The Secret of Unowns and the Ruins of Alph

[@Lyra]

Thanks to your comments, I am now really looking forward to finding the Regi Pokémon! I played the early parts of Gen 3 but skipped the rest for Gen 4 instead. Apparently, I missed something good, so I can't wait :'D

[@mewblue3997]

Gen 3 has definitely been fan favourites over the years, probably due to the really unique designs and music. Definitely have fun! Also just wanted to say I actually did the Unown Dex to get ?. I found out I couldn't get ? and ! only after catching A-Z over a few hours

[@oromain]

Oh good thing you pinned this. I was going to say something but it sounds like plenty of people have haha.

[@LopsidedMoz]

Gen3 is amazing

[@kheireddineattala1281]

Unown secret is that omanyte is saying L+Ratio (unowns L to R)

[@erickluviano981]

This makes me wanna replay heart gold but I don’t own it or a DS anymore :(

[@implausiblekid7151]

The ruins of alpha had a lot of potential. Even getting a fossil after solving all the puzzles would be better than basically nothing.

[@---oq5kb]

Iirc in hgss you can get the fossils with rock smash in ruins of alph, but you don't even need to unlock unowns.

[@drago952]

Yeah, I think they could have made Tyranitar only obtainable through finding a fossil in the Ruins of Alph after solving the puzzles.

[@kuddlykirara]

Or an unown that is a combination of all unown with vastly increased stats and stronger hidden power kind of attack.

[@Haymdahl]

I thought I'd get Ho-Oh when I did the Ho-Oh puzzle for the first time. I could spell my dissatisfaction when I got absolutely nothing except letters.

[@tsyumamatsuthehavenofguard32]

Honestly I wish we got some kind of foreshadowing to celebi or arceus, hell I'd argue that should have been how you found the azure flute in gen 4

[@yagofazcoisaseuacho8035]

I think the biggest contribution HGSS gave to the Unown lore was the implication that maybe they are Arceus's "thousand arms" mentioned in its Pokédex entry

[@reptilemark7346]

But there's only 26 of them

[@yagofazcoisaseuacho8035]

@@reptilemark7346 26 kinds, not individuals, there are way more than 26 Unowns

[@dood3530]

I remember being so intrigued yet so disappointed by this as a kid. The secret radio channel really spooked me, and seeing the message "ESCAPE" made me think there was something dangerous about the ruins. But then you reach the end, and the game hardly tells you anything.

[@RyanJW001]

I recall there being some pretty weird shit in the Sevii Islands in FRLG that went a whole lot of nowhere, too. Six Island in particular features the altering cave, quite a distance from the town. There's only Zubats in there and nothing else. Supposedly it was meant to be utilized in conjunction with mystery gift, but no event for that ever happened, leaving you with just some empty cave with filled with the most annoying cave dwelling pokemon in existence.

[@funninoriginal6054]

@@RyanJW001 Yeah, the Sevii islands were FULL of Unown ruins and stuff, which honestly made me apreciate them a lot. Sadly the ruins are fucking useles lmao

[@lifeunderthestarstv]

Imagine watching a video that tells you the ending as the click bait LOL.

[@bigbadgammagnome]

@@lifeunderthestarstv better than it pretending there is something cool when there isn't

[@JuntosXlaLibertadMileyBuIIrich]

@@RyanJW001 i think it only worked in japan

[@GallantBlade475]

The puzzles in the Ruins of Alph very much feel like a predecessor to the puzzles to get the Regi trio in gen 3.

[@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis]

Yes! And that would be the "other place in the series that uses Moves in a non-standard way and makes the Player think outside the box", giving more enjoyment to Lyra!

[@bconfessor]

I thought the same, the whole Braille parts in RSE are another example of "using items outside their normal use" (and completely ignoring Oak's words of "this isn't the time to use that!")

[@thebigbean8783]

Weird. I wonder why

[@TraxisOnTheLines]

This was my thought when he said "no other stuff like this exists", and then I remember needing a level 40 Wailord in a specific spot in my party

[@CyanicCore]

And both turned out a little awkard

[@nicklewry3854]

Weird, obscure stuff like this is probably bad game design by modern standards, but it evoked such a sense of mythos and mystery and intrigue in me as a kid that I can’t help but love it. Just the idea that there could be more to the mystery, it gets the imagination going! I think the meta element of truly not knowing if the ‘subplot’ is going to be fleshed out adds a lot

[@kenclarke5966]

It's about the notes the game didn't play

[@dan5974]

The space world demo showing that the ruins of alphs were originally where Hiroshima is on the Japan definitely is an allegory for death of countless people by the USA. The unknown represent the victims. The “unknown” victims of them. The original wall decorations featured portraits of men and woman like the victims whose shadows are permanently etched into the ground due to the blast. The wall decorations also featured fire, wind, whirlpools. The natural and unnatural disasters associated after a nuclear explosion. The unknown radio mimics the post-blast silence with the occasional frequency breaks of cries and screams. Some Pokémon are real people (Yamask) and unknown are the souls of the people who died coming back. Ho-oh is there because it could have resurrected them. Like how it did with the legendary dogs. The 3rd Pokémon movie had unknown which were related to that girls mother. The original design had a tower which had been destroyed with a few houses now. Reflecting that people had returned by the memorials to the event were always going to be kept.

[@MissJoy16]

Sounds similar to why "P.T" is still so famous and popular these days

[@quintonfloyd7862]

Lol Yeah, it was pretty exciting to think there might be some crazy secret to unlock. And then dozens to hundreds of hours in countless replays later you still haven't gotten anywhere, then find out it was all just a waste of time.

[@Ehal256]

If it invoked mystery and was interesting to people who played it, it was not bad game design.

[@kennytheamazing]

I still remember the playground rumour where if you spelled "CELEBI" in your party with unowns, it would unlock the celebi event in gen2.

[@Brahvim]

Funny how it could've be an actual thing they could've implemented.

[@TheNakedRamen]

Bruh you just took me back 20 years with that. 😂😂😂😂

[@keoponp8121]

Gen 4, I heard you can find “the eye of Darkrai” and follow it to the island for the Darkrai event😂

[@censoredterminalautism4073]

That place drove me crazy as a kid. Even after catching all the Unown, I was convinced that there had to be SOMETHING that I hadn't found yet.

