Counterparts: Houndour & Houndoom versus Wolfman and Warwolf(Houndour and Houndoom are official art; Wolfman and Warwolf are courtesy of @Raciebeep) The next set of four Pokemon in Period 2b are maybe the ones most obviously designed to be counterparts. The Houdour line and the Wolfman line have similarities that makes it seem as though they were designed together: both are canines, both families have contrasting types (Fire vs Ice), and both have an "evil" sensibility: Houndour and Houndoom are clearly devil dogs, while Wolfman and Warwolf are monstrous, werewolf designs. It's even possible that they might even be wearing the fur of some other Pokemon they killed. Spooky! As an aside, given that Spinarak and Ariados have creepy faces on them and Ariados had a Jack O’Lantern design at one point, it's possible that the three families (Houndour, Wolfman, and Spinarak) were designed as a Halloween trio. Both the families made it into Spaceworld ’97 and that fact, combined with their contrasting typing, suggests to me that these were not counterparts competing for the same Pokedex slot, but instead mirrored counterparts meant to contrast each other, like a Scyther and Pinsir duo. However, by the final, Warwolf and Wolfman were removed, while Houndour and Houndoom made it (though in a very minor role as an almost exclusively post-game Pokemon). Whatever connections the team wanted to make originally with these two, those connections were gone by time the games were finished. ID 388: Deruberu (Devil or Delvil) (Houndour) First, lets take a look at Houndour. This mean mutt was originally named Debiru, which translates pretty directly to Devil (its final name, Deruberu, is just a slight tweak of that). Its motif is pretty clearly based off the idea of a Hellhound. It also has a skeleton motif, and its evolution, Houndoom, accentuates some of its traits to look even more like a devil. Houndour’s interesting because it went through a lot of minor changes over time. For whatever reason, how, it seems that the team wasn't quite sure what to do with this guy. He made it into the final, but barely any trainers have him, and he's only found in one particular place in the post-game. (Two other takes on the Hellhound, the left being a depiction of Cerberus, and the right from Magic: The Gathering) When he was first designed, Houndour was only a Fire-type Pokemon, not the Dark/Fire that it became later. This is strange, given that it and Houndoom's designs are clearly based on ideas that would fit the flavor of Dark types snuggly. It's unclear why it didn't start out as a Dark-Type, but it seems that by Spaceworld ’97, the designers already realized their mistake. Though in the Demo its still pure fire, there's an NPC in Silent Hills who introduces Houndoom by saying, “This is HOUNDOOM! It's a POKéMON of a brand new type!” Given what we know of the future, the NPC must already be referring to Houndoom as a Dark-type even though it wasn't true yet. It’s especially odd that Houndour is a pure Fire-type as late as Spaceworld '97. We know from the existence of Rinrin earlier in the Korean Index (ID #365) that the Dark-type had already been created by the time Houndour was made. Rinrin could have been made out of order and overwrote something in that slot; that's a possibility since Rinrin looks like a Nishida design and most of Pokemon surrounding it are Sugimori designs. It could also be the case that Rinrin and Girafarig weren’t originally designed as Dark Pokemon but the typing was added later, before Spaceworld ’97, but also before the team got around to changing Houndour’s typing. But both of those explanations seem like stretches to me. My guess is that Houndour was a vaguely late addition to the Pokedex and that they hadn’t paid much attention to it before they included it in the demo. The team knew it wouldn't be seen in the demo, so it probably wasn't a huge priority to update its typing in the internal data. This theory's not perfect: the fact that an NPC states to the player that Houndoom was supposed to be Dark-type seems like evidence that they had planned the hounds to be Dark-type much earlier in development, so it's still odd that it was entered into the data as a pure Fire-Type at all. On the other hand, there are indications that Houndour was a pretty rough draft by the time of Spaceworld 97, lending credence to the idea that the team saw it as a low priority. First, take a close look at the SW97 sprites of Houndour and Houndoom. They're really rough. The proportions are all over the place, the mouths are cartoony, and there’s very little perspective in either sprite. They looks like some of the worst Pokemon Green sprites, and honestly a lot like the sketchier sprites in the Korean Index of Pokemon that didn’t even make it to SW97. Honestly, if we didn’t know what Houndour and Houndoom would eventually become, I think these sprites wouldn't stand out as good designs in the Korean Index; rather, they'd probably look a lot like the other rough designs that were removed early on. All of this is to say, I don’t think Houndour was originally sprited by any of the main four designers: it likely was drawn by someone that did minor spritework on Generation I, or maybe by the same mystery designer who gave us a slew of unused designs in Periods 1b, 1e and 2d. Regardless, if this was created by a minor designer, it’s very possible the creator was out of the loop concerning other changes the team was planning for Generation II, including the inclusion of new types like Dark. What I’m trying to say is that Houndour could have