As a history major in college, I find the historical elements in video games truly fascinating and just like any art form, video games are often influenced by historical elements. The last generation of Pokemon games, Pokemon X & Y, are prime examples of such.
The Kalos Region is based on the northern half of Metropolitan France and Jersey, which is part of the United Kingdom. Pokemon game director Junichi Masuda spoke towards why this culture was chosen as the inspiration for these Pokemon games, stating, “The Kalos region, the home for the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y story, is inspired by France.”
“First of all we decided to use beauty as a game theme. We were inspired by one country in particular. A country that is reported to be the most visited in the world. It is a country that is very particular about fashion and the aesthetics of their cuisine, a country concerned with the beauty of words. We thought of France.” Masuda first visited the country in 2000 and took a full research team in 2011 to the country in order to make things as accurate as possible for the Kalos Region.
The map of Kalos itself is shaped like France and even the ancient Carnac Stones of Brittany make an appearance. The Carnac Stones themselves are a dense collection of megalithic sites. Essentially, more than 3,000 prehistoric standing stones were made from rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany and are the largest collection in the world. Many myths surrounded the rocks such as Saint Cornelius, a Christian myth associated with the stones saying that they actually held pagan soldiers who were in pursuit of Pope Cornelius when he turned them to stone. Local tradition also claims that the reason they stand in such perfectly straight lines is that they are a Roman legion turned to stone by Merlin.
Throughout the game, characters will drop French words out of nowhere and it would seem out of place if the entire game weren’t filled with this French influence. We even have cafes that serve French drinks such as “chocolat chaud.” These cafes don’t serve much of a purpose beyond making the atmosphere of the game much larger, but that doesn’t matter because it still makes the game far more interesting because of it.
The king of Kalos built Parfum Palace after a war with neighboring regions 300 years ago. It is actually based upon the Palace of Versailles, located outside of Paris, which was originally built as a hunting lodge by the French king Louis XII and later expanded into a palace by his son and successor, Louis XIV.
The Tower of Mastery is located in Shalour City and plays a major role in discovering the purpose of Mega Evolution in the games. It is based upon Mont Saint-Michel, which is an island commune in Normandy, France. The island has been a strategic location since ancient times and since 8th century AD has been the seat of the monastery where its name came from. The island itself is only 600 meters from land and made it accessible to many pilgrims. It even remained unconquered during the Hundred Years’ War, a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the Kingdom of France. 3 million people visit the historical sight itself each year.
In general, small elements of French fashion are found within the game and you even battle against artists quite often. Even when the credits roll and you beat the game, it properly ends with “Fin” rather than the typical “The End.” If that doesn’t convince somebody of the French influence, I don’t know what will.
