Pokémon You Frequently Associate With A Region It Isn't From

bdt2002

bdt2002

Guardian Signs super-fan
is a Pre-Contributor
is a Pre-Contributor
You see this picture of a Skarmory from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire?

:rs/skarmory:

If you were to show this to the average beginner Pokémon fan, there's a good chance you could convince them that Skarmory is, and in my opinion should be, a Pokémon that was released in Generation 3. But of course, as we know, Skarmory is actually from the Johto region originally. You wouldn't think it at first since Steven, a prominent character in the Hoenn region games, flies around the region on one and even says that Steel Wing, a move almost tailor made for Skarmory, is his favorite move. Skarmory is also more readily available in Hoenn than it is in Johto, for the record.

This is just one example of something I've always been fascinated by. There's over 900 Pokémon that have been revealed to us if you take into account Pokémon Legends: Arceus as well as the whole National Dex thing that happened in 2019. They come from so many different types and so many different backgrounds, and perhaps most importantly, so many different regions. With a number of Pokémon this large, there's bound to be some species who you look at and ask yourself "Why wasn't this thing from a different region again?"

Before we dive into any discussion on this subject, I'd like to mention that I have seen other threads bring up this topic in this very forum. Usually I would just post on those older threads and try to revive them instead of making a new thread outright. I chose to go this route because 1. I can't find the older threads, and 2. I actually had some preset criteria that were not present in those threads. Basically, what I mean by that is how there are certain recurring factors in the games and even some of the spin-off titles that frequently prompt me to do exactly what this thread is for. Those criteria for any who are curious include the following, and feel free to use these for your own posts as well.

1. Pokémon that have a specific area in a region named after or inspired by that specific species and/or its evolution line
2. Pokémon whose design inspirations match another region better than its actual home region
3. Pokémon that appear in the wild with better continuity in another region for various reasons (such as Roselia in Sinnoh)

Not sure what else to say here except that this isn't the same idea as another thread (I'll post a link to it when this goes live) here on OI, but I would still like to follow moderator rules about posting similar threads to other ones. As such, feel free to do whatever you want with this one in the case that I'm violating any rules. I'm saying that a lot these days, aren't I...? But other than that... well, happy posting, really. :D
 
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Okay, here's the thing. Usually I don't like to double post, especially on my own threads, but this is pretty important. I realized just in the nick of time why I should have just posted in that other thread instead. The good news is, I found the link for you guys. This thread was made by... I believe it was Yung Dramps (how does this feature work again?) and was uploaded much more recently than I remembered it being. Because of that, I'll be continuing this discussion on that thread, unless of course we all switch over to this one for some reason.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/threa...nt-in-a-generation-besides-their-own.3688438/

My apologies to Yung Dramps and the mods for what I'm going to consider a complete oversight on my end. That one's on me. :blobthumbsup:
 
I'd say Roselia feels it belongs to gen 4 rather than gen 3 and I even used one in Sapphire. It's available in route 117 in RS and inexplicably cut from E. Is it used by many trainers*? I can't remember now but it always felt forgotten in Hoenn. Gen 4 gave it a fully realized evolutionary line with a brilliant final evo and made it readily available throughout Sinnoh.

*Hoenn really should have had a Grass type specialist in the E4 to show off the plethora of interesting Pokemon.
 
Wishy said:
*Hoenn really should have had a Grass type specialist in the E4 to show off the plethora of interesting Pokemon.
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On a separate note, it is shocking that Hoenn never had a Grass boss. You could literally run a six mon Grass monotype team with just Hoenn mons (Sceptile, Ludicolo/Shiftry, Breloom, Roselia, Cacturne, Cradily, Tropius) and still have one left over. In most cases, other than Shiftry and Cacturne, they have unique secondary types as well.

Curious decision, especially considering the tropical theme of Hoenn I thought a Grass boss would've fit in quite well.
 
Wukong said:
On a separate note, it is shocking that Hoenn never had a Grass boss. You could literally run a six mon Grass monotype team with just Hoenn mons (Sceptile, Ludicolo/Shiftry, Breloom, Roselia, Cacturne, Cradily, Tropius) and still have one left over. In most cases, other than Shiftry and Cacturne, they have unique secondary types as well.

