Cut Content

During development, a non-insignificant amount of content has either been removed from Swirling Seasons or shelved for usage at a later date. The following is a list of all removed Pokémon/Lockémon, features, and other miscellanous removed content.

**Disclaimer:** All content on this page is official and was, at one point, planned for use in Swirling Seasons. All content on this page has been approved to appear on this page by the development team.

## Removed Pokémon

The Kaskadian Azumarill line was originally meant to stem off from a Kaskadian Azurill. However, due to Hoennian Azurill's inspirations, it was later decided that it makes more sense to have Kaskadian Marill evolve from the original Azurill, much like Johtonian Smoochum and Kaskadian Jynx.
The community has been surprisingly vocal in their objection to it's removal, but the regional form is not planned to make a return. However, due to it's popularity, it is referenced multiple times by trainers and other easter eggs in Swirling Seasons.

 ⠀

Kaskadian Azurill's SpriteKaskadian Azurill's Back Sprite

 ⠀

Mienflux was originally meant by Lockstin to evolve from Unovan Mienfoo. However, at some point in development, a half-baked idea for a Kaskadian Mienfoo was pitched and added.
Upon further inspection, the development team found that this concept took away from Mienflux's identity more than it added, and Kaskadian Mienfoo itself wasn't different enough from Unovan Mienfoo to justify its existance.
Due to this, it was removed from the game.

 ⠀

Kaskadian Mienfoo's SpriteKaskadian Mienfoo's Menu Icon

 ⠀

For a period of time very shortly before the completion of the dex, the idea for a Ghost/Dark Kaskadian Sinistea and regional evolution was brought to the table by MBCMechachu, based off of the previously existing design by JWNutz1.
However, the line was cut for multiple factors. Namely, the dex was in the first stages of finalization when the line was beginning to be seriously considered, and there were already plenty of new Pokémon in the dex. Secondly, another large Pokémon fan project adjacent to Kaskade introduced a Coffee-themed Sinistea regional, which made Lockstin against the idea. Eventually it was decided that Tamroast was more than enough representation for Starbyss in Kaskade, and that a Coffee Sinistea variant simply wasn't needed.
Coffeegeist does remain referenced in the game with the  Coffeegeist Cappuccino coffee item.

[1]

Designed as the flying type Regi golem by JWNutz, Regiflight was one of the two Regis planned to be added to Kaskade during early preproduction of Swirling Seasons.
A proper name for this Regi was never decided, unlike it's counterpart Regivegi. A few names were put up in the air, including Regigale, Regigust, Regiflight, Regifly, Regiaero, Regiatmos, and Reginado. However, in the end the team settled on deciding it through vote; which Regiflight won, with Regigale close behind.
Regiflight, unlike the original 3 Regis, isn't based on a period of time, and was instead based on wind power, to add to the Regi Energy quartet (more info on that below.)

 ⠀

Designed as a grass type Regi golem by JWNutz prior to the inception of Swirling Seasons2, Regivegi was one of the two Regis planned to be added to Kaskade during early preproduction of Swirling Seasons.
Regivegi was based on the Neolithic Age and the concept of life energy, forming an energy-centric Regi trio with Regieleki (Electrical Energy) and Regidrago (Draconic Energy).

[2]

Originally planned to be the middle evolution stage between Mercryni and Meraculisk, Merpent was cut due to the fact that Mercryni simply felt better as a 2 stage line (much like Misdreavus or Murkrow), as it has a small and cute base form similar to many of the Johto Pokémon that later received evolutions.
Additionally, the Mercryni line was paired down to only 2 Lockémon, as the team saw that Mercryni could easily be mistaken for the Psuedo-Legend otherwise.
"Merpent" was a placeholder name, as the Lockémon was cut before it could be given an official name.
It was scrapped shortly after the artist, Rude Rubicante, finished the design for Meraculisk.

 ⠀

Originally planned to be the pre-evolution to Vitisquash, it was cut because the team decided that Vitisquash feels more appropriate as is, not to mention Sasquish didn't provide enough of a difference to Vitisquash to justify being added.
Official art of Sasquish was never created, but two of the team's concept artists created the designs seen here to the left.

 ⠀

Originally planned to be the pre-evolution to Aeradio, it was cut because the team decided that Balloft wasn't different enough to Aeradio to justify being added.
Official art of Balloft was made by DarknWindie prior to the start of the Kaskade project, as the line was adopted by Lockstin from them.

 ⠀

Balloft's Menu Icon

 ⠀

## Removed Items

### Sylveon Shake

 Acquisition:

The Sylveon Shake was a type of coffee item intended to appear in Swirling Seasons. It was supposed to function as an item able to change the gender of the Pokémon it's fed to. This was cut because the feature was deemed too time consuming and logistically challenging to implement properly, as too many Pokémon function with gender as an immovable constant (IE: Indeedee, Meowstic, Basculegion, Tamroast, etc.)