[@Lill0fD]

I was one of the kids that got all the Unown and saw the disappointing reward. No, did not have a Gameboy Printer... nor did this feature make me want to get one. I wanted some cool lore and thought Unown were going to lead me to something ancient and wonderful. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of games that gave me that sense of wonder I had. Like, I didn't want it to be main plot or anything, I liked it was this... side thing. Like, you have to go out and find this ancient legend. It's one thing I don't like about modern Pokemon games, where they started forcing the encounter with the box legendary.

Me too. After Crystal I even wondered about the "statue outside". At that time we got most of the info in dedicated magazines, wich, a lot of times helped spread those rumors more than informed us. So its cool to see the mistery fully solved after all these years.

[@bigkippa]

When I first played HG/SS, I thought completing all the puzzles and getting all the way through the ruins would give me some way to get Celebi. It’s such missed potential, and the fact that they hide cool possibilities like that mostly behind time locked events really sucks and disappoints me to this day, as they continue to do Mythicals in that same way over and over.

[@steamsleeper]

What??? You’re forced to fight box legendary in every mainline Pokémon game since GSC

[@Crow0567]

@@steamsleeper i think it's more an issue of being forced to catch it

[@Lill0fD]

@@steamsleeper Okay, maybe my definition of modern was a bit more broad than I thought when writing that XD Though, if I recall, it was only Crystal that had the forced encounter in Gen 2.

[@AlmostCoolGuys]

This channel is like the helpful assistant to tie up loose ends. Things I wasn't able to get to growing up this channel has been showing me what happens. Thank you

[@frownyclowny6955]

Yeah, I didn’t even know you could catch Natu and Smeargle there! I thought it was just Geodude or smth!

[@AlmostCoolGuys]

@@frownyclowny6955 I know the feelin. When I first discovered that patch of grass 8 year old me was ecstatic! This channel is great

[@frownyclowny6955]

@@AlmostCoolGuys tbh I just used that grass spot in the remakes to catch geodude so that I could catch Dunsparce in Dark Cave (was Nuzlocking and Dunsparce is my favorite Pokémon)

[@AlmostCoolGuys]

@@frownyclowny6955 that's super hardcore. I found it by complete accident

[@frownyclowny6955]

@@AlmostCoolGuys not hardcore, just strategic, but your memory with Dunsparce is funner

[@FaeRhanX]

These ruins were an enormous red hering for me. I solved all puzzles and got the 26 forms, but the unknown dex has one space left for a 27th one, so the 26 forms and the printer stuff can't be it, right? And that one scientist guy even still wondered how many Pokémon are inside these ruins even after catching all of them. As a maybe 12yo child I wasted a ridiculous amount of time inside these ruins, days, nights, different week days, middays, midnights, whatever, checking every little patch of these ruins while listening hours to the radio for the smallest hint and just to find nothing. I wrote down every single word mentioned in these ruins and wasted a lot of braincells to find any clue when combining all of them. And everything twice in both Silver and then Crystal because the Crystal additions misled me again that now I must be able to find something. I expected something epic like some legendary or whatever, but all I got was one shiny smeargle. I guess this is the one place in any game where I wasted the largest amount of my life to achieve nothing.

[@thefalsehero]

You didn't waste your time, nor did you fail to achieve your goal. You sought to find the truth behind the lingering mystery, and you succeeded--it was nothing. It may not have been the answer you wanted, but it was what you were searching for. How many others have the dedication to so thoroughly explore a single point so exhaustively?

[@dan5974]

The space world demo showing that the ruins of alphs were originally where Hiroshima is on the Japan definitely is an allegory for death of countless people by the USA. The unknown represent the victims. The “unknown” victims of them. The original wall decorations featured portraits of men and woman like the victims whose shadows are permanently etched into the ground due to the blast. The wall decorations also featured fire, wind, whirlpools. The natural and unnatural disasters associated after a nuclear explosion. The unknown radio mimics the post-blast silence with the occasional frequency breaks of cries and screams. Some Pokémon are real people (Yamask) and unknown are the souls of the people who died coming back. Ho-oh is there because it could have resurrected them. Like how it did with the legendary dogs. The 3rd Pokémon movie had unknown which were related to that girls mother. The original design had a tower which had been destroyed with a few houses now. Reflecting that people had returned by the memorials to the event were always going to be kept.

[@Known_as_The_Ghost]

My guy literally became a "Ruin Maniac" pokemon trainer.

[@jamiedarnell7427]

I thought one version/gen had ? and/or ! as an Unknown?

[@aceae4210]

@@jamiedarnell7427 it was noted near the end of this video that they were added in gen 3 and were not in gen 2 (crystal or otherwise)

[@Infindox]

Fun fact: the Sinjho Ruins event can be done twice on a save file, if you have two different Arceus. (This usually works with the TRU one and the Hall of Orgins Arceus, which was unreleased but you can use a fan server to get events). Second time around has small differences since Cynthia is no longer there, and you can pick one of the other two legendaries (sadly one gets left behind!)

[@YukeWeiss]

I did this pretty recently (well a year ago)! So weird to see they programmed that in.

[@liamdell6319]

As long as one of the ones you pick is Giratina, since that's the only way the get a Griseous Orb in HG/SS.

[@---oq5kb]

I still find it weird that they stopped doing third versions that allow you to get all 3 trio members at once. Especially if you are doing a living dex, that just feels incomplete.

[@Theloster]

@@---oq5kb But you''ll always need to trade in order to get the 2 starters that you didnt pick and Pokemon that evolve via trade.

[@ProfessorRex]

Can you not also use either of the MICHINA event Arceus to trigger it a third time?

[@boks93]

Concerning 6:59 : In RSE you also have to do strange things like this to get the Regis unlocked. Like using Fly in the middle of the ruin or just standing still for one minute and such. I also think it is an amazing way of opening new areas to the player. Feels really adventurous

[@reaperzeero]

In Fire Red and Leaf Green there are similar puzzles in the post-game (Sevii Islands) that use HM moves outside of battle to trigger doors and such. This video was not that well researched.

