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Anime
- Ash's original partner in the anime was supposed to be a Clefairy instead of a Pikachu. Think about it: if successful as a franchise icon as Pikachu has been, Super Smash Bros. players could have been able to play as a Clefairy.
- Also, the anime was originally just supposed to last through Kanto
, with an assumed ending of Ash defeating Gary and winning the Pokémon League, before being replaced by a new main character. This idea would finally get revisited 25 years later in Journeys, with the Masters 8 Tournament and Leon replacing the Pokémon League and Gary respectively, with Ash ultimately winning. - Missing Trailer Scenes are really common in the films:
- The very first trailer for the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back! in Japan is completely made out of scenes that didn't make it to the final product; the supposed "grown-up Misty" segment, in particular, is a huge source of speculation and discussion within the fandom, specially by taking account the movie would be the Grand Finale for the anime. Takeshi Shudō, in a blog entry, explained his concept of a series finale that may have been related: in this ending, elderly Ash would remember that Pokémon never really existed, and his entire adventure had been All Just a Dream; he'd then wake up as a child again, wanting to travel on his own. There has been speculation that the woman that looks like a grown-up Misty is her and the girl is her daughter in that trailer. However, Word of God claimed in mid-2019 that it isn't actually a grown-up Misty and the pink haired girl is nothing more than a random character.
- For Pokémon 2000, an early trailer showed a scene where Ash leaps off a cliff to rescue Pikachu. A tearful Misty (who isn't wearing her jacket like in the final product) tries to run and save Ash, but is stopped by Tracey. There's also a scene with Ash and Pikachu on the boat that isn't present in the final product.
- A trailer for Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys depicted a space battle between Deoxys and Ash riding on the back of Rayquaza, which was nowhere to be seen in the final cut. Interestingly enough, this concept was reused for Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire within the finale of the Delta Episode.
- Some of the trailers for Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew show Kid's van being caught in the middle of a geyser field, Lucario dodging falling rocks, Lucario apparently dead, and various other scenes cut from the final film.
- A teaser for what eventually became Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions originally depicted Ho-Oh and Lugia locked in aerial combat, presumably for a Heart Gold/Soul Silver tie-in at the time. Other early trainers showed a shadowy Evil Twin of Ash, which also never made it to the movie.
- The very first trailer
- Media Blaster wanted to release uncut DVDs in America at one point, but of course Viz got the rights and they were unable to do this.
- There was originally going to be an episode (likely just a Clip Show) that celebrated the Japanese New Year during the Kanto run. This episode was intended to air soon after the infamous Porygon "seizure" episode, so production was halted, and after a while simply cancelled.
- Here's one to consider in light of that 18-month report: Pokémon Gold and Silver was originally scheduled for release in Late 1997, but was delayed to be adapted for the Game Boy Color. The first episode of the Anime aired on 1 April 1997:
- Had the game been released as originally scheduled, or even with a slight delay (i.e. Spring 1998), would an immediate sequel have followed?
- Given that the delay happened, what if the "Porygon Incident" never happened and the series ended in October 1998, 1 year prior to Gold & Silver's actual release (as opposed to January 1999)? Would we have had a whole year in the Orange Islands? Or would the Anime have taken the year off?note
- In either of the above cases (presuming that they didn't go the Filler Arc route), would Ash still have been the protagonist, or would he (and his companions) have been replaced?
- The GS Ball was originally going to contain a Celebi that was to star in a large portion of the Johto arc. After Pokemon 4Ever came out, it was decided that having a Celebi in the anime right after a movie featuring Celebi would be redundant, so the idea was shelved. However, an event involving the GS Ball containing Celebi was programmed into Pokemon Crystal, mainly in the Japanese version, though the Virtual Console release found a way to make it available in the Western version too.
- Pokémon 3:
- Spell of the Unown was originally set to address the question of "What happened to real-world animals in the Pokémon universe?", and instead of Entei and the Unown (Gold and Silver had been delayed at this point of development and they were unsure about doing another movie debut Pokémon), the focal point would be the reanimated fossils of a Tyrannosaurus rex. This also predates the introduction of Tyrunt and Tyrantrum, Tyrannosaurus Pokemon added in Pokémon X and Y.
- On that note, Molly's mother was originally supposed to be dead. When Takeshi Shudō was hospitalized, Hideki Sonoda rewrote much of the script so that she survived and was simply hospitalized. Shudō was outraged by this, as he felt it was going against the story he wrote, and never wrote another Pokémon movie again. It's widely believed that this incident also began the process that eventually saw him leave Pokémon altogether.
- Early previews for Spell of the Unown refer to it as Tower of the Unown.
- Spell of the Unown was originally set to address the question of "What happened to real-world animals in the Pokémon universe?"
- According to ADR director Tom Wayland, in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, Arceus was originally going to be voiced by actor Vincent D'Onofrio of Full Metal Jacket and Men in Black fame. However, before his recording session, there were difficulties with D'Onofrio's agent and he was unable to record for the movie. After re-auditioning, Tom Wayland himself was chosen to voice Arceus instead.
- Team Plasma was supposed to make their debut appearances in Castelia City during Best Wishes, but their episodes were indefinitely postponed after the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown disaster that occurred a week before they were to air, as the episodes featured Castelia City being threatened with destruction by nuclear-esque energy. This plus the Black 2/White 2 games utilizing a different incarnation of Team Plasma led to the originally intended arc for Team Plasma in the anime being scrapped altogether. The episode's scripts later surfaced and can be viewed here.
- A related episode about a fishing competition in Castelia City was also postponed, but was broadcast without any references to the original setting of Castelia City. It's very noticeable because the episode's plot originally involved Bianca joining Ash's party, at which point she would stick around for a couple of episodes afterwards. The episode was delayed, but the intended follow-ups weren't, meaning Bianca's sudden appearance in-between episodes goes uncommented on, and the delayed episode required its ending to be rewritten and (rather hastily—the art style doesn't quite match) reanimated to show her leaving the group.
- When the Advanced Generation was in pre-production, there was a discussion on who would get Put on a Bus, Misty or Team Rocket. Misty leaving the show was controversial enough, but one wonders how much the fandom would have flipped their lids if Team Rocket left.
- Team Rocket was also going to be Put on a Bus in Best Wishes. Ironically, their intended write-off was still advertised as their Grand Finale, which was intentional since there were still plans for them to make some appearances after said write-off and only when Best Wishes ended would they be gone for good, so the promotion about their farewell was testing the waters with fans and getting a response before working on the end of the series and the start of the next series, XY. Because fan reaction was negative, Team Rocket was kept in the anime.
- Takeshi Shudo had story plans for finding out more about Ash's father. This idea was scrapped and we ended up with the show we have now because of it.
- Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was supposedly going to be focused on Jackie Walker as the protagonist, along with Manaphy as his sidekick, but this shifted around as May became a more interesting viewpoint for the story and they realized how May and Manaphy's Mother/"Son" dynamic might appear to be recycling Misty and Togepi.
- Latias from Pokémon Heroes was originally meant to join Ash for at least the remainder of the Johto season, but that plan was scrapped possibly due to the staff not willing to work with a serious Pokémon/Human relationship on a kid's show (then again Bayleaf did like Ash too).
- Ash's name was originally "Casey" in the English dub. Ironically, another character — a girl who happened to be a recurring character with a baseball theme — would later end up with that name in Johto.
- A Nintendo Power article prior to the anime's release shows that Jessie and James originally wore the standard black uniform, not their signature white. They briefly switched to black over ten years later in Black and White, before switching back not too long afterwards.
- According to Shudo's blog, there was originally going to be an episode where Ash met Mewtwo. It was scrapped before even making it to the scripting stage.
