Discussion of Mew and it's in game origin

So I was reading that Mew was not actually supposed to be in the original games at all, but was secretly put in after the game was already completed, so that being the case, how was it originally supposed to play out? Was it a pokemon that was going to be mentioned in the game and never seen, or was it going to be brought out in gen 2 or what was the actual plan behind that, would anyone happen to know? I'm very interested in it because that would have been weird to have a pokemon mentioned within the game but never seen

Shigeki Morimoto programmed mew into the original games last minute as a Pokemon meant to be basically a Game Freak staff member exclusive. He was not expecting players to glitch there way to being able to encounter mew. Once the secret was out, mew was used as a way to hype up Pokemon and keep the sales going with all the talk of the mystery. Mew has since transformed from a secret into a franchise mascot.

Well, judging from the apocalyptic notes in Cinnabar Mansion, the thing apparently comes from South America.

Gameplay wise, it may have been just some really super secret Pokemon. It already was meant to exist since it appears in the first Pokemon movie, so perhaps the contingency plan was just include Mew in the next generation of Pokemon games along with Togepi, Marill and Ho-Oh. It was just added in at the last minute with no real way of getting it outside of events.

mew_nani said:

Well, judging from the apocalyptic notes in Cinnabar Mansion, the thing apparently comes from South America.

Gameplay wise, it may have been just some really super secret Pokemon. It already was meant to exist since it appears in the first Pokemon movie, so perhaps the contingency plan was just include Mew in the next generation of Pokemon games along with Togepi, Marill and Ho-Oh. It was just added in at the last minute with no real way of getting it outside of events.

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Wait a moment, those notes...if Mew was added last minutes then so were the notes? Or were they a hint at Mew eventually appearing in possible future games.

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire said:

Wait a moment, those notes...if Mew was added last minutes then so were the notes? Or were they a hint at Mew eventually appearing in possible future games.

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Well Bulbapedia mentions in its trivia section for Mew that it was created two weeks before the game was released, but I don't know whether this refers to its insertion or it's being conceptualized. I'm gonna lean with it being conceptualized while the game was being developed, as Mewtwo had to come from somewhere, but was only added in at the last minute. It may have been intended to have been released later on before Shingeki decided to just screw it and stuff Mew in there.

mew_nani said:

Well Bulbapedia mentions in its trivia section for Mew that it was created two weeks before the game was released, but I don't know whether this refers to its insertion or it's being conceptualized. I'm gonna lean with it being conceptualized while the game was being developed, as Mewtwo had to come from somewhere, but was only added in at the last minute. It may have been intended to have been released later on before Shingeki decided to just screw it and stuff Mew in there.

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Which ended up leading to most of the glitches in Gen I as Mew was inserted after the debugging process had been done...
I wonder what would've become of Mew if it hadn't been added into Gen I...kind of wish I had Zinnia's abilities to look into alternate timelines...

I have a feeling that yes, Mew was supposed to be mentioned but not seen

They probably would have had an event in Gold and Silver that allowed you to find Mew on Cinnabar if you had a Celebi take you back in time


...kinda like how the event worked in HGSS

Or perhaps it would've been the reward for completing the PokéDex
It's rather interesting with all the speculation surrounding Mew, all these years later


My favorite being that Ditto are failed Mew clones, since it can only transform and shares the color scheme (Pink normal, blue shiny) and it's stats are basically weaker versions of Mew's; and the only place that you can find Ditto is...Pokémon Mansion

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire said:

Which ended up leading to most of the glitches in Gen I as Mew was inserted after the debugging process had been done...
I wonder what would've become of Mew if it hadn't been added into Gen I...kind of wish I had Zinnia's abilities to look into alternate timelines...

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Pokemon Red and Blue weren't glitchy simply because Mew was put in at the last minute. The entire engine's a mess; just go on ZZAZZ's channel or look up ChickasaurusGL and you'll find glitches on top of glitches that have nothing to do with Mew. The first gen games were programmed by people who weren't all that good at coding, but because most of the glitches were either rare, beneficial, fun to watch or just plain hard to trigger, it wasn't that bad of a problem and the games became incredibly successful. Ironically the excessive glitchiness is part of the reason people still play Pokemon Red and Blue after all these years; you can even program your own minigames or scripts if you know what you're doing.

Back on topic though, it wouldn't have been that much different if Mew simply wasn't put in the game. It would be like Ho-Oh and Togepi; kids would have made up rumors about it being in the game and put up fake cheat codes all over the internet about how to get a Mew (like they were already doing), and the main difference would be you would find a glitch Pokemon in Mew's place instead of an actual Mew. But on the other hand it was Mew that instigated all the research into glitches in Pokemon along with Missingno; everybody wanted a Mew, and the fans weren't gonna stop until they got one. You really can't underestimate a bunch of people with a fixed obsession of getting something both rare and insanely cute.

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire said:

Wait a moment, those notes...if Mew was added last minutes then so were the notes? Or were they a hint at Mew eventually appearing in possible future games.

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That's exactly what I want to know! Because was it supposed to be like the Strange Souvenir of X and Y, where this mysterious pokemon is mentioned but it's never in the game at all, but maybe would be in future games?

Good parallel. I think that Mew may have ended like that, or like Bonsley who was an early cameo in xD Gale of Darkness, and was part of a mini game in a spin off until it's generation proper (which would've been II) came out.

Given that Mew isn't normally findable in the game except through the glitch trick, it could be that Mew was added late into RBY's development. But that is a question for itself as to what they intended for it if it didn't just come up and events didn't exist at the time.

Pendraflare said:

Given that Mew isn't normally findable in the game except through the glitch trick, it could be that Mew was added late into RBY's development. But that is a question for itself as to what they intended for it if it didn't just come up and events didn't exist at the time.

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Well there's no "could be", Shigeki Morimoto actually did and admitted to programming Mew into the game just before it's release, after the debugging and the point where staff were told not to alter anything, so it's a fact it was added late into RBY's development. (technically AFTER RBY's development)

i agree with fil, it's a great explanation for mew's sucess

i agree with fil, it's a great explanation for mew's sucess