[@Ohmnis]

I’m always noticing this kind of stuff in his videos. 😬

[@Mortuus101]

@@Ohmnis Yeah, let's F him up!!!

[@brbupdatingtheautopsyrepor8955]

Another example is the Abyssal Ruins from gen 5 which operate similarly

[@abeldeincognito]

I remember discovering that as a kid with my friends. It blew our minds and I still remember how excited we were

[@CharemTheShadox]

Unowns always felt like a really cool idea that never got finished. They suck as individual Pokemon for viability, but there's so much seemingly to them...despite that never being fleshed out very far. Maybe they had plans to continue their thing in later gens, but it didn't really happen. One thing I've always found interesting (and never hear anyone talk about) is Gen 5's Sigilyph. To me, it always had Unown vibes (especially its single-eyed 'head' but also its 'E- arms') and looked like some form of evolution to them, despite not ever being directly related. Their name being related to sigils is also intriguing, as sigils often incorporate alphabets into them. Sigilyph and Unown are also both indicated as ancient beings by their dex entries, and populate ruins. Frankly, when Gen 5 came out I expected Sigilyph to unlock another part of the Unown mystery, and yet...nothing was added. It just seems to be an independent Pokemon, even though...I think it's far too intriguing for that. I really feel like we all missed out on some larger story about these creatures. Like a bunch of stuff was cut from development, maybe because it was determined to be focusing too much on certain Pokemon.

[@paperip1996]

When Zygarde Cells were a thing in gen 7, one of my first thoughts was "oh, I wonder if this was the original plan for unown". They're often depicted as immensely powerful when working in groups, and I had always hoped the games would do something to try to integrate that lore into gameplay.

[@CharemTheShadox]

@@paperip1996 Oh, that's a neat theory too. I didn't think about that possible connection, though granted that's one of the gens I unfortunately missed.

[@TheLudicrousLuv]

When i saw sigilyph when i was way younger i used to think it was an unown evolution

[@Mordaedil]

For years and years I've been hoping there was something more to it, I was hoping so bad as a kid that dataminers would one day find some secret that was locked from us normal people's way of reaching, but it was always nothing. It is a bit too real in how it disappoints.

[@islandboy9381]

With the Pokemon Crystal intro and the way Unowns gathered around in the Arceus event to teleport to the Sinjoh Ruins it feels like the original idea was to catch all Unowns to combine them to find another legendary via teleportation and the lore would be that this ancient civilization used Unowns as tools to travel around in space ect. but that was all scrapped.

[@Jackpkmn]

I caught an unknown K in my first playthrough of silver when i was a kid. I remembered playing with magikarp in red so i kept it and trained it and used it. Kept thinking to myself it must learn something else eventually right? Tried every TM on it as i found them. I eventually gave up on it before the 8th gym. I wish there was a way to recapture that magic, the magic that not understanding how the world works brings.

[@anlev11]

Yeah, in modern pokemon games everything is known for the player, and even if you dont know something you can just check on internet and see every single secret of the game

[@Kahtisemo]

My first one was a J and I took it all the way to the League. I remember as a kid wondering the same thing and couldn't figure out why Hidden Power was only super effective in some battles but not others.

[@LazurBeemz]

idk, I'm glad that these days I can just look up if the shitmon I caught is actually going to do anything cool or not, so I can avoid wasting my time and frustration.

[@TheGhostFart]

@@LazurBeemz variety is the spice of life in irl and in games, you should give the garbagemons a try.

[@craniifer]

@@LazurBeemz I personally love to go in blind. Sometimes it's a pleasant surprise.

[@Muchenaft]

I'm not a fan of unowns, but I do like the ruins of alph. It's just a random place, not linked to the story of the game, making it just "exploration", which is nice, and also you have little puzzles to complete. It feel like a little change in tone, with no pressure to do it, and I'm sad we don't find more of those kind of places anymore in the games. The Regi puzzle in Gen 3 was really good too, while maybe too cryptic.. I also liked the sandy ruins in BW.

[@Lyra]

I agree, I love the Ruins of Alph for that reason. Being able to explore the place whenever you want and have a self-contained area with little relation to the outside plot provides a really cool change of pace.

[@NanoGamingGamer]

But it's not just a random place. In the lore it's because of radio signals. If there were no ruins then the Unowns would appear everywhere. My source is that the scientist literally says the ruins were created to contain them. Time travel is confirmed in the series. Whoever built the ruins knew about the radio signals from the future, or perhaps civilization already had the technology before being lost. That is the secret.

[@user-xu1ce4ri4h]

Jotho has lots of areas like that and I love it. Kanto makes you enter pretty much every cave (beside mewto's hidy hole) but in Jotho, a lot of them are optional. You never really need to go to the ruins of alph, the section of union cave Lapras chills in, the dark dunsparce cave, the one where you get the tyrogue etc. There's so much additional stuff to do if you abandon the main plotline and go exploring. Modern Pokémon games are pretty much the opposite.

[@Muchenaft]

Nano : Sorry I didn't use the right word. I just mean it is not linked to the main story of the game and not mandatory. Furthermore when i played silver when i was like 7, I dont remember a lot of lore even if it was maybe there x) S : Yes! A lot of stuff is just exploration for the ones that want to explore! It's nice for curious people, and it feels rewarding when you find a nice object or a pokemon like laplass. And I had no soluce at this time so I found that pokemon by chance.

[@lqa77]

@@user-xu1ce4ri4h unknown dungeon and seafoam and digletts cave are all optional in rby. Plus the team rocket hideout red/blue :p

[@iss2075]

I couldn't stop laughing at that Arceus cutscene. That can NOT be real! I don't know why I found it so funny. I think it's just the little Arceus sprite with the realistic photo images in the background and all the geometric shapes, the contrast between it all and the non-sensical nature of it had me cackling.

[@LechuKawaii]

It kinda looks like a shitpost

[@Lyra]

The ending always make me laugh so hard. I love this event so much!

