Black 2 & White 2 Speculation Contest - Topic 5: What the heck happened to Unova?

[Archaic]

Welcome everyone to yet another entry in our speculation contests. With the latest CoroCoro scans out, a number of our plans for topics have been thrown out the window. ^^;; Thankfully though, the news also gives us some very important things to speculate on. Such as....just what the heck is going on here?

Just looking at the region maps in the scans, we can tell a lot has changed. What appears to be ice sheets or glaciers cover the majority of the region. Given that those are present in the little image on the right in the box, with the arrow pointing to the blown up picture of the region, it's fairly safe to say that's just something to hide the rest of the region from magazine readers for now either. So obviously, a lot has happened here. But what exactly happened to make it like this, and why did this all happen? That...we have absolutely no clue on just yet. Which just makes it a perfect topic for us to ask you to speculate about. =D

So, just to clarify here's what we want you to have a shot at.
1) What happened to the region to cause all the changes in the landscape and geography?
2) Why did that all happen?

You're free to make your guesses as outlandish as you like. We've made a few assumptions with how we've written this post here, but you don't have to keep to them. At the same time though, keep in mind that it's in your interests to be as precise as possible. Being vague in your answer won't win you any special points. We don't mark you down for what you get wrong, we mark you up for what you get right. Being vague just means you kill your own chances to score points there.

Remember also, while you can discuss things and make as many guesses as you like, only your final guess counts. So if you're the 10th person to suggest the same thing, but the first 9 people changed their minds, and you didn't, then if that ended up being the right answer, you'd win. If you want to make your guess count, you also need to ensure that you don't edit your post. Doing so will make us simply ignore that post when it comes to figuring out the winners at the end, since it becomes too much of a pain when we have situations where a winner depends on the posting time and who settled on the correct answer first.

This thread will be closed...well, when we feel like it really. Originally we were going to make it at the end of the week, but you know what, I think we may just keep this open right up until the we actually find out what will be in the games. So...no pressure to force yourself, but none of us know when that news will be released, so you probably shouldn't wait too long. When the information is leaked or announced, the thread will be closed immediately, and the closest guess before that happened will win.

It's our intention that this contest thread should not just be a place for everyone to post their guesses for the contest, but also a central place for you to discuss and speculate on this particular point. So don't be afraid to actually post your reasoning and logic here. There's no harm trying to convince everyone else that you're right after all, since it'd just mean that people aren't making different guesses to you, and you'd have the original guess on it anyway.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Durbe]

I believe that after the Plasma incident the balance was disrupted and Kyurem absorbed some of the residual energy from the battle against N leading it to form change and freeze some of the region.

 

[Purellian]

Okay, I'm not gonna talk about the brand new areas, because I assume that they were there all along, but our journey in BW1 simply didn't take us there. I'm also not going to talk about anything that is under the ice cover, since we can't see it yet, so there's nothing to explain. Here are my thoughts on the changes we can see to the map so far.

Challenge Cave is gone- I think it was closed up by people who were too afraid of the Pokemon there, perhaps because of all of the non-Unova Pokemon moving into the region.

Craters in Driftveil- Okay, it looks like the forest has been cleared out to make these craters, as well as getting rid of the cold storage. I think that Driftveil has somehow fallen on hard economic times, perhaps the mine under the gym has stopped producing whatever it was they were mining there. Driftveil has ceased to be such a huge center for trade, and so they got rid of the lighthouse and cold storage. They have remained optimistic, however, and are about to begin some new construction projects to try to bring in more money.

Route 4- Obviously, a lot of new buildings have been built here along the road. It is much safer to traverse now, but I think it will still be possible to go out into the Desert Resort and explore the Relic Castle.

Entralink- The water has all dried up and the entree has changed. It looks like a set of stairs have been carved around the Entree. Maybe the water was all drained for use by Nimbasa City... I really have no idea, I've never even used the Entralink!

Eastern mountains- It appears that a section has been carved out of the mountain and an airport has been built here. Mistralton City wasn't covered by the ice, but it was covered with words, so it's hard to see if there were any changes made to it. It doesn't appear to have been changed in any way, however, so I assume that this second airport serves some other purpose.

 

[MajesticRayquaza]

I believe a revived Team Plasma or another affiliated enemy team were trying to harness the power of Kyurem and in the process ruined Unova. Route 4 has built up and the Pokemon League and N's Castle have been destroyed.

 

[Proxima Centauri B]

I think it definately has something to do with Kyurem, I believe Kyurem changed into either Black Kyurem or White Kyurem and went crazy, activating Overdrive, whatever that does and destroyed parts of the Unova region and thats what is hidden, part of the plot is you will have to stop Kyurem from doing so.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Every developement listed in bulbanews

The northern and eastern parts of Unova are obscured by this ice, and Opelucid City is just on the border of being covered.

