Official Timeline confirmed

[Borngamer]

So the other day Toshinobu Matsumiya, the Lead Dialogue Designer of the Pokemon games, posted an official timeline of the main series on twitter here which more or less confirmed what everyone had speculated for sometime now. Now I don't wanna look a gift horse in the mouth, but I kinda wish he'd have elaborated on some things such as the time gap between the 4th and 5th gen games, how the events of X/Y happened around the same time as B2/W2, and how ORAS is going to affect the timeline. But then again, Twitter might not be the best place for detailed explanations so he'll probably write a blog post about it if he decides to do so.

Thoughts, anyone?

EDIT: A little clarification on the timeline for those not in the know: RBY/RSE -> GSC/DPPt -> BW -> BW2/XY

 

[moon]

I don't really understand what that tweet tells us. That the in-game events happened in the same order as the games came out, basically?

 

[wakachamo]

I don't really understand what that tweet tells us. That the in-game events happened in the same order as the games came out, basically?

RBY/FRLG (赤緑) take place in the same 'time' as R/S/E, then GSC/HGSS (金銀) take place some time later alongside DPPt, followed by BW some time later, followed by BW2+XY some time later

 

[moon]

RBY/FRLG (赤緑) take place in the same 'time' as R/S/E, then GSC/HGSS (金銀) take place some time later alongside DPPt, followed by BW some time later, followed by BW2+XY some time later

Thanks for clearing that up! Yeah, it was already pretty clear that the Johto adventures happened at the same time as the Sinnoh ones, from the TV show on the lake of rage or something that is the very first thing you see in the Sinnoh games.

Cool thing to hear that Kanto/Hoenn happened around the same time and also BW2 and Kalos though. inb4 people start looking even harder for clues about things relating simultaneous adventures to each other :3

 

[Cherrim]

I thought this was confirmed ages ago?? Or at least, they dropped enough hints in the games and remakes up until now that it was obvious where they fit in... except maybe from Gen 5 onwards, so I guess it's nice to have confirmation in that regard.

It's not like the regions affect each other much at all anyway, though, so I've never particularly cared in the slightest when a game took place in the series. Technology seems to be all over the place anyway and each region seems to have a very different set of lore from every other region so I just don't tend to consider them connected at all.

 

[Pendraflare]

Well, we know that in BW, Cynthia tells you that you remind her of the "trainer who faced Giratina", which hints that Platinum is canon prior to them. Then there's BW2. But does that mean the latter (BW2) and XY - the big Team Flare event with Xerneas/Yveltal and the events with Kyurem - go on near the same time?

I myself wouldn't imagine the timelines to be much different from the order the games are released to begin with (not counting remakes), so most of this doesn't surprise me.

 

[Borngamer]

Well, we know that in BW, Cynthia tells you that you remind her of the "trainer who faced Giratina", which hints that Platinum is canon prior to them. Then there's BW2. But does that mean the latter (BW2) and XY - the big Team Flare event with Xerneas/Yveltal and the events with Kyurem - go on near the same time?

I myself wouldn't imagine the timelines to be much different from the order the games are released to begin with (not counting remakes), so most of this doesn't surprise me.

Someone recently asked him about that, in which he only replied with "Secret. Imagine freely!"

 

[Varion Bluefire]

From what I gather it goes like:

RBYFRLG+RSE -> GSCHGSS+DPPT -> BW -> B2W2+XY

Which is somewhat better than having random fan speculations.

 

[Abby]

But if oras are direct remakes.

Gsc+dppt---bw---rby+bw2+xy+rse

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Watch as ORAS screws up the official timeline by being remakes of the original Ruby and Sapphire rather than Emerald and retcon Wallace and Juan's position in the remakes when B2/W2 made it clear that Emerald is the canon Gen 3 story. This is why we should've stopped at HG/SS in order to prevent contradictions to the timeline and why timelines in general are serious business.

 

[bobandbill]

Considering the lack of logic in a lot of Pokémon (Doduo can Fly, you can battle on the sea, etc), any supposed timeline differences due to remakes or 3rd versions are sort of... silly to worry about, imo. Which is more canonical at the moment, X or Y? Neither, they're both just similar versions of each other. Or parallel universes with minor changes, if you will.

At worst, blame it on a wild night had by Celebi and Dialga.

Or at least, they dropped enough hints in the games and remakes up until now that it was obvious where they fit in... except maybe from Gen 5 onwards, so I guess it's nice to have confirmation in that regard.