[@---oq5kb]

You are a 10 year old kid carrying God behind you, there's no logic left for the sinjoh ruins.

[@UltraAryan10]

I laughed so hard when I saw that for the first time lol. Everything else about the event is so normal expect that cutscene.

[@pannekook2000]

gives me weird lsd dream emulator vibes

[@diegocosta493]

We should stop and think about Pokemon G/S beta ROMs too. Those games were pretty different to the final game, but Unowns still exist on them However, there are no Ruins or Alph or anything, but it already existed some sort of ruins, where the Unowns were important too. The interesting point is that the beta G/S map was based on all the island of Japan, and those ruins, were located in Hiroshima. Those ruins had some human silhouettes, similar to the ones that the bomb of Hiroshima left with some citizens. But that's not all, the Unown radio makes a noise similar to those made by radioactivity detectors. Another interesting thing, is that you have some war references in those beta games. A scrapped sprite of a soldier trainer, LT Surge itself, and Remoraid (a gun) Octillery (a tank) and Mantine (a war plane, being the Remoraid in the sprite like a dropped bomb) In the main games, Ho-Oh revives Raikou Entei and Suicune after dying in the fire. Maybe Ho-Oh could revive those war victims in the form of Unown, existing in those ruins located in the "Hiroshima" Part of the beta games. Of course nothing is confirmed, and it's just another crazy theory of that mystery place left in beta games, and only those who worked in the game knows the truth, but it's interesting and intriguing why did they made such a mystery place in their games. I think that Unowns were more important in first place, but due to the lack of time, they scrapped their ideas and we finally have a poor reward for completing the Unown Dex. If you read everything, thank you for your time, and sorry for all the mistakes I made. Cheers ✌🏽

[@frickinfrick8488]

I didn’t know about the connections to Hiroshima in some beta builds that’s fascinating

[@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis]

I wonder what Raikou Entei and Suicune are supposed to mean in this context. Did any important Japanese Tower burnt down during WWII?

[@wallisbudge4022]

That's a very interesting theory! Considering how people speculate that the Regis represent the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, I wonder if the developers used the Regi trio to reference the hibakusha in Gen III because their original attempt to implement the same concept in Gen II failed like you said. In that case, it would make sense that not much came out of the Unown mystery in following Gens, since their niche of being a reference to nuclear bombings was already filled in by the Regis (and said reference was even expanded upon with the addition of Regigigas in Gen IV). In this context, giving the Unowns and the Ruins more focus than they'd already received would have been redundant. A pity either way, both Ho-oh's resurrection ability and the Unown themselves were cool ideas with tons of wasted potential.

[@ZombieBarioth]

It probably wasn't time, they probably scrapped a lot of it because it was a bit heavy for a kids game, plus the anime would have to tie in somehow. The Unknown being born from human spirits would actually explain why they chatter in the anime, they even sound sort of like children. It might not even be ho-oh that revived them, the radioactive sound could mean the ruins were used as a burial site. As you complete the puzzles your waking them up and what we're hearing is their energy. Maybe originally they were the key to finding the legendary Pokemon. Could be what Entei in the 3rd movie was based on before it and the liondog from the beta were scrapped, and the idea was later revived for the Arceus event.

[@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis]

@@ZombieBarioth I'd just like to point out that the concept of food chain used to exist since the beginning with some entries mentioning one Pokémon eating another like Pidgeotto and Caterpie, that the anime plays with. Ash becomes a spirit when he interacts with Haunter and that's just the first season/generation too. Additionally, Yamask exists.

[@beanburrito4405]

Something interesting to think about: it might be obvious to us English speakers that Unown are characters, but imagine a Japanese kid trying to figure out how Unown work. I imagine that Unown were much more of a mystery for Japanese kids, and other kids speaking languages that don’t use the Latin script, than they were for us

[@astral_haze]

i have noticed in the show unown are used to write japanese so that makes me wonder if the same was done in the games in japan im not sure if it was so in the 90s but to my knowledge japanese people have much more familiarity with latin script and english than americans with other languages and scripts, and foreign words seem to be used a decent amount as a novelty so i think at least it would've been easier than the other way around since the average american probably wouldn't be able to identify which is which between japanese, korean and chinese writing

[@HonkTheMusic]

I mean, even the Japanese box art for the original Pokemon games says "game boy" in English, and often times franchise names are just japan-ified English names (a game called "soul synchrony" could be called "soru shinkurani" in Japan). I don't think the letters are too foreign for japanese players, but maybe the really young players were confused. That's my two cents. Most first world countries are at least familiar with our letters, and I imagine almost everyone in countries like Japan is at least knowledgeable that these letters are English/Western

[@msthecommentator2863]

Would explain why they bumped it up to Braille for gen 3's legendary ruins 😂

[@unixtreme]

Dude kids here learn these characters before learning kanji. They are as familiar with the alphabet as you are.

[@unixtreme]

@@astral_haze yeah, here kids learn the alphabet at the same age as in the west.

[@azuraracon6406]

An interesting bit that kind of got lost in translation in gen 2; the Unown only began to manifest after the construction of the Radio Tower (and the global trade center in the japanese version with the Mobile adapter) They basically exist because humans began transmitting their communication through the air Which is likely why they exist in mainline Sinnoh as well, and why Sinnoh and Johto share a cultural site like they do; Gen 4 being on the Nintendo DS meant wireless communication happened right out of the box

[@Aeon1989]

I remember a rumor back in the day that if you caught all 26 Unown, you'd get a static encounter with Entei in Crystal. Most likely these came from the connection with the two in the 3rd Movie since that was released before Crystal.

[@norskrom]

I remember catching all of them as a kid. The "statue outside" line had me examiningevery statue/trying to catch unown on the tile directly below them.

[@InvertedGigachad]

I had that sense of mystery when I was playing B/W as a kid. There were those underwater ruins where you could dive in and search for antiquities to sell them. On my schoolyard there were rumors that if you found the right way in this maze you could encounter and catch Kyogre. In hindsight this was of course not true but I love how this shaped my experience with Pokemon and how it remains in my memory till this day

[@znub206]

Haha. I had an exact similar experience in BW. Those games had so much mystery in them. I’m so glad I was a kid when they released. They are possibly my favourite pokemon games ever made because of all the knacks in them.