- Rachael Lillis was originally going to be the voice of Pikachu in the 4Kids dub before they decided to keep Ikue Otani's voice. However, some earlier episodes and promotional material still include voice performances by Lillis as Pikachu, most frequently for scenes in which it would have been difficult to cleanly edit out all other voices but Otani's, or for voiced appearances of Pikachu in media created outside of Japan. The original ad for the Red and Blue games is probably the most noteworthy single example of this.
- Word of God is that the reason Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened used a new Mewtwo was that Shudo owned the rights to the original one. Indeed, the movie feels like it was initially written with the original Mewtwo in mind, with the new one being given an extremely similar backstory (one of the factors that contributed to its status as a Replacement Scrappy), and acting in a manner that would have made more sense for the other Mewtwo at various points. It also explains why this Mewtwo's demeanor toward humans is inconsistent and suffers from some rushed character development. While the original Mewtwo was eventually able to make an appearance in Journeys, the episode is vague on past events, likely to prevent further legal issues from happening.
- A poster from Banpresto 1999 implies that originally Ash's Bulbasaur was meant to fully evolve into Venusaur, but this plot point was eventually discarded.
- An interview with Tomioka revealed two changes from the initial plan of the later Journeys series, the first being that Paul's return was not originally planned but added in to expand on what was originally a Oak Lab training episode and show off Paul's growth since we last saw him. The second is that originally, non-Ash Master Eight battles were going to be underfocused on to focus more on Ash's unpredictable battle style over their more focused ones, but the producers quickly told Tomioka doing that would be a waste.
Miscellaneous
- Early scripts for Pokémon Live! didn't just have Delia and Giovanni dating in the past. Giovanni was Ash's father! The play still has subtext that Giovanni might be Ash's father, which the writer confirmed was intentional, but it's much more vague than originally intended.
- Pokémon Adventures: Wally was initially intended to be the holder of third Hoenn Pokédex; in the original magazine run, he registered the Pokédex he accidentally came across. This was changed in the official volume release (where Wally simply picked it up and eventually returned it to Professor Birch), as the writer realized Wally's character wouldn't have fit into the Battle Frontier.
- Furthermore according to Hidenori Kusaka, there originally was going to be chapters based on Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness but were ultimately scrapped. However even if it wasn't scrapped it does makes one wonder who would be the Dexholders of Orre, or if Orre would even have Dexholders for that matter.
- When the game was being localized to the USA, the staff there told the developers that the Pokémon were "too cute" and offer their own replacement designs. Their take on Pikachu turned them into something that only vaguely look like Pikachu, in the form of a tiger-like creature with breasts. No really. Perhaps unsurprisingly, GameFreak refused to have the Pokémon designs altered, lest we would potentially have very different childhoods.
- The franchise's international slogan was originally going to be "Catch 'Em if You Can!" When the franchise was launched in the US, it ended up being changed to the much more iconic "Gotta Catch 'Em All!"
Live-Action Films
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu:
- Warner Bros. initially wanted to go on the idea of a live-action Pokémon movie alone, having fought against Netflix, Columbia Pictures, and Legendary Pictures for the movie rights to the franchise. This thinking stemmed from Warner's history with the franchise, having broadcast the anime on Kids' WB! and releasing the first three films worldwide outside Japan. Legendary ultimately won the rights and brought their then-financing partner Universal on board. After filming wrapped up, however, Universal told Legendary it would not renew its financing pact with the studio, and that the movie would be dropped from their slate. Hoping to avoid delays in production, Legendary came calling back to Warner for help. Warner, who needed another hit for their summer slate alongside Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) (also co-produced by Legendary), enthusiastically agreed.
