Legendary Pokémon are often treated like gods. They’re forces of nature that command the elements, and capturing one is a pivotal moment in each RPG. In Pokémon Pokopia, legendary Pokémon are still powerful, but we can talk to them and get a sense of their personalities beyond their mighty power. That means that we are getting an unprecedented look into the inner machinations of their god-like minds. And Kyogre, the rain-making god of the sea, sounds like your favorite southern peepaw.
Kyogre is one of the first legendaries that shows up in Pokopia, and it brings back the rain to the game’s desolate region. The moment he shows up goes pretty hard, honestly. A dramatic orchestral version of the Pokémon League theme plays as the whale hangs out on the shore, waiting for you to speak. Then you speak to him, and he sounds like he came straight out of Texas.
Pokopia doesn’t have voice acting, but the way his dialogue is written in a dialect full of apostrophes and distinct pronunciations means you hear it in your head with a comforting Southern drawl.
“The humans were makin’ a real fuss, y’see,” the literal god of the sea says. “So I headed down to the quiet ocean floor fer a good, long nap. But I s’pose that made it stop rainin’ here, huh? Sure am sorry ’bout that.”
It seems like this is an attempt to localize Kyogre’s Japanese dialogue, in which the Pokémon refers to himself as “わし,” a Japanese term used by elderly men to refer to themselves. So it makes sense that his speech isn’t quite as modern as that spoken by the rest of the cast. It does make me wonder how other legendaries will speak throughout the game. I’m curious if they’ll all sound a little bit older to communicate that they’re ancient, or if they’ll all have distinct dialects. All I know for sure is that I’ll never look at Kyogre as a mystical being again, because that’s my grandpa now.
