Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald leaks explained

Some of Pokemon the most exciting discoveries of the leaks were from generation 3. Not only was a treasure trove of unused maps and art unearthed, but also a huge number of canceled creatures from PokemonThe third generation has been revealed.

Every generation of the franchise has been involved in Pokemon Teraleak, even the upcoming Gen 10. The main aggregator of these leaks is Centro Leaks on X, although much of the archives were made by The Cutting Room Floor, a wiki dedicated to cataloging video game content. A spreadsheet originally compiled by this wiki relating to the Gen 3 Pokemon buffet was uploaded to Reddit by u/vagrantwade on r/PokeLeaks. Although this original spreadsheet has seemingly been lost, information about these canceled creatures has been preserved by The Cutting Room Floor.

Everything Pokemon leaks tell us about rubies, sapphires, and emeralds

Generation 3. Canceled Pokemon and Canceled Starters

The canceled Gen 3 Pokemon were discovered via Game Freak Teraleak, originally compiled into the aforementioned spreadsheet. According to the leak, 15 of these Pokemon were canceled after March 2002, meaning they were quite late in development. Fittingly, most of these Pokemon come with accompanying sprites, often with feedback from an unknown developer attached. These notes are the key to understanding why many of these creatures were scrapped, with most of the unused Pokemon being labeled too similar to existing Pokemon. Manarabi, a canceled Pokemon that looks like a fire fang, got the worst of it; his only comment is the brief statement “looks deformed”.

The most famous of these is the unreleased Gen 3 starter. Rubin, Sapphireand Emerald all have Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip as their starting Pokemon, but the trio's Water-type was once occupied by a Pokemon named Warabitto. A leaked image of this unused starter, replaced in the final game by Mudkip, is depicted by Sparrow as a white rabbit with a lifebuoy. While the adorable Mudkip remains a fan favorite, many in the community have now fallen in love with this water rabbit as well.

Next to sprite and rough art, Pokemon the leaks also showed some detailed concept art from Gen 3. There are some oddities among the canceled Pokemon images, including some unused Pokemon rendered in a much rougher style. There is another unused and unknown pokemon here, one with a skull sitting on top of a lumpy green body, hidden away in its own folder. Early plant art and Pokemon Navigator can also be found here.

Unused and prototype cards

A wide range of early cards once intended for Pokemon Ruby, Sapphireand Emeraldwere discovered by Teraleak. Many of these locations are very similar to their latest iterations, though others such as EmeraldThe battle dome has undergone an aesthetic repair. Slateport City changed dramatically between its early and final forms, with its prototype also being the original location for the Weather Institute.

Looking at these early maps, one detail that stands out is the original red-roofed Poke Mart design. All Poke Marts in recent games have been changed to blue roofs, probably to differentiate them more from Poke Centers.

Fighting pike with Pokemon Emerald is probably the best example of map content, as opposed to purely prototype map content. A sample map is included, a collection of mismatched sprites that may have been used as a source to drag and drop assets onto the area map image. There's also a version of the lobby that seems buggy, its sprites are messy and most of its tiles are blank purple. Moreover, there is a canceled room here – Room 7, a long corridor with a red carpet running the length of it, was left unused in the final game.