While most people often get stuck on the last one - which is always different - I reckon the majority of us Pokemon fans have a fairly decent idea of every Pokemon type. I’m a Water trainer for the most part, although I also have a soft spot for Dark-, Ghost-, and Grass-types. That’s the beauty of having 18 distinct elemental types and an enormous amount of hybrid combinations between them - everyone has their own🌠 favourite typing, all of which are completelജy valid.
The thing is, there’s quite a bit of evidence that suggests a 19th type could have been in development almost two decades ago. While Ge🔯n 2 launched with 16 types - Water, Fire, Grass, Electric, Normal, Rock, Ground, Ice, Psychic, Ghost, Flying, Fighting, Poison, Bug, and Dragon - Gen 2 went on to introduce both the Dark and Steel types.
I’ve already talked about how the inve♍ntion of Dark Pokemon is still🃏 probably the best thing that ever happened to the series - that’s not what I’m interested in today. Instead, I’d like to foc♍us on the fact ꧒that Game Freak could have originally been intending to introduce new types with each successive generation, as evidenced by a Gen 3 ability that was cut during development.
You might have read up on this before, but Gen 3’s Whismur family was originally supposed to have a unique ability called “Cacophony.” While details of the ability’s effect are scarce, it’s reasonable to assume it was noise-related. There are abilies out there that do pertain to noise - Soundproof provides ‘mons with an immunity to sound-based moves, for one - but Cacophony is, by definition, more actively aggressive. Maybe moves like Hyper Voice could bypass Soundproof🌠, or maybe it would have had a similar effect to sleep-resisting abilities like Vital Spirit and Insomnia. Either way, the fact it was cut from the game is pretty weird - especially when you look at both the Whismur family and all music-related Pokemon who have been add꧑ed to the series since.
The Whismur family in Gen 3 are Normal-type. Whismur, maybe. I mean, it lives in a cave, which makes the Normal typing a bit weird, but I suppose you could say the same about Clefairy prior to Gen 6’s introduction of the Fairy type. Exploud… less Normal, definitely. It almost looks as if it could be Dark- or Fighting- type, bu♌t I’d like to emphasize the ‘almost’ there, because it doesn’t quite look like either. Exploud? It looks more like a Dragon ‘mon than a Normal one. Are you kidding me? Exploud is probably the most difficult Pokemon to pigeonhole into an existing type in history. You’re telling me this Pokemon, with that design, had a completely unique ability and was always planned as “Yep, that’s a Normal type.” I’ll have a sip of whatever you’re drinking, please.
That’s not to mention the amount of music-based Pokemon that have come out either before or since the Whismur family first appeared in 2002. A quick, non-exhau🔯stive list off the top of my head would include Meloetta, Chatot, Primarina, Chimecho, Noivern, Maractus, Rillaboom, Toxtricity, Altari⛦a, Jigglypuff, Ludicolo, Kricketune, and, to an extent, Obstagoon. There is no doubt in my mind that, more so than anything else, a music- or sound-based typing could be slotted straight into the next Pokemon game with little to no resistance both in terms of contextual placement and fan reception.
It’s obviously slightly speculative - Game Freak has never come out and said, “Oh, by the way, we cut Sound-type from Ruby & Sapphire just because.” Unless it’s going to be added in th🐻e future, its existence or lack thereof will likely never be properly confirmed. When you examine the evidence, though, from Cacophony, to Exploud’s nonsensical typing, to the fact that so many Pokemon - some of whom were probably sketched years before their official inauguration - are tied to music and sound, it seems like this really was a thing at one point.
Personally, I think it would be pretty cool. I know I said I’m a Water trainer now, but if you 🥂let me go full punk rock like Piers? Well, my Blastoise and Gyarados better ☂to learn to sing, eh?