- Detective Pikachu wasn't the first idea for a live-action Pokémon movie. Max Landis (Chronicle) wrote a screenplay centering around a boy named Red (a Shout-Out to the canon name of the trainer the player controls in Pokémon Red & Green) trying to rekindle his relationship with Pokémon after witnessing his mother, a professional trainer, being turned on by her fellow trainers who refer to themselves as Team Rocket (no relation to the criminal syndicate in the franchise). He even pitched the idea to The Pokémon Company, but was rejected due to TPC believing a movie centered around Pikachu was more marketable.
- Dwayne Johnson, Hugh Jackman, and Mark Wahlberg were considered to play the title role.
- From the start, fans pushed for Danny DeVito to voice Detective Pikachu, even though DeVito claimed that he had never heard of Pokémon. Co-producer Cale Boyter then revealed that the crew seriously did consider DeVito for the role, and that early character animation tests from the visual effects team had the character speak lines from archive material the comedian did. Ultimately, the producers decided DeVito wasn't fit for the role, but the final character's personality remained heavily inspired by the actor.
- Natalia Dyer, Katherine Langford, and Haley Lu Richardson were considered for the role of Lucy Stevens.
- Dean Israelite, Robert Rodriguez, and Tim Miller were all offered the chance to direct the movie. Rodriguez declined due to his filming commitments to Alita: Battle Angel, while Miller turned down directorial duties in favor of Terminator: Dark Fate and executive producing Sonic the Hedgehog, both of which were being produced at Paramount. Other candidates for director included Shane Acker (9), Chris Wedge of Blue Sky Studios, and Mark A.Z. Dippé (Spawn).
- Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch was originally planned to co-write the script, but left before filming began and was replaced with Rob Letterman, the latter of whom also was its director. It was long assumed that Creative Differences led to his departure before Hirsch clarified that it was due to his other projects with Disney Channel he had in the pipeline, adding that he never wrote a single word in the script.
- The film was originally going to be titled simply Detective Pikachu, like the game it was based on. But according to Letterman, TPC didn't think people would believe it's an official Pokémon movie if the franchise's name wasn't in the title.
- Mr. Mime almost didn't make it to the film...twice. TPC initially refused to let him appear because they felt he wouldn't translate well in photo-realistic CGI. Letterman ended up having to personally meet TPC's president to convince them to include the Pokémon in the movie. When Mr. Mime did get in the movie, Letterman saw the interrogation scene with him and was tempted to cut it, since he felt it wouldn't do well with audiences. To his surprise, test audiences loved it, and he kept the scene in.
- As many as 100 species of Pokémon were originally planned to appear in the movie, but due to budget constraints, the number was reduced to 60. Beldum, Durant and Steelix were among the many Pokémon that had their appearances scrapped because of the cuts.
- Sawk was originally planned to make an appearance, but when the film crew modeled it and sent the model to TPC for review, they were told that the gi it wore was part of its skin. The crew found it to be technically impossible to realize, so it was cut.
- Arcanine was supposed to be Tim's Pokémon. He was cut because Warner Bros. felt it would take too much focus away from the title character.
- One scene would've taken place in a museum with ancient Pokémon fossils, and a museum guide would scare some children by having his Ditto transform into a Tyrantrum. Tim and Pikachu were also meant to encounter Rayquaza in the museum at some point.
- The film would've actually opened with Tim working at his insurance job and having a conversation with a colleague, played by frequent Ryan Reynolds collaborator Rob Delaney. Warner Bros. executives ordered it changed on the grounds that it didn't connect to the franchise in any capacity, and Delaney was removed from the film entirely.
- Robin Williams claimed in an interview with a gaming magazine that Nintendo once contacted him and told that he was the only actor they would consider to play Professor Oak in a live-action movie, however it failed to appear due to his death in 2014.
Video Games
- Bulbapedia goes into the details about changes between games.
- Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire:
- In early versions of the game, several Pokémon such as Sharpedo would have no ability.
- Double Battles with wild Pokémon were planned but never fully implemented. This was later included in future games.
- There's concept art of a Pokémon that looks a lot like Blaziken and Latias, implying that the two were originally one Pokémon. It's also being ridden by an unused blue-haired woman.
