Species similar to the Alolan forms have been seen before!

[Smiffy01]

hey guys,

Your probably wondering what the hell am I on about, well basically I recently starting watching Pokemon again from season 1 and I have just finished season 1 yesterday and I am now on season 2 (orange island saga) andI realised we shouldn't be so shocked about those new alolan forms that will be appearing in pokemon sun and moon, the evidence is right in season 2 that pokemon from the Kanto region would have different forms in different climates, its explained in like one of the first few episodes of the orange islands season by professor ivy. The image is from that season.

Professor ivy states that she is researching the regional differences in pokemon physiology, which all makes sense now to me. I know I might be a bit late to the party with this, so my apologies, but I only just noticed after not having watched the orange island league in many years and only just found the connection

 

[Hikamaru]

I remember the Orange Islands having different forms of the Pokemon, like those Vileplume you showed there. I do secretly wonder if Game Freak was watching the Orange Islands all this time when it came to thinking up the Alola Forms.

 

[Smiffy01]

I remember the Orange Islands having different forms of the Pokemon, like those Vileplume you showed there. I do secretly wonder if Game Freak was watching the Orange Islands all this time when it came to thinking up the Alola Forms.

Thats what I was wondering when i heard about these alolan forms to begin with, I can't wait for sun and moon to be released!

 

[KipKipFox]

There was a video uploaded to YouTube about Puka, the blue-eyed Pikachu with psychic powers. The person who uploaded it thought it was very similar to Alolan Raichu.

 

[Themicshan]

They were planning it all along. They just waited for the perfect time to incorporate it to the games. Well, I guess now is the time.

 

[Mister Coffee]

Two things I want to point out. First Shellos and Arbok (in case you guys didn't know, Arbok had an interesting art design where they purposely made Arbok have a different pattern on its neck based on the region it was from), I feel like their initial concepts to look different based on their location was GF's beginning attempts to make pokemon different based on their originating continent.
Second, the Alolan forms take this concept to a whole new level by showing that their regional differences are so significant to the point where they are practically a completely new species of pokemon that even have new typings.

Sure GF has played with this concept in the past, but at this point with how they have implemented these changes, these Alolan forms are essentially completely new pokemon.

 

[Desert Stream~]

I doubt they planned it almost 20 years in advance :p
They are probably looking back, it is the 20th anniversary after all.

 

[Haza]

I feel like it is an idea they've always had and now was the perfect time to implement it, especially since the set up of Alola is so similar to that of the Orange Islands. The inspiration is obvious to me.

 

[Hikamaru]

I feel like it is an idea they've always had and now was the perfect time to implement it, especially since the set up of Alola is so similar to that of the Orange Islands. The inspiration is obvious to me.

You do have a point because I do believe Alola is the Orange Islands in disguise, with the regional forms and island challenges being very similar to what we had in the Orange Islands.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

Well 19/18 (not sure when OI arc first aired in Japan) years since the anime is younger than the games.

However, GF doesn't work on the anime...though they could get inspiration from the other media. There are elements of Pokémon Special (manga) that existed prior to their incorporation into the games.

 

[Hands]

I wonder if this says more about Alola forms being more of a Kanto thing, though, than other regions? oO

Do Gastrodon's east/west forms count as regional differences? I just wonder if this was always a plan but something they never implemented properly before, with Gastodon I think they were maybe testing the waters for location based variants

 

[Hikamaru]

Do Gastrodon's east/west forms count as regional differences? I just wonder if this was always a plan but something they never implemented properly before, with Gastodon I think they were maybe testing the waters for location based variants

Both of Gastrodon's forms exist in Sinnoh, but are based on which side of the region they were encountered in. I do actually believe Gastrodon was an early testing ground for eventually incorporating regional variants, even if Shellos and Gastrodon's forms aren't exactly different depending on region, but rather on which part of the region.

 

[Hands]

Both of Gastrodon's forms exist in Sinnoh, but are based on which side of the region they were encountered in. I do actually believe Gastrodon was an early testing ground for eventually incorporating regional variants, even if Shellos and Gastrodon's forms aren't exactly different depending on region, but rather on which part of the region.

Yeah, I think the idea with Gastrodon was what sea it was from as opposed to what region, which is cool. Maybe we'll see more water pokemon with variations considering how much sea will be in S/M

 

[EmraldFox]

I feel like it is an idea they've always had and now was the perfect time to implement it, especially since the set up of Alola is so similar to that of the Orange Islands. The inspiration is obvious to me.

When I heard about the no gym format for sun and moon it got me thinking the same way. Thre has never been a pokemon saga that wasent based off a game except for the orange islands. Maybe this is the missing game that the series was based off but was put on the back burner for a while and the old developer notes refound and hassed out by gamefreak? Just a theory.

As for the aloa forms would make sense. there is plenty of real life animal species that have differences in different areas of the world like colouring and so forth.

I like the idea of this and am wondering if they are going to implicate this with other generations in the games to come. Would be interesting to see if it is

 

[classiccartoonsftw]

Do fan games count? If yes, then I'd like to mention the Delta Pokemon from Pokemon Insurgence: https://wiki.p-insurgence.com/Delta_Pokémon

That said, I think the Alola forms should've been called Delta forms.