Climate shift to do the power of a Kyurem form.

There are two new towns and at least one new route to the southwest.

The just build more stuff or made stuff more accessible.

The road between Castelia City and Nimbasa City is complete.

They completed it.

A new building has been added to the front of Nimbasa City, and a new area to the east of the Rondez-View Ferris Wheel.

Business development

Driftveil City's lighthouse is gone, and several craters have appeared in the city.

Attack in battle by Version mascot, oppisite version Mascot, Team plasma, or New group. Or Magical meteor hit drifveil that have powers and connection to lengendary pokemon

There is now a settlement on Route 4

A lot of traffic you got to cash in on it.
Liberty Garden is now shown in the official artwork of the map, and appears to have been revamped.

The construction zone and Cold Storage south of Driftveil are both gone.

Construction completed or destroyed by evil force.

There is a section taken out of the side of the mountain in eastern Unova, and there are several buildings here.

All been there or has been built recently out of economical reasons or to habor refugees
Challenger's Cave has disappeared.

It is caused by the lengandary pokemon connected to it.

The webbing that initially blocks the entrance to Chargestone Cave is gone.

It disappeared in the last game

The Entralink's moat is now dry, and the inner area has changed.

The decided they didn't need the moat or some mystical force in the garden got fucked up.

 

[Gligar13]

Kyurem got enraged and thus, glaciers happened in the corner of Unova.

 

[Composer]

Someone from Lacunosa town dared to venture to Giant Chasm and disrupt Kyurem. The outcome is pretty obvious.

 

[BlazeMaster]

Meteors in Driftveil, Ice Caps.

A legend says that Kyurem came from a meteor so it might be when it came down it started to freeze Unova. There could be two Kyurems (one of each form maybe, the second one in Giant Chasm where it was disturbed two years ago by Hilbert/Hillary) on either side, meeting in battle at Opelucid.

 

[Ranger Jack Walker]

Kyurem sneezed.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

Taken from my answer in the Villain's Plot thread:

Reshiram and Zekrom were captured in BW; with N and the old playable character no longer in the region, Kyurem is the only member of the Tao trio still in Unova and is thus the controlling power in the region. Kyurem represents wuji, the absence of yin and yang. As a result, Kyurem's power has become unrestrained and ice has spread throughout the region as far south as route 14, threatening to cover the continent in a devastating glacier.

 

[jokool]

1) What happened to the region to cause all the changes in the landscape and geography?

Simple: BW2 are set 2 years in the future. Things change over time. I really don't think Kyurem has had an affect on Unova. He might later on in the games, but for now, I'm just saying that Unova has changed because things change over time.

2) Why did that all happen?

Progress. Unova has made progress in different areas over time:
1.) Unova now has two new cities and new route to the southwest.
2.) The road between Castelia City and Nimbasa City is complete and a new luxury resort has developed along it.
3.) The mountain in eastern Unova that has buildings on it is an addition to the Poketransfer lab.
4.) Liberty Garden is now a tourist hot spot, thus, it needed to be 'revamped.'
5.) The construction south of Driftveil City is complete and there is a new (wild guess time) Battle Facility. The rest of the Battle Frontier is located all across Unova (in the areas hidden by the 'glacier') and can be access via the Battle Subway. There is also another Battle Facility located south of Driftveil City.
6.) The Entralink... Uh.... Dramatic makeover?
7.) Driftveil City's lighthouse is gone because.... Uh... Meteors? (that explains the large craters)

 

[Spindae2]

oK the new towns, areas, finished buildings etc can be explained by the time jump!

The Frozen state hopefully has to do something with the Kyurem plotline! Kyurem goes CoCo and froze up 1/3 of Unova! But at the end we just saw Ice covering Unova and not Ice ice some cloudy ice look a like!, so maybe they reveal more of the old changed Unova in the next CoroCoro. At the end everything will come to Normal when U defeat Kyurem and rematch against all gym leaders!

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Liberty Garden is now shown in the official artwork of the map, and appears to have been revamped.

It's not Liberty Garden, it's Unity Tower.


As you can see, the east island is Unity Tower. The west island is Liberty Garden and it's under the Psyduck dex screenshot.

 

[The Outrage]

『ポケットモンスターブラック２・ホワイト２』公式サイト

18 seconds in, it gets really obvious the ice was just superimposed, so I doubt the region is frozen over. Instead, I think its just hiding that something is going on in those areas, however t is not frozen. Kyurem is likely the cause of these changes. However, if I were to take a more specific guess, Akuroma's research on latent abilities is disturbing Kyurem resulting in weird things happening in those 'frozen' areas. If anything, it may just be a perpetual winter.

