The Secret of Unowns and the Ruins of Alph 

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 ✌🏽

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

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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.

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!*

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

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

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.)

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?"

something im not sure anyone has mentioned is that lugia was not a pokemon until later in the development cycle, while ho-oh and the ruins of alph were in the game earlier on. while the original ruins were definitely different, it could explain why ho-oh is the only non-fossil to have a glyph in the puzzles.

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".

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

That Arceus cutscene looks like something straight out of a David Lynch film

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.

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

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

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

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...

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.

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

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

best pokemon team: 1. unown 2. unown 3. unown 4. unown 5. unown 6. unwon

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.

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

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

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)

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.

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)!

Can't believe that a Pokémon that takes up almost a box and only know one move got it's own movie.

I love your pokemon videos!

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

I love that cutscene “ARCEUS LIKES MANKIND. PLEASE CONTINUE. “

Decent analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

yeah, this bit always did feel a little unfinished to me. But hey, at least they got a cool movie.

As a kid I always thought I missed out on something truly secret. But yeah, that is pokemon, making something seem important only to have it suddenly end with no conclusion

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).

I loved exploring Union Cave and the Ruins of Alph. GSC had some issues, but it was always a fun game when it came to exploring.

I had no idea the Ruins of Alph were named after the alphabet. I thought they were named after the TV series "Alf."

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

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

Anybody else remember the movie where the unknown made an entire universe around a little girl’s imagination? I wish we’d go refer back to things like that with the unknown more often.

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

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

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

I love this so much. thank you for doing this video : )

Hey there, super early, also interesting vid concept

Heck yeah, new vid,

A perfect use for the Unown would be as 6-letter key phrases you need in your party to unlock certain passages leading to special encounters.

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!!