Curious decision, especially considering the tropical theme of Hoenn I thought a Grass boss would've fit in quite well.
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Even if you skip Shiftry, Cacturne, and Cradily to avoid overlap with Sidney and Steven, and Sceptile because it's a starter, you could still make a team of 5 unique Pokemon: Ludicolo/Tropius/Roselia/Breloom/Bellossom. Nevermind though, how about an Ice type boss?!
 
Wishy said:
Even if you skip Shiftry, Cacturne, and Cradily to avoid overlap with Sidney and Steven, and Sceptile because it's a starter, you could still make a team of 5 unique Pokemon: Ludicolo/Tropius/Roselia/Breloom/Bellossom. Nevermind though, how about an Ice type boss?!
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I mean...Glacia is E4
There's more new ice mons in Hoenn than Sinnoh, the freaking ice region, what the hell!?
 
Sonikku A said:
I mean...Glacia is E4
There's more new ice mons in Hoenn than Sinnoh, the freaking ice region, what the hell!?
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I really hate to be that guy, but Generation 4 was actually very kind to the Ice-Type as a whole compared to Generation 3, especially if one is willing to discern the introduction of Stealth Rock. Here's the full list of fully evolved Ice-Types added in each region.

Hoenn: Castform (Snowy Form), Glalie, Walrein, Regice
Sinnoh: Abomasnow, Weavile, Glaceon, Mamoswine, Froslass, Arceus-Ice, and technically Rotom-Frost as of Gen 5

Yikes.
 
Wishy said:
I'd say Roselia feels it belongs to gen 4 rather than gen 3 and I even used one in Sapphire. It's available in route 117 in RS and inexplicably cut from E. Is it used by many trainers*? I can't remember now but it always felt forgotten in Hoenn. Gen 4 gave it a fully realized evolutionary line with a brilliant final evo and made it readily available throughout Sinnoh.

*Hoenn really should have had a Grass type specialist in the E4 to show off the plethora of interesting Pokemon.
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Roselia's used by a fair few Aroma Ladies and Pokemon Rangers, but most memorably Wally uses one lol. I wouldn't say it's uncommon in Hoenn but I agree that Gen 4 was defining for it.

Nuclearstomp said:
There's the old "this mon doesn't feel like it's from this Gen" hitting me. It really does seem like a Gen 2 mon lol.
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I thought Chimecho was a Gen 4 mon for a very long time (pre-evo, more common in the wild and on trainers), but I love the idea of a mon giving off vibes for a generation that it literally didn't exist for haha.

I vaguely thought of Octillery as a Gen 4 mon as a kid, since Diamond was the first game I saw it in (used by a Gym Leader no less). Combined with its idiosyncratic evolutionary family it was easy for me to disconnect it from Remoraid, which I always correctly thought of as Gen 2.

Sometimes I get this weird cognitive dissonance where I think of two different sprites of a mon as being different Pokemon entirely, each belonging to their respective gens. Sneasel's a good example: it's very distinctly Gen 2 (one of the heralds of a new type, used by your rival, etc.) but DPPt Sneasel is so visually and functionally different, thanks to lighter coloration, the physical/special split, its increased availability, and the introduction of Weavile, that it also feels like a Gen 4 mon to me.
 
Cobalt Empoleon said:
Roselia's used by a fair few Aroma Ladies and Pokemon Rangers, but most memorably Wally uses one lol. I wouldn't say it's uncommon in Hoenn but I agree that Gen 4 was defining for it.



I thought Chimecho was a Gen 4 mon for a very long time (pre-evo, more common in the wild and on trainers), but I love the idea of a mon giving off vibes for a generation that it literally didn't exist for haha.

I vaguely thought of Octillery as a Gen 4 mon as a kid, since Diamond was the first game I saw it in (used by a Gym Leader no less). Combined with its idiosyncratic evolutionary family it was easy for me to disconnect it from Remoraid, which I always correctly thought of as Gen 2.

