5th Gen Unova & New York City - Spelling it Out Plainly

Started by SuperTrainStationH December 20th, 2011 7:58 PM
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Seen July 6th, 2013
Posted July 6th, 2013
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After a lot of controversial and heated speculation leading up to the release of Pokémon Black and White as to what part of the world the new region was based upon, it was confirmed to be based on the New York City metropolitan area, and generally not much more research or interest has been spent on that interesting fact, which is still not all that widely known.

Among those who do know, its commonly perceived that only Castelia City is specifically based on New York City, and that the suburban and rural areas of Unova have no bearing on any actual location within the real life region, a perception which seems based on the common association with lower Manhattan as being characteristic of New York City as a whole, when they are actually primeval forests, suburban neighborhoods, and even virtually rural areas to be found there as well.

Speculators arguing in support of Unova being based on New York City rather than Shanghai unknowingly made things tough for themselves by literally zooming their maps in so close on Manhattan, that the characteristic shape of Brooklyn and Queens between the East River and Jamaica Bay (or Undella Bay) to the East was cut off.




Listed within the spoiler cut are some of the major towns and their real life analogs in New York and New Jersey.

Some of these game locations have extensively borrowed from their geographical real life counterparts, others have very little in common besides their location on the map.

Spoiler:


Later, I'll do an update and add all photos of these places for comparison. Some are spot on, some are notably similar, and others have little in common.

I've tried to do this in other formats in the past, but wasn't satisfied that I made something really simple to look at and understand.

Hope this is of interest to you, thanks for checking it out.
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Male
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Posted July 6th, 2013
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Now that I look at it, that's crazy. How did you come across this at first? xD
Well, grew up in the city and looking up books and maps of historical info aobut it since I was four. :P

Plus, there's some things I recognize on site.

For instance, I was first exposed to Nacrene City when Team Rocket was casing it in the anime, I AT ONCE recognized that as being DUMBO, and when they specifically gave exposition about the disused train tracks and old warehouses, I could tell the writers did some first hand research.



And in the first episode of Best Wishes, I could tell just from the location of the airport on the coast and its proxomity to Nuvema Town that arriving by seaplane there actually had a real life basis in the form of Floyd Bennet Field, and the road they took between the airport and Nuvema Town pretty much looks EXACTLY like that, to the point where coincidentally or not, the animators actually show a landmass across the water that corresponds with the Rockaway Peninsula, which can be seen ther in real life, but isn't on the actual map of Unova at all.

The fact that this exact view is the one you get on Wikipedia if you do a search on that real life road again suggests the might have done some simple background research, though I know nothing for sure and it could be coincidental.

Spoiler:


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Melinda

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Wow, that's pretty amazing. Lol.
I used to just think that it was a bit like New York, but this is really good.
I'm convinced.
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interesting analogy, though it still doesn't explain the huge Route 4 desert/ruins that are somehow in the middle of Manhattan now... Show me an expalnation for the desert being there and I'll be completely sold. As of right now I'm only 90% sold.

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Male
Seen July 6th, 2013
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interesting analogy, though it still doesn't explain the huge Route 4 desert/ruins that are somehow in the middle of Manhattan now... Show me an expalnation for the desert being there and I'll be completely sold. As of right now I'm only 90% sold.
The explanation for there being a desert in the middle of "Manhattan" is that it's not Manhattan, its an imaginary land inhabited by cartoon animals with superpowers in a video game which draws some inspiration from New York City.

Kyushu and Hokkaido (which were adapted into Hoenn and Sinnoh) have no deserts in them either. These games aren't supposed to be realistic simulations of the real life locations, this is all about imagination after all.


thats wonderful but since Unova is based on all of New York City boroughs where does the Bronx and Staten Island fit on this?


:t354:TG
Staten Island and the Bronx are completely absent from the game map.

Logically Pokémon League could be speculated to fall in the Bronx, except that in the game map, the League is on the same land mass as Lucanosa Town and Nuvema Town and so forth, so it would have to be situated upon "Queens".

It's ironic because the bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island is even longer than the Golden Gate and would have made the Skyarrow Bridge seem tiny in comparison, plus Staten Island has a lot of primeval forests upon it that would have lent themselves to the game well.

Heck, if you were able to surf slightly further east of Undella Town into the area I added in the map in my sig, Game Freak could have incorporated a 9000 acre wildlife preserve that's not only within NYC limits, but is the only wildlife preserve in the US National Park System, which would seem like a no brainer almost, but the map as seen in game is still pretty awesome.
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Oryx

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The explanation for there being a desert in the middle of "Manhattan" is that it's not Manhattan, its an imaginary land inhabited by cartoon animals with superpowers in a video game which draws some inspiration from New York City.

Kyushu and Hokkaido (which were adapted into Hoenn and Sinnoh) have no deserts in them either. These games aren't supposed to be realistic simulations of the real life locations, this is all about imagination after all.
I approve of this explanation. I'm glad you're not in the "herp twin towers derp" camp.