been created as a pure Fire Pokemon by someone who didn’t know the Dark-type was available to design for, and it was added into the game under this original idea, before one of the other designers realized it could be a perfect candidate for the Dark type. This is backed up by looking at Houndour’s early moveset, which is notable for what it lacks: Dark moves. By SW’97, Rinrin had Faint Attack, a Dark move (Girafarig didn’t really have a moveset at that point), so there’s really no excuse for Houndour to lack Dark moves, unless it was still working from an outdated moveset made before the decision had been made to change its typing. Houndour does have Bite, but that wasn’t a Dark move yet in Spaceworld ’97; otherwise, it’s moveset pretty much follows what you’d expect from a pure-fire Pokemon: In fact, compare this moveset to Growlithe’s. Another hint that Houndour might have been only minimally worked on by SW97 is how similar these movesets are, suggesting that Houndour’s might have been tweaked from Growlithe’s: It's not perfect: a lot of the similarities could be chalked up to both having staples of Fire-type Pokemon; still these movesets are much more similar than they are to the SW97 movesets of Vulpix, Ponyta, or Honooguma. The main differences between the two are that Growlithe learns its moves a little more slowly than Houndour, and that Houndour has Bonemerang, a move that clearly references the skeleton parts of the dog’s design, while Growlithe has Sacred Fire, a new fire move created for Gen II and given only to Growlithe, Arcanine, Hooh, and Moltres. Another reason why Houndour might have been shifted to a Dark/Fire type was because of this similarity: Generation II really didn’t have room for two fire type doggo Pokemon. After Spaceworld ’97, Houndour and Houndoom got more attention than they had previously. The sprites they started with, which were so rough at first, were touched up multiple times, eventually adding shading, perspective, and more proportionate features. These sprites are more or less in the same poses and give off the same basic personality: my guess is that Sugimori took the sprites from Spaceworld and personally tweaked them, bringing them more in line with the quality of the rest of the sprites. The biggest difference between the early sprites and the final versions is that the Skeleton/Bone theme is subtly downplayed. First, Sugimori removed one rib bone from the back of Houndour, making the bones on its back look less obviously like a ribcage. Then, right before the final, the backsprite lost the spinal column section, again moving it away from a skeleton design. The effect of this on the final is to make Houndour’s inspiration a little less obvious in its design, but it also to make it not quite as dark. This is a continuing theme with the final sprites in Gold: Kyonpan and Norowara were removed, likely for being too scary, Girafarig lost its head for maybe the same reason, and Remoraid and Octillery lost their most obvious design elements in order to make them less objectional. It’s a shame so many sprites got neutered (or removed), but this seems to have been the goal of the team by the end of development. Notably, Houndour (and Houndoom)’s sprites also got significantly revised for Crystal. It seems that, even after launch, Sugimori still wasn’t happy with Houndour’s pose, so it got a slightly different one, one that collectively makes it look a little less flat. Houndoom’s sprite got a complete overhaul, probably based loosely on its original silver sprite. Most importantly, they completely changed their colors: rather than being fiery dogs, both Houndour and Houndoom because purple and black, further making them look more like Dark types and less like Fire types. A Pokemon that started out completely like a rehash of Growlithe by the end of design became significantly more unique. The lesson of Houndour is that sometimes, polish is what makes perfect. The original Houndour and the final Houndour aren’t that much different from each other, but the collective total of the type change, the moveset change, and the sprite revisions made a much stronger Pokemon. A complete overhaul isn’t always needed; sometimes a design gets better with just a few changes. ID 389: HoundoomHoundoom and Houndour were clearly designed in concert. The skeleton motif of Houndour is further accentuated in its adult form, and smaller details, like its open, angry mouth, now lead to a payoff, like Houndoom breathing fire. As a result, most of the things you can see in Houndour’s development are echoed in its evolution, Houndoom. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything left to talk about, however. Houndoom veers a little bit away from the skeleton design to instead embrace the properties of a pop culture devil. It's lost it's skull helmet, but gained devil horns and a pointed tail. But similar to Houndour, you can also see how it’s first sprite is extremely rough, and probably made by the same designer. Sugimori clearly edited the sprite for Houndoom just like he did for Houndour: not drastically redesigning it, and keeping mostly the same pose, but increasing the quality of the sprite, by adding shading, better perspective, and a cleaned up face. Sugimori even added a more devil-like tail to Houndoom, a rare case of the design inspiration being strengthened in the final Gold/Silver sprites and not being deemphasized instead. Also Like Houndour, Houndoom also started as a pure Fire-type Pokemon, though it was clearly meant to be Dark-type by the time Spaceworld ’97 was