Blaziken257
New Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2009
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 0
It is a very common misconception that in earlier generations of Pokémon (specifically Generations I and II), it is impossible to trade or battle between games in different languages. Even some Bulbapedia articles, such as the article of Red/Blue, incorrectly state this. This is true to an extent, where to my knowledge, Japanese versions are incompatible with any other language version, but other language versions, to my knowledge, are compatible.
Before explaining anything else, I've played Spanish versions of games in the first three generations (in addition to having played them in English, of course), but I haven't played them in German, French, or Italian, because I don't know those three languages at all. Therefore, everything that I'm going to explain will apply to the Spanish version, and may or may not apply to German, French, or Italian versions (but I'm going to guess that all of this actually does apply to these three versions).
Basically, I've been able to trade between Spanish and English versions before (at least in Generations I and II; I have yet to attempt Gen III, but I will find this out shortly, and obviously we all know that Gen IV has no problems), without any problems whatsoever (except for one very minor issue in Generation II, which I'll mention later). No data was corrupted, there were no side effects, and it was as if I simply traded between two English versions. This doesn't really surprise me at all, though, since the Spanish version, like the English version, has 10 characters for Pokémon names (unlike 5 in the Japanese version), and 7 characters for the trainer's name (unlike 5 in the Japanese version). In addition, even though Spanish has punctuation marks and letters that aren't in English (ñ, ¿, ¡, etc.), when giving yourself a name or nicknaming a Pokémon, the game only lets you input English letters, to maintain compatibility with each other:
Look at that. Same character set as the English version, although dialogue does have Spanish letters in them. Obviously, this was done for no reason other than compatibility.
Now, one final thing. In Gold, Silver, and Crystal (and ONLY those games), when naming boxes or writing mail, you CAN use letters/punctuation marks that are in Spanish, unlike the case of naming yourself or giving nicknames to Pokémon.
Obviously, this isn't a problem for boxes, as there is no way for other cartridges to see names of boxes*. But since it's possible to trade mail to other people, this causes minor problems to English versions of games. Basically, if mail from a Spanish version has unique characters (¡, ¿, ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú, etc.) is sent to an English version game, these characters will either be considered to be spaces or be completely null, which varies among characters. I've never seen any more serious issues than that, though, so it's only minor. This seems like an oversight on the programmers, though. Also, if the mail is sent back to the Spanish version, then the missing characters return like normal.
Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot for that at the moment, but I think you all understand the idea.
Now, here is why I posted this topic in the first place. Since I only know anything about the English and Spanish versions, someone needs to figure out if the French, German, and Italian games are all compatible as well. And once research is finished here, then we should update Bulbapedia accordingly with correct information about compatibility with different language games in generations prior to IV.
*Yes, I know that it's possible to view boxes, including their names, in Pokémon Stadium 2. This makes me wonder if an English version of Pokémon Stadium 2 is compatible with Spanish versions of GB games (or vice versa), and if so, what happens when you view boxes with non-English characters...
On a side note, I also wonder if the Stadium games are compatible with GB games in other languages as a whole. Unfortunately, I can't find this out for myself...
Before explaining anything else, I've played Spanish versions of games in the first three generations (in addition to having played them in English, of course), but I haven't played them in German, French, or Italian, because I don't know those three languages at all. Therefore, everything that I'm going to explain will apply to the Spanish version, and may or may not apply to German, French, or Italian versions (but I'm going to guess that all of this actually does apply to these three versions).
Basically, I've been able to trade between Spanish and English versions before (at least in Generations I and II; I have yet to attempt Gen III, but I will find this out shortly, and obviously we all know that Gen IV has no problems), without any problems whatsoever (except for one very minor issue in Generation II, which I'll mention later). No data was corrupted, there were no side effects, and it was as if I simply traded between two English versions. This doesn't really surprise me at all, though, since the Spanish version, like the English version, has 10 characters for Pokémon names (unlike 5 in the Japanese version), and 7 characters for the trainer's name (unlike 5 in the Japanese version). In addition, even though Spanish has punctuation marks and letters that aren't in English (ñ, ¿, ¡, etc.), when giving yourself a name or nicknaming a Pokémon, the game only lets you input English letters, to maintain compatibility with each other:
Look at that. Same character set as the English version, although dialogue does have Spanish letters in them. Obviously, this was done for no reason other than compatibility.
Now, one final thing. In Gold, Silver, and Crystal (and ONLY those games), when naming boxes or writing mail, you CAN use letters/punctuation marks that are in Spanish, unlike the case of naming yourself or giving nicknames to Pokémon.
Obviously, this isn't a problem for boxes, as there is no way for other cartridges to see names of boxes*. But since it's possible to trade mail to other people, this causes minor problems to English versions of games. Basically, if mail from a Spanish version has unique characters (¡, ¿, ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú, etc.) is sent to an English version game, these characters will either be considered to be spaces or be completely null, which varies among characters. I've never seen any more serious issues than that, though, so it's only minor. This seems like an oversight on the programmers, though. Also, if the mail is sent back to the Spanish version, then the missing characters return like normal.
Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot for that at the moment, but I think you all understand the idea.
Now, here is why I posted this topic in the first place. Since I only know anything about the English and Spanish versions, someone needs to figure out if the French, German, and Italian games are all compatible as well. And once research is finished here, then we should update Bulbapedia accordingly with correct information about compatibility with different language games in generations prior to IV.
*Yes, I know that it's possible to view boxes, including their names, in Pokémon Stadium 2. This makes me wonder if an English version of Pokémon Stadium 2 is compatible with Spanish versions of GB games (or vice versa), and if so, what happens when you view boxes with non-English characters...
On a side note, I also wonder if the Stadium games are compatible with GB games in other languages as a whole. Unfortunately, I can't find this out for myself...
Last edited:
