It takes a lot of time to develop one of the main games in the Pokémon series. This time has only increased as the number of actual Pokémon has grown, to say nothing of the extra work that needs to go into creating the online modes for the games.

The older Pokémon games also had numerous issues due to the scope of what Game Freak was trying to accomplish and the limitations of the systems they had to use. It's fair to say that Pokémon Red & Blue were the most ambitious games to ever be released on the original Game Boy and a lot of stuff had to be left out in order to fit everything onto a cartridge with limited memory.

The Pokémon games have had a lot of cut content over the years. This was partly due to technical limitations at first, but as time went on, it became more about design decisions that were changed at a late point in development.

There are lots of unused areas in every Pokémon game, but not all of them are inaccessible. We are here today to tell you of the forbidden regions of the Pokémon world and how you can find them. From the lost Safari Zone of Johto, to the secret island where you can encounter a Mew.

Here are Fifteen Areas In Pokémon Games That Are IMPOSSIBLE To Find (And How To Find Them)

15 The Lost Safari Zone Of Johto

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Pokémon Gold & Silver had one of the most tumultuous development cycles of any game in the series. This was partly due to the late decision to add the Kanto region to the world, which forced the game to be delayed. Pokémon Gold & Silver would undergo many revisions in order to fit everything on a Game Boy cartridge, which is why the game appears so many times on this list.

One of the planned areas for Pokémon Gold & Silver was for the Safari Zone from Red & Blue to reappear. Maps for the Safari Zone Gatekeepers Room and a basic entrance area can be found within the files of Gold & Silver and can be accessed with an Action Replay code.

The Safari Zone would later be implemented in Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver. 

14 The E-Reader Room

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Nintendo had hoped to make the e-Reader a popular add-on for the Game Boy Advance and GameCube. This was a reader that could analyze a small amount of data that was printed on a card. The e-Reader never took off, due to a lack of support and Nintendo's diminished position in the console market at the time.

Support for the e-Reader was available in the Japanese version of Pokémon Colosseum. The area that you needed to visit in order to access the e-Reader functionality was closed off in the North American and European versions of the game. You can visit this room using an Action Replay device and can even use its functions, should you own a Japanese e-Reader and a set of compatible cards.

13 The Hall Of Origin

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Pokémon Diamond & Pearl introduced the actual creator God of the Pokémon universe to the series. Its name is Arceus and it too is a Pokémon that can be caught in a Poké Ball and used on your enemies.

Arceus was directly given away as part of a distribution event. There was originally a different event that was planned, but Game Freak changed their mind at the last minute and never used it.

The player was originally going to be given the Azure Flute, which could then be played at the Spear Pillar in order to access the Hall of Origin. This is a celestial area that requires you to climb a staircase in order to access. The Azure Flute was never officially distributed, so you need to hack it into your game to see the Hall of Origin.

12 The Original Version Of The Nacrene Museum

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The second Gym in Pokémon Black & White can be found inside the Nacrene Museum. The Nacrene City Gym is actually one of the trickiest in the series, due to Lenora's Watchog and its killer usage of Retaliate. You likely won't have many Pokémon that can oppose her at this early stage in the game.

The Nacrene City Museum originally had a different design. The fans discovered the map for this original design, which can also be found in Pokémon Black 2 & White 2. This original version of the Museum had different textures and an alternate layout. There is evidence to suggest that this map was going to be used as a damaged version of the Museum, possibly as a result of your battle with N.

11 Bill's Secret Garden

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There were certain locations in Pokémon Red & Blue that couldn't be accessed by the player. These areas went on to form the basis for Internet urban legends about supposed secret Pokémon that could be found in there. The most popular of these was the truck next to the S.S. Anne which you had to go out of your way to find, as well as the inaccessible areas around Pallet Town.  

You have to visit Bill's house during the story in Pokémon Red & Blue. It used to drive players mad that you could see the small garden behind Bill's house, but couldn't access it. Bill's garden became a popular source for myths, with idiots on the Internet claiming that Mew was hiding there. A simple walk-through-walls code reveals the truth: Bill's garden is just an empty space.

10 The Mysterious Forest Dungeon

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It's usually pretty easy to tell where an unused location was meant to go in a game. This is due to most of the maps being bundled next to each other within the files of the game. The early Pokémon games had to do this in order to save as much memory/loading time as possible.

There is an unused forest dungeon in Pokémon Gold & Silver that has mystified fans for years. It is a forest maze with a single entrance that ends with a cave opening that has a Pokémon Center outside of it.

There are two popular theories as to where this dungeon belonged in the game: One of them is that this was the original design for Ilex Forest, while the other suggests that this was once planned to be part of Mount Silver.

9 The Lost Sevii Islands

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One of the new locations added to Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen was the Sevii Islands. These were a set of islands that contained a new story about Team Rocket attempting to contact Giovanni. You cannot complete this mission until you have defeated the Elite Four and have gained the National Dex, which will allow you to access the last few of the Sevii Islands in the game.