It's ironic because the bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island is even longer than the Golden Gate and would have made the Skyarrow Bridge seem tiny in comparison, plus Staten Island has a lot of primeval forests upon it that would have lent themselves to the game well.
I would say that it's not so much that the bridge is LONG, but iconic. I mean if Skyarrow was much longer it would just be really annoying and not something you'd ever want to see again, especially since I think you don't have the bike at that point in the game? While there are other bridges in NY, the Golden Gate is the most iconic by far and makes the most sense to be the "main" bridge in the game without others showing it up.


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Mr. Kyurem, are you sure that's yours?

Because I first saw that in a satirical Cracked article written by someone who knew so little about Pokémon that they referred to Team Plasma as "Team Rocket" in the original version before someone corrected them.

Additionally, if this massive desert was supposed to reflect the destruction zone of the World Trade Center, the desert and ANCIENT ruins would be in Castelia City, not explicitly NORTH of Lower Manhattan.
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Do you realize they are specific quotes from Game Freak denying that the desert/meteorite backstory in the games was based on or inspired by the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

On the other hand, the most widely cited source suggesting that it is related to 9/11 is a satirical piece from a humor site with factually incorrect information used to "prove" their tongue-in-cheek points.

That's really all I have to say regarding and conjecture seeking to connect a benign desert location in a children's video game and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in which thousands of people were murdered.
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Yeaah... considering nothing has been said by GameFreak (and according to your post it was denied?) I don't think it's a really good idea to discuss something that is still a sensitive issue to Americans, so if we could move away from the 9/11 theory and come up with some other reasons the desert is there, that'd be great!

On the overall topic though, I did know that Unova = New York but not to that extent, glad you posted! :) I feel like even though all those add up, I think there are more locations and more facts that haven't yet been discovered. Do we know if the Royal Unova and the Battle Subway have any connections to anything?

Also for everyone who isn't entirely sure about this, Unova was actually confirmed to be based on NY by GameFreak.

Sector

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I plan to go to college up in New York in a few years anyway, so I can to pretend I'm with Pokemon when I go around town! LOL. That's actually awesome. Makes me wonder if the other regions were created that way too? Or no? Make since since Black/White is 3D and that's why they took form of choosing to create New York in a way.

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Do we know if the Royal Unova and the Battle Subway have any connections to anything?
The Royal Princess is the closest thing I can think of.

I don't think the Battle Subway is a reference to anything, to be honest.
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I heard there are alot of subways, but don't ask me.
Yes. Yes there are, lol.

My guess on the trains is that it's Grand Central Station.



It's not circular, but it's in the right area (iirc, correct me if I'm wrong) and it's the most well known station probably in the entirety of the US.


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Hey guys!

I got some big news even I didn't expect to find today.

While my assertion that Nacrene City in the games and anime was inspired by DUMBO, Brooklyn, was very sound, reasonable, evidence based speculation, no matter how many direct, nearly incontrovertible ties between Nacrene City and DUMBO I could dig up, I couldn't confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nacrene City is DUMBO.

Until now.

I found an entry in Junichi Masuda's blog which not only proves that Masuda has personally visited DUMBO, but actually has taken photos there, in which he literally calls DUMBO "Nacrene City".

SCREENCAP
Spoiler:


LINK


So, now that we know that Masuda has personally been to DUMBO and that its similarities to Nacrene City as I pointed out above are confirmed to be explcit and factual....

WHO WANTS A VIDEO TOUR?

Yeah, that's right, I actually went to DUMBO myself specifically to film a tour with the Pokémon games and anime in mind.

I'd imbed it here, but I can't get it to work, so a link will have to do.
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vaporeon7

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I did know Unova was based on New York City, but I didn't know some the little facts like this. I did know like Grand Central Station = Battle Subway and Central Park = Entra Link.
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Well, I've got the first round of comparison photographs here. I'll do the rest I plan on doing tomorrow if i find the time.




THE REST ARE IN THIS SPOILER TAG:


Spoiler:












Just a note, Camden Plaza and Brooklyn Bridge Park are in fact directly adjacent the Brooklyn Bridge entrance, as seen in the games.









Also, the main image in the topic post has been updated.
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Ho-Oh

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Hey that's pretty awesome that Masuda said that - and that screenshot really does look like Nacrene. As for the other photographs, I don't really see the similarities other than with Pinwheel Forest (which looks to be right on spot). As for Striaton, it just seems to be coincidental that those houses were there, more than anything (are they actual important buildings...?)
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Hey that's pretty awesome that Masuda said that - and that screenshot really does look like Nacrene. As for the other photographs, I don't really see the similarities other than with Pinwheel Forest (which looks to be right on spot). As for Striaton, it just seems to be coincidental that those houses were there, more than anything (are they actual important buildings...?)
While Nacrene City does borrow heavily and explicitly from the actual location, the funny thing is, those views of Bed-Stuy and Flatbush happen to be the exact views one would get if they were to simply look those neighborhoods up on Wikipedia, which would lend itself to the idea of the creators doing some very basic research as a starting point for the sort of buildings that would be found in those areas.

If I had to go out my way to hunt for these images, I wouldn't have considered it of significance, its the fac that a mere wikipedia search for those neighborhoods turns up these results is the only reason I included them.

My aim isn't to reach for evidence where there isn't any, just to point out possible inspirations and potentially coincidental similarities.
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