finished. Although the final sprite actually gained more Devil-like aspects, you can still see how Houndoom's concept was softened by the final if you glance at the Pokedex entries of Houndour and Houndoom. For instance, here’s Houndoom’s Spaceworld ’99 Pokedex entry: “The living embodiment of aggressive instincts, it will not stop fighting even after its opponent has been ripped apart.” “Ripped Apart” is…quite graphic for a Pokemon game, and it makes sense why it was changed. In general, the designers have stated that they don't want to paint any particular Pokemon as purely good or evil, since all could all be your friend. This idea that Houndoom is naturally aggressive contradicts that ideal. So by the final, Houndoom was given Houndour’s draft Pokedex entry, and Houndour was given a much more peaceful one, like so: Houndour (Draft), Houndoom (Final): “If you get burned by the fire it spews from its mouth, the pain from the wound will never go away, no matter how much time passes.” Houndour (Final): “It uses different kinds of cries for when it's contacting others in its pack than when it's chasing down prey.” Overall these are both improvements, and don’t paint either in an evil or malevolent light. The main thing I want to talk about concerning Houndoom is how virtually unused it and Houndour are in the final games. Obviously, the only way to get Houndoom is to evolve Houndour, but Houndour is almost entirely absent. It can only be found on one route in the Kanto section of the map, deep into the post-game and far after where this Pokemon would be useful. In addition, both Houndour and Houndoom are almost entirely unused by trainers as well! In Spaceworld ’99, there was only one appearance of Houndoom in the entire game, in Karen’s elite four team. In the final, one of the Rocket Executive’s was given a single Houndour and a single Houndoom, upping their total appearances to three in the entire game. Why create an entire Pokemon, just to leave it as almost unused content? I’d get it if Houndoom was a legendary or gimmicky Pokemon, but it’s really not. It fits the same niche as Growlithe does in terms of party composition, and Dark-type Pokemon are overall pretty rare in the games. Outside of Houndour and Houndoom, the only options a player has for Dark types before the Elite Four are Murkrow and Umbreon (Crystal added Sneasel to the Ice Path, but originally it was also post-game). Houndour would have added some needed type diversity to the early-to-mid game, making it even more of a headscratcher for why it wasn’t included. Sadly, this is weirdly the case with a lot of the unique and interesting Pokemon developed for Generation II. Misdreavus, the only new Ghost type created for the generation, is only found in the final, post-game dungeon. Not even Morty, the Ghost-type gym leader, owns one! Slugma and Magcargo are also only found in Kanto after the Elite Four, the Larvitar family is only found in the final dungeon, and Pichu can only be attained after the Elite Four, since Pikachus are only found in Kanto. It’s a really weird choice made by the development team, one that continues to bewilder me. Why hide your hard work somewhere where no one would see it? I have a few explanations for this, all centering on the hurried end of development. Misdreavus wasn't finalized until just before the final, having previously been Norowara. It seems pretty clear that it was held off until the end because it was finalized very late in development, and the team may have been mostly or completely done with the main storyline before Misdreavus was finished. Gold and Silver were incredibly rushed, despite having such a long development time (especially at the end of development), so the team may have decided to use the Kanto portion of the game to stick Pokemon that they finished late, just so they didn’t have to rebalance the rest of the game as they put the finishing touches on new Pokemon. Thus, all these Pokemon could have been ones that were considered to be incomplete or on the chopping block, before the team added them at the last second. The explanation fits perfectly for Misdreavus and Larvitar, since they weren’t done until late. It fits Sneasel too, since we know that Sneasel’s design was only changed at the very last month before the game’s release (though your rival, Silver, had Sneasel as his signature Pokemon even before the design was changed). It kind of fits Slugma too. While Magcargo, its evolution, can be found used by many trainers (notably it’s one of Blaine’s signature Pokemon in the Kanto section), Slugma is only wielded by one trainer in the game. We know that Slugma wasn’t properly implemented by the time of the Spaceworld ’99 demo, and so the team may have held back the line because it still needed work. Instead, they used Magcargo, since it was pretty much finalized already, with Slugma only being brought in at the last second to give this Pokémon a pre-evolution. (These Pokemon's appearances just months before the game was released. Slugma and Sneasel's sprites were substantially changed and Larvitar's is only a sketch. Slugma is just named "Pending 10" at this point; Misdreavus' sprites are finalized, but its name is still "Norowara" and still retains the stats for Norowara and Norowara's typing, Ghost/Dark) Houndour and Houndoom are outliers in this pattern: both of them have complete sprites by Spaceworld 1999; they've been in the games since Spaceworld 97, unlike most of these. So if the problem wasn’t that they were unfinished or not ready for use in the game, what was it? It's possible Houndour