It seems that more Sevii Islands were planned to appear in the game, as the beta of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen contains data for several unused islands. These islands were going to be part of the Sevii Islands plot but were removed at a late point in development. They can be accessed in the prerelease versions of Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen. 

8 The Communication Center

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The Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal actually possessed the ability to connect to mobile phones. You could do this with an accessory called the Mobile Game Boy Adaptor, which allowed the Game Boy to connect to a wireless network and access data. The Mobile Game Boy Adapter was essential in acquiring the GS Ball, which you could then use to encounter a Celebi.

In order to use the mobile functionality with Pokémon Crystal, you had to visit a building called the Pokémon Communication Center. This building was removed from the international versions of the game, due to the mobile functionality being disabled. You can still visit it, due to a warp tile being hidden within one of the walls of the game.

7 The Record Mixing Room

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Beta versions of several Pokémon games have been made available over the years, due to early demo copies of the game falling into the hands of people who possess the knowledge to upload them. The rampant piracy among Nintendo's old handheld systems (as well as the existence of emulators) has allowed fans to go through these early versions of the Pokémon games in order to look for secrets.

An unusual room exists within the beta of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. It is a record mixing room that allows the player to share their game achievements with other players. This feature was once linked to the Secret Base mechanic, which is likely why it didn't appear in the later Pokémon games.

6 The Original Game Corner

The Pokémon series was forced to change certain locations due to new laws that were established in Europe. It became illegal to include casinos in games that were sold to minors, as they glorified gambling to kids. This meant that the slot machines had to slowly be faded out of the Pokémon series and replaced with minigames. These changes eventually influenced all versions of the game, likely because Game Freak didn't want to have to spend extra time creating different versions of the Game Corner for each new title.

The Japanese version of Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver originally kept the Game Corner and its slots, while the international versions replaced them with a memory game. It's still possible to visit the Japanese version of the Game Corner and use some of its facilities by hacking the game.

5 The Void

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When you enter a building in one of the Pokémon games, you can see the blackness beyond the boundaries of the wall, as the game doesn't render anything outside of the current location you are in. This area is commonly known as the Void by the fans, due to the fact that it is an endless black expanse of nothingness.

It is possible to enter the Void by using a glitch in the original Japanese version of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl. The most popular method is to Surf inside of the door that leads to Aaron of the Elite Four's chambers. You can then go anywhere in the game, should you know how many steps to take. This glitch can be used to visit the locations of the secret Event Pokémon without having to gain the items that you normally need to find them. This glitch was fixed in the international versions of the game.

4 The Original Pharmacy

It is possible to beat the later Gyms in Pokémon Gold & Silver in any order you choose. You can't actually challenge the sixth Gym until you have completed a side quest involving a sick Ampharos. Jasmine (one of the Gym Leaders) can't take any challenges as she is caring for a sick Ampharos that acts as the beacon of light within a Lighthouse. The player has to travel to a pharmacy and find a special medicine for the Ampharos in order to continue the game.

There is an unused house within the files for Pokémon Gold & Silver which was originally meant to be the pharmacy. According to the lady in the house, the pharmacy is based in Ecruteak City. This is different from the final version of the game, where the pharmacy is based in Cianwood City.

3 The Original Sprout Tower

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One of the earliest dungeons in Pokémon Gold & Silver is the Sprout Tower. This is a swaying tower that is guarded by monks. If you picked Cyndaquil as your starter Pokémon, then you will blaze through the monks, as they mostly use Bellsprout as their Pokémon. You need to defeat the man at the top of the Sprout Tower in order to earn the Flash HM.

It seems that the Sprout Tower was once going to be a lot more complex. There are unused maps within the files of Pokémon Gold & Silver which show a more detailed design for the Sprout Tower, which relied on numerous different staircases in order to traverse its maze-like layout. This original design was likely canned for being too complex.

2 The Original Distortion World

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Pokémon Platinum was a huge step up from Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, as the game fixed most of the technical issues and pacing problems that plagued the original Sinnoh titles. The best new addition to Pokémon Platinum was the Distortion World. This was a dark realm that was guarded by Giratina. The Distortion World played with the player's perception, by constantly switching view as you traversed walls and ceilings on the way to your battle with Giratina.

There is an unused version of the Distortion World within the files of Pokémon Platinum that can be found using an Action Replay code. These are a set of maps that acted as a test version of the Distortion World, as they don't use any of the special camera angles of the final version of the game.

1 Faraway Island

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Mew was once the most desired Pokémon on the planet. It used to drive players mad that there was a Pokémon within Red & Blue that they couldn't catch.

Those same players were forced to endure the pain of missing a Mew once more, as a Mew exists within Pokémon Emerald that cannot be acquired through legitimate means. This is because you need an item called the Old Sea Map in order to find it. The Old Sea Map will allow you to travel to a place called Faraway Island, where you will encounter a Mew and can possibly catch it.

The Old Sea Map was only given away during one event in Japan and was never distributed internationally. In order to visit Faraway Island, you have to hack a copy of the Old Sea Map in into your game, where your Mew awaits.