[@LeviathanRX]

I still have a place in my heart for these dumb little things. I used one in Pearl and even had it on my Elite 4 team. Tenacious D the "D" Unown, a psychic pokemon with levitate and ghost type hidden power, it was somehow hilariously useful. Still in my Hall of Fame to this day.

[@givemysundaeback]

This is not the best hidden power in the world.... this is just a tribute

[@QuantemDeconstructor]

I had a lucky Unown W with Hidden Power Ice save my Crystal nuzlocke once

[@MrPSaun]

Seeing as how the location for beta Ruins of the Alph corresponds to Izumo, the location of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines, and the fossil and Ho-Oh connection, I think it's pretty fair to say it was supposed to play a significant part in getting Ho-Oh to roost atop Mt. Silver (Mt. Fuji). It's a great shame none of this was ever fleshed out.

[@fernando98322]

To me, it doesn't matter if there's no tangible reward or more lore to be discovered, I love the Ruins of Alph. It gives me that sense of wonder that's so great from old Pokémon. I love catching all forms of Unown, it's a small quest in a greater and fantastic adventure.

[@jaxonhopkins2691]

This is my “finding a small chanle grow into a big one” story

[@ajj403]

Gen 2 having an entire location dedicated to fossils yet not having a new fossil pokemon is disappointing Would’ve been nice to be able to find Kabuto & Omanyte early on in GSC since they were made available too late in RBY. Or they could’ve just given Aerodactyl a baby form that could also serve as Falkner’s ace... so many missed opportunities

[@protocetid]

Ironically GF did create a handful of prehistoric looking Pokémon for G/S and scrapped them all.

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Rather would have liked to see a new fossil instead of a baby Form. These things have no justifiable reason to get added later on.

[@ajj403]

@@brotbrotsen1100 I agree for the most part, but in Aerodactyl’s case I think it would make sense. Aerodactyl is the only single stage fossil Pokemon and its late game availability in the first two generations makes it almost unusable in a playthrough. A baby form that were made available early in the story would rectify this by finally making the Aerodactyl line a viable team addition.

[@brotbrotsen1100]

@@ajj403 But wouldn't it be better to give him a evolution instead and still being able to get fossils earlier. Made still make the evolution Falkners signature but he is instead part of the elite 4 or just a later gym while someone else gets demoted to first gym leader. Like bugsy has so little to offer as a gym leader that she could easily switch places with Falkner

[@kirbyfazendoummoonwalk9214]

I know right, Gold & Silver feel more like Red 2 & Blue 2 rather than their own Games

[@justsomejojo]

I remember the Unown puzzles being a major headache for kid me. My siblings and me played Gold and Silver on the brick Gameboy. No color, no backlight, only sunlight. Maybe. It was a major event when I got a Gameboy Color for my birthday that year, because we finally had an easier time making out the pieces. We managed to complete Kabuto quickly, but then took quite a while for the rest, with Ho-Oh and Omanyte definitely being the hardest. I love these puzzles and the ruins. They are yet another completely optional area in Johto that has stuff to do in it and thus another reason why I like Johto so much as a whole.

[@theMansalad]

the regi puzzles in gen 3 do something pretty similar to the item puzzles in the ruins of alph

[@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis]

Indeed!

[@TechDragon1]

That sounds like it would make an interesting video!

[@theMansalad]

@@TechDragon1 the first time I did it a friend came over and had a guide to the braille and stuff and it felt like actually trying to uncover some mysterious secret. It's very cryptic though.

[@HerrDerpington]

3:10 - If you listen closely, the radio sounds are Arceus' battle theme.

[@TheManManoel]

Two generations before it was created?

[@EchoCian]

I always thought it was really weird that they made this whole area and concept with references to ho-oh and then didn't do anything with them. It feels like a mystery you can solve, something that would tie in to legendaries, and...it's a printout. Such a strange choice. At least the remakes did something...extremely limited and situational that can no longer be accessed...

[@itsmegae258]

Ho-oh? I thought its tied to suicune, i guess ill play crystal again

[@watsonwrote]

You can use a fan server to get the Event Arceuses.

[@alliinase9076]

@@watsonwrote Not everybody is into that though, not really legitimate

[@pantslesswrock]

Man, Crystal really is one of the true GOATs of gaming - taking an already very enjoyable experience and adding depth and polish

[@Theblkscarecrow]

Your content creation is so crazy good! I'm giving you shout outs left and right. Everyone should start watching you for real!!

[@morkoski6046]

The Ruins of Alph, and catching all Unown, could be the start point of a quest which involves Celebi taking the player on a time traveling adventure in which you could catch fossil pokemon, one of each of the 3 original eeveelutions (a nod to Raikou, Suicune and Entei before the burnt tower theory), and maybe a special item and/or boosted shiny chances after the event

[@---oq5kb]

The eeveelotions being the original forms is just a theory though.

[@CivilizedWasteland]

The mention of the statue would be a great tie in to a similar statue for purifying with celebi in colosseum, would be cool to see something like that.

[@Lightningdude]

It would be so cool if Vaporeon evolved into suicune

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

​@@---oq5kb You know what "a nod" means?

[@ZeroNobody0]

Amazing man I like how in depth you go into your videos and now the mystery of unknowns have finally bin solved.... if we can say that that is

[@droozyyy]

Love this video! The ruins of alph were one of my favorite locations as a kid, they felt so ancient and mystical, like you’d discover how the world was made back then. I do think that in Gen 4 they sort of completed them by the Arceus Sinjoh Ruins event which is quite possibly the craziest event we’ve ever gotten. Still would love to see it fleshed out even more, as the Unown are some of the coolest yet most underwhelming Pokémon of all time

[@CyanicCore]

6:55 (The back wall puzzles) are so interesting and unique! ...Gen 3 intensifies Though certainly much less than should be expected, the Ruins of Alph at least became a good diversion with time. Frankly, the back wall puzzles are still minor, but despite their limited use I'll always like the unown thanks to the outside media. There are somewhat high chances this was fake, but around the time of Heartgold a card pack yielded Unown Report as a card, which made identifying what was in game much easier and simultaneously added a bit more mystery. Whether that pack was legitimate or not, the Pokémon company had also made a movie themed to promote the little guys a few years prior. All in all, Unown's far from the best but remains just a little mysterious.