and Houndoom were almost cut; maybe the team made minimal use of them because they were always expecting Houndour and Houndoom to be replaced for some new design. There were a few other early designs that made it this far but not much further, such as the unused Pinsir and Weepinbell evolutions. Only, because the team was on such a tight schedule, no one ever had the time to cut Houndour or Houndoom and replace them with something else. It might have been dumb luck that we got these hounds and not the monstrosity that was Tsubomitto: Conversely, maybe the team couldn't be bothered to find a habitat in Johto where Houndour fit, and so they dumped it into the end game rather than heavily reworked any of the routes. The only other explanation I can think of is that the team just wasn’t confident in the Dark type and worried it might be overpowered. Misdreavus, until just before release, was Ghost/Dark, and Sneasel was also Dark, so those plus Houndour could have been held until the post-game to avoid them messing up the balance of the game. They may have also have been playing around with the type effectiveness of the Dark type until late in development, and they may have limited Dark types in the main game so that the balance of the games didn’t drastically swing as they changed what they were effective against. Murkrow was never a threat to balance, since it’s a single stage Pokemon with middling stats; Umbreon, the only other choice for a Dark type, couldn’t really be limited to the post-game without limiting Eevee too, and was poison type for a large part of its development anyway. Thus, Houndour and Houndoom may not have been on their way out: they may have been dangerous for the overall balance until the very last polishing of the games. It’s a shame that Houndour and Houndoom as so sidelined, as they’re honestly very clever designs, and fit well into the Pokemon world. Houndoom’s a good idea, even if it seems like the designers didn’t have a lot of confidence in him. ID 390: Urufuman (Wolfman) Urufuman, better translated as “Wolfman,” is the first in a two stage Ice evolutionary line. Both Wolfman and its evolution, “Warwolf,” appeared in Spaceworld ’97, and there’s some evidence that they survived in some form at least through 1998 and maybe into January or February of 1999. After that, they’re gone, though interestingly, their sprites were used as placeholders for newly designed Pokemon. Honestly, these guys are the best. I love them, and while I also like Swinub and Piloswine—which probably didn’t replace so much as filled their niche—I really wish these guys had made it into the final game. Wolfman and Warwolf are obviously based on Werewolves, the mythological creature that transforms into a giant wolf during the full moon. I also think there’s a good chance that these two were inspired by the old saying “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” meaning someone who appears harmless but is actually dangerous under their exterior. Part of me wonders if Wolfman is the reverse: Under that wolf hood, is there a mareep hiding inside? While these two guys didn’t quite make it to the final, many years later, in Generation VII, Pokemon did finally get it's own werewolf: Lycanroc. Let’s talk about the connection between the Houndour/Houndoom and Urufuman/Warurufuu lines. There’s a lot of small things about both Pokemon families that makes it pretty convincing to me they were supposed to be parallels to each, in the same vein as Caterpie/Weedle or Scyther/Pinsir. The first thing to note is how close they are together in the Korean Index; more interesting, however, is that they're also right next to each other in the Spaceworld '97 Pokedex: Houndour and Houndoom are #235 and #236, while Wolfman and Warwolf are #237 and #238. It’s possible because the two families were dumped into the demo at the same time, suggesting that the designers saw them as parallels. I also think it’s significant and suspicious how late they are in the SW97 Pokedex: everything after them is either a legendary creature, an evolution of a Gen I Pokemon, or miscellaneous Pokemon clearly thrown in at the end of the list at the last minute. While Houndour and Wolfman don’t appear to be added into SW97 as late as, say, Togepi or Snubbull, they do seem to have been the last Pokemon added to the Pokedex as part of the standard list, before the team focused on filling in holes and adding in legendaries. The Wolfman line and the Houndour line don’t have the same sprite creator, but they have a very similar Halloween vibe: Houndour is more or less wearing a skeleton costume and even has a skull mask over its head, while Wolfman is literally a mystery Pokemon hiding in a wolf costume. Both take inspiration from common kid’s Halloween costumes, or monsters viewers of 50s and 60s hammer horrors would be familiar with. Their types are also opposite, Houndour being Fire (or Dark/Fire) and Wolfman being Ice; they also evolve at the same level, the oddly high level 35 (Houndour’s evolutionary level would be lowered in the final game to 24). And while their movesets aren’t exactly mirrors, there are similarities between them: While it’s not uncommon for Pokemon in SW’97 to learn moves every seven levels, it is an interesting parallel that both have the same growth pacing. As well, Wolfman has more physical moves than Houndour, and it has Safeguard to protect itself while Houndour lacks any such defensive moves, but both have a fair share of debuffs, and they both learn a weak elemental move (Ember, Powder Snow) and the most powerful one (Flamethrower, Blizzard) at very similar levels. Again, I wouldn’t say these movesets are mirrors of each other by any means, but I do think the Pokemon would function similarly in a battle. As an aside, its interesting that Wolfman knows Fury Swipes, since up until this point, this was a Meowth specific move. In SW97, Rinrin got it too, but it’s a move closely associated with cats. Odd why a wolf would get a cat move. Because of Wolfman’s flavor—a werewolf that may or may not have eaten another Pokemon and used its skin for a hoodie—and its similarities to Houndour, I can’t help but wonder if the Wolfman line was also meant to be Dark type, but that we don’t have a build in which they were changed to Dark. It would make sense, and strengthen the parallels between the two lines. But unfortunately we just don’t have evidence one way or another, except for the existing parallels and that fact that Houndour was mistakenly single-typed, meaning it could have happened twice. The interesting thing about Wolfman and Houndour, of course, is that while both of them are counterparts like the rest of Period 2b, these are the only case in which both counterparts showed up in Spaceworld ’97. So what gives? Like I’ve said at the beginning of this article, it seems like the team thought of these more as a contrasting mirror to each other, especially because Ice and Fire types fill a different niche in the ecosystem of the games. But I wonder if that’s not initially how they were conceived. Like the other counterparts in Period 2b, Houndour and Wolfman were clearly made by different designers, and so the initial directive could have been simply to design an elemental (or Dark type) canine. Once they had two drastically different designs, the team could have decided they worked better as a contrast to each other, or they could have simply decided they liked both designs equally. Given how rough Houndour’s sprite is, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team had initially chosen Wolfman to fit this spot in the Pokedex, and Houndour was the one that was a last minute addition to SW97. Another reason to think that Houndour was the last minute addition: Wolfman and Warwolf two of the very few Spaceworld '97 exclusive Pokemon that have encounter data in Spaceworld '97! Unlike Houndour, which doesn't appear at all in the encounter data, a player could fight and catch Wolfman in the Blue Forest area, a northern snowy town. They'd mostly be encountered at night, with levels in the mid-30s. So the team had clearly put enough love and attention into Wolfman such that it was already integrated into the game. Which is ironic, because of course Houndour and Houndoom made it to the final, but Wolfman did not. Although Wolfman’s name or stats do not appear in any of the data we have after the Korean Index (in May 1998), unlike many of the other deleted Pokemon, Wolfman and Warwolf’s front sprites are still in use by June 1999, as placeholder graphics for Pokemon that didn’t have sprites; in the case of Wolfman, it’s sprite is being used as a stand-in for Pupitar. Pupitar’s whole family is substantially unfinished at that point, and an early sprite of Cyndaquil and Rinrin are being used as the front and back sprites of Larvitar at the same time. But this stand-in Wolfman sprite is interesting because it’s touched up and uses a new palette compared to the SW97 one: Which means that Wolfman made it at least far enough for the team to redo its sprite for the Gameboy Color, even if it didn’t make it much farther than that. It’s a shame; I wonder what could have been with this adorable ‘mon? UPDATE: As a number of commenters have pointed out to me, we might know what became of Wolfman! It could have become Snorunt, in Generation III! It's easy to see the similarities: they have the same little black stubs for hands and feet, they're both wearing something, and their faces are both hidden, with beady eyes visible. Though they have very different theming--Snorunt is based on a Japanese myth about a mischievous spirit--I'm honestly pretty sold that Snorunt may have been a rework of the idea that led to Wolfman. The redesign also follows the main trajectory for a lot of discarded Generation II designs. Snorunt is a significantly less scary, or gruesome, version of the concept, in that it isn't garbed in the hide of another creature, but just a cute reed coat. If the problem with Wolfman was that it was tonally dissonant from the lighthearted designs of Generation II, Snorunt feels like an obvious way to correct that problem. Obviously, another telling feature is that both are Ice type. But Snorunt's moveset also feels a bit suspicious. Comparing the movesets of Wolfman and Snorunt, it's easy to notice they don't share any moves beyond the basic ice moves that would be expected of any ice Pokemon. But look closer and there are some telling similarities. Wolfman learns Safeguard, for instance, an out-of-character defensive move that protects it from status ailments. But Snorunt learns Protect, at a very similar level (Safeguard at level 21, Protect at level 25). In addition, Snorunt has access to Bite and Crunch, which seem odd to me, given that neither Snorunt nor Glalie seem prone to biting things. But those moves would have made perfect sense on a more developed moveset for Wolfman, especially if my hunch is right that Wolfman was being considered for Dark-type. Of course, this theory isn't perfect. For instance, we know from early data from Ruby and Sapphire that Snorunt's early name was "Nozu," or a portmanteau of "Nose" and "Snow"; that