Cry

Cry redirects here. If you were looking for the move, see Growl.

The cry of Regigigas, as seen on the Pokédex

A Pokémon's cry (Japanese: なきごえ cry) is the sound it makes. Depending on the continuity, this can either be a unique sound, or only the Pokémon's name and various phrases derived from its name. There are also several instances of talking Pokémon.

In the games

When a Pokémon is released from its Poké Ball, it will call out its cry, which consists of an electronically made "noise". It will also cry out when using certain moves, such as Growl, Roar, and Hyper Voice. If the Pokémon faints or comes into battle when injured during Generation III and later, the cry will sound, but it will be altered slightly. The cry is also changed noticeably when a Pokémon is sent into a battle with a status ailment. Pokémon related by evolution (Charmander, Charmeleon, etc.) and association (Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, etc.) will often have notably similar cries, though others may sound very different (such as Kirlia and Gallade).

In Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, cries of the Pokémon found in the player's current location can occasionally be heard while walking in the overworld. In Pokémon Emerald, these cries are heard more often if the first Pokémon in the player's party has the Ability Swarm.

In the Pokémon Stadium series, Pokémon's cries were altered from their original versions to take advantage of the Nintendo 64's technology, though some of these cries resemble the Game Boy versions closely. This was not carried over into later console games, which use the same cries as the handheld games.

In the Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 Animated Trailer, Pokémon make realistic, animal-like sounds that differ from their cries in the games themselves.

In X and Y, the cries of most Pokémon from previous Generations were updated to take advantage of the Nintendo 3DS's technology.

In the anime

Most Pokémon will only say their names, and will communicate using those syllables. For example, Ash's Pikachu has been known to use the three syllables in the word "Pikachu" in various combinations to refer to several characters, including Ash (Pikapi), Misty (PiKachupi), Brock (PikaChu), Dawn (Pikaka), Togepi (Pipipi), Team Rocket (Pipikachu), Bulbasaur (Pikakapika) and "My name is Pikachu" (Pika, Pikachu).

Due to Pokémon being dubbed, sometimes, the original cry of a Pokémon is preserved in the anime, more often than not if the name is either similar, or the same in Japanese and English. An example of this would be Charizard, which can, if listened to closely enough, be heard to cry out Lizardon instead. Likewise, all Onix can be heard to cry out Iwark. Krabby's and Kingler's cry, which sounds similar to "cookie", is sometimes used as an internet meme. Also, Wooper's cry sounds like, "Upah!" which is its Japanese name, Upah.

Some Pokémon's cries, such as those of Victreebel, Porygon, Starmie and Staryu, are entirely unrelated to their names in any language. For example, Victreebel makes a screeching sound, while Staryu has a cry that sounds like a fast, echoing male scream.

Gallery

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: DP (if different from Platinum), bottom screen of Gen IV, BW (if different from B2W2)

The cry page does not exist in the first two generations, nor in their remakes. Instead, the cry plays if the word "Cry" is selected in the Pokédex.

RSE	Platinum	B2W2

Trivia

• Two pairs of Generation I Pokémon share identical cries, none of which are related by evolution:
  • Charizard and Rhyhorn
  • Poliwag and Ditto
• Four pairs of Generation I Pokemon share near-identical cries:
  • Omanyte's cry is slightly higher-pitched than Machop's
  • Goldeen's cry is very slightly slower than Caterpie's, precisely by a few tenths of a second
  • Poliwhirl's cry is slightly higher-pitched than Wigglytuff's
  • Vileplume's cry is slightly higher-pitched than Aerodactyl's
• Shaymin's Sky Forme and Land Forme, all of Kyurem's Formes and the Forces of Nature's Therian Formes have different cries.
• Pikachu is the only Pokémon to have multiple cries without changing forms. In Pokémon Yellow, the starting Pikachu has a total of forty cries, though only two occur during battle. Like the anime, all are variations of its name and voiced by Ikue Ōtani.^[1]
  • Because the Game Boy lacks high-quality sound, Game Freak had to think of different ways to recreate Pikachu's cry. Jun'ichi Masuda converted the sound into one-bit data, recreating the sound of Ōtani's voice.^[2]
  • This is also the case if the starter Pikachu is brought to battle in Pokémon Stadium or Pokémon Stadium 2.
  • This feature returned in Pokémon X and Y.
• Since Generation III, possibly due to improved technology, very few Pokémon have had similar cries to another's; those that do have similar cries are usually related by evolution or association as they were in Generation I. As the generations continue to pass, the calls of new Pokémon sound more refined and realistic, while the cries of Pokémon released in previous generations sound comparatively more like the electronic beeps they are. In particular, cries introduced since Generation IV are mostly recognizable digitized sounds, such as birds chirping for Starly or a xylophone for Kricketot.
• Despite there being 151 Pokémon in Generation I, there are only 37 completely different cries in the Generation I games. However, different Pokémon's cries are different pitch or speed, have an echo, or disable one of the sound channels, making them sound different. For example, Charmander and Charmeleon's base cries are the same, but Charmeleon's is a lower pitch than Charmander's. Another example is that Metapod and Abra have the same base cry, but Metapod's only plays one sound channel. Despite this, some Pokémon share exactly the same cry with no sound tweaking (see above). In Generation II, there were 30 new base cries introduced, applying the same rules as before. The only Generation II cries based on older ones belong to Crobat and Umbreon, both of which evolve from Generation I Pokémon.
  • Notably, two trios of Pokémon introduced in Generation V have almost identical cries, even though they are not related by evolution: Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour's cries are only different because of distortions added. The same is true for their evolved forms, Simisage, Simisear, and Simipour.
• In Generation I, when a player's Pokémon has low HP in battle, its cry will be distorted. This is likely due to the game performing two simultaneous processes: one for the alarm sound of low HP and another to play the Pokémon's cry. This problem was fixed in Generation II.
  • This situation occurs both when the Pokémon is sent out into battle and when its information is checked.
  • This may have been inspiration for the alteration to cries that occurs when an injured Pokémon is sent into battle from Generation III on.
• In Generation III, the cries are actually played at 0.9× speed of the original samples.
• In Pokémon Rumble Blast, Dark Rust has its own cry despite not being a Pokémon.
  • Similarly, all Pokéstar Studios opponents have their own cries despite not being Pokémon.
• The Pokemon with the most cry changes throughout the series is Haunter, having been changed in Generation II, III, and VI. In Generation I, it is a high-pitched, four-note beeping with low-pitched buzzing in the background. In Generation II, the beeping was replaced by a three-note jingle. The jingle was absent in Generations III through V, leaving just the buzz. In Generation VI, its cry was overhauled to sound like an update of its original one.
• As of Generation V, Jynx has the longest cry at 2.24 seconds, while Pidgey has the shortest cry at 0.18 seconds.
• When Pokémon undergo Mega Evolution, their cry is altered, sometimes dramatically.

Related articles

• Pokémon language

References

This game mechanic article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.