Gen 5 was hinted to be ~some time~ after HGSS/DPPt, thank to the reappearance of that one Team Rocket grunt in GSC/HGSS in a house (that you could only reach in winter ingame?). Said time period being long enough for him to go to Kalos from Johto, get married and start a family. X&Y I think might have had some indications of being after other games, but can't recall anything concrete. Not too far after FRLG seeing Blue is travelling about, but that's kinda vague.

 

[Alkaiser]

Wait... There is a Pokémon timeline? Really? Since when? So... From what I'm reading the timeline is something like this:

Gen 3/Gen 1 - Gen 2 - Gen 4 - Gen 5 - Gen 5 Sequels/Gen 6

Am I right?

Mmmm... Maybe Gen 7 will tell us what happens in the timeline where Red is defeated by Blue? Just kidding, of course!

 

[-Jared-]

Well, it is really neat to see this confirmed! I always figured it went like this, although I thought XY were quite some time after BW2.

 

[moon]

Wait... There is a Pokémon timeline? Really? Since when? So... From what I'm reading the timeline is something like this:

Gen 3/Gen 1 - Gen 2 - Gen 4 - Gen 5 - Gen 5 Sequels/Gen 6

Am I right?

Mmmm... Maybe Gen 7 will tell us what happens in the timeline where Red is defeated by Blue? Just kidding, of course!

Gen 2 and gen 4 also happen around the same time.

 

[Sopheria]

Interesting! I always assumed that BW came after GSC/DPPt, but I never would have guessed X/Y was contemporaneous with BW2. Although we still don't know how much time there is between BW and GSC/DPPt, I'm glad we've finally got a rough timeline!

This just makes me wonder about OR/AS. How are they going to introduce all the new X/Y features like Mega Evolution and Fairy types? In the games, they talk about them as if they're a recent discovery, so working them into the RSE timeline is going to require quite a bit of retcon.

Perhaps though, like Bobandbill said, they'll do it Star Trek style and have Dialga send somebody from X/Y back in time, and they explain that since the timeline is altered, things will happen differently than they did in the original. That would actually be really awesome :D

 

[moon]

This just makes me wonder about OR/AS. How are they going to introduce all the new X/Y features like Mega Evolution and Fairy types? In the games, they talk about them as if they're a recent discovery, so working them into the RSE timeline is going to require quite a bit of retcon.

Perhaps though, like Bobandbill said, they'll do it Star Trek style and have Dialga send somebody from X/Y back in time, and they explain that since the timeline is altered, things will happen differently than they did in the original. That would actually be really awesome :D

As awesome as the Star Trek idea sounds, I think they'll rather retcon à la HG/SS, where they pretended eggs wasn't a big deal at all as opposed to G/S/C where it was da bomb when Togepi hatched.

 

[bobandbill]

Retconning isn't a new thing for Game Freak either. Just look at Steel/Dark types, and the much more recent Fairy type. 'Whoops Marill was always Water/Fairy didn't you know'

 

[Aeroblast]

This is all starting to become complicated like Zelda, isn't it...

 

[Borngamer]

This is all starting to become complicated like Zelda, isn't it...

Seems like it. It doesn't help that some of the details on the timeline are being kept secret either

 

[acatfrommars]

Okay this is going to sound ridiculous and is obviously not true, but wouldn't it make more sense if the timeline was backwards? Wouldn't it make more sense according to the Pokemon. Think about it, weren't there more animals 200 years ago than there were today? From a Social Darwinist standpoint, the elite survive and the weak don't last. So wouldn't Gen. 1 be the newest and X and Y be the oldest?

However, of course the above theory is preposterous. From the events and characters, of the games we can determine the history. In general it is really hard to tell however. Arceus was the first Pokemon created from an egg but Arceus wasn't introduced until the 5th. generation. Shortly after, the Sinnoh region has been rumored to have been created first with the Spear Pillar. Shortly after, Kyogre and Groudon came into existence, then the Regis.

Mew isn't discovered until many, many years late in Guyana *however with further investigation the Mew population was the first prehistoric Pokemon discovered). Then shortly after Mewtwo is formed which are the two legendary Pokemon for Generation 1. How would it make sense if Generation 1 is the first game, when Arceus was the first Pokemon. Could people maybe have settled in the Kanto region first? Now that is a gray line and murky water. I'm not an expert, but from the games the timeline I believe right now is:

Red/Blue ---> Ruby/Sapphire ----> Gold/Silver -----> Diamond/Pearl -----> Black/Whie ----> Black/White 2 ----? X/Y


In general, here is what I think:

Diamond/Pearl ----> Ruby/Sapphire----> Red/Blue -----> Black/White ---> Black/White 2----> Gold/Silver-----> X/Y

Preposterous, but I like to think outside of the box. xp