- Torchic was originally going to have huge, rabbit-like ears and a flame-shape on the back of its head. It might have evolved into the Blaziken/Latias hybrid.
- A Nintendo Power interview revealed Diamond and Pearl Pokémon Shellos and Gastrodon were originally designed for Ruby and Sapphire, but ultimately they were not implemented due to time constraints.
- Game Freak considered altering the number of Pokémon that could be kept in the party, as well as the number of moves a Pokémon could know at a time, but eventually concluded that the changes wouldn't improve anything.
- The ability Levitate and a higher Attack boost were considered for Mega Metagross in ORAS, but Tough Claws and the large boost to Speed won out due to giving it more options in battle.
- Treecko's concept art resembles a more realistic (albeit bipedal) gecko.
- The developers toyed with the idea of featuring only new Pokémon obtainable in-game until relatively late in production. Some signs of this are still evident if you know where to look, such as how you encounter only Generation III Pokémon until the first gym. The concept of an all-new Pokédex would eventually be realized in Pokémon Black and White.
- Pokémon Diamond and Pearl:
- Spiritomb was originally going to be called "Phantomb".
- Buildings were supposed to use the same 3D perspective (complete with 3D props such as tables) as the overworld instead of the forced 2D perspective.
- There are unused back sprites of another version of Shellos and Gastrodon with slight design differences. These designs are presumed to be the Dummied Out sprites of what they would have looked like in Ruby and Sapphire.
- Most Pokémon were intended to have gender differences. Examples include female Psyduck having heart-shaped hair, female Umbreon having shorter ears, female Bulbasaur having larger spots, female Mudkip having a shorter fin, female Charizard having only one head spike, and female Crobat having different mouth shapes. Some gender differences were also different, such as female Pikachu and Raichu having downturned ears. According to an earlier interview from the July 2006 issue of CoroCoro, female Pokémon were originally supposed to be smaller or more simplified looking than males.
- Originally, up to 16 players were originally supposed to connect to one another.
- A prototype leaked on June 26th, 2020 reveals that some Pokémon had completely different designs from their finished counterparts; Notable changes being that the Gible line was originally supposed to be red, with Gible and Gabite standing on four legs◊, Togekiss looked more menacing and resembled a jet plane, Rampardos had a more feral design with a different color scheme, and Giratina looking nothing like its final design apart from having six legs, instead being a strange orange creature with a blonde tail and crest, alongside three gems lining its body◊, bearing the name of "Kimairan". Additionally, Rotom was originally a blue, spark-like being◊ and Arceus originally had a more amorphous and shadowy design◊, though it's possible these were simply placeholder designs.
- Beta designs◊ of the Gym Leaders exist in the Diamond and Pearl prototype. Roark didn't have glasses, Gardenia didn't have her headband (which incidentally confirms that the black part of her hair is a headband and not multicolored hair), Maylene's nose bandage was missing, Byron's hair was smoother and less spiky, Candice had blue eyes instead of brown, and Crasher Wake had a more elaborate Swampert-like mask that covered almost his entire face.
- An event for Arceus as a scripted encounter, much like Shaymin and Darkrai, was planned; players would recieve an event item called the Azure Flute and would be able to go to the top of Spear Pillar, play the flute, and climb a staircase to the "Hall of Origin", where they would be able to fight a wild Arceus at level 80note . The event is fully functional, complete with unique music; the only thing that puts it in this territory is that the Azure Flute was never officially distributed. Word of God states that the item was never distributed the item was deemed too confusing for players to use, leading to the item never seeing distribution. Interestingly, the otherwise unused music that played when fighting Arceus was used in HeartGold & SoulSilver, as the background music for the Sinjoh Ruins event.
- Some 15 years later, the Arceus event finally saw the light of day in the remakes, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Pokémon Shining Pearl. Completing the main story of Pokémon Legends: Arceus grants the player the Azure Flute in the postgame of the remakes as an Old Save Bonus, which can then be taken to the Spear Pillar to activate the Arceus event.
