Official Timeline confirmed

Started by Borngamer May 9th, 2014 6:31 AM
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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
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moon

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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?
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wakachamo

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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

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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
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Cherrim

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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.


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Pendraflare

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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.
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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!"
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Pinkie-Dawn

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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

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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.

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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!

moon

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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.
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Sopheria

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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
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moon

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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.
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bobandbill

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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'

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acatfrommars

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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
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I have always imagined that, like the Zelda Timeline, there is a split in the path. Lets say that in Black and White, you can't beat N. N learns of his father's true plan, and N stops him as well. N successfully separates the world, meaning humans (and presumably, normal animals) and pokemon inhabit different worlds. Sound familiar? It is because of N's doing that we have the Mystery Dungeon saga! Which order those games go in, I don't know.

SaniOKh

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This more or less confirms what I thought: until ORAS, there were no prequels released since the continuity was completely rebooted after Gen 2.

I never thought that X/Y took place at the same time as B2/W2, though, I thought X/Y took place a few years after B2/W2.

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If it wasn't for the remakes and for B2/W2 taking place at the same time as X/Y, they could pass off the pre-existing pokemon type changes (Fairy, Dark, Steel) as an evolution/metamorphosis within a short time period. Ex. Normal Granbull was getting beat up by Fighting types, so it "evolved" into the Fairy type to resist Fighting.
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I was actually under the impression that continuity didn't really matter in the Pokémon games and, with the obvious exceptions of the relationships between RBY and GSC; and Black/White and Black 2/White 2, it didn't really matter which games's events happened in whatever order.

I mean, honestly, what's the point of having R/S/E take place at the same time as the first generation games when they could easily take place at the same time as the second generation games or even after them.

IMO, it should be something like this:

RBY --> GSC --> RSE --> D/P --> PT --> B/W --> B2/W2 --> X/Y
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I have always imagined that, like the Zelda Timeline, there is a split in the path. Lets say that in Black and White, you can't beat N. N learns of his father's true plan, and N stops him as well. N successfully separates the world, meaning humans (and presumably, normal animals) and pokemon inhabit different worlds. Sound familiar? It is because of N's doing that we have the Mystery Dungeon saga! Which order those games go in, I don't know.
I actually have a great idea for a pair of Pokémon games set in a region I made up that I was going to make be about this exact thing! The only difference was that Cyrus and his Team Galactic was going to be involved as well since he wanted to create/reset (Pearl/Diamond, respectively, right?) a/the new/current universe. This idea also takes advantage of the possibility that there might eventually be another pair of games set in between Generations IV and V in which Team Galactic and Team Plasma have a little get-together which either sets the stage for or aids Team Plasma's efforts in Black and White to separate the human and Pokémon worlds. In either case, the protagonists of such a game set in between Generations IV and V would have to find a way to partially disrupt Team Plasma's plans in such a way that they would result not in the successful, complete split of the Pokémon universe into two universes (one for humans and one for Pokémon) but in a continuum of universes, traversable via the Reverse World (I really wish that it was called the 'Distortion Realm;' now that would be a cool name for it!), with these other two universes as bookends. The earlier protagonists would also have to find a way to send some kind of message to the protagonists of the games that I hope will result out of my game idea such that these latter playable characters will have the information and means to undo the damage done by Cyrus and Ghetsis. Would anybody like to go to or create some other thread where we might go and discuss the possibility/probability of this kind of thing happening?
________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was actually under the impression that continuity didn't really matter in the Pokémon games and, with the obvious exceptions of the relationships between RBY and GSC; and Black/White and Black 2/White 2, it didn't really matter which games's events happened in whatever order.

I mean, honestly, what's the point of having R/S/E take place at the same time as the first generation games when they could easily take place at the same time as the second generation games or even after them.

IMO, it should be something like this:

RBY --> GSC --> RSE --> D/P --> PT --> B/W --> B2/W2 --> X/Y
R/B/Y/FR/LG and R/S/E have to happen at the same time because of how there's an e-mail from Bill to Lanette on the latter's computer in her house on Route 114 in Hoenn, which says the following in the English versions of Ruby and Sapphire…:

Your storage system
offers more convenience than mine.
It has a lot of user friendly features that
make it fun and useful too. It makes me
proud that I played a part in its development.
Here's hoping that you'll continue
research in Storage Systems.
From Bill
…and something else in these games' Japanese versions. G/S/C/HG/SS has to occur slightly before D/P/Pt (that last one is just a director's cut, so it can't have it's own place in the timeline separate from Diamond and Pearl) because of the fact that a news program featuring the point in G/S/C/HG/SS where the protagonist finds the red Gyarados airs at the beginning of D/P/Pt. As for whether Black 2, White 2, X, and Y actually do occur at the same time, has anybody made any headway on confirming that?
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