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Image via The Pokemon Company

Over 20 years later, Pokémon fans discuss the worst rumors for Red and Blue’s wild map

Into the unknown!

Regardless of the Pokémon media, fans will always try to draw conclusions about the wider world from information that isn’t even there. Specifically, when it comes to games, inaccessible areas of every map become points of intrigue where players build a narrative to what might have been included there. 

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With how widespread social media posts, forums, and even content creation surrounding video games have become over the years, a lot of theories around the blank spaces tend to get debunked very quickly.

But that wasn’t the case back when Pokémon Red and Blue were released to the global market in 1996.

Just recently, the main Pokémon Reddit brought up a larger discussion on what rumors, stories, and lies were told surrounding the original Kanto region’s map—highlighting all of the blank areas between the actual accessible locations. 

Two of the most widespread playground stories revolve around an encounterable Mew under the immovable truck just to the right of the S.S. Anne in Vermillion City along with the area behind Bill’s House North of Cerulean containing rare Pokémon such as Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. But the theories go well beyond these known concepts. And once you get closer to the release of Gen II’s Gold and Silver you add the infamous Pikablu to the mix too.

Outside of those classics, there are some that revolve around the anime. A popular one is centered on where Ash Ketchum’s first rival Gary Oak had 10 Gym Badges instead of the usual eight. 

Among those badges were four that are not obtainable in Red and Blue via any method, leaving players to wonder where trainers like Gary would go to get those other Gym’s badges within Kanto. Perhaps in those unmapped and inaccessible zones of the playable region you can find some other Gyms off the main circuit?

There are also some players who were led to believe anime-original towns and content were featured in those blank areas too. Though that obviously ended up being false and many of the locations Ash and his friends visit across every region never end up being featured in the games at all. 

Some lore fanatics point to it just being dense forests, mountains that are too dangerous to trek around, and other smaller towns that don’t have much to offer. Additionally, the actual answer is a dark void that, once entered using cheats to walk through the game’s boundaries, will cause things to act in very strange ways and crash the game.

Related: Pokémon player resets 13,000 times in Legendary triple Shiny hunt

“I love the lore behind this game, as if it is haunted or something. Between the Pikablu, Bill’s garden, Strength on the truck, and other crazy rumors, this game might be the most wild in the series as far as pure community legends go,” Reddit user whimsicalsprites said

“The fact that it is so busted and held together with duct tape is part of the charm and wonder of it all. We’re still finding new ways to break this game decades later. Absolutely phenomenal title in my book.”

Regardless of how you view these old, mostly playground rumors that have all been debunked now, you can’t deny the general impact discussions like this still have on the Pokémon community. 
Even with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, there are conversations about map boundaries and what might come with future DLC with specific areas that look primed to expand Paldea even further.

The unknown will always draw speculation, regardless of how long the franchise has been around and how much we know about the actual data within the game.


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Author
Image of Cale Michael
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.