name seems to have almost nothing to do with Wolfman's concept, so either Snorunt's final similarities are a coincidence and it once looked way more "Nosey" than it does now, or that name was after it diverged significantly from Wolfman. The other problem is what to do with Glalie, which, honestly, looks nothing like Wolfman or Warwolf. In fact, it looks almost nothing like Snorunt either, suggesting to me that it was a completely different concept tacked on to Snorunt much later. While its pose does have some superficial similarities to Warwolf, Glalie is either proof that the Snorunt line was developed independently from Wolfman, or just that Glalie itself was originally separate and stapled onto Snorunt closer to development. There's no way to be sure about any of this Snorunt/Wolfman speculation, but I do appreciate thinking about it. It makes me sleep easier knowing that something may have come from the cool concept of Wolfman. ID 391: Waaurufu (Warwolf) Wolfman’s evolution is Warwolf. He’s bigger, meaner, and now has some claws, making him look like a dude no one wants to mess with. Like Wolfman, his sprite was updated as they transferred Gold and Silver to the Gameboy Color in early 1999, and his sprite is even more obviously updated than Wolfman’s. Notice the new shading, and how the tufts of fur on his SW97 design are gone. And of course he’s blue, the color of Ice. Wolfman and Warwolf both disappeared from the games after SW97. There's an obvious question to ask: what happened to them? To answer that question, we need to discuss Piloswine, a Pokemon I’m not going to get to talk about in detail until much much later in this project, after we say goodbye to the Korean Index and we start talking about the Pokemon designed after 1998. Long story short though, Piloswine seems to have been created before April of 1999, possibly as early as January or February of that year, maybe even late 1998. Piloswine is a Ice/Ground Pokemon with a ton of fur on its back, hiding its face; it unarguably shares a lot of features with Warwolf. The team initially wasn’t sure what to do with Piloswine, however. It seems like they wanted it to be a two-stage or even three-stage Pokemon, but they weren’t sure whether the sprite they had was a first or second stage evolution. Swinub did not yet have a front sprite by June 1999, and there was even plans for a third stage of Piloswine, which has data relating to it as late as August 1999, when it was ultimately overwritten with Slugma. Up until that point, that third evolution was using Warwolf’s old sprite as a placeholder, even as they changed its typing to Ice/Ground and gave it stats to match Piloswine. It’s important not to make too much of this: after all, Wolfman’s sprite was at one point being used as a stand-in for Pupitar, and there’s no relationship between those two Pokemon. But there is undoubtedly some connection between the Piloswine family and the Warwolf family. The two possibilities are as follows:
My gut leads me to think (2) is more likely to be correct, due in part to how different in concept Piloswine and Wolfman are. Saying that, I think either chain of events is possible, and there’s no doubt that “Ice-type Pokemon with fur covering its face” fits both of these Pokemon equally. In either case, Piloswine probably replaced Wolfman in the Pokedex, and the team probably moved its sprite to serve as a placeholder graphic, while Warwolf’s sprite stayed in place while they worked on Piloswine’s evolution. The replacement of the Warwolf line fits the larger shift in 1999 of dialing down scary or dark designs and replacing them with cuter designs. Whatever you may think of Piloswine, it’s certainly much cuter than Wolfman. As the team tried to make the games fit a specific aesthetic, it makes sense that odder or more outlandish designs, like a mystery Pokemon wearing someone’s pelt, would go by the wayside. It’s a shame, but it’s understandable. Don’t get me wrong; I’m on Team Piloswine, and I’m on record as saying that Piloswine is one of my favorite Pokemon. But I also love Warwolf. I know, logically, that you can’t have both of them in the same game; they cover the same ground too much. But my heart screams out for Warwolf. Counterparts: Bomushikaa versus ID 392 (Bomushikaa art by @Raciebeep) The final two designs in Period 2b are the last two that I’m sure are counterparts, though there is an argument to be made that the next three designs—baby versions of Vulpix, Ponyta, and Goldeen—might have also been initially conceived as counterparts competing for one slot. However, these last two designs are complicated. Without knowing anything about ID 392, its very hard to see what similar design space Bomushikaa, the fire-seal, was sharing with an odd robot bird. Like the rest of Period 2b, the Korean Index here switches back and forth between an unused design and one that made it into Spaceworld ’97, suggesting these two are related, somehow. My hypothesis is that the brief for this slot in the Index was “Unusual typing we didn’t do in Generation I.” That’s clearly Bomushikaa’s selling point, as a Water/Fire Pokemon, and it is one of the most obvious things to do with a sequel like Gold and Silver: give people Pokemon with typings they’d never experienced. I will admit, however, that there’s not a lot of proof of this, and any guesses of ID 392’s typing have to be purely speculative. For these counterparts, I’m going to shake it up a little by discussing Bomushikaa first, even though it comes after ID 392. Because we know more about it, we can establish what’s