[@Xibyth]

Scientists: we've been researching these ruins for 75 years, the mysterious ways of this place are beyond our imagination. 10 year old kid:...

[@dragonmaster613]

This quest gave me the need to collect extra pokemon that have multiple forms (6 Rotom, 4 Deoxys, regional, etc). *This is the bane of my existence as a pokemon collector!*

[@thisisasupersayin376]

9:15 Holy shit, the Ruins of Alph civilization used Windows 10

[@asiburger]

crystal was absolutely beautiful. I remember getting it on my 6th birthday. (maybe it was silver/gold instead, but I don't recall when I got crystal) I remember exploring an entirely new world and being excited every step of the way. No internet, to look things up, no clue about IVs, EVs, all the mechanics, all the secrets. Heck, I didn't even know the Three dogs were a thing, until Raikou popped out of the grass out of nowhere. I was incredibly stunned. I ran over to my best friends house to show him. Attacked once, then it fled. We were dumbfounded. He started searching the same patch of grass for hours on his cartridge, along with me, until we gave up and checked the Dex to look at the silhouette. That's when we figured it moved and the chase began. God I miss being naive and full of childlike wonder.

[@CatManThree]

No mention of the Arceus battle theme being a remix of the unown frequency?

[@Asidders]

1:23 AND all the people disappearsed. This always felt so eerie to me. The Ruins of Alph realy scared me as a child.

[@nabbly]

Can you imagine if they kept the Unown stuff going with the future generations. They’re so mysterious that they definitely could’ve been incorporated into the lore of the main legendaries going forward. Imagine going into the Cave of Orgin and encountering Unown there with messages on the walls from primitive carvings in Unown describing the worship of the Hoenn trio. Or Unown being at Spear Pillar when Cyrus summons Dialga and/or Palkia and seeing a bunch of Unown with them or all over the Distortion World when Giratina kidnaps Cyrus. lol

[@louisgentilucci1188]

I come to confess my Pokemon sins: I almost gave up on the Ruins of Alph puzzles in the original Gold game because I had Kabuto's eyes mixed up. They look so much better in the MIDDLE!!

[@MrTrentington]

My personal theory is that the unknown were created by Arceus to allow humans to create language.

[@Holgast]

I spent a lot of time here, even though there wasn't a lot of content, because it was so mysterious and interesting. And YES! would love to see your reaction to the Regis, as it was definitely inspired by this

[@brycedaugherty9211]

I spent a LOT of time here trying to solve the mysteries back when I had silver. It always felt like there was more!

[@kaitogirldraws]

Oh God you made sure all the unknown are on the living dex... You're a legend

[@EvilApple567]

Never really thought about the block puzzles for releasing certain forms (what the Mons on the puzzle relate to) but I bet Ho-oh is probably there to symbolize the Unown's rebirth from their ancient (fossil) era.

[@psyxypher3881]

The real mystery is how a culture that's roughly 1500 years old managed to figure out about 2 million+ year old fossils.

[@moonday5521]

The Ruins of Alph feel almost Tower of Babel but underground, and adding Arceus "The God of Pokémon" into the mix in the remakes and showing that weird cutscene of almost historical records of human history it almost solidifies the fact that the Unknown are related in some way to the creation of the Pokémon universe as we know it. (All just fun speculation, but I do like when game take stories and events from real life and incorporate them, even if not fully intentional.)

[@camotophat]

The Unknown are just pokemon Twin Peaks. Mysterious, lots of good set up, but just pissing you off in the end.

[@Ocarinist_Drew]

Wait, so, correct me if I'm wrong, but could you boost your odds of finding a Shiny Unown by simply limiting the letters that appear? Like, what if you *ONLY* did the Aerodactyl puzzle that unlocks S-W. Wouldn't you have a significantly higher chance of finding a Shiny?

[@flaviotzn9606]

Yeah, because V unown would be the only shiny form that you would find

[@DrGonzo-hf4xh]

I guess so, yeah

[@DynamoTwentyTwo]

My understanding(could be wrong) is that the game rolls encounters normally and then only starts the battle if you have that letter unlocked. So you're not any more likely to generate shiny IVs but you get to skip all the animations on a lot of the encounters generated. So in that sense it is theoretically faster to find a shiny, as when you actually find a Pokemon the percentage that it's shiny is higher.

[@Ocarinist_Drew]

@@DynamoTwentyTwo Right. This is basically what I assumed. You would just get to skip the vast majority of non-shiny encounters. There doesn't seem to be any official documentation on the odds, but some guy on Reddit claims if you just unlock S-W, you have a 1/400 chance of finding a shiny per encounter. If you just unlock A-K, the odds are 1/880.

[@Xahnel]

It worked for me. The literal only shiny I ever found in mainline pokemon was an I unown. I kept that thing for like, six gyms before I realized it was useless.

[@ProfessorRex]

I love Unown, every generation has something unique. Thank you for sharing this video with us. Honestly I had no idea about the back rooms in HGGS & crystal

[@MaeBlythe]

It's so insane that space for Pokemon is so limited in older games! I understand why, but that would have driven me crazy since the tagline was too catch them all!

[@frickinfrick8488]

It’s terrible but to be fair nobody was really doing living dexes back then since transferring Pokémon to the next game wasn’t a guarantee. If you only keep the final evolutions for dex completion you have a lot more space

[@ZombieBarioth]

Also that tagline only exists in the west, it was never really intended as a main goal. Makes sense too considering how much work that'd actually be and why newer games sorta changed it to seeing them.

[@---oq5kb]

You could still catch them all. In fact the first games that didn't allow you to catch them all at the beggining were ruby and sapphire1 until the release of frlg (or xd if we are counting lugia)

[@Holgast]

@@---oq5kb ehhhh you couldn't get mew or celebi without the real world event, the mew one never came here

[@---oq5kb]

@@Holgast "catch them all" has a hidden subtext: except the mythicals.

