Was Pokémon Originally supposed to take place in an Alternate Version of the real world?
In R/G/B/Y, there's alot of references to the real world, it's the only region that is named After the real world equivalent it's based on, Lt. Surge is called 'The American Lighting', And Arcanine is Stated to be considered a beauty in China Going by Yellow's Pokedex Entry. This doesn't just stop at Gen 1 though. in Gold Poliwrath is stated to be able to cross the Pacific Ocean just by kicking, In FireRed Mew is stated to be discovered in South America, In Both FireRed and LeafGreen Regice is stated to have been discovered at the South Pole. This goes as far As HG/SS as in HG Arcanine's Pokedex Entry Mentions China. It's also worth mentioning that the early Seasons of the First Anime had a ton of real world animal References with one episode of season 1 Showing Straight up Real life that Exists, Like the Clownfish. I'm glad they sidetracked but man a-part of me wonders what The Generations after 4 would be like if they went down that path.
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Unova is america
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That means I live in Unova
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I understand that, but this is for direct references. while unova is based on America, it's not America itself. I'm not talking about inspirations, I'm talking about the direct references.
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I definitely get that, yellow kinda just feels like the worse enhanced re-release to me. doesn't have the same Added content that Platinum or US/UM, or refinements that emerald and crystal had.
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The Pokémon world wasn't well defined in the first games. It was a small project from an indie studio. They had no idea how massive the Pokémon franchise would become and how many games they would have to flesh out their world for. They called the region Kanto, after all. For all intents and purposes, the first games take place in our world.
Then when the games proved successful enough to warrant a sequel, they obscured the real world inspiration of the games by calling the neighbouring region Johto rather than Kansai or Kinki.
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Early Pokémon games kinda hinted at a real world setting, but over time it shifted to its own unique regions inspired by real places.
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Yeah my younger brother said once "They should've called Johto "Kansai""
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Yes. Kanto is literally the name of a real life place in Japan that Pokémon's Kanto region is supposed to be. So, at first, they probably just intended Pokémon to be our world but with magical monsters in it. But, probably starting with Johto not having the same name as the real life Johto, they started to slowly change it into a fictional world.
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