New Pokemon leak reveals early monster designs - and ones that never made it

A new leak shows loads of scrapped Pokemon monsters and designs from when developer Game Freak was working on Pokemon Diamond & Pearl for the Nintendo DS.

A documentary called Pokemon Diamond & Pearl: Behind the Scenes DVD - Make All is a behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the fourth generation of Pokemon.

It's claimed the documentary was not intended to be seen by anyone outside of Game Freak but it's understood one fan who's known as neos_tcg managed to purchase a copy which has since been ripped and uploaded to the Internet Archive.

It's also been uploaded on YouTube but it's in Japanese. Pokemon archivist Lewtwo has been analysing what the documentary contains along with key findings.

And the documentary appears to show a number of key Pokemon designs and even details of some monsters that did not make it into the final game.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The designs show a number of early concepts for the evolution lines of starter Pokemon Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup as well as beta versions for Pokemon such as Arceus plus loads more.

There are also some Pokemon drawings that were scrapped entirely, such as a Delibird evolution. The documentary also includes gameplay of Pokemon Diamond & Pearl in different phases of development.

According to Lewtwo, the documentary was largely unknown until a copy popped up on a Japanese auction site. neos_tcg then managed to get their hands on a copy, sharing it with Lewtwo and subsequently with the world.

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl released for Nintendo DS in 2006. They were then remastered into Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl which released on the Nintendo Switch in 2021, 15 year after the originals.

Elsewhere from Indy100:

• Erling Haaland's Pokemon FireRed / LeafGreen squad has everyone saying same thing
• Pokemon Winds and Waves: Everything we know so far

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