[@basicmountaingriff]

I mean, we did kind of get one small revelation out of it. In gen 2, Pokémon eggs were introduced, and there were a couple NPC comments between then and gen 4 that 'nobody has any idea where Eggs come from'. and then we finally learned how one specific Pokémon was made

[@commando2893]

Man, I remember trying to get all Unowns in OG Gen 2 Silver version as a kid, and thinking/being told there was some super hot reward for getting them all. Was bummed when I found out I wasted my time, but it was fun to believe.

[@MichaelRProsper]

Watch the cutscene with your eyes closed. This whole puzzle is about thinking outside the box. When you do, remember Mythogenesis and Landium.

[@joshoppa5465]

Maybe they intentionally made things ambiguous and kept the ruins Mysterious to the point of them feeling pointless because that's how ruins really are in real life. The pyramids of Egypt for example they've been thoroughly studied and mapped out and explored for years and we know so much about them now but there's still that question of "Why did they do this exactly?"

[@zeldaandTwink]

I was today years old when I realized Alph is short for alphabet...

[@rai.17]

I think the ruins are gonna either have a massive overhaul in a Let’s Go treatment, in a switch remake somewhere along the future, or (and this is the one I really hope for) Johto gets the Legends treatment next and the ruins end up playing a massive part of the storyline

[@Khytau]

Hey, tysm! Didn't have patience to capture all unowns forms or figure out which were in what chamber when I was a kid. This has haunted me 'till you just taught it's useless, feel so relieved I actually didn't fall for it, haha

[@Devourer6594]

When I was a kid playing hgss for the first time, I actually tried to avoid the ruins of alph as much as possible. The atmosphere of the place creeped me out. It felt like I was walking down a long, dark tunnel with certain danger always around the corner and horrifying ambience suffocating me all around. Years later I discovered that the ruins of alph was basically nothing and I also have a phobia of cramped spaces.

[@wickedweintraube6276]

OMG this Arceus cutscene! I thought this was some kind of fever dream I had as a child, this memory was sored very far back into my head.

[@AzazinNote]

Also, little known fact, the game is coded so you can visit the Sinjoh ruins twice, and get two legendarys, once with an Arceus obtained directly from an event, and the other with an Arceus caught in the Hall of Origin.

[@dddboom]

Damn as a kid its the one thing in gold i never knew what to do get that printer working

[@puzzle_boy]

Unown is my second favorite Pokémon because what they represent. I know there's no more in their games of origin. But they gave us clues about their "function" in next generations. And all of this was (kinda) confirmed in HGSS Sinjoh Ruins event. My number 1 favorite Pokémon is the other being related to them. The original one: Arceus. The true "King Unown". I think GF just wanted to avoid to be so direct with this stuff because they didn't want to kill the magic of the mystery. And also because the idea was that this cryptical message should had been theorized by players in the first place. It's part of the game.

[@geckohunter123]

The way they’re set up in FireRed and Leafgreen is maddening. Like they’re the final destination of the LAST island and I remember frantically running around them trying to decipher WHAT reward you get for exploring it all.

[@wobblebubbeeakasham8118]

Gotta love the printer reward. but at least the words the letters represent can make for some crazy story.

[@pleasedontwatchthese9593]

As an adult i can start to see the unknown being an attempted to make pokemon seem more educational as a gen 2 pokemon. "Look your kid is leaning the alphabet"

[@tart-miano]

Tbh, the only reason I love the unown as much as I do is because the third pokemon movie made them creepy (eldritch even) instead of vaguely mysterious like they are in the games. Thinking about how cool that version of them was, trying to fill in the blanks of their lore, was all that motivated me to catch all 28 of them. Which is...kinda sad we need to imagine lore ourselves, oof

[@katier9725]

I remember playing Crystal, opening all the hidden doors, listening to that inane radio channel, making an effort to catch all 26. I thought the words in the special dex could mean something as there was one word for each) and figuring it out would unlock a 27th to fill that final empty slot. Nope, nothing. It was all a waste of time.

[@Crow_Rising]

We really need a Pokemon Legends game taking place in the far off past of Johto around the time of the construction of the eventual ruins. I imagine it would be titled "Pokemon Legends: Unown".

[@TheLudicrousLuv]

Pokemon legends celebi

[@MDPToaster]

Instead of 26 individual Pokémon we get the English Alphabet that can only use Hidden Power.

[@Matthew_Murray]

I kind of like that the Ruins of Alph are a mystery with no real goal outside pf completing the Unown dex. It adds the the feeling that these are ruins you’re exploring, not a dungeon with a quest reward or a dungeon boss to defeat.

[@Damian-cilr2]

would still be cool if there was a bit of lore inside of it.

[@trevorjones1134]

I feel like I’ve seen it all, but that weird cut scene is completely new to me. Very odd… thanks for sharing!!

[@fullmetal1119]

I was so disappointed and confused as a kid when nothing happened. Back then, I thought if you played that creepy radio station inside ruins of alph, you'd be able to find and catch a new mysterious Pokemon. I still remember the feeling of anticipation until I realized nothing was happening. Sigh...

[@theSato]

Love your videos dude, here's my comment to pitch in and say 'keep it up thanks

[@machinat3636]

As a kid I thought that unown evolved into claydol when I first played ruby, cause of the eyes man.

[@indigoblue8600]

I remember finally figuring out that one of the walls said “escape” and NEVER returning. That and the creepy music made kid me just terrified, even though I played HG/SS nonstop lmao

[@derrickscott1630]

The best part of catching all the unknown for me was discovering Natu in the process 😂

[@2401blue]

A pretty bird! I don't remember what playthrough it was, but I went out of my way for one once.

[@SJohann]

7:02 Regi puzzles in Hoenn. Main chamber needs dig to access the inner chamber. Regirock needs you to move in a certain way and use Strength (Ruby/Sapphire + ORAS) or Rock Smash (Emerald). Registeel needs you to go to the center of the room and use Fly (RS + ORAS) or Flash (E).

