I’ve been wondering if Game Freak ever provided a lore explanation for why some evolution methods were retconned in later Pokémon generations. For instance, previously, Eevee couldn’t evolve into Leafeon with a Leaf Stone until Gen 7, despite these stones being around since the first generation. It raises the question about continuity since we have similar cases, like Magneton and Nosepass, where Thunder Stones existed for ages but weren’t usable to evolve these Pokémon until later games. Did Game Freak ever address what the reason for these limitations was?
3 Answers
Honestly, I don’t recall any explicit lore given by Game Freak for these changes. But if you think about it, it does simplify the gameplay experience. And a lot of newer players might not even know Pokémon like Leafeon existed before then!
One idea is that the evolution stones may require specific conditions or preparations that weren’t fully understood in earlier generations. Maybe it’s not just about using the stone; perhaps they needed to be processed or refined in some way that wasn’t available then. By Gen 8, all the stones became easier to use, but in the past, maybe trainers didn’t know the proper way to apply them for certain Pokémon.
I think it’s more about the lore. My headcanon is that professors and scientists in the Pokémon world just hadn’t figured out how some of these evolutions worked yet. So players wouldn’t even think to use the stones on those Pokémon because they assumed it wouldn’t work at all, which explains why some methods only became clear in later generations.
Yeah, exactly! Plus, we can think of it as a part of the game’s lore that reflects the growth of Pokémon research.
That makes sense! It’s kind of like they revealed new findings or discoveries over time. Always interesting to see how the game evolves, right?