- Dawn and Barry had different names originally for the English version. Dawn's original name was Lucy (which makes sense seeing that the name Lucy is deprives from the Latin name "Lucius" which means "as of light", which fits well seeing Dawn's name in Japanese is Hikari which means "light"). As for Barry's original name was revealed to be Ruben.
- Furthermore the Sinnoh starters had different names as well. Turtwig was originally named "Sproutle", Chimchar was originally named "Scorchimp", and Piplup was originally named "Ploopil".
- Azelf originally in the English beta of the game was called "Agnom" which pretty much almost similar to its Japanese name being "Agnome".
- Snowpoint City was originally named "Tipton City", which could be possibly due to the fact it located at the tip of Northern Sinnoh.
- Pokémon Black and White:
- Professor Juniper was originally going to be an old man like previous ones instead of a sexy scientist (although we do get an "old man" Juniper, who is the father of Professor Juniper).
- Cedric was originally a fat male professor. This was before his daughter became the main professor.
- Concept art◊ shows the cube N wears on his belt as some kind of sliding puzzle that would have revealed a keyhole inside when solved, but the cube has no relevance in the final game.
- N's original design was more intimidating and less androgynous.
- Ghetsis' original design had short black hair. He was older looking, shorter, and more resembled a priest.
- Concept art shows that the Shadow Triad had different designs and more individual designs. They wore slightly different costumes and had different hair cuts. One had medium-length bangs over his right eye and the other two had longer hair in different styles from each other. In the final game, all three are identical and have the same long hair.
- Jellicent and Stunfisk were going to be, respectively, pure Water type and another Electric/Water combination, before becoming respectively Water/Ghost and Ground/Electric to increase type diversity in Unova.
- Dwebble and Crustle were originally called "Furnace Pokémon" and had shells made of kiln-fired pottery.
- Petilil and Lilligant were originally part of a three-stage evolutionary line before being cut down to just two.
- Litwick was originally the second in its evolutionary line while Lampent was the final stage, and the first stage was a flame.
- Hydreigon and its evolution line were originally intended to be cybernetic dragons incorporating aspects of tanks within their bodies. The track-like markings on their bellies seem to be a remnant of this.
- Excadrill was originally violet.
- Sawk and Throh originally had horns like an oni's. They were replaced with eyebrows to distinguish them from Thundurus and Tornadus, who were also originally blue and red.
- Pokémon Black 2 and White 2:
- Dummied Out data shows that Hilbert and Hilda were meant to participate in the World Tournament. Unlike Red, they have dialogue.
- Pokémon X and Y:
- When the games came out, there was a lot of speculation about a number of mysteries, such as certain inaccessible or empty locations and a hidden encounter with a mysterious NPC that's never mentioned before or after, with the assumption that most of it would be expanded on in the inevitable third version or sequels. Said game(s) could also polish up the story and explain just what Zygarde's deal is. Unfortunately, Generation VI ended abruptly before another Kalos game could materialize, and Zygarde was hastily shoved into Pokémon Sun and Moon as a poorly-integrated sidequest. The common theory is that Sun and Moon got bumped up at the last minute to coincide with the series' 20th anniversary, and the hypothetical Z version was a casualty.
- Going by internal data, two more Kalos games were apparently plannednote , and there's partial coding for two alternate Zygarde forms that would likely have used the Thousand Waves and Thousand Arrows as its respective signature movesnote , strongly implying that X and Y were going to get a pair of followups ala Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, featuring said Zygarde forms as version mascots. There's also data showing that more Megas were planned, which would have debuted in said Kalos gamesnote
- Among Pokémon that were supposed to receive a Mega Evolution, one of them was going to be Flygon. It was attempted again in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, however, Ken Sugimori had "Artist's Block" when coming up with a good design. Thus, Flygon never received one in the end.
