Did people genuinely believe that Gen 3 wouldn't have Dark and Steel back in the day?

[Nitro Indigo]

On today's episode of "Indigo's meta questions..."

Ever since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were announced, it seems like a lot of people aren't sure if the Fairy-type is here to say. I saw a lot of people hope that ORAS and Super Mystery Dungeon would have Fairy as if it wasn't a given, and when Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced as "faithful remakes", I saw someone express concern that Mr. Mime would lose its Fairy-type.

However... history repeats. I was a baby when Ruby and Sapphire were released and the internet barely existed back then, but I'm wondering if people genuinely thought Dark and Steel wouldn't be in it. On the other hand, this was earlier in the franchise's lifespan, so people were probably more receptive to change... but what about FireRed and LeafGreen? The lore explanation used to be "the Steel type was discovered between the events of Gens 1 and 2", so I wonder if people thought Magnemite/ton would go back to being pure Electric-type for those games?

 

[RexMissingno]

I was also a baby when Hoenn came out but I sometimes go through old Pokemon websites and I can't recall ever seeing that about the Hoenn released. It could be because Poochyena as a clear dark type was revealed before the games were released. Fairy was different because it was the first new Pokemon type released since GS and the reception wasn't completely positive. These games are remakes and so when ORAS we released it was a question of how exactly fairy type and mega evolution would change things (Although I recall the fact that there would be megas was leaked because data for mega Latias/Latios were found in XY), and with BDSP they were going for an extremely faithful remake to the point where no one knew where they'd be making changes.

I did find a couple old websites covering the release of FRLG but the most interesting things I could find was that American players thought that it would be Fire Red and Water Blue and there was speculation that you could visit Johto. It might also be worth noting that it wouldn't be until generation 6 that games had the same international releases, so there were the changes and information circulating about the JP release before we came close to getting it in the US. There is also that FRLG was intended to give players the ability to catch Pokemon not available in RSE so people could have just assumed that they'd be able to get Pokemon like Umbreon or Steelix.

 

[FelipePR]

Ever since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were announced, it seems like a lot of people aren't sure if the Fairy-type is here to say. I saw a lot of people hope that ORAS and Super Mystery Dungeon would have Fairy as if it wasn't a given, and when Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were announced as "faithful remakes", I saw someone express concern that Mr. Mime would lose its Fairy-type.

I was also small at the time, and I don't know how the games were reported, but why wouldn't Hoenn have types that were added in the past generation? Doesn't the National Pokédex in these games also incorporate Johto's Pokémon? And doesn't Johto's National Pokédex also incorporate Kanto's Pokémon? Also, one of the most iconic and early presented Pokemon in the region, Poochyena, is a dark type.

At the end of the day, Hoenn has more Dark and Steel Pokémon than Johto, and it even has Steel-type Legendaries and Semi-Legendaries, in addition to the region's own champion specializing in this type.

As for Fire Red, well this was the first remake of the franchise, so it's possible there was some doubt, I don't know. But after having added the steel type, how can you say that the evolutionary line of magnemite is not of this type?

Now, based on the previous remakes, it was pretty much certain that ORAS would have the fairy type.