Don't Expect To See Pikachu's Original Final Evolution In A Pokemon Game

With the sheer number of new Pokemon Game Freak regularly introduces to the series, there are inevitably some that get left on the cutting room floor. We recently got a glimpse at a handful of unused designs from the original Red and Blue versions, but the most shocking cut Pokemon we learned about was one dubbed "Gorochu," which was originally intended to be another evolution for Pikachu after Raichu.

Ultimately, Gorochu was cut from the titles before their release, and Game Freak would go on to introduce a pre-evolution for Pikachu instead in its follow-up games, Gold and Silver. Now that Pikachu back in the limelight thanks to the upcoming Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee for Nintendo Switch, could we see its long-lost evolution Gorochu come back in some form? Not likely, according to Pokemon director Junichi Masuda.

"None of the Pokemon that we worked on, got to a point, and then discarded them have actually ever re-appeared yet, so I would say the chances are low," Masuda explained to GameSpot through an interpreter. According to Masuda, one of the reason Pokemon such as Gorochu end up being cut is that they don't fit into the game world.

"[W]e always have this base criteria at Game Freak of being able to explain why a certain Pokemon is in the world or why it exists in that world, trying to make it feel believable within the fantasy," Masuda said. "And usually the ones that get rejected are Pokemon that we weren't able to justify, I think. Usually there's a reason for why they weren't implemented, and as long as that reason still exists, they probably won't be put in the game.

"We always say Pokemon isn't a 'character game.' It's not a game where it's just the characters, but it's a game that shows this world where these living creatures are existing in a space. That's kind of a slight nuance, but that's what we always try to go for at Game Freak. It's not good enough that they're just cute. They have to have something more to it."

We touched on various other topics during our discussion with Masuda, including why rivals in Pokemon games aren't jerks anymore. You can read our full interview here. Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee release for Nintendo Switch on November 16, alongside a Poke Ball-shaped controller called the Poke Ball Plus. For more, check out our recent hands-on impressions of Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.