Pokémon Gold & Silver – The Mystery Of The Cut Gym Leaders

A recent leak has unveiled some early Pokémon Gold & Silver builds, revealing some missing or changed gym leaders.

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Pokémon Gold & Silver had one of the most tumultuous developments of its era. The developers had originally intended for them to be the final games in the series, but the exploding popularity of Pokémon Red & Green (and Pokémon Red & Blue in international territories) meant that production had to change gears. As such, Pokémon Gold & Silver were delayed and retooled over the course of several years.

Not much was known about the original plans for Pokémon Gold & Silver until 2018, when a demo of the games that was exhibited at Space World ’97 was leaked online, revealing a drastically different vision for the games. Since then, several more early builds of the games have found their way into the hands of the fans. It seems that the developers had different plans for the eight Gym Leaders of the Johto region, and their designs and line-up changed significantly throughout development.

The Cut Gym Leaders – Enoki, Okera, Blue, & Gama

The line-up of Gym Leaders in the Space World ’97 demo was different than what made it into the final game. There were four Gym Leaders that had never been seen before and three Gym Leaders from the final game that had drastically different designs.

The only cut Gym Leader with a sprite is called Enoki (seen in the picture above). It’s believed that Enoki is an earlier design for Morty, as the Enoki name was seen on some of Ken Sugimori’s sketches.

The other cut Gym Leader that will be familiar to fans is Blue, who would have resided in the Kanto Gym. You might think that Blue refers to the rival character from Pokémon Red & Blue, but his overworld sprite suggests that it’s actually the character we know as Red. Pokémon Gold & Silver was meant to take place across all of Japan, with Kanto being reduced to a single city. It’s possible that Red/Blue winning the championship meant that he became the representative of the entire Kanto region during Gold’s Pokémon journey.

The final two cut Gym Leaders have names, but no trainer data, so most of the information about them is pure speculation. Okera would have been the fifth Gym Leader and it’s speculated that they would have been a Dark-type Gym Leader, as their name is similar to that of a demon from Japanese mythology. Gama would have been the final Gym Leader and it’s speculated that they would have been a Dragon-type Gym Leader. It’s possible that Gama was an early version of Clair.

The Redesigned Gym Leaders – (Falkner, Bugsy, Jasmine, & Clair)

Falkner, Whitney, and Jasmine all appear in the Space World ’97 demo, but their designs are different. Falkner had a longer bandana and pants, but the strangest aspect of his design was the generic bird Pokémon sitting on his shoulder. Bugsy’s design was drastically different, as he sports a more masculine design and an outfit that’s straight out of Saturday Night Fever. Jasmine’s design is similar to her final version, but her hair and outfit are composed of ribbons, unlike the more conservative look she uses in the final version of the game.

Whitney’s name appears in the Space World ’97 demo, but she uses a generic trainer sprite, so it’s unclear if she also had a different design in the early days.

The final version of the Gym Leader line-up appeared in a later build of Pokémon Gold & Silver, but it had one key difference. Clair’s color scheme was red and black instead of blue and black, suggesting that her design was meant to mirror Lance.

The Final Line-Up Of Gym Leaders (Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, Morty, Chuck, Jasmine, Pryce, & Clair)

Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney, and Jasmine all made it into the final version of the game. They were joined by Morty, Chuck, Pryce, and Clair.

All of the Gym leaders were given more impressive sprites in Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver. Pryce sported a brand new outfit in the remakes, going from an elderly version of Ness from EarthBound to a more distinguished suit & scarf combination. It’s possible that the developers thought that an elderly man in shorts was a silly design for an Ice-type trainer who lived in a frozen Gym.

Source: The Cutting Room Floor

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