- Supposedly XY was going to have a very different (and rather crazy) plot, with a space theme, before it was decided to rework it into a more traditional plot. Team Flare was originally a MiB-like group made up of ancient aliens posing as humans that were plotting to destroy the planet with their Ultimate Weapon. They would have been opposed by a separate group of benevolent moon aliens led by Diantha that used Fairy-type Pokémon — in fact, Fairy Pokémon would have come from the moon, tying into the old Clefairy lore. Seriously. Mega Stones would have been formed from pieces of a spaceship previously flown by AZ, who would have been a renegade Flare member, and his Floette would have been the UW's key. Xerneas and Yveltal would have been living weapons, rather than batteries for the UW. Alexa would have been an Intrepid Reporter investigating Team Flare's conspiracy. Oh, and each Gym Leader would have had a sport theme of their own. A number of remnants of this can be seen in the final gamenote , and even Pokémon Adventures.note Some planned concepts and ideas even made their way into later games, like Pokémon rides replacing old features like HMs.
- Pokémon Sun and Moon:
- It seems that walking Pokémon were originally meant to come back. All the Pokémon have low-polygon models that can also have walking and running animations.
- There are a number of places that are mapped out, fully or partially, such as parts of the player's house like the garage, the bathroom, and a toilet; another coastal area, and the golf course at the Hano Grand Resort. Places like that golf course can be seen from various parts of the overworld, like a cave in the tall rock pools at Brooklet Hill (said rock pools have also been removed from the in-game map despite being in the official artwork for Alola), a cave in the lake at Poni Meadow, and a lot of land blocked off by debris at the Lake of the Sunne/Moone. Additionally, the external part of Ten Carat Hill from the demo is not in the full game.
- Every in-game area except for Ultra Space has a map description, but the way the map is designed prevents most of them from being seen. For example, Po Town and the Shady House fall under Route 17 and as a result use its description instead of their own ones.
- Akala was originally going to have its own meadow. As a result of this removal, Oricorio is found on Route 6, the Cutiefly line (which is normally found in meadows) cannot be found in Akala, and Pink Nectar is obtained from the floral arrangements in Royal Avenue.
- At one point, the game was supposed to have Gyms or something resembling them. There's an unused battle background that resembles a blue-tinted futuristic background similar to the one in Aether Paradise with two statues near the entrance and a gym logo on a wall.
- Zygarde has an overworld model that differs from the one used in X and Y, suggesting that it may have been planned to have it exist as an overworld encounter rather than have the player build their own from collected cores and cells, akin to how Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon handled Zygarde and used this model.
- Elio (the male protagonist in Pokémon Sun and Moon) had a few different names originally.
- In pre-release media and the demo version, Elio was referred to as both "Sun" and "Elio" (Which is funny since in Pokémon Adventures, his name is "Sun").
- In unused internal data of the games it refers to Elio as "Kai", which is the Hawaiian word for "ocean".
- Even Selene (the female protagonist in the games) had different names originally.
- In the pre-release media she was referred to as both "Moon" and "Selene".
- In unused internal data it refers to Selene as "Lana", which could mean that possibly the Trial Captain Lana might have had a different name originally.
- Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon:
- Looking at Necrozma's concept art, it appears Ultra Necrozma was supposed to look slightly different, as the wings and legs as depicted in yellow don't match up to the final version's. Most notably, what is labeled a tail is instead Ultra Necrozma's chest.
- Originally, the previous villains only appeared as opponents in the Battle Agency. The scenario writer believed they could write a story around them, however, resulting in the creation of Team Rainbow Rocket.
- Elio was originally named "Ray" in the pre-release media of the games.
- Selene was originally named "Ailey" in the pre-release media of the games.
- Pokémon Sword and Shield were going to feature Official Fan-Submitted Content in the form of a shirt design. However, the gimmick was scrapped when the winner of the associated contest was disqualified for selling his design as an actual shirt.