distinctive about its design. From there, we can draw parallels and see what we can learn about my friend and yours the robot bird. ID 393: Bomushikaa (Colorization of the second sprite was done by @OrangeFrench, and is speculative) Bomushikaa is a seal ahead of its time. Created to be Pokemon’s first Water/Fire type Pokemon, Bomushikaa had a typing that wouldn’t actually appear in the games until Generation VI, years later, with Volcanion. Not only that, but Bomushikaa’s design, as a circus seal, wouldn’t be revisited until Popplio in Generation VII. Everything about Bomushikaa is unique and interesting, and yet it didn’t make it farther than Spaceworld ’97 before it was removed from the games. (I can't help but feel that Bomushikaa is a far better design than the awful, mashed together idea we got for Volcanion, though Popplio is alright) Bomushikaa is obviously based on circus seals, which frequently are depicted with balls that they spin from their nose. It’s a design that doesn’t stray from the animal inspiration very much, but does do something interesting with the ball seals balance. In Bomushikaa’s case, the ball is a fireball! Ready to explode on its enemies! Sure, Bomushikaa has precursors. Seel is, of course, a seal, though it lacks the fireball that defines Bomushikaa. Mr. Mime, likewise, was designed after a circus act, but its design draws from a completely different act, and led to it becoming a more-or-less standard Psychic Pokemon in Generation I. Bomushikaa would fit closely next to both of those, but it has a flare all of its own. Even Bomushikaa’s moveset is interesting. Take a look: Obviously, Bomushikaa is the only Pokemon until Generation VI which naturally learned both Water and Fire moves; in addition, although a lot of other Generation I returnees learn Flame Wheel, the fact that the move creates a “Ring of Fire” makes me think it was originally created as a signature for Bomushikaa, to emphasize the circus aspects of the seal. But look more closely at the movepool. Alongside the fire and water moves, Bomushikaa also learns Smog and Smokescreen. As far as I can tell, Bomushikaa doesn’t have an obvious way of making smoke (maybe throwing its fireball around?). What are those moves doing there? Bomushikaa isn't the only Fire-type Pokemon to learn these two moves, but their inclusion in the moveset suggests an interesting connection. It turns out, Bomushikaa was probably designed specifically as the signature Pokemon for a new trainer class in Generation II: the Firebreather. Firebreathers share Bomushikaa’s circus aesthetic, and in the final game, their signature Pokemon are fire-types and Koffing. Koffing, of course, had Smog as its signature in Generation I, and also knows how to use Smokescreen. So not only does Bomushikaa share a flavor link with Firebreathers, but it also has a moveset extremely reminiscent of what Firebreathers already did with their Pokemon. Bomushikaa might be the first (only?) Pokemon designed around a trainer class? There’s a chance Jugglers in Generation I might have been created to work with Mr. Mime or Voltorbs, and Dragonite might have been designed late enough in Generation I’s development to have been made specifically as Lance’s signature. There’s also the case of our Tanuki friend a few Index slots ago, which I neglected to mention at the time has an uncanny resemblance to the Generation I Burglar trainer class. But outside of those possibilities, creating a Pokemon with a trainer in mind is a unique design inspiration, and one I doubt was repeated often. Bomushikaa is also very unique because it has a post-97 sprite, despite disappearing after Spaceworld ’97. In the Korean Index, Bomushikaa is one of three Pokemon (the others being Elekid and Ho-oh, which we’ve already discussed) to have a unique sprite not found in SW’97. This is odd and not totally explainable, but the most likely possibility for it is that Bomushikaa was still being worked on after Spaceworld ’97, right up until the team’s hiatus in 1998. That means Bomushikaa may have been the very last Pokemon to get tweaks and revisions before the team restarted production in 1999 and scrapped a lot of their earlier work. I will say it’s a shame: the later sprite found in the Korean Index is very good work, and really makes Bomushikaa stand out. There are a million reasons why Bomushikaa may not have made it to 1999. First, it’s very clearly an Animal+ design, and when viewed from that perspective, it seems like an easy place the team could have cut a superfluous Pokemon. Those sorts of designs are often boring and the first on the chopping block. On the other hand, Bomushikaa could have been too weird to really find a home. It’s a single stage Pokemon without an obvious habitat; its unclear which routes you would even encounter Bomushikaa on, and single stage Pokemon are always a hard sell because they can’t grow in the endgame. It could also have been removed because of balance reasons: Water/Fire is a powerful typing combination, and its moveset is extremely good, able to take advantage of both of those types. Or, finally, it could have been abandoned because the team was interested in making new Pokemon when development restarted in 1999 and Bomushikaa just happened to be no one’s favorite. That’s about all we can glean from this lost guy. However, keep this all in mind: what we know about Bomushikaa gives us a few leads to understand what’s going on with ID 392. ID 392: ???Bomushikaa’s counterpart, at a glance, is a mystery. It’s a strange looking bird with a megaphone or a speaker for a mouth; it