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Is there a known reason why Pokemon Green was released as Pokemon Blue outside Japan?

PineapplePizza

Well-Known Member
INB4 someone says “technically Red and Blue are the Japanese Blue because they used its front sprites, overworld, and script”

For all intents and purposes our Pokemon Blue is their Japanese Green as far as version exclusive availability and encounter rates. So why wasn’t it released as Pokemon Green outside Japan? Do we have any official reason

I also wish we had gotten the actual Pokemon Blue from Japan it would have been neat to get Gengar and Golem as in-game trades even if they would have had dumb nicknames
 

Prof. SALTY

The Scruffy Professor
No official word as far as I'm aware. I personally believe it's due to the idea that publications and Nintendo of America had that western audiences likely would not be interested in the cuter pokemon. Venusaur is seen as sort of... passive while Charizard and Blastoise are more imposing and aggressive looking.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Maybe because Red & Blue are seen as more of a duo/opposite pairing to Western audiences? Wouldn’t explain FRLG tho.
 

shoz999

Back when Tigers used to smoke.
I believe it's because Pokemon Green and Pokemon Blue are actually somewhat different games because of the sprite models and glitches. I can't remember if it was Green or Blue but GameFreak definitely had to rework one of those games for official release in the West.
 

PineapplePizza

Well-Known Member
I believe it's because Pokemon Green and Pokemon Blue are actually somewhat different games because of the sprite models and glitches. I can't remember if it was Green or Blue but GameFreak definitely had to rework one of those games for official release in the West.

Japanese Red and Green have the exact same sprites and glitches. English Red and Blue have Japanese Blue sprites and glitches.

Our Pokemon Red is a hybrid of their Red (Version exclusive Pokemon, and encounter rates) and their Blue (overworld, sprites, script) and our Pokemon Blue is a hybrid of their Green (version exclusive Pokemon and encounter rates) and their Blue (overworld ,sprites, script and Jigglypuff vs Gengar opening)

We never really got Japanese Blue as it had different encounter rates (Lickitung appears in the Safari Zone instead of as an in game trades for the example) and different in-game trades that made use of the 4 trade evolution Pokemon which is where the infamous “Your Raichu you traded me went and evolved” goof comes from the fact that in Japanese Blue you gave him a Kadabra for a Graveller but Pokemon Red and Blue had the same in game trade as Japanese Red and Green where you give him a Raichu for an Electrode”
 

lolipiece

Pictured: what browsing Serebii does to a person
Staff member
Moderator
I always assumed it was a color pairing thing. Many people think red and blue are opposites, when green is in fact red's opposite on the color spectrum.
 

PineapplePizza

Well-Known Member
I always assumed it was a color pairing thing. Many people think red and blue are opposites, when green is in fact red's opposite on the color spectrum.

Now that you mention red, blue, and yellow are all primary colors and since Pokemon Yellow was released in Japan a mere two weeks before Red and Blue came to the US maybe they wanted all primary colors :p
 

BCVM22

Well-Known Member
So why wasn’t it released as Pokemon Green outside Japan? Do we have any official reason

I also wish we had gotten the actual Pokemon Blue from Japan it would have been neat to get Gengar and Golem as in-game trades even if they would have had dumb nicknames

I always assumed it was a color pairing thing. Many people think red and blue are opposites, when green is in fact red's opposite on the color spectrum.

It’s a cultural thing. I don’t recall the entirety of the specifics but in Japanese language and culture, things are often labeled as green that we think of as blue and vice versa. Case in point, Bronzor is a dark blue color while Bronzong is more of a teal, but the Pokédex classifies them both as green.

Meanwhile in the west, red and blue are more readily thought of as polar opposites. Hot and cold, fire and water (or ice), angry and calm, Republican and Democrat, even sports rivalries like Cardinals/Cubs and Ohio State/Michigan. Culturally, releasing the games as they did as Red and Blue helped subconsciously sell the notion of “opposite versions” to a Western audience.

It’s not coincidence that after Generation II, the new games that began four out of five of the subsequent new generations paired a red or red-adjacent color against a blue or blue-adjacent color. And the one that didn’t (Black and White) still managed to work in a touch of red vs. blue with Reshiram’s red fire and Zekrom’s blue lightning.
 
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PineapplePizza

Well-Known Member
^That actually makes the most sense.

I still think it should have been released as Green and then release Blue as it was in Japan with its in game trades and encounter rates and availablity.

It’s weird to have 2 games that rep 2 of the 3 starters but leaves the other out and I’m glad they just do opposing legendaries now.

But at least in Japan they have a gen 1 game for each starter.
 

BCVM22

Well-Known Member
My personal theory was Red and Green was too Christmas-y and Red and Blue were more marketable.

That’s an adjacent concept to what I said, really. Red and green connotate differently in different cultures, compared to red and blue. As you said, one of the many such connotations of red and green in the west is Christmas colors. Not that it would have been an issue had they kept Red and Green as the titles, people wouldn’t have gone “Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green? I don’t get it, is it a Christmas game of some sort?” but rebranding them as Red and Blue still helped reinforce the intended notion.
 
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