Collecting Gym badges in the Pokémon series is just what you do, but it wasn't always planned to be this way.
'Did You Know Gaming?' has gone to great lengths to dig up some new information about the popular RPG series - translating 100 pages of the "Japan-only" book 'Game Freak: The Creative Group Rewriting the Rules in the World of Play', written by Game Freak developer Akihito Tomisawa.
Instead of badges, the initial plan for the original Pokémon games was to represent ranks of trainers through coloured belts - similar to martial arts. These belts at one stage were also going to be used as the trainer's Pokémon whips.
"...The development staff decided humans should have 'ranks' as monster trainers. The initial idea was that as the player's Pokémon reached a certain level of strength, they would earn 'belts' like a martial artist."
"Not just white belts and black belts like in Judo, there should be more colours. Well if you can receive a belt, what if you could use it as a training whip? Like a red whip, or a black whip, or a yellow whip."
In the end, the team decided it wanted trainers to develop a closer and "friendlier" connection with Pokémon - like a pet, and so it axed this idea and went with badges.
"...ultimately, it was too cruel to make the player whip their Pokémon, so the idea got scrapped. Their relationship with the player should be friendlier, like a pet owner. So eventually it was decided you'd earn badges [instead]."
Although the belt idea didn't make the cut, whips were still featured in the original game. Red's didn't make it in, but various other trainer sprites in the game still featured whips in the final build.
What are your thoughts about all of this? Tell us down in the comments.
[source youtu.be, via twitter.com]
Comments 44
As if the aspect of capturing and battling Pokemon wasn't already morally suggestive
Team Rocket using whips to train pokemon actually makes sense though.
I don't whip my pokemon, I just let them repeatedly get battered to near death by earthquakes and fireballs.
Spare the whip, spoil the ‘mon
I mean with Team Rocket literally killing Pokémon so it can illegally make money like off the Cubones I don’t think whips should be too big a deal
its not like whips can be used only to harm, they can also be used to bind. in a game like PLA or the Orre games where pokemon will be outright trying to attack humans, it would make sense for whips or belts to be used to hold berserk pokemon back until they chill out kind of like this:
GameFreak: whips are cruel
Also GameFreak : Pokémon is a game where you throw balls at creatures heads and hold them captive!
Yeah, the whips were bad enough in the early anime. No need to make them canon.
Speaking of cruel, Pokemon Snap (N64) had Pester Balls that released noxious fumes on to the Pokemon that would daze them so you could get a better photo. Replaced with fruit in the new one!
@Clyde_Radcliffe Both games had throwable fruit in them. The Pester Balls where replaced with Illumina Orbs.
Yes because stuffing your pokemon in what I can only describe as turning it into digital data across a digital space.
I can't imagine the whip idea made it THAT far.
Whoever decided on badges did very good
Those designs are so fun. And work so well.
It's too cruel though to whip a Pokemon, but sending a grass type to be burnt by 3000 degree flames is cool lol
insert inappropriate whipping joke involving Gardevoir here
It's just funny to me how many trainer sprites in Gen 1 are wielding whips.
What’s worse is that Tweet did not colour coordinate the belts with the badges they were next to…
Whips are oppresive and would have totally been at odds with Pokemon and humans living together peacefully. Yeah, I can appreciate that.
Too bad they removed it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QLzthSkfM
@Kienda the belts are coördinated in the order that you earn them in martial arts, so the belts would have replaced the badge next to them. So the ordering makes perfect sense.
@Expa0 Most of them are easily seen wearing black belts and are a high trainer class. Example Cool Trainer M/F.
@PokemonDMG scratch that, I mean Male/Female
Well, to be fair, most of the characters still holding whips in the earlier days of pokemon were deemed cruel (Sandshrew dude, Sabrina, Team Rocket) or way too hardcore into training (Cooltrainer F/M) or both
I don't know, sometimes you have to crack a whip to get your mon to fight harder...
but eating slowpoke tails isn't?
@Bobb Yes. When I saw a character with a whip then it gave the air of intmidation and villainy (which Sabrina was in the Pokemon Adventure series).
But I am glad that was dropped. This could have been a present day issue if whips were still used today.
@AzzyC The only saving grace for sending a grass type to be burned is the intelligence factor. Pokemon seem to have way more intelligence than our ordinary animals. That's why when you train them it feels like you are training an actual person that wants to compete and battle.
If Pokemon had equal or less intelligence than our regular pets then the whole vibe would definitely feel like animal cruelty.
@Arawn93
The original sprite of the Team Rocket Grunts in Red and Blue, also had a whip, actually.
I guess they don't mean antagonists.
PETA already has had a couple of field days with the Pokemon series. Glad this didn't get in; it would've given them more ammo.
You know what, I think I learned my lesson the other day about the “practical” applications of Pokémon, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut.
Thanks a lot, @Silly_G …
I watched this video when it came out and it's actually a super interesting insight into why badges had the gameplay function they did. It makes sense for there to be a progression gating system, so you can't just trade in a lvl 99 Charizard and trivialize the whole game. And it must have made sense for that progression gating to be tied to an object you actually train the Pokemon with, like a belt or whip. Little badges that sit in a carrying case? Why would Pokemon care about those?
As for the animal cruelty, I think about how horse racing is somehow still a thing, and those get hit by riding crops and get euthanized on the track all the time. Funny enough, GameFreak made a horse racing game too!
Kinda wish they kept it in ngl
So I guess they didn't want to lean in too hard into the slavery aspect? Even though you don't whip them, they're still slaves.
@GrailUK Master?
All that comes to mind is “sandshrew, drill into the ground until it splits!”
Proper nostalgia blast there
Awful idea. How could what became such a FUN game almost be so gross.
I'm fine with whips being used on fictional monsters that are already beating each other to near death on human command.
When a Squirtle comes along
You must whip it
Before the Pichu sits out too long
You must whip it
When something's Pokemon
You must whip it
Wow, you guys are slow! This video was posted over 2 weeks ago!
Shoving them into a tiny ball isn't cruel? lol
It's a video game...the cruelty isn't actually happening...
@OldManHermit WHIP IT GOOD
Where is the guy who still instists that Pokemon was made for kids?
Whipping Pokemon was still friendlier than its obvious inspiration, a little game called Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei.
At least the Pokemon don't get the undignification of being genetically mutated with other Pokemon once it has been declared they have outlived their usefulness to the team.
As awful as it sounds, belts instead of badges make way too much sense once you consider what they do in gameplay.
Whip it! Whip it good!
Castlevania/Pokémon crossover when!?
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