has weird eyes and very straight wings. There’s a lot going on in its visual design, but nothing that suggests one single inspiration or concept. The most common explanation is that 392 was a very early design for what became Chatot: rather than have a musical note on its head, 392 blares the music out of its speakerphone. Previously, I briefly flirted with the idea that 392 was an early design for Hoothoot; I still don’t really think that’s likely, but there is something about Hoothoot that’s suspicious. In Spaceworld ’97, Hoothoot’s signature move is Megaphone, a move not left in the final that lowers accuracy. Given 392’s visual design, Megaphone seems an obvious shoe-in for its signature; not for Hoothoot, which doesn’t really have anything to do with loud noises present in its design. I do think it’s possible that 392 was included originally instead of Hoothoot, and that Hoothoot’s moveset was leftover from 392. There’s absolutely no evidence for this, but this moveset certainly seems like it’d serve 392 nicely, maybe minus Hypnosis and Moonlight. At first glance, my own personal reading of this sprite was that 392 was a robot bird, inspired by loudspeakers. Partially I think this because of all the straight edges in the design, especially with the way the wings unfurl in the backsprite. The other reason I think this is because of the strange eyes. While those could certainly just be an odd design choice, they look a lot to me like spritework of a loudspeaker grill, made of metal mesh. Thus, 392 might have microphones or speakers in its eyes, and then a megaphone to broadcast what it hears.
That theory, however, doesn’t completely mesh with what we know from Bomushikaa. Obviously, I could be wrong about the counterpart nature of Bomushikaa and 392: the entire theory could be wrong, or these two weren’t very interrelated, or they were a break from the other Pokemon around them, designed around themes. All of that is possible. But take it as a postulate for now that 392 was designed to fill the same niche as Bomushikaa. If we assume that, what could we learn about 392? First, Bomushikaa implies that 392 was also designed with a unique typing, or a typing made up of opposites. That could back up my theory that 392 is a robot speaker, which would imply that it was designed to be Flying/Steel. Except that Skarmory, already designed in the index, was already Flying/Steel. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible, as two different designers could have worked on these two without consulting each other. And Skarmory’s typing could be the reason the team didn’t choose 392 to take up a slot in the Pokedex. But Steel/Flying also doesn’t feel as much like opposites as Water/Fire does. What else could it be? Another very likely candidate for 392’s typing is Flying/Ground. Like Water/Fire, these two are about as opposite types as you can possibly get, and there hadn’t been a Flying/Ground Pokemon yet, though Gligar—designed in 1999, after 392—would eventually fit that typing profile. At first, it’s hard to see how 392 could be ground type, but the more I look at it, the more it makes sense. It’s hard to tell from just a sprite, but I could imagine that 392’s megaphone shook the ground and made earthquakes, giving 392 access to attacks like Magnitude and …Earthquake. Again, there’s no evidence here, but it certainly seems plausible to me. It could also be Flying/Rock, Flying/Bug (those eyes could be compound eyes), or even Flying/Psychic, I suppose, but Flying/Steel and Flying/Ground seem like the most obvious bets. Beyond its typing, Bomushikaa also suggests that 392 could have been designed around a trainer type. Here, though, we come up more or less empty. None of the new trainers introduced in Generation II make an obvious candidate to be 392’s trainer, with the possible exception of the Police Officer. In the final game, Officers only use one Growlithe a piece, and are very boring trainers; if they had a speaker that blares out a Police siren, they’d potentially have a lot more interesting theming. Alas, the Officers don’t exist yet in SW97, so if 392 was designed around this trainer, it hadn’t been implemented, making that whole theory unlikely. That all might sound like a lot of nothing, but we do have at least something to say about 392. First, 392 pretty obviously had a signature move, one that was given to Hoothoot even though it didn’t fit him all that well. Secondly, it could be Normal/Flying and the inspiration for Chatot, but the more likely explanation to me is that 392 was either Flying/Steel or Flying/Ground. And knowing that gives us a hint at its possible moveset. While we don’t have everything, we have a decent outline of what could have been here. It’s also not much of a surprise why it was cut before Spaceworld ’97. As I’ve mentioned before, the Korean Index had way too many bird designs in it; 392 was competing with better bird designs from other places in the index. Secondly, and I think it’s pretty unambiguous: 392 is an inferior, sketchier design to Bomushikaa. Bomushikaa adds a very interesting Pokemon, which a cool design and unquie typing to the new games. A Flying/Ground Pokemon, with an ambiguous sprite, is not nearly as exciting. Anyway, that’s it for Period 2b! Next up, we’re going to talk about the shorter Period 2c, where we delve into the mystery of baby Pokemon!
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AuthorMy name's Aaron George, and I'm both a historian and a fan of Pokemon, especially of development. Reach me at @Asmoranomardic ArchivesCategories |