Sometimes I get this weird cognitive dissonance where I think of two different sprites of a mon as being different Pokemon entirely, each belonging to their respective gens. Sneasel's a good example: it's very distinctly Gen 2 (one of the heralds of a new type, used by your rival, etc.) but DPPt Sneasel is so visually and functionally different, thanks to lighter coloration, the physical/special split, its increased availability, and the introduction of Weavile, that it also feels like a Gen 4 mon to me.
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Octillery's in an interesting position for me as well. I don't consider it a gen 4 mon like you, but I don't often find myself thinking of it as a gen 2 mon either. I associate the mon primarily with Colosseum and MD Rescue Team, so it ends up being filed under gen 3 despite me knowing full well it isn't in Hoenn. Speaking of Gen 2 two-stage water types I misremember as gen 3, I usually end up thinking of Chinchou and Lanturn as Hoenn mons due to fitting very well into the Dive segments that weren't in Johto.

Look, I started with MD blue, okay? I got introduced to all gen 1-3 pokemon all at the same time.
 
Ironmage said:
Octillery's in an interesting position for me as well. I don't consider it a gen 4 mon like you, but I don't often find myself thinking of it as a gen 2 mon either. I associate the mon primarily with Colosseum and MD Rescue Team, so it ends up being filed under gen 3 despite me knowing full well it isn't in Hoenn. Speaking of Gen 2 two-stage water types I misremember as gen 3, I usually end up thinking of Chinchou and Lanturn as Hoenn mons due to fitting very well into the Dive segments that weren't in Johto.

Look, I started with MD blue, okay? I got introduced to all gen 1-3 pokemon all at the same time.
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Bar Stadium when I was 3, Same
design wise, I feel 1, 3, and parts of 5 work well together. In contrast, a good chunk of 2 and 4 work better together, though some of 2 like TTar, Houndoom, and Skarm work well for Gen 1/3 mons
 
Ironmage said:
Octillery's in an interesting position for me as well. I don't consider it a gen 4 mon like you, but I don't often find myself thinking of it as a gen 2 mon either. I associate the mon primarily with Colosseum and MD Rescue Team, so it ends up being filed under gen 3 despite me knowing full well it isn't in Hoenn. Speaking of Gen 2 two-stage water types I misremember as gen 3, I usually end up thinking of Chinchou and Lanturn as Hoenn mons due to fitting very well into the Dive segments that weren't in Johto.

Look, I started with MD blue, okay? I got introduced to all gen 1-3 pokemon all at the same time.
Click to expand...
As someone who started with Pokémon Ranger's last game (not even the first one, I played those games in backwards order!), I absolutely know what it's like to associate Pokémon with various spinoff titles, as they feel like a sort of bridge between different Pokémon games at times. More specifically, I've spent my entire youth being torn between Gen 4 and Gen 5. Octillery being associated with Gen 3 by this logic actually makes a lot of sense, come to think of it.
 
A very large number of Pokemon I associate with regions they were not from belong to Generations 1 and 2. Mostly I mistakenly associate them with Hoenn or Sinnoh.

For example, I associate Magmar, Electabuzz, and Piloswine with Sinnoh, along with their evolution chains. Additionally, I have this tendency to think of Pokemon Platinum when Red Gyarados comes to mind because of the red Gyarados my friend traded me when I was playing platinum (though said friend had HeartGold).

I often associate Wobbuffet, Skarmory, And even to an extent Kingdra with Hoenn because they were for the most part more prominent in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald than Gold/Silver/Crystal.

Also, strangely, I associate Pikachu and Eevee with Hoenn and Sinnoh instead of Kanto for some strange reason though I never found out why.

Sometimes, I associate Dragonite, Charizard, Dewgong, Porygon, and Snorunt with Platinum Sinnoh even though they debuted earlier. For Snorunt it might be because it was more obviously available but for the others I don't know. (Charizard isn't even caught directly in Platinum, though Lance has a Charizard in G/S/C for his Champion battle even though the player can't catch it in those games without trading with R/B/Y.)

With Reshiram and Zekrom (as well as some other Unova legendary Pokemon), I sometimes mistakenly associate them with Pokemon Platinum (which they don't even exist in), but this is because my fangame based on Platinum includes these Pokemon in its storyline at various points. Same happens with mega evolutions and even to an extent Z-moves.

(Updated to correct a spelling mistake)
 
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