[@TazTheYellow]

Bit of a problem with your Pokémon storage math there. "Living dex" is an incredibly niche pursuit, as most players are generally content with keeping only the fully-evolved forms of most Pokémon, so you can probably subtract a hundred or so from that final calculation. . . . except. This *is* the generation that introduced Pokémon breeding. So, you'd think they'd want to up the storage to 500 just for convenience alone. Ah well. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

[@nidohime6233]

Space for 500 Pokémon might have being too much for the cartridges at the time. It was already incredible how much content there already had with a very limited memory.

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

I think there not being anything in the Ruins of Alph is quite poetic? It's nice to have a mystery that literally cannot be solved, where there's no big reward, and the statue mentioned in Crystal is lost to time. That's the story of archaeology, baby!

[@olivercharles2930]

eww no, this is a video game.

[@mikelan11]

The differing translations of the originals and the remakes got me curious, so I looked up the original Japanese online. From what I could see on the Japanese wiki, the text is the same in both the original and the remakes, and it's only the English translations that are different. Interestingly, neither translation appears to be particularly accurate. The original translation is grammatically correct and seems to make sense, but it takes a lot of liberties, and straight up misinterprets some parts of the text (although it's still more accurate than the translation in the remakes, and is certainly easier to read). That said, a grammatically sound translation that sticks to the meaning of the original text as much as possible would be something like: "Our clan engraved words in this place." The original translation is much more loose, but gets at relatively the same thing. The remake translation is much more literal and much more accurate. "They possess the power to sense consciousness, and reject the outside world." The original translation is much better here, the remake one is a mess. That being said, the original Japanese definitely says "the power to sense consciousness", and not just "great insight". Might be referring to their apparent ability to communicate telepathically. "We shall create statues of the Pokémon from outside." I think both translations are wrong here. They're not creating a single pokemon statue outside, they're creating many statues of pokemon FROM the outside. Japanese has no plural, so it could either be interpreted as "statue" or "statues". Looking at the actual statues in the ruins in-game, I'm pretty sure this sentence is referring to the many statues inside of the ruins. The "thus" used in the original translation is a complete fabrication and isn't present in the original Japanese at all. "We humans must learn to walk together with them. We depart for their sakes." Original translation basically got this one bang-on. The literal translation would be "together", but "in harmony" basically means the exact same thing, just more poetic. "Our friends respect us and give us their blessings." The translation is close enough, just awkward. Instead of being a nice reward message for the player, it might tie more into the old civilization, with the message intending to show how their relationship with the Unown became more friendly over time. In all the other messages, they simply call the Unown "they/them". Here, they call them friends. The message also uses the same "proto-language" style of writing that the other messages do. Admittedly though, I'm mostly speculating here. The weird way the messages are translated in the remakes is most likely to make them feel more like a proto-language spoken by an ancient civilization, like you mentioned. The original Japanese is written in a very simple style, with some parts of speech omitted to give it that same kind of feel. The translation was probably trying to emulate that, but it doesn't work as well in English, and just makes it look like a bad translation.

[@Lyra]

Thank you very much for the extra info and insight! That answers a few of the questions I had :'D

[@PelemusMcSoy]

3:12 I remember finding this radio channel by accident when I was a kid. It creeped me out to no end (especially because I found it at night right before bed)!

[@isuckatgaming1873]

I still like to catch every unown when possible But really all they give is a printable text for a Gameboy accessory

[@AloneInWonder2683]

I love how in Soul Silver and Heart Gold. the mystery is practically solved. The Ruins of Alpha being connected to the ruins of Spear Pillar. thus leading to the Sinjoh Ruins where Gods are born....

[@bulbasaur1534]

Unown is a type of pokemon that is better in terms of story/lore rather than conventional fighting that's associated with pokemon. A completely useless and wasteful pokemon on your team that's only pokedex fodder, yet is the coolest thing behind the scenes. Unown is tied to all kinds of myths, legends, maybe even some conspiracy theories, especially with the wobbufett theory about the unown being its tail based on the pokedex entries. Rotom in the sinnoh games, being stuck in a barely functional TV in a dilapidated and abandoned mansion hidden inside a forest. Spiritomb with the odd keystone that's found in very specific key locations throughout the world. Mew and Mewtwo in the cinnabar mansion with the scattered and old research documents describing their encounter of mew and vague origin of its clone. I don't just love the pokemon games for their regions, their mechanics and characters, it's the subtle worldbuilding that follows you every corner, the pokemon that inhabit these lands, the implications of the past, the completely optional, tedious but awe-inspiring lore that gives us a different perspective on certain aspects. The fact you can go out of your way to find these oddities without being explicitly told/hand holded, it doesn't affect the progression of your game, at any point to your leisure is pure fire in my eyes, a real sense of exploration.

[@39fleeting]

I really love watching videos like this , it's so interesting And I love the background music as well Happy december!!

[@petergriscom3431]

I remember thinking the words in the Unown Dex had some secret plot significance, but when I collected them all and wrote it all down, it just makes nonsense. It's an interesting idea in a way, because it creates a unique madlib for every player, and to the Japanese players it must've been like uncovering an ancient indecipherable riddle. Even if it's not rewarding, it does an amazing job of pulling you into the archeological intrigue. I used to have dreams of uncovering more secret chambers in the ruins.

[@sagacious03]

Decent analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@SonicTheCutehog]

The Regi puzzles in Gen 3 and other games function similarly to the Unown puzzles

[@FernandoRafaelNogueiraReis]

Right!

[@brandoncordova5682]

My 26 year old ass just now realizing “Alph” is in reference to the alphabet…

[@xiongray]

Bet

[@Pitrek1113]

7:00 - etrances to the regi ruins on the Crown Tundra work like that actually

[@ObliviousTeenager]

After 20 plus years having been done with this game and seemingly knowing everything about this generation, have I learned that it’s ruins of alph(abet)

[@Brahvim]

O-h!

[@mrgtmodernretrogamingtech6891]

9:45 This what I love about old video games, due to limitations it happens, but allows you to imagine to fill the holes of the story, thus creating you own narrative giving the players unique experience...

[@ionescustefan295]

I love your pokemon videos!