### Chivolite

 Acquisition:

Chivolite was a type of held item intended to appear in Swirling Seasons. It was supposed to function as an offensive counterpart to Eviolite, allowing the holder a 50% boost to both physical and special Attack. Additionally, it would've made the holder Pokémon incapable of evolution. Following some research into damage calculations, the item was deemed too powerful, especially in the hands of Pokémon like Scyther and Ursaring. As such, it was removed for the time being to prevent severe balance problems.

## Removed Features

While no Lockémon were planned to be given Mega Evolutions, the feature was intended to be a part of Swirling Seasons.
However, Mega Evolution was cut from the game completely as Lockstin felt that having any "gimmicks" (Megas, Z-Moves, Dynamax) on top of Weathergy would not only take away from Weathergy's spotlight, it would also make battles needlessly complex.
A member of the Elite 4 was originally meant to have a Mega Venusaur on their team. This was changed after the Mega Evolution cut.
At one point in time, the team considered giving Megas to a small handful of Kaskadian Forms who's original forms had Megas, however only a few were ever given concept art of any caliber, and were eventually cut alongside Mega Evolution itself.

 ⠀

While no Lockémon were planned to be given Mega Evolutions (besides one, more info on that below), at one point it was intended that Gigantamax forms would be converted into Mega Evolutions.
The idea was simple; instead of holding a Mega Stone, a Pokémon would be given a Pokémon-specific Dynamax Crystal to hold. When in battle, the player would be given the option to use the energy inside their Keystone to allow that Pokémon to become (a much smaller version of) it's Gigantamax form.
This concept was cut alongside Mega Evolution.
At one point in time, the team considered giving Gigantamax forms to a small handful of Kaskadian Forms who's original forms had G-Max forms, however only a few were ever given concept art of any caliber, and were eventually cut alongside Mega Evolution itself.

 ⠀

Interestingly, Skinka would've been the only wholly original Lockémon to receive a Mega form of any caliber. A concept was developed by Chroma who then received a design drafted by Lady, one of the Kaskade Public Discord's active users at the time (June 2021). This Gigantamax Skinka concept has since been completely scrapped.
Notably, Lady also drafted designs for Gigantamax Kaskadian Gengar and Gigantamax Lowland Abomasnow, however for the sake of brevity those sketches have been discluded from this page.

 ⠀

Before the merge of Blazing Bloom and Frigid Fall into what we now know as Swirling Seasons, lead developer Snow took it upon himself to determine some possible Version Exclusive pairs between Blazing Bloom and Frigid Fall.
The attached image is a chart of these pairs, and was made in May of 2021, around 2 months after the beginning of development.

 ⠀

In Mid-2021, an idea was proposed to confirm that Pemba originates from the Leweka Region, a region created by Mykel Ryan based off of real world Africa.
The lead developers discussed the idea with Lockstin, floating the idea that Pemba could have a Lewekan Pokémon on her Elite 4 team, but only if it was completely unobtainable by the player. However, the decision on whether or not to include this was also ultimately up to Mykel, who the development team scheduled a meeting with.
In this meeting between Mykel, Lockstin, and the Lead Developers of Swirling Seasons, it was determined that having an unobtainable Pokémon on a trainer's team in Swirling Seasons simply wouldn't be fun for the general audience, and allowing Lewekan Hippowdon to be caught in Kaskade would be a bit "too ambitious" for the, at the time, infant projects. As such the Lewekan Hippowdon that was on Pemba's team has been removed and replaced with a Sinnohnian Hippowdon.
Any future collaboration between Kaskade and Leweka has yet to be discussed.

 ⠀

While all Pokémon from Generations 1-8 were originally planned to be added to the game, for reasons too numerous to count, we decided that the National Dex is simply too large in scope for us to handle. Even considering adding it slowed down the development process and limited our possibilities heavily.
Counting only up to Generation 8, there are a total of 905 Pokémon in the National Dex. If we add on every Kaskadian Lockémon (not including forms) it totals out to around 1030 Pokémon total. That’s 1030 Pokémon to make move pools for, consider ability and type changes for, and re-balance around the Weathergy gimmick.
It should be obvious that this is an amount of work that a team of our size and nature can't practically handle. As such, we've decided to cut our total workload in half and only focus on the 550+ Pokémon native to the Kaskade Region.
However, we have tentative plans to introduce more species to the Kaskade Region in post-launch updates. So don't worry if your favorite Pokémon isn't currently in the game, it may come eventually.