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet:
- Magikarp and Gyarados were originally planned to have Convergent Species instead of Tentacool and Tentacruel. In fact, the codename of Toedscruel still is OKAGYARADOSU.
- The official website claimed that Nemona would be using a Lechonk and a Smoliv on her team as well as Pawmi. This ended up not being the case.
- Pokémon Snap originally began as a simulation game on the 64 DD simply called Jack & The Beanstalk, but it was unknown what kind of simulation it would have been. The developers later reduced it to only a photography game, made it on-rails so photography was the only interactive focus, and finally, re-tooled an otherwise generic photography game by adding Pokémon before finally moving it to the Nintendo 64 after the DD failed.
- Game composer Ikuko Mimori revealed on her website that a horror-themed level was planned for the game at some point, only to be later scrapped. It's unknown how far along the concept made it into development, though she did compose music for it - weirdly, both a normal track and a "boss" track, even though the game has no real "boss fights" outside of the encounter with Mew. It's possible the level was scrapped because Generation 1 only had one family of Ghost-types, meaning there wouldn't be enough variety to justify a full haunted house level (in the final, the only Ghost-type that appears is Haunter in the Tunnel level). Concept art of the main map shows a town area with a church; given that the horror songs have church bells in the background, fans speculate that the horror level might've been set in this town.
- A pre-release gameplay video shows Ekans, which would've brought the total number of Pokémon to 64.
- Game composer Ikuko Mimori revealed on her website that a horror-themed level was planned for the game at some point, only to be later scrapped. It's unknown how far along the concept made it into development, though she did compose music for it
- Cancelled games:
- A major miss is something that not many know about: A Pokémon RPG for the N64DD. From IGN64. This mod on Bulbagarden believes there is evidence it eventually became Pokémon Colosseum. Pocket Monsters RPG, as it was called, was a story-driven game on a home console with a darker tone, featuring a protagonist named Leo who stole Pokémon from other trainers. It isn't difficult to believe that the game was recycled as Colosseum.
- Pokémon Picross is an unreleased puzzle game for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color that was announced in Spring 1999. The SNES game Picross NP Vol. 1 (which was released in 1999) had some Pokémon puzzles. In 2015, a different Pokémon Picross was released for the 3DS. The Game Boy ROM was leaked on September 10, 2020.
- A major miss is something that not many know about: A Pokémon RPG for the N64DD. From IGN64
- Battle Revolution was once very different from its released version. For example, Red and Leaf were originally supposed to be in the game, but were later changed to Lucas and Dawn. The game was originally more realistic and action-packed in terms of effects, as shown by the original trailer.
- Detective Pikachu: When the game was announced, there was mention of a blue Pikachu character (reference to the old "Pikablu" rumors from when Marill was revealed) that was important.
- Pokémon Colosseum:
- Text data exists in the coding for several more Shadow Pokémon, including a Shadow Minun to go with Duking's Plusle.
- Rui actually has an HD model for battling and data for standing behind her own Pokémon though lacks a Poké Ball throwing animation or intro animation of her own, implying a battle with or perhaps against her was cut during development.
- There was a rejected Pokémon design based on the first cloned sheep, Dolly. It's never been mentioned when it was created; however, fan speculation dates it to Gen 2 or Gen 3. It was removed because it was deemed "too controversial". Some fans believe the rejected design was used as a basis for Mareep or Flaaffy, but that's just speculation.
- A rabbit Pokémon with a flower on its nose was created, but it was scrapped because its design didn't match the region's environment.
- Blastoise was not originally part of Squirtle's evolutionary line, and had its own pre-evolution. More details can be found here.
- When Pokémon Sleep was originally revealed during the May 2019 Business Strategy Announcement, Pikachu was the Character in the Logo. Following years of silence regarding its development, when the game was brought up again on Pokémon Day 2023, the game's logo had been redesigned, replacing Pikachu with Snorlax.
