to be someone else at 8:58 AM on October 14 [1 favorite]