2024-07-17
No, not Pokémon: Too Much Water
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire launched over two decades ago on the Game Boy Advance, but according to a couple of Pokémon fans, the third-gen titles may have been called something completely different during development.
As highlighted by farore.gba and wobb on social media (thanks, VGC), after looking through data files for the games, they stumbled across the Japanese titles 'è—ãƒãƒ¼ã‚¸ãƒ§ãƒ³' and '朱ãƒãƒ¼ã‚¸ãƒ§ãƒ³' which, when translated, read as 'Indigo Version' and 'Crimson Version' (we should note here that the direct translation of the latter title through Google yields a different result for us - 朱 translates to 'Vermillion').
The posts go on to clarify that the titles may have simply been utilised as placeholders, but it's also entirely possible that they were considered to be the intended names for the third-gen games before Game Freak eventually landed on 'Ruby' and 'Sapphire'.
In a separate post, wobb also reveals that alternative names for Team Aqua and Team Magma were discovered. The words 'マリン団' and 'トンãƒãƒ«å›£' translate to 'Team Marine' and 'Team Tunnel'. We're kinda glad these weren't the final names, to be honest; they just don't make quite as much sense as 'Aqua' and 'Magma'.
Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were well-received entries in the Pokémon franchise and would go on to spawn 3DS remakes in the form of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. We wonder what the remakes would have been called had Game Freak stuck with the earlier titles...
Source: Nintendolife.com
