South Kalos scrapped: Pokemon leaks finally confirm missing region

Leaks from a recent hack confirmed that the South Kalos region did exist in the Pokemon game world. Speculation over the region’s existence was reignited after the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The information obtained from the hack confirmed the fans’ theories that Paldea was connected to South Kalos. 

South Kalos’ existence was confirmed in a leak ten years after the release of Pokemon X/Y. The recent hack downloaded information about Pokemon X/Y and its relation to the Kalos War events, which left many players confused after the plot was cut short.

Leak reveals the existence of South Kalos in Pokemon X/Y

A leak orchestrated by Game Freak finally confirmed that South Kalos was the missing southern region in Pokemon X/Y, the first 3-D game rendition of the popular Pokemon characters.

Kalos is a core region for the Pokemon franchise given the extensive lore explored by Ash and Pikachu in the source material. According to the leak, the South Kalos region was part of the extended map that was scrapped before the anime-inspired, action-adventure game was released in 2013.

The South Kalos region was explored in the X/Y lore despite not being properly expanded on. The real world inspired Pokemon X/Y’s geography, with the Kalos region in particular being inspired by Europe. Many fans speculated that the missing region in the game’s official maps was South Kalos. 

France occupies the missing area in the real world, which supports the theory of South Kalos being real. Players had also speculated that the region would be explored through an expansion or a new game in the future. 

Speculation about the existence of South Kalos was further heightened after the Pokemon lore explained the occurrence of the Kalos War that happened 3000 years ago.

In 2014 , the game’s director, Junichi Masuda, confirmed that the war happened between the two countries. The Kalos war was confirmed to be fought by AZ, the first King of Kalos, and his brother, who had led the resistance and formed his own country to the south of Kalos.

Before the leaks, the Kalos war had been the basis of fan speculation on the existence of South Kalos.

Leaks confirm the Paldea and Kalos connection

After Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet hit the shelves in 2022, theories about South Kaldos were reignited. Many players linked the South Kalos region to Paldea, equating to Spain in the real world.

In this case, Paldea’s connection to Kalos and South Kalos would match the real-world connection between Spain and France. The map obtained from the hack showed that South Kalos fit perfectly with Paldea, suggesting that the two regions shared a border. 

“Me in Middle School in 2014 on my school-issued iPad watching Poketubers theorize in 17-minute updates or leak videos about Pokemon Z  and Southern Kalos. Only for nothing to happen and then 10 years later I’m vindicated through this.”

– SagaFraga

The leaks ignited even more fan speculation online. Many fans expressed their displeasure over missing out on exploring South Kalos in the X/Y game. However, most also advocated for the area to be included in future games such as Pokémon Legends: Z-A or in a remake of  X/Y to allow them to explore the regions that they missed out on.