As for the ones we do know:

Route 4 construction was finished, which lead to the destruction of Relic Castle. The new areas in South-west Unova were always there, just never featured on the game's map because they weren't relevant to the story at the time.

EDIT: Based on this image, Unova also has a new pass time, and Musicals may be replaced with Pokemon film.

 

[Rainami]

Team Plasma tried to use Kyurem to take over the Unova region after their original mission failed, and succeeded in freezing a decent chunk of it.

 

[Infinity Mk-II]

Something in the Giant Chasm happened. The glacier isn't so much literal ice, as it is a "barrier" of some sort for areas under this supernatural influence. Maybe Diamond Dust/Hail is even constant in these areas.

Basically, I'm looking at the map even more literally than thinking it's the land what's covered in ice: The ice is like clouds, physically there is a giant sheet of ice in the sky over these places, with a supernatural effect below it. Maybe it connects to the landscape forming a barrier, but you can and will enter the places that are below this ice.

Yes, another completely crazy guess.

Now with that context up, to answer the questions:
1) What happened to the region to cause all the changes in the landscape and geography?
Something in the Giant Chasm caused something that specifically started slowly sealing Unova under the ice. Because these are besides this ice barrier thing actual glaciers, some of the geography is changed. Other places either got shallowed by the ice or just escaped and went somewhere else. Other changes are simply constructions getting finished.
Basically like a large-scale Cinnabar Island event.

2) Why did that all happen?
I'm going to say it was the fault of the dragons preassumbly leaving the region unbalanced. It's unknown if the PC is in the region or not, but N did leave. That probably broke something.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Some things can be still foreshadowed through the ice. Check this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/73261431/unova.gif

- There's a geographical change in Route 13, but I think it's just an art correction to match ingame route.

- Apparently, there's no longer Route 10, not as we know it. The small bridge and the gates are no longer there.

- There's a new river, between Victory Road and Giant Chasm. Probably the new way to Pokémon League.

- There's a new ship at the eastern dock in Castelia.

- The mysterious black ship seen in B/W is still in Castelia.

- Relic Castle hasn't disappeared at all, just the west tower (the one with TM26) has sunk.

 

[--root--]

1) What happened to the region to cause all the changes in the landscape and geography?

2) Why did all that happen?

...Someone divided by zero and the resulting black hole somehow sucked up all the heat from Eastern and Northen Unova and caused the ice to form. Also it summoned aliens to dry up the water in the Entralink and make the craters in Driftveil. They also stole the Lighthouse and Challenger's Cave. As for the cities, well people just moved to new places... boring, right?

 

[Sweet Veil]

1. What happened to the region to cause all the changes in the landscape and geography?

Development happened. Things change, develop, grow, and mature. Unova is no exception, the Pokemon League feel like they need more younger gym leaders since quite a few gym leaders in game like Drayden, Clay, Lenora, and Brycen are getting up there in the age department. Unova's "frozen" is most likely a cause of a rampaging and angry Kyurem, after being disturbed the Pokemon goes buck wild over a lot of areas in Unova, before it is subdued once more. Team Plasma is attempting to try this very same thing again. A lot of areas just have changed and grown, that's that. That area of Unova has always been there.

2. Why did that all happen?
-Old Pokemon started being imported and brought to Unova by many trainers and started breeding and making more and more offspring over the years, explaining there are old Pokemon but a small majority of them and not all of them explaining why they're only over 140 older Pokemon. Also/Or a lot of them were drawn to Unova by crisis, like Lapras due to the ice and water.

-Striaton Gym has been converted into a normal restaurant and the Nacrene Gym into a normal library and museum.

-Kyurem went crazy and froze parts of Unova due to the actions of Team Plasma and/or a certain character(s) specifically the heroes.

-As explained a lot of places have just developed and matured, the Unity/Liberty Tower for example to be more of a tourist hot spot.

-Resort Desert construction has finally been completed, the rode is now in use. You may still venture off path, but the workers will still be there. Relic Castle is known among more.

-Improved Big Stadium and Small Court do to having success and more people. Musicals as well. New concepts such as "films" have become a big hit.

-Plasma's efforts and ways taught many to cherish their Pokemon more, since no one wants a repeat of that.

-Mall offers more stuff, and the Region has a bit more of an emphasize on the nature and technology theme. Specifically Opelucid, since Drayden has worked hard to give everything to development but the new things aren't always the best. Drayden's Opelucid is frozen partially too, he feels he must take action as the Spartan mayor.